Some Carious Wills.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5651, 9 October 1889, Page 3

Some Carious Wills.

Modern instances of testamentary eccentricity abound, and the United States in particular seuins to be singularly prolific of curious wills, writes Sidney Scrope in Once a Week. Some little t.irno since Mr Solomon Saiiborn, of Medford, Mai»H., left his body to the lat« Prof. Agassiz and Dr. 0. W. Holmes, tv be prepared by them in thuiiKst fvientific manner known to anatomical Hit. and placed in the museum of Harvard College. Two drum-h(-ada were mado of the skin. Upon one was to be inscribed Alexander Pope's '• Universal Prayer," on tho other the " Declaration of Imlependenae ; ! ' and then they wera to be presented to tin; testator's " distinguished friend," the drummer of Cohaeset. Tliiprusentation wits subject to the condition that ou the 17th of June, at sunrise, every year, the drummer should beat upon the drum-heads at tho foot of Bunker's Hill the spirit-stirring strains oi " Yankee Doodle." Another American, who died within the last few months, by way of revenge on his relations, who had neglected him, beijiieuthud to his brother his left arm and hand; to another brother his right arm and hand, to another h s k'gs, nose ears, etc. He. also left ono thousand dollars for thu dismembering , of his body.

Among other testators who have displayed this peculiar tendency to leave legacies in the tihstpe of portions oi their bodies may be mentioned Jeremy Bentlnm, the iitiglish wrii.nr, who bequeathed his body to the University College Llospitril, with instruction that his skeleton should be prewired and cleaned, and thut it should preside at the meeting* of tho hospital directors. Whether this provision was ever carried out is doubtful, but it is certain th;s.t the I skuletou was preserved, and may bo seoa to this day in tha hospital museum. A wealthy German who died the other day bequeathed his effects to !i poor misi) : whom he greatly disliked o;i condition that !ho always woro linen uudcr-elothus and dressed in white, and a thort time ago fctanislitus Poltm.irz, a Hungarian, left the greater part of his fortune to a notary named Lot/., forbidding him, however, to tuke possession until he had at La Sualii Opera House, the parts of Y r erdi's " Otello " and Eiivira in " Somuumbula ;" while John Itueil, the gas-lhrhtor of the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, directed that his head, after being duly prepared, should bo employed to represent the skull of Yorick in " Humlut." Lord Newborougb, whodi'.iil in November, 1883, directed that, after a uortain period ellipses, his body is to bu exhumed and reiuteMfcd in Burd&ey island, which is reputed to liavu no fewer than twenty thousand J >uintH buried in its aoil, arid Mr. John

Browne, of 1-ialhbrtin' (,'ounly, Limerick, reared that his sou, Rev. lVto- Uiowne, .Jioiild under penalty of forfeiting hcojimc'i- i jruljle estate, change his Christian iuiuk*, v for either "William" oi- <> Jame*," theold gentleman having taken ,v inveterate dislike to his son's n nn..-, wlnh ■i rioli saddler ordered in his wiil that his dftuifliter should lose the whole of her foi- ,- m.uif s>he did not marry a Kuddk-r. h nr ol out, however, that she married the Jii-iof Halifax, who, iv order to win th, brid'.-, actually rei-V'diin appren.ice.-hip «,; .seven v≤ >•■» as > l saddler. Not long uijcu a My. Harper settled a hundred a yeur nn bis " young black cat.," the. iutetest to be paid to his housekeeper, Mrs. Hodges, as kmir us tho oat remained ftlive: s-.ia yuii-i i\jontiy an oid Fttrisuu

. : , . j. .... ~ . dame left fifteen hundred! a year to her butcher, whom she had ae'.rpr seen; 'While one man chalked his wftl. on a poiSfrhin ; and another inscribed his. Oil a l . beck-post. Both the corn-bin and thy bed-post are'filed in the will office at London. The whimeie'A■tfill of the Scotel gentleman, who to each of his daughters her weight in oims jpoejid notes, has often been quoted. Move' still is the will of the New Yorker -Jvh<j;i directed that his one and seventy pairs of trousers should be sold at public auetio'u ■ without being examined beforehand. The sale was actually held, and the seventy-cne purchasers found in the righthand tuwket the neat little sum of a thousand dollars in cash. ■■•'

I Another peculiar legacy was that of ! Colonel Nash, an English officer, who bequeathed an utmuitv of fifty pounds to the bull-rinaors of Path Abbey, ou condition that they should muffle the clappers of the bells of the Abbey, and ring them with doleful accentuation from cightu.m. to eight p.m. on each anniversary of his wedding day ; while a Mr Luke, of Rotheringham, after leaving a penny to every child who should attend his funeral, directed that forty dozen loaves should bo thrown down from the parish church steeple at noon every Christmas day forever.