Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-15
A Strange VIII Case.


 MT. David Buxton furnishes to the 'Quar- account of a notable will case, more than quarter of a century ago, in which the issue to be decided was whether lady born deaf and dumb, who became blind at the age of sixty years, was capable, in the seventieth year of her age, of understanding her own affairs and competent to make will. She could not write her own will because 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 attorney before sign ing it. In this emergency Mir. Buxton was sent for. He assisted her in the final execu- tion of her will, and gives the following in teresting account of the manner in which the difficult task was accomplished:
 There were two copies of the will. One, which I shall describe as No. 1, lay before Miss Poole and me; the other, No. 2, was in the hands of the professional gentleman who had drawn it up.
 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 I made them with one of my hands upon one of the lady's. 0, being formed with the right hand only, I traced, whenever 1t oc- cured, with the point of my forefnger on the palm of her hand. In this manner my communications were made to her, she re- plying in the ordinary way-spelling with both hands, but sometimes making signs and occasionally accompanying the words she spelt, or the signs she used, with intelligible efforts at articulation. in this manner I read over the contents of the will No. clause by clause; and in order to satisfy those whom I may call the official spectators that it's meaning was understood, and that it conveyed Miss Poole's own wishes, the fol- lowing plan was adopted: I, sitting on her left side, spelled over to her (Without utter ing word clause in the will and then stopped. She, turning to the lady on her right, told her Gin manual language of eourse) what had just said. This lady (the daugh- ter of Miss Poole's old schoo1-fellow) re- peated aloud what had just been silently said to her, and the company assembled saw that it was identical with the text of the 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 "deyice" and ''executors," for in stance, with determination to master them, and asked me to repeat them if she did not readily apprehend them. Then, when she had got the word correctly she spelled it over to herself slowly and elaborately, afterward reverting to her own more familiar express sion for conveying the sams 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 ssone hundred" not Zone thousand, pounds" She named with great precision all the legatees, and the amount of bequest to each, repeating some of these particulars several times with unfaltering ac- curacy Spelling the words letter by letter. in such a manner as was conclusive, not only of her competency to make will, but of the fact that it's provisions were emphatically the expression of her own strong wishes and purpose.
 It was peculiarly gratifying to find that she had not forgotten the institution with which I was connected. Her own words were, 1T give to the poor deaf and dumb at school at Liverpool one hundred pounds" and she dwelt upon the phrase "the poor deaf and dumb" with degree of sympathy which most of those present could perhaps but imperfectly conceive. When all was done she said it was ''all right,n and put out her hand for the pen with which she was to afix her signature. handed it to her, and when she had placed it in the proper posi- tion she felt the point, thereby both measur- ing the requisite distance and ascertaining if it was furnished with ink; and then she who had not seen written character for nine years-being at that time sixty years of age, and now being seventy-wrote her name in full, boldly and very legibly, and with the exception of the signature inclining upward, exactly as anyone else might have done. It was a striking and suggestive sight. It showed human mind unextinguished and inextinguishable under an accumulation of af1ictions-deafness, blindness and old age sufficient to crush out every glimmer of viz tality.
 The will thus made was disputed. hut on Mir. Buxtons testimony to the facts just re- lated, which was confirmed by other parties present at this remarkable scene, it's validity was confirmed.