River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-07-05
SPENDS A MILLION DOLLARS YEARLY ON
HER VARIOUS CHARITABLE SCHEMES.
Wife of Wall Street Baron, She Lives Plainly,
Builds Churches Helps Hospitals, and Spends
All Her Spare Moments Making Baby Clothes
for +he Poor-Gives Without DISSEMINATION, and to
All Who Are Worthy and Unfortunate.

Day in and day out she sits and
knits and 'knits and knits, with
steadfastness of purpose that ruled
the fingers of Nine Jacobin. But the
stitches she takes are not the record
of evil destinies. They mean succor
for the sick and heavy-laden, work
for idle hands, bread for the hungry,
enlightenment for the untutored.
Gentle, sympathetic, intensely pious,
a home-loVer and home-maker, is
this woman-this mother in the old
fashioned meaning of the word, the
wife of Thomas Fortune Ryan.
The characteristics of Thomas Ryan,
money-naking prince and Wall street
baron, in way also rule in the life
of Mrs. Ryan, builder of churches,
hospitals and schools, and the little
known but enthusiastic cooperator in
every move making for the betterment
of the human kind. 1t has been said
of her husband that he has had fin
ger in every big financial pie in the
last decade. She has had a hand in
nearly every philanthropical work in
New York, Virginia, the District OF
Columbia and the southwest in that
time. She is now giving away more
than $1,0OO,OO0 year.
This woman, of whom the world
knows practically nothing, has built
more churches, hospitals and schools
and endowed more places for the wor-
ship of God than perhaps any other
living person. She gave $1,0O0,O00
last year alone to the churches and
schools of Virginia, her native state.
Publicity is Mrs. Ryan's bette noir.
To give without ostentation is the only
way to give, according to her belief.
There is no difference between Mrs.
Ryan of 80 years ago and the Mrs.
Ryan of to-day. 1t was of no moment
to the public then what she did or did
not do. She cannot understand why
it should be interested now. She
counts herself as doing no more than
the wife of poor man who gives of
a slim purse to others. She gives
from richer purse, that's all.
Oldfashioned as Mrs. Ryan is, she
is woman combining all the business
qualities and foresight demanded by
the times. She is woman of affairs,
yet her home life comes first.
A glimpse into the favorite residence
of Mrs Ryan-the old Minturn house,
on the northwest corner of Fifth ave-
nue. and Twelfth streets a mental
bath after the glitter and glare and
garnishness one usually meets in the
homes of the rich, declares a writer
in the New York Times. You enter
through a high-ceilinged hall, draped
with soft garnet hangings. A paint
ing OF the master of the house has a
place of honor there, and on the walls
are a few good engravings. This hall
is like those found in all the fine
old southern mansions. On the first
floor are the library, drawfng-room
and smoking hail.
But it is up a wide staircase to the
second floor that one must go to find
room about 20 feet square, furnished
with chintz-covered chairs, hung with
pictures, such as have long since been
consigned to the fashionable and
wealthy to dusty attic corners, and
strewn with sewing tables, chests, a
tea table and music box. Everything
is old-fashioned, with one exception,
and that is an up-to-date desk, with
telephone attachment, which stands
unobtrusively in a corner. This is the
room, with it's windows filled with
red geraniums the year round, where
Mrs. Ryan plans her good works,
which the wealth of her husband exc
cutes.
There is never an idle moment when
Mrs. Ryan is in that sitting-room of
hers. No visitor is so important, no
conversation so interesting, as to alb
sorb her entire attention. She has
a sympathy for the comfort and in
terests of the friends who go to her
there, but always begins the visit
with:
you won't mind my going on with
my knitting, will your"
Not very long ago, when Cardinal
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