Then from the entire front of the bar came cries of excited counsel, learned in all law save that of decorum, while the Court rapped for order.
“Gentlemen,” said he, “you will all please be seated. The Court itself would like to be heard. The will of our deceased fellow-citizen, Lorin French, who was never more regretted by me than at this moment, or”—and the Court smiled deprecatingly—“the paper which purports to be his will, is presented here by our Brother Bruff. Now, unless some gentleman denies the death of Lorin French, it occurs to me that the reading of the paper offered as his will can but tend to our common enlightenment—”
The deep-voiced Lester, with his twenty-three objections, sustained by a “brief” which covered ninety pages of manuscript, arose.
“I have not yet finished,” said the Court. “It is apparent that many of the objections urged will be against the reading of the will. Such objections may be discussed more intelligently if the Court can be suffered to gain some knowledge of the contents of the paper offered, and I shall ask, gentlemen, that you suspend argument or motions while the clerk reads the will. It will then delight the Court to devote the remainder of the term to hearing arguments why the will ought never to have been read. Mr. Clerk, proceed, and I will send to jail for contempt any member of this bar who shall interrupt you until the reading shall be completed.”
There was silence in the crowded court room as the clerk opened and read the document:—
In the name of God, Amen, I, Lorin French, of San Francisco, California, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, but being assured by my physicians that the wound received by me must within a few days prove fatal, do make, publish, and declare this my last will and testament, revoking all wills previously made by me.
The free use of my hand enables me to make this will holographic, and this labor I undertake in order to more completely demonstrate to the court where it may be offered for probate, that it is altogether my own act, and that I am sane, clear of mind, and fully possessed of my own memory and judgment.
The near approach of the world into which my spirit is about to journey, brings, possibly, a clearer judgment, and I think now that if my decision to employ no strikers had not been communicated to the mob, I should have reconsidered such decision. However, my approaching death, which will incidentally result from that decision, afflicts me less than the fate of those who fell in the affray, for my own life was drawing to a close.
If the example I shall offer in attempting to adjust the relations of capital and labor shall be followed by others, it will result in advantage to the workers of this land, and great permanent good may thus grow from the bitter struggle which ended with the wound which will terminate my life on earth.
I am unmarried and childless, and my nearest living relatives are cousins of remote degrees, with whose names and places of residence I am scarcely acquainted. No relation of mine has any moral or rightful claim upon my estate, and the disposition I am about to make of my property will work injustice to no living creature.