The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1863-11-14
WHOLE No. 81.

the old woman died. and her employer near
ly shared the same fate. Colonel Timms,
a nephew of Mr.. Elves, found him out by
great trouble in an uninhabited house in
Great Marlborough-street After some diff
fculty, unable to make anybody hear, The
Colonel got In, and on ascending the stair
case, heard the moan of person in distress,
and found Mr.. Ewles stretched out on an
old pallet-bed, apparently dying. Cordisls
were at once applied, and the suffering mi
ser opened his eyes, and articula.ed ''that
he thought he had been i'll for two or three
days, and that there was an old woman in
the house, but for some reason or another
she had not been near him. She had been
i'll. and was, as he supposed, gone away"
She was afterwards found-she who had
been so long the miser's companion and
the partner of his journeys-stretched life
less, appearing to have been dead for two
days. Her master would have died too,
had he not been thus timely discovered
The man worth half million would have
sunk, as his mother did, from want in his
own house.
When he rode to his estates In Suffolk,
his journey cost him two-pence half-penny;
if into Berkshire, four-pence His specu-
lations were not always successful. He
lost heavily by iron works in America, and
was plundered largely by members of Par
lament to whom he lent money He used
to say ''that three contested elections would
not have cost him what he lost through his
brethren in Parliament" Miser as he was,
his purse was generously open at times
He advanced money to an officer in the
Guards, the friend of one of his sons, to
purchase majority, and never asked for
repayment; but it was afterwards returned.
He paid for the cure of one of his maid-ser-
wants, and took her back to his household
when she had recovered from the smallpox.
Yet this man would CLEAN corn in the
fields of his tenants after harvest, who
would purposely leave little in his way;
and he would fill his pockets with stray
chips, bones, or other things for his fire,
and demolish crows nests for the sticks
His parsimony increased with age. In
stead of buying from butcher, he would
kill sheep, and live on mutton till the
whole was consumed, putrid or not. He
would not allow his shoes to be cleaned, lest
they should wear out more quickly. When
told that person worth million was seen
in new equipage, he said, ''He will soon
see the end fhis money"
In his old days, he would not spend a
farthing for food. He took only what his
land and fsh-ponds yielded, and would
dine off mooT-hen brought out of the riv-
er By a rat. He regaed on the undigested
part Of a pike swallowed by large fish
that was captured, smiling at what he called
"killing two birds with one stone.'' At
that time, he was supposed to be worth
eight hundred thousand. AS soon as the
day closed, he went to bed to save fire, and
denied himself sheets. He died at rs years
of age. His entailed estate passed to Mr..
Timms, the son of his nephew, Colonel
Timms; but he left the rest of his property,
to five hundred thousend pounds,
to his two natural children, sons that he
had by Elizabeth Moren, once his house
keeper. He had many good qualities, but
they all became debased by his growing
avarice. Of books he knew nothing, but
his conversational powers were great, for
he had learned much from observation of
men and manners. He was not Indifferent
to wine at the expense of others. He was
not devoid of generous feelings, of which
we have given some examples; and as Mr..
Redding well remarks, CHS avarice seemed
rather that of a monomaniac than of a mi
SER" He had mixed with the best society.
but became at last almost a naisanthrope,
living in pefeet solitude. He outlived his
memory, and became oblivious of the de-
cencies of life, sleeping in his clothes and
shoes, and taking stick with him to bed,
of which he never relaxed the grasp.
The career Of Elves is a sad warming.
One mean passion, absorbing in its infu-
ence, reduced him to the lowest depths of
moral degradation; and at the close of his
days, SO haunted was he by the dread of
poverty, that he would rise from his wretch
ed pallet, and as if struggling with an enc
my, frantically exclaim, II will keep my
money, will: nobody shall rob me of my
property - Remarkable Misers, by Red
ding.