Cats in the Mews: August 31, 1905
On August 31, 1905, The New York Times and the New-York Tribune reported that Malta, the pet Maltese cat of 89-year-old Russell Sage and his 77-year-old wife, Olivia, was missing. The cat lived with the Sages at their five-story mansion at 632 Fifth Avenue, which was next door to the Vanderbilt and Goulet mansions and directly across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral (now the site of the Rockefeller Center Channel Gardens).
According to the reports, the cat was 12 years old, and she had never before run away from home. She was a well-loved member of the family, and considered to be a faithful friend.
Russell Sage apparently enjoyed playing with Malta and her brother cat, Milo, after dinner. It was reportedly one of the very few relaxing activities the hard-working multi-millionaire allowed himself to do, even in his final years of life.
Much as been written about the successful financier, but let’s just say that everything Sage touched seemed to turn to gold. He was what some people today would call a winner.
Russell Sage’s road to success began in 1874, when he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Seeing a great future in the railroad industry, Sage purchased stocks in small western railroads; he made a fortune when the major railways purchased the small systems.
In later years, Sage served as director for many companies, including the Western Union telegraph company, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Manhattan consolidated system of elevated railroads–to name only a few. He worked out of a circa 1859 brownstone office building at 71 Broadway, and, following a dynamite explosion there, at 31 Nassau Street.
The Sages Offer a $10 Reward
Following the cat’s disappearance, Mr. and Mrs. Sage offered a $10 reward for the cat’s safe return. Many people brought cats to their residence with hopes of cashing in on the reward. Sadly, no one returned Malta. (Businessman Christian Gudebrod ran into a similar problem when his cat Snooperkatz went missing from his Broadway shop in 1894.)
When a newspaper reporter checked in on the family to see if they had any luck with the reward, Mr. Sage’s aged Irish maid spoke kindly of the pet, in a soft tone as if speaking of the dead:
Never did he stray out on back fences like common cats. He never did give us no trouble before, an’ now the fat old rascal has to go and run away. He wouldn’t ha’ followed anybody off, because he was a strange old devvil, never takin’ up wid nobody. That’s the reason we knew a fellow here tonight was tellin’ a story when he said our cat had followed him.”
Now, Russell Sage was not known for his generosity. He was reportedly mean-spirited and stingy (although many people in the financial world referred to him with some affection as Uncle Russell).
Over the course of his long life he accumulated about $70 million in cash, securities, and real estate. By 1900, he was the wealthiest man in America.
Unfortunately for the many needy charities in New York and throughout the country, he kept it all to himself. He was not a charitable man (albeit, he did once loan $125,000 to a Brooklyn church at 6% interest and another time he gave a small amount of money to a family member who was ill).
Several out-of-state newspapers blatantly quipped about his greed when reporting on the $10 reward for Malta the cat:
One newspaper noted that Malta must have been “a pretty darned slick cat for which Russell Sage would let go of $10.” Another paper stated, “Such extravagance is calculated to interfere sadly with Uncle Russell’s plan to live to be a hundred years old.”
Multiple papers picked up on an article that said the story of a $10 reward must be fake news. And a Chicago newspaper said that Mrs. Sage’s “frugal husband must realize that it would be cheaper to go out and buy an entirely new cat.”
Russell Sage died at his summer home on Long Island on July 22, 1906. Although he gave a few thousand dollars here and there to a handful of heirs (nieces and nephews), he left most of his entire fortune to his wife.
The newspapers were not kind to the millionaire. As one New Jersey paper noted, “Russell Sage knew no other god than the Golden Calf, which he worshipped religiously since boyhood. The world was not a better place for him having lived in it.”
Olivia Sage devoted a major portion of the money she inherited from her stingy husband to philanthropy. A former teacher and native of Syracuse, Mrs. Sage strongly supported education, both with program and building grants to Syracuse University and other universities. In 1907 she established the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1916 she founded Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, which is where her husband was born.
About 10 years before her death, a feature story about Mrs. Sage in the Paterson Morning Call noted the following:
During the lifetime of her husband, Mrs. Sage would sometimes say to him, ‘If I had millions at my disposal I would make many persons happy.’ Mr. Sage replied, “My dear, if you had millions at your disposal many persons would make you very unhappy.”
The kindhearted and generous Olivia Sage died on November 4, 1918, also at the age of 90. I’m sure she died at peace, knowing that she had used the millions at her disposal to make many persons happy.
