rags, lodged in a garret with a French family on the West Side, who
took him out of pure charity, and lived on the leavings which
restaurant-keepers gave him. There was only one thing that he would
spend money on; that was music. He was passionately fond of music, and
for years was a familiar figure in the lobby of the Academy of Music
during the opera season. He would go there early in the evening, and
beg people to pay his way in. If he didn't find a philanthropist he
would buy a ticket himself, but he never gave up hope until he knew
that the curtain had risen.

Finally Paine was run over by a cab in New York. He was taken to a
hospital, but made such a fuss about staying there that he was finally
removed to his garret home. He died there in a few days. Then a man
came forward with a power of attorney which he said Paine gave him in
1885 and which authorized him to take charge of Paine's interest in
the estate of his brother, Robert Treat Paine. The closing paragraph
empowered him to attend to all of Paine's business and to dispose of
his property without consulting anybody, in the event of anything
happening to him. Nothing was known then of Paine's possessions. Later
the French family with whom Paine lived opened an old hair trunk they
found in the garret. In this trunk they found nearly half a million
dollars in gold, bank notes, and securities. Chickering, the piano
man, came forward then and said that some years before Paine gave him
a package wrapped up in an old bandana handkerchief for safe keeping.
He had opened this package and found that it contained $300,000 in
bank notes. Other possessions of Paine's were found. Relatives came
forward and employing handwriting experts proved that the power of
attorney presented was a forgery and the estate went to the relations
of Paine. This was a celebrated case in its day and called attention
to the value of experts in this line.