Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-08-10
Il Hls4ttt.1C WISER.

Il HlSittf.fC IMISER.
NO End of Money, Yet Suffering Every-
thing Rather than Part ,rith 1t.
Perhaps the most famous miser ever
lived, says the Pittsburgh Dispatch,
was John Elves, an Englishman, who
died from neglect because he refused to
procure the expense of physicians and
nurses, though worth not less than
100000. In the case of Jonn Elves,
his sordid character was not the result
OF ignorance, for he was graduate of
Swiss university, and later in life was q
member of Parliament. His greed of
gold was hereditary sin. He was the
son of London brewer, who died when
the boy was only 4 years old. His mother
survived, but to such an extent did her
passion for money gain hold upon her
that, though she had 100000 in her
own right, she actually starved herself
to death. An uncle, Sir Harvey Elves,
was also miser, and the example Of
these two blood relatives exercised such
al influence upon John Elves that he
became the most famous miser of three
centuries. After his return to England
from Geneva, Elves moved in fashion
able London society, where his pros
pective wealth entitled him to recogni-
ton.
When he visited his uncle in Suffolk,
where the latter lived in the most abiect
penury, his hopeful nephew would play
double part. He would wear his fash
ionable garments as far as a little inn in
Chelmsford, where he exchanged them
for patched pair of trousers, a worn
out coat, darned stockings, and clod-
hopper shoes with iron buckles. In this
attire he would call upon his uncle.
The latter would not permit fire on
cold March days on the score of its be-
ing extravagant, and the two would sit
with crust OF bread and one glass of
wine between them until it was too dark
| to see each others faces, and then they
would retire to save the expense of can
dies. When this uncle died he left his
nephew fortune of 81, 100000.
AS he grew older, John ELVES de-
veloped the terrible avarice that marked
his life by passion for cards. He would
sit in his threadbare clothes with the
Duke of Northumberland and play with
feverish eye and trembling hand with
thousands at stake, and then, after hav-
ing lost or won, as the case might be, he
would walk to his miserable lodgings,
three miles distant, in pelting rain,
rather than pay for cab.
Elves owned magnificent country
seat in Berkshire. When he would leave
London to visit it he would put three
hard-boiled eggs and some crusts OF
bread in his pockets, then, mountin a
horse, would ride over fields and through
lanes, going miles out Of his way tc
avoid roads where he would have to pay
few pennies toll. A more than faith
full biographer says Of him:
"He would eat his provisions in the
last stage of putrefaction rather than
have fresh joint from the butcher, and
at one time he wore wig about fort
night which he picked out of a nut in q
lane, and which had apparently been
thrown away by a beggar.'
At his country seat he allowed Of nc
repair save little brown paper or a BIT
of broken glass. During the harvest lie
would amuse himself with going into
the fields to CLEAN the corn on the
grounds of his own tenants, and they
used to leave little more than common
to please the old gentleman, who was as
eager after it as any pauper in the
parish. To save bed-covering before
his death he would go to sleep com
pletely dressed, with boots and hat on
He died miserably, his mind weakened
by worry and privation. The value o.
his fortune, which went to two sons, was
not less than $5,O0O,000.