CHANGELING ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 303, 17 May 1911, Page 5

CHANGELING ROMANCE.

A POLISH CASE. PEASANT WOMAN'S SON BECOMES MILLIONAIRE'S 11E1R. By cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Berlin, May 15. The kaleidoscopic life of the young changeling Count Josef Meyer-Kwilecki, who for thirteen years had believed himself to be the son and heir of Count Ivwilecki, a Polish nobleman, ,-ind then was declared to be of plebeian birth, has undergone yet another change. In December, 1909, the Courts at Posen heard and accepted evidence that the Countess Ivwilecki, who had then recently died, had in reality bought from a Bohemian peasant woman the child she called her own. The woman was the wife of a level-crossing keeper. A third father then appeared for the lad in the person of M. de GorzynskiOstrorog, a Polish millionaire and an ex-olTicer of the Prussian Lancers, jr. de Gorzynski-Ostrorog had on the death of the Countess been appointed a guardian to the boy, and had grown fond of him. The young Josef received as a Christmas present in 1900 a letter from the millionaire offering to adopt him as his son and heir. The Supreme Court of Poland having confirmed the finding of the lower court as to young Josefs parentage, the lad entered the home of his new "father's" family.

A petition was lately presented to the courts by Madame Meyer, the soidisnnl mother, praying for the youth's surrender to her. This has been rejected, and young Josef is now heir to estates worth about £500.000, which will be left to him by M. de Gorzynski-Ostrorog.