Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-07-14
RoMANcEs OF WILLS.
Each Man In Some Way Related to
Great Wealth.

slave among his ancestors, so the very
poorest Of US Is more or less related
to possessions which 1t Is not hard to
convince us are wrongly held by 9TH
ers. Every family has its tradition
Of this sort, which accounts, perhaps,
for the readiness with which any i'm
probable story is accepted telling Of
miraculous fortunes suddenly thrown
at heirs grown sick with hope de-
ferred.
The latest example Of this sort con-
sists In q will" which tumbled from
the back of an old picture which its
owners were induced 10 believe would
bring them property worth f1,OOO'OOo'
That Is a modest sum In compari-
son with some which have recently
occupied the minds Of fortune seekers.
Not long ago Elisha Corey, OF Omaha,
Neb., arrived in London, armed, as he
thought, with convincing proof Of his
title to the "f4o.O00,OO0 Corey estate,
which has been for sixty-five years In
the court of chancery, and consists OF
stocks, bonds and gold"
In spite of the most praiseworthy
zeal Mr.. Corey could make no progress
toward the realization Of his claim;
so he invoked the aid Of Mr.. Choate,
the American ambassador In London.
Mr.. Choate took up the matter and
wrote to the court Of chancery, with
the result that he was informed that
the Corey estate Of e 100000 had
no existence In fact.
Undeterred by so chilling a prece-
dent as the foregoing, there came to
England a month or two later, DIR. j.
P. Blackburn, Of McKeesport, Pa, to
claim certain portions Of England once
owned by his ancestors, who had sail
ed in the good ship Mayflower. His
researches brought to light collateral
branches Of his family In the old
country. They cherished the same
traditions with himself, and clearly
showed that part Of the family estates
had comprised the site Of what Is
now the prosperous manufacturing
town Of Blackburn. Altogether a sum
Of a15,000,000 was at stake. All that
DR.. Blackburn was able to achieve
was the redemption Of his family
coat of arms from the College Of Her
aids. The rest of the Blackburn pos
sessions had all been legally and
properly disposed Of, and the due or
der of succession unimpeachably OBJ
served. ....
A Michigan family had as bootless a
chase after a smaller fortune, and In
the end they had to take criminal
proceedings against the man who had
instigated the hunt and caused ex-
penditure Of the sum in which they
had been involved. Similar results at
tended the "windfalr Of young man
who produced will endowing him
with 10000 down and 10000 ayear.
On the strength Of the forged docu-
ment he had proceeded literally to
raise the wind"
The Sheffield Millionaire.
Another such ruse placed "the rich
est man in the world" in a felons
cell where he languishes at this mo-
ment This was James Albert Mars
ton, 1.-The Sheffield millionaire" as he
was more generally known. At his
trial for obtaining huge sums Of mon
ey by false pretenses 1t was repre-
sented that he really believed In the
story Of his having inherited from a
deceased uncle an estate In Ontario
half the size of Ireland, upon which
were gold and diamond mines galore,
making him, as the papers set forth
at the time, the richest man in the
world He lived In the greatest lux
ury on the money borrowed on the
strength Of his great expectations,
kept fast horses, wore the richest of
garments, boasted Of yachts and pal
aces and royal invitations and went
always armed with some half dozen
revolvers. In reality he was draper's
assistant, earning 80 shillings week.
Now he is undergoing three years
penal servitude.
A couple Of years ago the Mile End
workhouse was ringing with the t!r.
ing that 1t entertained a millionairess.
The heroine Of the story certainly
lived up to the part. To the chaplain
Of the institution she presented her
will disposing Of R650,000 In sums
such as 100000 for two convalescent
homes, 100000 for charitable insti-
tutions, etc. Her requests were re-
garded as bona fide and the lady had
an inning Of luxury and comfort. 1t
all ended in the police court, where
the lady was called to account for
these said luxuries-for which she had
not paid nor hoped to be able to do
so.
More recently still we had Pierre
Riera, the Spanish village blacksmith,
figuring as claimant to the vast es-
tate of the Marquis de Casa Riera-
Hosts Of people accepted the docu-
ments as genuine until five months
ago, when 1t was discovered that the
potential millionaire was the unso-
phisticated tool of an unscrupulous
band Of adventurers, by whom he and
his sympathizers he'd been mercilessly
exploited.
Some Of these fortune hunts are the
outcome Of cruel hoaxes. Typical was
the case of an old man named Good
win, who, in answer to an advertise
ment, sold all that he had in order
to come from Australia to England to
claim $4,000, which, 1t was an
nounced, had been bequeathed to him
by his Uncle Holland" The mat
ter came into the courts, when 1t was
proved that there existed neither will
nor thousands. The poor old man was
now absolutely destitute, and only
through the exercise Of private philan-
thropy was he able to collect suffi-
cient money to carry him back to
the land which he had left to claim
the fortune declared to be rightfully
his.
Wills Long Lost.
OF course, wills do turn up In out
of the way places, and bring about
startling climaxes in the lives Of un-
suspected legatees. One nobleman's
IL, hn lae