T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Drawing by Ray Waiters. 2 T SEEMS that the can people are hecoming “will-conscious,” for It Is a curious fact that more people than ever before, after .their deaths and any- one to whom to leave It, are making wills, Just why this is true Is not easy to determine. [It may be due to the psychological factor involved in the statement that “A will is the only permanent expres sion of himself that the average man leaves to posterity.” Or it may be cnnsed by the fact that the increasing number of cases of litigation In our cacurts, resulting from persons dying intestate, has impressed upon us the value of a will in guarding against sordid disputes which have wrecked the happiness of families, although It must be admitted that not even a will can always prevent that. Then again it may be due to the fact that hank ers and lawyers are constantly orging their clients to “Make a will. Do it now. Don’t put it off, for ‘tomorrow’ may never come.” If, in urging upon us the necessity fur performing this important task before we lay down our life's task, the bankers and lawyers needed a good object lesson, what better could be found than that offered In the fol lowing news stories which appeared fn the newspapers within recent months: Cedar, Rapids, lowa —Three hours after he had driven to Luzerne to set. tle his mother's estate, and make his own will, Patrick Farrell, fifty-nine, wealthy farmer of Blairstown, was found dead. He had been in {11 health for sev- eral months and his friends are won- dering whether he had a premonition of death which caused him to make his will so hurriedly. Harrison, Ark.—On the way with a printed form for his will, Ham Walden, seventy, was struck by a car driven by Rolph Taylor, a neigh- bor. He diced a few hours later. Although a will is usually regarded fs one of the symbols of death, it often reflects some of the most inter esting facts of a man's life. In no other document which he writes Is there recorded so much which reveals his true character. It may show him at his best and at his worst. For the old saying that “where there's a will, there's a way” can by the addition of a few words, be extended to cover the whole range of human psychology. “Where there's a will, there's a way -to show thz nobler qualities of man. kind.” The mother of George M. Cohan, famous actor, who left him the bulk of her estate, wrote In her will: “In making this bequest to my son, | desire to state that whatever property my beloved husband and 1 have had, seized and possessed of, has come from the unselfish generosity of my beloved son, who has earned and enjoyed our everlasting gratitude and home wil affection.” Fifteen years before the death of Edward Lanchester. his friend, Richard O'Neill, fought with a hold-up man on top of a speeding freight train to save the hard-earned money of Lanchester. When Lan chester died he left of £21.000 to (O'Neill his will that a made for the beneficiar abouts were unknown, there died a merchant whose belief in the observance of the Golden Rule was revealed in the terms of his will. Twenty pages in length, it con tained legacies, some large and some small, to every one who had ever heen polite to him or showed kindness to others In his presence. They included bequests to a conductor who had paid an old lady's fare; to a clerk who carried home a sick dog: to a policeman who helped a blind man across the street, jelithops were re membered for acts of courtesy: stage comedians for having made people Iaugh, and editors and judges for hav ing sponsored humanitarian cam paigns, “Where there's a will, there's a way reveal the depths of human Unfortunate, it is, but true, amd wills reveal more than one unlovely example of carrying matri monial differences to the other side of the grave. Some Interesting exam ples of these come from England where lawmakers are seeking to make vindictive will-making illegal. Not long ago a wealthy commercial magnate, after deliberately leading his wife to believe herself his sole legatee, left her one shilling, and be queathed £300,000 to others, including a servant she disliked. Another man left all his money to his wife, but on condition that she should forfeit £1,000 every time she appeared in pub lic without a veil, while on remarriage she was to forfeit all. A Nottingham man who two years ago bequeathed a halfpenny to each of his family just missed the record in testamentary meanness, which be longs to the testator who left his wife a farthing, with Instructions that the coin should be forwarded to her in an unstamped envelope. Then there was William Darley of Herts, England, who never forgave directed in search be yy. Ww hose w here. and five-year Not so long ngo 10 money from his trousers’ pocket. In his will he cut her off with a shilling “for picking my pocket of GD guineas.” When Charles Parker of England died, the principal bequest in his will was “To Elizabeth Parker the sum of £30 whom, through my foolish fondness, | made my wife, without regard to fam- ily, fame or fortune; and who, in re turn, has not spared, most unjustly, to accuse me of every crime regarding human nature save highway robbery.” But England Is not the only place where post-mortem spite has been shown, There was the citizen of Bos ton who left his wife penniless “un. less she married again within five years,” because he "wanted somebody gan find out how ha wns to her,” Contras ith that the who lefl else to live wit] meekness of the all his estate hi yea, 1 may