The Ketchikan miner., 1907-12-28

if we place the emphasis upon the fact that the author was an inmate of an insane asylum.
 As the "will' stands it is strong CT indication of the insanity of the world than it is of the testator's. For the first time since men learned to outwit each other and to cheat pos tity by taking little liens upon the common estate, somebody has thought to return the heavens and the earth to the rightful owners. The instru- ment would not stand in law, but no decision of a court could break 1t. For it is really meant for an enchant- ment which only children and saints. and few wise men and vagabonds would understand.
 And what commentary it is upon the average will, which often so grud- ingly and suspicously doles out the testator's estate. There are no condi- tions here to intimate doubt of the worthiness of the legatees or their right to enjoy the gift. The maker of it has changed the very formulas of Socialism into high poetry, halloS- ed good fathers and mothers and their children, all youths and lovers and old people with his confidence and love.
 Never before have children recieved such a legacy or one so fitted to their nature and needs as this, "All and every, the flowers of the fields, and the blossoms of the woods, with the right to play among them freely, ac- cording to the customs of children. y This last clause, added like tender codicil, shows the miracle of under standing. We have almost forgotten that children have "customs' of their own, as different from the uninspired ways of grown people as the wings of birds are different from the arms of men. We torture and compress their young spirits into nurseries and ugly back yards and alleys and streets and prim parks. Only once in a while do they manage to achieve few little things on the sly according to the customs of children. And thousands of them never enter upon their right ful inheritance of the woods and fields. It is no wonder that so many of them grow up perverted into trust mag mates or that they should commit sui eide or go insane. As if to ensure their happiness beyond any chance, this will leaves lin trust to good fathers and mothers, all good little words of praise and encouragement, and all quaint pet names and endear- ments, and I charge said parents to use them justly and generously as the needs of their children may acquire. v
 If every man had the spirit of giv- ing which characterizes the maker ot this will, we should have less need ot so much dollar marked charity. For when all else is given this fact re- mains-we are the legacies to those who come after us. And the great givers are those who shall confer love, and the good little words of praise to needy childhood, who concede to lov- CTS the whole world for an enchant- ment, and to young men ''the disdain of weakness, " and to the old pleasant memories. It is poetry, of course, and we are not yet high enough in the scale of things to take our legacies in this form, but that is our fault, not the testator's. It takes very rich man to bequeath the Milky Way among other items to succeeding men," but this man who died in Cook County Insane Asylum had somehow got fee simple to the universe, and it is his manner of disposing of it which is worthy of attention.