of his fortune to a Hungarian notary, for bidding him, however, to take possession until he had sung in La Scala or San Carlo opera houses the parts of Rossini's "Otello" and "Elviro" in "Somnambula." He was eighty years old when he executed the will and wrote: "I do not dispose of my wealth in this manner for the sake of being thought original; but having been present four years ago at an evening party in Vienna, I heard Mr. Lotz (the notary) sing a cavatina from each of the operas with a beautiful tenor voice, therefore I believe him likely to be come an excellent artist! In any case, if the public hisses him, he can console himself easily with the three million florins which I leave him." In 1805, Mr. Edward Hurst left a very large fortune to his only son on condition that the latter should seek out and marry a young lady, whom the father, according to his own statement, had, by acts for which he prayed forgiveness, reduced to the ex tremity of poverty; or, failing her, her nearest unmarried female heir. The latter, by the irony of fate, turned out to be a spinster of fifty-five, who, professing herself willing to carry out her share of the imposed duty, was duly united to the young man, who had just reached his majority. Many valuable bequests have been made to dogs, and other domestic pets. The will of one Garland, who died in June, 1888, con tained this clause: "I bequeath for my mon key, my dear and amusing Jacko, the sum of one hundred pounds per annum, to be em ployed for his sole use and benefit; to my faithful dog, Shock, and my well-beloved cat, Tib, a pension of five pounds; and desire that, in the case of the death of either of the three, the lapsed pension shall pass to the other two, to whom it shall be equally divided. On the death of all three, the sum appropriated shall become the property of my daughter Gertrude, to whom I give this
preference among my children because of the large family she has, and the difficulty she finds in bringing them up." A Mrs. Elizabeth Hurst, in 1813, left two hundred a year to her parrot, and a Mr. Harper settled one hundred a year on his "young black cat," the interest to be paid to his housekeeper, Mrs. Hodges, as long as the cat remained alive. Dr. Christiano, of Venice, again, left sixty thousand florins for the maintenance of his three dogs, with a condition that, at their death, the sum shall be added to the funds of the University of Vienna. An old Parisian lady bequeathed fifteen hundred a year to her butcher, whom she had never seen; while one man chalked his will on a corn-bin; and another inscribed his on a bed-post. Both the corn-bin and the bed-post are said to be filed in Doctor's Com mons, London. Perhaps the whimsical will of a Scotch gentleman, who, having two daughters, be queathed to each her weight, not in gold, but in one pound notes, has been frequently noted. At any rate, the elder of the two was considerably lighter than her sister, for she only got fifty-one thousand, while the younger received fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and forty-four. In conclusion, we may give the following curious clause in the testament of a Nev York gentleman : "I own seventy-one pairs of trousers, and I strictly enjoin my execu tors to hold a public sale, at which these shall be sold to the highest bidder, and the pro ceeds distributed to the poor of the city. I further desire that these garments shall in no way be examined or meddled with, but be disposed of as they are found at the time of my death; and no one purchaser to buy more than one pair." The sale was actually held, and the seventy-one purchasers each found in one of the pockets bank notes rep resenting a thousand dollars.
