Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-09-07
upon they broke away and departed by va

-
rious routes.
The next month brought forth new com
plications in re the estate of John Schmidt,
deceased. A cousin named John came from
Nova Scotia to see about that air will"
and hardly had he finished abusing the
lawyer and the rival claimants when Job
No. 2, from Nevada, made his appearance
He was large man, with a cowboy air
and the odor of bad tobacco, and in fifteen
minutes had made himself so wearisome
that he had to be removed by the police.
Next appeared the widow of another John
with eight children, and finally a Joel,
who Yas a cashier in bank and a very
superior person.
The old lawyer began to be alarmed. In
stead of going to law in a rational manner
the heirs had a disagreeable habit of COM
ing to the Office in squads and discussing
the will with clenched fists. More than
one valuable client had been frightened
away, and the lawyer was losing his nerve.
Finally he retained himself as the attorney
of the cowboy Job, who seemed to be the
most willing to spend his money, and eject
ed the others. The widow with her eight
children sat on the stairs for three days,
but finally disappeared at the rumor of a
compromise.
1t came from the cashier. One of his
friends went fishing and put his office at
Joel's disposal, who was presently Joined
by the warning contingent in response to
circular note.
"My friends" said the cashier affably,
1--WE are playing losing game. If we con-
tinue this controversy much longer it will
get into the courts and never get out
again. In the end the lawyers will get
every penny and we will get the dump-as
we say in banking circles. Our deceased
friend wrote like bank president, and it
is impossible to make out whether the
name in dispute is John, Jehu, Job, Joel
or Joshua The last time l looked at 1t /
thought it was Jabez, which of course is
quite impossible. But fancy the effect Of
all this on juryl My friends, we must
compromise"
every well, ;" said Nephew John, 81 am
quite willing. will take half and the re
mainder''- For the next five minutes the
uproar was so great that three or four men
with shiny hats came up from the street,
thinking a ward caucus was in session, but
the intruders were finally expelled and
order was restored. The debate continued,
however, for two hours longer until an
agreement was reached to share and share
alike, the original Nephew John to take
in addition the Schmidt homestead as a
solace to his first disappointment.
Nine o'clock next morning found seven
claimants, each with a lawyer, waiting on
Job and his lawyer, and the old clerk said
afterward that he never heard so much
noise since he quit attending vestry meet
ings, and even the office boy was scared.
But the eight lawyers and the eight clients
finally drew up mighty agreement as 70
how much each client was to get, and then
each client signed an agreement as 70 how
much his lawyer was to get, and red seals
and gold seals and notarial stamps where
put on wherever there was a blank space
on the papers, and all the clients swore &c
everything with reckless indifference.
All preliminaries being settled the final
act of the great drama of human interest
was begun. The old lawyer performed
another sleight of hand trick and the iror
box made it's second appearance, while the
silence was so intense that almost any
thing might have been heard to drop.
A number of seals had to be broken Il
get at a bundle wrapped up in newspa
per. On top lay slip Of white paper.
Hal a memorandum" said the old law
yer. Then he read aloud:
"This fortune cost me just 81 ,0OO.-J. 5.
He removed the newspaper and disclosed
| a great bundle of brand new bank bills
that cracked in an agreeable manner a.
he rumpled their ends.
"Ahl One hundred thousand dollars
| They appear to be all one hundred and fiv
hundreds. Perhaps our friend, the cashier
| will verify the amountf"