say, as | think myself that she will marry no for fear to meet band as 1 have trast Gouverneur "trusting, aRsuring man, so evil a hus her.” with heen to on also the considerntion shown by the New York left his wife a fortune in cause of the income should be wns the at of Southold, Abhngall, use of Morris, statesman, who and further provided that her remarriage doubled. Quite different titude of Jolin Conkling Long Island, toward his wife, to whom he bequeathed one-third my lands and a sufficiency of, firewood and the lib erty of dwelling in which of my houses s! to live daring her That “the ie pleaseth widowhood and no longer.” many years ago. If John were living now he might not find It so easy to take out his spite on Abagsil, for dur ing the last year the New York legis ature, recognizing the evil which men may do in the wills they behind then, enacted further limita. tions than those already existing upon a testator's right to disinherit, “Where there's a will, there's a way—to display many oddities of temperament and reveal queer quirks in the human mind.” When Edward K. Chapman, a Civil war veteran who hecame “Christmas Tree King” of Maine, the Portland Y. M. C. A. the income from which Is to be spent to interest young men in checkers, buy new boards and men and also to keep the boards and game “clean and sani tary.” William Kreter of New York. an Irishman and a devoted fisherman, played a bit of a Joke on his fellow. . countrymen in his will, He left £0 to his friend, Charles Whistler. “to be spent on a fishing trip after my death,” and gave him also £50 for the expenses of carrying his ashes out to sea after his body had been cremated. To the New York Times he left a fund of $200 “to be utilized to Americanize the Irish, in particular those of Amer ican birth” John Quinn, seventy-two, of San Francisco, veteran street car conduc tor, left a S60.000 estate and provided that his debtors need re cent of thelr debts to was pay only 75 per his estate, J. J. Holloway of St. Clairsville, Ohlo, left a Giword will In which he bequeathed his $£1,000000 estate to hia wife. John Payne of Australia left a for tune of over $2500000 and requésted that his magnificent home be de stroyed by fire as soon as practicable. Twenty-two persons gathered at the grave of William P. Herriman of Paterson, Pa, to receive bequests ranging from $500 to $2,000, His will specified that his heirs should be at his mausoleum on the first Decoration day after his death to receive the money. It rained hard that day but they were all there. Grateful to U. S. x. story of gratitude, as shown in a 11, is revealed In the following story : Lancaster, Ohlo.«-Mr, and Mra. Dor. rah Snider of Oakthorpe, near here, are thankful to the United States congress for their little 40-acre farm. How the declxion of disposing of this Fairfield county tract was placed In the hands of the government Is an un usual story, going back several yenrs, When Wesley Jordan, the village blacksmith of Oakthorpe dled, he left the most extraordinary will ever filed here. He left hes small farm to the United States government because he felt he owed his greatest debt of grat. ftude to his government for the priv lege of life, liberty, property and pur suit of happiness, The will authorized the United Htates Treasury department to use the property as it deemed best. There was a widespread feeling In the county that the farm should go to his half-sister, Mra. Snider, and her husband witn whom Jordan had lived, Congressman Mell G. Underwood of tha Eleventh district took the matter up and introduced a joint resolution, declining the gift. It was adopled at the last ssi of congress, ~~ Politics Beyond Grave Darling Gardiner, although a South. erner, was a Republiean and carried his political fanaticism beyond the grave. He left $4000 to his two brothers and two nephews provided “none of them has ever been known as a Democrat, or suspected of voting for or supporting the nominees of that party.” In case all'of them were Demoernts or had ever leaned toward that side of the fence, Gardiner direct. ed that his money should be used to endow a Republican newspaper. f fire WHY WE BEHAVE | LIKE HUMAN BEINGS By CEORGE DORSEY, Ph. D, LL. D. £4 12 Can We Control Our Own Evolution? AN we control our own evolution? 4 Do we want to? To what end? In which direction? Presumably we could; and this is as far as eugenics has any standing in a court of science, All the rest of eugenics is politics— based on assumptions open to op- posite views or on race prejudice pure and simple, Man could probably breed a race of human beings with the following “traits” : bald, fat, long chest, short and crooked legs, left-handed, six fin gered and all fingers thumbs and webbed, nearsighted, deaf and dumb, feeble-minded, curly haired, cataract, albino, long-lived, and prolific, with a tendency to twins: at any rate, thes? are a few of the many so-called Men. delain traits capable of transmission. There are said to be at least thirty four different hereditary eve defects alone, eight of which can produce blindness. With nothing more to than normal variation in wild rock pigeons, man has bred over twenty races of pigeons. What could he not do with the human race if “If” introduces “breed” a race of humans Involves a decision as to what is desirable; a thousand-year-long dynasty of cast Iron despots with such power over sub- jects as Herod, never hoped breeder of slaves dared exercise, What are we to breed at the new race to go in for? tow hair, blue eyes, eight