"The Supreme Court has finally handed down its decision in the case of
Hooper et al. vs. Bingle. I am not the rightful heir. Joseph H. Hooper
was not acting within his rights when he disposed of his privately
acquired fortune. His children were acting within their rights when
they disowned him, scorned him, kicked him out of their lives. It has
been decided that my uncle was not competent to dispose of his
property, and that I, his conniving nephew, influenced him by craft,
wiliness, duplicity and so forth to such an extent that he gave his
money to me instead of to those who should have received it. The
Supreme Court declares that all of the lower courts erred in not
admitting testimony to prove that my uncle DESIRED to leave his
fortune to his children, even after he had made his last will in my
favour.
"It may interest you to know that 'The Christmas Carol' had a great
deal to do with the decision. The lower courts refused to hear
evidence to the effect that after making his will he wrote a letter to
each of his children, over his own signature, in which he stated that
upon reading the carol he was so impressed with the sermon it preached
that he was more than willing to let bygones be bygones and to give to
his children all of his fortune, in equal shares, expressing the hope,
however, that they would be governed by the same noble book in
compensating his beloved nephew, Thomas Bingle, and so on and so
forth.
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