Sharp County record., 1899-03-03
BEGGING BY LETTER.
American Millionaires Are Annoyed
Through the Mails.
Many Such Missives Received Every
Day Are Considerately Treated
By Their Rich Re-
cipients.

Rated in accordance with the num-
ber of begging letters received, Miss
Helen Gould would probably be rar kcd
first among the men and women Of
New York who measure their wealth
by millions, though this was not so,
perhaps, till after she had begun her
remarkable work Of relieving the wants
Of the soldiers.
Miss Gould treats her begging mail
with much more respect than do most
persons Of large wealth, for, unless
engaged with other matters, she reads
every letter asking for financial aid
on the same day it is received. setting
aside a certain part of each "a hours
for its perusal in company with her
private secretary. Many of these let
ters, most of them, in fact, are SO palp-
ably fakes that no serious attention
is paid to them. yet so sincerely court
eous and considerate of the feelings
of others is Miss Gould that polite
answer is sent by the next post to near
ly every letter-writing aims asker.
Miss Gould's begging mail must call
'or a preposterous annual aggregate
If charity nowadays, for it has almost
doubled within the last six months,
and the total asked for in gifts by let
ter in the year 1897 as footed up by
her private secretary was little more
than s1,OO0,OOO or about $2.740 day.
How much she actually gives out
for charity not even her private sec
retary knows, many benefactions be-
ng extended by Miss Gould in abso-
lutte secrecy.
Though richer than she by goodly
number of millions, her brother George
does not receive nearly SO many beg
ging letters, nor does he open his hand
so freely as she, yet his begging mail
is something enormous, and the num-
Der of favorable responses is greater
than is generally supposed.
How the younger of the two i'm
mensely rich Rockefeller brothers
treats his begging mail has neverleaked
out but John d. Rockefeller and his
family are known to give it great deal
OF their personal attention.
They look after it at breakfast time,
when every member Of the family pres
ent takes his share of the letters ask
ing for favors, scans them, and later
reads them aloud to the others. A
good proportion of all the Rockefeller
letters are inconsequential, as a mat
ter of course, and these receive little
discussion. This is true also of the
few which add threats to their plead
ings, for the Rockefellers have long
been case-hardened to this sort of epis-
tie, like most other modern million
aires. Letters full of unconscious hu-
NOR, and those in which the writers
strive 10 make their point by being pur-
posely humorous are more common
than those of sinister import. Fewest
of all, as might be imagined, are the
letters which seem really worthy.
These always receive the most re-
spectful consideration, often being dis
cussed at length and sometimes almost
formally, it being comparatively com
mon, after good deal has been said
pro and con as to the merits Of the ap-
peal, for some member OF the family
to move the request be granted" or
'investigated' or dropped" In such
cases the fate Of the petitioner is often
decided by vote, but it not infrequent-
ly happens that the asked-for relief is
granted In spite OF an adverse vote,
by some member of the family who be-
lieves the case deserving in spite of
the burden Of opinion the other way.
Notwithstanding his uncharitable
reputation, Uncle Russell Sage gets
big begging mail, though IT is smaller
than that received by Mrs. Sage. She
told friend one day that Mr.. Sage re-
ceives more requests for fayors on west
ern railroads in which he is interested
than for any other sort Of benefaction,
and that he is forever agreeing to haul
freight free for some man who has suf-
fered loss OF crops, or sending passes
TO some one who has made mess Of 1t
In the west and wants to get east again,
or helping TO buy seed for farmer
who finds the world temporarily against
him.
Still, the general impression that Mrs.
Sage is more open-handed than her
husband is undoubtedly correct, her
bepefactons, given entirely without
ostentation, asarule, aggregating many
thousands Of dollars a year, Russell
Sage himself has only one serious OBJ
lection to submitting TO a gcneralnews-
paper interview, and II is that every
article detailing such an interview Is
followed by an enormous increase in his
begging mail.--N y. Press.
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American Citiscns Who oct "Orders.'
King Oscar OF Sweden and Norway
has conferred the order Of Vasa or
August Peterson, OF Washington, In REQ
....,l.la. ~ III. .a...lanp Ia, xauat ,.1