THE "WHEEL OF FORTUNE."

Temuka Leader, Issue 1450, 5 January 1886, Page 3

THE "WHEEL OF FORTUNE."

It is a well-known fact that no one who makes " the Turf " his pursuit can foretell what will happen to him till he lies under it; hut now and then the account of some success or reverse awakens our astonishment notwithstanding'. For example, there recently died in St. Giles' Workhouse, Loudon, a man who lost—and paid —£50,000 on the Derby in Lord Lyon's year. He had lived apart from his wife for many years, and but for the corroborative evidence of a sporting fishmonger, she would not have been able to identify him es her husband. Sach a life had, no doubt, but few elements of romance in it. The nature of the man was, probably, at once greedy and lavish, but for the extremes of mere material fortune hia experience could hardly have been exceeded. I see, by-tbe-bye, that a journeyman something or other has just came into an unexpected legacy of £BOO,OOO. It would be interesting to learn how such a turn of fortune's wheel has been received, and into what hitherto dry channels such a vast stream of wealth has been diverted. But curiously enough one never does learn these things. The money, of course, we see embodied io some individual or another, but the journeyman and all his belongings disappear in a month or two and leave no trace behind them. As the rich man suddenly ruined is said to "go under," bo the poor man suddenly enriched becomes equally invisible, or, at least, unrecognisable. He "rolls in riches" and is lost in the golden wave.—Home correspondent.