The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-04-03
WANTS TO LIVE FOR SPITE ONLY.
Old Man Can Use Barn, But Cannot
Sell or Bequeath 1t


Gibbs, of Woodville, doesn't want to
die. Being IS, he has arrived at a time
of life when most men think of getting
their affairs into shape for their de-
parture into the future world, but he
has other ideas. o.
He cherishes no hope of rounding
out century merely to show that reg
ular hours and abstinence from rum
and tobacco contribute to longlivety.
Neither is he afraid of death-he is not
the sort of man to be afraid of any,
thing; and, besides, he has lived a life
that he thinks will bear the scrunity of
ST. Peter.
His objection to dying is not so
much that he is having a good time on
this earth that he hates to leave it, or
that he has so much to do that he feels
he hasn't the time to die.
He wants to live because staying
alive, so far as ne knows, is the only
way he can keep his niece, Mrs Will
liam F. Wheeler, and her husband
from owning without restriction the
barn he built with his own hands many
years ago. The Wheeiers own the barn
now, but SO long as John Gibbs is alive
he has the right to share half of it.
Since the death of her father, Law
son Gibbs, seven or eight years ago,
Mrs. Wheeler and her husband have
occupied one half Of the house in
Woodville that her father and brother,
John, built 80 years ago. Ever since
the house was built, John and his sis
ter, Abbie Amelia Gibbs, have occupied
part of it.
Families Not Even NeighborTy.
The Gibbs homestead is about three
miles from the center of Woojville,
near the site of the Hopkinton Springs
hotel.
the Gibbs and the Wheeler families
are not even neighborly. In fact, pre-
cautions have been taken so that
there shall be an effectual separation
of the two sides of the home.
A wire fence extends across the front
the front door. A line of wire fence is
carried through the house, and the oc-
cupants of neither side would think for
a moment of trespassing on the do
main of the other. What worries John
Gibbs chiefly is the thought that when
he dies the Wheelers are going to have
the use of the whole barn. So long as
he lives he has a right to the use of
half of it, but that right ceases with
self it to anyone.
SO far as the house goes, John Gibbs
has the better of the argument. He
can use more than half of it, and he is
making it difficult for the Wheelers to
get much advantage out of that part
of the house by which they nave I'M
disputed possession, by refusing them
the use of the front stairs.
The difficulty which caused the erec-
ton of the dividing fence and led Jonn
Gibbs to determine to live as long as
he can contrive to do so, has split up
the Gibbses of the neignbOrhood. They
have all taken Sides
Trouble in a Deed
The dispute arose two years ago
over the omission of the words heirs
or assigns in a deed which conveyed
the property in dispute.
After long litigation it has been de-
cided that Gibbs mad the right to go
to the barn, and in getting there, to
pass over the Wheeler land. He has
retired from farming and hasn't much
occasion to go to the barn, but he likes
to go there and look around.
1t affords him a vantage point to
watch the Wheeler side of the house,
and ruminate upon the perverseness of
the occupants. He has the right to go
there, and ne proposes to exercise it