Some people, even if they die, are creating disputes for the world.
In the last century, a prank-like will set off an unprecedented fertility race. In ten years. The poor in Canada are starting to have children. Because which family has the most children, you can get a bequeath of ten million dollars.
This weird legacy was finally sent out. But the countless families who lost the game got nothing—except for a bunch of children who weren't supposed to be born.
Participating families in fertility competitions
It all started on Halloween in 1926, when the rich man Charles Vance Millar died.
He was a lawyer during his lifetime and opened his own law firm. But he is also a savvy businessman. In the early years, he acquired British Express, also invested in the Jockey Club and brewery, and owned multiple properties. Anyway, he has accumulated considerable wealth throughout his life, with total assets of more than 10 million US dollars (based on current market value estimates).
The departure of a multimillionaire would have attracted attention. But how to distribute his legacy is the real reason why everyone is crazy.
Charles Vance Miller
First of all, this weird old man was not married, had no children, and his parents died early, so no one is eligible to inherit his huge wealth.
What is even stranger is that he left a testament that he would not disturb the world. He wants to give the rest of the property to women in Toronto, as long as she can have the most children in the next ten years. If two or more women are tied, the bonus will be split equally.
At first, when the will was discovered, his lawyer friends thought it was the last joke made by Miller. But after carefully reading the document, they were convinced that the old man was genuine and could only handle the bequeathed follow-up process for him. The local major media also quickly reported the miracle, and named it "The Great Stork Derby" (the Stork "Stork" is the legendary lover).
Miller's will
Miller even chose the time of his death. As soon as he entered the country, the Great Depression swept Canada and other countries.
At that time, Canada's unemployment rate reached 19%. From 1929 to 1933, Toronto's total revenue fell by 38.5%. By 1935, more than 25% of families in Toronto needed to live on government relief. In an economically depressed environment, this testament, like a joke, became the last straw of thousands of poor families.
Desperate couples who are unemployed at home and trapped in poverty are beginning to produce. What's even more exciting is that Miller's legacy will continue to increase in investment and financial management, and the money will grow more and more. A fertility race for the whole people is about to start.
Stills based on the true story of the film and television series "The Stork Derby"
However, this fertility race is not fun, it can even be said to be extremely cruel. He used the life and health of women in Toronto to challenge the limits of human reproduction.
Perhaps Miller himself did not expect that there would be so many families participating regardless of consequences. And he couldn't see what kind of human farce or tragedy this was.
So how do these contestants have the most children in ten years?
Calculated according to September pregnancy, if you continue to conceive and give birth, you can have about 13 children in ten years. But the human body is not a machine. It does not mean that if you want to conceive, you will conceive.
First, a woman who wants to become pregnant again must ensure that she is not breastfeeding. Because during breastfeeding, the mother's anterior pituitary gland secretes a large amount of prolactin to promote breast milk production. However, this process will also inhibit the pituitary gland's secretion of egg cell stimulating hormone, preventing follicles from developing into mature eggs. Therefore, during the lactation period of about half a year, women will not ovulate and will not have menstrual cramps, so they cannot conceive naturally.
Women who are breastfeeding are like using natural birth control pills. Therefore, some families determined to participate in the competition, in order to gain time, will be interrupted early or not breastfeeding. But working hard during breastfeeding was already the only viable solution at the time. All other things can only be destined.
In addition, even interrupted breast milk can speed up pregnancy. However, if the uterus does not have enough time to recover, it is also useless to conceive, and it is easy to have a miscarriage. The probability of spontaneous abortion of a woman with a known pregnancy is as high as 10% -20%. In addition, the earlier miscarriages were silent, and even pregnant women did not realize that they had aborted before they became pregnant. Among them, the delay is also quite a lot.
Fetal mortality at all stages of pregnancy
In order to improve fertility, it is not easy to be a father. In addition to clearly remembering the wife's physiological cycle, they will also ban sexual intercourse and masturbation for the first five days of the make-up plan in order to build up energy. But the effect is unknown.
Of course, there are also ways to overtake a curve, and that is to have more than one at a time. But at that time, IVF technology had not yet appeared. Therefore, this "fertility race" is still quite primitive. There is no technical plug-in, and it is basically solved by the couple in the bed.
In the case of interrupted breastfeeding, about ten to eight children can be born in ten years, while normal breastfeeding can only get four to five children.
Indeed, in countless families, those who can really qualify for the finals also have more than 8 children. Ten years later, at least 20 women in Toronto claim to have given birth to eight or more babies.
Among them, six women have more than nine children. And they are the most qualified to participate in the final selection. But soon, the two families were eliminated.
