Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-06-04
Opening of Girard's Will.

The TO lowing is DR.. Cornell's account
of the opening of Stephen Girard's will
death having dissolved the power
full spell of a presence which few men
have been able to resist, it was to be
seen how far his will would be obeyed,
now that he was no longer able person
ally to enforce it. The old man lay
dead in his house in Water street.
While the public out-of-doors were
curious enough to learn what he had
done with his money, there was
smaller number within the house, the
kindred of the deceased, in whom this
curiosity ragged like mania. They in
vaded the cellars of the house, and.
bringing up bottles of the old mans
choice wine, kept up a continuous ca
rouse. Surrounding Mr.. Duane, who
had been present at Mr.. Girard's death
and remained to direct his funeral, they
demanded to know if there was will.
To silence their indecent clamor, he
told them there was, and that he was
one of the executors. On hearing this,
their desire to learn its contents rose to
fury. In vain the executors reminded
them that decency required that the
will should not be opened till after the
funeral. They even threatened legal
proceedings ii the will was not imme-
diately produced and at length, to
avoid public scandal, the executors
consented to have it read. These af-
fectionate relatives being assembled in
a parlor of the house in which the body
of their benefactor lay, the will was
taken from the iron safe by one of the
executors.
When he opened it and was about to
read, he CHANGED to look over the top of
the document at the company before
him. No artist that ever had held
brush could depict the passion of GU
riosity, the frenzy of expectation, ex-
pressed in that group of pallid faces.
Every individual among them expected
to leave the apartment the conscious
possessor of millions, for no one had
dreamed of the probability of his leav-
ing the bulk of his estate to the public.
If they had ever heard of his saying
that no one should be gentleman on
his money, they had forgotten or dis
believed it. The opening paragraphs
of the will all tended to confirm their
hopes, since the requests to existing
institutions were of small amount. But
the reader soon reached the part of the
will which assigned to ladies and gentle
men present such trifing sums as five
thousand dollars, ten thousand, twenty
thousand and he arrived ere long at
the section which disposed of millions
to great cities and poor children. Some
of them made not the slightest attempt
to conceal their disappointment and dis
gust. Men were there who had married
with view to share the wealth of Gil
rard, and had been waiting years for his
death. Women were there who had
looked to that event as the beginning of
their enjoyment of life. The magma
ton of the reader must supply the de-
tails of a scene which we might think
dishonored human nature, if we could
believe that human nature was meant
to be subjected to such strain. It had
been better, perhaps, if the rich man,
In his own lifetime, had made his kin
dred partake of his superabundance,
especially as he had nothing else that
he could share with them. They at
tempted, on grounds that seea ed ut
terly frivolous, to break the will, and
employed the most eminent counsel to
conduct their case, but without effect.
They did, however, succeed in getting
the property acquired after the execu-
ton of the will, which Girard, disre-
garding the opinion of Mr.. Duane, at
tempted by a postscript to include in the
will. 1T will not stand, said the law
yer. Yes, it will, said Girard. Mr..
Duane, knowing his man, was silent ;
and the courts have since decided that
his opinion was correct.