Evening journal., 1910-09-02
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Word That Revealed
Senator COnkIing'S Will
BY "HoIIand."


Roscoe Conkling, for fourteen years
United States Senator from New
York. and during that period one Of
the leaders in the national councils
of the Republican party, died as the
result of exposure in the great New
York blizzard Of 1888. Not until after
his funeral was over was the public
aware that Mr.. Conkling had been
much wealthier than It had common
ly believed His law practice, once
resumed, had proved most profitable;
and yet, seven years before his death,
when he wanted to leave Washington
for New York, following his resigna-
ton from the Senate, he was so poor
that he actually had to borrow the
necessary car fare from Chamberlain,
the famous hotel and restaurant man
of the national capital.
Since the estate left by the former,
Senator had value of several hum
dred thousand dollars. Il became
necessary for the immediate members
Of his family to search as soon as
practicable after his death for a will
lt was naturally presumed that Mr.
Conkling had left a Will; he was a
man Of most methodical habits. and
he surely knew that his estate was Of
considerable value. Yet, search where
they would. the family were unable
to locate any sign of a document max
ing testamentary disposition OF the
estate
AT last" said the late Colonel
Frederick A. Conkling. the Senators 8
brother, who. also, was a very brill
liant man and for many years law
yer OF considerable note in New York
state, some one of the family hap
pened TO remember that we had not
yet looked into small steel chest, or
box, which had belonged to Roscoe.
This box had a combination lock
which bore the letters Of the alphabet
instead of numbers, and through the
proper conjunction of some OF those
letters the box would open. Yet no
where were we able to find record
of the combination.
1T was deemed inexpedient to
break the lock. or tamper in any way
with the box itself, so the only thing
to do was to attempt to work out the
combination. If I remember correct
ly, we first tried the combination of
letters that spell the word Grant
Roscoe. you know. was great Grant
admireu, and we felt he might have
taken that name as his combination.
But we were wrong.
"Then word after word we tried.
Roscoe was one; Conkling was an
other; Utica, where the Senator lived
was third All the family names
we're called into use one after an
other. Still no encouragement-ab
soiutely none-and we were about
ready TO make up our mind to break
the lock. after all, when one of the
ladies present offered a suggestion.
"'Uncle, she said. was very fond
of the word Rome. Don't all of you
remember how he used to roll It out
with great delight in that deep, rich
voice of his2 / have heard him say
it thus many and many time-and
she gave fair imitation of the way
Roscoe used to pronounce the word.
And she went on, I have heard Uncle
say, oh, so many times, that he
/ thought i'm the word Rome was to be
found the finest combination of voweli
! and consonants I'm any word in The
| English language I am sure he tool
the word Rofnr-that he was so fonC
Of for the combination. Try 1t
! please
"At once we adopted the suggestion
AS the letter r. was found there came
a faint click from the lock. Care
fully. we turned to % and another
click resulted. An appeal TO m pro
duced a like result, and when tinall,
the last letter of the word that Roscoe
had delighted in saying was indi.
Gated behold the lock yielded, the
little steel box opened. and lying aloni
within it was the will we had beer
searching for so long
Also on the authority of Colone
Frederick Conkling. am able e
state that his distinguished brother'
achievements as an oratclr and as
great master of the English tongue
were due as much to intense applica
tion as to native gifts. Colonel Conk
ling had an intimate knowledge of hii
brothers methods, and on this mowl
edge he based his statement.
Copyright. 1910, by T.. ]. Edwards
All Rights Reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell D