Joyce's Property Willed in Verse

Inscription on Monument Advises Flowers for the Living.

Washington, Jan. 26. — Colonel John A. Joyce, whose perpetual conflict with Ella Wheeler Wilcox over the authorship of “Laugh and the World Laughs with You,” is known from one end of the country to the other, wrote his last will and testament in verse. Mr. Joyce died a few days ago, and this document was filed today in the Supreme Court. Here is the will:

To my daughters, Libby and Florence,  In equal proportions to share, I give all my cash and property  When my spirit is soaring in air, And appoint Mr. James J. Lampton  To execute this my last will, When I rest 'neath the bloomy flowers  In Lot 444 on Oak Hill.

Mr. Joyce's property consisted of $2,500 worth of street car company bonds and cash in bank. At Lot 444 on Oak Hill,,—in Oak Hill cemetery—Mr. Joyce erected a monument to himself eight months before he died, with this inscription:

Strew golden flowers upon my life,  And do so very often; I'll need them in my daily strife,  But not upon my coffin.