The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1894-02-09
DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND.
How n Woman Thus Afflicted Made Her
Last win and Testament.

How n Woman Thus Afflicted Made HeF
Last win and Testament.
David Buxton furnishes TO the Quarterly
Reriep Of Deaf Mute Education an account of
a notable will case more than a quarter Of
a century ago, in which the issue to be de
cided was whether a lady born deaf and
dumb, who became blind at the age of sixty,
was capable, in the SEVENTEEN year of her
age, Of understanding her own affairs aud
competent to make a viii. She could not
write her own will because she was blind.
She could not give oral directions as TO her
will, because she was dumb. She could not
nswer questions as to her wishes respect
ing her property because she was deaf.
Neither could she read the draft Of her will
prepared for her by her attorney before
signing il. In this emergency Mr.. Buxton
was sent for. He assisted her in the final
execution of her will, and gives the follow
ing interesting account in which the diff
cult task was accomplished.
There were two copies of the will. One,
which | will describe as No. /, lay before
Miss Poole and me; the other, No. 2, was in
the hands Of the professional gentleman
who had drawn it up.
Now, most persons know that nearly all
letters of the manual alphabet used in this
country are made by using both hands. In
ordinary spelling we make the letters with
one hand upon the other. In this case / made
them with one of my hands upon one of the
lady's. c being formed with the right hand
only. l traced, whenever it occurred, with
the point of my forefngev on the palm of
her hand. In this manner my communion
tons were made to her, she replying in the
ordinary w~ay-spelling with both hands, but
sometimes making signs, and occasionally
accompanying the words she spelled or the
signs she used with ineligible efforts at
articulation. In this manner l read over the
contents of will No. l, clause by clause, and,
in order 10 satisfy those whom | may call
the official spectators that its meaning was
understood, and that it contained Miss
Poole's own wishes, the following plan was
adopted: ], sitting on her left side, spelled
over to her (without uttering a word) a
clause in the will and stopped. She, turn
ing TO the lady on her right, told her, in
manual language, Of course, what / had just
said.
This lady (the daughter of Miss Poole's
old schoolfellow) repeated aloud what had
just been silently said to her, and the com
pany assembled saw that it was identical
With the text Of documenC No. 2, which the
solicitor at the other end of the room had
before him In this way We went through
the entire contents of the will. She paused
Mt the technical words "devise" and lex
ecutors,n for instance, with a determination
to master them, and asked me to repeat
them if she did not really apPrehend them.
Then, when she had got the word correctly,
she spelled it over to herself, slowly and
deliberately, afterwards reverting to her
W more familiar expression for conveying
the same sense, and the identity of meaning
vas to rue a manifest proof that the phrase
ology Of the will was fully expressive Of her
own wishes. In one instance she corrected
me by saying that a certain bequest was
lone hundred" not tone thousand pounds
She named with great precision all the leg
atees and the amount of beQuest to each,
repeating some Of these particulars several
times with unfaultering accuracy Spelling
the words letter by letter., in such a man
uer as was conclusive, not only of her COM
potency to make a will, but of the fact that
it, meaning was understood