Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-05
Mathew Whitman Will
By PERCY CHAMBERLAIN
Copyright, isaa, Dy Daily ssory Pub. oO.l

AT HEN the dried-up old lawyer fin- WV ished reading the will he grave ly removed his spectacles and glanced about the group surrounding the li- brary table. '
 On every face save one was surprise and consternaSon; on that one an amused smile played.
 And yet Harold Olney had more cause for surprise and consternation than any of the other heirs He had been old Mathew Whitman's favorite nephew. had always enjoyed liberal allowances by the old man and had been led to sup pose that the bulk of the great estate would go to him. Acting on this un- derstanding he had not hesitated to go the pace and mortgage the fortune. So he waA hopelessly in debt and now the gum of his expectations was $1 300. Not orly he, but the other heirs had ex- pected his portion to have two more ciphers added.
 Their hopes had not been so high ae Harold's, but they all had expected far more than they got.
 The old man had treated them all alike and had left each nephew and niece ex- actly 1.5O6. The balance of his great estate was to go to the Humane so- ciety. No reason was given in the will for this strange ignoring of his rela- tives and patronage of cause with which he never had manifested any par- ticular sympathy during his life, and the old lawyer was unable to give any reason in answer to the angry clamor.
 Perhaps the angriest person in the dingy old library was Jefferson Frank lin, who had hoped to share equally with Harold the major portion of the estate. The four nieces had no such great expectations, as they were we'll aware of Uncle Mathews dislike and contempt for women, but. they had ex- pected S10,O00 or $15000 each, as the old man had been stickler for blood relationships and his estate ran well over the half million mark.
 But Jefferson Franklin had had good reason for his hopes to be put at least Oh level with Harold, and share the greater part of the estate. In the first place it was no more than just, as, he was as near to the blood and male. Moreover, he had led a steady, sober, industrious life and proven himself a good business man, and while he knew his uncle always had condoned Harold's wild escapades and easy-going life, be- cause of some peculiar affinity between him and the boy, the other nephew knew that the old man approved of the solid business virtues He knew fur ther that old Mathew Whitman had po- sessed the desire to keep the fortune to- gether and had expressed the fear that Harold would dissipate it. Besides all this Harold had lot of the old x &n's money while he lived. He had educated both nephews and done much else for them, but Harold had had liberal reg ular allowance, and besides this the old man had paid his debts several times-and very considerable debts they had been. too.
 Uncle Mathew had frequently ex- pressed his approval of Jeffet son g steady business habits, and the young man had good reason for his expecta- tions So when the will was read he scarcely could believe his ears. A paltry ; 1,500, when he had expected more than hundred times the amount. Indeed, he haa planned just how he was to invest it so as to become power in the busi- ness world.
 Fifteen hundred dollars!" he ex- claimed. Why, the old fool was crazy. We ought to break the will"
 "Yes, yes!" chorused the nieces. "TIe was stingy old maniac. Let's break the will"
 The old lawyer shook his head grave Iy. That would be dif1cuit," he said.
 What do you say, Harold?" asked Jefferson, f1ercely turning to Harold
 tOh, Uncle Mathew was sane enough r | replied Harold. And Pm hanged if he didn't have the right to do as he pleased with his blamed old money"
 The meeting finally broke up in a storm of imprecations upon the mem 3Ty of the deceased. As they were going the piping voice Of the lawyer re- called them
 You have forgotten clause in the will. he said MT. Whitman requested that from the amount of your legacies you contribute enough to erect monu- ment over his grave"