404 ANNUAL REPORT 



order to obtain it with greater rapidit}' than individual efforts can 

 accomplish, "trusts" of all kind are formed, which are none other 

 than combinations to put up prices of all articles to consumers and 

 compel them to pay unreasonable prices — light, fuel, bread-stuff, meats 

 and almost every article of daily consumption. Such are the cause* 

 now so often heard of the cry of oppression, and not without reason. 

 This is a digression from the main subject, but is admissable only on 

 the ground that a halt should be called and the rising generation 

 educated in a different way. In ray experience, with a few excep- 

 tions, any great amount of wealth is not a source of greatly increased 

 happiness. I would, had I the power, teach the young to love the 

 beautiful, and be satisfied with a moderate share of this world's goods. 



I have recently been interested in reading some accounts of a lady 

 of great wealth, mainly inherited by herself and husband, who has 

 distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the manner she used 

 it, to benefit those less fortunate than herself, — the late Mrs. Astor, 

 of N. Y. 1 am of the opinion the lady received more real happiness 

 in giving than the recipients in receiving. I will read a short article 

 taken from a late paper of that city. 



"Beneath a glass case in one of the magnificently furnished rooms 

 of the Astor mansion, at Fifth avenue and Thirty-third street, were 

 some wax flowers and other little fancy knick-knacks. If put up at 

 auction to be sold on their merits, the whole lot would hardly have 

 fetched the price of a song, certainly not of a popular imported song 

 when it first comes out. The workmanship was neither skillful nor 

 artistic. It was exceedingly amateurish. And yet, surrounded as she 

 was by beautiful pictures and other costly products of skill and genius, 

 Mrs, Astor prized highly these exceedingly rudimentary attempts at 

 art, and gave them an abiding place among her treasures. 



"To a lew favored friends she would explain why. They were the 

 offerings of childish hands. They were given her by pour children, 

 into whose lives she had brought sunshine and happiness, and lessons 

 of goodness that might bear fruit in later years. They were voluntary 

 offerings from the children of the Industrial School in East Four- 

 teenth street, near Avenue B, which Mrs. Astor founded nearly 

 twenty-five years ago, and which she watched over with loving care 

 while she lived, although the school was under the supervision of the 

 Children's Aid Society. Mrs. Astor loved children,fand prized these 

 humble gifts because they were mementoes of childish affection which 

 she had won. They represented that which wealth could not pur- 

 chase. Truly their presence in the Astor mansion was significant of 

 much." 



