William Faxon died recently at Ovid, Michigan. When the mourners had gathered at the Faxon home, in which lay his open coffin, they were surprised to hear his voice in an anthem from behind a screen of flowers and palms.
Sometime before his death, Faxon conceived the idea of preserving his own voice by means of the phonograph, to be a part of the service when he died. He was a well-known choir singer, and possessed a rich tenor voice.
Heavenly Securities
An inventory recently filed in the County Court at Nashville, Tennessee, is probably the most unusual instrument of its kind ever admitted to probate. The document is signed by Mrs. Corra W. Harris, the author of a book of high merit, “A Circuit Rider’s Wife”; her husband, the Reverend Lundy H. Harris, is reported to have died by his own hand; he is said to have been the real circuit rider of the story; his wife qualified as his administratrix. The inventory given below is embodied in a letter addressed to the Clerk of the County Court, which had jurisdiction of the estate of the deceased minister; it is a pathetic and touching tribute from an able pen.
“Mr. W. F. Hunt, City.
“Dear Sir:
“I have your card saying that if I do not furnish you an Inventory of the estate of Lundy H. Harris, of which I was appointed administratrix, within ten days from receipt of this notice, you will proceed as the law directs.
“I did not know it was my duty to furnish such an inventory and now you demand it I do not know how to do it. If the one I send you is not in proper form to be recorded upon your books, I enclose postage and request you to let me know wherein I have failed.
“It is not with the intention of showing an egregious sentimentality that I say I find it impossible to give you a complete and satisfactory inventory of the estate of Lundy H. Harris. The part that I give is so small that it is insignificant and misleading.
“At the time of his death he had $2.35 in his purse, $116.00 in the Union Bank & Trust Company of this city, about four hundred books, and the coffin in which he was buried, which cost $85.00.
“The major part of his estate was invested in heavenly securities, the values of which have been variously declared in this world, and highly taxed by the various churches, but never realized. He invested every year not less (usually more) than $1200. in charity, so secretly, so inoffensively and so honestly that he was never suspected of being a philanthropist, and never praised for his generosity. He pensioned an old outcast woman in Barton County, an old soldier in Nashville; he sent two little negro boys to school and supported for three years a family of five who could not support themselves. He contributed anonymously to every charity in Nashville, every old maid interested in a ‘benevolent’ object received his aid, every child he knew exacted and received penny tolls from his tenderness. He supported the heart of every man who confided in him with encouragement and affection. He literally did forgive his enemies and suffered martyrdom on Sept. 18th, 1910, after enduring three years of persecution without complaint. He considered himself one of the Chief of Survivors and was ever recognized as one of the largest bondholders in Heaven.