Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1917-01-25
WILL MAKING A Bet
TESTAMENTS OF NOTED LAW.
YERS OFTEN SET ASIDE.
Questioning the Sanity Of the De.
ceased the Usual Method Of Evad-
Ing His Wishes a. to Disposi.
tlon Of His Property.

Will making is the great post NOR
tenn lottery of civilized man. His will
is, as 1t were, a lottery ticket which
he buys to give away, and whether
those to whom he gives the tickets
draw prizes or blanks is one lottery
the more.
When will does not suit the rela-
tives Of the deceased (and that Is an
occurrence by no means rare) 1t Is GUS
tomary to contend that the will max
er was not in his right mind. In or
der to "crack" will, says Uncle Dud-
ley in the Boston Globe, we contend
that the will maker was Cracked"
and as many wills are made In that
period technically known as second
childhood" 1t Is usually not difficult
to show that the testatOr was at least
eccentric. The result Is that doctors,
neighbors, trained nurses and rela-
tives appraise an attentive court and
no less expectant pubic Of all the
personal peculiarities of poor, dear
Uncle william" with view to estab-
mind nor anywhere near it.
Will making Is the stock in trade of
literature and drama. The lOng-lost
will turning up on the tick of II is the
recognized method of getting the dis
tressed heroine out of her predicament
and bringing down vengeance on the
wicked.
A good half of our plays and novels
could hardly have been plotted without
the whims and stratagems Of cantaker-
Gus and curmudgeOnly will makers.
George Eliot, In her novel of Mid
dlemarch," has scene of Shakespear-
can humor In which misers will Is
read after his funeral and nobody gets
what he expected. Samuel Butler in
his novel "The Way Of All Flesh" has
some amusing remarks on the parental
folly of "will dangling and will shak-
ing" to intimidate ones children, and
concludes that these powers are so H.
able to abuse that he would pass
law, If he could, to incapacitate any
man from making will for three
months from the date Of each Offense
of that kind and let the judge dispose
of his property as seemed best II he
died during the time when his will
making power was suspended.
Two founders of the American Re
public were wise in their generation
ON the subject of will making-Benja-
min Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
Franklin left $1,000 to his native town
of Boston and similar amount to
Philadelphia to aid young married
artificers" in starting business, and
which at the end of century was to
be divided, part going for public work
and part to be continued at interest
for another century. The result Is
our industrial school, the Franklin
union. Philadelphia's fund has not
Jared as well as ours.
jefferson perceived that the English
custom of transmitting estates so as
to keep them undivided and in single
family by laws Of primogeniture and
entail was one of the effective methods
of creating landed aristOcracy or rul-
ing class. Believing not In aristocra-
cies, but in democracy, he took good
care to head off that tendency, with
the result that our country Is reason
ably quit Of at least that incubus. Ac-
tuaries figure that 70 years is about
the average span within which great
family estate may be held In trust and
intact under our laws.
The law itself draws fairly equita.
BILE will for man who dies without
making one. In Massachusetts,, for
example, it gives, generally speaking,
two-thirds to the children and one
third to the widow. 1t cannot, OF
course, take account of public be-
quests, but it represents the supposed
wishes of normal citizen with re-
spect to his heirs and property.
The irony of death itself haunts the
will. Great lawyers, like Samuel J.
Tilden, who have made wills by the
score, have their own wills set aside.
The will dramatizes the shortness OF
human foresight. If the testator was
wealthy, people ask "How much did
he leaveT' and answer mockingly, "Au
he had"