The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-22
LAST WILLS.
From the ". Y. World.

From the ". Y World.
We have often thought that one of the best
places to study human nature must be the
Surrogates Office, among its records of the
dead. The ''wonted fires" of testators, as of
poets, live in their ashes, and there is some
times striking revelations of character in
will. The Saturday Reoieao lately had ter
rible and, in our judgment, terribly just arti-
Gle on MIR. Dickens mortuary malediction-
with its spiteful insult to his wife and parade
of undertaker's discipline; and there is not
day in which executors and heirs, and oftener
widows, do not find themselves worried and
perplexed by the freaks and caprices of him
for whom they mourn. The shortest will we
ever heard of was bequest of personal pro-
perty to an "heir- tlaw, and twenty years
of fierce litigation followed its probate. The
names of Tholusson and Perrin and Blake,
and that wretched man, with a poets name,
who made q rule which centuries have not
expounded, live in English law as warnings;
while at home Stephen Girard's orphans
and the sailors of our Snug Harbor tell the
same tale of testamentary perplexity. His
was the best will ever made who had had sore
experience of Interpreting others-the gentle,
sweet-tempered man whom Junius and Chat
ham could not anger, who might have been
poet had he not been lawyer, and who, when
at the age of eighty, chose to leave no legacy
of law behind him. "Those who are nearest
and dearest to me, said Lord Mansfield in
his will, "best know how to manage and i'm
prove and ultimately in their turn to divide
the good things of the world which I commit
to their care, according to events and contin-
gencies which it is impossible for me to fore
see or trace through all the many labyrinths
of time and chance"
This train of thought on a topic which,
though of daily interest, hardly belongs to
the category of news, is suggested by two
testamentary documents lately given to a
curious world-the will of Admiral Farragut
and that of the murdered Mr.. Nathan. The
will of the gallant old sailor is very charac
teristic and shows not only his happy, sun
shiny disposition, but the serene domestic
atmosphere he must have breathed. He
loved the few of his household equally. He
trusted them alike. He had no limitations to
put upon them. He gives to his son the war
trophies which he had earned-and they were
not the fruits of ravage and plunder, but
swords and medals which gratitude had be-
slowed, and which he could wear without
blush. He gives to his widow the home
where they lived happily, and divides his
estate equally between those he loved so well.
He does not seem to have had an unkind
thought of anybody, and was apparently quits
careless of the studied sights put upon him
while living by those whom his great deeds
had mainly elevated to the positions which
enabled them to insult him. Had he antici-
pated or been anxious about the persistence
of these petty injuries after his death, he
might have obviated them doubtless by re-
memberiDg General Grant and Admiral Por-
ter in his will.
The last will of Mr.. Nathan has another
and very touching interest. 1t throws
striking light upon that thoughtful parental
love which is a characteristic of the ancient
race to which he belonged, and the careful
nurture of which doubtless goes far to ac-
count for the indestructible cohesion of the
house of Israel through so many ages of
wanderipgs and of woe. It's very restric-
tions and limitations are expressed, as they
were obviously devised, in the purest spirit
of tender solicitude for the welfare of his
household and the credit of his name. 1t is
a doubly evil thing that the cruel fate of SO
Just and kind citizen should have been pos
sible and that it should 60 unavenged in SO
great city.