Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-31
MARY GARRET,s sADDKNRD LIFE.

One of Baltim0re,s Richest Women
 for Whom Marriage Has No Charm.
 Miss Mary Garrett is the wealthiest spin ster in the United States. With Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stock at par she is prob- ably worth eight or ten millions. No one outside of the Garrett family really knows what Miss Mary is worth. She is certainly worth more than her weight in gold, and yet she is not married. When her father, John W. Garrett, died his fortune was Yariously estimated at from five millions all the way up to fifty millions. No accurate statement was ever made. In fact, efforts were taken to conceal the figures from the public. When the gossips and impecunious club loungers ceased guessing at the fathers wealth, they began to estimate on the daugh- ter's fortune. Quite number of bachelor acquaintances gloated over the description given in the newspapers of her valuable properties and the estimated extent of her fortune. What prize she would have been in the matrimonial lottery? But she was never in the lottery, so the bachelors in Bal timore society looked and longed in vain.
 Miss Garrett is not a marrying woman, says writer in the Philadelphia Times When she was 20 years of age she had no more idea of falling in love than she has now at-well, nearly twice that age. Though not literary woman, she is 6 highly edu- cated one, @ little on the order of the Rose Cleveland class. She is not strong minded, but able to manage her great wealth and steer her way in business and society with out having man as a magnet. While not a handsome woman, Miss Garrett has charm ing manner, pleasing way about her that makes one forget that she is homely or that she is rich, and to only realize that he is talk ing to sensible and cultured woman who is interested in the noble work of elevating her sex and caring for poor and suffering woman hood.
 Miss Garrett is the greatest of all the Gar retts in her quiet and unostentatious way of doing good. Her charities are not paraded before the public, and she can seldom be persuaded to permit her name to be published in connection with her generous acts. NeaI- ly every institution for the invalid or the orphan in Maryland receives handsome gifts from her annually. She has endowed an institution for @ home where poor children taken from vicious parents will find 6 re- fuge. A fine building has been erected, Miss Garrett and her brother Robert do- hating large sum of money for this pur- pose. She is the patroness of the Society for the Protection of Children from Cruelty and Vice.
 Though reared in luxury Miss Garrett's life has been tinged with sadness. Riches have had no charm for her, and had her father taken the advice of her mother and herself he would not have wrecked himself on the shoals of ambition. John W. Garrett's wife and daughter were devoted to him, and he was no doubt the only great railroad magnate of his time who confded all his financial schemes to the women of his house hold. Miss Mary was her fathers coun- selor in everything. He had 8 dozen private secretaries, but she was his only confidential aid. After important railroad conferences the proceedings in detail were written out by his stenographer and he then took them home for her to read. Together they con- sidered what more it was best to do. Her business tact and judgment frequently saved her father from disastrous battles with old Vanderbilt. In his private offices at his country home and his city mansion she had her little rosewood desk beside her fathers table, and here they often worked and con- suited late into the night. She looked after all his other interests outside of the railroad, and it Is said he never bought a piece of property or made an important investment without first consulting her. It was this con- fdence between husband, wife and daughter that made John W. Garrett's domestic life so happy.
 Mary Garrett seldom appears in society. She nursed her mother in her last illness, and during her fathers decline she devoted her self entirely to him. For months his mind was unsettled, and when the nurses could not quiet him the patient daughter, by her soothing presence calmed him. Night and day she was with him until death came, and the blow was greater to her than to any of the rest of the family. A few years later, and just when she had begun to take 8 re- newed interest in life, her brother Robert broke down, and she found herself again the nurse and companion of an invalid. She travelled around the world with him, com fortiHg her sister-iR-law in her troubles and controlling her brother in his eccentric no. tions. Since their return she continues with her brother in the cottage in Ringwood, N. J. Had she married, her home life would have been happy one and she a model wife, The dread of marrying man who would care on ly for the millions she would bring him has no doubt led her into the lonely life of spinster.
 In personal appearance Miss Garrett is of 8 small but trim figure, hark hair and eyes, and not resembling either of her brothers. She wears glasses constantly and dresses in black. She has never put aside the heavy mourning robes and gowns she donned at her fathers death. She was never fond of jewelry. and solitaire dia- mond ring is about the only ornament she