Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-04-25
ESTATES In EUROPE.
NEW YORK CONCERN WHICH COL
LEcTS LEeAclEs ABROAD.

Case Where Servant Impersonated His
Employer.
There is Furnishing on down town
east side street Legacy Advance COM
pany with counselor at French and
German law as general manager. The
offices are handsomely appointed, and
apparently the business is profitable.
Most of the clients of this company are
Of French or 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 1t. The COM
pany will either buy the inheritance
outright or it will collect it on commits
sion. New York S foreign population is
large, and many of its members are
living 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 discounting is a recog
nized business.
IF it were only permitted here,
said the manager Of the company, there
would be millions in it, but it isn't,
and we don t do any Of that kind Of bust
ness. know of one company in Lon
don that has made over 1000, 900 In
these discounts.
This New York company finds that
there is business enough i'll collecting
inheritances, and some OF the men and
women who ask it for aid give it phan.
tom chases 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
to be found some ono in this city who
is ready to claim relationship and part
| Of the estate The Legacy Advance com
! pany takes no ehdnGes. When claim
ant satisfies the manager that he has
reasonable claim u an inheritance
abroad and is willing to give power
of attorney to collect it, the manager
cables for information to his agent IN
the town where tho estate happens to
be- II he receives satisfactory evidence
that the claim is u good one, he makes
an advance to tho heir here and sets in
motion his machinery for collecting the
legacy
1t is easier to collect legacies in Ger
many than in France, and it is easier to
collect them in either country than IN
tho United States. Moreover, it is
cheaper An estate may DO settled III
from ELK weeks to three months in Ger
mnuy, whereas III this country it would
take a year to bring about the same set
Element
Most of tho legacies that we have
for collection, said the manager, ARE
small ones ranging from 2 600 to 10, 600
marks Occasionally we have big leg
acy for collection, but generally big
legaeies prove TO DO myths. For in
stance, here is a letter that ] have just
received from man in the west, who
claims that the city Of Amsterdam owes
him $l5, 900 0bU An ancestor of his
settled there in 1895, he says and died.
leaving q big fortune, which the city
appropriated, rs there were apparently
no heirs to claim it. This man writes
that no has absolute proof that he is an
heir to this estate. Unfortunately for
him. all such claims were declared void
by law passed i'll 1885. Perhaps were
it not for that law he might be able to
collect something Who knows? As it
il, however, he is wasting his time, and
shall have to write and tell him so "
do you have many bogus claims pre-
sented to you2'
Eyes, there are good many such.
Sometimes the claimant himself is fool
ed Not loAg ago we'll dressed man
called at our Office and asked us to col
lect claim fol 30, 600 marks from an es-
tate ta..S mad been left iii Switzerland
The man showed us his papers identify
ing him. and gave us a description Of
tho property there and a complete his
tory of it, We communicated with our
agent in Switzerland and found that an
estate had beon left just as this man had
described, and that he was one of the
heirs We were taking the necessary
steps 10 collect it when tramp came
I INTO our OIllCH, TIC WAS SlltHDllg All9seNA
and looked aS if lie had been kicking
around tho streets for months
Arc you collecting d legacy III
Switzerland for Blank he asked.
I'VE are, answered, surprised
that this man should know anything
about IT
We'll, You are on thewrong track,
he said because | am Blank, and the
other man for whom you are acting is q
fraud
Ills appearance didn't tond 70 cor.
rohorate his claim, but he told suhstan-
TALLY the same story abeut the estate
that tho other man had told, and my
curiosity was aroused He said that the
man whom wo supposed 20 Ud tho real
MIR Blank was. or rather had been, his
servant He rad waited fer an opportu-
nifty and had thea robbed his master Of
an his money and his papers Armed
with the napers. he had heen passing