The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-03-02
Miss Mary Garrett.
From the n. Y. Star.

ffOu Ile N L. Cl@I.
Miss Mary Garrett is the wealthiest
spinster in the United States With Bal
timore 4 Ohio Railroad stock at par she is
probably 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 for
tune was variously 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 fg-
ures from the public. When the gossips
and impecunious club loungers ceased guess
ing at the fathers wealth, they began to
estimate on the daughters fortune Quite
a amber of bachelor acquaintances gloated
over the descriptions given in the newspapers
Of her valuable properties and the estimated
extent Of her fortune What prize she
would have been in the matrimonial lot
terry But she was never in the lottery,
so the bachelors in Baltimore society looked
and longed in vain.
Miss Garrett is not marrying woman,
saws writer in the Philadelphia Times
When she was 90 years of age she had no
more idea of falling in love than she has
now at-well, nearly twice that age
Though not a literary woman she is ahighly
educated 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 without having man as a
magnet While not handsome woman,
Miss Garrett has a charming manner, a
pleasing way about her that makes one
forget that she is homely or that she is rich
and to only realize that he is talking to a
sensible and cultured woman who is inter
ested in the noble work of elevating her
sex and caring for poor and suffering wo-
manhood.
Miss Garrett is the greatest of all the
CARROTS in her quiet and unostentatioHs
way, Of doing good. Her charities are not
paraded before the public, and she can sell
dom be persuaded to permit her name TO
be published in connection with her gener-
Gus acts. Nearly every institution for tho
invalid or the orphan in Maryland receives
handsome gifts from her annually. She
has endowed an Institution for home
where poor children taken from vic
ious parents viii find refuge. A fine
building has been erected, Miss Garrett
and her brother Robert donating large
sum of money for this purpose. She is
the patrOness Of the Society for the Pro
lection of Children from Cruelty and Vice.
Though reared in luxury Miss Garrett
life has been tinged with sadness Riches
have 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. CARROTS
wife and daughter were devoted to him,
aud he was no doubt the only great rail-
road magnate of his time who eonfded all
his financial schemes 10 the women of his
household Miss Mary was her fathers
counselor in everything lie had dozen
private secretaries, but she was his only
confidential aid. After important railroad
conferences the proceedings in detail We're
written out By his stenograper and he then
took them home for her TO read Together
AHGN CD0SlEtECu AHdl AuuAG IL Ntto USce w
do Her business tact and judgment fire.
auently saved her father from disastrous
battles with old Vanderbilt In his private
Offices at his country home and in his city
mansion she had her little rosewood desk
beside her fathers table, and here they
often worked and consulted late into the
night. She looked after all his other in
terests outside of the railroad, and it is said
he never bought piece Of property or
made an important investment without first
consulting her. 1t was this confidence be-
tween husband, wife and daughter that
made John W. CARROTS domestic life so
happy.
Mary Garrett seldom appears in society.
She nursed her mother in her last illness,
aud during her fathers decline she devoted
herself 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 any of the rest of the family. A few
years later, and just when she had begun
to take renewed interest in life her
4 brother Robert broke down, and she found
herself again the nurse and companion of
an invalid. She travelled around the world
with him, comforting her sister-in-law in
her troubles and controlling her brother in
his eccentric notions. Since their return
she continues ;J:sb her brother in the cot
tage In Ringwood, N. J. Had she mar
ried, her home life would have been a
happy one and she model wife. The
dread OF marrying man who would care
only for the millions she would bring him
has no doubt led her into the lonely life of
a spinster.