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Show i g CCASIONAL- g"r-, 'y yu hear 7jYJ j men who. heed- II 1 1 Uob of existence. lk. V J J dlatributo tholr gvSff property In tho llfo Pt'L ( time, Instead of NyOv directing the SfcTHv. manner In which - It shall bo dls- 1 posed after they havo disappeared forever from tho earthly bcciio Such a case occurred a few days ago In Chicago when a man of means simply placed an estato valued at $2,000,000 In the caro of a trust company for tho benefit of his four children. Thus with one stroko ho satisfied himself that his property would reach tho bauds of thoso for whom it was Intended, and no doubt this was a gratifying achievement. For, after all, tho will that ovory sensible sen-sible man Is supposed to mnko does not always fulfil Its obpoct and thus tho world sees a contest of clnlmants which Is often less deslrnblo to view than a church quarrel. Tho will, as an Instrument of the law, owes its development to the Romans. India did not know of it be-foro be-foro tho conquest, and it was but a rudimentary affair in Mosaic law and In ancient Athens. Tho early Roman will was effectual during the llfetlmo i of the person who mado it, and it was I Irrevocable, its object being to secure I - the perpetuation of the family. Thus ' m the beredltas was vested; in a person I who could bo relied upon to carry on tho family name and traditions. Often gj nuch wills were mado on the ovo of 1 tattle, and they wore published In ac- jg cordance with tho law. ra When Constantino the Croat caused ,1 Christianlty to bo recognized by tho ii state, this act had its effect upon will- ln, imaklng, Inasmuch as the duty of glv- gg ling bequests to tho church was en- 1 S i cournged Monks and horetics, how- jjjj evor, wero not allowed to mako wills 1; or to take bequests. Then again, wills 1 were deposited In churches; Indeed, ' 1 in Engand tho church exercised Juris- ' M diction in testamentary matters for , 1 centuries. Up to 1858 tho probato and , custody of wills lay with tho English j ecclesiastical courts, but tho caroless- ness to which tho documents were ex- I posed at the hands of lazy and incom- 1 petent officials led to vigorous crlt- f, I 'lclsm of tho system by Charles Dlck- Jj', ens and other writers, and, as a con- D sequence, tho church loot its nncient K privilege. j. I In modern days, by reason of tho lj i prosaic language of legal draftsmen, ( j wills havo lost much of their inter- j est as purely human documents; but J If ono wero to set himself to the task j of writing tho social history of a great . i - city llko Now York, from its begin-Vb begin-Vb ning, ho could do no better than dolvo y Into tho records of tho surrogates courts. All wills are probated there; children are adopted under the dlrec-C dlrec-C tlon of tho surrogates; thoy appoint guardians and discharge them again, j when minors reach tho ago of legal I discretion; thoy Bottle and dislrlbuto . tho estates of the poor and rich. Thus uj thcro is to bo found in the probate M records tho details of social life by I generations, uud It Ib posstblo to traco 1 , tho evolution of families, old and new, fw and their rlso and fall on tho tide of fortune. fl The skeleton in the closet, is often M revealed by legal procedure, and, I though It cannot be avoided, tho fam-IH fam-IH lly quarrel Is bound to bo aired when Ul Will contests are tried beforo a surro- II gato. Many elements enter Into these 1 , . contests dlBsatlsfled heirs, forgery, J undue influence on tho part of peril per-il eons who have been associated with fi the property owner; the existence of I moro than one will; vague and lndell-I lndell-I nito language in a man's last testa-I testa-I ment, (or "all things which are so writ-J writ-J ton In a will as to bo unintelligible 1 aro to be on that account regarded as ft though they wore not written." ii Russell Sage, who disposed of a L vast estate without indulging in su- ' perfluous words, adopted a Blmplo $ method to prevent litigation over his .J property. A clause of his will read: p "Should any of tho beneficiaries uu- 4 dcr this, my will, other than my said 1 wife, object to the probato thereof, or In any wise directly or indirectly con- K test or aid In contesting tho same or w any provision thereof, or the distribu te tlon of my estate thereunder, then and 8 in that event I annul any bequest l! herein made o such beneficiary, and I it is my will that such beneficiary 1 shall be absolutely barred and cut off n from any share in my estate." There K was no contest, although it was said that the beneflclarleB grumbled. M One of the most dramatic will cases f in the history of Massachusetts was is tried a few weeks ago in the probato g)9 court of East Cambridge, where two M claimants appeared to fight for a M" share of Senator Daniel RubsoU's es- H tate, valued at $750,000. By his will H the elder son, William C. Russell, was H directed to share the estate equally j with his brother, Daniel Blake, who H had disappeared in 1885. after a quar- H 1 rel with his father. Tho first claimant, claim-ant, who camo from Medor, N. D., and was popularly known as "Dakota Dan," did not meot with tho approval of William C. Russell and his cousin, Ferdinand B. Almy, who assorted that tho man's real namo was James D Rousseau or Russaw, and thnt ho had familiarized himself with tho history of tho Russoll family beforo putting his claim forwards Photographs of Rousseau woro introduced in evidence; evi-dence; there were exhibits of lottors alleged to havo heen written by "Dakota "Da-kota Dan" to mombors of tho Rous-Beau Rous-Beau family, and there was, of courso, a "battlo" of handwriting experts, oach contradicting tho other. And "Dakota Dan" brought witnossos to show that the lottera woro forgeries, and that tho addresses had been written writ-ten on tho envelopes