Mr. Phipps, and a source of most elevating pleasure. Mr. Carnegie's
gifts in and about Pittsburg amount already to $5,000,000; yet he is
soon to build a library for Homestead, and one each for Duquesne and the
town of Carnegie. "Such other districts as may need branch libraries,"
says Mr. Carnegie, "we ardently hope we may be able to supply; for to
provide free libraries for all the people of Pittsburg is a field which
we would fain make our own, as chief part of our life-work. I have
dropped into the plural, for there is one always with me to prompt,
encourage, suggest, discuss, and advise, and fortunately, sometimes,
when necessary, gently to criticise; whose heart is as keenly in this
work as my own, preferring it to any other as the best possible use of
surplus wealth, and without whose wise and zealous co-operation I often
feel little useful work could be done."
Mr. Carnegie has given $50,000 to Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New
York, for a histological laboratory. He is also the founder of the
magnificent Music Hall on the corner of Fifty-second Street and Seventh
Avenue, New York City. The press says his investment in the Music Hall
Company Limited equals nine-tenths of the full cost of the hall. "It was
the dearest wish of the elder Damrosch that a grand concert-hall
suitable for oratorio, choral, and symphony performances might be built
in New York. The questions of cost, endowment, etc., have been discussed
many times by his associates and successors, without definite result. It
was the liberality and public spirit of Andrew Carnegie which finally
made possible the establishment of a completely equipped home for
music."
The main hall, exquisite in its decorations of ivory white, gold, and
old rose, will seat about three thousand persons, with standing-room for
a thousand more. In the decorations 1,217 lamps are placed. Of these,
189 are in the ceiling and the walls of the stage, 339 around the boxes
and balconies, and 689 in the main ceiling. When the electric current is
turned on at night the effect is magical. The electric-light plant
consists of four dynamos, each weighing 20,000 pounds. Besides the main
hall, there are several smaller rooms for recitals, lectures, readings,
receptions, and studios.
Mr. Carnegie will need no other monument than his great libraries, the
influence of which will increase in the coming centuries.
THOMAS HOLLOWAY:
HIS SANATORIUM AND COLLEGE.
Thomas Holloway, one of England's most munificent givers, was born in
Devonport, England, Sept. 22, 1800. His father, who had been a warrant
officer in a militia regiment, had become a baker in Devonport.
Finding that he could support his several children better by managing an
inn, he removed to Penzance, and took charge of Turk's Head Inn on
Chapel Street. His son Thomas went to school at Camborne and Penzance
until he was sixteen.
He was a saving lad, for the family were obliged to be economical. He
must also have been energetic, for this quality he displayed remarkably
through life. After his father died, he and his mother and his brother
Henry opened a grocery and bakery shop in the marketplace at Penzance.
Mrs. Holloway, the mother, was the daughter of a farmer at Trelyon,
Lelant Parish, Cornwall, and knew how to help her sons make a living in
the Penzance shop.
When Thomas was twenty-eight he seems to have tired of this kind of work
or of the town, for he went to London to struggle with its millions in
making a fortune. It seemed extremely improbable that he would make
money; but if he did not make, he was too poor to lose much.
For twelve years he worked in various situations, some of the time being
"secretary to a gentleman," showing that he had improved his time while
in school to be able to hold such a position. In 1836 he had established
himself as "a merchant and foreign commercial agent" at 13 Broad Street
Buildings.
One of the men for whom Mr. Holloway, then thirty-six years old, did
business, was Felix Albinolo, an Italian from Turin, who sold leeches
and the "St. Come et St. Damien Ointment." Mr. Holloway introduced the
Italian to the doctors at St. Thomas's Hospital, who liked the ointment,
and gave testimonials in its favor.
Mr. Holloway, hoping that he could make some money out of it, prepared
an ointment somewhat similar, and announced it for sale, Oct. 15, 1837.
He stated in his advertisement in the paper that "Holloway's Family
Ointment" had received the commendation of Herbert Mayo, senior surgeon
at Middlesex Hospital, Aug. 19, 1837.
Albinolo warned the people in the same paper that the surgeon's letter
was given in connection with his ointment, the composition of which was
a secret. Whether this was true or not, the surgeon made no denial of
Mr. Holloway's statement. A year later, as Albinolo could not sell his
wares, and was in debt, he was committed to the debtors' prison, and
nothing more is known of him or his ointment.
