WOMEN PHILANTHROPISTS OF AMERICA AND ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7293, 4 January 1902, Page 2

WOMEN PHILANTHROPISTS OF AMERICA AND ENGLAND.

Splendid Benefactions. In the splendid record of the world's philanthropy the names of women are almost as many and as prominent as the names of men (writes Morris Wade, in the "Detroit Free Press"). Both in our own country and in .Europe the list of largehearted, noble-miinded women who have regarded their wealth as a sacred trust to be used for the growing good of the world is ; a very large one. The writer heard thai noble American woman, Mrs Mary Livermore, say while giving one of her lectures a short time ago : " The world is growing better every day." It is proof of this fact when so many women of great wealth are using ;that wealth (for the enlightening and the uplifting of humanity. Among American women who have honoured themselves by using their large fortunes for the good of others is Mrs Phoebe A. H&arst, who was Miss Phoebe A. Appersin before hey marriage to Mr H-earst in 1861. She <was a school teacher at this time. Mr Hearst was one of the fortunate" owners of the famous Coanstock ,and Hoanestake mines, two of the most phen6'mena;l mines ever discovered in America. They made George F. Hearst many times <a millionaire, the Homestake alone being capitalised for 21,000j000d0l and paying from 10 to 12 per cent a year. La Hacienda del Paso de Verona, one of the California homes built by Mr Hearst, is one of the finest and most picturesque buildings in America. It takes its name from an old carved well-curb found by Mr and Mrs Hearst in Verona and 'brought to America. .' This chateau is magnificently furnishedi and contains antiquities from all over the world. It. is a veritable treasure house of rare and 'beautiful things. . One day nearly twenty years ago Mrs Sarah Cooper, the founder of the Goldeni Gate Kindergarten Association, was calling on Mrs Hearst wlfen the conversation turned upon the kindergarten work in which Mrs Cooper was so intensely interested. When- Mrs Cooper fold of the many poor children who had tP be turned away from the kindergartens because there was no room for them, Mrs Hearst said, "They must all be cared for dn some way," and fram this call came Mrs Hearst's great interest in the kindergartens for poor child- • ren ia San Francisco. She gives thou- ■■ sands o>f dollars each year to this work, and it is her intention to erect a large i building to be devoted entirely to kindergarten work. Mrs Hearst is always interested in any i good work for children. In one of hen ■ letters she sent to Mrs Cooper she wrote : ; "I am satisfied that money expended for little children accomplishes more good than i in almost amy other way." i Once when Mrs Hearst had been away . from San Francisco for a long time she was , met on her retur>n> by a thousand little i children, who gave her a reception intone ; of the largest halls in the city. The children marched! in a procession' before Mrs ■ Hearst, and each child laid a flower jut her feet. At the close of the Teceptiont it was : announced that Mrs Hearst would establish and maintain at her own cost «i manual ; training school, in which the graduates of : the free kindergartens could be taught ail i of the useful industries, i In addition. to the large sums Mrs Hearst ; has given to charities of all kinds California, she has given two hundred thousand dollars for a building for the National Cathedral School for Girls in the City cf Washington. This beautiful building ■ stands in a park of thirty acres, two miles from Georgetown, and on the corner-stone is inscribed these words : "THAT OUR DAUGHTERS MAY BE AS THE POLISHED CORNERS OF THE TEMPLE." In addition to this, Mrs Hearst has furnished throughout, at her own expense, the Boys' Home in Washington. The' Home is under the direction of the Brothers of ' Nazareth, an Episcopal organisation. Mrs Hearst has established a number of free kindergartens in Washington, and she nas established in that city one of the finest kindergarten training-schools in the world. Although it has been the policy of this generous woman, as far as possible, to keep her benefactions a secret, it is known that she has helped a very large number of worthy young men and young women to secure an education. She is one of the regents of the University of California, and she maintains, at her own expense, the school for mining engineers. There :re free libraries in many mining towns of California established and supported by Mrs Hearst in the endeavour to lessen vice in these places. But all of her other splendid benefactions have been unequalled by her great gifts to the University/ of California, at Berkeley. It is estimated that Mrs Hearst has given between three and four million dollars to the University, and she is still giving to it. She is planning to provide dormitories for the seven hundred women students, and she proposes to establish at ' the University one of the finest gymnasiums for women in the world. THE BAKONESS BTTRDETT-COTJTTS. As a great-hearted philanthropist, Mrs Hearst takes rank with that great English philanthropist, the famous Baroness Buri dett-Coutts, who, at the- age of eighty- ' seven, is still a prominent figure in the social world of London, and who is still eagerly interested -in charities of all kinds. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts -is said to be the wealthiest woman in England. Her - father was Sir Francis Burdett. Her mo. ther was a daughter of London's enormously wealthy banker, Thomas Coutts, who scaii--1 dalised London when he was eigthy-five/ 1 years of age by marrying the then, noted L actress, Harriet Mellon. When he died, 1 it was found that he had left his great for- ; tune to his widow, having given his daugh- ; ters handsome fortunes at the time of their marriage. . Not long after she became a widow, Harr iet Mellon created another sensation by ' marrying a man of about half her age. ', This youthful bridegroom was the Duke of St Albans, and it was supposed that he j would inherit his wife's .fortune, but after i her death it was found that she had left . him her two handsome residences and fifty thousand dollars a year for life. The iest r of her fortune, amounting to nine millions , of dollars, was left to Angela Burdett, on ', condition that she ad/1 Coutts to her name. Thus it was that at the age of twenty-two . Angela Burdett-Coutts found herself the '. richest young woman in the world, and at I the head of one of the greatest banking ) houses in the world. Very soon after coming into possession [ of her fortune the young heiress began to manifest the spirit oi philanthropy that has 1 made her famous for good deeds. When ■ her parents died in the year 1844 she built as a loving memorial to them the Church of St Stephen at Westminster. The church t cost half a million of dollars, and there is 1 connected with it St« Stephen's School— in which many thousand of boys and gi-rls 1 have been educated, at the expense of the generous founder. Tlie baroness built a second Church of St Stephen in Hhe district of Carlisle, where

