The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-27
|LURED 1000 MILES
FOR CRUEL JOKE.
How Two Aged Men We're De-
coyed From Australia to
London for a Joke. .

I special II OT6lSn correspondence. -
/ LONDON, Sept. 26.-When first the
story was told In London police
court the other day of how John and.
Frederick Goodwin. two old men of
scanty means, had been Iured from.
| their homes in Australia to this coun-
try by the promise of an irnaginarys
fortune, 1T appeared as if their. case
/ was about the best possible warning
| TO sfolk In America and elsewhere who
/ are inclined to nibble at the tempting
] palt thrown out by willy "next-of- kim
| agents here. But the amazing fact
! brought out by the later DEVELOPMENTS
1 IN this mysterious affair is that ap-
parently no one profted in the slight
est extent by getting this credulous
| pair TO spend every penny they pos
| sessed in getting from the Antipodes
| to London and stranding them here.
I No missing heirs" agency even tried
/ TO get money out of them, SO the ex-
! pianatfon seems to be that whoever
inserted in the Australian newspapers
the advertisement by which the Good
wins were duped into believing them
selves heirs to $4,000, and who kept
up the game of deception right up to
their arrival in this country, did so
| just for joke El<l
OF these two disheartened men,
whose only request is now that they
may be provided with means of get
ting back to Australia, the elder is
nearly seventy and the other only
few years younger.uzTh The former, John
Goodwin, was a Waterman at a hos
| p1tal at q. small town in Queensland.
with a salary of $780, a year besides
his board. He was married to one of
the attendants at the hospital. The
other brother Frederick Goodwin, was
shepherd in Hew,eSouth Wales, who
had laid up little money. The Good
wins came to Australia together from
England In 1861. but they afterward
separated and actually had not seen
or heard OF each other for years until
the advertisement published in the
australian papers to the effect that
they were heirs toGa fortune finally
brought them together few months
ago. s4g,z
This was the advertisement that
caught the eye of both men, printed
in their daily newspapers:
'.Goodwin-f this should meet the
eye Of John Mackenzie or Frederick
Holland Goodwin, sons of F. C. Good
win, M. D., late of Manchester, Lanca-
shire, England, who, sailed per ship
Wanata from East Indies docks, Lon-s
don, for Brisbane Gap. Murphy, 1861,
Uncle Holland dead; money and prop
erty left, 100000. Communicate Har-
rison and Baxter, solicitors. High Hel-
born, London, or Sir Humphrey de
ridiiofu, 4rdloTd rPark,: Manchester,
Lancashire, England"
Now the Goodwins did hail from
Manchester, they had sailed on the
ship named, and they had an Uncle
Holland, so they never doubted they
were the persons wanted" John
| Goodwin was the first of the two
| brothers to see the advertisement, and
ne wrote at once to Sir Humphrey de
TraHord, whom he knew to be a real
person, and also to the lawyers named
| in the personal" He got no reply
1 from either, however, and had about
/ given up any idea Of going to England
when suddenly he got a telegram from
| his brother Frederick, of whom he had
| seen or heard nothing for so many
| years. 1t seems that in the meantime
| the younger Goodwin had seen the adj
yertisement, and had begun casting,
around to see if his brother were still
! al1Ve-hnally locating him.
After some correspondence the Good
! wins decided to meet, and John tray-
| eled $50 miles from Queenstown tossee
| Frederick, who was now in Sydney
Arriving there, however, he found that
! the latter had made all arrangements
| for their passage in company to Eng
| land to look up the inheritance. He
had spent practically every penny he
had In the world on their tickets. The
older Of the two old men had1al
nearly exhausted his small means in
| making his researches, and he went on
board the Orient Line steamer with
exactly $3.50 in his pocket. BY this
time neither felt any doubt of the ex-
| fStence of their fortune, and they wrote
from Marseilles to Harrison and Bax-
ter" the lawyers named In the famous
! advertisement, and NJ advised them of
their imminent arrival in London.
! No sooner had they. actually reached
| nQfrOn0liS I'm
mensely encouraged. For then they
received a letter from. Harrison and
! Baxter, saying thatssthey had appraised
Sir Humphrey des Prafford of the
Goodwins' arrival and that the noble
man had directed that the ''heirs"
should go to Manchester Immediately
and apply to a legal firm there whose
name was mentioned. and receive from
! these lawyers their inheritance.
! But when the brothers, having hur-
! rted to Manchester, tried to find the
| legal firm at the address furnished
them, they failed. There was no such
| firm in Manchester They then called
at the office of Sir Humphrey de Traf-
ford, also in Manchester, where, though
they were treated politely, the half
crazed men were told that nothing was
known of any relative of theirs having
died and left legacy for them. Al
| most hopeless now, they spent all the
money they had left between them IN
getting back to London, and there
made search for "Messrs. Harrison &
| Baxter" But in High Holborn, where
the lawyers offices were supposed to
be located, no such law firm existed.
And so the two old men at last gave up
and realized that they had been duped.
Evidently the disappointment was too
much for the younger brother. Fred
erick. for he disappeared entirely after
the last facer and John Goodwin has
no idea what has become of him. The
elder brother lost no time in making
his way to the police court In the
| Southwark district of London and lay
| ing his case before the magistrate
there. At first, of course, he was looked
! upon with some suspicion, but In
| quiries made by the police have estab-
lished the fact that everything that he
| has said is true, ana that he and his
brother did arrive In London from Aus
| tralia together.
Meanwhile, this man of nearly sew
enty, adrift, penniless, in what is now
a strange country to him. is in about as
heartbreaking a situation as ever a
man had to face. AS he is too old to
| do any sort of work except such as he
| did in Australia, the Southwark police
court magistrate advised him to APP
ply to the agent general in London, of
| the Queensland government for means
| of getting back to his home and his
| wife. That official, however, replied
CURLY that there were. no funds for