Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1876 — Jennens vs. Jennens. [ARTICLE]

Jennens vs. Jennens.

Moncure D. Conway writes from London to the Cincinnati Commercial: I once heard George Peabody say that for many years he had been bored with letters from America, asking him about visionary estates, falling to mere visionary heirs in the United States; and even so humble an individual as your correspondent has received enough letters about the Jennings estate to yield him a glow of satisfaction in recording the prospect that the famous case has at last reached a situation in which the door will be speedily shut against any future inquiries. The High Court of Chancery will soon have the case in hand. The Jenningses, to the number of several hundred, have formed a huge “family association” —a ' sort of joint stock company—with treasurers and secretaries, and have issued a “memorial for public information.” In this actualization of Dickens’ Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce the title is Jennens vs. Jennens, but I be-

lieve that the various ways in which the name “ Jennena" can be written, when there are millions in it, are more than might be imagined. Many a family that once upon a time conc.uded that “Jennings,” or “Jennens.” was plebeian, as compared with Jenyng, Jenyns, Janning, seems to have discovered in recent years a more aristocratic accent in Jennings and Jennens. There never were such a number of Jenningses in London as at present, no fewer than ninetysix persons of that name being on the directory. The property represents forty millions of golden dollars, and the holders of tickets that may draw prizes are beginning, it is said, to speculate in them. The old man who left the original property points unusually well the saying: “ He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them.” He was godson of William 111., and page to the firat Hanoverian King; a miser, he died in lonely bachelorhood, and an unsigned will was found in his pocket Large sums of money were found hidden away in all manner of magpie places about his house. The sum he left to be fought over was £2,000,000, and it has now become £8,000,000. Scores of people have been ruined in the effort to grasp the old miser’s hoard, and scores of lawyers have made fortunes by it. When the case is decided it is expected that a number of glossy gentlemen of the Inns will have to go about like workmen in the winter, singing: “We have no work to do-o-o.” Some families may be content with gaining a certificate of connection with a family which includes a Duchess of Marlborough (Sarah the termigant); Richard Tai bot, Duke of Tyrconnel and Viceroy of Ireland under James I.; Edmund Jennings.the famous Jesuit; Admiral Sir John Jennings, and Soame Jenyns, antiquary, the most respectable'of the lot, who reappears in one of the best-drawn characters of the late Mr. Shirley Brooks’ most pleasant romance. The matter has gone now so far that some notices of ejectment from the property have been served, and the conflict begun a century back, waged since in a ghostly way, will soon grow warm.

A few days since Mr. Johnson, connected with the Long Branch Bank, and whose residence is Tn Matawan, found a one-dollar bill in the cars. He could not find an owner. A friend suggested to put it insome trust company with; the proviso that it shall bear interest, which interest shall be compounded every year, and at the ead of 200 years a hospital be erected with the product. Mr. Johnson smiled and suggested that the amount was too small. We have taken the trouble to reckon what that dollar would amount to, and find that the final sum would be $131,072. This is reckoning at six per cent, interest. Now, suppose Mr. Johnson should invest five dollars more to endow a hospital, we have the immense sum of $655,360 to forever keep the hospital in active operation. Some will say “ Two hundred years, pshaw! that is too far oft';” yet money institutions axe now in existence in London that are more than 300 years old; and if a man is dead it will make little difference to him if the money he beoueaths is invested in two years or 200 years. So we respectfully suggest that the dollar with the additional five dollars shall be put out at interest to found the Johnson Hospital, to be built at Long Branch in 2076, and all from the one dollar found in the Central Railroad cars.— Asbury Park (ifd.) Journal. In the taxables of Brooklyn appears the name of a German whose annual payments for taxes exceeds many of the socalled princely merchants who live on the Heights. He pays taxes yearly upon real and personal property assessed at $250,000, but worth probably double that amount. Yet this man works hard at the bench every day, and if he spends a dollar in recreation for his wife and children pn Sunday, he thinks it is a big thing. He has no help, but works for a few customers, doing all their work, and caring nothing about any of them. If they are displeased with his way of doing things, he simply says they can take their work elsewhere, and he sorely tries their patience by his habit of disappointing his customers as to time. This man collects his own rents, builds two or three new houses every year, and from his frugal habits promises, if his life is long spared, to be one of the wealthiest of all the Brooklynites. His yearly income from real estate is not less than $15,000 per annum, but he regards idleness as a sin, and works away every day upon boots and slides as regularly as if his bread and butter were in jeopardy.— N. F. Cor. Chicago Tribune.

—Archbishop Bayley (Roman Catholic), of Baltimore, some time ago asked of the Pope the appointment of a coadjutor Bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and recommended Bishop Gibbons, of Richmond, for the position, with the right of succession. Father Kane, of Washington, was recommended as Bishop of Richmond, to take the place of Bishop Gibbons in case the change was made. It is understood in Catholic circles that these changes were opposed by Bishop Becker, of Wilmington, Del., Bishop Kanp, of Wheeling, W. Va., and Bishop Lynch, of South Carolina, and that the Pope declined to make the appointments. The reason why the Archbishop asked for a coadjutor was that his health was feeble, but it has since much improved.— N. Y. Evening Post. —Miss Kellogg, while singing in Detroit last week, was pestered by a young lady who had fallen in love with her, and was determined to have an interview. Miss Kellogg would not receive her, -but, as the opera troupe was leaving on the Sunday morning train, the enthusiastic damsel rushed into the car, and a second later had Miss Kellogg in her arms, to the unqualified astonishment of that lady and the imminent peril of her back hair and Sunday hat. — Cincinnati Commercial. —L. W. Neatherlin was going to his ranch on the Cibolo, in Atascesa County, and W. H. Slaughter and several others hove in sight and began to play Indian, just for fun. He took them for Indians and halted and tied his team, and, taking ambuscade, waited the approach to within Spencer rifle range. The bravest warrior dashed ahead of his fellows, and Neatherlin drew a bead on him and shot him through. — Galveston News. —Last April a pair of young horses ran away in Green, R. J., with the neck-yoke hanging between them. No one could find them. The other day their skeletons were found in a wood seven miles from where they started. The bones, harness and neck-yoke showed that they were caught fast in the brush, and had starved after eating everything within their reach. —Every farmer or farmer’s wife should keep a soldering iron. It is an easy matter to tinker all kinds of tin-ware and can fruit.