The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-04-06
BY VIRGIL M. HARRIS.

VS. 6Annl0s eE4
ever play, an important part in history
and human affairs.
Quite a number of Wills in rhyme
have been successfully probated.
Writers of fiction and playwrights are
fond Of constructing wills. Dickens
was a great will writer n his por-
trayal of the foibles OF elderly people
In making Wills. In his american
Notes." is not surpassed in correctness
of description or in accurate knowl-
edge Of testamentary affairs. Even
that prince of jokers. Don Quixote,
when death overlook him, exclaimed:
An end to jesting; bring me a confess
SCR to confess me and a notary to write
my will" Who can forget the will In
DIR. JekylT and Mr.. Hyde" or that Of
! old Noirtier In the Count Of Monte
Cristo," or the child's will in Little
! Women
Mr.. John Marshall Gest, of Philadel-
pbia, a very brilliant legal writer. says:
Every man who knows how to write
thinks he can write a will, and long
ma this happy hallucination possess
the minds of our lay brethren; for
surely st. Ives, the patron saint of law
yers. extends to none a heartier well
come in the life beyond than to the tes-
l tator who writes his own will" he
adds: Few testators know their own
minds, and a deathbed will is as sorry
a substitute as a deathbed repentance
is for a well ordered life"
Lord Coke was an eminent writer on
wills. He avs Wills and the con
struction Of them do more preplex a
man than any other learning. 7 find
grave doubts and controversies daily
arise in devises made by asst wills in
respect Of obscure and insensible words
and repugnant sentences; the will beng
made in haste4end some nretend that
the testator in respect Of extreme pain
was not compos mentis and divers 9TH
er scruples and questions are moved
upon Wills"
But the truth is tina wills are chiefly
broken from without and not from
within. That Is to say, wills are set
aside, not SO much from faulty con-
struction as from mental incapacity
and family differences and preferences.
resulting in parHality in distribution.
4 Not one will in 500 filed Is successfully
d contested; poorly constructed Wills
may stand, yet cause Inconvenience,
doubts n litigation.
Laymen should never attempt wills;
and it is a fact that not one lawyer in
10 can properly construct a will, ex-
cept it be OF the simplest nature, I'M
less his experience in this line Of work
has been extensive and he has seen the
practical everyday results of errors and
faulty composition. Accurate will
writing is an art which zones from
practice and experience, and requires,
in most Instances, a thorough knowl-
edge Of the law.
One Of the strangest facts in legal
: history is that g great number of emf
nent lawyers have constructed for
themselves defective wills. 1t means
nothing more, however, tina that their
abilities did not lie in the direction Of
will writing. Lord st. Leonards. whose
own will was the subject of a long and
costly litigation. wrote: II could with
out difficulty run over the names of
many judges and lawyers Of note.
whose wills, made by themselves, have
been set aside or construed so as to
defeat every intention they ever had"
The vagaries of the human mind in
will making are marked. The number
Of odd and curious wills Is limitless;
now and then we find in one bitterness
and malevolence, n a parting shot is
taken al some one or at the world it
self; but for the most part much char
ity fs manifested, and usually property
finds its way to annels which affec-
ton and justice should dictate. Our
respect fer human nature suffers !es=
from testamentary dispositions than 1t
doen from the conduct of those who
are benefciaries. The spectacle of
wrangling heirs is not a pleasing one.
In the old days In England lawyers
at their banquets used to AVE regular
toasts, Here's to the s~choolnaster,''
and Here's to the writer Of his own
, WILL" Schoolmasters and scrtveners
tried their hands at wills in olden
times, n yet do so, but often with
unfortunate results.
Pope must have had in mind the
preparation Of wills when he wrote his
famous line, IA little learning is a dan.
gerous thing" for it has a most fitting
application; yet men. contrary to adj
vice and the experience of centuries,
have ever attempted will writing by
their own hands or more generally
through i~ncuInpetent agents, anu viii
probably continue SO to do; and with
such instruments go doubts, difficult
ties, disappointments, unsafe titles and
the curse Of litigation.
The majority of testators find diff
Guilty in a satisfactory disposition of
Their estates, and may, and often do,
J survey conditions 'as through q glass
darkly.' There are griefs which can
not be confided; SORROWS which cannot
be shared; domestic skeletons which
/. must not be exposed; yet this would
be q barren world without genuine
friendships, and In every life some are
to be found. A testator cannot do bet
| ter in making his will than to consult
a trusted and l~evel-headed friend as to
the wisdom Of it's provisions. If that
friend Is his legal adviser, all the bet
/ ter; if not, then the legal adviser
, should be consulted, and the will ac-
curately drawn