Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-09
M|SS!WARNERP
Cheap Price for Land Made
Gift to West Point Possible.
PRESIDENT TO MRS. SAGE
Thanks Her for Donation of Con.
stitution Island to Government
CONGRESS WOULD NOT BUY IT
Bill to Acquire Title Passed Senate,
But Went to Sleep on the
House Calendar.

NEW YORK, September 9-It developed
yesterday, from correspondence given
out, that the gift of Constitution island
10 the United States government by Mrs.
Russell Sage and Miss Anna Bartlett
Warner to be added to the United States
military reservation of West Point was
made possible by the patriotic sacrifice
of the latter donor
President Roosevelt has accepted the
generous gift in behalf Of the nation and
has directed that action be taken to con-
summate it.
Only through the patriotic motives of
Miss Warner and the generosity of Mrs.
Sage was it possible to add the beautiful
island to West Point and save it from
being turned into a summer resort.
Congress Would Not Act.
Repeated efforts to have the federal
failed. A bill approprating SITS, 600 to
buy it passed the United States Senate,
but never passed the House.
Mrs. Sage in her letter to President
Roosevelt in which she makes the gift,
says that in view of the pecuniary sacri-
flee made by Miss Warner in refusing to
sell the island to private parties at a
price much larger than that at which
she proposed to sell it to the government.
she has made Miss Warner a donor with
herself of the property to the United
States government. Mrs. Sage says, in
part:
Il take pleasure in rendering as a gift
to the United States from myself and
Miss Anna Bartlett Warner, Constitution
island. opposite West Point. embracing
about go acres of upland and fifty acres
of meadow. the same to be an addition
to the military reservation of West
Point.
In historic interest it is intimately
connected with West Point. 1t formed,
during the revolution, a part of the de-
lenses of the Hudson river. Upon it are
now the remains of some ten brea stworks,
commenced in 17I5 by order of the Con-
tinental Congress and completed later by
kosciusko.
Famous Chain Across River
1.-The guns mounted upon the islands
then commanded the river channel as it
attached one end of the iron chain in
tended to prevent the British warships
from sailing up the Hudson
"Washington's Life Guard was muster
ed out on this island in 1888. 1t is distant
only about 800 yards from West Point.
and in it's present natural condition forms
an essential part of the landscape as
viewed from the West Point shore
Mrs. Sage stipulateS in her gift that
Miss Warner have the right to reside as
at present on Constitution island, in full
possession of her house and the gardens
appurtenant thereto during her natural
life, and to the use of such spring or
springs from which she now gets her
water supply, together with the right TO
pasture her cows and horses and to take
such firewood as will be necessary while
she resides on the island.
The President in accepting the gift sent
letter to Mrs. Sage thanking her for
her generous gift. He also wrote to Miss
Warner thanking her "for the singular
generosity which has prompted her to
make this gift to the nation.