Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
The National Temperance Society, whose efficient and lamented Secretary,
John N. Stearns, died April 21, 1895, was organized in 1865. It has
printed and scattered over 900,000,000 pages of total-abstinence
literature. With its board of thirty managers representing nearly all
denominations and temperance organizations, ever on the alert to assist
in making and enforcing helpful laws and to lessen the power of the
liquor traffic, it is doing its work all over the nation. Says one who
has long been identified with this organization, "I believe there is no
Missionary Society, either Home or Foreign, that is doing more for the
cause of Christ than this society, especially in saving the boys and
girls; and yet, so far as I know, it receives less donations than any
other society, and very rarely a legacy." Mr. William E. Dodge, the
well-known merchant of New York, left the Society, by will, $5,000. Mr.
W. B. Spooner of Boston, and Mr. James H. Kellogg of Rochester, N.Y.,
each left $5,000.
It is a hopeful sign of the times when laws are passed in thirty-nine
States and all the Territories requiring the teaching of the nature and
effects of alcoholic drinks upon the human system. It is encouraging
when a million members of Christian Endeavor societies pledge themselves
"to seek the overthrow of this evil at all times in every lawful way."
Our country has given grandly for education; it will in the future give
more generously to reforms which help to do away with poverty and crime.
GEORGE T. ANGELL.
George T. Angell, the president and founder of "The American Humane
Education Society," and president and one of the founders of "The
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,"
deserves, with the late lamented Henry Bergh of New York, the thanks of
the nation for their noble work in teaching kindness to dumb creatures,
and preventing cruelty. No charity can lie nearer to my own heart than
the societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Mr. Angell, now seventy-three years of age,--he was born at Southbridge,
Mass., June 5, 1823,--the son of a minister, a graduate of Dartmouth
College, a successful lawyer, gave up his practice of seventeen years,
in 1868, to devote himself and his means, without pay, to humane work
all over the world. He has enlisted the highest and the lowest in behalf
of dumb animals. He has spoken before schools and conventions, before
legislatures and churches, before kings and in prisons, in behalf of
those who must patiently submit to wrong, and have no voice to plead for
themselves.
Mr. Angell helped to establish the first "American Band of Mercy;" and
now there are nearly 25,000 bands, with a membership of between one and
two million persons, all pledged "to try to be kind to all living
creatures, and try to protect them from cruel usage."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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