New-York tribune., 1907-01-13
THE GOOD BARONESS.
Il Practical Commentary on the
Gospel Of Wealth.

| umns are filled with the legends of the founding
of the famous bank and the romantic adventures
Of the eccentric Scotsman. Thomas Coutts again
mesquerades the shabbily dressed saunterer
of the Strand. who mistaken at every turn
for beggar; and his first wife is caricatured for
the thousandth time the maid work.
scrubbing the doorstep where his brother James
lived. The various stages Of the second wife's
progress from greenroom to Holly Lodge. until
her resentful stepdaughters forced to yield
precedence to her grace the Duchess of ST AL
bans, described with much ornate embellish-
ment and imaginary lists supplied of the
various lovers and wooers whose addresses were
rejected by Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts.
popularity known during the Queens reign as the
baroness, and honored this week with burial in
Westminster Abbey. The Burdett-Coutts leg
ends are as numerous and apocryphal as the
chronicles Of medieval saints or the cycle OF
classic mythology What an undertaking IT Will
be If Mr. Burdett-Coutts. in writing biog-
raphy OF the baroness. attempts to sft the grain
from the chaff! One legend-and perhaps the
most important one-he can trace to its source
in the hoary old Annual Register" which
stated in 1887 that the Duchess OF ST. Adams
had left Miss Angela Burdett-Coutts H,s0O,OOO
in addition to something over one-half Of the
stock in Coutts Bank. That was the origin Of
the exaggerated accounts OF the baronesss
wealth. The personal estate Of her grandfather
and subsequently of the duchess had been val
ued below 100000; and the total capital OF the
bank was 100000 when she came into her fort
The Annual Register doubled her wealth
at the start and for seventy years there have
been fabulous accounts of her millions. These
without doubt will be mnnized when her will
is admitted to probate.
Now, the distinguishing virtue of Baroness
Burdett-Coutts is not legend but a wholesome
truth and 1t justiaes her burial In Westminster
Abbey. She accepted full moral responsibility
as the steward OF her wealth. and expended her
large income and as much OF the principal as
was available outside the bank trust with practi-
cal sagacity and businesslike ability She did
not proclaim her gospel of wealth as any
heaven-sent mission. did she make an os-
tentatious display either of her benefactions
or of her system Of organized charity; but she
gave much thought as money TO good works
and Systematically disposed of her surplus in
come from year TO year, knowing what was
done with every guinea and striving to leave
those who received her bounty self-sustainns
and self-respecting. She set the example or
wise and businesslike stewardship Of wealth In
England. and decade after decade until she her
self was over ninety It has been source OF In
spiration In social life. She carried out Mt. Car
nege's principles in a womanly way. studying
her subject without becoming faddist- profting
by experience when she found she had been over
sanguine or had miscalculated results. trying to
do useful work in many directions and COM
manding respect for sincerity and good sense
The great Lord Shaftesbury influenced her with
out doubt, but in the main she was original
In her methods and unique among women OF her
time.
The baronesss most conspicuous mistake IN
the organization Of charitable work was tho CO.
et fu fhe EhOreditCh and Bethnal
Green district-one of the most benighted quar-
ters of East London. II is bad enough even
now when the civic authorities have cleared
thirteen acres OF Blum tenements, and there arc
mission chapels. ragged schools. hospitals ref
uges and night shelters, at every turn OF the
sQualid streets; but when she first drove through
&c from High street and Hackney Road It q
maze OF pestilential alleys. thieves rookeries
and murderers' haunts. where poverty and deg
radiation were appalling. She cleared some OF
the foulest slurns and built g. costly market.
where she expected butchers. fshmonsers and
provision dealers to undersen smithheld and
Billingsgate and to supply tho district with
wholesome food. The scheme was failure and
she conveyed the property TO the local authort-
ties as a. free gift. They in turn gave It back to
her after attempting TO do something with II,
and she made another fruitless effort TO carry
out the original idea with the help OF the rail-
ways. on an adjacent site which had been ono
Of the most notorious haunts for criminals. she
built model dwellings for over two hundred fam
flies and she supported other enterprises for the
reformation of this degraded district While
the market itself was miscalculated failure she
impaired powerful impulse 10 tho renovation
OF ono of the foulest and most noisomo districts
OF the metropolis. Churches, missions and insti-
tutions were multiplied until shoredltch and
,aA yxrt4I CI,rtuN
and philanthropic activities.
As an Offset TO q single failure there
scores Of successes. In Westminster she built
a large parish church. with three schools and
rectory and three other churches in London.
with fifth one in Carlisle. She most
generous contributor to church schools and 10
mission work at homo and abroad. and she
dowed three colonial bshoprics. She transport
ed starving community from Scotland TO Aus
tralia; she rescued the povery stricken fisher
men of Cape Clear from destitution and despair;
she supported er James Brooke's reforms In
Sarawal1: she aided the emigration of the de-
serving poor OF London. and she established a
fund for the relief Of distressed Turkish peas
antry. She was one Of the largest subscribers
to the funds for the exploration Of Palestine and
the survey Of Jerusalem. She sent the last mes
senger TO Gordon at Khartoum. She organized
societies for tho relief OF underpaid needle wom-
and opened reformatories and refugees for out
casts; she equipped hundreds Of street boys for
service In thu navy or in factories: she was the
patron OF weavers, tanners and oosternongers
when their trades were overwhelmed with disas-
ter; she recruited flower girls and shoeblacks'
brigades; she the most serviceable helper
OF the East End in an outbreak OF cholera and
she conducted through numerous agents q most
systematic work of private charity. She Ia
bored as strenuously over her good works 90