Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1878-04-03
THE SOURCE OF w1NDFAL1s.
Fabulous Sums Of Money In the Bank
Of 1ngland Awaiting Claimants---
How It Accumulates.

How It Accumulates.
| From the n. Y. Times.
Millions of pounds of sterling are no,
lying in the Bank of England without
claimant or known owner. Such is tn
statement of an English attorney, VIII
has written q useful little book on un
claimed money. If London cool
should say that he had frequently see1
tables loaded down with roast beef an,
SOuthdown mutton, while men "a
around clutching their gaunt hands owe
their unfed stomachs and dying of hun
ger, We should say without hesitation
that he was not truthful person. Blu
the love of money is as strong passion
as hunger. For the one and the Other
men will lie, cheat, steal, burn, and mur
der-anythin for dollar or a dinner
yet the owners of these millions have
but to appear and claim their own. Not
one of them, however, knows that he
has shilling in the Bank oi
England, and that is the strange
part of it. 1t is almost incredible
that money in vast sums, amounting
sometimes to 81 600, 900 or more, should
be mislaid, az it were, put away by the
father or uncle, and forgotten by the
next and all succeeding generations.
Yet this is the story told over and over
again in the records Of unclaimed funds.
Windfalls are the pivot upon which the
action of countless novels turns, and
thousands of unlucky but sanguine NOR
tails refrain from drowning themselves
or taking their lager with strychnine
seasoning solely through the hope OF un-
expected assets. The romantic and be-
nefcent possibilities wrapped up in this
ownerless treasure guarded by the Bank
of England are inconceivable. How
many tales, "unco mournfu'" and 9TH
erwise, would its rightful distribution
unfold, how many suffering souls would
be made happy! All this might be if
people knew who they were vnd whence
they came. The assiduous cultivation
of the family tree is the surest way to
discover and secure unsupported bless
ings of this nature. 1t is not reluctant
and tender plant, but right hardy and
of certain growth when well tended.
England, through the great bank in
Threadneedle street, is the trustee of
more unclaimed money than any other
country on the globe--probably Of more
than all put together, simply because she
is one of the oldest of the highly civilized
powers, and had fixed financial habits
and institutions as early as any, and
more especially because she is a mother
whose children have strayed widely. She
is the mother-country to us and to vast
range of colonies. English blood and the
English speech are found everywhere on
earth where water runs and grass grows.
This long-continued emigration has sun
dered countless ties of Kindred and dis
turbed or broken up the lines of property
succession in thousands of families. The
emigrant has commonly had but slender
means, going abroad young, with q
resolute heart and ready hands to seek
fortune in the new country; while the
elder generation, settled in vocation and
in possession of competency, has staid
at home. With travel, change, and ad-
venture the former grows Indifferent to
home ties, communication grows less fire.
quent, and is dropped-often because
there is nothing but ill-luck to write
about-and at length the staid, conserva-
tive old father, uncle, or elder brother,
grown fatter and richer with years,
dies and leaves his wealth to the wander
er, who never hears of the bequest. The
estate then, perhaps, gets into Chancery,
and is frittered away or bestowed in a
direction entirely contrary to the inten-
tion of the testator; or, if no will be
found, and the heir-at-law not appearing,
nor any next of kin, the estate reverts to
the Crown. 1t may be recovered, how
ever, on establishing claim.