He gave to Columbian University, it is stated, houses and lands and money, amounting to a quarter of a million dollars. The University of Virginia, the Ascension Church, and other colleges and churches, were enriched through his generosity. Mr. Corcoran died in Washington, Feb. 24, 1888, at the age of ninety years. He had given away over five million dollars. "The treasures of the Corcoran Art Gallery," said its president in laying the corner-stone of a new building two years ago, "represent a money cost of $346,938 (exclusive of donations), a cost value which, of course, is greatly below the real value which these treasures represent to-day. The total value of the gallery, in its treasures, its endowments, and its buildings, is estimated to-day at $1,926,938. The total number of visitors who have inspected the paintings and sculpture exhibited in the gallery from the date of its opening down to the beginning of this month [May, 1896] was 1,696,489." JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER AND CHICAGO UNIVERSITY. From our windows we look out upon a forest of beautiful beech-trees, great oaks, and maples. There are well-kept drives, cool ravines with tasteful walks, a pretty lake and boat-house, and great stretches of lawn, in the four hundred or more acres, such as one sees in England. The gravelled roadways are appropriately named. "Blithedale" leads into a charming valley, through which a brook winds in and out, under a dozen bridges. The "Maze" leads through clusters of beeches and other undergrowth, and opens upon a magnificent view of blue Lake Erie at the right and the busy city at the left. In the distance, on a hilltop, stands a large white frame house, with red roof. Vines clamber over the broad double porches, red trumpet-creepers twine and blossom about some of the big oaks, beds of roses send out their fragrance, and the place looks most attractive and restful. It is "Forest Hill," at Cleveland, Ohio, the summer home of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, probably the greatest giver in America. Our largest giver heretofore, so far as known, was George Peabody, who gave at his death $9,000,000. Mr. Rockefeller has given about $7,500,000 to one institution, besides several hundred thousand dollars each year for the past twenty-five years to various charities. Mr. Rockefeller comes from very honorable ancestry. The Rockefellers were an old French family in Normandy, who moved to Holland, and came to America about 1650, settling in New Jersey. Nearly a century ago, in 1803, Mr. Rockefeller's grandfather, Godfrey, married Lucy, one of the Averys of Groton, Conn., a family distinguished in the Revolutionary War, and which has since furnished to our country many able men and women.