The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-05-23
Euenine Chat
The Oreasr Cift

INC Ct8S81G1 91A1t
In the past year twenty-eight persons
gave = million or over for charitable
purposes.
Wouldn't you like to be one Of these
great philanthropists?
Wouldn't you feel proud IL you had
given away q million dollars?
Reader friend. there's one thing we
are all in danger Of forgetting in this
age Of multi-milliOpatres and sensa.
tional gifts. And that IL. q million doll
lars may be q small gift; dollar may
be a large one.
q widow with three children, q small
income and a big heart. Whenever any
one In the neighborhood IL SICK in
want or in trouble, that woman appears
upon his threshold, bringing with her
not only generous material gifts when
needed. but the greater gifts Of service
and self. Many q time after q busy
day. instead of throwing herself upon
couch with her book she slips around
the corner to spend Tn hour reading to
the little blind lady. Again and again.
when some case of need has come to her
attention. she has tramped around the
netghborhood for hours collecting money
for the unfortunate victims Of our So
cial order or their own ik competency.
Althou. she gives generously for a
woman with SO small an income, I
don't suppose ell the m ,ney she has
given in her life would amount to a
thousand dollars. And yet In the great
balances, can you not picture that one
thousand dollars plus her gift of SER
vice and self sending some OF our
famous and fawned upon philan-
thropists' millions up out of sight?
can.
Vn,, notice CO. No. g. 1,a
cause there are many kinds Of wealthy
philanthropists. There il the man who
has taken many millions out Of the soil
OF out of other mems rightful earnings,
and who. after keeping all he can pos
sibly use for himself, gives hack the
rest to charity and basks in the sun
shine of flattery he receives for his
noble deeds.
And then there are the men who give
as Daniel Ford gave. He was a man of
moderate fortune as fortunes 20 now,
but accounted wealthy in his day. All
his life he gave lavishly and lived in
comparative simplicity. He had one
luxury. He was passionately fond of
the ocean and he owned q small steam
yacht on which he came to town every
morning from his summer place. One
day the spectacle of poverty touched
him more deeply than usual. and after
struggling with his conscience he gave
up that last beloved luxury.
Again think Of ,he heart stirring gift
OF Reed B. Freeman of Binghamton, N.
T., who gave up his whole fortune to
the families Of thirty girls who died
when his factory burned. He gave all
he had which was estimated at about
three million, not even reserving an
humble competence for himself, and at
IS years of age has gone to work as a
clerk. He was somewhat different from
the proprietor Of the shirt waist factory
in New York. who was fined the other
day for locking the doors. the very
thing which caused many Of the deaths
at the time Of his fire.
OF course. the rich may give of them
selves with their money just az much
as the poor, but how often do they? As
letter friend trenchantly writes, per
haps one OF the reasons why 1t is 30
hard for the rich TO enter the Kingdom
OF Heaven IL the fact that they get 90
much applause for what costs them lit
tie or nothing and fail to cultivate the
sraccs because It Is SO easy for them tc
make, a1ffn