A DUTCHMANS WILL.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 997, 20 August 1872, Page 3

A DUTCHMANS WILL.

Mr Klaes, who was known among his acquaintances by the name of the King of Smokers, has died near Rotterdam. According to the Belgian papers he had amassed a large fortune in tho linen trade, and hud erected near Rotterdam a mansion, one portion of which was devoted to the arrangement of a collection of pipes according to their nationality and chronological order. A few days before his death he summoned the lawyer and made his will, in which he directed that all the smokers of the country should be invited to his funeral, that each should be presented with lOlbs of tobacco and two Dutch pipes, of the newest fashion, on which should be engraved tbe name, arms, and date of the deceased of the testator. He requested all his relatives, friends, and funeral guesta to be careful to keep their pipes alight during tbe funeral ceremonies, after which they should empty the ashes from their pipes on the coffin. The poor of the neighborhood who attended his last wishes were to receive annually, on the anniversary of his death, ten pounds of tobacco, and a small cask of good beer. He desired that his oak coffin should be lined with the cedar of his old Havana cigar boxes, and that a box of French caporal, and a packet of old Dutch tobacco should be placed at the foot of his coffin. His favorite pipe was to be placed by hia side, along with a box of matches, a flint and steel, and some tinder, as he said that there was no knowing what might happen. A clever calculator has made out that Mr Klaes had. during his eighty years of life, smoked more than four tons of tobacco, and had drunk about 500,000 quarts of beer.