In England, masses are held to be superstitious and unlawful: in the United States, opinions are divided: in most of the States of the Union, bequests for the purposes of masses are valid; in others, however, they are looked upon as an attempt to create a private trust for the benefit of the deceased, without any one to enforce it, and consequently invalid. It may be said that the decisions holding the latter view are not very numerous.
Religious Bequests Forbidden
The State of Mississippi has a statute which absolutely forbids bequests, legacies and devises to religious and ecclesiastical bodies; it reads:
“Every legacy, gift, or bequest, of money or personal property, or of any interest, benefit or use therein, either direct, implied, or otherwise, contained in any last will and testament, or codicil, in favor of any religious or ecclesiastical corporation, sole or aggregate, or any religious or ecclesiastical society, or to any religious denomination or association, either for its own use or benefit, or for the purpose of being given or appropriated to charitable uses, shall be null and void, and the distributees shall take the property as though no such testamentary disposition had been made.”
Under the laws of the State of Ohio, testamentary gifts for benevolent, religious, educational or charitable purposes, as against issue, are void, unless the will be executed at least one year before the decease of the testator.
In the District of Columbia, and in the states of Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, are also to be found laws restricting gifts for religious or charitable purposes.
In the Pocket of an Old Dress
Some five years ago, a young girl about seventeen years old came to a lawyer in a Western city and asked him if he had drawn her grandmother’s will. She was a kittenish little person, such as one would think lived on cakes and chocolate. When told it had been drawn, she notified the lawyer that her grandmother had just died of apoplexy. He then informed her that her grandmother had called a few days before and taken the will with the avowed intention of cutting her off. The girl left, and the next day was back at the law office with the will, holding it tightly with both hands. She had found it in the pocket of an old dress; it had not been changed, and the young woman receives the revenue on $100,000 during her life. She has since married three times, yet retains much life and romance in her composition. Each yule-tide she sends the lawyer a book; the last one was “Fanchon the Cricket,” which treats of how to rear twins. May she grow old gracefully, bless her!
From Father to Son
The late William E. Dodge, of New York, received by will from his grandfather a large sum to be invested and the income to be devoted to the spread of the Gospel and to promote the Redeemer’s Kingdom on earth, and to be transmitted, unimpaired, to his descendants for the same purpose. By his will, Mr. Dodge bequeathed the sum to his eldest son to be by him invested and the income to be sacredly devoted, as indicated in the grandfather’s will, and to be handed down to his descendants for a like purpose. With regard to charitable bequests, Mr. Dodge in his will said: “Acting from a judgment deliberately formed, based upon observation of the inexpediency of testamentary bequests to religious and charitable objects, and believing it better and wiser to give liberally during life to such objects, I make no bequests of that character.”