Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-23

one OF HE most frequent VISITORS WAS tAe
Rev. DIR. Donald Sage Mackay. pastor OF
the Coiiegiate Reformed Church In Fifth
avenue. Mr.. Sage's good humor and good
spirits never left him.
Funeral ON Tuesday Afternoon.
1t was announced at the house last night
that the funeral would be on Tuesday after
noon at O'Clock from the First Preby-
terrain Church at Far Rockaway. The in
terment win be at Troy. Mr.. Sage was
long q member OF the West Side Presby-
terrain Church of this city.
DR.. J. Bryson Delavan. Mrs. Sage's ply
stefan. was called to the house last night.
DR.. Delavan said that Mrs. Sage was
merely tired out. and that she had gone to
bed on his advice.
DR.. Delavafs was the spokesman for the
household. He said that the death of Mr..
Sage would have no tendency to cause any
uneasiness In the financial world, as his
affairs had all been cared for In anticfpa-
ton of his death. All of Mr.. Sage's loans
have practically been called in and such as
are outstanding viii be provided Cor.
The Rev. Mr.. Leetch announced the death
OF Mr.. Sage at the evening services of the
Far Rockaway Presbyterian Church last
evening. Mr.. Sage contributed to the eree-
ton of the church and his wife gave 1t a
bell. They attended services there every
Sunday morning In the summers.
will Drawn Some Time Ago.
Mr.. Sage's will was drawn by the late
fAlIuOu 4. 1ODuW1fls HedQ Vi TUG law VI
Goodwin. vanderpoel g. Thompson. When
Mr.. Goodwin died the firm was changed to
Thompson. yanderpoei & Freedman. Henry
Thompson of this firm has had charge of
the will. Mr.. Thompson has gone to Spain
and Mr.. Vanderpoel to Marbiehead. Mr..
Freedman and Mr.. Vanderpoel were not
communicative yesterday.
There are three executors. Mrs. Sage,
| Charles W. Osborne, for many years Mr.,
| Sage's cashier and confidential man, and
| DIR. Mum. Pending formal statement of
| the purport of the will nothing Is ascertain
| able about reports current in Mr.. Sage's
! later years that he had devised some large
| benevoiences under the advice of Mrs. Sage.
| But 1t Is stated that Mrs. Sage is left in en-
| tire control of the fortune.
Mr. Osborne was not at liberty to say
| anything yesertday except that this morn
| ing he. DR.. Mum. Col. John J. Sloeum and
| very probably Mrs. Sage would have con-
| ference at Lawrence and decide on the
| matter of making the will public. He said
| that Mr.. Sage had practically taken no ac-
tive part in his business this year. Mr..
| Sage had attended no board meetings since
January and had made but few trips to
| his office.
| Sketch Of His Career.
Russell Sage hated-the word .'deat tn"
II he could speak of himself now he would
say: Il have been removed With his go
ing there has departed from the street a
| figure which once had come to seem al
most as much a permanent part of it's daily
life as are old Trinity, the subtreasury the
| custom house and the yelling crowd Of
curb brokers down in the middle of Broad
| street. Dressed In ill-fittng tweeds which
! seemed always worn and were frequently
| OF assorted patterns, a rusty hat and snow
white, old-fashioned. lightly-starched linen,
he went up and down the market place day
after day, casting shrewd yet kindly humor-
Gus glances out of his pale blue eyes at the
world as 1t boiled along on its way past
him. Until several Illnesses came upon
Mr.. Sage In the last quarter Of his ninety
years of life he almost never missed day
at his office-no messenger boy eager for
an employers favor was ever more scru-
pulous in keeping strict business habits.
His name has become byword for fru-
gality In the midst of great riches. But in
his time MIR. Sage lived variegated career.
He began as a poor grocery clerk and be-
came the owner of the grocery; he went
into ward politics in Troy, where they do
not play the game by parlor rules even
now, he was q practical railroad man In
the inchoate days of the present New York
Central system: he served his country in
Congress; he was director, president and
vice president of so many corporations that
his fees for attending directors meetings,
taken altogether, would have made suf-
fcient income for of far less modest
scale of living than Mr.. Sage.
Born on Pilgrimage.
Mr.. Sage's father was moving to western
New York from the old family home in
Middletown. Conn. in August, 1916. They
stayed overnight at Verona, IN Oneida
county. There Russell Ssge was born on
August 4. and before his mother was ready
to travel again the family liked Verona SO
well that 1t settled there. The boy went to
the district school from his sixth year UNI
til his fourteenth, and then was sent to
earn his board and keep as errand boy Tor
his brother. who had a grocery store In
Troy He owned the store by the time he
was of age. Two years later he formed
partnership In grocery jobbing with John
w Bates, under the firm name OF Bates d
Sage Under this enlargement the business
prospered famouSly. Within compare
lively few years Mr.. Bates retired with a
fortune of $4,000, which was regarded as
sufficient to support the declining years OF
the most luxurious OF Americans But MI.
sage who was not yet in his prime, did not
retire The very suggestion of voluntary
retirement, except by his removal caused
him a shudder to the last day of his life.
In 1871 Mr.. Sage married Maria WINNIE OF
Troy. She died in 1857, after Mr.. Sage had
taken up his residence in New York, and
two years later he married MISS DIVA
Slocum of Syracuse, who had been frleno
and schooImate of his first wife at Miss
Fmma Wizards seminary In Troy, to
which institution Mr.. Sage afterward gave
100000.
into Politics and Congress.
Soon after his first marriage Mr.. Sage
began to interest himself In speculative
| railroad stocks He had himself elected
chaicrnan of the whig committee for the
Rensselaer, congressional district and kept
that place for twenty-five years. The mu-
nicipal corporation of Troy built railroad
between that city and Schenectady, and
Mr. Sage as a member of the board of
aldermen became one of the directors of
the road. He was afterward county treas
urer and when he retired from that post
he was elected president of the railroad
and held office when the road was consof-
dated with the general system between
Albany, Troy and Buffalo. At that time.
1883 Mr.. Sage was elected director in the
consolidated company. the New York Cen
trail He served six years, and up to yes
terday was the only living member of the
original board of directors.
With the grocery business and railroad
enterprises in hand, Mr.. Sage continued his
activity in whig politics in Rensselaer,
county, and in 1850 was nominated for
Congress and was defeated. Two years
later he was nominated again, and was
elected by a small majority. He was re-
elected two years afterward by the unpre-
cedented majority of 1000, as the result of
a speech In which he. a Presbyterian, APP