WHEN A MAN DIES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4810, 14 July 1939, Page 3

WHEN A MAN DIES

A POOR MAN'S WILL. FOUND IN WORKHOUSE. A PEACEFUL PHILOSOPHY. Alone, a man died in a workhouse, and this will was found in the pocket of his ragged suit. By worldly standards he was poor, but when you have absorbed the exquisite beauty of his words and benefited from his deep and peaceful philosophy, you, too, will realise just how rich this poor man really was. You will think it the most moving and helpful little masterpieces you have ever read. Why not keep it as a lesson in living?

I, Charles Lounsberry, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby make and publish this my last will and testament in order to distribute my interest in the world among succeeding men. That part of my interest which is known in law as my property, being inconsiderable and of no account, I make no disposition of. My right to live, being but a life is not at my disposal, but, these things excepted, all else in the world I now proceed to devise and bequeath. Item: Give to good fathers and mothers, in trust for their children, all good little words of praise and encourageirent, and all quaint pet names and endearments; and I charge said parents to use them justly, but generously, as the deeds of their children shall require. Item: I leave to children inclusively, but only for the term of their childhood, all and every flower ofthe field and the blossoms of the woods, with the right to play among them freely according to the custom of children, warning them at the same time against thistles and thorns.

And I devise to children the banks of the brooks and the golden sand beneath the waters thereof, and the odours of the willows that dip therein, and the white clouds that float high over giant trees. And I leave the children the long, long days to be merry in, in a thousand ways, and the night and the train of the Milky Way to wonder at, but subject, nevertheless, to the rights herinbefore given to lovers. Item:l devise to boys, jointly, all the useful idle fields and commons where ball may be played, all pleasant

waters where one may swim, all

snow-clad hills where one may coast, and all streams and ponds where one may fish, or where, when grim winter comes, one may skate, to hold the same for the period of their boyhood. And all meadows, with the clover blossoms and butterflies thereof; the woods with their beauty; the squirrels and the birds and the echoes and strange noises, and all distant places, which may be visited together with the adventures there found.

And I give to said boys each his own place at the fireside at night with all pictures that may be seen in the burning wood, to enjoy without let or hindrance or without any encumbrance or care.

Item: To lovers, I devise their imaginary world, with whatever they may need, as the stars of the sky, the red roses by the wall the bloom of the hawthorn, the sweet strains of music, and aught else they may desire to figure to each other the lastingness and beauty of their love.

Item: To young men, jointly, 1 bequeth all the boisterous, inspiring sports of rivalry, and I give to them the disdain of weakness, and undaunted confidence in their own strength. I leave to them the power to make lasting friendships and of possessing companions; and to them, exclusively, I give all merry songs and choruses to sing with lusty voices.

Item: And to those who are no longer children or youths, or lovers, I leave memory; and bequeath to them the volumes of poems of Burns and Shakespeare and other poets, if there be others, to the end that they may live the old days over again freely and fully without tithe and diminution.

Item: To the loved ones with snowy crowns, I bequeath the happiness of old age, the love and gratitude of

their children until they fall asliep.