St. Landry democrat., 1889-06-15
Curious Wills.

badly because they are aWsre OF the Iact
that they possess no real merit which
would place their names among 1.-The few,
whose names the world will not willingly
lot die" This eccentricity crops out in
the willing of money or property to uses
which strike the sense of mankind as alb
surd, and rediculously SO in many in
stances but there are exceptions to these
instances. Wills with curious or obscure
provisions are rarely carried out according
to the wishes of those making them, while
will that is a little unusual or eccentric
casts doubt upon the sanity of the tesla.
tor. John Stuart Mill maintained that
eccentric wills should be held sacred and
and the wishes of those who made them
strictly carried out. Mr.. Mill instances
the case of a man who left large fortune
for the care of wounded birds. The will
was set aside but, as Mill pointed out
the treatment of the diseases Of birds
might have thrown valuable light upon
the pathology of the animal ceremony, es
pecially of birds
A book has been published in England
giving an account of some curious wills.
Some of these have been made in favor of
set animals. For instance. French pea
SAINT left the following testamentary dispo-
sition behind him in 1881: Il declare
than l appoint my russell cob my univer-
sal heir, and desire that he may belong to
my nephew George" More than CEN
fury before that, Madame Dupuis, q
famous harpist, gave the most minute
directions for the comfortable maintenance
of her two cats after her own demise. Not
less than thirty sous week was to be laid
out n them in order "that they may live
we'll" They were to be served daily with
two meals of meat soup, "the same as we
eat ourselves" each cat having its own
plate. Into the soup morsels of bread
about the size of nut were to be
placed, and after this course was finished,
the lucky tabbies were TO be served with
"a ration of meat, finely minced, mildly
seasoned, and carefully simmered.
The requests to wives form an interest
ing chapter for the study of human nature.
That of John George, of Lambeth, who
died in 1891, is c. nspicuous for its bitter
ness.
After declaring that "the strength of
Samson, the genius of Homer, the pru-
dence of Augustus, the skill of Pyrrhus,
the patience of Job, the philosophy of
Socrates, the subtlety of Hannibal, the
vigilance of Hermogenes would not suffice
to subdue the perversity of her charac-
ter" he bequeathed to his wife Elizabeth
the sum of one shilling. William Pym.
of Woolavington, also fancied that he had
grave cause for COMPLAINT against his
spouse, whom he charged with having
made his life miserable, but he was of a
much more forgiving nature, and when he
died he left his wife ten pounds to buy
her greet horse, for could not this nanny
years plese her with one greet enough"
One of the most extraordinary wills was
the one by which, about a century ago, the
Duchesse de Praslin disinherited her own
children, under the unaccountable impress
sion that her husband had substituted
changelings for her own offspring. This
is matched, in eccentricity at least, by q
Pennsylvania who disinherited his daugh-
ter for sending him a valentine.
1t appears that fifty years ago James
Martin, well to do farmer, living near
Ballietsville, had refused to purchase his
fifteen year old daughter dress that she
very much coveted, on the plea that he
could not afford it. This occurred few
days before st. Valentines day, and on
| that day the daughter sent her father a
valentine, as had been her custom for
years. 1t was rough caricature repre-
senting miser counting and gloating over
his money Mr. Martin took his daughter
to task about it, treating it as an insult
because he had not bought the dress. 1t
then flashed upon the girl that she and a
companion had bought valentines at the
same time, sealed them up, and the Martin
girl took both and addressed them. In
doing SO she got them mixed and sent the
one intended by hsr companion for miser
to her father, instead of complimentary
one she had bought for him. This expla-
nation did not satisfy Mr.. Martin, and from
that day he never spoke to her. She
married and lived on farm adjoining her
fathers. Mr.. Martin was on the best of
terms with her husband and her children,
but never noticed her. He died few
months ago, leaving an estate valued at
$40, 600 To his aged widow he left $50,
600. To his son-in- law he bequeathed the
remainder of his estate, provided he sur
vived his wife, the farmers daughter. If
the son. in-law died first, then the SIS, 900
was to be divided among his three children.
To his daughter Farmer Martin bequeathed
"a package to be found in his trunk, tied
with green ribbon and sealed with green
wax" When tt is was opened it was found
to be the unfortunate valentine that had
caused the extraordinary estrangement of
the FARM and his daughter nifty years ~go.
A very curious will has recently come to
! light in Canada. An old farmer living near
Guelph left will in which he provided
that his son should have the farm at the
death of his stepmother, and when that
event occurred he was to commence paying
insta1lments on $4,000 to the rest of the
family, at yearly rate Of $50 year, and
when he gets all paid off he will then get
the farm into his own possession. 1t will
be seen that after the stepmother's death
it will be sixty years before the son gets
the farm, and as the woman is yet in the
prime of life and healthy, it is calculated
she may live another forty years. The son
can claim the farm, by this reckoning, he
will be 1870 years old.-Sunny South.
Motherly Solicitude.