Arizona republican., 1898-10-05
THE ROARkE WILL.
The Beginning of Rather Exciting
 contest.

The Roarke will contest Was begun in probate court on Monday morning. The beneficiary of the newly discov- cred will, William Roarke. was repre- sented by Judge c. F. Ainsworth and Thomas D. Bennett. Judge Baker ap- peared for the administrative, Cora Brill, who had been appointed before the finding of the will. Thomas Arnl- strong represented the interests Of R. w. Baxter and brother Of the de- ceased Roarke. Thus the contest ap- pears to be three cornered affair, but it is not. The Brill and anti-BrilI in terests are united in their antagonism to the will. Should they get it out Of the way the discussion of their own differences will be resumed.
 The opponents of the will assume it to be forgery. The principal witness. A. E. Laville, the custodian of the will and the writer Of it, was on the stand .he greater part Of the day, sub Jected to a severe cross examination by Judge Baker and MT. Armstrong. MT. Laville is of Irish birth and brogue. He took the stand with an impression that the opposing council intended to either prove him a scouldrel or make a monkey of him. He was constantly on the alert that they should do neither. He met questions which he did not clearly understand, with 'I don't know" He asked the opposing counsel as many questions as they pur to him and indulged in irrelevant ob- servations which frequently attracted admonitions from the court. MT. La vile said he wrote the viii for Roarke : at Henry Wickenburg's place in Wick
 
 Roarke's signature and those Of La vile, Tim Ready and couple Of other men who are now dead or absent
 The will is an ancient looking docu- ment, worn, creased and discolored, ap- parently by the lapse of years. There was among the papers what purported to be copy of it made in pencil by MT. Laville fer a man named Howe. who was at that time supposed to be acting in the interest of William Roarke. This copy was made last July. It is not an exact copy, MT. Layille ev- idently judging that some parts Of the original were not essential. There is a note on the back stating that on ac- count of being pushed for time some things had been left out and perhaps the original was more better" But the copy was nearly enough complete to excite the interest of William Roarke
 Mir. Laville's ideas of wills, probate and such matters were shown to be very crude At the time of James Roarke's death last February MT La vile was in jail at Prescott He was not sorry to hear that Roarke had died, for he had procured his incarceration. Laville's mind reverted to the will and he determined to get even with the testator by destroying the document. He neglected to do that, though, but he said nothing about the document for two or three months. In some way it's existence was made known to Howe, who visited Laville at his cabin and told him that there was $500 in it for him. Laville refused to give it up, but it was then he made the memor- able copy which he gave to Howe.
 Here a curious thing occurred on which the contestants will no doubt endeavcr to hang something. The pa per on which the will was written and that of the copy were found to be pre- cisely alike even to the watermarh. ''Merrimac." That discovery of course is not fatal to the genuinenesS of the will. Other witnesses beside Laville were W. N. Bacon, Henry Wilson and James Ridger. Bacon testified that he was present at the time the will is said to have been made, and heard something about it then, but was not an official witness and did not see it. His testimony only served to corrcbo- rate Laville's as to certain more or less important incidents of that night.
 The case was resumed yesterday morning with testimony for the con- testants. The principal witness of the forenoon was G. A. Howe, for whom Laville had made the copy than which the original was more better According to Howe's testimony the will was a money making project de vised by Laville, who had tried to realize on it His evidence in the main was negative and inconclusive. The most important witness of the day was George W. Hoadley, whose testimony was expert. He said that the sigma ture attached to the will was not James Bank of Arizona he was familiar with Roarkes signature. He pointed out certain characteristics which were il luStrated by the signature attached to a dozen checks given by Roarke. ''o'' and the '-a'' in these signatures were invariably disconnected, while in the signature of the will they were joined together. On the subject of signatures Mir. Hoadley said that while in the course of years ones hand writing