Mysterious Benefactor
:
Dinners.
In the year 1720, celebrated for the bursting of
the South Sea Bubble, a gentleman called late in the evening at the banking
house of Messrs. Hankey and Co. He was in a coach, but refused to get out,
and desired that one of the partners of the house would come to him, into
whose hands, when he appeared, he put a parcel, very carefully sealed up,
and desired that it might be taken care of till he should call again. A few
days passed away--a few weeks--a few months--but the stranger never
returned. At the end of the second or third year the partners agreed to
open this mysterious parcel, when they found it to contain L30,000, with a
letter, stating that it had been obtained by the South Sea speculation, and
directing that it should be vested in the hands of three trustees, whose
names were mentioned, and the interest appropriated to the relief of the
poor.