Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-16

on the lounge. have just opened them. Most
Of them are begging letters. asking gifts, asking
loans, and they have set me TO thinking. O, l
believe my money has nevsr done anybody
like chan-given away s4o 600 every year. and
IL seems TO have produced only misery. II sent
70 drunkards grave member Of nv own
family. IL has aliensteG nv best friends. 10
appears 10 have helped nobody for more than
an hour. hardly now hear q word from those
have helped except when they tell me i; is all
gone and they wAnt some more, don't know
which wav 10 turn am NJ bay. have
money and am afraid 10 bestow IL in answer to
any Of these letters"
MANY fHrLaSrHRorIc orrrs.
tried 70 plead for her philauthropies. "yoa
must have brought immense relief 20 many
poor people. I said. The $4,000 Won have
spen; to provide heads Of families with work"
doesn't seem 60 have done much good. she
interrupted. 1T Is skin and industry aud
steadfast qualities that win permanent situa-
tions-help from within rather than from with
out. have found that out from these letters.
partly"
"Your gift Of ssoO to every settler in Saline
county. Kan"
Better" she said. But Won would be
amused and saddened by the strange letters
get from there"
The vassar College telescope. the song scrv-
ice for the poor, the great science fuud aud
D
on the walls Of the Senate chamber in Washing
ton all speak for the wisdom of your benefae-
tons. insisted land no woman in the world
but Won. not even the Presidents WIFE has the
freedom Of the floor OF Congress ls not that
something?"
''les. yes." she answered. ''but all falls 30 far
short Of what meant IL I only knew how 60
give away sl00.O 600 this year and have every
dollar do good, 80 much 81 my money has dis
abled and crippled honest men, made them law
gars instead Of Diminishing them, / arraign
myself at the bar OF conscience for my bad
stewardship"
/ Mrs. Thompson has done rs well rs the most
Of them. She is constant student-of econo-
mics mainly-progressiye. reformatory, an
agnostic. d. believe. brilliant in conversation
gifted IN apt quotation. aud II she had been lin
the swim" fifty wears ago her square intel
lectual face you'd have been seen with those Of
Emerson, Margaret Fuller. Chas. A. Dana and
! the transeendentalists Of Brook farm.
TWO OPINIONS ABOUT IT.
/ talked with Peter Cooper during his verv
last days on the relation Of a millionaire 20 the
public. Il have been luckier than most OF
| en-" he chuckled. for I have been the ex-
ecutor Of my own will. I have seen tho insti-
! tute finished and at work for good. but there
are so many other things / want 20 do for the
relief Of wage earners'- And he gave 60 me
n great bundle Of his printed schemes for bet
tering the condition Of the poor.
Another ''magnate." whose name do not
! feel at liberty 10 mention. once said TO me:
The men who do the most good in this world
| are not the professional philanthropists but
the great capitalists who keep their money
busy IN processes OF reproduction The man
who equips aud keeps going great factory
| does more good than he who builds an aims
house and be who launches a steamship or es-
/ tabiishes n railroad confers moro benefit on the
| world than he who endows an asylum that will
keep thousands from starving. He who teaches
men TO help themselyes-he is the real ben
efactor Of his kind
| Is 1T WORTH WHAT 1T cosrs2
All these talks OF millionaires indicate that
the mere possession OF money confers little
pleasure except upon mere misers, and they are
few. William II. Vanderbilt was worth about
500 tons of solid gold when he died and Ind
saved il all But he never handled the money!
He never was in its presence in his life. He
never saw more than a tenth part OF the inter
est. 1t gave him little pleasure. He dressed
no better than his clerk and ate less than his
coachman. He drank chiefly milk. He slept
in only one bed. Envy and ignorance raised an
army of enemies about him. The public at
times abused and villified him. He was q VIC
tim Of indigestion. He was in constant peril
of apopieNy. lie couldn't walk in the park
without being assailed or insulted by socihlistic
philosophers.
An enormous fortune is a very heavy burden
to carry and brings annoyances from which
there is no protection. W. A. CRoFFUr.