MRS ANDREW CARNEGIE

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 26

MRS ANDREW CARNEGIE

A FINE PERSONALITY QUIET USEFUL LIFE To marry a young man who was struggling and to help him- to make a success of life—that was the romantic ambition of Louise Whitfield, the lovely debutante daughter of a successful and wealthy lawyer in New York. Instead she married Andrew Carnegie, old enough to be her father, and one of the richest men in the world. Much is heard in New Zealand of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its grants to libraries, _ educational institutions, and to individuals are greatly appreciated. The latest beneficiaries include three residents of Christchurch—Miss Kassie Turner, Mr R. A. Falla, and Mr Victor Peters, who, by its grants, will be given an opportunity of travelling abroad to study developments in the fields of their special interests—infant and nursery schools, museums, and music. But although Andrew Carnegie is now almost a household name in many parts of the world, little is heard of his widow, now 78 years old, who might have been the richest woman in the world had she not followed the example of her husband, who gave away more

than 4,000,000 dollars in his lifetime. She fives simply, but in perfect taste and comfort, in the same house whore as a bride she went to the home which she had planned with Andrew Carnegie before their marriage. He died in 1919, and she has kept his study intact as he left it. The house and garden in Fifth Avenue, New York, are said to be worth 1,000,000 dollars, although they are very simple in comparison with the homes of many other wealthy persons. TOUCH OF ROMANCE. Andrew Carnegie wag 50 years old when he met Miss Whitfield. It is said that when ho first proposed - she refused him, because, she said, such a wealthy man could not need a helpmate. However, within a few years her parents died, and Mr Carnegie became ill. Then she accepted him and they lived together a happy, quiet fife. Their one daughter, Margaret, was brought up on their country estate. Mr Carnegie left all his immense wealth to his wife, and she gives away vast sums every year, but has made,a rule that any charity mentioning her name as a donor shall lose the subscription, and she has also laid it down as absolutely necesary that her daughter’s children shall be brought up to understand that inherited wealth carries with it an obligation to assist the needy and unfortunate. Every day the daughter and her children call on the grandmother, who acts in the spirit and letter of the man whoso great wealth was so steadily used for the benefit of mankind.