14 SIMON HENRY GAGE 
lent in summer. In the bookplate is this sentiment going with 
the decoration and expressing what books had been to her: 
“The bitter and the sweet of all the past shall strengthen us.’’ 
Doubtless as the years pass away many a boy and girl will 
find in some book in that library the intellectual and spiritual 
food which they long for and which will show them the way they 
are seeking to a career of noble living, and of service to their day 
and generation comparable with that of the gracious woman 
who made the library possible. 
It was always a pleasure to her to attend the seminaries in 
the different biological groups in the university and there was 
ever a word of commendation and cheer for the young workers 
who were trying to walk alone. They loved to talk over their 
work and plans with her, and none ever did so without having 
his purpose strengthened. 
It was not only in the laboratories and seminaries that she 
met the students, but they were welcomed in her home. And 
from the testimony of many who have found high success those 
home experiences added to life and its aspirations what could 
not be given by the laboratory alone. She was much sought 
after not only by the students but the young people in the 
teaching staff of the university who found in her the abounding 
sympathy and enthusiasm of youth combined with the wisdom 
that comes only from maturity and experience; and none who 
sought help ever went away empty handed but all gained from 
her new courage and enthusiasm, new faith that life was worth 
living, and that something worth while could be accomplished in 
the world. 
As expressed by her friend of thirty-five years, Mrs. Anna 
Botsford Comstock, in the Cornell Alumni News of November 
4, 1915: 
Mrs. Gage’s personality made a lasting impression upon all who 
met her. She had great charm of manner, deep earnestness, a vigor- 
ous and quaint originality of thought and expression, a fine sense of 
humor, keen sympathies, and above all the power of briiging cheer 
to all with whom she came in contact. Her merry musical laugh was 
so much a part of her that even those of us most bereft must be com- 
forted by the memory of it. Her character gave a firm and broad basis 
