Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-09-10
A FORTUNE FROM. A JOKE.
A Proof-Reader's Prank and How a
COpyhOIder Found a Forsune-A
Long.Lost Heirs Discovery.


A story which reads like legend
from Gautauma, and ia the aenoue-
ment of which poor copvholder and
a proof reader of The Kansas Citv
Times inherits vast fortune, has just
come to light. The person on whom
the fates have thus benignly smiled is
Richard L. Sharks. we'll known as a
resident of Jackson county. and
known to newspaper men as former
copyholder and proof-reader of The
Kanses City Times. When the first
men ate of the earth and found it de-
liciously sweet they could not have
been more enraptured with life and
the charms of the earth than was
sold Dick Shanks," as the boys fa~
miliarly called him, when he recently
found that vast fortune awaited him
in Kentucky. Had nymph from
fairyland conferred on HIM her sylvan
wealth, or had some tabled hat of For
tunatus been placed upon his head, so
that every wish would at once be full
filed, the long lost heir would not
have been mere surprised, for the
knowledge of his wealth came to him
from a joke perpetuated by a proofs
reader during the sultry nights of last
summer.
One hot night LAST July when the
burden of proof-reading In a close
room seemed almost suffocating, when
the hot air of blazing gas-burners and
the sitting fumes from fifty jets over
typos cases seemed beyond human en-
durance, Dick Shanks might have
been seen working as only night
fends on morning papers can work,
gazing intensely at the agate and
nonpareil takes, decephiring bad
manuscript, and laboriously con
tributlng his share to make a morning
paper. With fevered brow and tired
eyes the old copyholder tolled on
through the busy rush of heavy !"
night, gazing through his spectacles
to catch turned SOP or wrong font
IS" About 80 o'clock in the morn>
ing there was slack in the run of
copy, and while Shanks and his fell
workman were waiting for ether
proofs, he began to tell how night
work was wearing on him, how he
could not sleep through the hot days,
and yet how dependent he was
upon his small salary for a bvihood |!
He Ionged to leave the desk,
and told how he had lost a for
tune in the war and now had to work
like a slave; thai he was poor and dis
couraged with his condition, and he
did not care how soon the good angel
called him to another world. A few
minutes later than this the proof read
er, who sat beside him, to little tele-
graph "take" which said something
about vast fortune In Kentucky.
Thinking that he could have little
fun by inserting his companions name
In the dispatch, the proof reader added
in a few lines on the manifold paper
of the dispatch these words:
''The only known heir of this Ken
lucky Shanks is r. L. Shanks, a
lame man and proot-reader, sup
posed to be working like slave on the
Times
The old copyholder read it and
laughingly put it in his vest pocket,
where it remained for many M 9nths.
Of course no one ever dreamed that
there Was word of truth in the silly
prank of leisure hour, but it has
now come to light that every word of
that manufactured telegram is true.
Mrs. Shanks one day found the tele-
gram in her husbands vest pocket,
and asked what it meant. Just for
fun he said it was a true telegram
which he had received. She told
sister in law, and this sister law
wrote to Stanford, Lincoln county,
KY, to know if it was so. The answer
cams that there was fortune there
for the heirs of David l.. Shanks, for
merly of Virginia; that he had at one
time owned a number of shares in a
turnpike road. He died in 1841. and
the annual dividends had accumulat-
ed and been in the public treasury ever
since, and that the heirs could not be
found.
When Dick Shanks saw that letter,
he knew that his father, who had died
just before Dick was born, was the
former owner of these shares, for his
name was David L., and he came from
Virginia. The story is a large one,
but it is enough to say that subsequent
communication with the state treasur-
er and county officials has placed Dick
Shanks' identity without a doubt as
the heir of three>ffths of the entire
fund. which has been accommodating
for over forty years The case is in
the hands of Mr.. @. J. Bower, of this
city, and Dick Will soon have his
money. The toll-road is twenty miles
long, running from DaHville to Stan
ford. KY. The long-lost heir is to day
the happiest man in Kansas City, and
although the exast amount of the es-
tate is not known. it is very large, as
stated ia the original telegram from
which the joke originated. Thus did
one innocent prank lead to a poor
mans happiness and the discovery of
a long-l lost fortune.