The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-06-20
AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL.
How il Polish Gentleman Prolonged the ~
Densa oF HE Heirs


How il Polish Gentleman Prolonged the sus-
pense of HE Heirs.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; and
rich men well stricken in years 30 often cause
during their lives the fondest hopes of their
prospective heirs to be indefinitely deferred,
that there is positively no excuse for their
continuing to do SO after death, like late in
habitant of Warsaw, M. S.. This gentle
man died six years ago. He had confded his
last will and testament to nj. B., his exeou-
tor, at whose house the friends and relatives
gathered together after the funeral to learn
their fate; but they only heard the inscrip-
ton on the envelope read, which was to the
effect that the seal was to he broken on that
day tWelve-months. This was sad news to
many of them whose creditors were FESTIVE
and threatening but possessing their souls,
their interjections and adjectives in pa
thence and in silence, they went their several
ways. In 1885 they were all punctually at
the trysting place once more. Breathless
was the silence-like unto that described in
the second book of the Eneid, when Venus
son was about to tell his thrilling tale. M.
B. broke that silence and the seal solemn
" and tenderly, and found inside of the enve-
lope somewhat smaller Enclosure sealed
with an identical seal, and bearing an identical
snperscription "This seal is to be broken this
daytwelvemonth, not before" 1t ia to be hop
edthat the spirit of that departed citizen, if
lowering at all near the spot, was not within
eaTshot Of the uncourtly CALCULATIONS which
that announcement elected, as the disappoint
ed audience rose up and dispersed nor was
the discovery of the year following of "a ma
ture to soothe the angry feelings of the i'm
patient relatives, who met once more I'M
der NJ. BIS hospitable roof. Briefly,
year after year, the kith and kin of that rich
man gathered together and "quoted scripture
at the practical joker of the other world,
heartily wishing him back again in this one
for the nonce.
The will proved to have seven seals, the
last of which was broken few days ago,
when it was found that the rich mans pro-
perty was divided into four equal parts, one
of which was to be equally distributed be-
tween his nieces and nephews, another was
left to the children of former wet nurse,
a third was given to his friend and executor
M. B-and the fourth was directed to be in
vested till the year 1910, when it is to be hand
ed over to that one of the nephews who Is
blessed with the most numerous progeny
London Neaos.
Mark Twain's Father.
Senator Bate, of Tennessee, gives me In
teresting matter about Mark Twain's father.
Every one knows Colonel Sellers and most
people are aware that the play is dramatic
cation of Mark Twain's book, "The Gilded
Age" Few know that the characters are
taken from life, and that Colonel Sellers is
representation of Mark Twain's father, who
was fully as visionary as Marks fancy paints
him. The Clemens family came from the
mountains of Tennessee. Marks father had
put all the money he could rake and scrape
into the rough lands of the Tennessee noun
tains. He owned thousands of acres about
him, and he would look over these and say:
"These lands are underlaid with the finest
coal and iron. There are millions in them
Millions Millions" At that time, how
ever, the lands were worth nothing. Every
one laughed at Marks father, and Mrs. Glenn
ems, who was of a more practical and am
bilious turn than her husband, urged that
they sell the property and move into civiliza-
ton. She finally persuaded him to do this
The lands brought mere song and the fam
lily went to Missouri, where Mark Twain
first saw the light of day. The recent devel-
opements in Tennessee, says Senator Bate,
have made these lands, which Colonel Sellers
-Cemens-owned, immensely valuable.
They contain valuable deposits of coal and
iron, as Clemens stated and did Mark
Twain own them to-day he might have
bigger business than his book publishing and
book writing. He is now worth million.
Had his father stuck to his lands and to his
theories he might have been worth his tens of
millions. Had the fortune come, however,
during Marks childhood, the world would
have lost 100000000 laughs. "Innocents
Abroad would never have been written and
the prince and Pauper" would probably
have remained unpenned.