New Britain herald., 1918-11-04
KnoEn as 'Lady BountiiuT' Through Large Gifts to Public
 GAVE AWAY SSo,OOo,ooO
plci One of Richest Women ia World After Rising From Life of FlsGurity--InIlcrtt,d Fortune of S7G,OOO,OOO From Husband,

% Now YOrli Nov. 4.-MIS. Russell # Sage, widow of Russell Sage, the bE2ancier, died suddenly this morning at her residence here. She had been in feeble health for several years. @She was go years old.
 Mrs. Sage wGs one of the richest 4 women in the world
 Three or four days ago her condi- N tion became serious and the end was T got unexpected. Her death was BRcaused by ailments due to advanced tnge. Also due to the same cause, Ms. Sage has been virtually recluse in her Fifth avenue house for several years. She has been seen but rarely In public and her visitors were limited to close friends and relatives
 A nurse on duty in Mrs. Sage's room noticed a change in the patients condition shortly after midnight. Mrs. Asage died about an hour later
 Gave $30,0O0. 900 to Public. Margaret Olivia Sage, until she reached middle life had only the meagre income of a school teacher and x then in day she found herself mis- A tress of one Of the greatest fortunes Ra America. Her eaGlE---4ayrs were dvoted to scraping together enough
 
 and her last were spent in develop ing the science of giving money away. During the last seven years of com plete stewardship of the $700O0, 900 left by her husband, Russell Sage, she returned early $30, 100000 to the public by systematic phiIanthropies My experience has taught me-" "A had said recently, that success fdl people are those who take what comes to hand, and, if it be small, ' wait and work for something better. The root of failure lies often in the thought that you can do but one thing and must do that or nothing" This practical philosophy developed when she was a girl in Syracuse, N. N., her birthplace. Her father, Joseph SlOcun, was so reduced in circumstances by the panic of 1887 { EAhat the daughter, at the age of only Zine years was obliged to help in the upkeep of the household At the age of 16 years she started for Mount ] Holyolfe College expecting to work her way for four years by houseworI1, but sickness overlook her on her way and she was compelled to stop at an S@ncle's house in Troy. Later she was Induced to enter Emma Willard's
 
 battle for self-support she was gradu- atod and became a, school teacher. For nearly 20 years afterward she ! continued her battle, teaching schools in Philadelphia, Syracuse and Troy until at the age of i years she became the wife of Russell Sage, then frugal banker at Watervliet, N. Y. Their home life was simple, despite their great wealth. Mrs. Sage took such deep interest in her husbands af- faips that he turned over to her five years before his death complete con- trol of his business and found that his faith was borne out by her successful operations. But she was proudest of her ability to support herself alto ,gether independent of wealth, and of Fher housekeeping.
 Could Run Own Household
 "If my cook should leave me today" she once said. 'I could do the work myself without running all over the city for another girl before we had something to eat. Housework is one .%ef the best occupations I know. Girls should take up houSework, even as servants, rather than work in the stores. If l had 9 daughter (she was childless) "she would have been taught to cook and sew and be of some com- fort to her parents. Some girls. now adays, are of no more comfort to their parents than if they did not exist"
 Mrs. Sage was a ''woman's woman" and her charities were largely a lady zxlountiful" and was so besieged with requests for money that she had to re- tire finally to seclusion. Begging let ters have been received at her Fifth Avenue home at the rate of 500 day, some of the writers threatening suicide and others to do her bodily harm if their petitions were not needed. So tnsistent were the hordes that they sometimes gathered in num- bers about her doors.
 se Mrs. Sage was little woman and
 extremely self-controlled. She gave, lContinued on Eleventh Page)4