Show WOMAN WANTED BODY KEPT FOR FORTY DAYS DAYSI I NEW NEWYORK YORK Aug 17 17 When When the will of Mrs Joanna Mitchell Thompson of East Orange was admitted to probate by Surrogate Frederick G G. G Jr in Newark recently it developed that one of her directions was that each day for forty days after he her hel death her body was to be examined to make mike certain that no spark of life remained After that It was to be consigned to a grave She was 70 years old when she died last April Her will was made in 1902 and provided that if I Stephen Baldwin of Bloomfield outlived outlived out out- lived her he was to view her body every day for the period she designated designated Filed with the will was a statement by Mr Baldwin in which he explained that when he attempted to carry outher outher out outher her wishes he was prevented from doing doIng do doing do- do ing so b by the rules of the board of or health and by objection on the part of ot the cemetery managers lIe He therefore therefore therefore there there- fore obtained affidavits from undertakers undertakers undertakers under under- takers and physicians that life was actually ac actually actually ac- ac extinct when the body of Mrs Thompson was embalmed and placed in a herm hermetically sealed coffin and then buried in a concrete lined vault Even after that he went to the cemetery cemetery cerne- cerne tery frequently and especially on the fortieth day after her burial to make sure that neither by sound or disturbed disturbed dis dis- dis condition of the grave was there any sign of life It was stipulated in the will that Mr Baldwin was to receive for his services or if the duty imposed was performed by any anyone one else the sum of was to be paid The latter lat lat- latter latter lat lat- ter provision also applied in the event of any of the children of Mrs Thompson Thomp Thomp- son deciding to carry out her wishes but she suggested in the will that it might not be a pleasant thing for one of the children to do and that it had better be done by some one else Other portions of the will disposed of personal personal personal per per- property distributing it among relatives and giving several pictures to a church |