Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-07-23
WHIMSICAL Wills
m Nature as Shown IN
Queer Requests and Requests.
FEAR OF PREMATURE BURIAL.

f6AN VI Ph6MAI Un6 oUnIAA
This orsad Has Often Been the Cause
q Curious Provisions In Last Tesla.
msnts-Ths Grave Of . Man Whs
oisliksd the Society Of Women.
The remarkable will Of a man who
died not long ago directing the under
taker to stab him through the heart
after be had been pronounced dead BY
bis physician Ii not q unique one. The
fear Of being buried alive has driven
many q man to stlpulate In his Will
that extraordinary steps be taken to
make sur of death.
Thus, for instance, a magnate Of
Plymouth, England. decreed By bis
will that bis wife should cut OF one
Of bis toes or fingers to make sure he
was dead. adding that he made the
request 90 that ''as she had been trou-
bled with one old fool she will not
think Of marrying a second"
The will Of Lord Lytton contained
special directions 40 to the examina-
ton Of his body In order to provide
against the possibility of bis being
buried while In a trance. which ap-
peared to be an apprehension of his.
A farmer Of Hertfordshire. England,
who died In. 1870. was 80 certain that
| his lethal slumber was to be not really
death, that he inserted In his will his
written wish that. las he was about
to take a thirty years. nap. his cofin
might be suspended from a beam In
his barn and by no means nailed
down." He. however, permitted it to
be locked. provided a hole were made
in the side. through which the key
might be pushed, so that he might let
himself out when he awoke. His
nephew. who inherited the property.
obeyed his whim and did not bury the
coffin till 1851. allowing him an extra
year Of grace.
The sieur BODY, who died in 1S45 at
the age of ninety-six, said In his will:
"Eight and forty hours after my de-
cease l desire that a post norton ex-
animation be made. that my heart be
taken out and placed in an urn, which
shall be intrusted to M. Baudoin (the
undertaker). In conformity with an
arrangement between him and myself
my heart is to be conveyed to q
mausoleum In the department of La
Mayenne and there to be deposited, 40
agreed"
Robert, the famous Earl Of Mellent
and Leicester, one Of the early cru
saders in the holy land. died in Ills
In the abbey Of Preaux. where bis
body was buried. but his heart was
conveyed to the hospital at Brackley.
there to be preserved in salt Isabella.
daughter Of the Earl Of Pembroke. who
died in 1880. ordered her heart to be
sent in a silver cup to her brother,
then abbot Of Tewkesbury, to be buried
there before the high altar. The heart
of John Ballot, lord Of Barnard cas-
tie, who died in 1869, was by his wid-
ow's desire inclosed in an ivory casket
richly enameled with silver.
But all these examples, strange as
they may be, are not especially re-
markable among the countless num-
bers of curious wills which are record
ed through many generations.
There Is, for example, the will of a
rich old bachelor. who. incensed at
what he considered the attempts of his
IA mily to put him under the yoke Of
matrimony, vented bis spite on the
whole sex of women by saying in his
will: II beg that my executors will
see that l am buried where there is no
woman inferred, either to the right or
to the left Of me. Should this not be
practicable In the ordinary course OF
things | direct that they purchase
three graves and bury me In the mid
die one OF the three, leaving the two
others ~unoccupied."
John Reed, gaslighter Of the Walnut
Street theater, Philadelphia, filed that
post for fouty-four years. There Is
not on record a single performance at
the theater at which he was not pres
ent. He never aspired to appear on
the stage in his lifetime, but he was
not without his mute ambitions. and
before he died he contrived Ingenious
" to make sure Of assuming a Shake
spearean role after his death. A clause
In his will read:
my head is to be separated from
my body Immediately after my death.
the latter to be buried in q grave, the
former, duly macerated and prepared.
to be brought to the theater, where !
have served all my life, and to be en-
ployed to represent the skull of Yorick,
and to this end l bequeath my head to
the properties."-New York Sun.
The F~in9srlsss Glove.
How early did mankind think OF the
convenience Of the fngerless glove
which modern babies. fishermen and