TRUST NOBODY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3333, 27 September 1911, Page 8

TRUST NOBODY.

OBEYING A DYING COMMAND. STRANGE STORY OF MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. The last words of the dying are very properly regarded as sacred, writes a Milan correspondent, but undoubtedly there are occasions when death-bed exhortations should be obeyed not in the letter, but in the spirit. ■. . _ Such, however, was not the opinion of two natives of Ferrera, Maria Zem, aged 65', and her daughter Emma, whose story provides the latest newspaper sensation. . These two ladies are extremely wealthy having inherited anything between £60,000 and £BO,OOO from the father of the elder and the grandfather of the younger. . " The testator, feeling, as the moral tale has it, that his end' was near, summoned his daughter and granddaughter to his bedside, told them that they would inherit all his property, gave them hi 6 blessing, and added the admonition, which he emphasised' by an extended and rhythmically beating forefinger: “Remember, confide in nobody. trust nobody, and never sign your names; never, never!” Then he died. The two women who remained to enjoy his fortune adopted his last words as the guiding maxims of their lives. They trusted nobody, and therefore employed no servants, their modest meals being sent in to them from a neighboring inn. Part of their money was invested in mortgages, some of their property was leased, but in all their transactions they steadfastly refused to put their names to a piece of paper of any kind. In the savings bank they had a deposit of £4OOO, which on one occasion they required to draw out.' Glad to get rid of his troublesome clients, the relief officer made the payment in the presence of four witnesses, and dispensed -with the customary signed receipt.

HOUSE BESIEGED

.Recently a mortgager sought the assistance of the law, and obtained a decree authorising him to pay the stun of £I2OO in . redemption, of a mortgage, and in this case the two ladies were burdened with the costs of .the action.

But they would neither receive the £I2OO or pay the £2O costs due to the public Treasury; However, the Treasury is an inexorable creditor, and soon a bailiff appeared at the ladies’ house in the Via Volta and requested them to -open the door so that he might distrain upon their goods. At the first word of the functionary the doors were barred and bolted and the windows were closed. Carabineers were summoned to enforce the decree of the laws. Still no response. Firemen came on the scene, and', hose in hand, prepared to take the house by assault. v ;

Two of them scaled the gate of the courtyard, the hose was put through a window, but the birds had flown to another part of the house. At lost, while the door was being attacked with axes, a window i-was thrown open and the terrified women thrust out their heads.

“Open the door,” said the bailiff, “we will do you no harm.” “Go away,” replied the ladies, “or we wiLl throw ourselves out of the window.” ' v

A jet of water caused them to withdraw from the window. Finally the door was beaten down, and the besiegers entered the citadel.

The ladies, however, had vanished through the back doer, and were seen rushing towards the police station to demand assistance against “burglars.” Then they went to a church, and throwing ,themselves-;jbefpr© a statue of the Madonna, implored her aid. Meanwhile the bailiff had carried out his task and left the building. The ladies returned locked themselves in the'house,, and' prepared to withstand another siegje, : asi they, were - convinced bv this • time*'that the authorities were protecting a gang of malefactors who were trying to .deprive them of their substanc.