Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1882-03-09

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should be consulted concerning will.
). Ii is quite as necessary to employ
a lawyer to state one 5 wishes with legal
accuracy and judicial fairness as to
know that the statutory formalities have
been observed 1t is true that the
courts are very indulgent in constituting
ciumsily-drawn wills, and require no
nicencss Of rhetoric or of grammar or
of photography; but all these are nom
essentials: the insuperable cmbarrass-
ment is the frequent impossibility of
discovering the testator S meaning; and.
if the lawyer is competent, he will
know how 10 put this meaning in unmis-
taxable form, and. doing this, he will
render a very valuable service.
6. 1t is not possible TO draw will
which cannot be contested-any more
than it is possible to avoid being sued in
ones lifetime. The courts are always
open; whoever imagines he has griev-
ance has right TO be heard. and he has
only TO demand a hearing to secure it.
All that can be done, therefore. is to
leave behind no real cause of grievance,
and to leave will so plain and just as
To command the respect Of the intelli-
gent and the fair-minded. II unreason-
able men. nevertheless, bring on a con-
test. and an incompetent court is unable
or unwilling to see the facts. the tesla
tor may. after all, be batiled. But
such cases very rarely happen.
Z. More rrudent than the careful
making of q reasonable will is the time
ly distribution of an estate in the own
er's lifetime. There is no greater evil
among property-owners than the excess
sive accumulation of capital in the
hands of one man. The farmer pros
pers. and his sons and daughters grow
up and make beginnings for themselves.
The farmer means at his death TO divide
all his capital to those who shall sur
vive him. His children begin life in a
small way. and at the old mans death
are themselves in middle life. relatively
poor. and eager for the division of what
has been held just out of their reach for
twenty or thirty years. Such reactions
are most unwholesome. If each child
upon setting in life is Immediately Civ
en- as nearly as may be the whole of
what is intended to be ultimately his,
the result is far better
8. The legal acknowledgements of mar
ried women goes rapidly on of late years.
and in some States is already almost
achieved. No uniform rule can be laid
down, because women are not uniform
even men are not. The capitalist
whose wife is his friend and companion.
VIII provide little else in his will than
that whatever of property is his at his
Al u.
nothing more nor less than true part
nership; the wife whose husband is
worthy. will. in like manner, leave ev-
erything to her hu>band-the surviving
partner. In such cases children will be
lowered As they marry. and it will be
understood that no dover will be given
which would reduce the paternal estate
below the needs of the parents them
selves
9. The frankest relations between
parents and children are the safest, and
upon no topic should there he freer
speech than touching the family prop
erty. The youngest child should always
he trusted To know substantially what
the family is worth. what the yearly
course Of loss and gain is. how the es-
tate is to be divided if there is likely to
be enough 10 divide during the parents
lifetime. and whatever else he may be
the wiser for knowing in
the premises. Such training in fam
lily. otherwise wholesome, prevents the
possibility of trouble about property.
10. Property is capital for use-not
mere honey for drones to live on. The
wise parent will not necessarily give an
equal number of dollars to each child,
by any means. He will give more or
less with a single eye to the use likely to
be made of it, and he will be very care