Connecticut western news., 1911-03-30
A SINGULAR
 WILL CASE By ARTHUR ". BREUSTER Copyright by American Press Asso-
 ciation, 1911.

Of all the strange coincidences have ever heard none Is stranger than one happening in my own life, and 1t led to important results.
 One day, happening in at my law yer's office, he said to me:
 By the bye, we have a big lot of papers in your case against Bunsby. It has all been settled up, and would like to turn them over to you. We are overburdened here with dead docu- ments."
 He called an office boy and sent for the papers. They came to me in one large bundle, which I tucked under my arm, walked home with 1t, and threw it, without opening it, into an iron box kept for family records.
 Ten years passed, during which pe- riod I went on an average to the box once or twice a year to toss into 1t some document that would probably never be needed again. had no oc- casion to look into the box during all this period, but the time came when I found it necessary to overhaul 1t in q search for a missing paper. By the time 1 found my paper every separate bunch had been unrolled and their con- tents were all in confusion. Picking up paper marked Last will and testa- ment of James Chieningsby," I was somewhat surprised to find such a document.
 I opened and ran my eye over its contents. There was nothing to indi- cate the value of the estate, nor were the names of any of the legatees fa- miliar to me. There were few small bequests to different persons, and the residue was to be given to a minor. How the paper got into my box was a mystery. I was not interested in the will, but I was deeply interested in how it came to be where 1 found it. It must have been there a long while, but not more than twenty years, for the date it was executed was no fur. ther back than that. But 1t might have been put in my box much more lately than that.
 I should have attached more impor. tance to it if persons could not make more than one legal will. It struck me that this might be an old one which had been voided by later one and had got mixed with old out of date papers. But that did not explain how it came to be in my possession for it was not a paper in which or any of my family, so far as I knew, had any interest. I looked it over carefully to see if there was any clew by which I could discover who were the legatees, but there was nothing to give me the slightest information con. corning it. took it to my desk in room I occupied for smoking and placed it in a pigeonhole, intending to advertise it. NBut time passed, and I took no action.
 Some time after this I married my stenographer and typewriter. She was very poor, and was not rich. was making a bare living and until our first child was born she retained her position in my service. Indeed, 1t was essential that she should, and when children came and was deprived of her assistance in spite of all my ef- forts was losing my grip and could not afford to hire another stenogra- pier.
 One morning while looking over my newspaper my eye drifted to real es' tate items. One of them mentioned the sale of a piece of property belong ing to the Chieningsby estate. The name was an odd one, but 1t seemed to me that had seen it somewhere before.
 "My dear" I said to my wife, "did you ever hear of the name Chienings' by"
 q had an uncle by that name, though I never saw him. He disap- peared when he was a boy and was never heard from. All know of him is that I heard my mother speak of him before she died"
 I kept thinking of the name till sud- denly it flashed upon me >that I had seen it in the will found in my iron box. I went to my desk, took out tho document and read the name of the testatoE-James Chieningsby. I call ed my wife and read the will to her. When came to the name of the heir to the residue of the estate I stopped. wonder stricken. 1t was her maiden name.
 She was as much mystifled as I. All she knew of the name of Chieningsby was what she had told me. But we were both in a flutter of excitement What did 1t mean? Then remember ed that a man may make a will every day if he likes and only the last one Is of any value. Nevertheless l was aroused. I rushed out to my attor- ney, or the one who had once had my law business, showed him the docu- ment and was about to ask him to make an investigation for me when he exclaimed:
 By thunder?'
 "Explainw I cried impatiently.
 "Instead of answering me he called out to his partners, Here's a will for the Chieningsby estate"
 For heavens sake tell me!'
 "Where did you get this?"