One of the eliminated women, Lillian Kenny, actually had a total of 11 children, but 3 children could not be counted due to stillbirth and premature birth. In a destitute environment, one of her children even died from a bite from a mouse.
Pauline Mae Clarke, another eliminated woman, also has 10 children. However, the children behind her were not born with her legal husband and belonged to illegitimate children, so they are not counted.
Left: Lillian Kenny, right: Pauline Mae Clarke
The final winner was four, all of whom had nine children, each averaging about $ 2.5 million (based on current market capitalization estimates). Their names are Lucy Timleck, Kathleen Nagle, Annie Smith and Isobel MacLean.
However, the other two women who were eliminated in the final round also received $ 250,000 each as compensation.
This is one of four winning families. The woman Lucy Timlec has a total of 16 children, 9 of whom were born during a birth race. Picture taken in 1935. Source: Toronto Public Library
So what about other failed families?
Because of its age and poor statistics, it is unknown at this time how many families participated in the competition. At the time, no one cared about what these fiascoes experienced. But imagination alone can feel the horror in it.
In this decade, in addition to enduring the health problems caused by uninterrupted childbirth, their spirits have also been severely damaged. "Can we win?", "Awesome competitor is pregnant again!", "How to feed this bunch of kids if they don't win?" ... These questions are circling in their minds every day, Make people suffer.
Leading families in fertility competitions occasionally gather together to exchange information. Picture taken in 1936,
In addition, they have to worry every day that this will will lapse. Because there has always been opposition to this prank-like will, whether out of selfishness or public moral considerations.
In 1932, the Ontario government proposed a proposal to invalidate the competition, recommending that Miller's legacy be donated to the University of Toronto for the establishment of scholarships and grants. But the proposal quickly met with strong public opposition. "Private property is sacred and inviolable." Opponents even mocked the Ontario government for pursuing communism.
The families who participated in the competition were even more angry. In 1932, the competition was already halfway through. Can you tell me not to count? During that time, the government received 14,000 letters of opposition, which can be described as bad reviews.
Another winning family, the Kathleen Nagle family. Picture taken in 1932
In addition, Miller did not know where the distant relatives came from, and was not willing to enter the outside world with fat water.
They argue that the bequest runs counter to public policy and should be sentenced to invalidity. The reason is that women continue to conceive and give birth in a short period of time, which will not only affect their own health, but also threaten the baby's personal safety. Participants, regardless of the consequences of multiple births and multiple education, will also bring a huge financial burden to the original family.
Fortunately, the dispute over the inheritance went to the Supreme Court of Canada from the first instance, but it ended in the loss of a distant relative. Only then will the will be valid and the game can continue.
The Carter family, one of the countless losers of the fertility race. Picture taken in 1936
But what does all this have to do with those families who have lost? After the birth race, their already impoverished families will only become more embarrassed. And those little children who came to this world for money can hardly have a good environment for growth and education. And these are all rich Miller did not consider, or he did not care.
Until now, no one knew the true purpose of Miller's will. Some people believe that this is his decision to support the national eugenics policy. Because he repeatedly emphasized the importance of eugenics and prenatal care during his lifetime, and criticized those who did not control fertility. So since he wants eugenics, why should he make a will to make everyone have children?
Perhaps, he wanted to emphasize the importance of eugenics through this extreme form. Without the awareness of eugenics, we will all see what happens now. In fact, many Canadian people have indeed grown after this incident, and more people have started to support birth control.
But looking at the entire will, this is more likely to be Miller's downright prank. In fact, the fertility competition is just one of Miller's projects dealing with heritage (of course, the amount involved is also the largest). There are many such tricks to trick the world into his will.
For example, he left the stock of his jockey club to the incompetent trio. Two of them are strongly opposed to horse racing gambling, and the third is the owner of a horse racing club who loves horse racing. Miller stated in his will that the three must hold shares at the same time and can only profit from dividends. Once one person sells the stock, the will will be invalidated.
His stock in the brewery was left to all Protestant priests in Toronto who advocated alcohol prohibition, requiring them to participate in the management of the brewery. In addition, the brewery was originally Catholic-controlled. Protestantism and Catholicism have been waiting for each other. As a result, there were still nearly a hundred Protestant priests who saw the money open and abandoned their principles.
In addition, he bequeathed the lifelong ownership of one of his holiday villas to three of the most unseen lawyer friends. Just thinking about the trio's bloody fight, Miller might be awake in the coffin.
While Miller was alive, his favorite prank deliberately put aside money on the road, and then hid himself to watch the reaction of the poor to the wealth. Or when he is ill, he will give out a doctor who rewards him with a large amount of cash when he comes first. He just likes to see how embarrassed human beings lose their principles for money.
