“That where the testator used excessive amounts of a patent kidney medicine and recommended it to his friends for all kinds of diseases; manifested a hitherto unknown desire to make political speeches, and was positive in his utterances that certain candidates should not be permitted to run for office, and that Bryan was not honest and McKinley was not fit to be President, and that he could make a better President than McKinley; got up at night and sang Psalms; took his dogs and went hunting at night, though he got no game, and had not in former years been known to hunt; exhibited his stallion and other stock at church meetings, and failed to recognize acquaintances; carried on disconnected conversations, had a roaring in his head, used coal oil in his ears, and poured coal oil on trees and when it killed them said he had no sense,—neither these eccentricities nor other peculiarities like them show a want of capacity to make a will.”
This testator was a being of a high order of reasoning as compared with many such cases to be met with. Old Diogenes said: “Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad; for if a man walk with his middle finger pointing out, folk will think him mad, but not so if it be his forefinger.”
Ordinary mortals are very strict in measuring craziness: even a slight divergence from the normal standard, or their standard of normality, causes them to adjudge their neighbors crazy: the courts are, however, much more lenient in their judgments in dealing with matters testamentary, and seem inclined to the view that all men are sane, only some are less so: or, as the Kentuckian says of a certain liquid produced in his State, “It’s all good but some better than others”; in fact, that weird performances and peculiar actions are indications of individuality and not of mental incapacity. The Supreme Court of North Carolina has decided that while a failure to go to church is a moral delinquency, yet it does not unfit a man to make a will.
The Supreme Court of New York has decided that though one believe in all the abominations and wanton rites of ancient Greece and Rome, and in sincerity worship Egypt’s wandering gods, disguised in brutish form, or, like the Hindoo, stand for a lifetime on one leg to secure salvation, or be yet a howling dervish, and rave and gash his naked body, thinking he is doing God service, yet he may be able to transact the affairs of life or dispose suitably of his property.
Any number of individuals have been accused of inability to make their last wills on account of an inclination to hunt for hidden treasures. One such in New York State took with her her nephew, and had him carry a red rooster under his arm for good luck, and they dug diligently, but found no gold. She left gold, however, but not so apportioned as to suit her relatives, and a will contest followed. Another person bandaged his face with handkerchiefs, to prevent false impressions being made on his mind: probably he did not succeed, yet his will was sustained. One gentleman charged his wife with putting tongs in his bed to make him uneasy. Whether hot or cold tongs, is not stated by the decision of the Supreme Court of Connecticut; but the Court did decide that such an offence was more often chargeable to the heart than to the head.
A belief in perpetual motion, and a denial of the revolution of the earth on its axis, and assertions that “the sun do move,” have not been sufficient to undermine testamentary capacity, according to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.
Frequent efforts have been made to show that marriage late in life was evidence of insanity, but always unsuccessfully.
The Supreme Court of Connecticut held that it was a perfectly natural trait for the aged to tell favorite stories and to embellish them a little more or less, as fancy prompted.
A woman’s fondness for gossip, and the constant changing of her mind in regard to the arrangement of the house she was building and the color of paints used for it, were insufficient reasons for setting aside her will: on the contrary, the Court intimated that it was perfectly natural that she should change her mind and that the workmen should be scolded. Certain it is, that one feature of this decision has long been sustained by custom.
The same Court, the Supreme Court of Michigan, decided that a disposition on the part of an individual to give his services to the United States Government in the management of its financial affairs, did not necessarily show insanity, and added that if it did, most of us would not escape.