after tho post-ofuco post-ofuco cancellation marks had boon Btamped thereon. To theso-1 letters wero added au application ap-plication form for membership In tho Woodmen of tho World. This contained con-tained tho family history of Rousseau and said that ho had threo brothers and two slstors living and that another an-other brothor had been killed in a railroad accldont All of which was apparently truo. "Dakota Dan's" experts ex-perts assorted that tho answer had not ben written by him, but had boon filled In by othors at a later period, his handwriting having been imitated. Thereupon tho RubsoII lawyers showed that the papor had remained in tho archives of tho Woodmen of tho World until tho court ordered Its production. pro-duction. Tho trial dragged on for several months and as It was nenrlng the end a Bocond Daniel Blako Russell, who was to bo called "Fresno Dan," camo out from his fruit ranch in Fresno. Cal. Out there ho was known as Henry Johnson, but In Melrose, tho homo of tho Russolls, ho was recognized recog-nized js tho missing "Dan" by tho ro-sponsible ro-sponsible citizens. He seemed to bo well informed as to tho detallB of Daniel's Dan-iel's early life in Melroso, but "Dakota Dan" declared that his rival had been brought on to cheat him out of his rights. Judge Lawton, beforo whom the tedlouB caeo was tried, finally decided de-cided In favor of "Fresno Dan," and that night tho judge was burned In effigy by an nngry crowd of "Dakota Dan's" supporters. If the caso Ib carried car-ried to a higher court little may bo left of tho estate, for the litigation has already cost a huge sum. In tho many efforts of Albert T. Patrick Pat-rick to free himself from a life sentence sen-tence for the murder of William Marsh Rice, an aged recluse, peoplo havo almost forgotten that Patrick was first charged with forgery in connection con-nection with the old man's will. Pat rick, a lawyer, had learned of Marsh's wealth and his weak stato a mind through a suit in a Texas couit. and be. gained tho confidence of Charles F. 'Jones, valet to the recluse, Jones becoming the lawyer's tool. Rice, in fact, nover knew Patrick, although the latter posod as the millionaire's mil-lionaire's attorney, always working through Jones, who confessed that he killed his master at tho lawyer's Instigation. In-stigation. Motive for the murder was held to be deslro on the part of Patrick Pat-rick to obtain control of Rice's fortune for-tune by means of a forged will, and the murder was accomplished by Jones at Patrick's command, chloroform chloro-form being the death medium. Jones was allowed to go free, while Patrick was sentenced to death. This was in 1902. Governor Hlgglns commuted the sentence to lifo imprisonment, and since that time Patrick has made 23 unsuccessful attempts to regain hla freedom. Phonographic recordB of testimony in a will caso wero taken in Boston for uso at another trial, If pormittod by the court. This unusual procedure wns tho reBull of tho Illness of ono of tho principal wltnosBcs, who was obliged to undorgo a surgical operation opera-tion "immediately after giving ovl deuce. Should It bo necessary to Introduce In-troduce theso records, tho attitude ol tho court toward them will bo of Interest In-terest to tho legal profession generally, gener-ally, for it might Borve to creato a precedent. ' Nuncupative or oral wills, tho right to mako which lies only with Bailors at sea or soldlors In tho field, aro somewhat rare, but ono was admitted to probato In Kings county last December De-cember by Surrogato Kotchham. This will was made by Qeorgo O'Connor, chiof engineer of tho stoamshlp Dorothy, Dor-othy, while tho vobboI wns in mid-ocean. mid-ocean. All that ho said was: "Everything "Every-thing that I havo belongs to my daughter, daugh-ter, Llzzlo," and tho will was proved with tho aid of two witnesses, tho captain cap-tain and first ofllcor or tho Dorothy. Army history was related In the will of Brig. Con. Loomis L. Langdon, who died on January 7. Ono paragraph para-graph read: "I glvo to my son, Captain Langdon, Lang-don, tho Bllvor tea service presented to me by tho citizens of BrowiiBvlllo, Tex., for what they termed my 'disinterestedness 'dis-interestedness and patriotic services,' as thoy kindly choso to characterize my action during the absence of tho Rio Grande garrison In organizing tho citizens cit-izens of Brownsvillo into an offoctlvo forco and assisting In defending tholr lives and property against tho attack of tho bandit, Juan Curtlnas, for which I received the thanks of the citizens." His saddlo also went to his Eon with this comment: "Tho saddlo I used during tho great Civil war was on tho horse that was killed under mu In the battle or Olus-tree, Olus-tree, or Ocean Pond, Fla., on February Febru-ary 20, 18C4. Tho horse wns hit flvo times, and ono or two shots went through the saddlo, but the bullot holes are concealed by a now cover of leather which was put on the saddle." sad-dle." Not Infrequently you hear of peoplo peo-plo who have been rewarded In wills for a kind act long forgotten, excent by the person who experienced It In all probability little Information about King Edward's will Is likely to come to light, for there Ib no law in England to compel tho probating ol such a kingly document British sovereigns sov-ereigns aro pormittod to purchase property with the funds or tho privy purse, and they havo the right to dls pose or their personal estato without publicity. It is related or George II. that, with the consent or his ministers, minis-ters, ho burned the will or his father, George 1., because it contained certain scandalous bequosts to court favorites, favor-ites, and it in not Improbable that other oth-er old kings adopted similar measures when they wero deemed necessary to preserve tho reputation of tho reigning reign-ing houso. |