VOL. II.

HEREDITY OF R. W. GILDER. Richard Watson Gilder was born at Bordentown, N. J., February 8, 1844. At 19 years he induced his mother to let him go to war and, as artilleryman, he saw some fighting near Gettysburg. After a trial year at the law and another as paymaster of a small railroad he became a reporter on the "Newark Advertiser" and later its managing editor. With a friend he started another Newark daily, which

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soon suspended, while he was also carrying the editorship of "Hours at Home," absorbed (1870) by Scribner's Magazine," of which he now became managing editor. In 1881 he became editor-in-chief of the Century" magazine and continued such until his death. He published 10 volumes of his own poetry-" flawless poems," Stedman called them, "by a poet of exquisite feeling." In New York City he was active in social and political matters; first president of the kindergarten association, secretary of the Washington Memorial Arch Association, member of the tenement house commission, and a leader in civil service reform and international copyright. He died of vascular breakdown, November 18, 1909, as did his sister Jeanette, when she was 66 years of age.

NO. 1.

An interest in public service and capacity for putting things through

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is found in other members of the family. The father organized a woman's college at Flushing, N. Y., and a school at Bordentown; the father's father was one of the most useful citizens Philadelphia ever had," a legislator and chairman of the building committee of Girard College. Brother Joseph helped raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and organized the University Settlement Society of New York. R. W. Gilder was a reformer, and, like all successful reformers, was something of a fighter. In his brief military career his daring and courage awakened admiration. He had a marked hyperkinetic tendency from the maternal side.

Physically Gilder was slender and of refined appearance, so that he was caricatured as a "tender appleblossom"; this refinement of feature was seen in his father's mother, who brought in with her Huguenot blood also dark eyes. His delicious humor, romantic hospitality and camaraderie enlarged his circle of acquaintances and promoted his efforts toward so

cial reform.

Rosamond Gilder. Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. Boston and N. Y.: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 515 pp.