The Anaconda standard., 1898-03-09
A TALE OF TWO NATIONS
Also a Will Made More Than
100 Years Ago.
OLD KASPAR HAD STUFF
It Is Said to Have Accumulated Till 1t
Amounts to Eighty Millions-Two
of the Heirs Are Residents
of Great Falls.

Great Falls, March S.-Great Falls in
the past few years has furnished not a
few stories replete with roma ntic inter-
est and some of them concerned the
heirs to great fortunes. Not one, how
ever, can compare with this which the
Standard man to-day unearthed. 1t is
true the tale savors somewhat strongly
of juniper berries and of the square
shouldered bottle, but the SAVIOR drawn
out through over a century is so mild
that not even the most puritanical nos
trils could be offended thereat. Let us
begin then at the source, the 18th cen
tury. In that age lived in Holland
certain sturdy burghed hight Kaspar
Kronkheite (thight' is 18th century
for named" and is merely introduced
to give local color, and his two broth
ers, Jacob and James. About that same
time fabulous tales came from Dutch
brethren over the waters of the fortunes
to be made in the 18th century Klondike,
New Amsterdam, now New York. The
three brothers became filled with the
spirit of the times and emigrated to
America Kaspar did not like the place
very well and had girl back in Dutch
land, anyway, and after a year or so in
the new~country he went home and took
UP his suit with the old girl He loved
the maid, but the maid loved not him.
Then ~kaspar took to gin. That is, he
went to manufacturing it, and before he
had been in the business long his COM
bination of juniper berries and cologne
spirits gained a reputation that brought
him fortune and high rating with the
commercial agencies, about four KS, If
one may judge by the size of his pile,
which is said to have reached $12 900, 900.
Kaspar. was old: he had money to burn,
but never wife nor a child was there
Il hit exrfI. XaIz l.
his evening toddy. During many years
of money making he had not found time
to make friends. He was alone in the
world-alone, save for his two brothers
who were across the sea.
Tt was then that he bethought him of
scheme. He would write his brethren
and no doubt when he told them of his
fortune they would come running, as did
Joseph's brothers. Unfortunately for
his hopes they had fallen in love with
their adopted home and with some pret-
ty Dutch girls. They had homes and
families; they had become American
citizens and in time hoped to be presi-
dents of the United States, or at least
that their children would. They knew
that since kaspar had received the nit
ten of generous size from his girl that
he had grown cantankerous. and even if
they went back he might turn them
down any day in spite of all promises.
i MY itldsfd III tdft AIit Ddtk u oil.
Then old kaspar, sitting beside his tiled
fireplace nursing equity toe, grew
wroth. "Gadzooks," he roared. Let
'em stay over there and pick hops. Not
blooming picayune will they ever get
from me. By kummel, III have re-
venge! I'll have revenge!" And old kas-
par went rampirg around the house
after an inkhorn and goose quill, and
before he got through hit his bad toe a
hard Whack and finally lay down in a
fit. AS soon as he was aDla to leave his
bed he called up his ancient notary and
made him draw q will. and in it he truly
got revenge. He left his money to be di-
vided after the lapse Of a hundred years
among all living direct descendants of
his two brothers. Then he made ar
rangements with the government TO
take charge of his estate at his death
and hold it in trust until the day of di-
vision should arrive. When all was
done he laid himself down and died
properly and was buried in the family
vault.
In the meantime the revolutionary
war broke out in America and like the
sturdy patriots that they We're, James
and Jacob shou1dered their muskets,
and kissing their Katrinas and their
offspring goodbye, went away whis-
Ting Yankee Doodle in Dutch dialect.
James was shot and Jacob contracted
disease. and after many years of pa
tient waiting for pension and filling
out fool inquiry blanks from the war de-
partment he. too, gave up the job and
went to join James and to listen in the
other world to long homilies from Kas-
par on what asses they had made of
themselves in not taking the snap Cor
schnapps) he had offered them
One hundred years had elapsed. The
day on which the Will was to be opened
and read in the superior court of Hol-
land had arrived. 1t was April 6, 1896
In the strong vaults of the national
bank at Amsterdam the gold had in
creased by the methods known on Wall
street and encrusted itself so deeply
with the unearned increment that the |
original twelve millions was as the cor-
nerstone is to the slyseraper The funds |
held In trust amounted to eighty mill
ions. None of the heirs appeared-they /
were all busy in America with their |
spring plowing and could not get away
for such trifiing matter as eighty mill |
ions, and so no will was read and it |
looked very much as If the Dutch gov |
ernment was going 10 hog the whole !
pile. Then the heirs walked up and they |
held meetings and they paid their good |
money to attorneys who knew no more !
about 1t than they did Finally some
one wrote to the United States consul at |