The Ketchikan miner., 1907-12-28
THE WILL OF AN INSANE MAN

l II n W ll<lL VT xtAN 1ANN<AA>AS Nh~AAN
 At the dinner of the Alumni Associ- ation of the Law Department of New York University, the Hon. Walter Lloyd Smith, of Elmira, N. Y., Pre- siding Justice of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, read the following, as ia remarkable will made by man who died in the Cook County Insane Asylum, at Cunning, Ill.":
 ''I. Charles Lounsbury, being of sound mind and disposing memory, do hereby make and publish this, my last will and testament, in order as justly as may be, to distribute my interest in the world among succeeding men.
 ''That part of my interest which is known in law and recognized in the sheep-bound volumes as my property, being inconsiderable and of no account, I make no disposal of in this my will.
 My right to live, being but life estate, is not at my disposal, but these things excepted all else in the world l now proceed to devise and bequeath
 Item: I give to good fathers and mothers, in trust for their children, all good little words of praise, and en- couragement, and all quaint pet names and endearments, and l charge said parents to use them justly and gener- ously, as the needs of their children may require.
 Item: leave to children exclu- eively, but only for the term of their childhood, all and every, the flowers of the fields, and the blossoms of the woods with the right to play among them freely, according to the customs of children, warning them at the same time against thistles and thorns. And devise to children, the banks of the brooks, and the golden sands beneath the waters thereof and the odors of the willows that dip therein, and the white clouds that float high over the giant trees. And I leave the child ren the long, long days to be merry in, in thousand ways, and the night and the moon and the train of the milky way to wonder at, but subject, nevertheless, to the rights hereinafter given to lovers.
 ''Item: I devise to boys, jointly, all the useful idle fields and commons where ball may be played; all pleas ant waters where one may swim; all snow-clad hills where one may coast. and all streams and ponds where one may fish, or where, when grim winter comes, one may skate, to have and to hold the same for the period of their boyhood. And all meadows with the clover blossoms and butterflies there of; the woods and their appurtenances {; the squirrels and birds, and echoes and strange noises and all distant places which may be visited together with the adventures there found. And 1 give to said boys each his own place at the fireside at night, with all pie lures that may be seen in the burning wood to enjoy without let or hindrance and without any incumbrance of care.
 ''Item: To lovers, I devise their imaginary world with whatever they may need; as the stars of the sky the red roses by the wall; the bloom of the hawthorn;. the sweet strains of music and aught else they may desire to figure to each other; the lastingness and beauty of their love.
 'Item: To young men, jointly, I devise and bequeath all boisterous, in- spiring sports of rivalry, and I give to them the disdain of weakness and undaunted confidence in their own strength. Though they are rude, give to them the power to make last ing friendships, and of possessing companions, and to them exclusively I give all merry songs and brave chor- uses, to sing with lusty voices.
 Item: And to those who are no longer children or youths or lovers, leave memory, and I bequeath to them the volumes of the poems of Burns and Shakespeare and of other poets, if there be others, to the end that they may live over the old days again, free ly and fully, without tithe or dimu- nition.
 s'Item. Tn our 1Oved oneS with snowy crowns I bequeath the happi- ness of old age, the love and gratitude of their chilrden until they fall ssleep."
 The significance of this "will'' is lost and it becomes merely curiosity