Millionaires' Letter Bags

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 23 April 1908, Page 15

Millionaires' Letter Bags

Money cannot purchase happiness — a fact which is " br^ujit; home every day to the miiliomaure. Mr. Carnegie has tried to &n some relief from the responsibility oi his immense weaKh by building libraries in. various parts of the world, that for which the people of Dunedin are indebted to him being now completed. Oe of .he great troubles of the millionaire is the begging letter wiiter. Mr. John P. Scott, an American ■ m Hi. make, is at. present endeavoring to found a prote ti n soci ty to safeguard wealthy persons from bein i . os d uOl by undeserving individuals. • Some >c-ars a , s cl id Mr Scott to a newspaper representati .-, • I c a me in for something li.ye 5,000,000d015., left me y an eccentric, but industrious, uncle. The pleasin news had scarcely reached me when my mail-bag heft i to luLe with letters from unknown individuals all more or less anxious to relieve me of the burden of wealth. lAt first these requests and the coolness of some of them amused me, but finally I had to employ a secretary to inquire into and answer those demands which be considered bore the hall-mark of sincerity. But, aiis, when the unhappy father, who wrote regarding a dyao^ daughter to whom a breath of the country air (at my expense) would restore to rude Health, was found to be a gentleman stili enjoying the freedom of bachelorhood, and following a highly lucrative business ia the begging-letter line from a quite expensive office fn the busiest part of New York City ; and when the widow, who had been left w\ith fourteen children and a dollar a day to keep them on, turned out to be a man who had 'do«e ten years in a penitentiary, I became somewhat hardened, dismissed my secretary, and burnt my correspondence. v But the letters continued to arrive in such quantities that my interest was again aroused, and I begant o - makie imlq|uiiries regarding the way lm which ct-her millionaires fared. And I learned a lot. I met men and women of wealth!, who possessed the kindest hearts in the world T>ut who warned me that if I attempeed to suscribe to. half the cases broughlt under my notice my fortune would be gone in a week. <, '" I learned that Miss Helen Gould, perhaps the noblest and most philanthropic of all rich American women, received clrse on two thousand requests for monetary ass'stance wee 1 lv, amd if ?h*. smt the amount asked f J r in each case she would liave to dispose of something li y e £300,000 a week, or over £15,000.,000 a year. Th'°se requests were not for .money only, but included petitions for old clothes, watches, theatre tickets, sewsn^ machines, horses and carriages, air-pillows, and a hundred other rvue tt r things. Tn her weekly mail, too, there a r e are ordi^arilv a do"en letters from ' cranks ' who thre^t-n. to 'do ' for her if she does not send them ' something; O n account.' •' M"ss (V^'d emnloys a regular staff of secretaries, who 'investigate every be-in's; letter received. 1 Tt i<?_ra + her remar^aMe,' continued Mr. Scott ' how s^on a m>il l ionad r e's character for generosity, or the reverse, t-ecomrs v nowti. Mr. J D. Rockefeller, for instance is said to >c not overburdened with sentiment, and, in oonse-uence, tfe«* numbers of letters -he receives from profess'onal beegnrs is not great. ' Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, on the other hand, is a f- rly l easy man ' for the begging-letter writer, ai,d this beng well known her mail each morirng is a big one. She is Mnd hearted and motherly and does good in a thousand' ways unknown to anyone but those who benefit. No doubt she is *> done ' at times, but this does not worry her, and she goes on helping this one and that one an spite of the many blows to her generosity. 'An American millionaire, whom I kti,ew well, and who is obliged to keep a bie: staff at work answering a«td inquiring into the many calls made upon his purse, is Senator OlarV, the •' Copper Kin^.' Years ago Senator Cl r' r recedvod a letter from a youna; girl telli'n-r him that she had a beautiful voice, which- she knew" would put her in the front row of grand opera if she had it trained. But she was without money, . and" if he wo 1 Id advance her the amount necessary for her musi-c-1 education she would guarantee that it would be.returneE just as socn as she obtained an engaj^men*. » Senator riarv, IT fa; "the tone of the "letter, asked her- to call upon lii-n, when he would 'pass judgment upon herjirpice and Five her a n answer whether he could help her or not. She. came and sang to him a»H the Senator was charmed with the -beauty of her notes. He unhesitatingly advanced tfie sum necessary

to giM© her a> thorough training 1 under the best masters in ' Europe, and her name is famous in the musical woxl!d'. Senator Clark recalls with pleasure -bow, on obtaining her first lucrative engagement, his protege immediattfly refunded the. sum he had advanced for education.

, ♦ This little incident suggested to Senator Clark the idea of founding a s-cbool for the free education of penniless pirls possessed of musical talent, and this institution has been supported by the millionaire for sev er->l years. The girls are first of all put through a thorough musical training, under American - instructors, after whictii they are sent to Europe for two or three years— e 1 cry expanse 'being defrayed by the Senator. The cost of this philanthropic insftution is less than £20000 a year, and Mr. Clark thinks that the money was never better spent.'