Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/89

Rh School of Mechanical Trades, of which he was one of the original trustees:

"When he reached the age of nearly seventy, his fortune probably amounted to about $4,000,000; and at that period of his life, yielding to the impulses of his naturally kindly and sympathetic nature, keenly alive and responsive to the claim of all forms of suffering humanity, and regarding himself as only a steward of the large fortune he had acquired by a life of integrity, self-denial, and intelligent efforts, he began a system of wise, judicious and liberal distribution of his means, giving in various directions and for a variety of purposes, in a broad and catholic spirit, both money and property, to hospitals, schools, homes and similar charitable and educational organizations. The aggregate of his donations during this period of his life, from the age of seventy to eighty-six, while not known during his lifetime, was ascertained after his decease to have amounted to (independent of the endowment of this school) about $4,000,000, a sum believed to be larger than that ever given by any one individual in