The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-07-26
CURIOUS OLD WILLS,
How the Oddities of Men Creep Out In
iTheirLast Testaments,

SonISoo SLD VIEIos
How the Oddities of Men Creep Out in
aTheirLast Testaments,
Idiotic and eccentric legacies are,
next to the method of making will,
curious and interesting studies. 1t has
only been few years since two dozen
words written in a grabbed uncertain
hand on the back of yellow envelope
by soldier while dying on Southern
battlefield were admitted to probate
as his will in the courts of Pittsburgh.
One of the most remarkable wills
ever written was that of Joseph Cap
pur, a man worth a quarter of a mil
lion. He was a wholesale grocer in
London, and had amassed fortune by
speculating in securities. His eccen-
trio habits of life first called attention
to his subsequent career. He lived at
one hotel for over twenty-five years,
and in that time engaged his room and
board for only one day in advance.
He insisted on sitting in one certain
seat at the table, drinking out of the
same cup and using the same knife and
fork. He was the prototype of Julius
Verne's Phineas Fogg, in that he ate,
slept and walked by an unvarying rule.
His sole amusement was that of killing
| flies in the summer time. He died
suddenly when seventy-seven years of
age. His will was found at the bottom
of a box of clothes, curiously worded
and written on the back of a lot of old
bank checks. He had detested his poor
relations during his life, but by this
strange instrument of his devising,
every cent was distributed among them,
save $4,000 which he gave to two
nephews.
Among the extraordinary conditions
imposed upon descendants, that of the
Duke of Valmy, Marshal Kellerman and
General of the French Republic, stands
prominently in history. On the crest
of a hill just outside the village of St.
Menehould, in France, stands a monu-
ment to mark the spot where the heart
of Kellerman, taken from his body after
death, disappeared in dust in the soil
of his beloved France. 1t was his will
that his heart might rest among his old
soldiers who had been slain in the bat
tie of Valmy.
! Matthew Robinson, Lord Rokeby, a
prominent and peculiar Englishman of
the last century, nephew of Richard
Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh and
| of e., fr,,,
his long beard and his hatred for medi-
cal practitioners. In regard to the
former, it is said that upon one occa-
, sion, when going to an election, he
stopped at an inn, where the country
people who had assembled for miles
around took him for Turk and nearly
worried my Lord to death. His dislike
of physicians was carried to such an
extent that he left codicil in his will
disinheriting a favorite nephew if in his
Uord Rokeby's) last illness his sym
pathies should be so excited that he
would call in doctor to attend him.
The present Marquis OF Queensbury,
whose name as patron OF puglllsn
, and pugilists is known wherever the
so-called science of soaring Gods
[ image in humanity is practiced, comes
by his sporting proclivities honorably
William Douglass, Duke of Queens
: bury, was an old sport of the last cen
[ tury, who rode his own race-horses and
performed other acts that set England
by the ears. 1t was he who originated
matches against time. Before discuss
ing his will, the famous match men
toned may be described. Queensbury
made wager with Count Taafe tha
he could put upon the road four
, wheeled machine which should trave
5 nineteen miles in one hour. With the
4 aid of Mr.. Wright, a designer, he hat
' built light carriage, to which, on the
on the day of the race, he harnesset
blooded horses, driven by trained
grooms. Vast sums of money changed
hands on the result, the Duke winnin.
| handily. In his will, though he wa
| the king of the turf for half century
Q he left various large sums to charities
t He pensioned several opera singers
: and gave $4,000 for widows and or
S phans of the British navy. This wa
Y so wholly unexpected in man of hi
t characteristics that it occasioned grea
3 talk for years afterward.- -Pittsburg
t Dispatch.