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


and Prof. Agassiz, and ordered that his
skin should be tanned into leather, and
made into two drum heads. This Pc
culiar drum he left TO one of his towns
men, drummer of note, on condition
that, on every anniversary OF the battle
of Bunker Hill. he should ascend that
height at sunrise and beat the tune OF
| Yankee Doodle. On one of the heads
of the drum was TO be written Pope's
Universal Prayenand on thu other the
Declaration OF Independence. A great
number OF these bodily wills have been
made, but not SO many have been exc
cuted.
Some gentlemen appear 10 have taken
pride in leaving extremely short wills
The English millionaire, Cots, wrote
his will on half sheet OF paper; and,
among other curiosties OF this kind in
the Lsndon VIII Office, there is will
drawn by merchant who left two mill
ions of dollars to his wife aud children
by few lines written on the inside of
common envelope. The shortest will,
perhaps, i'm the whole collection, was
proved as late as November, 1878. 1t
consisted OF eight words;
" Mrs Smith 20 have all when die"
lhlS Will was found sufficient. An
other testator, upon being informed
that it was no matter whether he wrote
his will on paper, parchment. canvas or
wood, chose TO write it upon his door;
and after his death his executors were
obliged 10 have the door taken off its
hinges, and brought into court. II is q
thing of frequent occurrence for zealots,
whether political or sectarian, TO seize
the opportunity which writing their
will presents to give emphatic utterance
to their most cherished opinions. A
Baptist clergyman of England, whose
will was proved in 1879. after dsposing
of hisproperty, which was considerable,
INDUCED in most energetic declara-
tiOn of his religious belief:
=" desire all posterity 10 know that William
llill was q conscientious Trinitarian Baptist
minister, aud that he believed infant sprink-
ling 20 be from hiT Satanic Majesty, the KEY
stone Of Popcry, therefore the parent of un-
numbered terrible evils"
He also put on record in the same
document solemn denunciation Of
| 'the drinking customs in the world,
and called upon Heaven to "dash all
/ error, sin and the devil from the earth.
Nothing Is more common than for the
wish OF n testator to be frustrated by
his WtH, and no doubt the time win
come when we shall be obliged to do
as the English people have done, insti.
tute a court for the express purpose OF
preventing this. A curious circum-
stance occurred many years ago, when
testator left two thousand pounds to q
/ friend, but with the condition that one
half the sum should be buried with him
in his coffin. The legatee took advice
on this matter.
Where is the money now?" asked
his friend.
:" In the bank" was the reply.
IAN right" said the sage adviser,
"you write check for a thousand
pounds, and put it into the old gentle
mans coffin drawn 10 his order"
We should naturally suppose that a
man in the act of making his will would
not be in humor TO crafty his resent
ments. Yindictive wills, however, are
by no means uncommon. One of the
old wills in the London collection is of
n certain Earl of Pembroke who took
the opportunity of his viii TO deal in
suits and abuse among friends and foes.
He left to Oliver Cromwell zone of his
words, seeing that he hath never kept
/ any of his own
Many wills, too, leave property ham
| pered with insulting conditions.
A sensible will was that of George
Watts, bachelor without relations,
whose property consisted Of a number
of small cottages and tenements in an
English county town. He left each of
these houses TO its occupant.
England is covered all over with Pc
culiar charities, for which there is now
no occasion. and some of which have
become both injurious and ridiculous.
The oldest church in London, called st.
Bartholomew the Great, has an endow-
ment that seems too absurd for belief.
Every Good Friday the rector is re-
/ quired To place twenty-one siXpences
in row on a certain grave-stone, from
I which they are to be picked up by
/ twenty-one widows, who shall come
| from the church afterservice, and kneel
/ by the side of the stone for the purpose.
| Another old London church has q fund
| for giving on every Good Friday q
| bunch of raisins and new penny to
sixty boys of the Blue Coat School.
Another Good Friday bequest presents
| a loaf of bread TO a certain number OF
the poor of the parish, and a bun and
penny or two TO the school children.
Hundreds Of these eccentric and OBJ
solete endowments could be mentioned,
large number of which have been in
recent years abolished or changed by
the court alluded TO above. 1t is eX-
tremely difficult, and perhaps impossi-
BILE, 10 leave money for permanent
endowment which will not at least re.
quire modification in one or two cen
turies. Human society is progressive,
no mortal can foresee what men will
need, OF think, or do century hence.
Even in this young country, many en-
! do,.uanfe have hpeon,a ugQlass if mt