there are many poor people. Later she built churches at Cnpe Town, in South Africa, and at Adelaide-, in Australia. Inall she has built more than a dozen churches. ' Charles Dickens and the baroness werewarm friends, and she often went with the great novelist to the slum districts of Lonaon. It was these visits that led the baroness to erect four blocks of model dwellings for the poor in London. All ofl the tenements in these dwellings are provided with baths, and each block of fifty tenements has a library. Then the baroness spent a million of dollars in building Columbia Market, that the poor of Bethnal Green might have better food at the lowest cost. When there was a great cholera scourge in London the baroness employed skilled nurses to care for the sick, and gave away thousands of pounds of food to the sick and starving. In times of famine or when the working people could not find employment the baroness helped thousands of them to food, shelter, fuel and medical attendance. Her charities in this direction alone 1 have cost her many thousands of pounds. At one time she opened a factory where girls could learn to make artificial flowers, and she 'has established schools of all kinds for boys and'girls. The baroness is president of the Destitute Children's Dinner Society, which gives thousands of dinners to the poor children of London. She was one of the organisers' of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and , she was instrumental in having a law passed allowing the children of evil and inhuman^ parents to be taken from them and cared for in- a humane way. Suffering Ireland hag reason to bless the Baroness Buridett-Coutts, for she has spent more than a million dollars relieving the wants of the poor in times of distress. When crops have failed, her almoners have visited Ireland and given relief. In times of war the ready sympathy of the baroness wa& not lacking, and she gave thousands of pounds for relief work of all kinds. In 1871 Queen Victoria manifested her appreciation of the noble work of Miss Burdett-CoUtte by creating her a baroness, and later the- City of London, with great ceremony, gave her the freedom of the city. The Sultan of Turkey conferred honours upon her, and ?he became the best-known and best-beloved woman in England, with the exception of Queen Victoria. The marriage of her grandfather -to Harriet -Mellon created less of a sensation than the Baroness Burdett-Coutts created when she announced her intention of marrying her secretary, Mr Ashmead-Bartlett, an American, thirty-seven years her junior. It is raid that' the Queen disapproved heartily of this marriage, and that all of the friends of the baroness were opposed to it. But " when a woman will she will," and the baroness married the man of her choice, and it is «aid that the marriage has been ao entirely happy one. x The baroness settled an income of 250,000d0l a^ year on her husband, and he wilt; be a very rich man at her death. ; ' . THE COUNTESS OP ABERDEEN. Although not a woman of- enormous wealth like the Baroness Burdett-Coutts or Mrs Hearst, Lady Isobel, Countess of Aberdeen, will live in grateful remembrance for many long years after this world shall know her no more. The Countess of Aberdeen is the daughter of Lord Tweedmouth, better known perhaps as Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanlas. She was born and' reared in Inverness highlands, a mountain (fastness twenty -five miles from a railroad. Some of her ancestors wer c the ancient Kings of Scotland. When she was a child of eleven years a youth, of twenty who had been hunting in the country and who had lost his way, came to the porter's lodge on her father's estate and! asked^for shelter. When Sir Dudley knew that the young fellow was the son of an old friend of his, the Earl of Aberdeen, he gave him a royal welcome, and thus it was that the young Isobel first met her husband 1 . They were married in 1877 and spent their honeymoon in Egypt. The interest of the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen in suffering childhood can . best 'be illustrated by the faot that before thtey rej jurned from their wedding tour they adopt- ; cdi no less than five children, four of them being children they had rescued / from a slave dealer who was offering them for sale, and the fifth a little Egyptian boy who had) been tortured for becoming a Christian. Three of these children died, but the other two are now missionaries in China and l the Soudan. Those who visited the Centennial will remember the Irish village which Lady Aberdeen planned 1 , and which was one of the most interesting features of the Centennial. Her heart has gone out to the Irish people in tenderest sympathy, and her life has been one of great helpfulness to others. HELEN GOTTLD. Helen Gould has endeared herself to thousands by her splendid generosity. She :has given 'thousands to schools and colleges. She gave more than any other "American woman for the relief of the soldier boys during our late war, and she is now building at her own expense in Brooklyn a building to cost half a million dollars , for the army and navy department of the Y.M.C.1l She gave 100,000dol for the Hall of Fame erected on Columbia Heights, and later she added another 100,000dol to the original gift. Miss Gould gave 150,000 ! dol to the Seamen's Retreat, in New York, -and her smaller gifts aggregate many thousands of dollars. I Mrs P. D. Armour is a Western woman Who has given a million and' a quarter to the Armour Institute, and Mrs Leland Stanford has given, more than ten millions for educational purposes. The gifts of the Drexel sisterts for charitable, benevolent and educational purposes aggregate millions of dollars. The list of American women who have given from ten to five hundred thousand dollars for charitable purposes is a .very long and 1 honourable one, and each year sees many additions to the list. I ' =====