There were various reports about the Holloway ointment, and the pills
which he soon after added to his stock. It was said that for the making
of one or both of these preparations an old German woman had confided
her knowledge to Mr. Holloway's mother, and she in turn had told her
son. Mr. Holloway as long as he lived had great faith in his medicines,
and believed they would sell if they could be brought to the notice of
the people.
Every day he took his pills and his ointment to the docks to try to
interest the captains and passengers sailing to all parts of the world.
People, as usual, were indifferent to an unknown man and unknown
medicines, and Mr. Holloway went back to his rooms day after day with
little money or success. He advertised in the press as much as he was
able, indeed, more than he was able; for he got into debt, and, like
Albinolo, was thrust into a debtors' prison on White Cross Street. He
effected a release by arranging with his creditors, whom he afterwards
paid in full, with ten per cent interest, it is said, to such as
willingly granted his release.
Mr. Holloway had married an unassuming girl, Miss Jane Driver, soon
after he came to London; and she was assisting in his daily work. Mr.
Holloway used to labor from four o'clock in the morning till ten at
night, living, with his wife, over his patent-medicine warehouse at 244
Strand. He told a friend years afterwards that the only recreation he
and his wife had during the week was to take a walk in that crowded
thoroughfare. Speaking of the great labor and anxiety in building up a
business, he said, "If I had then offered the business to any one as a
gift they would not have accepted it."
The constant advertising created a demand for the medicines. In 1842,
five years after he began to make his pills and ointment, Mr. Holloway
spent £5,000 in advertising; in 1845 he spent £10,000; in 1851, £20,000;
in 1855, £30,000; in 1864, £40,000; in 1882, £45,000, and later £50,000,
or $250,000, each year.
Mr. Holloway published directions for the use of his medicines in nearly
every known language,--Chinese, Turkish, Armenian, Arabic, and most of
the vernaculars of India. He said he "believed he had advertised in
every respectable newspaper in existence." The business had begun to pay
well evidently in 1850, about twelve years after he started it; for in
that year Mr. Holloway obtained an injunction against his brother, who
had commenced selling "Holloway's Pills and Ointment at 210 Strand."
Probably the brother thought a partnership in the bakery in their boyish
days had fitted him for a partnership in the sale of the patent
medicines.
In 1860 Mr. Holloway sent a physician to France to introduce his
preparations; but the laws not being favorable to secret remedies, not
much was accomplished. When the new Law Courts were built in London, Mr.
Holloway moved his business to 533 New Oxford Street, since renumbered
78, where he employed one hundred persons, besides the scores in his
branch offices.
"Of late years," says the Manchester _Guardian_, "his business became a
vast banking-concern, to which the selling of patent medicines was
allied; and he was understood to say some few years ago that his profits
as a dealer in money approached the enormous sum of £100,000 a year....
The ground-floor of his large establishment in Oxford Street was
occupied with clerks engaged in bookkeeping. On the first and second
floors one might gain a notion of the profits of pill-making by seeing
young women filling boxes from small hillocks of pills containing a
sufficient dose for a whole city. On the topmost floor were Mr.
Holloway's private apartments."
Later in life Mr. Holloway moved to a country home, Tittenhurst,
Sunninghill, which is about six miles from Windsor, and on the borders
of the great park of eighteen hundred acres, where he lived without any
display, and where his wife died, Sept. 25, 1871, at the age of
seventy-one.
He never had any desire for title or public prominence, and when, after
his gifts had made him known and honored, a baronetcy was suggested to
him, he would not consent to it. Mr. Holloway had worked untiringly; he
had not spent his money in extravagant living; and now, how should he
use it for the best good of his country?
The noble Earl of Shaftesbury had been giving much of his early life to
the amelioration of the insane. He had visited asylums in England, and
seen lunatics chained to their beds, living on bread and water, or shut
up in dark, filthy cells, neglected, and often abused. He ascertained
that over seventy-five per cent may be cured if treatment is given in
the first twelve months; only five per cent if given later. He was
astonished to find that no one seemed to care about these unfortunates.
He longed to see an asylum built for the insane of the middle classes.
He addressed public meetings in their behalf; and Mr. Holloway was in
one of these meetings, and listened to Lord Shaftesbury's fervent
appeal. His heart was greatly moved; and he visited Shaftesbury, and
together they conferred about the great gift which was consummated
later. It is said also that at Mr. Gladstone's breakfast-table, Mrs.
