Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-07
THE SMITH WILL
Father Threatened to Leave Bis Money 10 Phll " HspeBDy.


 Edith Smith in the probate court
 yesterday when testifying about the
 queer ways of her father, the late
 Truman J. Smith, who cut off his
 children with the sum of $1 each
 and left his all to Clifford H. Wells
 son of A. H. Wells, Philip Hapenny
 who lives in the north end was the
 bogy man of their family. When
 ever her father wished to scare
 them when they were snhll chll-
 dren he would say:
 Now If you don't be good I'll
 leave all my money to Phil Hapen>
 n.y."
 Who is this Phil Hapenny, al,
 Irishman?" asked Lawler Bronson
 of counsel for the will, Is he liv> : ing?"
 z T don't know who he is,'' said
 Miss Smith.
 "Oh, l know him, he's living all right, said Judge Lowe.
 For corroboration of this answer, not that he doubted the court for a moment, MT Bronson asked re.
 porter, and the scribe signified he
 knew MT Hapenny and that he was all right and alive but not kicking
 But the press doesn't pretend 10 be always accurate" said Lawyer Carmody, counsel for the heirs, smil- ing.
 Well, the law while legal is not always right either," said the press, and then everybody laughed, and the hearing went on, while the thun- der crashed and the lightning fash ed and the rain came down in ter rife showers.
 It was Smiths custom to deposit in a bank sums of money from time to time in the names of his three daughters, Edith, Mary and Bertha Stackman, and when they reached Fl years present them with the banN book. Miss Smith was not sure if Mary got hers but she said herself and Bertha got theirs. It amounted to about $500 each. He was also particular that Edith should get what she called "a full education. She is graduate of St Margaret's. She did not know he had any par ticular friend or person whom he contided in or sought advise from and she knew MT Hapenny only by hearsay of her father. His was the only name that she could recall her father ever mentioning.
 She admitted that she never spoke to her father when she saw him on the streets, which testimony bears out the evidence of A. II. Wells who said few weeks ago at the first hearing, that Mir Smith often told him 1t used to break his heart when he saw his daughters pass him without pretending to see or know him. Her reasons for passing him by, Miss Smith said, was because she did not wish to attract atten- tion to herself. She often heard her father say to a man he was speaking to. There goes my daugh- ter and she don't know me-" His wife also used to pass him by.
 Miss Smith denied that her fa- ther ever struck her but she ad- mitted that he twice threatened to shoot her when she was about l4 years of age. She Is 21 now. He would point a loaded revolver at | her face and asked her how she i felt. The divorce which parted l smith and his wife was granted in | 1901. It was allowed on allega- lions of cruelty. and alimony went with 1t. Miss Smith could not say I how much. but she remembered that | the court in Watertown ordered him to pay his wife 8 week. Smith once struck his brother. John. with a hoe and the blow cos the man his right eye. Once he struck his wife with an umbrella and once he threw her as she was alighting from a buggy. She did not know his as- sociates but she judged that some Of them had very bad habits.
 Shortly before his death Smiths mind used 10 wander and he used to say he was out walking with people who were long since dead. Mrs Smith did not know he had rfade a will until after his funeral and then she heard it in a general way, and she could not get him to say where was the paper which he said would be a great benefit to her. Miss Smith. was on the stand ihe greater part of the day.
 George German, who took care of Smith a few days in his Chestnut avenue house before he was removed 10 the Watertown sanitarium. testi- fled that Smith used to send him about 150 times a day and night with imaginary keys to A. H. Wells and he used to pretend to go and also go through the performance of Mir Wells. There was 10 telephone in Smiths house.
 The tenant downstairs was lfraid Smith would set fire to in. louse. Smith, according 10 the evi. ience of German. imagined he was ] keymaker and he would sit for lours fooling with a key in a key lole. He used to carry a bunch of Ieys and he imagined he had made , hem all.
 Once he heard Smith say there yere people who tried to Eet his money but he would see that his hildren would get it. German z aid that in his estimation a man c rho would speak about keys from
 a. m. to D. m., who would 20 2 trough the operations of telephon- q ag from 200 to Is5 times a day. g rae rarfafu1w rwavw 3