Holbrook argus., 1911-01-31
KEW HENs OF YESTERDAY
How Single Word Revealed Will
 Left by ConkIing.
Senator's Niece Remembered He Llk- ed Rome" and the Combination of Letters Was Found to Open
 Safe Where Testament Lay.
By E. J. EDWARDS.

Roscoe Conkling, for IA years years United States senator from New York, and during that period one on 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 aft CT his funeral was over was the pub lie aware that Mr. Conkling had been much wealthier than it had common ly believed. His law practice, once resumed, had proved most profit able; and yet, seven years before his death, when he wanted to leave Wash ington for New York, following his resignation from the senate, he was so poor that he actually had to borrow the necessary car fare from Chamber lain, the famous hotel and restaurant man of the national capital.
 Since the estate left by the former senator had a value of several hun dred thousand dollars, it became ne cessary for the immediate members of his family to seach as soon as prac- ticable after his death for a will. It was naturally presumed that MT. Conkling- had left a will; he was man of most methLdical 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 docu- ment making testamentary disposi- tion of the estate.
 "At last" said the late Col Freder- ick A. Conkling, the senator's broth CT, who also was very brilliant man and for many years a lawyer of con siderable note in New York state, some one of the family happened to remember that we had not yet looked into a 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 con- junction of some of those letters the box would open. Yet nowhere were we able to find a record of the con- bination
 Tt was deemed expedient 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 con- bination. If I remember correctly, we first tried the combination of letters that spell the word Grant Roscoe, you know, was a great Grant admirer, 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 a third. All the family names were called into use one after an other. Still no agement-abso- lutely none-and we were about ready to make up our minds 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 his? I have heard him say 1t thus many and many a time'-and she gave a fair imitation of the way Roscoe used to pronounce the word. | And she went on, I have heard l Uncle say, oh so many times, that he thought in the word Rome was to be found the finest combination of vow els and consonants in any word in the | English language. I am sure he took the word Rome that he was so fond of for the combination. Try it, 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 O and another click resulted. An appeal to m pro duced like result, and when finally the last letter of the word that Roscoe had delighted in saying was indicated, behold! the lock yielded, the little steel box opened and lying along with in it was the will we had been search ing for so long,
 Also on the authority of Col. Fred erick Conkling, I am able to state that his distinguished brothers achievements as an orator and as a great master of the English tongue were due as much to intense applica- ton as to native gifts. Colonel Conk- ling had an intimate knowledge of his brothers methods, and on this knowl- edge he based his statement.
 Copyright, 1910, by E. J. Edwards. All Rigbts Reserved