The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-26

were saying, That's 4,
the truth. and il you
don't agree with me lsS->er
ysu are dead wrong.
and that settles il. - Afs- Ru~SeH sage
The lady was dressed all in black and
wore little black toque bravely tied
under her chin three years after even
old women in Paris and America had
ceased 10 wear bonnet strings.
The little lady in black looked as if
she might be seventy years cid and did
not care who knew il Her features
we're strong. though symmetrical. and
her mouth shut like a steel trap. Her
face was shrewd and kindly as well as
intellectual, yet had a merry twinkle in
its gray eye withal
Her personality was so marked and
so markedly in contrast to that of the
preacher of the beauty gospel who had
preceded her that I asked handsome
y gowned woman near me who the
lady was with white hair and bonnet
strings tied under her chin
That? Oh. that's Mrs. Russell
Sage"
Instantly I said to myself And i
any woman on this planet can man
age Uncle Russ this one can"
It IS really true that Mrs. Russell
Sage exercises a more humanizing in
fuence on the great fnancier than any
body else ever did Maybe il is be
cause she was a schoolnistress in her
youth and learned to manage not only
school children. but grown ups She Is
president of the Emma Willard associa-
ton, director Of the Woman's hos
pitaI in New York and a member of
various patriotic societies among wo-
men II is on record that once she at
Tended the annual dinner eaten to the
memory Of the pilgrim mothers It
was a dinner given by women. but
men We're permitted to be present and
do honor to the occasion Mrs Sage
maiden name Margaret Olivia Siocum-
is = direct descendant in the seventh
generation from Miles Standish, and
she looks and acts the part
At the close of that pilgrim moth
srs' dinner the men present began 10
smoke. Mrs. Sage left the banquet
hall sickened with tobacco fumes and
disheartened over women who met in
henor of the pilgrim mothers and went
heme with hair and clothing STEPPED in
stale tobacco smoke. She declared she
could not endure tobacco smoke and
would never attend such another IN
holy exploitation of the pilgrim moth
ers' memory.
The smoker inebriate is Mrs Sage's
especial aversion She has said: 4
believe that smoking is the main cause
Of the ineficiency of many men Smok-
ing has a soporific effect and the men
sit and dream and are lulled into for
Eetfulness of what should most interest
them"
The little lady with the decided
mouth clinched her opinions with an
Illustration most foreeful. There was
among the governors of the Wonan's
/ hospital at one time the now exploded
tsuperstition that a man superintendent
vas necessary in order that his author
asy should be respected: that a woman
would not be o5eyed by the employees
Accordingly. the nag Of the superin-
tendent masculine waved over the Wo-
mans hospital There began TO be Sc
TIous complaint. The gentleman super
Intendsnt did not ger his breakfast IN
til half past S. a serious misdemeanor
In the estimation of the early stirring
Mrs Sage with her New England hsb-
its OF activity. Then. after his Iuxu-
Fious S:3e breakfast the gentleman su-
perintendenr shut himself up in his
rooms and smoked for an indefinite
time. during which nobody could get at
him for anything
Affairs began to go so badly that the
mans resignation was at length ac-
copied. and a woman was put in his
place After that. Mrs. Sage says. ex-
Denses were reduced one-third every
thing was kept exquisiteIy neat and the
patients we're supplied with dainties
that mean so much to an invalid and
that q woman's mind always suggests.
enc more object lesson on the smok-
Tag habit Mrs Sage gives A relative
sf her own was seized with mortal i'll
ness at a hotel and two men nurses
were hired They kept the room of
that dying man foul and saturated
with tobacco smoke II visitor open
ed the door unexpectedly the man
nurse was usually found lying upon a
couen with q cigar and newspaper. re-
Dssing and smoking till perhaps a
RFSAn from the patient recalled him 70
\ sense Of what he was there for. Mrs
Sage's words are clean cut and to the
point, and she does not use too many.
she would have made a jolly good
Newspaper woman II she could have re-
pressed somewhat that sharply critical
sDIrit OF hers She concludes the &C
esuaL of the men nurses with this
moral:
HAD those nurses been women they
would have attended to things consci-