The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-03
A WILL THAT STANDS.

"Where there is a will there is way to break
it." is pretty good modern adaptation of the old
saying which regards the will from another point
of view. Yet there and have been wills that
have not been broken in spite of the intelligent eff
forts of loving kindred whose affections had only
grown demonstratve after the death of the amented
testator.
A will Of this latter description is that of Mr.
Thomas Thompson. formerly of Boston, who departed
this life some thirty years ago or over. Mr.. Thomp-
son having died without heirs of his body him
viving. the attorneys might phrase it, decided to
leave the income of all his wealth to his wife, aud
after DEATH he willed that all his property should
go 'the relief and support Of poor seamstresses
needlewomen and shop girls who may be in tenn
porary need, from want of employment, sickness and
misfortune, in Brattleboro VT. Rhinebeck
duchess county, N. Y"
! The selection of these two localities is due first
to the fact that Mrs Thomas Thompson born
in Brattleboro, while it during of his visits
to Rhinebeck that the soul of the testatOr har
rowed by the sufferings of individual seamstress
The will duly admitted to probate, and, being
self-enforcible during the life of Mrs. Thompson.
no particular interest was maintained in its pro-
visions after the laudabe legal struggles of the &c
voted relatives to break the will had ceased.
There is no record of the grounds which
the courts held the provision as the seamstresses
might however, not be disinclined to believe that
the result was In great measure due to the other
provision of the testator, which declared in effect
that, whatever other disposition might might not
be made of his property after his wifeS deceaSe it
should not be bestowed with any advantage to the
city of Boston, the people Of that pretentious
community. Mr.. Thomas Thompson, the testaror, by
the way, born in Boston.
Time works wonders 1t certainly has wrought
N Y AS one of the leading residents of the village.
who derives his patent to voice the local sentiment
from an ancestral line running back three hundred
years resident in Rhinebeck, expressed it:
1t is the milonaires who running these noble old
herethe Astors yonder the Morgans
to the right of mionaires to the left OF u.s. mil
lionares behind buying up the riverside property IN
And Rhinebeck has submitted to the general
"run" prevalent among the Hudson river towns,
with the result that there is neer poor seamstress,
needewoman shop girl at least there was not
until the provisions of Mr.. Thompson's will were
made known anew to the present generation
A remarkable development it surely is that the
great difficulty in dispensing the millions of the hui
name Mr.. Thomas Thompson will arise in the IN
ability to those who might properly be regarded
their beneicares. OF course there are certain IN
dustrious and humane gentlemen who are interested
in producing such benefcaries. And among them
is the head Of the local bar of Rhinebeck, who, IN
discussing the provisions of the WILL tearfuy refers
to 'the poor women who shaving their lives away
over the needle" whom it is needless to say he
siders himself retained to represent
The fate of Rhnebeck is paraleled In all things,
except in the influx Of miilionaires, by the Of
Brattleboro VT But each community is happy at the
present writing in the conviction that the supply OF
poor seamstresses and their sisters of the shop viii
not in the immediate future be confined by any
to the more or less mythical ladies whom the lead
ing lawyer of Rhinebeck has found to be working
their lives in anticipation of the distribution OF
the millions of the late Thomas Thompson.