Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-02-16
mILLloMAIREs AND MlLLloMAIREs.


Today, as long ago in Drumtochty,
| there's just ale heart" in Iowa Falls,
land it's sair.". e. s. Ellsworth, pio-
neer, foremost citizen, neighbor and,
incidentally, a millionaire. Is dead.
There is real mourning IN the little
Scenic City" toward whose beauty
and attractiveness the dead man so
much contributed, and of whose well
fare he had been constant and watch
illustrates the regard in which his
townspeople held Ellsworth than the
tenor of the press correspondents re-
ports as they came to this paper early
yesterday morning from Iowa Falls.
They dismissed the matter of Ells>
worth's large financial interests with
brief notice. How much he was worth
they estimated roughly 1t had not
occurred to them that this was a par
ticular feature Of news in this par
ticular case. The story began with the
man, with his citizenship and worth
as neighbor, his benefactions to one
good work and another, and ended in
the same strain. A friend, a neigh
Dor and useful citizen was dead
Iowa Falls was in mourning for it's
foremost citizen. Was that not
enough?
Here is the lesson and the example
for other men who have accumulated
large fortunes. Ellsworth did only
what he ought and because he wanted
to do it but that is the notable thing
about the dead millionaire at Iowa
Falls and the work he did for his town.
He saw the college in need. and gave
because of its need, and for the rea-
son that he had the money. He acted
as park commissioner for many years,
spent his time and his money In i'm
proving the city because 1t was his
duty as citizen, because he loved the
town and its people, and because he
had the money. He created the hos
pital because it was needed. He built
a theater because he wanted the peo-
pie Of his home town to have a good
play house, and could afford to put
money into the building that he never
expected to get back with interest. He
did all these things because he loved
the town he had lived in and helped to
create, and because he had, by reason
of good fortune and business judgment
and opportunity, been permitted to
possible. In doing them he uncon-
sciously built a monument to his own
memory that shall endure beyond the
granite in the cemetery and the brass
tablet in the market place. Iowa Falls
never learned how much it cared for
Gene Ellsworth until he lay dead at
his home in the center of the city.
Then the united love and gratitude of a
city named him its foremost citizen
for all time. Not the millions he left,
his wide reaches of Iowa corn lands,
his bank stock and brick blocks, can
equal to his family the bequest he left
in the universal respect that is paid
to his name.
Every town has its rich man. Every
city it's Institutions that need a gen.
erous helper. In Marshalltown the Y
M. c. A. and the hospital need men
like Ellsworth. In every town and
city of the state some struggling in
stitution for the benefit of the whole
people is stretching out hands of APP
peal toward the locked and guarded
Golfers of men who have more than
they can ever spend or use to advan-
tage.
Let these men turn their eyes toward
Iowa Falls. Were they born in 1S4S?
So was the man who died yesterday at
Iowa Falls. In the course Of nature,
few years must elapse until they lie as
he lies. Will an extra half million In
currency on that day balance the sin
cere sorrow, the neighborly love and
universal respect that crowns the cof-
fin of Gene Ellsworth today? No man
can serve two masters. Choose We,
this day!