SOME CURIOUS WILLS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1740, 22 May 1888, Page 3

SOME CURIOUS WILLS.

Aa a rule people naturally leave their riches to their poorest and nearest relatives, but an old bachelor of fortune a few years back thought evidently it was a custom more worthy of being “honored in the breach than the observance.” “How is this ? ” said the lawyer. “ You leave all you possess to a stranger when you have relations—anephew—” “My nephew! ” exclaimed the old man furiously. “My nephew a good - for - nothing spendthrift, not worth a halfpenny! ” “Oh, dear no,” replied the lawyer. “ Since you last saw him, two years ago, he has made a large fortune.” “ Dear me! That is quite another thing,” exclaimed the testator. “In that case I make him absolutely my heir.” This, however, is excelled in* eccentricity by an old Parisian lady, who resided in the Rue Fontaine, Bt. George’s, and left £ISOO a year to her butcher, whom she had, never even seen! Here is a quaint specimen of thoughtful generosity. Mr Luke, of Wath, Rotherham, left “to every child that should attend his funeral, one penny; to each poor woman in Wath, one shilling; to seven old navvies for, puddling him up in his grave, one guinea; and a guinea to the old servant who had put him to bed and tucked him up for elevenyears.” Most people prefer having their remains lying quietly in their graves, and the custom was common io olden times to inscribe imprecations on their tombstones to those who should dare disturb then. It was different, however, with John Reed, the gaslighter of the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, who concluded his will with this strange wish:—“My head to he separated from my body, duly macerated and prepared, then to be employed to represent the skull of Yorick in the play of Hamlet,”