Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1881-08-11
ECCENTRIC WILLS.

The readers of English novels (and il
Is from novels that most OF US uow-a-
days derive our knowledge Of other
countries) are aware that the London
Repository OF wills has been called for
ages Doctors Commons. 1t has ceased
TO exist Some time ago, the hugo col
lection Of wills which 1t contained was
transported TO newer and larger re-
ceptaclc at Somerset House, where am
pie room had been provided for them.
Doctors Commons had been outgrown,
and its precious contents were trans
fcrrcd with rs little ceremony as the
carmen OF Wall street convey cart loads
of gold.
This collection Of wills, probably the
largest in the world, occupies a range
OF rooms two hundred feet in length,
containing several miles of shelves filed
with folio volumes of wills which have
been proved and executed. Wills un-
proved are kept in fre-proof vaults
The business has grown TO wonderful
proportions. During the reign of Eliz-
abeth, one very small volume sufliced
for the wills OF five or six years; but at
present wills accumulate at the rate OF
nine thousand year Tor London alone;
and, for the whole kingdom, about
twenty-six thousand.
In this repository are preserved and
shown to visitors the wills of DIR. John
son. Nelson, Pitt, Burke, Wellington,
Milton and Shakespeare. That Of
Shakespeare, which consists of three
folio pages, is placed under an air, tight
frame OF oak and plate glass. have
had the pleasure OF looking upon this
interesting relic. The writing looked
small dim and Grabbed in the not bril-
liantly-lighted room where il was for
merly kept IL was drawn, however,
with the greatest care, as il by testa-
tor who knew the value of property,
aud had maturely considered Its distri-
button.
II is strange thing that some Of the
wills which have given rise to the great
est amount of litigation are those which
distinguished lawyers and Judges have
drawn for themselves. This may have
been from oarelessness, but, more prob
ably, from excessive caution. IL has be-
come so common Of late years for i'm
portant wills to be disputed, and to
benefit no one so much as the lawyers,
that men of large possessions seem dis
posed to avoid making q will, and TO let
their property go as the law directs in
such cases.
An English author has published a
rare collection lately of testamentary
curiosities, most of which he discovered
IN the Search-Room of Doctors Com
mons. We find from his work that Il is
as difficult 10 be original in folly as in
wisdom, for there can scarcely be found
an eccentric or ridiculous will which is
unique of its kind. A few years ago,
the gas man OF the Walnut street
Thoaler in Philadelphia, which he had
served for forty-four years, bequeathed
his head to the theater to be converted
into a skull, and TO be used to represent
the skull of Yorick in the fifth act of
Hamlet Many other persons have dis
posed of their heads in similar profess
slonal way, A noted phrenologist of
Cincinnati left his head to one Of his
lady pupils as an illustration of the
science to which they were both de-
voted. Several professors of anatomy
have left their heads or their whole
skeletons TO museums. The illustrious
Jeremy Bentham bequeathed his body
TO be dissected, and the skeleton may
now be seen in tho Museum of Uni
versity College, London.
A Quaker physician of London tried
TO distribute his body by his win, leav-
ing his heart to one, his lungs TO an
other, and his brains TO third, all OF
which were TO be preserved from de-
composition. And he added;
III these gentlemen shall fail faithfully 10
execute these last wishes In this request, /
VIII come, II II should be by any means pos
siole, and torment them until they shall COM
The three gentlemen had the courage
to decline their legacies. This bequest
was not so eccentric as that Of Sanborr,
the halter Of Medford, Mass, who be-