The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-18
SOME FAMOUS WILLS.
HoUGaTs DRAWN OUT BY THE
GOODMAN WI L TRIAL.


,rba Codman will case is destined to take
81 place among the famous controversies
over testamentaly dispositions, and the list
If wills which have interested and excited
whole communities is brought to mind.
rorbans some of the most curious wills are
those which illustrate the difference between
,,,onomania and mere eccentricity. In 1888,
9 case was noted in British medical journal
ia +estator who directed that his executor
sbould cause some part of his bowels to be
converted into fiddle strings, that others
sbould be subimed into smelling salts, and
.bst the remainder of his body should be
vitrifed into lenses for optical purposes.
He then naively added: 1.-The world may
think this t. be done in spirit of singular
jtv or whim, but have a mortal aversion
70 funeral pomp, and wish my body to be
converted into purposes useful to mankind
OF course. some dissatisfied relative was
found who disputed the sanity of the
deceased. for a large portion of the fortune
had been left 10 the housekeeper ut may be
remarked that houSekeeperS appear with
remarkable frequency as favored legateesJ,
hut the court very properly held that to be
eccentric was not equivalent to being in
sane. But the famous South CorOllna case
l.pe
-estator whose meatdl state it Is perhaps
NOT so easy t. Las. Mason Lee owned
great deal Of iafi and many slaves. But
his habit of life was most extraordinary.
He slept in hollow gum log during the
dav. and at night kept awake, fighting
imaginary Witches devils and evil spirits,
which continually haunted him. He had
no chair. table or plate i'll his house, but
used a forked stick. His pantslOOns, which
L. IA, a. xX-iH no
without a waistband, and fastened by
rome. He cut off all the tails of his hogs
and cattle close to the roots, and cut off the
ears of his horses and mules. He always
shaved his head close, so that the witches
could not seize him by the hair. He had
jnnumerable swords, of all sizes and shapes,
made by the neighboring blacksmith, to
enable him to keep up his struggle with the
devils and spirits. He imagined that certain
persons whom he desired to disinherit were
in his teeth, and to dislodge them he had IA
sound teeth extracted. Once he thought
that he had caught the devil,
AND NAILED HIM UP IN HIS FIREPLACE,
and he sometimes sent for all his negroes to
throw dirt on the roof of the house to drive
away the ghosts. His whole estate he left
10 the States of South Carolina and
Tennessee. There was very little evidence
TO impeach his business capacity, and it
appeared that having killed a negro in
Georgia, when young man, and fed the
State, he suspected his relatives, with only
100 good ground, of plot to drag him back
TO trial and execution, and on his death to
obtain possession of his property. The YER
dict sustained the will, and this result ha,
met with general approval. Religious
beliefs have often come before the courts to
I've passed upon. In a well-lnOwn Tennessee
case the testator believed that there were
hot, 81
life man lived in on earth would be en-
joyed by him in heaven that his pre-emi-
nence there depended materially upon the
amount of property he acquired here and
the uses to which be put it, and that doing
some great charitable deed here would
advance him to a high state in heaven.
The court laid down the very sensible view
that belief as to future state of life can
never constitute a delusion, for the simple
reason that none of us are in a position to
say positively whether the belief is true or
not. The celebrated Bonard will, in 1872,
raised a similar issue and was sustained by
the Surrogate. 1t appeared that BOnard,
who had always been a man of erratic
habits, and had rallied at religion and at
priests believ in metempsychosis or the
transmgration of souls expressed the
opinion that there might be an emperor in
any animal he beheld, and thought that
there was human soul in every animals
body. All his property was given by his
will to the society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to ANIMALS. Animals often play a
prominent part in wills. In 1928 a man
named Garland made. in London, the
following strange will: 81 bequeatn
to my monkey, my dear and anus
ing JOcko, the sum of $40 ster-
ling per annum, to be employed for his
sole use and benefit; to my faithful dog
Shock and my well beloved cat lib, a
pension of e5 sterling; and | desire that in
case of the death of either of the three, the
lapsed pension shall pass to the other two,
between whom it is to be equally divided
On the death of all three, the sum appropri-
ated to this purpose shall become the
property of my daughter Gertrude, to whom
give the preference among my children,
because Of the large family she has and the
difficulty she finds in bringing them up.n
Garland may not have been insane, but if
this was his only remembrance of the
daughter in the will, he lacked the feelings
OF father. But this eccentric love for
animals often develops into insanity. In an
English case, Yglesius V. Dyke, it appeared
mat the testator kept IA dogs of both sexes,
and provided them with kennels in her
drawing room. She also had propensity
Tor guinea pigs; and other acts tending to
snow insanity being proved, the will was
set aside. peculiar propensity is often a
dangerous thing, as the following case
witnesses. In England, in 1878, a will was
attacked by the sons of the testator, on the
ground Of mental incapacity, and the evil
9ence offered was that no was fond of listen
ing to German bands! This, no doubt, to
many of us would seem sufficient ground
Tor doubling his mental capacity, and
although much other evidence was given as
10 the testatOr's fondness for feeding rats
and shooting rocks, and as to his fancy that
ne mad committed crimes and was being
watched for them, the jury's opinion that
the deceased was not of sound mind no
doubt had its prime inspiration, as we all
must feel, in the recollection of that pro
penslty for German bands.
medical author of high standing relates
tlis remarkable case of apparent, but only
apparent, sanity in making a will. A lady
IL New York, ill with typhoid fever made
ner will, and two physicians were asked to
"lthess 1t. The nature of the requests SO
excited their suspicion that they not only
ttIoSely lnterrogated her as to her intentions
out read the will to her in English, German
ana French, and conversed with her in those
languages. Satisfying themselves in this
way that her mental condition was perfectly
sound, they signed as witnesses. The
patient recovered. About six months after
ward one of the physicians, in conversation
"ltn ner alluded to the will, and found
mat she did not understand his aluson. He
mentioned no fir,. I'm 81, a