The evening world., 1908-11-16
Bed-Ridden for Fifty-four
Years, She Did a Remark
able Charity Work.
AIDED BY WEALTHY MEN
They Provided Her With the
Means to Help he Poor,
Whom She Loved.

when funeral services for Mrs. Bella
Cooke are held tomorrow at the Rose
Hill Methodist Episcopal Church there
will assemble at the edihce great
throng Of the poor. Some will be chill
dren and grandchildren of the poor
Mrs. Cooke whom she had befrended
IN the long years of her remarkable
life.
Eighty-seven years old she was when
at . O'Clock yesterday afternoon she
passed out in a gentle sleep and fifty
four OF those eighty-seven years were
spent in the same narrow little room
in the rear tenement at No 49, Second
avenue helpless, bedriddcn invalid.
Stricken with softening of the spine
more than fifty years ago, Mrs. Cooke
vas never removed from her bed. rx-
cept to BE- lifted in canvas sling when
the bed was made up, until yesterday
her body was placed in itS caskst.
Scores OF physicians pronounced her
Death sentence during that long period
'of years, yet she outived Them all
Notable Work of Charity.
No more remarkable charitable work
was ever wrought than the charities
directed by this woman from the second
story room OF the ancient tenement.
Although she gave for others. the
manner and wisdom or her giving had
made her work great individual ac-
complishment. The Vanderbilts, the
Goulds, the Stuyvesants and many
famous families have been giving TO the
poor for two generations through Mrs.
Cooke.
Thousands each year visited the
strange little room, where the sick wo-
man lay. Up the narrow little stairway
the destitute have trodden upon the
heels of the very rich. Countless times
brocades and rags have f1uttered
together in the little ante-room. waiting
for the gentle summons, Come in
that gave each visitor his or her turn.
All yesterday afternoon and all day
to-day there was a constant importing
of visitors to the little fiat
She will be greatly missed this com
ing Thanksgiving and Christmas, the
svo days on which she gave hundreds
of dinners to the needy, and she will he
as greatly missed for the counsel and
a1vice she gave with unceasng patience
through all the years of her wonderful
work for others, while she herself was
mcre helpless than any ana Just as
poor.
5eean Sixty Years Ago.
She began her good works sixty years
ago shortly after she came to this
country from England with her hus-
band and three children. Cholera
carried off the husband two years after
their immigration, and 1t was then
that Mrs, Cooke and her three daugh-
ers went to live in the-Second avenue
tenement, she working day and night
with her needle TO support them. and
nevertheless devoting few hours of
e2"ll day to work in the hospitals.
She was the first Protestant worker i'm
Bellevue. She Joined the Rose Hill
Methodist Church sixty-one years ago
before the fall when made her
prisoner N her room for more THAI
i5rty years, sh" met many Of the
wealthy people who made il possible TOR
her to- carry out her extensive charItles
John stephenson, the car manufacturer
vas among these, and he gaze la.lsnN
and interested other milEonaircs il
Mrs. Cookies work.
Had Novel Bed.
InilS1l Mrs. Ontayia had built for Mrs.
Cooke the bed in which she died. 1t is
so arranged that the head, feet or knees
may he raised OF lowered by a faint
pressure ON a series OF levers, and by A
continuance of straps and pulleys the
invalid could be lifted upon a sheet of
canvas while the mattress was turned
and the bed changed
The bedding has always been of the
finest linen-a contribution of the Van
derbilts for two generations. John Ste
phenson had built for her "A broad shelf
of intricate contriyance on which Mrs
Cooke could write letters, read, have
her meals served and mako the beauti-
full dolls clothing for which she was
famous
Her mind retained ~ its yirlity to the
very end ana II WAS only a few weeks
aGu thai she vas compelled to abandt u
what size called her office hours iron
. till s. Three daughters survive her
nine grandchildren and fourteen great
grandchildren.
There Is a faded motto on a shield
above the bed In which Mrs Cooke
died which reads: Kept by the power
of Cod -