Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-17

the latter fact perhaps indicating weaken
ing of his financial ability. Nearly 30
years ago, when he was not worth $1,000,
Russell Sage, M. c., advocated the passage
through Congress of the bill to purchase
Mt Vernon. Now he is worth scores of
millions and he does not spend hundredth
part of the interest on it; he never saw his
money and never had it, and, excepting q
bare pittance, it is wholly in the hands and
Golfers of others, used by them for their own
benefit! But he thinks that fortune is his.
Woman Tries to Give Money Away.
It is eight years. perhaps, since last
saw Elizabeth Thompson, though before
that time I had had the privilege of her
pleasant acquaintance. She is million
aire, and has IN income of $50, 900 every
year. She was the daughter of q poor
farmer of Vermont, and at 9 years old she
hired out as servant at % cents week.
She grew up in that humble place very
handsome and very studious, attractive and
intellectual, and at 20 she married the
millionaire Thompson, who died 25 years
later and LETT her his fortune
The last time called on her, she had
'Just gone up stairs" the maid said, but
would be down in q minute. waited in
the parlor. When at last she appeared it
something, and I rose and tried to take my
leave. She stopped me and said: "Nol
no! I am sorry cannot conceal that I am
in trouble. The plain fact is that have
been crying. You see that pile of letters
on the lounge. I have just opened them.
Most of them are begging letters, asking
gifts, asking 1oans,' and they have set me
to thinking. o! believe my money has
never done anybody any goodl
The Evil of One Sort of Giving.
'For twenty years I have sown it like
chaf-given away $40, 900 every year, and
it seems to have produced only misery 1t
sent to drunkard's grave q member of my
own family. 1t has alienated my best
friends 1t appears to have helped nobody
for more than an hour. I hardly now hear
word from those have helped except
when they tell me it is all gone and they
want some more! don't know which way
to turn. am at bay. I have money and
am afraid to bestow it in answer to any of
these letters.
'You must have brought immense relief to
many poor people," said. 'oThe $3.50, 900
you have spent to provide heads of families
with work."
doesn't seem to have done much good"
she interrupted. 'It is skill and industry
and steadfast qualities that win permanent
from within rather than
from without. I have found that out-from
these letters, partly"
''Your gift of $500 to every settler in
Saline county, Kansas"
"Better," she said. "But you would be
amused and saddened by the strange letters
I get from there"
'Tne Vassar College telescope, the song
service for the poor, the great science fund,
the Carpenters Emancipation Signing
hanging on the walls of the Senate Chamber
in Washington, all speak for the wisdom of
woman in the world but you, not even the
Presidents wife, has the freedom of the
floor of Congress. Is not that something?"
The Problem of Philanthropy.
eyes, yes," she answered; "but all falls SO
,hort Of what meant IT. only knew how
10 give away 800, 900 this year, and have
money has disabled and crippled honest
men, made them lazy and spiritless and de-
oendent-multiplied beggars instead of d.
ninisbing them-I arraign myself at the
BAR of conscience for my bad Stewardship"
Mrs Thompson has done as we'll as the
most of them. She is constant student
If economies, mainly-progressive, REFORM
.tory, an agnostic, believe, brilliant in
gifted in apt quotation, and if |
The had been sin the swim" so years ago
Ter square intellectual face would have
,een seen with those of Emerson, Margaret |
Fuller, Charles A. Dana and the transcen-
lentalists at Brook Farm.
Here Are Two More Opinions.
I talked with Peter Cooper during his |
'ery last days on the relation of million
ire to the public.
81 have been luckier than most of 'em,"
le chuckled, "for have been the executor
# my own will. I have seen the Institute
inished and at work for good; but there are
o many other things I want to do for the
elief of wage-earners-" and he gave to
ne great bundle of his printed schemes
or bettering the condition of the poor.
Another ''magnate" whose name do not
eel at liberty to mention, once said to me:
The men who do the most good in this
7orld are not the professional philanthro-
lists, but the great capitalists who keep
heir money busy in processes Of reproduc-
ion. The man who eauips and keeps going
great factory does more good than he who
uilds an alms-house; and he who launches
steamship or establishes railroad confers
lore benefit on the world than he who
ndows an asylum that will keep thousands
rom starving. He who teaches men to help
is the real benetactor of his
ind"