p. 11 | A WOMAN OF MILLIONS by Anna Steese Richardson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 3, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 14.

A WOMAN OF MILLIONS.

By Anna Steese Richardson

One Hundred Clothes-Presses for One Woman.

[Anna Steese Richardson, in Woman's Home Companion for March.]

ONE clear, crisp autumn day I was sent in the capacity of a reporter to interview Mrs. Clarence H. Mackay at her magnificent country home, near Roslyn, Long Island. As I followed my guide through Mrs. Mackay's suite to the morning room, in which she does much of her literary work and plans her campaigns in the interest of education, we walked the length of a broad corridor—about sixty feet, I should imagine—walled with tapestry and inset with great mirrors.

When the interview was concluded, and I again walked through the corridor, the mirrors had opened on springs, to disclose clothes-press after clothes-press fitted with padded hangers and with myriad drawers for blouses, wraps, hats, lingerie, etc. Evidently the maids had taken advantage of the fine day to air furs and other heavy raiment in which moths might take lodgment.

One hundred and twenty feet of deep clothes-presses filled with exquisite raiment, and for one woman! Think of what that represented in expenditures, dear little homemaker, who must keep two small closets filled for yourself and daughter on a household and dress allowance of twenty-five a week! Yet Mrs. Mackay is not a notoriously extravagant dresser, but ranks among the women who are perfectly groomed, and gowned in admirable taste.