The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-04-04
Ono Use For a Family History.

At the window of high stoop house
in Blocker street near Mulberry yester-
day, was q carefully dressed crook, or
person connected with the fraternity of
thieves and swindlers, seated in chair,
twirling his moustache delicately with
one hand, while the other hung listless
by his side. His feetwere OF a common
round centre table, and his hat was
cooked well back on his head.
"You seem to be under the weather."
said a friend who entered.
The crook kicked a chair around to-
ward the visitor. and then said:
Eyes. Well, I'm not exactly under
the weather, but"
Here he stopped and drew a roll Of
long newspaper clippings from his coat
pocket, and smoothed them out. Hand
ing 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 treasures alleged to
have been lost in He'll Gate on the Brit.
ish frigate Hnssar, with statements of
amounts of money advanced to the men
who have conducted the alleged scar h.
''ln all my experience, said the
crook, 81 never evolved a scheme that
could bring into my hands anything like
quarter of such sums but once.
The memory of that scheme bright
ened him up, and, having lighted fresh
cigar, he said:
'1D 1872, when everything was APP
parently booming in business. and peo-
pie were just as anxious to become sud
denly rich at small expense as they are
now, 1 was one day rumma2ing around
the shelves of secondhand bookstore
in Nassau street, in search of Greek
lexicon. Economical? Yes. economy
is the road to wealth. L always buy
secondhand books, because it fre1uent-
ly becomes necessary for me to change
my headquarters suddenly. and it would
not do to leave a valuable library be-
hind me. AS was saying. in that store
found in two large leather-bound vol
umes the history dwell, call it the
HOpkinson family, because that wasn't
the name. With it came an inspiration.
Here was n list of names and addresses
running into the tens of thousand"
"You could get addresses that were
fresher from the dealers in names"
Eyes, yes. You don't see. l imme-
diately bought the books for 80 and had
a quantity of letter paper printed with
lawyers card at the head. For sew
eral days l was very busy writing and
mailing letters which read something
like this:
Roe. SMITH & BROWN,
Attorneys and Counsellors,
No. Broadway, N. Y, -, 1872.
Mr.. John j. HoDlsinson, Herl'iHer. Hcrkimcr
County, ". Y.
DEAR SIR: The estate of r. Edward Hopkin-
son. formerly of Quackenwell Dorsetshire,
England who died interstate a. Valparaiso. \.
A., December 8, 1855. is now to be distributed.
We have been directed by Messrs Dodson &
DOdsOu of London to look after the American
heirs There Is a small sum. about fl.OC0 to
be paid to a Mr.. John Hopkinson of Herki-
mer County. U. ). A." He is the great grand
s9n of L. Mayo aoPkn 1ssa OF 1orsetsnne
kinson. If you can furnish legal proof mat
you are the man the money will be ready for
you when the papers are prepared. We must
As we do not know You, we are Obliged to de-
msnd this IN advance. Respectfully yours.
ROE, SMITH BROWN, per G.
1t 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 CalifOr-
MIA or some other place on the Pacific
coast, and that my correspondent was
the descendent of the grandfather re-
ferred to-
"Your letter was very short"
"And business like. We weren't re-
tanned to write an obituary of the de-
ceased. but to distribute his estate"
How many Hopkinsons applied for
their shares?"
II think won't tell you. did not
confne myself to fee of $50 though.
When l could find u Hopkinson who
was in either of the commercial agencies
as worth good deal of money ran
the fee in at from 300 to $500. Men
of that class would have been suspicious
of $50 fee. In fact, L wouldn't tell
you this at all only found it so very
risky on a count of the wrath of those
who were caught for large sums that
do not dare to work it again. found
it necessary to seek a change of air be-
fore had garnered half the harvest. -
N. Y. Sun.