THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 109 



of ways. Ho has left a Legacy of $10,000 to " Ihe Plum- 

 mer Hall in the City of Salem." This language does not 

 describe with accuracy either of the corporate bodies 

 which have from the outset enjoyed the joint occupancy 

 of the building and for whose accommodation it seems to 

 have been designed. It designates in terms by their cor- 

 porate name neither the " Essex Institute " nor the " Pro- 

 prietors of the Salem Athenaeum," and we are advised 

 that the case is one of those in which the courts, rather 

 than allow the legacy to lapse for uncertainty and fall to 

 a Pennsylvania Hospital, which is the residuary legatee, 

 will hear evidence of a certain well-defined sort tending 

 to show the purpose the testator had in view. Such evi- 

 dence is in course of preparation — proper legal steps 

 have been taken — and already more than one hundred 

 and forty letters from the testator have come to light, all 



d O 7 



of them expressing the warmest interest in the Institute 

 and its work, of which Mr. Smith was constantly avail- 

 ing himself for fourteen years. It is impossible to sup- 

 pose that we siml 1 not profit by the bounty of our friend. 



The will of Mr. George L. Ames has also been tiled, 

 and while probate has not been finally allowed, and the 

 condition of his estate is yet to be disclosed, it can hardly 

 be that the Institute among other beneficiaries will not 

 ultimately derive a very considerable advantage from the 

 generous remembrance of Mr. Ames. 



But the need of the Institute, as of most societies of 

 the kind, is ready money rather than the expectation of 

 future riches. The possibility of seeming the Story, ihe 

 Curwen, and other noble contributions, — of housing, 

 cataloguing, arranging and utilizing the collections already 

 ours, — of conducting our large correspondence, our 

 prudential and other business affairs with reasonable vigor 

 and efficiency, — depends on ready money; depends on 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XXX 8 



