The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-20
GIVES AWAY PIANOS.
Town Authorities Believe j. c. Hall Is
Not Competent to Manage Estate.
New York Herald

Town Authorities Believe j. c. Hall Is
Not Competent to Manage Estate.
New York Herald.
Andrew Carnegie gives away libraries for
his own personal aggrandizement-I want to
give these young ladies presents because
am benevolent. That is the difference be-
tween Andrew Carnegie and John G. Hall.
of Berlin Conn.," exclaimed Mr.. Hall yes
terday in the New Britain Court of Probate,
where the town authorities of Berlin sought
to prevent him from throwing his money
away girls
There is no longer any personal liberty
in my native State" went on the aged
philanthropist, trembling and watched by a
small courtroom full of eager and meddle-
some citizens.
II shall move to New York where, now
that Mr.. Mcclellan has come into his own
things will be wide open, and men of ma
ture years like myself can be benevolent
l have not been down to the big city for
"a time since Seth Low came into Office"
Mr.. Hall, who looks quite unlike Andrew
Carnegie, but who is a dead ringer for the
late lamented bill Nye.'' wants the court
to remove conservator from his estate
and person so he can go on peppering his
native State with pianos and diamond
brooches.
You know" he says, up here in Con-
necticut, if you hold to your money
the neighbors shoot putty balls al you, and
if you give ii away with a liberal and
benevolent hand, as want to and started
to do, the town In which you live kidnaps
your estate and your private bank account.
only afraid they won't get some of the
money and that / will ask them for a
crust of bread in my old age"
Mr.. Hall is now about sixty years old,
and the authorities of Berlin, which is the
second puctuation on the New York, New
Haven & Hartford Railroad, after leaving
New Haven, are afraid he will become a
public charge. Consequently everybody in
the towns OF Berlin and New Britain is
interested in stopping the old man in his
efforts to loop the loop of benevolence and
CarnegieiSm
The sheriff hauled the old man up before
Judge George Klett, i'm New Britain, yes
terday, and Corporation Counsel Gaffney
produced a wagonload of farmers, neigh
bors of the Old man, to prove that he is in
competent to manage his wealth. He has
just about enough to go down the line, "
as they say in the white light section, for
one brief evening. But in his native COM
munity and among his own townsmen his
fortune is quite some nutmegs.
The old man produced eleven neighbors to
testify that he Is better now than ne was
year ago, when the conservator. Arthur
w. Upson, was appointed, and that he is
capable of handling his vast estate of about
a thousand dollars.
Witnesses for the town told all they knew
and all they had been told that somebody
else knew about the aged philanthropist
who came there in about 1893. This made
Mr.. Hall mad and he scored them for med
ding, when his turn came to testify In his
own behalf.
Seth Perkins, Josh whitcomb,
| lowed that John c. Hall warn't capable
| of managing his own affairs by a darned
sight, and they were to man agin the
removal of the said CONSERVATION
1t came out, by pumpkins, that John Hall
| had given away pianos TO pretty nearly
| every young snip of girl that had crossed
the big road which leads to his ancestral
| home.
| For those in Southington, Meriden and
| other towns who did not visit his native
| heath he bought pockets full of diamond
! sunbursts, dog collars, etc., so the farmers
| had heard tell. and, by thunder, he used
| to be away from his home sometimes for
morn two nights at time. and nobody
| knew where he was unless he were visit
| ing some fair charmer unbeknown to his
fellow tOwnSmen.
| The like of this SANDER made John Hall
| madden 'eL a wet hen, and he settled the
whole business with one bald-headed state
! ment
well, If L did," he said, whose business
| is it? There is streak of benevoence in
me which don't run in most of the human
| arteries in this locality, and want to state
! without any fear of contradiction, gentle
/ men and 1ellOW-cltlZenS, since you are SO
| wont to point fingers Of scorn and scandal
| at me, that for all the charity and kind
ness John Hall, of the old homestead never
! got so mitch as one kiss
| "Villain that he is" quoth Seth Perkins
under his autumnal colored whiskers why
does he try to deceive US sou
1T is true" exclaimed Hall. "as true as
| 1t is that my great-grandmother lies buried
beneath the ancient elm by the barn of my
boyhood home"
| And it must be true, because even the
/ man with his fingers deepest in John Halls
business cannot point to one night of rev.
| elry either in the old home or the wicked
cities of New York. Meriden and Bridge
| port.
few details about Mr. Hall pulling u,
| grass by the roadside under the impress
| sion that he was moving hay, and sleep
ing in his felt boots when the thermometel
was 30 below nothing, under the impress
| sion that 1t was cold, were mentioned bj
| the witnesses who are really familiar witt
the habits of the old man. One witnes,
heard. about twenty years ago that Mr.
| Hall wanted to marry a female house
keeper who was working for his mother
| who is now dead.
| Another knew positively that he gave Z
| piano last year to Gertrude Elton. an Eng
| fish girl. who kept house for him. Anothe
knew that John Hall had mortgaged hi
| farm He got about 81. 900 and in the oper
| market the place would bring about 500.
| "And what has he done with all tina
| antique furniture, that lovely and extreme
| ly valuable old stuff which his mother use,
70 have?" exclaimed an ancient dame VIII,
| had previously been dickering with the con
| servator for highboy which had beer
sold by the conservator to get John Hal
some funds with which to buy some winte
/ socks.
| After the hearing Hall tied his throa
| I'D i'm a big scarf that his mother knfttet
for him when he was boy. and trudge,
| the half dozen miles back TO his desolat,
home in the woods.
Judge Klett. who is a very young man
but who is considered one of the wises
| in all New Britain. has taken the paper
| under consideration. and the rest of tn
| inhabitants are holding their breath IN
| not their tongues. pending a settlement
| of the affairs of John Hall. who is one o
| the most innocent old fellows in the State
College Building Burned.
| ATHENS, Ca. Nov. 19.-Science Hail. or
| the campus OF the University of Georgia