Evening Star Newspaper, November 8, 1931, Page 90

THE SUNDAY. STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER 8, 1931. —=Dead Men’s Voices== Even Adam Made a Will, and in This Story Are Traced Strange Last Testa- ments Through the Ages, Noting the Fantastic Ways in Which These DocumentsofDeath .. HaveBeenW ritten, BY ERIC LINDGREN-BARK. ERE are two examples of the curious manner in which some pecple try to regulate, after death, the distribu- tion of their earthly possessions: In the will of Henry Furstone of Alton, N. H. he leaves his entire and ec- cumulated wealth of $35,000 to “the first man of my name who shall marry a woman of t_.he same name, to be paid them on their wzdding day.” And in the will of an Engllshmm-l. made a few years ago, there is provided: “I bequeath to my monkey, my dear and amusing Jacko, the sum of £10 sterling per annum to be . employed for his sole and exclusive use and benefit; to my faithful dog, Shock, and my well beloved cat, Tib, a pension of £3 sterling; and I desire that, in case of the death of either the elapsed pension shall pass to the other two, between whom it shall be equally divided. On the death of all three, the sum appro- priated tg this purpose shall become the prop- efiyo(mmmer,m,_w::mtgm this preference among my chi iren because of the large family she has and the difficulty she like the early of hidden by the accuraulated.dust of un.pamtoiflludmflmwehnthe story about how 70 legions of “Men dying make their wills, but wives Escape a work so sad; Why sbould they make what all their lives The gentle dames have had?” After the American Revolution the English common law was adopted in the new Republic, wherefore since the beginning of the Federal Union the procedure of property by means of a will has been the customary and daily occurrence in the life of the American people. .\V “Caused his will to be tattooed across the white shoulders of a young lad = old gas bills, the lid of a collar box and on birch bark, by miners entombed in the bowels of the earth, by trappers freezing to death in the Arctics, by prisoners of war in strange and hostile countries and by men caught in the death traps that are submarines on the bottom of the sea—while waiting for a merciful death to wrap its blanket of peaee around them. What is probably the longest will ever made was admitted to probate in England in 1925. It oconsisted of approximately one hundred thousand words and made four large and heavy volumes when bound in leather. This was the will of a Mrs. F. E. Cook, the widow of a wholesale dry goods merchant, and through it she disposed of property valued at approxi- mately $100,000. On the other hand, a will probated in 1924 and written by one Elias Meyers of an estate of $3,350,000 with 125 words, while back in the seventeenth century Lord Chief Justice Mansfield of Eng- land probably beat all records by distributing more than $2,500,000 on a half sheet of hand- peculiar wills nothing is more frequent than the innumerable instances in which legacies have been granted for the protection of beloved pets. Lord Chesterfield, “the first gentleman of Europe,” by his will in 1773 left a good sized sum for the support of his favorite cat. Mr. James English, a wealthy farmer from Shelby County, Tennessee, was another man who remembered his pet through the following provision of his will: “My heir must keep the mule, Jenny, until she dies. He must not ride her at night, ‘must feed her well and provide a good stable. He must not work her in the daytime, I bequeath $1,000 to him to pay for this.” Another will in which pets were remembered was one left by Mrs. H. White of London, which led to a great deal of litigation. To one of her servants she left $126 & year in trust for the maintenance of five favorite cats during the course of their natural lives; to 8t. George and Middlesex Hospitals, $5,000 each; a few legacies to servants and the remainder of her estate, a very large one, to the apothecary who had attended her. The will being disputed by disappointed relatives, one lawyer appeared for the cats, another for the apothecary and the third for the next of kin. After much struggling 1t was finally decreed: “That the be- quest to the apothecary be struck out as being no part of the real will of the deceased, and the probate be granted to the next of kin; that the legacies of $125 per annum for the main- tenance of her five cats and the bequests to the hospitals of aforesaid be confirmed as being the will of the deceased.” A that his ashes be scattered under a beech tree which he, while alive, had managed almost every time he went favorite links. Quite a number sire to have their mortal ashes winds, while some desire that inri the grave. The will was written the year in which Mr. Knill died, in 1924, and the ceremony has been carried out faithfully ever fifth year since. It is when dealing with former spouses, however, that some wills become excruciatingly funny. Witness, for instance, the one of an individual who died in London in 1791 and who referreg to his wife as follows: “Seeing that I have had the misfortune to be married to the aforesaid Elizabeth, who, ever since our union, has tormented me in every possible way; that, not content with making game of all my remonstrances, she has done all she could to render my life miserable. Heaven seems to have sent her into the world solely to drive me out of it. The strength of Samson, the genius of Homer, the prudence of Augustus, the skill of Pyrrhus, the patience of Job, the philosophy of Socrates, the subtlety of Hanni- bal, the vigilance of Hermogens, would not . mfiu to subdue the perversity of her charac- ter. No power an earth can change her.” . Another, an old farmer, left one hundred pounds to the husband in case his widow should remarry, adding significantly, “but him as gets her ’'ll deserve it.” But a different spirit has also been shown, as witness, for imstance, the will of Chief Justice John Marshall, who spoke of his wife as one, “whose sainted spirit has fled from the sufferings inflicted on her in this life,” requesting his daughter to remember that her mother “was the most affectionate of mothers.” Gouverneur Morris, the celebrated orator and statesman of Revolutionary days was another man who had great affection for his wife. Indeed, so much so, that after bequeathing her When wit appears in wills it usually has a sting in it. One of the best known illustrations of this was the will of Edward W. Montague, the son of Lady Marie Montague, of literary renown. After some bequests, the will con- because I know he will bestow it on the poor. To Mr. X, the author, for putting me in his Travels I give five shillings for his wit, Unde- terred by the charge of extravagance. To Sir Robert ‘W.—I leave my political opinions, never doubting he can well turn them into cash, as <he has always found such an excellent market TRANGELY enough the wills made by some men belie the whole tenor of their lives, no more striking example of University, while the other gave his entire estate of $5,000,000 to various institutions and endowments, chief of which was the famous Lick Observatory, on Mount Hamiiton. Another man was John Cecil Rhodes of slavery while living, but all of whose wills freed slaves. Another peculiar will is that of a French lawyer, who pithily expressed his opinion of his clients in the following paragraph: *“I mad house., I got this who pass their lives in litigation ing it for the use of lunatics I restitution,” while another vidual, Char Hastings of Massachusetts, bequeaths an estat valued as $50,000 to the Lord Jesus, explanation that he was of lands according to the of laws. It may be safely that in due course of time passed to the rightful heirs. Two other remarkable wills are Peter the Great of Russia and Obed master mariner of the Island of Nantucket. One of the clauses of the Peter the Great's will follows and is self-explanatory. Sweden is ours, Persia subjugated, Turkey conguered armies united and the Baltic are in possession of must make separate and to the Court of Versailles, Vienna, to share with them the world. If either of propositions, which is o -4 I qeke 3 § E g xEaR dominion em accept to happen, their ambitio nand self-interest are proper} worked upon, we must make use of one to anni- E hilate the other; this done, we have only to destroy the remaining one by finding a pretext queath of Peter the Great. The will of the master mariner from Nan . of its quain! verbiage that smacks of the salt air, it is well worth quoting at length: “I, Obed Gardner, Jane, since 1811. before the preacher on Independence Day. want her and my oidest son, captain and mate in bringing ever I leave and to see that everyone of the crew geis the lay as I paper. I put mother in sheel be anyway, we started on our life cruise I Continued on Seventeenth Page