Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-10-27
RICH MEN OF A MONTH.
How Suddenly Acquired Fortunes Have
Been Squandered.

Been Squandered.
The sudden acquisition Of unaccus-
toned wealth is responsible for many
strange freaks on the part Of the
newly enriched. Thus, a Durham
collier, after inheriting the sum OF
f2O. 900 from an uncle who had emi-
grated to Australia, purchased male
and female elephant from a travelling
menagerie, had a large and gaudy
carriage built, to which he harnessed
them, and then drove out with his
wife and children till stopped by the
police. He spent his money In SIX
months, chiefly at race meetings, and
is now once more a humble collier
glad of the comparative scanty wage
that he receives each week from the
clerk in the pay shed.
The case of a once popular French
novelist Is still remembered in Paris
ian literary circles. Reaping a har-
vest from two or three capital books
that took all Paris by storm, the
author purchased a palace in Italy,
villa on the Riviera, a castle In
Scotland and a town house on the
Champs Elysees. 1t seemed his am
bition to possess as many residences
as a prince Of the blood. Although
all these properties were heavily
mortgaged, the smash came within
year, and the novelist, loaded with
debts that he would never be able
to repay, calmly disappeared, and
was afterward recognized as An Arab
trader and lord Of many caravans
plying between Harrar and Jibutil.
The novelist, who had adopted
suitable Arab name. stood high in
the favor of the Emperor Menelik
Consumption cut short a career that
for variety and adventure far ex-
ceeded any romance that the novelist
himself had ever penned.
Another freak capitalist" was q
Spanish lady Of Badajoz, who. win
ming 100000 in the Manila lottery
collected the money and set out Sc
cretly for Paris, leaving her husband
and children in complete darkness as
to her whereabouts.
Eight months later she returned to
her home penniless. but accompanied
by thirty huge trunks. the contents
of which accounted for the vanished
thousands.
On arriving in Paris she had ap-
parently set about spending heI
money with a will. Clothes of every
description and artificial aids to
beauty had eaten up the whole of her
fortune. Dresses. costly underwear
corsets, boots, gloves and hats, all
marked with the. names Of the most
fashionable makers. represented three
fourths of her purchases. In the
remaining trunks were cosmetics,
hair figure improvers, face creams
chin straps, cures for obesity-in
short, every kind of article advertised
by beauty specialists" and the quacks
who abound in all big cities. Be-
yond being the best dressed woman
in Badajoz for several seasons, she
had reaped little benefit from her
good fortune.
More extravagant still was the Rus
sian gentleman who gambled away an
inheritance of 100000 rubles (f600,-
000) within a year. and was only
saved from complete disaster by the
odd chance that he had papered his
bed room with hundred ruble notes
He ended by giving Russian lessons
for a small fee in Paris.
The exploits of the late Marquis of
Anglesy are paralleled and exceeded
by those of the son of a wealthy
Hungarian sugar refiner. The young
man not only had a replica of the
Roman Coliseum erected on one of
his estates, but would himself de-
scend into the arena, in imitation OF
the emperors of old. Dressed as a
gladiator and armed only with the
short Roman thrusting sword, he
would engage lions, tigers and bears
in single combat, often paying as
much as $1,000 for the specimen
that furnished him and his friends
with a half hours entertainment.
The Hungarian authorities put a
stop to these savage exhibitions, and
while the remainder of his wealth
lasted he had to content himself with
an ordinary circus. He died dram
atically. when on the verge of being
declared a bankrupt, taking poison at
the close of a farewell feast, to which
he had invited his neighbors and ten