Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-29
LOST FORTUNES.
People Who Have "Come Down" in
the World.

From London Tit-Bits.
We hear a great deal of men who have
made fortunes and got on" but the
story of those who have lost them is
generally told in few lines in the news
papers, IL told at all, and apropos of a
bankruptcy, suicide poor law
guardians meeting. 1t is an easy matter
to lose a fortune if you have a fortune to
lose, but the story and example may be
just as dramatic and striking. and as
useful as an object lesson as the making
of one.
Not long since there died i'm a miserable
garnet in Paris an old woman who for
years had lived i'm dire penury. Nearly
fifty years ago she was a beautiful and
talented soprano. with a huge fortune OF
her own making and voice that could
coin gold as easily the blackbird can
make notes She sang I'm every capital in
Europe and so much of a popular idol
was she that she Is said to have netted
over f3O.OOO in one brief London season
Then she suddenly dropped out'-why,
no one ever really knew. For thirty
years no one. save possibly her relatives
and personal friends. knew what had be-
come of her until the news of her death
in such painful circumstances recalled her
almost forgotten name to the public.
Another case well within the recollec-
ton of newspaper readers is that of a
sessed an enormous fortune. A bank fail.
ure or some big commercial catastrophe
swept it all away in an hour, and after
long years of privation and struggling he
was forced to apply for admittance to the
workhouse of the very town he had once
been mayor of. and on which he had con-
ferred lasting benefits.
The story of these fallen favorites OF
fortune is writ large in workhouSe rec
ords, and this last resource of the desti-
tute shelters and has sheltered men and
women who have had in their possession
fortunes of hundreds of thousands of
pounds.
A man charged with begging in Lon
don suburb and sent to Jail for month
for vagrancy was found to have run
through an inheritance of G3o.o00 in
something less than twelve years. An
other, who had earned not only wealth,
but name and fame. by his brilliant lit
erary abilities. threw all away and drank
himself on the embankment, and over il
into the river.
Representatives of great families are
often found in humble positions. A
direct descendant of John of Gaunt Is an
engine driver in Canada. and a grandson
several times of Edward was once a
butcher in Birmingham. Another man
claiming royal descent was tollgate
keeper near Dudley, and the great-grand-
son of Cromwell kept a grocer's shop on
Snow HILL near Holborn.
We have a record of a Plantagenet de-
scending from a long line of kings to
earn a living as cobbler in Shropshire.
and a very poor living at that. and a
natural son of Richard III. after the bat
tie of Bosworth. worked as bricklayer
in little village in Kent. and died there
in a miserable state of poverty at the age
of eighty-one. In his History of Bir-
mingham' Hutton refers to mlkman
in humble circumstances who's ancestry
include Lady Godiva of Coventry fame.
and descendants of men who made Eng
lands history are to be found at the
present day in almshouses and poor law
institutions all over the country.
One of the most striking examples OF
the vicissitudes of fortune is that or
member of the Bracebridge family, who
owned immense estates in Warwickshire
in the days of the Stuarts. He was a
peddler in the districts over which his
ancestors were lords of the manor. Hugh
Miller tells an amusing story in one of his
works of laborer who used to serve
him when he was a working mason. This
man claimed to be entitled to an earldom.
His claim was admitted by the men with
whom he worked, at any rate, and IL was
a usual thing with them. on requiring
service to shout, John. Yearl Crau.
ford, bring us another hod OF lime!''