as
inevitable beneficiaries. It was all cut and dried, so far as Judge
Hollenback's auditors were concerned,--that is to say, prior to the reading
of the will. True, the old lawyer had declared in the beginning, that the
present will was drawn and signed on the afternoon of the day before the
death of Mr. Thorpe, and that a previous instrument to which a codicil had
been affixed was destroyed in the presence of two witnesses. The
instrument witnessed by Wade and Murray was the one that had been
destroyed. This should have aroused uneasiness in the mind of Braden
Thorpe, if no one else, but he was slow to recognise the significance of
the change in his grandfather's designs.
With his customary terseness, Templeton Thorpe declared himself to be
hopelessly ill but of sound mind at the moment of drawing his last will
and testament, and suffering beyond all human endurance. His condition at
that moment, and for weeks beforehand, was such that death offered the
only panacea. He had come to appreciate the curse of a life prolonged
beyond reason. Therefore, in full possession of all his faculties and
being now irrevocably converted to the principles of mercy advocated by
his beloved grandson, Braden Lanier Thorpe, he placed the residue of his
estate in trust, naming the aforesaid Braden Lanier Thorpe as sole
trustee, without bond, the entire amount to be utilised and expended by
him in the promotion of his noble and humane propaganda in relation to the
fate of the hopelessly afflicted among those creatures fashioned after the
image of God. The trust was to expire with the death of the said Braden
Lanier Thorpe, when all funds remaining unused for the purposes herein set
forth were to go without restriction to the heirs of the said trustee,
either by bequest or administration.
In so many words, the testator rested in his grandson full power and
authority to use these funds, amounting to nearly six million dollars, as
he saw fit in the effort to obtain for the human sufferer the same mercy
that is extended to the beast of the field, and to make final disposition
of the estate in his own will. Realising the present hopelessness of an
attempt to secure legislation of this character, he suggested that first
of all it would be imperative to prepare the way to such an end by
creating in the minds of all the peoples of the world a state of common
sense that could successfully combat and overcome love, sentimentality and
cowardice!
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