[Magdalen] church organs.... and a famous benefactor

[Marion Thompson]

Always interesting.  Montreal has one of his librraries.  Imagine if 
Trump were cut from the same cloth.

Marion, a pilgrim

On 11/25/2016 8:21 PM, Lynn Ronkainen wrote:
> (from today's "Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor:
>
> It's the birthday of American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew 
> Carnegie, born in Dunfermline, Scotland (1835), the son of a weaver 
> and political radical. His father instilled in young Andrew the values 
> of political and economic equality, but his family's poverty taught 
> Carnegie a different lesson. At the age of 12, the boy worked as a 
> milkhand for $1.20 per week. When the Carnegies immigrated to America 
> in 1848, Carnegie was determined to find prosperity. One of the 
> pioneers of industry of 19th-century America, Andrew Carnegie helped 
> build the American steel industry, which turned him into one of the 
> richest entrepreneurs of his age.
>
> In 1868, at age 33, Carnegie wrote himself a memo in which he 
> questioned his chosen career, a life of business. He kept the letter 
> for his entire life, carefully preserving it in his files. In the 
> memo, he vowed to retire from business within two years, believing 
> that the further pursuit of wealth would degrade him. Carnegie 
> eventually sold his steel business and gave his fortune away to 
> cultural, educational, and scientific institutions for the improvement 
> of mankind.
>
> Over the course of his life, Andrew Carnegie endowed 2,811 libraries 
> and many charitable foundations as well as the internationally famous 
> Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also bought 7,689 
> organs for churches. The purpose of the latter gift was, in Carnegie's 
> words, "To lessen the pain of the sermons."
>
>
> website: www.ichthysdesigns.com
>
> When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have 
> not a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You 
> gave me." attributed to Erma Bombeck
> "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a 
> talk by Richard Rohr
>