The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-14
Are Business Men Careless
About Making Their Wills +?
Lawy who Assert Neglect This
Matter is The

keeper for the testator, or who have taken
care of him during some long illness, the
jury will give them the benefit OF the doubt
l do not blame people, and L don't think
any one else will, who have an interest in
an estate for contesting for their rights,
but such cases as these are as few as the
man of wealth who dies without leaving
will. To the best of my knowledge there
are fewer wills set aside, less injustice and
less wrong done in this way than in most
any other kind of law cases, but on account
of the exaggerated reports of such things
people are generally under the impression
that there is no use of making a will. for
there is no justice about the whole affair,
and the courts will dispose of their property
to suit themselves.
What constitutes a will and how should
1t be drawn so that there will be no
grounds for contesting it?' Mr.. Denny was
asked.
"A WILL" he said. lis not generally as
difficult legal document 10 draw up as is
commonly thought The truth is any one
can write a will so long as he adheres to
two OF the most important rules. The first
and most important. indeed. is absolutely
necessary, is that two witnesses who are
uninterested parties shall sign their names
TO the will. This Is, as L said before. alb
solutely necessary. and is what makes the
Will legal. OF course. uninterested persons
must be the witnesses. because il would
never do for man who was receiving a
large portion of an estate TO sign his name
as witness. Two witnesses are necessary,
because one sees the other sign his name
and they both see the testator sign his.
The next thing that has TO be done is
that the will must be dated so that there
will be something definite about the time Ii
was drawn, and there should also be some
proper form of wording set out through the
whole document, so that the testator states
clearly and In as few words as possible
what he desires done with the property that
he is to leave. OF course. IL a competent
lawyer is consulted and writes the will this
will be looked after all right, for he knows
what is essential and what Is not, but II is
not necessary to have lawyer do this
work. Any one can write will, and Ii is
legal so long as ii is signed by the witnesses
and the testator; and If he states clearly
what he desires done with his estate there
Is no way to get around 1t to have the will
contested.
SOME QUEER TESTAMENTS.
Sometime after a PERSONS DEATH" Mr..
Denny went on. 1.-THE will that is probated
is very singular affair. Some people will
make great literary effort while others
are very concise and straight to the point
in what they say OF course these varieties
of wills are mostly where people write them
themselves AS short and concise a will
as has ever come to my notice was that
of an old woman who was an inmate of the
Katherine Home. She had a little prop
erty and two United States bonds when
she died. and when her will was probated
IL was, written on piece of paper not
larger than your hand and stated with pre-
cision what she wished done with her eff
fects. Very often one finds wills that are
very odd documents from the fact that the
testator has some strange desire that he
wants carried out after his death-as for
instance, the manner in which his funeral
shall be conducted, he may specify the
price that he wants paid for his coffin and
such queer things that. AS a rule how
ever, wills are very carefully prepared, but
tue lawyer of course Will write one exactly
as his client wishes ii written, and 1t is
In this way that often these strange desires
of the testator will creep in"
Mr.. Denny further contended that law
yer could not write his own will
1T always seemed very strange to me-"
he said, but nevertheless Ii is the truth
that lawyer, no matter how competent
he may be. seldom has the ability TO write
his own will. When he bequeaths his own
property he generally gets things so mixed
up that court has TO be appealed TO to
divide the estate. Take the instance of
Samuel Tilden- His will written by
himself, and after his death you remember
the notable lawsuit that resulted by those
cOntesting his will and that the court set
1T aside And L venture to say that during
his long years OF practice in which he no
doubt had written numbers of wills for his
clients. that the only set aside
by a court. 1t seems strange that a law
yer is unable TO write his own will, but |
guess that Ii is along the same line as the
physician who cannot treat himself or fam
lily. We do all right when il comes to
working out other peoples problems but
when IL comes to our own have to de-
pend on somebody else"