The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-08
less my commission, was a tremendous

OF q man who while living In the outskirts
S Ser 2 df'q toEystSsp VIII IiIlaE si. in v 1ss' a sS' t %rs,
children and his house burned to the ground.
The object Of the murder, II came out,
was plumber only. The murderers knew
nothing Of the history OF their victims be-
yond the report that the man kept money
In the house. The neighbors I learned
were no better informed, and no one had
come forward to claim relationship at the
time Of the tragedy.
After running down dozens OF clues
which promised well and ended nowhere,
village the marriage record OF the pair
and learned the maiden name Of the wife,
who the coroner's inquest decided had been
murdered after her husband, hence vas
heir to his PROPERTY, which consisted only,
bank in 1895. With the woman's maiden
name in my possession 1 began a search
which took me to churches, g~raveyards,
court houses. to jails even, and necessitated
sending scores Of letters all over this country
and to Europe. It ended happily IN finding
q nephew in poor circumstances with a large
family to support, and whose joy at his
good fortune was touching to zee.
Persons who have never known van
come INTO the possession of a large fortune
without the culver Of an eyelash, but for
the poor man or woman who is obliged to
hustle for every dollar he or she gets-and
sometimes hustle without getting a dollar
when told that a thousand dollars or 10 ia at
his or her disposal. That's one Of the
pleasant features Of this business.
"A rather unusual case which | closed the
other day, and which gave me considerable
satisfaction, resulted in my informing a
sickly looking woman, whom l found living
In a Fifty-eighth street basement, that she
was heir to $500. At first she would not
believe me. i have never had more than
$l2 at any one time in my life,' she sobbed.
The history Of her case Is interes ting.
When only Is years old and EMPLOYED in q
downtown New York hotel she met one
day a young man who worked for a farmer
in those days. 1t was a case OF love at first
sight, and q few weeks later the two were
married. Five months afterward the man
was drafted to 60 to the war and his bride
never saw him again He was killed in his
first battle.
Before leaving New York, however, the
man, who seems to have been Of a thrifty
turn of mind, deposited some money in a
savings bank and then marched away
without telling his bride anything about 1t.
can say. 1t never reached his wife.
-She married a worthless creature, and
continued a life OF privation and hard work,
which at SIS years Of age made her look like
q woman OF 10 and left her unable to work
any longer. When | found her she was
"a UP oh q biiidi HCiSioii ChCu oul 10y lu0
charity of neighbors, No sooner had she
come into her little fortune, though, than
a distant relative appeared from New Jersey
and took her home with him to live, she GO
ing willingly enough and refusing my offer
to put the money in trust for her.
Some OF the most interesting cases |
have had resulted from the desire of men to
lose themselves from their families; and
there are more Of such cases than some
people imagine. There are women, too,
Who have had the same desire.
Il took up a case Of this sort not long
ago. A man died in a Montana town where
he was a prominent Mason, assistant post
master and well known in business circles,
leaving an estate Of SI9, 900 and 40 will.
elor. Not a person. could be found who
knew to the contrary or who could give a
clue to his past life. This il what | found
after some months Of patient search which
led me to an old graveyard in Raverhill,
which led to finding the heir. a son Of the
dead mans second wife. As far back az
ls4s, when only a youth. the man turned
his back on a young wife, and went for a trip
around. Cape Horn. A year later word
reached his wife that he had died in the
married again and a couple of years later was
divorced BY wife No. 2, who got the custody
of their son, who, when he grew up, received
what he thought was proof OF his fathers
death.
Instead of dying, however, his father
married wife No. 8 soon after his divorce
and the pair lived together until the death
Of the latter, several years later, leaving
no children. Satisfied evidently to give
matrimony the cold shoulder, the man
money and died intestate. His first wife
having died childless, there was no one to
contest the claim of his son by his second
wife to his fathers estate.
AThe case Of a woman who voluntarily
lost track of all her relations came to my
attention recently when I undertook to
find an heir or heirs to a fortune OF $500 900
left by a woman in San Francisco. The
woman made a will in which 5000 900 was
left to the State for a public building and
the rest to religious institutions. Not a
relative was mentioned. 1t is against the
law there to will so large a share Of ones
estate to public institutions, provided there
are heirs at law. and it became my business
to find out il such heirs existed.
NV search extended to Germany, France
and England and resulted in establishing
the claim of three cousins to the bulk OF
the fortune. Singularly enough there had
been no i'll feeling between the deceased
and her living relations, who had written
~repeatedly Without success for news Of
known only to herself she cut their ac-
ouaintance and forgot to leave them a dol
lar in her will.
"The time that an heir finder wishes he
were in some other business IL when he
produces a second heir and introduces
him or her to the FIRST heir. who up to that
moment has considered himself in for a
sure thing. I had a pretty hot time myself
once in similar circumstances.
"A man in Denver, Col, died le aving
a quantity Of valuable real estate, a few
thousands in the bank and no will, and pre-
sumably no relatives. A small photo
graph OF a woman, found among his effects,
was thought by a friend Of the dead man
to be that Of his sister. However, the
friend was far from positive on this point.
He would not swear to 1t.
soon after the mans death a woman
appeared and put in a claim as sole heir
to the property. She did not at all re-
semble the photograph, but she substan-
tiated her claim OF being a sister OF the
dead man. She had no sister living, l
was told; and possibly the woman may
have believed what she said.
AS it turned out there was another sister
living, the original of the photograph, a
duplicate of which was the frat thing ] saw
on entering the sitting room of a plain little
house in a far eastern village. but the two
had never been friendly and for several
years had had no word Of each other or OF