found in the possession of the people at large; and as, in my opinion, their fingers ought not to be soiled by irredeemable paper money, I request you, if possible, to destroy bills of the denomination of one, two, and five dollars.
Exactly two years from the day upon which the will was proved, which was Sept. 29, 1878, the executor and the witnesses met agreeably to the testator's request. Bills had been provided, and their destruction, after a careful verification, proved a long and tedious undertaking. At last it was successfully accomplished, and a true statement signed and sworn to was sent to the Secretary of the Treasury at Washington. On Sept. 29, 1888, the ten years had elapsed; but neither the authorities at Washington nor the executor and witnesses, all of whom were living, manifested any desire to publish the transaction. The will and letter of instructions were recently brought to the notice of the writer, and he takes this occasion to make public the curious and perhaps creditable generosity of a peculiar man.
TOOMBS.
By Hon. L. E. Bleckley.
A LION harmless to the weakest lamb,
Though fiercely scorning like a lamb to be:
His ruling passion to be wild and free
As winds and waves, with no compulsive calm
Save God's. To God alone he tuned the psalm,
Or bowed the head, or uttered prayer or plea;
To none but God he ever bent the knee,
Or incense burned, or offered bull or ram.
His mind was Space and Time in Spirit swung;
His brain was Reason's self encased in bone;
His speech the Summer Storm with human tongue,—
A storm of logic thundered from a throne.
O'er all our hearts his sceptre might have hung,
Had he but learned to tame and rule his own.
April, 1889.