Gladstone advised with Mr. Holloway about the need of convalescent
homes.
In the year 1873 Mr. Holloway put aside nearly £300,000 ($1,500,000) for
an institution for the insane of the middle classes, such as
professional men, clerks, teachers, and governesses, as the lower
classes were quite well provided for in public asylums.
A picturesque spot was chosen for the Holloway Sanatorium,--forty acres
of ground near Virginia Water, which is six miles from Windsor, though
within the royal domains. Virginia Water is a beautiful artificial lake,
about seven miles in circumference, a mile and a half long, and
one-third of a mile wide. The lake was formed in 1746, in order to drain
the moorland, by William, Duke of Cumberland, uncle of George III. Near
by is an obelisk with this inscription: "This obelisk was raised by the
command of George II., after the battle of Culloden, in commemoration of
the services of his son William, Duke of Cumberland, the success of his
arms, and the gratitude of his father." This lake, with its adjacent
gardens, pavilions, and cascades, was the favorite summer retreat of
George IV., who built there a fishing-temple richly decorated. A royal
barge, thirty-two feet long, for the use of royalty, is stationed on the
lake.
In the midst of this attractive scenery Mr. Holloway caused his forty
acres to be laid out with tasteful flower-beds, walks, and thousands of
trees and shrubs. Occupied with his immense business, he yet had time to
watch the growth of his great benevolent project.
Mr. W. H. Crossland, who had built the fine Town Hall at Rochdale, was
chosen as the architect, and began at Virginia Water the stately and
handsome Sanatorium in the English Renaissance style of architecture, of
red brick with stone trimmings. There is a massive and lofty tower in
the centre. The interior is finished in gray marble, which is enriched
with cheerful colors and plentiful gilding. The great lecture or concert
hall, adorned with portraits of distinguished persons by Mr. Girardot
and other artists, has a very richly gilded roof. The refectory is
decorated by a series of beautiful fancy groups after Watteau, forming a
frieze.
The six hundred rooms of the building, great and small, on the four
floors, are exquisitely finished and furnished, all made as attractive
as possible, that those of both sexes who are weary and broken in mind
may have much to interest them in their long days of absence from home
and friends. Students of the National Art Training School, under Mr.
Poynter, did much of the art work. There are no blank walls.
The Holloway Sanatorium, which is five hundred feet by two hundred feet
in extent, has a model laundry in a separate building, pretty red brick
houses for the staff and those who are not obliged to sleep in the
building, a pleasure-house for rest and recreation for the inmates, and
a handsome chapel.
Four hundred or more patients can be accommodated. A moderate charge is
made for those who can afford to pay, and only those persons thought to
be curable are received. As much freedom is allowed as possible, that
the inmates may not unnecessarily feel the surveillance under which they
are obliged to live.
The Sanatorium was opened June 15, 1885, by the Prince of Wales,
accompanied by the Princess, their three daughters, and the Duke of
Cambridge. Mr. Martin Holloway, the brother-in-law of Mr. Thomas
Holloway, spoke of the uses of the Sanatorium, and the Prince of Wales
replied in a happy manner.
Many inmates were received at once, and the institution has proved a
great blessing.
To what other uses should Mr. Holloway put his large fortune? He and
Mrs. Holloway had long thought of a college for women, and after her
death he determined to build one as a memorial to her who had helped him
through all those days of poverty and self-sacrifice.
In 1875 Mr. Holloway held a conference with the blind Professor Henry
Fawcett, Member of Parliament, and his able wife, Mrs. Millicent Garrett
Fawcett, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., Mr.
David Chadwick, M.P., Dr. Hague of New York, and others interested in
the higher education of women. Mr. Holloway foresaw, with these
educators, that in the future women would seek a university education
like their brothers. "For many years," says Mr. Martin Holloway, "his
mind was dominated by the idea that if a higher form of education would
ennoble women, the sons of such mothers would be nobler men."
On May 8, 1876, Mr. Holloway purchased, and conveyed in trust to Mr.
