peace, but as she always commenced playing and singing when he began to read, he. left her only one thousand pounds. One other case of this kind is worthy of note. A hus band left his wife twelve thousand pounds, to be increased to twenty-lour thousand pounds provided, she wore a widow's cap after his death. She accepted the larger amount, wore the cap for six months, and then ceased to wear it. A lawsuit followed; but the court held that the testator should have inserted the word "always," and gave judgment for the widow, who, the following day, re-entered the state of matrimony. Thus the husband's plan for preventing his widow marrying a second time failed. The malevolence of some men is manifest ed in their death as well as during their life time. It is difficult to imagine anything much more cruel than a father who left his daughter thirty thousand pounds upon the following conditions: "Should my daughter marry and be afflicted with children, the trustees are to pay out of the said legacy two thousand pounds on the birth of the first child to the hospital; four thousand on the birth of the second; six thousand on the birth of the third; and an additional two thousand pounds on the birth of each subse quent child, till the thirty thousand pounds is exhausted. Should any portion of the sum be left at the end of twenty years, the balance is to be paid to her to use as she thinks fit." The following account is taken from a newspaper, and the writer is unable to vouch for its accuracy: A certain Henry Budd died in 1862, leav ing considerable property. It was to be divided equally among his sons, and held by them as long as they wore no mustaches. Should one of them cease to shave his upper lip. his share would be forfeited. This con dition is simplicity itself compared with that laid down by an inhabitant of the English town of Derby. He left all his possessions to his oldest son, with the proviso that he
must never use tobacco in any form. If he broke the regulation, the property was to be divided between his six brothers and sisters. A few years ago a Russian gentleman liv ing at Odessa left four million roubles (one rouble is worth about seventy cents) to his four nieces, but they were to receive the money only after having worked for a year as washerwomen, housemaids or farm ser vants. The conditions were carried out, arid while occupying these positions they are said to have received many offers of marriage. Kindness to animals seems to be quite common among testators, and hundreds of people have left considerable sums for the comfort of their pets. A spinster who died in London (England), whose name was Char lotte Rosa Raine, bequeated her "dear old white puss Titicns and puss's tabby Rolla, tabby Jcnnifcc and black and white Ursula to Anne Elizabeth Matthews," directing her ex ecutors to pay her twelve pounds a year for the maintenance of each cat, so long as it should live. Her long-haired white cat Louise, and her black and white cat Doctor Clausman she gave to her housemaid, Elizabeth Willoughby, and her black ebony and white Oscar to Lavinia Beck, and her execu tors were directed to pay these persons twelve pounds per annum for the mainten ance of each cat. The remainder of her cats— how many Miss Raine had is not recorded— she left to the aforesaid Anne Elizabeth Mat thews, "to whom one hundred and fifty pounds per annum shall be paid for their maintenance as long as any do live, but such annuity does not apply to kittens born of them." Another eccentric old lady left a few small sums to her relatives, but five hundred pounds a year to be held in trust for her parrot, with five hundred pounds for a new cage for the bird. Yet another lady left a hundred pounds a year for the maintenance of her parrot, which was to be produced twice a year "to prove that the person tend ing it had not wrung its neck."
