The Winslow mail., 1899-01-28
BEGGING BY LETTER.
American Millionaires Are ANNOYED
Through the Mails.
tsaDy Such Eissives Received EveTx
Day Are Ccns3derateIy Treated
by Their Rich Re
ciDieFzts.

Day Are Ccns3derateIy Treated
by Their Rich Re
cipieuts.
Rated in accordance with the mum
ar of begging letters received, MIS-
ellen Gould would probably be ra.- keo
lTst among the men and wome1 Of
cw York who measure their wealth
y millions, though this was not 50,
perhaps, till after she had begun her
-emarkable work of relieving the wants
u the soldiers.
Miss Gould treats her begging mail
with much more respect than do most
persons of large wealth, for, unless
ngaged with other matters, she reads
very letter asking for financial aid
on the same day it is received, setting
side a certain part Of each 24 hours
or its perusal in company with her
private secretary. Many Of these let
-rs, most Of them, in fact, are SO palp-
i Ely fakes that no serious attention
S paid to them, yet SO sincerely court
Gus and considerate Of the feelings
II others is Miss Gould that polite
,nsver is sent by the 1eXt pest to near
J every letter-writing aims asker.
Miss Gould's begging mail must call
or 4 prepoSterous annual aggregate
Of charity nowadays. for it has almost
doubled within the last six months,
and he total asked for in gifts by let
Ter in the year 1897 as footed up by
her private secretary was little more
than $1,0C0,O00 or about $2,740 day.
How much she actually gives cut
for charity not even her private sec
retary knows, many benefactions be
/ ing extended by Miss Gould in abso-
| Lutte secrecy.
Though richer than she by goodly
| mum Der OF millions, her brother George
does not receive nearly so many beg
ging letters, nor does ne open his hand
SO freely as she, yet his begging mail
/ is something enormous, and the num-
Der CT 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 a 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 fGvors. scans them, and later
reads them aloud to the others. a
good proportion Of all the Rockefeller
letters are ircorsequential, as 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 TO make their point By being pur
posely humorous are more common
than those CT 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 al length and sometimes almost
formally, it being comparatively com
mon, after a good deal has been said
pro and cen 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 q 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 uncharitab bic
reputation, Uncle Russell Sage gets a
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 favors OF 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 a loss Of crops, or sending passes
to some one who has made mess of it
in the west and wants to get east again,
or helping to buy seed for a farmer
who finds the world porarily against
him.
Still, the general impression that Mrs.
Sage is more open-handed than her
husband is undoubtedly correct, her
benefactions, given entirely without
ostentation, as rule, aggregating many
thousands Of dollars a year. Russell
Sage himself has only one serious OBJ
lection 10 submitting to a general news
paper interview, and it is that every
article detailing such an interview is
followed by an enormous increase in his
begging mail.-N. Y. Press.