A BARMECIDE FORTUNE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VIII, Issue 437, 24 February 1875, Page 3

A BARMECIDE FORTUNE.

A cheque was ' presented at one of our banks the other day running in*these terms — " Pay to .or bearer, the sum of two millions, in gold." The bearer, writes the " Ballarat Star," was a poorly clad man, and his cheque was most carefully folded in several layers of rags, froni^ which he either had considerable difficulty in extracting it, or else he loved to linger on the fond delusion of having such a mass of wealth covered in their folds. The cheque was at last duly produced, but, aias it was not paid ! The poor creatnre who indulged' himself in the delusion of having this wealth is a .man who presents himself about once a quarter at our office, always with the same inquiry, " Hey you hard ony thing of my letters ?" and then to our reply " No," we have a long commentary about the roguery of some unknown person or persons who are conspiring to keep the poor man " out of his money." Sometimes he presents to our gaze a printed handbill, with the words " £1000 for one shilling " on it. It is a handbill of some lottery announcement, a year old or more, and. this he solemnly avers he has presented at - the banks' over and over again, and " they won't 'pay.it." It is painful to have to answer the poor fellow, but he is not troublesome, and when he has had his ten. minutes' talk/ he proposes to try some other way to get his money, anl takes his leave. We do not know his name. He is clad in very much mended clothes of brown, he. rides » veiy poor and ill-groomed pony, and is attended by a sheep dog. He is a Scotchman, we should say, by his speech, but where he lives we cannot tell.

The Glasgow Magistrates are* putting on a vigorous spurt. They now send to gaol every person apprehended in a drunk and disorderly condition, instead of, as formerly, allowing the police to use their discretion as to letting such go on leaving a small pecuniary pledge for future good behaviour, this course being found to be illegal. In consequence, the Duke street prison, which has cell accommodation for 540, has had over 900 prisoners crammed into it, and the Governor has warned the Magistrates of the probability of an epidemic breaking out. To lessen the chances of this, the inebriates are subjected to a good scrubbing ilfth soap and water, which is a novel operation to many of them. A raid ia also being made in Glasgow upon milk-sellers. One woman who was convicted of selling a half-penny-worth of skim milk adulterated with 24 per cent, of water was fined three guineas with a guinea of costs ! One Magistrate also fined two young men who were charged with obstructing the street by distributingtracts. This sentence evoked a considerable amount of deserved censure on this Justice Shallow from the Press,