524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



page occurring in the middle of the will, it can not be sustained 

 (Heady's Will, 15 Abb. Pr., N. S., 211). 



Instances might be multiplied to illustrate the serious consequences 

 resulting from ignorance, carelessness, stupidity, or forgetfulness in 

 the execution and proof of wills, but these are sufficient to emphasize 

 the necessity of intelligence, accuracy, and forethought in the matter. 

 Returning to the discussion of execution : 



1. The will must be in writing, and subscribed by the testator at 

 the end. 



Apparently this is plain and concise enough, and adapted to the 

 comprehension of a child, yet a long list of expensive appeals attest to 

 the difficulty experienced in solving the meaning of this phraseology. 

 What is writing? What is a signature? Where is the end of a 

 will ? are questions which appellate courts have been called upon to 

 determine. If a will be printed ; if it be done by a type-writer ; if it 

 be executed wholly in lead-pencil, instead of ink ; if the signature be 

 by a mark, or if it be made by another at the request of and for the 

 testator ; if the signature, as in the case of the will of J. Kelly (supra), 

 be not immediately at the foot of the instrument — these and similar 

 inquiries call for an answer to the qucere, "Have the requirements of 

 the statute been complied with ? " It has already appeared that J. Kel- 

 lyh will was not a will. The Court of Appeals, it is true, decided this 

 case on other grounds than the single fact that the signature occurred 

 before reaching the end of the document. Perhaps, if nothing of im- 

 portance had followed the signature (McGuire vs. Kerr, 2 Brad., 244), 

 the court would have sustained the decision of the General Term, and 

 held the will to have been properly executed ; but the fate of this 

 instrument conclusively shows that it is not safe to tamper with a 

 statute, and that the end of a will is at the end ; in other words, the 

 testator should have signed immediately above the witnesses, at the 

 conclusion of the document. 



Printed wills and wills executed by a type-writer have been held 

 to be written within the meaning of the statute. On March 9, 1883, 

 Judge York, at New Haven, Connecticut, admitted the will of James 

 Willey, which was in type-writing, to probate, holding that the legal 

 definition of writing included printing. The Supreme Court of Penn- 

 sylvania, in the case of Myers vs. Vanderbilt (1 Schuylkill Leg. Reg., 

 55), recently decided that ink was not essential, by recognizing as 

 valid a will which was wholly written in lead-pencil and so subscribed. 

 This agrees with the views of ex-Surrogate D. C. Calvin, of New 

 York, who, in October, 1878, admitted the will of Henry J. Mann, 

 otherwise and better known as the actor Montague, to probate. This 

 will was written and signed wholly in pencil, upon a leaf torn from an 

 ordinary diary or small memorandum-book, and was as follows : 



" If anything happens to me, I make this ray last will and testa- 



