The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-11
WITH A DIAGRAM,

WITH A DIAGRAM,
It seems that the Journals articles on I'M
settled English and Dutch estates-intendeda as
ness by quite number of people, and letters
are coming in from all quarters of the country
fact which shows the general circulation
of this paper. If the attention thus attracted
shall afford the means of correcting false i'm
pressions and of discussing the minds of those
who have been led to believe that they are
heirs with any possibility of realizing from
such estates, much good will have been accom-
plished. 1t is quite safe to say that in all
England there is not farthing and in Hol-
land not one pfennig anywhere to be found
except in the possession of those who hold
them by rights that cannot be successfully
assailed. In the Bank of England there is
not shilling accredited to either of the estates
in question, nor is there any possibility of any
one in America or elsewhere ever realizing
barely possible there is an exception, but, as
general rule, this proposition is unassailable.
One might as well lay claim to the Euphrates
valley as an heir of Adam, OF to America as
a descendant of Columbus or Ameligo Yes
pucci. The hopes raised in the breasts of
American ''heirs". are raised for a purpose
Any attorney or solicitor intelligent enough to
know anything about such estates knows that
there is not even the remotest possibility of
dollar being realized therefrom. Pettifogging
briefess lawyers, with no practice and no le-
ultimate incomes, resort to such means to ex-
tort money from those honest enough and
simple enough to believe their stories 1t is
marvel that any intelligent person can be so
thoroughly deluded. True, in one sense, the
idea is captivating. To be even named in
the common herd in ones own esteem, and to
some that distinction is worth a good deal
Oftentimes, doubtless, this very vanity, CON
temptible as it is, is the moving cause that
makes poor men rob themselves in order to
pelpetuate a foundationless delusion. But
there are some who are sincere in the
whole business. These are to be
pitied. The retaining fees squeezed
out of them represent just that much of
the meanest species of robbery 1t is pity
the law does not take cognizance of the shysters
who live on the hopes they raise in the hearts
of the gullible.
That anybody could have been misled by the
Journals palpabe burlesque of the vast
estate hallucination only goes to prove how
deluded the imagined 'heirs" are, not to be
able to detect the irony. 1t were advisable for
one and all of them to drop the thing at once
and forever. Not one cent will come back
from all they may put into it. The pftiful
sums they subscribe from time to time-pit-
full in comparison with the tens and hundreds
of millions held up as bait-will go down
into the empty pockets of their solicitors like
water into muskrat hole There is as much
chance of coming into possession of themoop as
of dispossessing heirs that have held property
for a century or more. The Trinity Church
property" in New York city, valued at a
hundred or more millions, has been the ignis
fatuus that has lied many man into
perpetual bankruptcy and the ''heirs" are no
nearer the goal than when they began. Those
who imagine or may know that they are the
lineal descendant of Aneke Jams, of the Trot-
tiers, or of any other of the traditional person
may as well give up any hopes they may have
been induced to entertain. The estates" are
no longer estates and the ten thousand ''heils'
will get rich only on the same terms that other
people do.