A MILLION POUNDS TO BE GIVEN AWAY.

Western Star, 31 March 1911, Page 6

A MILLION POUNDS TO BE GIVEN AWAY.

5,0U0 BEGGING LETTERS A’ MONTH. Mr. Andrew Carnegie is not th; only millionaire who had determinec to ’“die poor.” His bosom friend Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of New York, who after earning a modest living a* a medical practioneer, made two million sterling by buying an estate anc timber, has made a similar resolution. But he is finding it a difficult matter to get rid of his wealth, am even now, after giving away with ; lavish hand for over twenty years, lu finds that he still has a millior pounds to dispose of. And as he it ninety years uf age, it is quite pos Bible that, lie will fail in his determination to die poor. The aged philanthropist, however, is firmly convinced that, he will live to the age of .100, and t hat he will be abb to git rid of a million of money ir that time. Certainly he does not lack sugges (ions from outside. Last month h. received no fewer than 5,000 begging letters, mostly from worthless people. “There are beggars of all kinds. Mothers with daughters approaching (he marriageable age have sent me ihotograt Its, asking me to provide them with a marriage portion. A COOL REQUEST. 1 “One of the funniest was from a " | German burgomaster. It contained j photographs of the German official, 3 his wife, and twelve children, half o! )whom are daughters who are soon to be married. ‘My income is pnly £l5O a year,,’ he wrote, ‘and I find it very difficult to maintain myself and family in the position which my office demands. Will you now bestow a “dot” of £I,OOO on each of my daughters, so that they can make suitable matches ?” Like .Mr. Carnegie, Dr. Pearsons j has given a great deal of money tc education. Forty-seven colleges and institutions of learning are what he sails ‘"his children,” for he has no i real offspring of his own. They are 1 scattered throughout twenty-four | States, and range from a seminary lin New England, where he attended school as a boy, across to the Pacific University. | GIVES AWAY “SAVINGLY." 1 His favourite institute is Berea, in , ; Kentucky, to which he has given j over £IOO,OOO, and he is at the pre--0 j sent moment making arrangements ito give another £IOO,OOO to this in- ; stitute,, where he states “a country [ boy or girl can get a better educa- | tion than at any college in the I States." Dr. Pearsons has some original , ideas about charity. I “I give my money away,” he says, j ‘ h in the same manner that 1 made it j —savingly.” The beggar, adventurer | and swindler find little encourage--1 ment. Every request for a donation is thoroughly, investigated,, and if it is found to come from a needy ami | worthy institute, the purse-strings ' are opened freely, hut otherwise no | amount of pleading can get a single j penny out of Dr. Pearsons. He declares “that he has spent more sleepless nights in the twenty I years since he has been giving away j money than all the rest of his life,” but adds that “he has had a bushel of fun.” “Coffins were not meant to carry money in,” is one of his sayings, two others being, “Always he your owm executor” and '“When people call me a stingy old Puritan I take my hat off to them and consider that I have been complimented.’ —“Tit-bits.”