Omaha daily bee., 1906-08-03

Personality OF the Richest woman
I'm the world.

Personality OF the Richest woman
Tn the world.
Mrs Russell SAGE by the terms Of her
husbands will, becomes the richest woman
In the world II is expected that she will
distribute the great bulk Of the money left
her to charities OF various kinds. This
is not enjolned on her by the terms OF the
will but appears to have been an under
standing between her and her late hus-
band, who was content TO die accused OF
being uncharitable and mean that his wife
might have the credit OF giving away his
boarded millions. II the estate IL not tied
up by a contest Mrs. Sage will be able,
within a few months, to begin to distribute
$40, 10000 left her under the will. Very few
years are left to this woman OF a years In
which to make disposition Of this vast es-
tate.
When Mrs. Sage was a 7-year-old sirl.
so she has told the story, her mother once
rebuked her for tearing her skirts while
climbing fences. III you tear your clothes
this way" said the mother, II will have
to make your skirts out Of bed ticking
blue bed ticking with white stripes. Little
girls who tear their dresses in hoydenish
climbing Of fences will soon be too poor to
AFFORD anything but bed ticking"
II was even while she was young enough
TO have the haunting fear Of being CARRIED
in blue and white striped bed ticking keep
her in the paths Of proper department
that Mrs. Sage had incucated In her the
first precepts OF right living and right
thinklng-precepts which, vigorously ad-
hered to by the growing girl and the
woman, have had their part in making the
Mrs. Sage of today worthy Of the trust
reposed in her by her husband.
/ 1t was the old style training that was
given to Olivia slocum by her mother
that discipline which insisted that Chill
dren should be seen and not heard" Mrs
Sage once told friend a story illustrative
OF the Spartan discipline which ruled in the
house OF her girlhood.
Mrs slocum had told her daughter that
If she played with certain little girl.
whose company she did not believe was best
for the child she would be punished
olivia slipped through a hole in the fence
and. with the daring OF Eve strong in her,
enjoyed the delights of the forbidden COM
partnership When she returned home, with
guilt stamped In red letters of shame on
her cheeks, her mother. at the time busy
entertaining guests, hardly noticed the
daughter OLIVIA" che called, II am busy
now and you have disobeyed me-"
II hurried to bed" laughs Mrs. Sage in
this recital of her infantie transgression,
thinking that perhaps she might forget
her promise to punish me. went to sleep.
After the guests left the house my mother
came upstairs, walked me up and whipped
me as she had promised to do"
After she had gained her apprenticeship
in the three Rs at home olivia slocum was
~.
ward known as the Emma willard SEM
mary. under which name the school now
ranks high as a school for young women.
Emma Willard was herself a teacher at
the seminary at the time olivia Slocum at
tended, and was beloved of all the scholars.
In 1s47 Miss Slocum was graduated from
the Troy institution. Fifty years after
ward she returned to address the girls OF
the graduating class. 1t was on June 49,,
1897 Mrs. Sage, then &c years old, cele-
brated the golden anniversary of her grad
uation by appearing in a white muslin
dress, with the school colors pinned on her
bosom, like all of the young misses on the
platform whose diplomas were freshly
linked
Mrs. Sage addressed the girls, dwelling
remlniscently on the times that she had
known nifty years past and drawing COM
parsons between the pleasures she had en-
joyed as a schoolgirl and those of the girls
Of the day.
"Our greatest fun" said Mrs. Sage to the
girls Of Wizards was to take our sewing
OF a warm afternoon after Rotations and
sit out under the apple trees in what was
then a nearby orchard, stitching while one
of the teachers read Sir Walter Scott and
Jane Austen. In those days we girls did
not think of such things as golf and ten
mis- and weekly dances. believe that
maybe a good knowledge Of how to sew
and how to turn the heel on a stocking
fitted us better for wives than the ability
to sail boat or beat DOGGY on a golf
links"
Mrs. Sage often has expressed her doubts
as to the value Of the present day AL
round" education for women. She has put
her question in a sententious anecdote. "A
woman I know" once said Mrs Sage to
Miss Helen Gould. has a daughter who
wants to be one Of the advanced girls
with a broad education Now this girl
wrote a letter one time to a lady who is
many years her elder, and she wrote II as
II she should write to me, for example,
My Dear Sage"
From the time that she graduated from
Wizards seminary until she married Rus
sell Sage Miss slocum taught school, most
OF the time in Philadelphia. Then with
her marriage came her sudden transition
from the gray, unobtrusive life Of the
schoolma am to the station of wife of a
rich man. for Sage was rich thirty-fve
years ago. II not yet the multi-millionaire
he was destined to become.
As the wife OF a rich man Mrs. Sage
| 49,. y,Ia,
Of office which had to be tolerated. chief
OF these the beggar and the crank For
many years she steadfastly refused to en-
ploy a private secretary, preferring to
come into closer touch with her CORE
spondents, as she put IL. by answering
with her own hand all letters received and
meeting in person every one who called
upOn her,
! What has been Mrs. Sage's experience