BIG FORTUNES MADE BY CHANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1920, Page 10

BIG FORTUNES MADE BY CHANCE.

GEMS STOT.i-N* FROM MtOWNED SKIPPER. COMPENSATION FOR UGLINESS. Wealth is not always acquired by profiteering in trade, and a strange history might well be written of the queer ways in which people of all periods have arrived at riches—a history which would surpass fiction itself in remarkable incident, says a writer in the Weekly Record. Within the last ten years there died, in one of the largest northern towns, a gentleman who possessed considerable property, the gross value of the personality alone being sworn . under £30,000. An old gentleman at the time when his last illness attacked him, he had been an hotel proprietor, and was one of the mostly highly-respected townsfolk.

He was not a native of the place, but had settled there very many years previously. Where he had come from, or what had been the course of his early life, he never breathed to even his: most intimate friends, and, as he was well-to-do, and a "good fellow," perhaps none cared to bother about his antecedents. As ho lay dying, however, he stated that he had something upon his mind, a Wrong he desired to set right if it could be, and this is what he disclosed. He had. it seemed, been a sailor in his youth, and, in consequence of his love of the sea and his skill in swimming, bad subsequently obtained employment as a diver. On one occasion, he was ('■•• acted to explore the wreck of a large passenger vessel which had been sunk on the western coast, and had gone to the bottom carrying with her the captain, several of the sailors, and some of the passengers. SMUGGLED THE JEWELS. Diving down into the hold, he had come across the body of an old man, in one of whose hands was tightly .clutched a small canvas bag. He had removed this bag, and, opening it, found that it contained some valuable diamonds. He smuggled the jewels artfully away, and they subsequently realised £7OO. With this money he entered upon business, and things prospering with him he discovered that he had literally wrested his fortune from that dead man's clutch.

Tijne, however, did not bring forget{ulncss of the evil deed, and on his death-bed, conscience-stricken, he desired that every effort might bo made to discover the dead man's relations in order that reparation might be made to them. Strange to say, every effort in this direction proved unavailing, as 110 one could be found to establish a satisiactory title to the stones; indeed, the identity of the drowned man was never proved, and at last the £7OO was divided (as the ex-diver had directed should no owners be found for it), among three charities of the town in which the testator had residedA REAL MEDICINE. In another case a certain physician in the Midlands laid the foundation of his fortune in a very extraordinary manner. When he was a young man, studying medicine in London, he found himself, in consequence of the death of a relation and a subsequent lawsuit, absolutely without any means save just a few pounds he had by him.

In this awkward situation he chanced to remember that he, had seen quacks in the market-place of his native town make considerable sums of money by retailing all manner of miraculous remedies to the country people who thronged to the place on a Saturday, and the idea occurred to him that he, 100, might try his hand at the work. He accordingly got about a dozen varieties of medicine made up, such as he thought would best suit the most popular complaints, fixed upon a town, and on Friday night had himself transported there in company with his infallible cures.

The place was one where he was not likely to be discovered by anyone who knew him, but to make assurance doubly sure, he disguised himself so that it was doubtful if even his best friend might not have passed Mm by without recognition. He did a "roaring business." Years after he used to joke about it to those who knew him best. "I did no harm," he used to say; "on the contrary, I did good, for each bottle was real medicine, and, although I don't suppose the effects were exactly all I had to describe them to get the stuff off my hands, yet the mixtures were suited to the complaints, so I had nothing on my conscience." Not only did he, by living carefully, make enough to keep him by these weekend excursions, but at the conclusion of liis studies in London he found himself possessed of a little capital, with which he bought and entered on a practice, which ultimately (for he was a clever doctor) became one of the largest of the Midlands. By the side of one of the chief approaches to a certain northern racecourse one might some years ago, when the races were on, have seen a small knot of folk gathered around a venerablelooking gentleman, who was with might and main denouncing the wickedness of betting, and pointing out the evils attaching to a "love of sport." This gentleman also had a historyHe was by no means an ordinary street preacher; lie was a wealthy merchant, and many years previously he had, on that very' racecourse, laid the foundation of his fortune by backing a horse (upon the strength of some extraj reliable intelligence he had received) to win no less than £SOOO. It won, and from that day the fortunate backer bet no more. Not only did he himself turn his back upon the turf, but he was ever doing his best to induce other folk to follow his example. "My face is mv fortune" is true not only of many women, but of some men also, as a certain well-known, sut recently deceased ornament of the Bar discovered. He had long attended one of the courts as one of the throng of impecunious and briefless barristers which used to haunt, and still haunt, those scenes of legal strife, when he was once surprised bv a stranger addressing him, and requesting the favor of a few moments' talk with him. The stranger turned out to he a celebrated but somewhat eccentric lawyer, Who had attended the court in the hope of a case in which he was concerned coming on, and he explained that the barrister reminded him most forcibly of a friend of his who had years ago gone to the Bar, and had dipd—died before his friend the solicitor had made his mark, and been able to assist him forward. ''He wc.:ld have made one of the finest barristers of the day hud he lived," declared his friend, "and von, sir, your face does not deceive me. will make your way, too," and, taking the young barrister's "w o ss, hp ]>im thai

lie would not forgot liim, and went his way. In a few days the first fruit of this fortunate meeting- was a brief—Mr. ■ —'s first brief—with a fee of five guineas. The barrister was no fool, and he acquitted himself W nir in the case; and from that day forward, by steady work and ability, with his strange patron's assistance; he steadily made his way to the front rank of his profession. Good looks, however, have over and over again been found to be "as good a.3 a gold-mine," but it is not often that one hears of unattractive looks being a source of fortune. Thoy proved so, however, a short time ago, when a wealthy Birmingham gentleman, a widower, without children, died, leaving legacies to three sisters, friends of his, 'and the residue of his fortune, which was vptv considerable, to a lady whom he ■singled out for the following reason as "exp'ressed in his will: "As a token of appreciation of her many good qualities, and in the hope that it (the bequest) may prove some compensation for her deficiencies in those personal attractions to which men are so apt to attribute so high a value, and without which a women has so much to contend with in the world, and in the hope that it may assist her to secure a good and worthy husband." The old gentleman might porta jnly have been more polite, but the man who bestows a fortune for the same reason may be excused some bluntness of speech, having regard to the "excellence of his intentions."