The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-11-02

1t Was Drafted BY a Demented Chi
cage Lawyer.

How few men know their riches!
What is ours is ours only in so far as
we are conscious of it. And so, that
which we accept without thought and
no especial meaning to us, is not real
possession. You may have four hundred
leaves of paper, covered with printed
characters and bound together between
boards of leather, and yet you may not
own book.
Do you look upon the mountain and
the stream and eXclaim: "These are
mine!" If not, then you have ignored
natures dover to you. Do you realize
that your individual possession in art
is as broad as art itself? If not you
are refusing mans free gift to man. 1t
is so easy to be rich; the only thing
that is hard is to learn to know gold
when you see it.
The most sensible will ever written
was made by an insane man. He was
Charles Lounsberry, once a prominent
member of the Chicago bar, who in his
later years lost his mind and was COM
mitted to the Cook county insane asy-
lum at Dunning, where he died penni-
less. If he had lost his mind he had
kept his heart, or at least in his last
moments he was endowed with lucidity
that was higher than logic; for this
strange man, penniless though he was
knew that he was yet rich, and he made
will which, as the Chicago Record Her
aid said, was Framed with such perfect
ion of form and detail that no flaw
could be found in its legal phraseology
or matters" Inasmuch as poor, mad
Charles Lounsberry knew gold from
dross, we here reprint his will:
81, Charles Lounsberry, being of sound
and disposing mind and memory, do
hereby make and publish this, my last
will and testament, in order, as Justly
as may be, distribute my interest in the
world among succeeding men.
"The part of my interest, which is
known in law and recognized in the
sheep-bound volumes as my property,
being inconsiderate and of none account,
make no disposition of in this, my
will. My right to live, being but e
life estate, is not at my disposal, but
these things excepted, all else in the
world | now proceed to divise and be-
queath.
'ITEM: L give to good fathers and
mothers in trust for their children all
good little words of praise and encoura-
cement, and all quaint pet names and
endearments, and 1 charge said parents
to use them justly, but generously, as
the needs of their children shall require.
"ITEM: | leave to the children in
clusively, but only for the term of child
hood, all and every, the flowers of the
fields, and the blossoms of the woods,
with the right to play among them free
ly according to the customs of children,
warning them at the same time against
thistles and thorns. And / devise to
children the banks and brooks and the
golden sands beneath the waters there
of, and the odors of the willows that
dip therein, and the white clouds that
float high over the giant trees. And l
leave to children the long, long days to
be merry in a thousand ways, and the
night and the moon and train of the
Milky Way to wonder at, but subject
nevertheless, to the rights hereinafter
given to lovers.
'ITEM: 1 devise to boys jointly all
the useful, idle fields and commons
where ball may be played, all pleasant
waters where one may swim, all snow
clad hills where one may coast, all
streams or ponds where one may fish
or where, when grim winter comes, one
may skate, to have and to hold these
same for the period of their boyhood
And all meadows, with the clover bios
SONS and butterflies thereof; the woods
with their appurtenances, the squirrels
and the birds and echoes and strange
noises, and all distant places which may
be visited, together with the adventures
there found. And I give to said boys
each his own place at the freside at
night, with all the pictures that may
be seen in the burning wood, to enjoy