The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-10-24
Comes Too Late to Supplant
Affections for Ancient
Brussels.
HAD LITTLE MONEY
IN MARRIED LIFE
Now, With SOS, 100000, She Wants
to Make 1t Make Others
Happy

NEW YORK. oct. 24.-8drs. Russell
Sage has new velvet carpets in her
home, So Fifth avenue-soft, rich, and
beautiful. with deep, thick pile into
which the foot sinks.
4 am glad" said a woman who has
known Mrs. Sage for years, THAT she
could have those velvet carpets before
she died. In all the years OF her mar
ried life down at the house at sos Fifth
avenue she had nothing but an ancient
Brussels carpet on her parlor floor. It
was one she had when she first went
TO keeping house, and had those great,
set medalliOns in it that they used to use
for carpet patterns forty years ago.
The nap was worn of all over IL so
that the brown warp showed through.
Came Too Late.
When it finally got so bad 1t was
impossible to use il longer. mating was
put down in the parlor, as IT long had
been in the rest of the house. She al
ways used the old horsehair furniture
she had when she was married. such as
one saw in country parlors forty years
ago, and there were great cracks IN the
parlor walls OF the house at Forty-sec-
ond street, which went for years with
out fixing.
Mrs Sage suffered from mortifica-
ton al such things, just as much as
any other woman WOubd. and I'm glad
shes able to have the velvet carpets
for a few years before she dies But
they came too late to give her much
pleasure After they had all been put
down ana the furniture was in place she
walked through the house observing and
admiring and then sat down and cried
she said not a word in explanation but
Il was easy 10 understand She Yves
thinking az A 81 81
she might have enpoyed such things
and now she has them when she is too
old to care very much
Wants Quiet Corner.
There scarcely is a day that Mrs
Sage does not weep" continued this old
friend Of hers. "She simply sits and
cries at the lntolerable burden Of hav-
ing S65. 100000 on her shoulders at the
task Of distributing that huge fortune in
the way that Will do the most gOOd. She
Is eighty years old and has a New Eng
land conscience. She wishes to do Just
the right thing with Ii ell and IL requires
an amount Of thought and study and
imposes feeling Of responsibility that
IS hard on an old woman who only
wants quiet corner TO spend her few
remaining years in"
An old member Of the Emma Willard
Alumnae Association recalls an incident
AT meeting which took place at Mrs
Sage's home years ago, with Mrs. Sage
presiding. The association was Obliged
10 count every penny and when some
committee member made a request for
some postage stamps to send out in
letters there was a discussion as to
whether or not the stamps should be
sent The amount asked for was only
- cents worth, but Mrs. Sage let the
discussion so on until finally a self
supporting woman arose and said.
please don't let Us waste any more
time over this. I will pay for the
stamps"
Remembers Family.
Some Of her earliest expenditures
Of money after she became a widow
are rather pathetic to one who
can read between the lines. One Of
them was TO remove the bodies Of her
grandparents on her fathers side from
their almost forgotten burial place on a
farm near Troy, to the family burial
plot in Troy. Another was TO repair the
1OmbStones Of her maternal grandpar-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry PiersOn, at
Sag HarbOr, and frame them in granite
to keep them from falling and crum-
bling away. One of her few personal
tndulgences has been to buy an auto
mobile, thing THAI Mr.. Sage never
owned.
a list Of Mrs. Sage's chief gifts to
public institutions shows a total of more
than a5,OO0OO0.