The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-09-18
MRS RUSSELL SAGE IS
ENTERING GOTH YEAR
LITTLE OLD WOMAN WHO GIVES
AWAY $4,000 A DAY TO
WORTHY INSTITUTIONS.

NEW YORK.-Living in quiet re-
tirement in an old-fashioned cottage
at Lawrence, r. l., is a prim, little,
old lady who has just entered upon
her Goth year, and whose chief oc-
cupation these many years past has
been to ferret out worthy institu-
lions upon which to bestow her
wealth at rate that has been esti-
mated at close to $4,000 a day, for
365 days of the year.
The aged woman whose deed of
philanthropy have extended to every
state of the union and to foreign
lands as well is Mrs. Margaret Olivia
Sage, and the wealth she is engaged
in distributing, freely but wisely, is
the vast fortune left her by her hus-
band, the late Russell Sage, famous
financier, who died in 1906.
Mrs. Sage made no preparations
for an observance of her seth birth
day, but she was reminded of the APP
proach of the anniversary by the re-
ceipt of an unusual number of par
GELS and letters at her Long Island
cottage, where she lives during the
greater part of the year. 1t is the
cottage in which Mr.. Sage died, and
is the favorite home maintained by
Mrs. Sage.
Greatest Woman Giver.
The venerable philanthropist, who
probably has given away more money
than any other woman in the history
of the world, was born in Syracuse,
N. Y, September 8, 1923. Her pa
ternal grandmother was Olivia Stan
dish and she is a descendant of Miles
Standish and member of the May
flower society. Her father was
merchant in Syracuse and after she
went to school in Troy she became
school teacher. For almost twenty
years she continued in this occupa-
ton. At the age of Al she met and
was married to Russell Sage. Wealth
came to the couple soon after their
marriage, but it brought little change
in their mode of life. The continued
to live Simply, and for many years
Mrs. Sage did much of her own
housework.
Took Husbands Fortune.
She took a great interest in her
husbands affairs and five years be-
fore his death he is said to have left
the entire management of his great
fortune in her hands.
1t took Russell Sage fifty years to
accumulate fortune of $65, 100000
This great sum represented the
pinching and scraping together of
what amounted to $500 a day for
the lifetime of the great fnancier. In
less than three years after the death
of her husband Mrs. Sage had spent
more than $25, 100000 for public
purposes and the benefit of mankind.
Comparison of the fnancier's power
to make money with Mrs. Sage's fac
ulty of giving it away shows that the
widow has given away 50 in the
same time that it took Mr.. Sage to
accumulate the proverbial thirty
cents"
When Mrs. Sage, after the death
of her husband set about distribut-
ing her wealth the cause of educa-
ton and religion and the ameliora-
ton of human misery appealed most
strongly to her. One of her first acts
was to double the requests that her
husband had made to his relatives,
and all chance of will contest was
thus ended.
Her first large gift was tc Rensse-
laer Polytechnic Institute, better
known as the Troy Polytechnic This
institution received an initial gift of
$1,OOO,OOO. The following day an
other gift of $1,OOO,OOO was an
nounced, the Emma Willard School
being the recipient.