The Portland daily press., 1873-05-10
Dead Mems Shoes.

Thousands and hundreds of thousands of
people have been hopelessly ruined by wait
ing, waiting and yet waiting for dead mems
shoes The most brilliant intellects have be-
come torpid and rusted out with waiting for
something tgood that is the result of the eff
iorts OF others. Everywhere we see them,
pitiably patient men, waiting for the good for
tune that they have not the courage to fight
for until they are SO worn out and dwarfed by
being idlers that they have not the power to
make an effort.
To-day there are in this country thousands
of mem and women living in the expectation
of receiving untold wealth from English es-
tates. A great many are given up to this
idea and have gone to climbing after gol-
den fruit in rugged genealogical trees rather
than make sare oft or rather of fair compe-
tency by entering the broad field and making
a life and death fight for it in useful and hon
orable industries.
Within the past few months several famil-
les, residing in part in this State, have been
holding meetings to raise funds and devise
measures to secure immense estates in Eng
land that are supposed to belong to them
through their descent from some collateral
branch of the English house that a good while
ago immigrated to America, to which they
have become entitled by the decease of all
the direct heirs in that country. To these
claimants IT is represented by plausible attor-
mics that all that is necessary for them to
establishes, first, that there are no heirs in the
direct line, and second, that the American
claimants are the rightiul representatives of
the collateral branch of the family. To the
unacquainted these requirements seem very
easy, but experience shows that in ninety
nine cases of every hundred there will be
found barriers wholly insurmountable to sue
cess.
10 get your estate, here are few things OF
the many that you must do. You must prove
that you are directly descended from the emf
grant of a century OF SO ago, which is not an
easy task in country like ours, where all are
80 very careless about maintaining authentic
and legal records; then you have to prove that
up to the time of the American Revolution
that your ancestors were the eldest sons or
that there were no sons when such was the
case. You must further show that when
there have been wills made that you are prop
CRY descended from the residuary legatees
suder those wills. For all this, documentary
evidence muSt be obtained and who is insane
enough to SUPPOSE that such evidence, CON-
plete at every step of this intricate and long
descent of over a century, can be found
and found to such remarkable degree of &C
curacy as will satisfy the skeptical English
Courts Of Chancery, which are the guardians
ofsuch unrepresented estates, and will never
order division so long as there remains
single thread of the hopelessly tangled skein
unraveled?
= From this brief glance at the myriad diff
culties that beset the seekers of English for
tunes, none but those who are enchanted
with the glitter of the generalities of such
parties as desire to enrich themselves from
their contributions, will ever hope to secure
wealth by waiting for what rich but very dis
tant relatives left them.
Wealth NAV not ha-s ,ase:ll~ a------------o
SHOES, or newspapers, or selling goods, or
working in the factory, or raising potatoes,
but it is not hopeless; and while one is at it
he finds a healthy diversion that gives him the
full vigor of his intellect and sharp relish for
his dinner, however frugal, while this hunt
ing of dead mems shoes is about as worthless
a use as decent human life can be put to
except tending bar and seeking Office.