The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-09-07
Her Greatest Single Work is the Cathedral
Of Richmond, Va, Which She
Built and Furnished.
Has Given Large Amounts for the Establish
ment Of Hospitals for Consumptives
in Arizona.

It has been said there are two classes
of wealthy women in New York-the
lavish spenders of money and the cold
ly calculating money accumulators,
says the New York Herald There is
a third type, little known to the reading
public, practically a. stranger to the
women of Incidence and fashion and
equally foreign to the worlds market
in Wall street-a woman who spends
a million dollars every year, and some-
times three times that amount, in prac-
tical, unostentatious aid of human
kind, whose every day life marks the
betterment Of some other life. Such a
woman is Mrs. Thomas Fortune Ryan.
Mrs. Ryan is unique among the wo-
men Of her kind in New York. in that
philanthropy has not become fad in
the latter years Of her wealth. The
only difference lies in the wider scope
of work made possible by the increase
Of her husbands fortune. Her gener-
Gus heart has not changed since the
days when "Tom'' Ryan was a clerk
at $40 a week. Down in the Jesuit
Fathers parish. in Sixteenth street,
there are men and women today who
recount the munificence of "Tom" Ry-
ans wife thirty years ago, when her
modest home was in a five-room apart
ment, then called "half house." The
world at large knows Mrs. Ryan as a
church builder and the wife of one of
the greatest hnanciers of these times
To those who are her friends these
two distinctions are forgotten. She
has g. marked individuality.
Up in the big old fashioned sitting
room in her Fifth avenue home, where
the greater part of her life is spent.
Mrs. Ryan's friends find her a woman
Of old fashioned heart aid new fash
ioned mind. The pictures, the chintz
covered chairs, the music box, the knit
ting needles and the darning ball speak
of the simplicity of her nature, while
the up to date fiat top desk, over in
the south corner, with its neat rolls of
files and it's telephone. tell of another
side to her nature. These two ex-
tremes of the modest home loving
housewife, and the twentieth century
woman of affairs are constantly meet
ing in the life Of Mrs. Ryan. Many
times day the click of the ivory knit
ting needles gives way to the cal! Of
an important business message by tel
ephone. Between the stitches round
a baby sock or a tiny hood. churches
are built, hospitals planned and aid
given to individuals distress.
The strict business rules which dom
mate the life of Thomas F. Ryan play
no small part in that Of his wife. Big
hearted woman that she is, ever with
her hand in some good work. she is
q keen Judge and rarely imposed upon.
She possesses fine sense of discrim-
ination, and personally considers every
appeal. Unlike many women Of wealth:
a call for help is not a tiresome bore
to Mrs. Ryan. She counts her friends
those who bring to her notice Of others
Of her fellow beings whose backs are
untitled for their burden, i'll in body
or mind, or in any way afflicted.
No public subscription has ever
carried the name Of Mrs. Thomas
Fortune Ryan. She does not often give
to public collections. and it is said that
when she has done so. with the gift
went the stipulation that her name be
not used. This reticence is not affec-
tation. Publicity is Mrs. Ryan's bette
noire.
When Mrs Ryan witnessed q disas-
trous railroad wreck near her country
residence at Suffern and saw the mad
equate provision for the ill and wound
ed, she built and endowed a fine hos
pital there. When a reporter went up
to cover the story Mrs. Ryan said
'Why should ANYTHING b written