The Osceola times., 1884-04-26
HIS INHERITANCE.
A Family History utilized I'm working a
Swindle.

MY. sun.
At the window of high stoop house
in Bleecker street near Mulberry, was 8
carefully dressed crook, or person con
nected with the fraternity of thieves and
swindlers, seated in chair, twirling hi,
mustache dejectedly with one and
while the other hung listlessly by his
side. His fee. were on common round
center table and his hat was cooked
well back on his head.
"You seem to be uider the weather.
said friend who entered.
The crook kicked a chair around TO.
ward the visitor, and then said
YES. Well Pm not exactly under the
weather, but
Here he stopped and drew roll of long
newspaper clippings from his coat pock-
ct, and smoothed them out. Handing
them to his visitor. he continued:
81 am simply detected. One hates to
be beaten by amateurs, you know"
The clippings contained accounts of
the searches for the treasure alleged to
have been lost in He'll Gate on the Brit
ish frigate Hussar, with statements ofthe
amounts of money advanced to men who
have conducted the alleged search.
"In all my experience" said the crock
81 never evolved scheme that could
bring into my hands anything like a
quarter of such sums but once"
The memory of that scheme brighten.
ed him up. ond having lighted fresh
cigar, he said:
"In 1872. when everything was appar-
emily booming in business, and people
were just as anxious to become suddenly
rich at small expense as they are now,
was one day rummaging around the
shelves of q second hand book store in
Nassau steet, in search of Greek lexi-
con. Economical? Yes, economy is the
road to wealth. / always buy second
hand books, because it frequently be-
comes necessary for me to change my
headquarters suddenly, and it would not
do to leave valuable library behind me
As was saying, in that store found in
two ia:ge leather bound volumes the his
tory of-well, call it the Hopkinson fami-
ly, because that wasn't the name. With
it came an inspiration. Here was list
of names and addresses running into the
tens of thousands"
"You could get addresses that were
fresher from the dealers in names"
"Yes, yes. You don't see. immedi-
atalx. hapuht fha hnnIo fnr 20 o,,I III
quantity of letter paper printed with a
lawyers card at the head. For several
days was very busy writing and mail
ing letters which read something like
this:
''RoE, SMITH & BRowN, ATTORNEYS AND
CoUNsELLoRs, No. - BROADWAY, n. Y,
- lisp. Mr. JOHN HoPKINsoN, HER.
KrMER, HERKIMER COUNTY, N. Y.-DEAR
SIR: The estate of r. Edward Hopkin-
son, formerly of Quackenwell, Dorset
shire, England. who died intestate at
Valparaiso, $. A., Dec. 3, 1865, is now to
be distributed. We have been directed
by Messrs Dodson 4 Dodson, of London,
to look after the American heirs. There
is small sum. about Gl 900, to be paid
to a Mr.. John Hopkinson, of Herkimer
county, U. $. A. He is the great grand.
son of l.. Mayo Hopkinson, of Dorset.
shire England a cousin of the late r.
Edward HopkinsoD. fyou can furnish
legal proof that you are the man the
money will be ready for you when the
proper papers are prepared. We must
have fee Of $50 for preparing the pap
ers. As we do not know you, we are
obliged to demand this in advance.
Respectfully yours,
''RoE, SMITH 4 Brown, per g."
"It is needless to say that the books
had told me that the deceased had run
away to sea in 1874, and had never been
heard of, although it was rumored that
he owned large estates in California, or
some other place ON the Pacific coast, and
that my correspondent was the descend
ant of the grandfather referred to-"
Your letter was very short
"And business-like. We weren re-
taincf TO write an obituary of the deceas-
ed, but O distribute his estate"
"How many HopkInsons applied for
their shares?'
81 think won't tell you. did not
coniine myself TO fee of $50 though.
When could find Hopkinson who was
ip either of the commercial agencies as
worth a good deal ofmoney ran the fee
in at from 500 to $500. Men of chat
class would have been suspicious of $50
fee. In fact ! wouldn't tell you this at
all only found il so very risky on ac-
count of the wrath of those who were
caught for large sums that do not dare
TO work il again. | found il necessary