Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-06-08

Minneapolis, MINI, June 1.-"What
are the duties of the riCh2'
My idea has always been that the
rich have really nothing at all-that
they are really stewarts that's ali"
Thus Mrs George Grant Mason wife
ot q former railroad man with whom
she is now sharing the burdens Of
$l5,O00,000 legacy left by James Henry
(SilenO Smith, summed her idea OF
what the possession of wealth really
means last night at the Plaza hotel.
Mrs, Masons ideas on this subject
have not been disturbed by the sudden
changed from a railroad division super
intendents wife, living in Aberdeen
$. D., TO the wife of multi millionaire
who really doesn't know Just where
70 register from
A tall, graceful woman, dark haired
brown eyed, with a gentle voice and a
merry laugh, those of New York who
are wont TO use the west as an
anathema and to derive amusement
from the vagaries Of the newly rich"
will find little material in their hand
in this case. Also they will receive
a shock
Won't Be a social Butterfly"
MY husband will certainly go into
business again as soon as the estate
is settled up" said Mrs. Mason last
night. The last thing in the world
flies have always been interested
in charities and we would both hate
TO want to do nothing but sit around
and enjoy ourselves. We have always
thought that il would be an awful
feeling to know that when you left
the world it was not one Bit better
than when you came into it.
1T Is such a short time since we be-
came so very rich that we haven't
decided just what we viii do. | do not
know what business my husband will
go into Please be sure and say bust
ness'-the New York papers said job
and it looked so dreadful as if IL
might be ditch digging" interjected
Mrs. Mason with a smile over those
dreadful New York papers" What
ever it is, it will not be the railroad
business. l think that the principal
thing he rejoiced over in getting the
money was the chance to get out Of
the railroad business so he could be
with the children more"
Like Falling From Balloon.
Asked how it seemed suddenly to en-
ter the ranks Of those Of whom they
say. How awfully wealthy these rich
Deople are" Mrs. Mason smiled.
1T seems to me just like one of those
dreams where you dream of falling
from a balloon and wondering all the
time how long 1t will be before you
land and wake up.
There have been so many funny
sides to the whole business that 1t has
kept us laughing a good part of the
time" continued Mrs. Mason THE
New York papers were so funny in
what they said about us that we could
only take them all as q joke. We de-
cded that we wouldn't talk 10 report
ers any more. / hope you won't say
that l said anything ridiculous, for l
have not, have /? OF course I'm not
used to being interviewed. / have
talked only to one reporter before.
That was in New York. and | just had
to because the papers there said that
my daughter Margaret was 13 years old
and she isn't; she's only s; so you see
/ couldn't let that go. being a woman.
Inherit Woes With Wealth.
"There is more than one side to this
thing of being rich though, OF course,
I have always heard of the troubles OF
the rich Well, I'm getting experience
now, Ever since we first got all this
money the number of letters that have
poured in on us. asking for everything
under the sun, has been something re-
markable In Aberdeen, where l have
been packing up, there were scores OF
lcttsrs-requests for everything you
could think of. from q sewing machine
TO 2 college education. one man mod
estly asked for only S65, 600 to build a
hotel, and a couple wanted us to build
them q house, saying that we would
always be perfectly welcome to visit
them as often as we wished"