The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-01

rlOuS ulfflcQltleS.. NOl lOns dSo 1Np u H' tees in England, neither of them wealthy man, were compelled by the ben eficiary under the will to pay back to him out of their own pockets $S0,O0O which had been lost through an investment con- trary to the terms of the document but made in compliance with the beneficiary own most ardent wishes.
 Industrial Trustee.
 In legal phrase a trustee is a person "entrusted with property Tor the benefit of another" In more homely language such a person is one who has all the worries and responsibilities of wealth without any of it's enjoyments. Then, too, there are men who hetray the trust reposed in them and dssipate property whose rightful owners have no means Of recovering It. For these reasons the day of the individual trustee is passing. The modern trust company Is taking his place One New York company alone, the Trust company of America, Is trus- tee for more than 100000 worth of es- tates and private bequests.
 Without some means to carry out It's provisions there would be little use in making a will whether expressed in the ordinary legal phraseology or in the style adopted by the jovlal spirit who begun:
 "I William I1iclxington
 Poet of Pockington,
 Do give and bequeath,
 As free as I breathe"
 and continued throughout in doggerel or like that of the gentleman with prejudice against mustaches who careful 1y provided that none of his heirs should ever be anything but smooth-shaven. It is a curious fact that some of the crudest and quaintest wills have stood legal tests while others drawn up by sEilled lawyers have been successfully broken. One of the most remarkable wills on record in England was scratched on a plank of wood by a shipwrecked naval officer; another will admitted to probate in Now York, was written on the back of the frontispieee in a German story book. In Rhode Island may be seen what is probably the shortest will on record. It contains only six words;
 Mrs. -, I leave her all" Yet 1t was quite as effective as the prolixity and solemnity with which William Shakes peare began similar document.
 "In the name of God amen." wrote the great dramatist "I. William Shakes peare of stratford- -uponAvon,. in the County of Warwick, Gent. in perfect health and memory God be praisedD do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following: that Is to say,"-then after vet more if troducton comes the long list of be- quests and instructions to his executors.
 Curious Requests.
 Trustees and executors come face to face with some very curious requests, sometimes, indeed, requests that com mon sense insists upon disregarding. one of the most remarkable conditions ever
 faf nx ample. was the command of a New Eng land gentleman that his skin be made into two drum heads, the same to be- come the property of old friend, who should go to Bunker Hill at sunrise every 17th of June and there beat on the said drum the tune of Yankee Doo- dIe" The request was the more easily ignored as it had no bearing upon the actual disposal of his goods and chat tels. And hardly less startling was the wish expressed in the will of Jeremy Bentham distinguished author, and founder of the School of Utilitaranism, that his body be embalmed and seated fin his favorite arm chair at the banquet table of his friends and disciples at any especially important meetings The wish in this case was actually carried into effect and for several years the figure of the benevolent philosopher still pre- sided over his friends banquets-gazing from a glass case 10 be sure, but de- scribed as having all the appearance, thanks to the skill of the embalming pro- cess, of an excellent statue. But as time went on the banauets became fewer, and the old gentleman now sits in the museum of an English college.
 In actual donations of money that one or more trustees must administer. the human nature of will lies more ire ouently in it's smaller than In it's larger donations A man in England, for in- stance some time ago, bequeathed the sum of twenty shillings year, payable at five shllings quarterly, to d poor man "to go about the parish church, during the sermon. to keep people awake, and to keep dogs out of the church." One can almost see him in imagination sit ting in his pew and chuckling in ad- vance over that provision And there was q man in Ohio not long ago who founded by will an infirmary for home less cats and took good care to specify that proper sporting grounds well stocked with rats, should be provided for the inmates
 Far removed from his kindly feeling was the Bostonian-although there may