Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-11-05
|"LADY B0UNT|FUL"
MRS. RUSSELL SAGE
DIES ON MONDAY

New York, Nov. Mrs. Russell
Sage widow of the financier, and one
Of the richest women in the world,
died at her home here early today.
She was 80 years old and had been
in feeble health for several years.
Three or four days ago her condition
became serious. Death was caused by
ailments due to advanced ago.
Mrs Sage had been virtually q
recluse in her Fifth avenue house for
several years. She has been seen but
rarely in public and hr visitors were
limited to close friends and relatives.
A nurse on duty in her room noticed
a change in her condition shortly af-
ter midnight Mrs. Sage died about
an hour later.
Margaret Olivia Sage, until she
reached middle life had only the
meagre income of school teacher
and then in day she found herself
mistress of one of the greatest for
tunes in America. Her early days
We're devoted to scraping together
enough money to give herself Il fair
education, and her last were spent in
developing the science of giving
money away. During the last seven
years Of complete stewardship of the
| $40. 000, 900 left by her husband, Rus
sell Sage. she returned nearly 100000
! 600 to the public by systematic phil
anthropies
my experience has taught me-" she
had said recently, that successful
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 devel-
oped when she was a girl in SYRIA
cuse. n. Y, her birthplace. Her
father. Joseph Slocum, was so re-
| duced in circumstances by the panic
of 1887 that the daughter. at the ago
| of only nine years was obliged to
help in the upkeep of the household.
At the age Of is she started for
Mount Holyoke College expecting to
work her way for four years by
Homework. but sickness overlook her
on her way and she was compelled
to stop at an uncle's house in Troy
Later she was induced to enter Emma
| Wizards seminary at Troy, and after
q hard battle for self-support she
was graduated and became a school
! teacher. For nearly % years after
ward she continued her battle, teach
ing schools in Philadelphia, Syracuse
and Troy until, at the age of Al years
she became the wife of Russell Sage
then a frugal banker at Watervliet.
N. Y.
Their home life was simple. despite
their great wealth. Mrs. Sage took
such deep interest in her husbands
affairs that he turned over to her five
years before his death complete con
troll of his business and found that
his faith was borne out by her sue
cessful operations. But she was
proudest of her ability to support her
self altogether Independent of wealth,
and of her housekeeping.
IF my cook should leave me to-
day" she once said, Il could do the
work myself without running all over
the city for another girl before we
had something to eat. Homework is
one Of the best occupations know
Girls should take up housework, even
as servants, rather than work in the
stores. If had a 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 didn't exist"
Mrs. Sage was "woman's woman"
and her charities were largely direct
ed to the aid Of women and children.
| She became widely known as a lady
| bountiful" and was so besieged with
| requests for money that she had to
retire finally to seclusion. Begging
letters have been received at her Fifth
avenue home at the rate OF 500 a
day. some of the writer's threatening
suicide and others to do her bodily
harm if their petitions were not heed
ed. So insistent were the hordes that
they sometimes gathered in numbers
about her doors.
Mrs. Sage was a little woman and
extremely self controlled. She gave,
and gave literally. but was so deter
mined that her giving should be done
wisely that shortly after her hus-
bands death she established the Rus
sell Sage Foundation with $4,000
900 for the improvement of social and
living conditions in the United States.
Outside of this she had made large
gifts including $1,000 900 to the En-
ma Willard Seminary, 100000 to
Rensselaer, Polytechnic Institute,
$3.50. to the Y. N. {. A. and Y. W.
C. A, $4,000 to the American Sea-
mans ms itute, sl50,000 to tie North
field. (Mass) Sem,na..::,. 100000 to
the Sage Institute of Pathology of the
New York City Hospital. $4,000 for
a home for INDECENT women, and
10000 to Syracuse University.
She was born Sept. S, 1928, eighth
in descent. through her father, from
Miles Standish, and on her maternal
SIDE a descendant of Col. Henry Pier
son of Sag Harbor, y. Y, founder of
the public school system in America