The morning call., 1894-09-23
MIRANDA WILMARTHA LUX.

Mr.. Charles Lux will be missed. She
was lady who did rot figure in society.
Her name did not appear in the lists OF
fasbionables in the social columns of the
papers. She did not go to balls or parties.
Her entertainments were not chronicled
among the events of the day. She led a
quiet unobstrusive life, and was rarely
mentioned except among those who needed
help or consolation or comfort in trouble.
She had been Charles Lux's housekeeper
for several years when he married her.
lie knew her worth. and when be placed
her at the head of his household he was
well aware that he was insuring himself a
life of quiet with partner who would un-
derstand his feelings and share his hopes
and anxieties. She had no children. Mr..
Lux adopted her family as his own, and
surrounded her with people of her own
kith and kin. Between these two middle
aged people there appeared TO be con-
slant struggle which should yield the most
to the other and give proof of the most
perfect self-sacrifice. Lux himself, who
had begun life as German butcher boy.
and had ripened into broadminded. big
hearted king of men. fairly worshipad the
sCnLlp lduy w IU pICSiOCu OtCI no huoh1iOD,
and she was never so happy as when she
was giving proof of the devotion she paid
him. They were couple whom it was de-
lightful to watch.
at Charles Lux's death she was left
rich-how rich she did not know, no one
knew. Not even Henry Miller could
specify the number of millions she was
worth. Her cattle, which graZed on a
thousand hills, could be appraised; but no
one could set a money value on her land.
The difference between the sum which it
might have commanded If a purchaser
had tried to buy it and the sum 1t might
have fetched at forced sale was a dowry
for an empress. 1t mattered little to Mrs.
Lux. She was a lady of simple tastes,
whose personal expenditures were small.
A few thousand year sufficed TO maintain
her house and to supply her with the car
rage her infrmities required. But she
used much money in her charities. She
was profuse giver to all benevolent in
titutons, and her purse was always open
to the needy. She and Mrs. Stanford have
been the leading supporters of the kinder
gartens. Just before her death Mrs. Lux
settled sum on two of the schools so as
benefactions.
Ladies in her position are usually vic
tins of impostors and bores. Mrs. Lux
was no exception TO the rule. She was
often imposed upon and wearied by callers
VINO could not understand how obtrusive
and tiresome they were. But she was so
gentle that she submitted to be victimized
with smile, and hardly ever allowed net
temper to be I'll filed. She felt that she
owed herself TO the community in which
her husband had lived, and that it did not
become her to grudge either her money or
her time. The purpose of her life was to
let DO day pass without doing some kind
thing to body, and doing it in such
way that 1t would not get into the papers
and would not become subject of public
comment.
If Mrs. Lux had lived a few hundred
years ago she would have been canonized
and her memory would have been cher
ished by the pious as that of a saint. Her
face and figure would probably have been
commemorated in marble or bronze. Her
example would have been commended to
the young as a model to follow, and the
highest compliment a good woman could
have received would have been to say that
she was growing like Mrs. Lux. In our
time herp-worship is out of fashion and
when the iron door of the burial vault
closes upon the remains Of the good lady
who is gone the era of torgetfulness will
begin. Yet some will remember; some
whose hour of sorrow was soothed by her
kindly words of sympathy; some whose
want was relieved by her generous hand :;
some who, grown to manhood and woman
hood, will not forget that their childish
years were turned to good account and
their best impulses strengthened in the
institutions which her liberaity endowed
And after all that is as much as the best
people of our DAY can expect.