Henry Driver Holloway and Mr. George Martin Holloway, his
brother-in-law, and Mr. David Chadwick, M.P., ninety-five acres on the
southern slope of Egham Hill, Surrey, for his college for women. It is
in the midst of most picturesque and beautiful scenery, rich in
historical associations. Egham is five miles from Windsor, near the
Thames, and on the borders of Runnymede, so called from the Saxon
Runemede, or Council Meadow, where the barons, June 15, 1215, compelled
King John to sign the Magna Charta. A building was erected to
commemorate this important event, and the table on which the charter was
signed is still preserved.
Near by is Windsor Great Park, with seven thousand fallow deer in its
eighteen hundred acres, and its noted long walk, an avenue of elms three
miles in length, extending from the gateway of George IV., the principal
entrance to Windsor Castle, to Snow Hill, crowned by a statue of George
III., by Westmacott. Not far away from Egham are lovely Virginia Water
and Staines, from Stana, the Saxon for stone, where one sees the city
boundary stone, on which is inscribed, "God preserve the city of London,
A.D. 1280." This marks the limit of jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of
London over the Thames.
After Mr. Holloway had decided to build his college, he visited the
chief cities of Europe with Mr. Martin Holloway to ascertain what was
possible about the best institutions of learning, and the latter made a
personal inspection of colleges in the United States. Mr. Holloway was
seventy-six, and too old for a long journey to America.
Plans were prepared by Mr. W. H. Crossland of London, who spent much
time in France studying the old French châteaux before he began his work
on the college. The first brick was laid Sept. 12, 1879. Mr. Holloway
wished this structure to be the best of its kind in England, if not in
the world. The _Annual Register_ says in regard to Mr. Holloway's two
great gifts, "When their efficiency or adornment was concerned, his
customary principle of economy failed to restrain him."
The college is a magnificent building in the style of the French
Renaissance, reminding one of the Louvre in Paris, of red brick with
Portland stone dressings, with much artistic sculpture.
"It covers," says a report prepared by the college authorities, "more
ground than any other college in the world, and forms a double
quadrangle, measuring 550 feet by 376 feet. The general design is that
of two long, lofty blocks running parallel to each other, and connected
in the middle and at either end by lower cross buildings.... The
quadrangles each measure about 256 feet by 182 feet. Cloisters run from
east to west on two sides of each quadrangle, with roofs whose upper
sides are constructed as terraces, the capitals being arranged as
triplets."
No pains or expense have been spared to finish and furnish this college
with every comfort, even luxury. There are over 1,000 rooms, and
accommodations for about 300 students. Each person has two rooms, one
for sleeping and one for study; and there is a sitting-room for every
six persons. The dining-hall is 100 feet long, 30 wide, and 30 high. The
semi-circular ceiling is richly ornamented. The recreation-hall, which
is in reality a picture-gallery, is 100 feet long, 30 wide, and 50 high,
with beautiful ceiling and floor of polished marquetry. The pictures
here were collected by Mr. Martin Holloway, and cost about £100,000, or
half a million dollars. Sir Edwin Landseer's famous picture, "Man
proposes, God disposes," was purchased for £6,000. It was painted in
1864 by Landseer, who received £2,500 for it. It represents an arctic
incident suggested by the finding of the relics of Sir John Franklin.
Here are "The Princes in the Tower" and "Princess Elizabeth in Prison at
St. James," by Sir John Millais; "The Babylonian Marriage Market" and
"The Suppliants," by Edwin Long; "The Railway Station," by W. P. Frith;
and other noted works. The gallery is open to the public every Thursday
afternoon, and in the summer months on Saturdays also. There are several
thousand visitors each year.
The college has twelve rooms with deadened walls for practising music, a
gymnasium, six tennis-courts (three of asphalt and three of grass), a
large swimming-bath, a lecture theatre, museum, a library with carved
oak bookcases reaching nearly to the ceiling, and an immense kitchen
which serves for a school for cookery. Electric lights and steam heat
are used throughout the buildings, and there are open fireplaces for the
students' rooms.
The chapel, 130 feet long by 30 feet wide, says the London _Graphic_ for
July 10, 1886, "is a singularly elaborate building in the Renaissance
style.... In its decoration a strong tendency to the Italian school of
the latter part of the sixteenth century is apparent. This is especially
the case with the roof, which bears a kind of resemblance to that of the
Sistine Chapel at Rome, though it cannot in any way be said to be a copy
of that magnificent work.... The choir, or nave, is seated with oak
benches arranged stall-ways, as is usual in the college chapels of
Oxford and Cambridge.... The roof is formed of an elliptic barrel-vault,
the lower portions of which are adorned with statues and candelabra in
high relief, and the upper portion by painted enrichments. The former
are a very remarkable series of works by the Italian sculpture Fucigna,
who had learned his art in the studios of Tenerani and Rauch at Rome.
