ing, more reticent,
more inclined to find the full joy of life only among intimates. He
became a patron of art and music, and himself an amateur in singing. He
built Mendelssohn Hall, in New York, for the use of a musical
organization to which he belonged. Of books he was not only a lover, but
a student, devoted to the classics, and well versed in modern
languages. In the village of Cooperstown he was known as a bookworm. He
enjoyed walking about his own grounds, but hardly ever went into the
village, and there were many residents of Cooperstown who had never seen
his face. The proprietor of the corner book store in his day remarked
that he had never but once seen Alfred Corning Clark in the village
street, and this was when he had an errand at the book store to make an
inquiry concerning a newly published volume.

In the use of his great fortune Clark was extremely liberal in charities
and toward such other objects as commended themselves to his judgment;
while he was correspondingly powerful in opposition to whatever involved
a principle with which he disagreed.

Mrs. Clark, who was Elizabeth Scriven, was a woman of exceptional gifts
of mind and benignance of character, well qualified to assume the
responsibilities which fell upon her when Alfred Corning Clark died, at
the age of fifty-three years, in 1896. With cultivated tastes, she had
also a practical talent for business, and, although well served by
agents in the management of her large interests, was always thoroughly
informed and full of initiative. In New York, among men of affairs, she
was regarded as one of the most far-seeing judges of real estate values
in the city. In the management of her domestic and other concerns she
had an extraordinary faculty for administration, which failed of
attaining genius only through the effort which she put forth to give
personal attention to details. This amiable weakness nevertheless added
the interest of her personality to undertakings that might have failed
for the lack of such a spirit as hers; and in her many charities the
personal touch which she took the trouble to give added infinitely to
the happiness and self-respect of those to whom her kindness, as in
neighborly thoughtfulness, was extended.

In Cooperstown Mrs. Clark became an arbiter of the social and moral
virtues, and the things that she frowned upon were usually not done. She
had a wholesome influence in resisting certain excesses which not seldom
appea