The Portland daily press., 1886-02-01
AN OLD FARMERS ODDITIES.
a Suit Involving the Ownership of
go. 600 i'm Bank Deposits,

AUGUSTA, Jan. 30.-In few weeks, a
hearing will be had before Chief Justice Pc
tiers and two of his associates, Justices Lib
bey and Foster of the supreme court, in a
case that IS attracting considerable inter
est among savings bank deposltors and the le-
gal fraternity. Edward G. Wyman was a
Vassalboro farmer, who died in the fall of
1884, when he was about 70 years of age. Ten
years before his death he began depositing
in the Augusta Savings Bank, and during
that period his deposits amounted to some
$4,000 In order to avoid the statutes pr0hlb-
iting more than $4,000 to be deposited in the
name of any one person, he deposited
amounts in sums of $1,000 each in the names
of different relatives, but payable to himself.
After his death brother of his got posses
sion of all his bank books and claimed title
to the $4,000 A bill in equity was brought
by Baker Il Cornish of this city, in the inter-
ests of other heirs against the brother who
gobbled the bank books, and was referred to
the judges mentioned to determine the title.
Wyman was naturally good citizen, and
noted for raising fat cattle. But he had an
inordinate desire in his accumulation OF
riches to avoid the payment of taxes. He
would put his property out of his hands,
and, when the assessors came round, they
would find nothing to levy upon. He was
dr0ll specimen of mankind, and was as ec-
centric as he was parsimonious His eccen-
tricities developed when he was Is years of
age. His wife was odd enough, but he could
discount her in his oddities. His great per-
chant at one time was to collect all the differ
ent styles Of hats he could find and hang
them up in his kitchen. His assortment
was queer sight to behold, embracing every
kind of obsolete and gone by bell-croWned
and funnel-shaped plugs ever worn But
his queerest freak will be seen by the follow
ing: Some twenty or twenty-five years ago
he took it into his head to dispense with the
use of sleigh bells in the winter, contrary to
the statutes, which require three or more
bells to be used. When at Gardiner one day
he was arrested for not complying with the
law, brought before magistrate and fined.
After that Wyman declared that he would
obey the law to its fullest extent So, when
he returned home, he went to work and COW
cred his horse all over from neck to crupper
with strings of bells of every conceivable
description, and also strung them the entire
length of both shafts of his high-backed,
oidsfashioned sleigh. The bells Brought in,
to use were of all sizes and sounds, from tiny
thinkers to big braZen, changing COW bells, of
which there were many. He then had
wolf skin coat made of the most grotesque
description, with fools cap from which
dangled red tassel. Every winter after
ward, whenever he drove out, this toggery
and team were always used by him. On the
day of the anniversary on which he was
fined, he would drive away to Gardiner, and
for an hour or so would ride by the magis-
trate's house, making the air resonant with
the jlngling and the changing of his bells.
Whenever he rode out in the winter his team
attracted special attention and merriment.
His approach could be foretold at least fif-
teen minutes before he hove in sight by the
changing and the jangling and the wrangling
of his bells, whose sounds were borne on
''the bosom of the palpitating air." A friend
says that one cold winters evening he
distinctly heard the reverberations of Wy
mans dissonant bells at distance of two
miles at least. He thought an entire edition
of Poe'S famous poem on 1.-The Bells" had
broken loose.