The other was the
"freak" will of his late and little-lamented uncle, from whom he had
his present income, and his future expectations of some ten
millions. Adrian Van Reypen Egerton had, as Waldemar once put it,
"--one into the mayor's chair with a good name and come out with a
block of ice stock." In a will whose cynical humor was the topic of
its day, Mr. Egerton jeered posthumously at the public which he had
despoiled, and promised restitution, of a sort, through his heir.
"Therefore," he had written, "I give and bequeath to the said Adrian
Van Reypen Egerton Jones, the residue of my property, the principal
to be taken over by him at such time as he shall have completed five
years of continuous residence in New York City. After such time the
virus of the metropolis will have worked through his entire being.
He will squander his unearned and undeserved fortune, thus
completing the vicious circle, and returning the millions acquired
by my political activities, in a poisoned shower upon the city, for
which, having bossed, bullied and looted it, I feel no sentiment
other than contempt.
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