The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-02
FAMOUS BEGGARS.
Many Found at Death to Be Men of
Riches.

Riches.
The recent arrest in one of the large
cities of a beggar found to posses for
| tune of $4,000 in his own name is a for
chile reminder that there are today, and
| have been In the past, many wealthy
/ paupers if the paradox be permitted.
One readily recalls the case of the no.
| torious Jean Baptiste Roateau, who died
| i'm a gypsy caravan outside of Paris not
| long since, and who had begged for a live
! lihood for twenty years or more In
| Roateau's hand after his death the police
| found gripped tightly the key to strong
| box in a Paris bank This box was
| found to contain 100000 in gold, notes
and securities, all the property of the
pseudo mendicant.
| Then there was Thomas Cooke, known
| as 'the Islington miser.' Cookies life
| was one of penury, saving and petty trick
cry, and when he died he left for his
heirs to squabbe over fortune of more
| than 100000. BY the old and yet ever
new trick of falling in a pretended tit
in front of a house at dinner time Cooke
got many meals free of cost. He would
be carried into the house and then. ON
making his usual quick recovery, he natu-
rally would be asked to share the meal.
Before the war there died in a Berlin
garnet one Herr Schwarz, known to and
pitied by his neighbors as one of the
poorest of the poor. He sailed ont daily
into the fashionable quarters of the city
CARRIED in filthy rags and carrying a sack
in which he collected crusts and other
scraps of food. He lived and died alone,
a mere bunch of bones. In his wretched
quarters were found 100000, mostly la
gold concealed in jars and bottles, and in
bank notes, which served as stutiing for
his bed
In a remote village in ireland an old
woman. supposed to be pauper, was
knocked down in the roadway and IN
stantly killed When the authorities in
spected the howell in which she lived they
found ii packed almost to the door with
branches from trees for winter fuel. be-
hind which they discovered two large
buckets and a tin trunk filed with cur,
rent coin. Searching further they came
! across a wooden box and some earthen-
ware jars also containing silver and gold,
so that when the money had all been col
lected and placed into tue scales the total
weight exceeded 4 hundred pounds.
Jeremiah Mcmillan died in st. Louis
and was about to he buried in the pot
tiers field when the key to a safety de-
fects in the hut in which he lived, ap-
parently in the most abiect poverty, The
safety deposit box contained 100000 IN
perfectly good. interest bearing bonds,
and, strange to relate. nobody came for
ward to claim this wealth as the misers
next of kin.
A ragged recluse named Marshall Me
Mmran was found in starving condi-
ton in his tumbledown shack on the ont
skirts of Evansville, Ind. He was taken
before a commission for examination a.
to his sanity and when he was searched
so 600 was found in the lining Of his coat
and i'm his pockets.
1t is related that Samuel Rogers lived
the life of tramp at Long Branch. y j..
and that he used TO walk from that city
to New York in orIer To bank his money
He left 100000 although he always con-
sidered himself too poor to buy food or
clothing. He eneased his feet in old
pieces of hurlap and ate whatever he
could find, even to apple cores and crustsI
from the streets
A strange character known as "the bag
of Bald Hill" died at South Norwall.
Conn Local tradition had it that in
her youth the old woman was a noted
New York belle, but unrequited love
caused her to withdraw from the gay
world and shun society For wears she
lived in an old shanty. searching the
woods near by for medicinal roots and
herbs, which she sold She boarded every
cent, and had it not been from the CLEAN
of bank notes through holes eaten by
moths $4,000 would have been burned in
the few shabby garments she left. 1t is
believed a considerable sum in her old
clothes went up in smoke Def IRE dis
covery of the greenbacks was made.
Near Sharon, Pa, the local overseer o.
the poor was treated To a genuine sur
prise when he attempted to remove an
aged couple to the alinshouse after they
had been living on the bounty of neigh
bors for thirty years. The wife prevailed
upon the officer to permit her 70 60 back
into the house after ser money A search
revealed nearly 5000 in currency hidden
in the shanty.