The Red Cloud chief., 1879-05-08
ELIZABETH
A Wsaan Uith . Ntsssen aad IN 1neom,
Of 40 ono.

ELIZABETH THOMPSON.
A Ws@an vith . Ntsssen aad IN Ineeme
Of 90
Washington Cor. indianapolis. Journal
You have published considerable
lately about Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson,
the philaniAropist. She Is now in Wash
ington, directing the medical machinery
which Is to checkmate yellow fever next
summer, let US hope. she being pro-
jectOr Of the enterprise, and lis chief
promoter. II must already have cos,
her 5000 or sl0.0Os. Ihave met Mrs.
Thompson several times, and can tell
you something of her.
She VA . poor girl some years ago
Gust how many or few we need not
venture on guessing), and got her liv-
ing by dressmaking. She was bewiich-
ingly handsome and uucommonly
bright and piquant, when Mr.. Thomp-
son, . rich young Boston merchant.
offered her his hand and fortune. AZ
ter . short married life, he died, and
left her his entire property, something
more than q million.
"Or, rather" said she, in \ conf
Dental moment, Z" he left me the inter
est on it; and l have never ceased to be
grateful that he put the principal GU, Of
my reach. Every cent would have been
gone before this time if l could have
got hold of it."
Finding herself a young and attract
i've widow, with an annual income Of
$4,000, her tendencies and i~nclinations
manifested themselves in novel direc-
tons. She declined to have any thing
more TO do with Hymen; she excluded
herself from general society; she
thought and passed through the phases
of religious belief from Unitarianism TO
Rationalism and heresy of the most ad-
vanced type, where she still fingers;
she was Mortified at the wretchedness
around her, and invented methods of
giving away her money 70 the best ad-
vantage-that is. where it would do the
most good. For years she gave $4,000
or $4,000 q year in miscellaneous
charity.
81 should think" / said TO her once,
"that this miscellaneous giving away
would give you from time TO time some
doubts as to its wisdom"
"DOubts!' she exclaimed, as il half
afraid of herself; "why, sir, l have
done more harm than any other wom-
an in New York;"
/ knew by her expression that she felt
what she said most keenly, though she
smiled, for it sounded SO w~himsically
extravagant.
"YOu have seen harm come Of il
sometimes p" asked.
"Oh, often and much" she said,
I" and l do not doubt that much harm
has come of it which / never knew"
Therefore" she added, after a min
ute's thoughtfulness, 81 have mostly
stopped miscellaneous giving to stran-
gers. II you could see the pile Of beg
cling letters I threw into the CRATE this
morning-and some of them without
reading through, though l got the gist
Of all. You could get an interior view
Of human nature by looking over my
mail, and it looks dark"
"DO they ask much?" | said.
"Every sum you can think of. One
woman requested the loan of 10 cents
knowing l would make it more or moth
ing, and a woman in Kansas asked me
boldly to give her S20,OOO-it wouldn't
hurt me q bit, she said!"
81 should think all this would make
you m~alevolent, or at least missnthrop-
ic," I ventured.
cit does make me feel rather streak
ed toward the world sometimes" she
admit ed, especially where l have
given my confidence to some person or
cause and have been grossly deceived
aud robbed, which has happened oftener
han I would like to confess. And then
t makes me fairly sick when my judy
ment compels me to refuse money TO
poor men and women. / still give Oc-
casionally to promiscuous beggers in
in cases of peculiar suffering, but l know
that much free charity breeds beggary
rather than diminishes it, and there are
wiser ways to invest money"
And here l have kept the auditor
standing in Mrs. ThOmpson's presence
all this time without telling him what
sort of . lady she is. Her more strik-
ing features are cheerful, coal black
eyes, and black hair lying like a pair of
ravens wings across the corners of q
forehead quite Websterian in form and
size. Her head is large, her face come
ly and impressive, with q stable, hand
some mouth and q square chin, the SYM
Dol Of resolution. You feel that you are
in the presence of no common chsrac-
ter. Most of her talk is in the discus
sion of philanthropic schemes; she is
bent on doing good as she finds oppor-
Sho is deeply interested in the
labor question; indeed, in all questions
which involve human suffering. One of
her largest gifts was the $4,000 she
paid last year for Frank B. Carpenters
great painting, "The Signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation" which
she presented to Congress.
l will only add that Mrs. Thompson
is absolutely alone in the world. She
has never had children. She has sur
vived her parents and brothers and Sis
ters, as well as her husband-and also
Is her neices and her cousins and her
She is full of generous inn
pulses and noble purposes, but they
incline to q large-sized philan-
schemes which she can per-
direct and be certain that her
money does what she wishes it TO do.
Though she has q strikingly fine face
md is . lady who could be decorated to
much estheiic advantage, she robes her
elf uniformly in black, and dresses
With almost q Quaker severity. She
ives in developing various plans of be-
levolence, and finds little enjoyment, l
ancy, outside of their realization.
WKALfHY Russian merchants, with .
ouch of savagery in their nature, often
i've way to riotous enjoyments. A I
'arty of them call at . first-class hotel,
rider . costly dinner with q p~rofusion 1
4 champagne and other wines, lock the 9
100000 xko-eolvoa nm 70 lid i