These were his last works, and he did not live to complete them. The
figures represent the prophets and other personages from the Old
Testament on the left side, and apostles, evangelists, and saints from
the New Testament on the right. The baldachino is constructed of walnut
and oak, richly carved; and the organ front, at the opposite end of the
chapel, is a beautiful example of wood-carving."
The building and furnishing of the college cost £600,000, the endowment
£300,000, the pictures £100,000, making in all about one million
sterling, or five million dollars. The deed of foundation states that
"the college is founded by the advice and counsel of the founder's dear
wife." When Mrs. Holloway was toiling with her husband over the shop in
the Strand, with no recreation during the week except a walk, as he
said, in that crowded thoroughfare, how little she could have realized
that this beautiful monument would be built to her memory!
Mr. Holloway did not live to see his college completed; as he died,
after a brief illness of bronchitis, at Tittenhurst, Wednesday, Dec. 26,
1883, aged eighty-three, and was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard,
Sunninghill, Jan. 4, 1884.
Mr. Martin Holloway faithfully carried out his relative's wishes; and
when the college was ready for occupancy, it was opened by Queen
Victoria in person, on Wednesday, June 30, 1886. The day was fine; and
Egham was gayly decorated for the event with flowers, banners, and
arches. The Queen, with Princess Beatrice and her husband, the late
Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Duke of Connaught, and other members of
the royal family, drove over from Windsor through Frogmore, where Prince
Albert is buried, and Runnymede to Egham, in open carriages, each
carriage drawn by four gray horses ridden by postilions. Outriders in
scarlet preceded the procession, which was accompanied by an escort of
Life Guards.
Reaching the college at 5.30 P.M., the Queen and Princess Beatrice were
each presented with a bouquet by Miss Driver Holloway, and were
conducted to the chapel, where a throne had been prepared for her
Majesty. Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, and the Duke of
Cambridge stood on her left, with the Duke of Connaught, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and others on her right. The choir sang an ode composed
by Mr. Martin Holloway, and the Archbishop of Canterbury offered prayer.
The Queen then admired the decorations of the chapel, and proceeded to
the picture gallery, where the architect presented to her an album with
illustrations of the college, and the contractor, Mr. J. Thompson,
offered her a beautiful key of gold. The top of the stem is encircled by
two rows of diamonds; and the bow at the top is an elegant piece of
gold, enamel, and diamonds. A laurel wreath of diamonds surrounds the
words, "Opened by H. M. the Queen, June 30, 1886."
The Queen was then conducted to the upper quadrangle, where she seated
herself in a chair of state on a dais, under a canopy of crimson velvet.
A great concourse of people were gathered to witness the formal opening
of the college. The lawn was also crowded, six hundred children being
among the people. After the band of the Royal Artillery played to the
singing of the national anthem, "God save the Queen," Mr. Martin
Holloway presented an address to her Majesty in a beautiful casket of
gold. "The casket rests on four pediments, on each of which is seated a
female figure," says the London _Times_, "which are emblematical of
education, science, music, and painting. On the front panel is a view of
Royal Holloway College, on either side of which is a medallion
containing the royal and imperial monogram, V.R.I., executed in colored
enamel. Underneath the view is the monogram of the founder, Mr. Thomas
Holloway, in enamel."
At one end of the casket are the royal arms, and at the opposite end the
Holloway arms and motto, "Nil Desperandum," richly emblazoned in enamel.
The casket is surmounted by a portrait model of Mr. Holloway, seated in
a classic chair, being a reduction from the model from life taken by
Signor Fucigna.
After the address in the casket was presented to Queen Victoria, the
Earl of Kimberley, the minister in attendance, stepped forward, and
said, "I am commanded by her Majesty to declare the college open."
Trumpets were blown by the Royal Scots' Greys, cheers were given, the
archbishop pronounced the benediction, and the choir sang "Rule
Britannia." The Queen before her departure expressed her pleasure and
satisfaction in the arrangement of the institution, and commanded that
it be styled, "The Royal Holloway College."