Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-04-01
ESTATES IN EUROPE.
A NEW YORK CONCERN WHICH COL
 LEcTs LEGAclEs ABROAD.


 Empioye1s
 There is fourishing on down town east side street Legacy Advance com. pany with a counselor at French and German law as general manager. The offices arc handsomely appointed, and apparently the business is profitable Most of the clients of this company are of French OF German birth, and if they can satisfy the general manager that they have an inheritance coming to them from Europe they may obtain from him an advance on it. The com pany will either buy the inheritance outright or 1t will collect it on commis- sion. New York's foreign population is large, and many of it's members are living a hand to mouth existence wait ing for relatives at home to die and leave them money. The Legacy Advance company will not discount the claims of prospective heirs because the laws in this country will not permit In Eng land this sort of diacounting is 8 reeog- nized business.
 A 4WEW0A0 O4s} PgAA4A0eod hOAOs said tho manager of the company, "there would be millions in 1t, but it isn't, and we don't doany of that kind of busi- ness. l know of one company in Lon- don that has made over ST, 900, 900 in these discounts.
 This New York company finds that there is business enough in collecting inheritanees, and some of the men and women who ask it for aid give it phan- tom ohases. This is particularly true of the French claimants. They are always and on general principles expecting something from somebody. Every time the French papers announce the death of wealthy man without heirs there is 50 be found some one in this city who is ready to olaim relationship and part of the estate. The Legacy Advance eom- pany takes no chances. When 6 claim ant satisfies the manager that he has & reasonable claim to an inheritance abroad and is willing to give a power of attorney to collect it. the manager cables for information to his agent in the town where the estate happens to be. If he receives satisfactory evidence that the claim Is good one. he makes an advance to the heir here and sets in motion his machinery for collecting the legacy.
 It is easier to collect legaeies in Ger many than in France. and 1t Is easier to collect them in either country than iii the United States. Moreover, it is cheaper An estate may be settled in from six weeks to three months i'll Ger many, whereas in this country 1t would take year to bring about the same set- clement
 ''Most of the iegaoies that we have for collection. said the manager, "are small ones ranging from 2, 900 to 10, 900 marks Occasionally we have big leg aoy for collection, but generally big legaeies prove to be myths. For in- stance, hero Is n letter that l have just received from man in the west, who claims that the city of Amsterdam owes him S15, 900. An ancestor of his settled there in 795, he says, and died, leaving big fortune, which the oity appropriated. as there were apparently no heirs to claim it. This man writes that he has absolute proof that he is an heir to this estate. Unfortunately for him, all such claims were declared void by law passed in 1885. Perhaps were 1t not for that law he might be able to collect something Who knows? AS it is, however, he is wasting his time. and shall have to write and tell him so.
 Do you have many bogus claims pre- scented to you?''
 .'Yes. there are a good many such. Sometimes the claimant himself is fool ed Not long ago a well dressed man called at our office and asked us to col lect claim for 30. GOO marks from an es- tate that had been loft i'll Switzerland. The man showed us his papers identify ing him, and gave us description of the property there and a complete his tory of it We communicated with our agent in Switzerland and found that an estate had been left just as this man had described, and that he was one of the heirs. We were taking the necessary steps to collect it when tramp came into our office He was shabbily dressed and looked as if he had been kicking around the streets for months.
 "'Are you collecting a legacy in Switzerland for Blank?' he asked.
 "'We are.' answered, surprised that this man should know anything about it.
 "sWell. you are on the wrong track, he said, because am Blank, and the other man for whom you are acting is a fraud.
 His appearance didn't tend to cor roborate his claim, but he told substan- tially the same story about the estate that the other man had told, and my curiosity was aroused. He said that the man whom we supposed to be the real MT. Blank was. or rather had been, his servant He had waited for an opportu- nity and had then robbed his master of all his money and his papers. Armed with the papers. he had been passing himself of as the real Mir. Blank. This tramp told such oiroumstantial story that I was iimnrasSed hy it. Qot him a