Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-04-07

M HNF4F - '' 80
The hour of will writing is a SOL
ann one; into his will the testator
puts his most serious reflections, and
from 1t we get a correct insight into
his character, because 1t genuinely re-
geals his heart and his conscience; 1t
the ~testator himself who speaks,
khough he is gone. The moving finger
writes; and, having writ, moves on;
nor all your piety nor wit shall lure
ett back to cancel half a line, nor all
your tears wash out a word of it,"
Our temporal possessions are but life
holdings, and the name in which
we part with them at the end of the
tourney revea not only our fortunes
but our spirits in their least disguised
forms, our motives, u principles and
our affections.
The history of wills and their study
Showing as they do the idiosyrcrasies,
Elevated or debased, the selfishness or
generosity, of the makers, and reflect
ing the customs and manner OF the
Hines in which they were written, are
subjects profoundly interesting, not
only to the lawyer, but to all lay
men.
Wills have been known from the
earliest periods of human history. 1t
is claimed by learned antiquarians
that Adam, Noah and Job mad tesla
mentary dispositions of their property.
That the old patriarch Jacob did so
cannot be doubted, for scripture re-
cords that Joseph received "a
portion above his brethren The
will, as we know it, is sup
posed to come from Roman law: yet
long before, in fact thousands Of years
before the days when Virgil sang, Nero
hddled n Caesar ruled. wills in writ
ten form were known In Egypt, a part
and parcel Of their high state of civili-
cation. The laws of Persia of a similar
date do not show written wills, but they
do show laws In man respects the same
as are ound in our statutes Of today.
An e~nterprising bank in Illinois has
copied the two side by side with strik-
ing effect.
Only a few years ago William Mat
thew Flinders Petrie, the renowned
Psychologist, unearthed at Kahun the
earliest known written will. 1t is dated
$500 years ago and yet is so c%uriously
modern that it might be granted pro-
bate today. By 1t the teStator settles
his property on his wife Teta for life,
but empowers her to dispose of it; a
guardian is appointed for the testator's
infant child, and the document it wit
messed in the manner prescribed by our
modern forms.
Seven hundred years before Christ,
oSAAiAlC1lCIt ~ iS1h q IA CLild Ny IL PdSoC
certain bracelets, c]oronets and other
precious objects of gold, ivory = pre-
cious stones deposited for safe keeping
in the Temple of Nebo."
Plato, Aristotle and Petrarch left
wills of great length and of
structural and sentimental beauty, and
so did Augustus Caesar and the poet
Virgil. The will, or a portion of
Axe viii, - Columbus So preserved
I'm Genoa. The will of Martin
Luther is under a glass case in
the Heidelberg library, and can be
inspected by visitors. The will of
Napoleon was for a long time at
old Doctors Commons in London,
but was returned TO the French
government at the request of Emperor
Louis Napoleon. The will of Shakes
peare can be seen at Somerset house,
London, where it was brought when
the Doctors Common was
as a registry some 80 years ago. There,
too, are the Wills of Lord Nelson, Izaak
Walton, Edmund Burke M many 9TH
,er famous men. The world a been en-
riched by their works and their wills
are in perfect harmony with their
lives.
The probate records at Washington,
d. c., contain a rich. store Of wills of
great Americans. ~ copy OF the viii CT
Washington is there, the original De-
ing on file somewhere In Virginia.
There are also the original wills Of half
a dozen other presidents, to say moth
ing Of those of many famous states
men. Abraham Lincoln left an estate
exceeding in value 500, 900, but died
intestate. General Grant left no will
end no estate. One Of the most per
fectly drawn wills which has come un-
der my observation, from a legal point
of view, is that Of Paul Revere. The
wills of Daniel Webster, Thomas JEFF
ferson, Chief Justice Marshall. Henry
Clay, Patrick Henry, John Randolph
and Robert E. Lee are voluminous pa
pers and exceedingly interesting. BY
these documents the testators freed
their slaves, as did Washington by his
last will.
{ p. T. Barnum left q large estate and
his will provides for the continuance
of the Greatest Show on Earth" 1t
is one of the longest wills on record
and is printed in pamphlet form. Brig
ham Young provided in his will for 10
wives and more than twice as many
children. Florence Nightingale be-
queathed her many medals, dec
She also gave her body for anat-
iomical uses and medical science, de-
clining burial in Westminster Abbey.
Lord Nelson, by a codicil to his will
written during the battle of Trafalgar,
requested the British government to
care for Lady Hamilton; but it was not
done and she died In poverty on French
soil. Those who have studied wills
know that they have played, and will