Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/614

 Wills — Quaint, Cttrious and Otherwise. preparation submitted to him. His last words were, as he examined the mixture, "That will do," and in a few minutes he was dead. He had desired that his body, after dissection, should be embalmed, and dressed in his ordinary clothes, to appear as natural as pos sible, and seated in his old arm-chair, he wished to be placed at the banquet table of his friends and disciples when they met on any great occasions of philosophy and philanthropy. When he died his wishes were carefully carried out by his favorite disciple, to whom he had bequeathed his body. Dressed in his usual clothes, wearing a gray broadbrimmed hat, and with his hazel walking cane, called Dapple, after a favorite old horse, the farmer-like figure of the benevo lent philosopher sat in a large arm chair, with a smiling, fresh colored countenance, locked up in a mahogany case with a plateglass front. This was his actual body pre served by some scientific process. An Italian artist made a wax mask, the real face being really underneath it. Some years ago the case containing Bentham's body was taken to University College, where it still remains. Dr. Ellerv, a distinguished member of the Society of Friends in London, who died in 1827, inserted these two clauses in his will: "Item: I desire that immediately after my death my body shall be carried to the Ana tomical Museum in Aldersgate street, and shall there be dissected by Drs. Lawrence, Tyrrell and Warclrop, in order that the cause of my malady may be understood. "Item: I bequeath my heart to Mr. W , anatomist: my lungs to Mr., and my brain to Mr. F , in order that they may preserve them from decomposition; and I declare that if these gentlemen shall fail faithfully to execute these my last wishes, I will come—if it be by any means possible— and torment them until they comply." John Rudge, of Trysull, Staffordshire, England, by his will, dated April 17, 1725, bequeathed the sum of twenty shillings a

569

year, payable at five shillings quarterly, to a poor man, "to go about the parish church, during the sermon, to keep people awake, and to keep dogs out of the church." There was a quiet sarcasm in that bequest which must have caused the rector to wonder how it came about that it was necessary to keep people awake while he was preaching. A peculiar will was recently filed in Mon treal for probate. The late Mrs. T. P. Roe bequeathed to her husband during his life time the interest on twelve shares of Mon treal Bank stock, the same on his death to be given to the Church of St. John the Evan gelist. To her little dog Frolic she be queathed the interest on four shares of Mon treal Bank stock for use during its lifetime, and at its death to be sold or given in stock to the Church of St. John the Evangelist. Mrs. Roe is not singular in her testa mentary thotightfulness of her domestic pets, for a few years ago a Massachusetts woman left a fund to endow a home for friendless cats, and an Ohio man left plans for a cat infirmary, where the homeless cats were to be well cared for, and even sporting grounds were to be provided, the said grounds to be well stocked with rats. A Scotchman left to each of his daughters her weight in one-pound bank notes; by this provision one daughter being stouter, was entitled to $30,000 more than her sister. Personal prejudices, pique and passion sometimes find their way into wills, the tes tator often telling the "plain, unvarnished truth" in an offensive manner. Iruthe will of a Mr. Parker probated in London, 1785, there was this clause: "I will and bequeath the sum of £50 to Elizabeth, whom, through my foolish fondness, I made my wife, with out regard to family, fame or fortune; and who, in return, has not spared, most un justly, to accuse me of every crime regarding human nature, save highway robbery." A Mrs. Darley, also hailing from London, searched her husband's pockets and ab stracted some money; when her husband