Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-11-03
AS An Instance, Jeremy Bentham
Wanted to be Il Scien-
titic Mummy.
The Queer Testament Of a queen
VINO Desired Her DOC
tors Killed.

tor, according 10 Tie LOAuOu ltIeSrdpts
was a wine merchant OF Bristol, who
left personality valued at a little less
than t16,OOO. He bequethed One-half
of his property in Trust to secure an
annuity Of 100 TO his wife during her
WidoWhOod, and directed that the other
mUiety should be divided Into as many
shares as he had children, for whom,
until they respectively attained the age
OF L. years, the trustees are to provide
plain food, simple CIOthlus, and bare
ueceSSarieS," together with a sound,
practical education Ill Il day school OF
boarding school. AT the conclusion OF
their scholastic course tue boys are not
10 have any payment MADE Oh their
behalf, excepting such us may be re-
4ulS,Je Tor teaching tAeln SO.ue honest
trade or handicraIt, just Us ii they
We're die children OF some Worhingnan
who had only leTt behind hiln "a certain
sum to pay for tie education OF his
offspring.
1t, however, any one of the lads is
found 10 display exceptional capacity
for Il profession, SuCl as to give pro-
mise that lie would gain distinction
therein, the trustees are authorized to
spare no expense III his training To-
such profession, and may even, il they
think II desirable, trench on the capital
OF his share; but ii any one child, OW
ing &c continued ul-hellth, should be
mcapacitaJed from earning his own liy
ing, the trustees may apply part OF the
income OF his share to Ills maintenance.
On attaining the age OF % years each
son anu daughter Is 10 receive his OF
her SHARE Oh Tie teStdtor'S property Oh
which, however, may be deferred, ii
circumstances demand it, for another
two years.
This, perhaps, unprecedented will
would not on the lace OF it appear TO
comprise any clauses contrary TO pub
lie policy, such as those which parIla-
ment contemplated When III 1870 the
SO-called 1nelIusSOn act was passed, re-
straining testatOrs from deyising their
property for purposes of accumulation
for more than tNenty-One years after
their death.
1t will be remembered that Peter
extraction, who had long carried on u
prosperous BUSINESS III London, Who
died in 1897, left a hundred thousand
pounds TO his widow and children, and
the residue Of his property-more than
E60O, QQO-~he left to trustees to aCcuInu
late during the lives OF his three SONS
and the lives OF their SONS; then the
,Is
the produce OF the accumulated funds
were to be conveyed 10 the eldest
ineal male deScendent of his three
SONS, with the benefit OF SurVlvalShip.
Peter TheIlIIsS0ns viii led To protracC
ed and costly litigation, which was
not concluded unJ1I 1859, when the
lOng-pending questions were decided OF
an appeal to the house OF lords; but it
was stated when their lOrdShipS' de-
cisIon was given, that, owing to the i'm
mense sums spent i'll legal costs, the
value OF the estate did not very great
ly exceed the sum 10 which it had
amounted SiXty-tWO years previously.
This colossal scheme Tor accommodating
wealth beyond the dreams Of avarice
but, curious 10 relate, Peter ThelluS-
sons idea was made use OF by Eugene
Sue in his romance of The Wandering
jew" A normally large sum OF money
was supposed to have been accumulat-
ing at compound interest for upward
OF two centuries, and the handspring
Of the plot was conspiracy on the
part of the Jesuits to get hold of this
tremendous peculium. The general of
the Jesuits did at last succeed in clutch
ing the precious packet OF securities
representing this untold treasure, but
he was unaware Of the contents of the
parcel, which was accidentally burned,
and the untold treasure vanished into
the intinitieS.
The most curious and perhaps the
most Spiteful will on record is that of
Queen Ausrigilda, consort of King
Gontram, who by her nuncupative OF
verbal testament enjoined her husband
to slay and bury in the same grave
with herself the. two physicians who
had attended to her majesty during
her last illness. Scarcely less vindicdve
was the will of the selfish husband,
who forbade his wife to marry a second
time, concluding with the threat: IF
she disobeys me l will come again,
Ii | cam Quite at the opposite pole
OF sentiment was the direction of the
married woman, who predeceaSed her
husband, to her executors, to seek out
some nice, good, pretty girl who would
to
her spouse.
Eccentricity, and nothing else, dis
tingIlish the will proved in 1924 Of
Henry Trigg of Storage, in the county
of Hartford, grocer, who directed that
his body should be committed to the
west end of his howell, to be decently
laid there upon a floor erected by his
executors; and only sixty years ago,
it is said. the bones of Mr.. Trigg still
remained unburied in the rafters at
the west end of bis hOvel aforesaid.
A provision quite as bizarre, was made
in the will Oh the philOsophic Jeremy
Bentham, who enjoined his executors
to embalm his corpse and dress it in
the clothes which he was accustomed
to wear in his lifetime, in order that
he might form the text of a lecture to
be delivered annually at a literary in
sttute held at a school of anatomy in
Windmill street, Haymarket. On the
occasion of one of the lectures on Jere-
my Bentham's mummy the venerable
philosophers head fell off and came to
irTemediable grief, whereupon an arti-