nt was ever offered for
probate. This gentleman, the sole object of affection of two most
worthy and self-sacrificing sisters, married late in life without
making any adequate settlement upon the relatives to whom, in a
great measure, he owed his success. He always promised to provide
for them amply, saying, repeatedly, in effect, in letters which
we have seen, "As my fortune advances so also shall yours; my
prosperity will be your prosperity," etc. Oblivious to the ties
of nature and affection, however, when he came to make his will
he, out of a fortune of two millions, bequeathed to these
sisters, during life, an annuity of $1,200 per annum only,
leaving the rest of the income of his estate to his wife and her
niece, the latter a young lady whom he had previously made
independent by his skilful investment of a few thousand dollars
left her by her father. Not content with the will which gave her
also a large income for life out of Mr. Thomson's estate, this
niece of his wife brought suit against the executors to recover
bonds found after the death of the testator in an envelope on
which her name was written, and through the ruling of Judge
Thayer, a relation by marriage to the husband of the lady, the
case was decided in her favor, and $100,000 was thus absolutely
and permanently taken from the fund designed for the asylum which
it was Mr. Thomson's long-cherished desire to found for the
benefit and education of orphan girls whose fathers had been or
might be killed by accident on the Pennsylvania and other
railroads. The injustice of this decision is made manifest when
we reflect that the Misses Anna and Adeline Thomson, who worked
side by side with their brother as civil engineers in their
father's office, and labored, without pay, therein, that he might
be educated and sent abroad further to perfect himself in his
profession, were cut off with a comparatively paltry stipend for
life, this being still further reduced by the
collateral-inheritance tax. As high an authority as Dr. William
A. Hammond says that, "for a man to cut off his natural heirs in
his will is _prima facie_ evidence of abberation of mind," and we
believe this to be true.

Had these sisters[270] been brothers they would have been
recognized as partners and had their legal prop