toothless, one (oe, fecundity, Stature, mentnl “Marry good eugenic bent on banding tralts—but most are satisfied with their traits, the sex Impulse itself chooses its mate, and that not primarily concerned in Take stature, If height is the erite. for de and marriage should be eacouraged in lowa, Kentucky and Missouri ; late and rare in York, Penn vania, and and if we down probably advice pe reonel peopl v rate, offspring rion rable citizens, early New syi- Massachusetts; ode Islan close Ellis Island t itive Patagoni What shall we do Greeks? Raise their *q clude them because they do not like the Harvard gradante who fathers an average of only son and the Vassar mothers one-half of a daughter? If there is anything in tingity of the germ plasm™ ans, look graduate who the “con. theory, in a country which such statesmen as Mi Aristides, poets as Aeschylus, Sophocles; crates, and artists as Phidias such historians as Xenophon ; such Demosthenes, and Lysias, The whole earth, in no centuries before or since, Galton, produced such a galaxy of illustrious men, Some of that germplasm may be biacking today on a Staten Island ferry or running a restauran. in El Reno. Who One thing ir certain: more interested in a short shine or a long order than it is In eugenics. Piato, Aristotie: such and Praxiteles: Thucydides and boots himself, from the hill oehind Athens in the year 600 B. C., have predicted that within a hundred years the little Rhode-Island-sized state of Attiea would begin to bud genius and so big that the world has not stopped wondering about it yet? colin? Could Ellis Island? Can Ellis Island spot the Jukes from the Alt. mans, or have the faintest idea when it holds up a Steinmetz—or an Ed. ward Bok? What carries cugenics into politics Is that the Jukes are neither figs nor thistles, and we do not yet know just how feeble a mind has to be before it has to be locked up to protect those who have minds and refuse to use them. Many Jukes have too much brain to be segregated, not enough to carry a rifle to the front. Selection. That kind of selection is a modern speciality, The sound-minded able-bodied get shot, the priests and scholars will not marry, and the ambitions women and the selfish men transmit their names but not their germs, Is civilization now breeding a “pure” dumb-bell type—no teeth, no lower Jaw? Cigarettes may save the lower lip, and chewing gum may save enough of the lower Jaw to support a chew. ing gum. But a full and sound set of teeth these days is about as primitive ns js a perforated olecranon fossa of the humerus, : Evolution produced a human brain, our only remarkable Inheritance, Nothing else counts. Body is simply brain's servant. Treal the body right, of course; no brain cin function well’ without good service. But why worry more about the looks, color, and, clothes of the servant than the service it performs? OA By Geurwe 4, Duceey One Way Out Teacher--Would you say I feel me or 1 feel badly? Pupil (after deep thought)-Oh, 1 feel terrible, Beauty Aid HE first time I heard of it,” writes Mrs. E. Whitney of 85 Parker Street, Bangor, Maine, “was when I was at the Hospital, 1 was very nervous and run down and after my baby daughter was born the doctor began giving me some- thing. In about ten days I felt like a new person, Before then, I was miserable. My skin was in very bad condition and I could not understand what made it clear up so quickly. “Before I left I asked the House Doctor what kind of medicine it was that clezred up my skin and made me feel so much better, He said ‘My dear girl, didn't you ever hear of Nujol? Hospitals aren by the only place where you can get it! You can buy it most everywhere!’ “I have been using Nujol ever since, and I think it is wonderful.” That's the great thing about Nujol. Not a medicine, contains no drugs, can't possibly hurt you, forms no habit—and if you are like most other people its simple nat- ural way of bodily lubrication will do wonders for you, too. You see, all of us have an excess of body poisons that make our skins Too Much Hurry to arrive, Woman took along. — Doctor laughed when asked “What cleared my skin?” sallow, only able to work at half or quarter our real ability. When Nujol absorbs these poisons and carries them off easily, normally, naturally, we just feel like a million dollars, Try Nujol for two weeks, and seo what happens. It costs only as much as a ticket to a good movie, and it will mean so much to you, In sealed 3s at any drug store, is very packagos stars {ecling fine, thi Bath for Both is the accepted antidote for Aspirin ia the trade mark Monoaceticacidnrster Practical Diagnoses Dr. Stanford Read London, sta defrauded bons appetite, indig man whe had recently came to bility, The doctor mental repay his brothe read, Pelicans Struck by Lightning A flock of tude of & DOO feet wi struck by | at Salt Lal Nineteen were city, while a the few were able to bushes ontside waere they hid themselves A hobby I= something you enjoy without talking about it, of Bayer Manu’ of Balicylicacid acture of Acronautics in College Nords instru eory of flight, airplane structure and . the the of aerial navigation alr travel Done! hard was elected presh t bool, The next at » i meeting business had been trans aid: know its closed, a: wow to close this wwhow ® Mast Have Been you sing at the party? they bothered me 10.” 1 see—revenge.”—Deriin Ulk. “Why “did “Because “Oh, ood of wastes, Mrs. pe rE RI Stursmunte, Calif ha 1 EH a t i Saou ve
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers