Show f MRS MACKAYS GENEROSITY GENEROS-ITY How She Befriended a Sensitive American Lady II Two years or BO ago a superior attacl e of the United States Legation in Paris related to me an incident which however I promiped not to make nee of while he was in rffice In my opinion the the time bap come when I may tell the story and if Etincelle wishes to do a nnMe pct she will publish it One pleasant evening in the Autumn pf 1879 General Gen-eral Nojes called at Mrs MaCk YEI but the lady of the house soon discovered dis-covered that the Minister wag not in bip usual very agreeable state ot mind Naturally ebe inquired the cause of bis apparent sadness whereupon he said to her II hI am sorry to appear downcast atone at-one of your charming receptions but the fact is I am greatly troubled over the case of an American lady and her daughter who are very ill for lack of food to eat and who are too proud to accept anything in the way of assistance assist-ance The mother he named her but I am not permitted to do ao is an artist who hag not been able to dispose of her pictures and my attention was called to her case by a letter received from America stating it was feared there she was starving to death I called at their apartments and the mother only consented to Bee me because be-cause of my official position The rooms they occupy are scantily furnished fur-nished aud the clothes they wear are threadbare and dirty The floor was covered with canvases which truth compels me to say are works of inferior in-ferior quality The two ladies positively posi-tively refused to accept any after of assistance No no said the mother I am an artist there are my work They will bring me money I will wait God will protect ue and we will never accept charity What could I do Mrs Noyes on several occasions fixed up some nourishing dishes home style and the doctors wife took them to the poor woman saying he bad prescribed for them But now the mother refuses to accept any more such prescriptions She has become suspicious and has ordered the physician phy-sician out of her house for insulting her I am troubled because I can do nothing for those two Indies They are of excellent family intelligent but too proud to accept assistance oi any kind whatever Mrs Mackay listened and said nothing General Noyes remarked afterward that he wondered at the timeif she hand no heart But be soon knew whether she had or not The very next day there came to the t General A private note written on delicately perfumeJ paper bearing u silver crest a band holding a dagger pointed upward and the motto Manu Forti and couched in language lan-guage as rhetoricailytine as ever any woman wrote I shall not attempt to repeat the precise words but in that note the writer told the Minister that he knew sbe bad a very large house in which several rcmo still needed decorating that ape was anxious anx-ious to secure some pictures vas determined deter-mined they should he oy Americans and greatly preferred them to be tbe work of an artist of her own sex clot being acquainted witn any soon the ventured 10 ask the admittance of the Minister who perhaps knew some such painters and she would consider it a great kindness if tbe Minister would invest the amount of the in closed check in the manner indicated That check was for many thousand francs and was signed Marie Louise Mackay It wad the wife of the millionaire miner who wrote that note Her womanly intelligence bad discovered a way by which these proud aqd starving Americans could be assisted and she acted immediately Of course General Noyes did as he was requested re-quested and when be showed the mother and the daughter Mrs Mac kays litter the former accepted it as a matter of fact and began to turnover turn-over her paintings that the Minister might make bis selection In a few d yf Dire Mackay had in her hotel in the Rue Tilsitt a lot of paintings which to say the least would never he admitted into a French salon Paris C > r Boston Herald |