MRS MACKAY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4307, 16 March 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

MRS MACKAY

Mrs Mackay sailed for New York lately (says “M.A.P.”], to spend the winter with her husband, Mr John M. Mackay. Mr and Mrs Clarence had preceded her by a few weeks. The whole family will probably go later to California, where Mr Mackay’s monster interests constantly demand his presence. In Mrs Mackay’s life there can be no application of the saying, “It is more difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, than a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” Riches have left her absolutely unspoiled and unaffected. Her magnificent jewels, worth a Queen’s ransom, have been out of the hank three times in fifteen years, and in preparation for her trip to America, she got four new gowns and as many bonnets.

A life-long friend, in speaking onoe of Mrs Mackay, said: —“She is truer fax than, any one that I have ever known beneath the sun—sinner, saint, or Pharisee.” She is a woman possessed of calm judgment, and having once given her friendship it is like marriage, for better, for worse, until death. Some years ago a lady, by flagrant deceit and disloyalty, forfeited' Mrs Mackay’s friendship. When evil days came and the lady was obliged to earn her own living, a friend suggested getting up a little capital for her, and Mrs Mao-, kay at once offered to contribute some hundreds of pounds if it could be sent under the name of another person. She is a woman of strong will, strong common sense, and excellent judgment, but utterly incapable of or vengeance. Only eyes that have wept much] can see clearly. Mis Mackay has wept, and her vision is clear; so to her are carried all the troubles and trials of her friends, and to them, while her advice is kind and healing, she never shirks the truth.

• Mrs Mackay is exceptionally happy in her family relations. Her mother, Mrs Hungorford, is a wise andi accomplished woman. In spite of four grandchildren, Mrs Mackay is still a young womans and a pretty one, with abundant, silken black hair and blue eyes. Her manners are quiet and distinguished, and she has very simple, cultivated, and artistic tastes. When in London, where her splendid big house is enlivened by parrots, piping Bullfinches, canaries, dog, flowers, and all the current literature of the day, she constantly entertains and keeps open house in an old-fashioned, hospitable manner.