Evening journal., 1911-07-03
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
One Woman That Great
Wealth Did Not Spoil
BY ~HoIland."

The late Leland Stanford, governor
of California, in 1861, the original
planner of the Central Pacific Rail-
road, the builder of over FIVE hundred
miles Of that railroad at the rate Of
two miles day. the promoter who
drove the final spike Of the Central
Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah, N
1869, United States Senator from 1885
until his death in 1898, and the cre-
ator Of the Leland Stanford Univer-
sity. with an endowment Of twenty
million dollars, sometimes in speaking
of his career and its great triumphs
would say to his friends:
- owe it all, first, to the training III
early boyhood which l received from
my mother, and, second to my wife.
with whom / formed an acquaintance
that ripened into betrothal when | was
a young man on farm near Albany,
n. Y, and she a school girl at Albany
In all OF Leland Stanford's career in
California. whittier he went after his
brief experiment as a lawyer in Wis
consin. largely because he was en-
couraged to do so by the young wo-
man who became his wife, his chief
counselor, the one person in whom he
placed implicit confidence, was that
wife. II was she who encouraged him
to perservere while others pronounced
the Pacific Railroad project a chimera,
saying that II was impossible 10 carry
railroad over the Rocky Mountains.
When wealth came and Governor
Stanford had become distinguished for
public services, Mrs. Stanford remain
ed the same unassuming, unostenta-
tious woman that she was in the days
when her husband and herself were
beginning their careers. She was fully
competent to maintain all of the social
dignities and proprieties which were
incumbent upon her husband as COVER
nor and afterward as United States
Senator. but she cared very little for
what is called social life, and her chief
delight was In her domestic circle, sur
rounded by a few friends who cared
for her rather than for her fortune and
the position of her husband
Shortly after Leland Stanford went
to Washington as United States Sen
ator, Mrs. Stanford received almost in
Vulnerable social tributes. The great
wealth of her husband, his distinguish
ed career in public life and his prom
inence as the originator of the Central
Pacific Railroad all served to make her
more conspicuous than the wives of
any but two or three of the Senators
But how simply and with what unaf-
fected demeanor she received these So
cial distinctions one anecdote will H.
lustrate
Shortly after her arrival in Wash
ington with her husband a committee,
whose members were among the
proudest and most distinguished of
women In Washington associated with
official life. called upon Mrs Stanford
They laid before her the prospectus for
a great charity ball. They told her that
II was the hope to raise by means OF
the bali larger amount of money for
the particular philanthropy they had
in view than had ever before beer
earned by an entertainment for char
ity; and they added that they sought
name to the list of patronesses, all OF
whom, they assured her, were to be
ladies' of high official distinction.
Mrs Stanford looked over the list
She discovered in it the names of al
most every woman Of social promin.
ence in Washington. To be a patroness
of that entertainment was to wear the
badge OF the national capitals socia
aristocracy. But Mrs. Stanford, turn
ing to the ladies', said:
thank you for your kindness II
asking me to become a patroness O
this charity ball. But / ought to say L
you that ] am a very plain woman.
have never cared very much abou
balls or that kind of thing / should
not care about that kind of pleasure
now II would not interest me. But
am greatly Interested in your philan
thropy and will ask you, instead o
accepting my name as patroness, T.
accept something else which I vii
now give you"
She went 10 her desk in an adjoin
ing room, wrote something upon a sill
of paper and gave the slip TO the ladies
When they looked at the writing, the.
saw that It was a check for five hun
dred dollars
Copyright, 1911, by 2. j. Edwards AL
rights reserved.)
On Wednesday Mr.. Edwards viii tel
Of AThe Two Chandlers Who Perfectl
Supplemented Each Other"