Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/638

 The Eccentricities of Testators. burned on the day of her funeral, and all her horses—six in number, varying in value from £60 to £90 each—were to be shot on the day following the funeral. The remainder of her real and personal property to the value of £90,000 was left to her "dear husband,"—a former laborer on her estate, with whom some years previously she had, on her own suggestion, contracted a marriage—provided that he strictly and literally carried out ali the orders expressed in her will. A horror of being buried alive so haunted Mr. R. of Chicago that on his death he left minute instructions in his will to make such a fate quite impossible in his case. His body was not to be fastened up in his coffin till thirty days after his funeral, and the vault in which the body was placed was to be kept lighted and its doors left unlocked. Pro vision was also made for the employment of two men—trusted employes of the de ceased—who were to guard the entrance, one by day and the other by night. Tantalizing conditions tacked on to leg acies appear to have a special charm for some testators. An individual of this sort invited four hundred intimate friends to his funeral at eight o'clock on a winter's morning. They were not previously informed, however, that every lady who attended was to have a cer tain sum of money, and every gentleman a smaller sum, and consequently only twentynine attended. (This case occurred in Eng land, and the figures are omitted from the writer's notes. He believes them to have been three hundred and fifty pounds for each lady and two hundred for each man.) The county of Yorkshire in England is noted for its tall men, and a resident of that county left his entire estate to those of his descendants who were not less than six feet four inches in height. / A Vienna banker made a bequest to his nephew with the stipulation that "he shall never, on any occasion, read a newspaper, his favorite occupation."

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. Peter Campbell, of Glasgow, Scotland, left a large sum of money to his son Roger en condition of his abstaining from tobacco. Dr. F. W. Gumming, on the other hand, left six hundred pounds to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, to provide poor patients, male and female, with snuff and tobacco, giving the following reason for his unusual bequest: "I know how to feel for the suffering of those who, in addition to the irksomeness of pain and the tedium of confinement, have to endure the privation of what long habit has rendered in a great degree n necessity of life." There is probably no phase of humor— good or ill—and no sentiment, grateful or spiteful, which has not been illustrated in testamentary documents. William Dunlop left a legacy to a minister named Chevassie, "as a small token of my gratitude for the service he has done the family in taking a sister no man of taste would have," and to another sister he left an estate because she married a minister "whom she henpecks." William Darley left a shilling to his wife for "picking my pocket of sixty guineas." Money is so generally welcome that it is hardly conceivable that a legacy in cash would ever be refused. Occasionally, how.cver, as a result of the absurdity or harsh ness of the conditions attached to legacies, substantial bequests of this kind have been declined. An Englishman refused a legacy of two hundred pounds because it was stipu lated that before receiving- it he must walk down the most important street of a fashion able summer resort (Brighton) "dressed in female attire." A maiden lady over fifty years of age, with a strong aversion to all theatrical amuse ments, was scandalized by being put down for a legacy in the will of a facetious friend, who attached the condition that within six months of the testator's death the legatee must obtain an engagement at a theatre and must perform there for one whole week. A wife who domineers over her husband