St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-07
HER WILL STRANGELY MADE.
How A Deuf, Dumb and Blind
Woman Made Her Wishes I'm
depStOOd
International Record.

uCiSGOOus
International Record.
David Buxton furnishes to the Quar-
terly Review of Deaf Mute Education an
account of notable will case more than
quarter of century ago, in which
the issue to be decided was whether
lady born deaf and dumb,
who became blind at the age of sixty,
was capable in the SEVENTEEN year of
her age of understanding her own af-
fairs and competent to make will.
She could not write her own will be-
cause she was blind. She could not
give oral directions as to her will,
because she was dumb. She could
not answer questions as to her wishes
respecting her property because she was
deaf. Neither could she read the draft
of her will prepared for her by her at
torney before signing it. In this emer-
gency Mr.. Buxton was sent for. He
assisted her in the final execution of her
will, and gives the following interesting
account of the. way in which the diff
cult task was accomplished
There were two copies of the will.
One which [ will describe as No 1, lay
DtlOIc MlSS L OOlc anu hit, Tile Quiet,
No. 2, was in the hands of the profess
Now, most persons know that nearly
all letters of the manual alphabet used
in this country are made by
using both hands. In ordinary
spelling we make the letters with
one hand upon the other. In this case L
made them with one of my hands upon
one of the lady'S. c, being formed with
the right hand only, | traced, wherever
it occurred, with the point of my
forefnger on the palm of her hand. In
this manner my communications were
made to her, she replying in
the ordinary way--spelling with both
hands, but sometimes making signs
and occasionally accompanying the
words she spelled or the signs she used
with ineligible efforts at articulation.
of Will No. l, clause by clause, and, in
order to satisfy those whom [ may call
the official spectators that its mean
ing was understood, and that it
contained Miss Poole's own wishes, the
following plan was adopted: L, sitting
OH her lett side, spelled over to her
(withOut uttering a word clause in
the will and stopped. She, turning to
the lady on her right, told her, in
manual language, Of course, what l
This lady (he daughter of Miss
PooIe's old schoolfelIow) repeated aloud
what had just been silently said to her,
and the company assembled saw that it
was identical with the text of document
No. 2, which the solicitor at the other
end of the room had before
him. In this way we went
through the entire contents of the
will. She paused at the technical
words 'devise" and executors" for in
stance, with determination to master
them, and asked me to repeat them if
she did not really apprehend them
Then, when she had got the word
correctly, she spelled it over to her
self, slowly and deliberately, after
wards reverting to her own
more familiar expression for conveying
the same sense, and the identity of
meaning was to me manifest proof
that the phraSeology of the will was
fully expressive of her own wishes. In
one instance she corrected me by saying
that a certain bequeSt was ''1OO'',
not 1000 pounds" She named with
great precision all the legatees
and the amount of bequest to each. re-
peating some of these particulars several
times with unfaltering accuracy (spelI-
ing the words letter by letter., in such
manner as was conclusive, not only of
her competency to make will, but of
the fact that its meaning was under
stood.