A DEAD MAN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

A DEAD MAN.

ins X .MARK. Osk of the most extraordinary trii-ks that the heart of man ever conceived ivas (says the Braidwood Despite.h) attempted to be played in Araluen lately, in order to get possession of a sum of money belonging to a deid man, which was lying in tho. bank. Just. before the bank of New South Wales closed, a cart, containing half a dozen Chinamen pulled up at tho door. Amongst them was one who appeared to be sick, and who was being held on the seat, and win covered with blankets from his head to his feat. Phis individual, whose name was Ah Jack, >md who had been attend d to bv Dr. Llewellyn, lived at Crown Flat and had been brousiht to tins bank by bis countrymen friends, so they represented to the manager, to draw out a sum of money which ho had at. fixed deposit, amounting to Mr Price, the manager, of course said he would not, give it without the depositor's signature. They replied that he was too sick t-> conic nut of the cart, whereupon Mr Price, v."ho know Ah .lack very well, took out a pen and ink and proceeded to set his signature on the necssary forms. Me was just shown sufficient of the ,<iek man's face to recognise liitn. One of the other Chinamen then put batik the blanket, and directed Ah Jack's hand to the pen held_ by Mr Price to make his mark. By this time a number of people had gathered round, curious to know what, wih going on, and when it cvme to the ngning bu-iness the bystanders were highly amused, the strange proceedings naturally provoking a good ileal of merriment and the passing round of sundry jocular remarks all tending to "take a rise" out of the poor simple Chows. But the sequel proved that, the Chinamen, though outwardly so "childlike and bland," wore not so simple as they looked, and that all tho while they were meekly putting up with the chaff which they were getting so plentifully, they were cleverly carrying out a well contrived plot of which neither the bank manager nor anyone preseut had the slightest suspicion. Among the bystanders was Mr P. M'Fadden, the butcher, who, being close to the sick man, was enabled to get a close look at his bare feet when tbo blankets were pulled up to allow him to get his hands out to sign. Watching them steadily, ho perceivcd that there was not the slightest movement in the toes or any of the muscles, and just as tho man's hand was being put out, to the pen and the manager was saying to Ah Jack, "You acknowledge this as your mark ? " Mr M'Fadden called out : " Why, the man's de ul " ; and sure enough dead he was found to be, and apparently had been dead some time. The supposition is that he was dead before ho was put in the cart, and that the other Chinamen, failing to get the deceased in to draw his money while bo was alive for them to get hold of, had put their heads together and agreed to adopt this desperate resort of carting the dead body to the bank to personate the bank depositor in a sickly condition in the flesh, and they very nearly succeeded in carrying out their well-laid plan. Tho money will now go to the Curator of Intestate Estates, and will most likely fall into the hands of the Government instead of being appropriated by tho dead man's friends by an ingenious use of his body.