The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-05-09

Nearly % years ago she was a Deaull-
full and talented soprano, with a huge
fortune of her own making and a
voice that could coin gold as easily
as the blackbird can make notes.
She sang in every capital in Europe,
and so much of popular idol was she
that she is said to have netted over
10000 pounds in one brief London
season. Then she suddenly dropped
out"-why, no one. save possibly her
relatives and personal friends, knew
what had become of her until the
news of her death in such painful cir
cumstances revealed her almost for.
gotten name to the public.
Another case we'll within the recol-
lection of newspaper readers is that of
a Midland merchant who at one time
possessed an enormous fortune. A
bank failure or some big commercial
catastrophe swept it all away in an
hour, and after long years of privation
and struggle 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 conferred
lasting benefits.
The story of these fallen favorites
of fortune is writ large in workhouse
records, and this LAST resource of the
destitute 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 a
London suburb and sent to Jail for
month for vagrancy was found to
have run through an inheritance of
100000. pounds in something less than
u years. Another, who had earned
not only wealth, but name and fame,
by his brilliant literary abilities, threw
all away and drank himself on to the
embankment, and over into the river.
Representatives of great families
are often found in humble positions.
A direct descendent of John Gaunt
was an engine driver in Canada, and
a grandson several times great of
Richard 1 was once a butcher in Bir-
mingham Another man claiming
royal descent was toll gate keeper
near Dudley, and the great-grand-son
of Cromwell kept grocer's shop on
Snow Hill, near Holborn
We have record of Plantagent de-
scending from long line of kings to
earn a living as cobbler in Shropshire,
and very poor living at that, and a
natural son of Richard III, after the
battle of Bowsworth, worked as a
bricklayer in a little village in Kent,
and died there in miserable state of
poverty at the age of 81. In his His
tory Of Birmingham" Hutton refers
to milkman of humble circumstances
whose ancestry included Lady Godiva
of Conventry fame, and descendants
of men who made England's history
are to be found at the present day
in almsfouses and poor law institu-
tions all over the country.
One of the most striking examples
of the vicissitudes of fortune is that
of member of the Bracebridge fam
lily, who owned immense estates in
Warwickshire in the days Of the
stuarts. He was peddler in the dis
tricts over which his ancestors were
lords of the manor. Hugh Miller tells
an amazing story in one of his works
of a laborer who used to serve him
when he was a working mason. This
man claimed to be entitled to an ear
dom His claim was admitted by the
men with whom he worked at any
rate, and it was a usual thing with
them, on requiring services, to shout,
"John, yearl Crauford, bring US anoth-
er hod of lime!"-London Tit-Bits.
TRRIGATING MESOPOTAMIA.