New Ulm review., 1913-12-10
Insane Mans Will

Justice Walter Lloyd Smith, VIII
presides over the third department
of the appellate division of the Su
preme Court, brought with him Il
the dinner of the New York Univer
sity Law School Alumni Association
Saturday night what he said "wa
the most remarkable document tha
ever came into his possession" say!
the New York Times.
| Others who read the document, th'
last will and testament of Charles
Lounsbury, who died in the Cook
County Asylum at Dunning, Illinois
were not disposed to disag1e.H with
him. ~
Here it is: -
II, Charles Lounsbury,
sound mind and disposing
do hereby make and publishE
last will and testament, in
justly as may be, to distra
interest in the world amongs
ing men. e.. =
"That part of my interestI
known in law and recognize
sheep-bound volumes as my II
being considerable and of nor
l make no disposal Of it in
last will. Il
my right to live, being Il
estate, is not at my dispe
these things excepted, all e
world ! now proceed to d&
bequeath.
(Item) "I give to the goGe =. a.
theirs and Mothers, in trust for their
children, all good little words of
praise and encoura cement ,and all
quaint pet names and endearments,
and charge said parents to use
them justly and generously as the
needs Of their children may require.
(Item) II leave to children ex-
clusively, but only for the term Of
their childhood, all and every flower
of the fields, and the blossoms Of
the woods, with the right to play
among them freely according to the
custom of children, warning them at
the same time against thistles and
thorns. And I devise to children the
banks of the brooks and the golden
sands beneath the waters thereof,
and the odor of the willows that dip
therein; and the white clouds that
float high over the giant trees. And
l leave the children long, lono days
in which to be merry in thousand
ways; and the night; and the Moon;
and the train of the Milky Way to
wonder at, but subject, nevertheless,
to the rights hereinafter given to
lovers. ~
(Item) 81 devise to boys jointly
the use Of the idle fields and commons
where ball may be played; all pleas
ant waters where one may swim; all
snow-clad hills where one may coast;
and all streams and ponds, where one
may fish, or where, when grim VIM
ters come, one may skate; to have
and to hold the same for the period
of their boyhood. And all meadows,
with the clover blossoms and the but
terflies thereof; the woods and their !
the squirrels and
birds, the echoes of strange noises,
and all distant places which may be
visited together with the adventures
there found. And give to said boys
each his own place at the freside
at night, with all pictures that may
be In the burning wood, to enjoy
without let or hindrance and without
or care.
(Item) "To lovers, | devise their
world, with whatever they
may need as to the stars of the sky,
The red roses by the wall, the bloom
IF the hawthorn, the sweet strains
If music, and aught else by which
;hey may desire to figure to each
other the lastingness and beauty Of
heir love.
Qtem) ITO Young Men, jointly, I
levise and bequeath all boisterous, in
spring sports of rivalry, and give
% them the disdain of weakness and
1ndaunted confidence in their own
strength, though they are rude.
give them the power to make last
ng friendships, and of possessing
and to them exclusively
give all merry songs and brave
:horuses to sing with lusty voices.
Qtem) "And to those who are no
onger children or youths or lovers,
leave memory; and l bequeath to
hem the volumes of the poems of
Burns and Shakespeare, and of other
'oets,-if there be others-to the end
hat they may live over the old days
gain freely and fully, with out tithe
r diminution.
(Item) 'To our loved ones with
nowy crowns 1 bequeath the hap
iness Of old age, the love and graf
Jude of their children, until they fall