The Evening Telegraph

A NOBLE CHARITY.

MR. W. W. CORCORAN has supplemented his handsome donation of pictures for the formation of a national art gallery at Washington by an act of munificent charity which is even more praiseworthy. He has established a "Home for Indigent Widows," to be dedicated to the memory of his deceased wife, which, with the buildings and grounds connected with them, will cost $200,000 or more. It is designed to provide neat and comfortable quarters for sixty widows of officers, clerks, and other public servants, who may be in need of assistance, and the management of the institution is to be placed in the hands of five Washington ladies. Mr. Corcoran's long residence at the national capital has impressed upon him the necessity of just such a charity, and the class of persons whom he proposes to relieve are, as a rule, eminently worthy. Many officers of the Government who have served the public faithfully for a long series of years on small salaries leave their families in absolute want, and this "Home" will be a grateful retreat for women who in their old age find themselves suddenly left destitute and unable to work, even if work is obtainable. Mr. Corcoran during the Rebellion was well known as a Rebel sympathizer, but charity covers a multitude of sins, and, in view of such a noble use of his great wealth, we can afford to forget the past.