The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-24
WILL GIVE AWAY $40, 900. 900.
To Devote His Life TO Aid Deserving
Charities

- 4AAo A<aAC " E1t0 0E0Ck v III >
Charities.
CWaverley CKan.) Cor. St. Louis Republic.
Abraham Simmer, the wealthiest
man in this part of Iowa. who will de-
vote the remainder of his life to giving
away fortune of $4,000, 600, is a re-
markable man in many respects.
He has pronounced ideas on how his
money is to be expended, and will not
deviate from a well defined course in
this respect.
While discussing plans for beneflting
the needy, he reached from the shelf in
his desk a large package of formida bic
looking papers. He gloated over them
as miser would over his deeds. mort
cages and bonds. These are my con-
tracts with hospitals and old peoples
homes, he said, and l drive hard
bargains with them. My conditions
are exacting. draw my own contracts:
l never allow lawyer TO do it, They
would NIL them with law | fill them
with facts. and often the boards of di-
rectors of the institutions I aid employ
lawyers to try to break down some of
my conditions and fool me into waiv-
ing some of my rights. but they never
do.
Now, here is a contract with an old
peoples home: ] gave them $50 000 and
they raised the same amount. Here is
A clause that they shall not ask any
inmate to attend worship. The reason ?
suppose a Catholic priest wants to
nave worship in the institution: if the
old folks are asked to attend they NAV
not like TO refuse, and as old folks are
often quite bigoted in their religion,
what is said might offend them. They
viii know that the service is to be held
and if they desire they will attend.
Hero IG annrhar- cfa
one inmate shall not pay more than
another. Each is to cave what he or
she needs, and ii shall cost the same
Tor all | Will not have an aristOcracy
build up among my old friends which
is sure to hurt the feelings of those who
cannot pay for what some one else gets.
Then there is one which provides that
no contribution box shall be placed in
or about the institution or at any other
place for its benefit. L will not have my
OLD friends feel that theS are depend
ent on charity. They must feel that
there is money there that is theirs, and
that they are not dependent on any
form of charity
If we are to help them. can We do
1t better than by making them feel that
1t is their home, and the money which
supports il is their money? And the
mlsera bic, contemplate verses that are
~ C-NCAA seen pdSieu On lnOSe cOQErl-
button boxes. Giving to the poor is
lending to the Lord and the like! At
every turn they are reminded of their
poverty. ~
Here is contract with a hospital:
L gave them $4,000, and they at first
raised the same amount. when a few
weeks before they told me they could
not raise $1,000 to keep the little hos
pital they had from being abandoned.
Later they raised another $50 900. and
II is now d rich institution. Ny condi-
lions were hard, and they fought me
for months over them, but they feel
differently now. ! provided that the
building should cost $25,UU0, and the
remaining $4,000 should be placed in a
permanent fund. which l named after
the widow of an ex-governor of the
state, solely because she was a good
woman She had not a dollar to give.
Then provided that every patient who
had no money should be paid at the
rate Of s. per week out of this perma-
nent fund. If there were no poor pa
tients. they got none of the fund.
Now let me tell you why l did this.
L went to Chicago one day to look over
a hospital which had asked me for
heip, on the ground that they were do
ing much charity work. found that
the charity patients had an average
stay in the hospital of thirteen DAYS
and two hours. Later Wis
lted the Sisters of Mercy hos
pftai in Dubuque where the
charity patients were paid for by the
city. / found there that the charity
patents had an average stay of over
hNe weeks. On closer inquiry in Chi
oagO l learned that the sick poor were
hustled about from one hospital to an
oIher' ana everywhere were turned
out as soon as possible. and often long
before they were well. I wanted the
hospital to have an incentive for
keeping the poor as long as they were
too sick to help themselves.
Then, again, l found often that
there were men and women who pre-
ferred to die outside in abiect
poverty rather than feel their depend
ence on charity. In providing that
fund ii was possible for the hospital
people to make them feel that they
were actually comforting a favor on the
institution in coming there. Why? Be
cause it would get no money unless it
made to feel good about it, and were
CORRESPONDENCE happy.
Begging Ietters2'' he repeated. in
answer to the question. Yes. I get
thousands of letters of all kinds-let-
tiers asking me how / work my chart
ties: letters telling me that l ought
to have helper, and winding up with
some good woman offering to marry
me; others ask for Information for ev-
cry conceivable purpose; some offering
me money for my work.
But it is not through letters that I
find out what to do. / go into a town.
attracted perhaps by a little item in a
paper. One time I went into town
and found there was an old wOman's
home where the inmates were placed
two in a small room that had to be
Chaiked across to keep the oCcupa nts
from qua relinE. They asked me to
buy a quilt. as they were having TO
make and sell things or close the in
stitution. / refused to buy the quilt
because | could not see any good that
money would do. but I hunted up the
richest man in the town and told him
IA Use $4,000 I would give the same. He
laughed at me. and said the thing was
utterly impossible: that they had been
trying to raise 81 500 for two years and
had only half of it l talked to him
for half an hour, and he gave $4,000
himself and got the other $40, 600 in
twenty-four hours
How did MIR. Simmer make all
those millions in q little town like
this?" YOU may ask a business man of
waveriy. He made IL by hard. shrewd
work" he will tell you. He bought.
fed and sold cattle; he bought and sold
land and ne was in the lumber bust
ness But he was a clear headed.
close bargaining business man. and if
he buys or sells anything today he viii
make II a business engagement; that
is q part of his creed. :
Il am of Jewish origin" he said in