In case there should be any deficiency of property to fill these bequests, I should prefer that the deficiency should be taken out of the larger amounts to friends who do not really need the money, rather then to reduce all of the bequests pro rata. Under present conditions there should be a surplus of several thousand dollars. This you might hold for some time and if any of my friends came to actual want, you could use it for their benefit or, if not used for that purpose, you could give it to some hospital or asylum. If you deem it advisable, you may make explanation that the varying amounts of these legacies are not to be taken as indicating the degree of my regard for recipients, since I have considered to a considerable extent the financial condition of my friends. To some of them any amount of money I could leave would be of no account pecuniarily, while in case of others it might be of some real help; I have also given my girl friends largely the advantage in amounts. I will keep a duplicate of this list, which will be among my papers, and may make changes in it from time to time, which will be of the same effect as though communicated to you. Yours very truly, John B. Atwater. MEMORANDUM I wish my remains to be cremated as quietly as possible, and do not care to have a minister hold any services. While I believe in God the Infinite not ourselves which is eternal I do not believe in any of the man-made Gods and Creeds which now exist and which in my opinion have entirely perverted the simple gospel taught by Christ. As I have no near relatives to be pained by the absence of conventional ceremonies, I might as well be consistent to the end. I have no particular use for flowers at a funeral, and would prefer, if my friends feel it necessary to express their regret in a tangible form, that they would send checks to some Hospital or Asylum in my memory for the amount they would otherwise spend on flowers. FOOTNOTES: [1] Renan says that "the family of David had, as it seems, been long extinct" before Joseph's birth. Life of Jesus, Chap. XV. [2] The first verse of Luke's Gospel says that "many" had written about Jesus' life before him. If, as seems probable, he had Matthew's narrative before him when he wrote his Gospel, it is an interesting query why he rejected in his line of ancestry Solomon--the most "glorious" of the Jewish rulers--in favor of the obscure and comparatively unknown Nathan. [3] It is somewhat curious that Matthew and Luke, who are the only two evangelists to attribute a divine ancestry to Jesus (see heading "Conception"), are the only two to give a genealogy of Joseph. From their point of view, it was entirely immaterial whether Joseph was a descendant of David or not. An attempt to trace Mary's lineage back to David would have had some materiality.