Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1910 — POKER SKILL PROVE SANITY? [ARTICLE]

POKER SKILL PROVE SANITY?

Witkess In Will Contest Case Says Aged Testator Played Very Shrewd Game of Cards. Philadelphia.—The question whether a man’s ability to play poker is proof that he is mentally able to execute a will was put up to Register of Wills David Martin the other day. .Theproceedings were brought to prevent the probate of the testament of Thomas Morgan, who died at the age of eighty years. The testator's daugh-ter-in-law, Nora Morgan, alleged that when he made a will favoring his niece, Rose Devine, he was of unsound mind. Magistrate James A. Briggs, an old friend of Morgan, was called before the register of wills. “Was Mr. Morgan, in your opinion, of unsound mind?" was asked. “His mind always seemed pretty clear to me. I bad often seen him in the office of the water bureau at night playing in a game of poker. He played the game for all it was worth, and there was nothing about the way handled the cards to indicate that his mind was in any way weak.”