The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-01
COMMON SENSE WILL OF A WISE WOMAN
By SOPHIE IRENE LOEB

X woman left q will in WEtch she directed that her husband live on the income of her securities, and then added this codicil: Tn case my hus- band should marry, my houses and furniture and securities are to be sold for the children, except enough furnishings to make his home com fortable, the children to decide justly what he should have. This is merely to protect the children. I shall be glad to have him marry"
 This was a sensible woman. There will always be a happy memory of her in the hearts of her children and her husband. She must have had very unselfish spirit and truly loved her husband.
 It takes a woman who cares enough for his happiness to write such a will as this. The other kind wants 10 keep her husband tied by he- apron strings long after she has lost the use of her apron-as well as her husband.
 Many woman has made q husband promise her before she has died that he would never marry, just to satisfy her own feelings while she was alive. And many man has been lonely and miserable just because of some seem ing tie that held him faithful to the memory of the dead.
 How much better this man men tioned in the will will feel, should he find some one else with whom he would like to spend his remaining years in the Knowledge that he has the God bless you" of his wife. And what reverance the new wife will have for such a woman, should he take one.
 While this case is unusual, the common one is when a man dies he leaves his wife money with a string attachment-that it, if she marries again she loses the allowance he has made for her.
 This is one of the worst forms of selfishness. l know woman who helped her husband during the grow ing pains of hls business, depriylng Z herself of many things in order that he might have the wherewithal in or der to succeed. For years she toiled with him, not only doing her own work but aiding him in his.
 And when he died he left a will whereby she loses all share in his es- tate when she parries. It hap. ened that she did meet some one that she cared for, a good man but of moderate means. And if she marries him she has to give up all the comforts that have been hers for the last few years. and which in reality she helped to earn.
 It is unfair, to say the least. And what is the result? Instead of that uedu nusbdnu DeiuS HOuOiCu anu S- spected and loved, in the memory of his surviving wife, she has nothing but the opposite sentiments for him. She broods over the fact that this dead man is standing between her and happiness and pretty soon she will come to hate him.
 What was the gain by such will? Nothtag but sadness and sorrow. And the dead man could not take it with him. He had to leave il, and leaving it he left himself despised along with 1t.
 1 wonder why people do not realize the joy of sacrificing ones own feel ing 8 bit and so act while alive that remain kindly.
 1 would dislike ever so much to think that l had left anything in such a way that it would VeX or wound some one close to me when l could have saved the situation by being merely fair. At any rate, what right has any one to the life of another person after they can no longer be associated with such one? What is the good of infllcting unnecessary punishment?
 Who shall say what you shall do with your life under such circum out of the grave and grasping some thing which no longer belongs to you except in recolieetions.
 Ah me, how much unhappiness could be saved and broken lives averted if only people would stop regulating the lives of others after they are gone. Be satisfied with what you have had In this life, and leave behind at least square deal.