Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/833

Rh department store of Olds, Wortman and King. And when done with business, and could use the library no longer he gave the precious books to the Portland library, where they will remain as long as the city stands, safely preserved for the use of all people in the "John Wilson room."

Another public spirited citizen must be remembered in connection with the library, and that is Henry Failing. While Mr. Failing was always a liberal supporter of the library, and all other public institutions of the city all his life, and serving the city for four terms as mayor, without salary, he did not forget in making up his final accounts to remember the people who have not money to spare for rare and useful books, and put in a gift of ten thousand dollars for the free public library.

Last but not least in connection with the Portland library is the name of Miss Ella M. Smith. Inheriting a fortune from her father, and desiring to put it to the best use possible, her judgment led her to choose for her monument, when time for her should be no more, a fireproof building to house and protect the library for all time. The beautiful stone building on Stark street is the gift to the city of this noble woman. It was not all of her gifts to the use of humanity, but it was the largest. It befits her noble and gracious spirit, her modest and useful life, excepting only the gift of the Reed institute—and that came from a vastly greater fortune—the gift of Miss Smith has been the largest the city has ever received.

Two of the most worthy people that ever blessed the city of Portland with their honest pure lives were Levi Anderson and his wife. "Squire" Anderson was a familiar and beloved neighbor to all the old Portlanders. For many years he faithfully discharged the duty of justice of the peace. When this worthy pair passed away, they devoted all their fortune to the welfare of orphan boys, as a memorial to their own son who passed away in his youth.

The plans have been drawn for the Levi Anderson Industrial Home, provided for by the wills of the late Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. This home will be an industrial and trade training school for boys and will be built on the ground recently purchased by Archbishop Christie, near the property of St. Mary's orphanage for boys at Beaverton, on the Oregon Electric Company's railway. Three hundred acres will be set aside for the school farm.

Mr. Simeon G. Reed and wife came to Portland as poor as anybody else; and they worked long and patiently together and died childless and left a great fortune (after suitably providing for relatives), to found a school or college embracing all the technical knowledge of the arts and sciences together with academic learning. It was a grand and noble inspiration; and the city of Portland was the recipient of the great gift. Few cities in the United States has ever received so great a bounty. The monetary foundation of the gift, amounting to about three million dollars, will be ample to erect all needed buildings and endow a teaching force equal to all the demands of this northwest upon the most liberal and comprehensive lines of study. It is something for a city to be proud of to have produced such people and to have been the theatre of their successful labors, to have secured their affection and final benediction in this great gift for the welfare of humanity.

Every degree and condition of misfortune appeals to the heart of the charitable, and taxes the generosity of the benevolent in every city in the land. If one stops to think he wonders whether poverty and distress is the punishment of wrong doing or the inevitable lot of the weak and helpless. But for the good or ill,_ the race of man must rise or fall by the average standard of life and industrious honesty. To neglect the aged or infirm, or abandon the infantile weak or deformed in mind or body, would be to substitute brutal force and heartless selfishness for thoughtful selfishness and christian charity, and retrograde to even a lower position than the native red man. But charity for the weak, the sick, the aged, or the poverty stricken, seldom starts from the strong in the full vigor of manhood. It is generally after the man or woman have had their bat-