Better days; or, A Millionaire of To-morrow — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Better days; or, A Millionaire of To-morrow
John Stuart Mill · en
“I have not yet finished,” said the Court. “It is apparent that many of
the objections urged will be against the reading of the will. Such
objections may be discussed more intelligently if the Court can be
suffered to gain some knowledge of the contents of the paper offered,
and I shall ask, gentlemen, that you suspend argument or motions while
the clerk reads the will. It will then delight the Court to devote the
remainder of the term to hearing arguments why the will ought never to
have been read. Mr. Clerk, proceed, and I will send to jail for contempt
any member of this bar who shall interrupt you until the reading shall
be completed.”
There was silence in the crowded court room as the clerk opened and read
the document:—
In the name of God, Amen, I, Lorin French, of San Francisco, California,
being of sound and disposing mind and memory, but being assured by my
physicians that the wound received by me must within a few days prove
fatal, do make, publish, and declare this my last will and testament,
revoking all wills previously made by me.
The free use of my hand enables me to make this will holographic, and
this labor I undertake in order to more completely demonstrate to the
court where it may be offered for probate, that it is altogether my own
act, and that I am sane, clear of mind, and fully possessed of my own
memory and judgment.
The near approach of the world into which my spirit is about to journey,
brings, possibly, a clearer judgment, and I think now that if my
decision to employ no strikers had not been communicated to the mob, I
should have reconsidered such decision. However, my approaching death,
which will incidentally result from that decision, afflicts me less than
the fate of those who fell in the affray, for my own life was drawing to
a close.
If the example I shall offer in attempting to adjust the relations of
capital and labor shall be followed by others, it will result in
advantage to the workers of this land, and great permanent good may thus
grow from the bitter struggle which ended with the wound which will
terminate my life on earth.
I am unmarried and childless, and my nearest living relatives are
cousins of remote degrees, with whose names and places of residence I am
scarcely acquainted. No relation of mine has any moral or rightful claim
upon my estate, and the disposition I am about to make of my property
will work injustice to no living creature.
I appoint as executor of this my last will and testament, my friend
Louis Browning, to serve without bonds, and I direct that for his
services as executor, and in lieu of all commissions, he receive the sum
of $50,000 out of my estate.
I direct my said executor to forthwith pay to the widows, or next of
kin, of each man slain in the late riot, the sum of $10,000, to each man
permanently disabled by wounds received therein, the sum of $5,000, and
to each man wounded but not permanently disabled, the sum of $1,000.