The Irish standard., 1908-02-01
mrs. THOMAS +. RYAN
Wife of the New York Million
aire Has an
Old Fashioned Heart and New
Fashioned Mind,

Ryan, wife of the millionaire, which
4 is pleasant to read because of it's re-
freshing contrast to the usual type
not only of women OF wealth and
fashion, but also of the modern PRO
fessionar' pflanthropist.
According to the writer in the Her
aid. Mrs. Ryan is unique among the
women of her kind in New York, in
that philanthropy has not become a
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 generous heart has not changed
since the days when Tom" Ryan was
a clerk at $50 a week. Down in the
Jesuit Fathers parish, i'll 18th street,
there are men and women today who
recount the munificence Of ION
Ryan's wife thirty years ago, when
her modest home was in Il five-room
apartment. then called half house"
lJp in the big old fashioned sitting
room of her Fifth avenue home,
where the greater part OF her life is
spent, Mrs. Ryan's friends find her d
woman of old fashioned heart ani
new fashioned mind. The pictures, the
chntz- covered chairs. the music box.
the knitting needles and the darning
ball speak of the simplicity Of her ma
ture, 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 extremes of the modest home-lov-
ing housewife. and the goth 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 call Of an
Important business message by tele-
phone. Between the stitches round
baby sock or a. tiny hood, churches are
built hospitals planned and aid given
to individual distress.
No public subscription has ever cav
ried the name of Mrs. Thomas Fortune
lie collections, and it is said that when
she has done so, with the gift went the
stipulation that her name be not used.
This retcence is not affectaton; pub
licity is Mrs. Ryan's vete noire.
When Mrs. Ryan witnessed a dis
astrous railroad wreck near her coun-
try residence at Suffern and saw the
inadequate provision for the i'll and
wounded. she built and endowed a fine
hospital there. When a reporter went
to cover the story, Mrs. Ryan said:
why should anything be written
about this? They needed Il hospital
and 1 was able to provide it. 1t is
nothing more than I should have done.
so why talk about it? Say that they
have a hospital but don't mention my
name. Go out and find some woman
who does hard work six days every
week and OH the seventh gives her time
and strength to some less fortunate
woman, and this for no compensation.
There are hundreds OF such women in
New York-thousands Of them. Now
that story would do more good and lie
more interesting than to just print
yarn about my doing this little thing"
1t is always "a little thing" that
Mrs. Ryan does, be it to build a. ca>
thedral. church. a hospital, or mis-
sion It is a. little thing" to find em-
ployment for men and women who have
others depending upon their efforts; IT
( is "a little thing "to make worl1' for
women who are unified by the progress
of the day to meet the demands of pres
ent conditions. 1t is "a little thing, to
send an i'll woman or delicate boy
d out into Gods country, where the air
is undefiled, the food nourishing and
the strain of work is not
Many a shop girl in New York: has
been driven to No. 60 Fifth avenue
in Mrs. Ryan's fine carriage and gone
back to her more humble home richer
for the interest of Mrs. Ryan. On
her shopping tours Mrs Ryans kind
u ly eyes wander kcenly behind the
long counters in search of those wo-
y men with the tired. STOPPING should
ers and feverish color: such a ono
8 is never passed in silence, and either
L to the girl herself or through the man
q ager of the store Mrs. Ryan offers a
chance to fight the disease, and there Is
never but one stipulation-"that moth
ing be said about it,"
Ss Out in the dry sand desert Of Ari-
Z ys zona. where nature has proved that
b she Is the greatest doctor for tuber-
culosis, there are whole colonies OF
"lungers' supported by the muniti-
cence Of Mrs. Ryan. During her many
visits into that arid section, where
both of the boys she has lost went seek
sJn0 health