to the memory of their dead son, and the means of giving to other boys and girls the training for life which they had hoped to give him.

The Leland Stanford, Jr., University was founded in 1887. The great buildings are located on the Palo Alto ranch, about half a mile from the Stanford home. In his address at the laying of the corner-stone, Mr. Stanford said, for himself and his wife: "We do not believe that there can be superfluous education. As a man cannot have too much wealth and intelligence, so he cannot be too highly educated." It is, however, an essential part of the scheme of education in the University that it shall be practical, including not only mathematical and scientific studies, but also those which lead to a thorough knowledge of business,--farming, engineering, photographing, type-writing, and book-keeping. The whole purpose of the University may be expressed by saying that it is intended to give the youth of California a practical education.

Leland Stanford, Jr., University is one of the most richly-endowed educational institutions in America. Not only does it own the immense property on which it is located, but also some 78,000 acres in other parts of the State. In addition to these enormous properties, an amount of money was given sufficient to support the institution with an endowment of some $20,000,000; and besides this, the larger part of the estate of Senator Stanford is to go to the University at the death of his wife. Claims of the United States against the Central Pacific Railroad have of late years threatened to impair the property which forms this great endowment; but it is to be hoped that nothing will be permitted to really endanger the prosperity and success of the University.

In 1887 Mr. Stanford was chosen United States Senator from California. While never distinguished as an orator or political leader, he was regarded as one of the most practical and efficient business men in the Senate. His favorite measure, which well illustrates his philanthropic intentions, was a scheme known as the "land loan," which provided for the lending by the United States of money to owners of farms and other real estate on the security of their property.

The years that he spent in Washington were years of intense toil, and in 1892 his health broke down. At the close of the session of Congress, in the spring of 1893, he returned to his Palo Alto home, convinced that he should never again leave it, and there on the 20th of June he died. It was characteristic f him that his affairs were at his death found in the most perfect order, so that no harm or shock of any sort could result to any person dependent upon him. His wife, who in all his plans of beneficence was in the closest sympathy with him, was made his executor.

GEORGE W. CHILDS,

THE GREAT PUBLISHER AND PHILANTHROPIST.

HERE are two kinds of men who are especially interesting to Americans,-successful men who have risen by their own abilities, and wealthy men who have used their wealth in doing good. Never, perhaps, was there a man who more completely combined in himself both of these characters than George W. Childs. In one respect he was almost unique, he seemed to have no enemies. This quality usually indicates weakness of character; but though Mr. Childs was one of the most amiable of men, no one ever accused him of lacking force. He had the rare faculty of accomplishing his purposes without crossing or offending others; and this quality, combined with his generosity and goodness of heart, made him one of the most universally popular men that America has ever produced.

George William Childs was born in Baltimore, Md., on May 12, 1829. His parents died when he was very young. His opportunities for intellectual development were limited, and he received but little schooling. It is said that, even as a child, he exhibited two traits seldom found in one individual—a remarkable aptitude for business, and an unusual liberality in giving away the results of his quickness. At a very early age he developed a sense of the value of time, and an inclination toward independence and self-support. In his tenth year, when school was dismissed for the summer, he took the place of errand boy in a book-store, and thus spent the vacation at work. When thirteen years of age he entered the navy as an apprentice on board the United States ship Pennsylvania. He remained in the service only fifteen months, and it is probable that during this time was laid the foundation of that disposition toward perfect order and system which always thereafter marked his own conduct and the direction of the great newspaper to which it was ordained he should attain.

When he was fifteen years old young Childs went to Philadelphia under similar circumstances to those under which another poor boy, Benjamin Franklin, once walked the streets of the Quaker City. Like Franklin, he was poor and almost friendless, and like him he was destined to make his mark in a printing.

office. He obtained employment in a book store, kept by an old Quaker named Peter Thompson, in Arch street. He did his work so well that, after a year's service, he was intrusted with the responsibility of attending the book auctions, and soon became known as the regular representative of his employer at the trade sales in New York and Boston. He worked for Mr. Thompson four years, and saved a few hundred dollars. With this, and the more valuable capital of a knowledge of his business and the good opinion of his associates, he determined to start for himself. At this time he was a quiet, studious lad, spending all his spare time in reading. He hired a small room in the building then occupied by the Public Ledger, and did so well that, before he was twentyone, the head of the old firm of R. E. Peterson & Co., publishers, sought an alliance with him, and the house of Childs & Peterson was the result.

Writing in later life of his start in the world, Mr. Childs said: "When I left home to come to Philadelphia, I overheard one of my relatives say that I would soon have enough of that, and would be coming back again. But I made up my mind that I never would go back-I would succeed. I had health, the power of applying myself, and, I suppose, a fair amount of brains. I came to Philadelphia with three dollars in my pocket. I found board and lodging for two dollars and a half, and then I got a place in a bookstore for three dollars. That gave me a surplus of fifty cents a week. I did not merely do the work that I was absolutely required to do, but I did all I could, and put my whole heart into it. I wanted my employer to feel that I was more useful to him than he expected me to be. I was not afraid to make fires, clean and sweep, and perform what