The Florida agriculturist., 1906-04-18
DON PARTINGO



toned in the papers often enough
and they actually do exist, invested,
l do not know how, by a paternaI
government which takes care of them.
until a Parting can make good his
claim to them. l have done that, over
and over again; my name is William
Vernon Parting, and my right to them
seems to me as plain as a pike-staff; ;
but, uncommon though the name is,
there are other Partings, frauds the
majority of them; and they all have,
or think they have, made as good a
claim as mine. Meanwhile the
government allows us to fight it out
amongst ourselves until one of us is
left to begin fighting the government.
We have as good a government as any
on this earth, but, as my father, anOth-
er William Vernon, used to say: You
will find, my boy, that they mean to
stick to our Millions
A year ago my father. being then
alive, speculate solicitor spent
some pounds in advertising in English
and foreign newspapers for the heirs,
if any, of William Parting. of Norton
FOlSate, MiddleseX, tallOw chandler
and Russia merchant, who departed
this life in the year of our Lord 1715
Partings, | am sorry to say, sprang UP
all over the world like mushrooms in
a dark cellar, in consequence of this
unlucky advertisement. They came
from Canada, from Lisbon; Stockholm,
Venezuela, Liverpool, Portsmouth,
Ashby-de-la-ZOuche, Hong Kong, Jo-
hanneSburg, CrOydon-from every
where. L can now afford to laugh at
it all, for | have thrown no good mon
ey after bad, and L have already had
a good deal of enjoyment and fun out
Of the affair; but my father was furi-
GUS with these fraudulent PartingS.
and so angry with the solicitor who
started all these hates, or rather hounds
that he would have nothing more to do
with him, and for few months, until
his death, employed another who took
his fees but did little else Mean
while there are the three millions, un-
tOuchable, invested, L have no doubt
in gilt-edged securities by the paternal
government aforesaid, and we have all
those hungry Partings to deal with.
the Venezuelan barking the lOudest
and being the most astonishing of
them all.
L will say nothing here of the merits
or demerits of the other claimants.
Their first and best asset was, In every
case but one, the name they bore, the
rest being more or less manufactured
to fit each special case; but a queerer
claimant than this man from South
America never answered an advertise
ment. SenOr Don EnricO Jesu Maria
PartingO, from some Hacienda del Sol.
near Caracas, was the biggest fraud of
them alias lean and brown as
shriveled nut, no more English blood
in him than will go in a thimble; but
he swOre his great-grandfather lived
in Norton FOlgate, BishOpSgate-Epi
bOgatt, as he calls it-and the papers
he brought, some as brown as himself.
stamped, sealed and attested by sundry
cOnsuls probably as fraudulent as
himself. were Il dirty sight to behold
He spoke IL sort of broken English
what was supposed TO be left of it in
the third or fourth generation: but his
daughter, Luisa Conception. helped
him out with it, and she spoke it
Sweetly, having, as she told me- been
educated at an English school at Lima
Charming though she WIS. 1 will not
and cannot call her cousin even many
times removed, for Don JeSu Maria
was not only in name a piOus fraud,
but by every other evidence shock
At a first meeting | proposed pro
viSiOnally if we liked each others