FORTUNES REFUSED.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 361, 21 February 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

FORTUNES REFUSED.

It is said that when it became known whrt the letters of th® gre Ji t Insh er, Charles Stewart Parnell, were to be published. offers to purchase them were received from all pver the world,and that one greet newspaper proprietor in the United States sent Mrs. ParocU an ©pen cheque upon which she might inown pnce. The offer was re- • f j Robert Browning constantly refused to write for the magananes and He only departed from his ing ordinance on one o«asjon and that w in aid of charity. In his later days, when Browning societies were springing up nil over Britain and America, fabulous prices were offered to him even tor a short poem- He put all thaw tempi; aside, and “stuck to his text ey when it ?s offered is evidently not the attribute of the well-to-do only, for a labourer in Pennyslrania has just refused two fortunes amounting to LM, -000. which actually await him in Wales. It seems that when Mr. Enoch B. 1. "Evans was a boy his father refused to allow him to learn dancing, and ££D erally brought him up very strictly. When be was able to shift for himself he left home, that he might kick a free leg, and. cutting himself off from his welsh wJ«tiOT« has become an American citizen and arrived at the age of fifty-two. Nevertheless. Mr. Evans is the only heir to £lO-000 left by his father and a similar amount left by an uncle. He declines to touch the money.saying that 'he can leave it in Wales for h« childron when thev grow up and he is dead. He is determined to support himself and his seven children on his earnings as a common labourer. He save. "If I have liv■ed all these years without the money. 1 can get along the rest of my days with--out it.” . _ , . , That great painter, George Frederick Watts, made up his mind pretty early in his career as a painter to paint his beat pictures for love only, and at his death to bequeath them to the nation. It is more than probable that if the nic--tures by that distinguished artist which are hung in the Tate Gaßerv were to he put up for auction at Christie's they would fetch at least £150.000. a"d it is not imorobable that they would fetch more. Even when thev were first painted picture collectors besieged the famous artist, entreating Tom to part with his splendid canvases. Ho was adamant, however. Ho made his living bv painting portraits but his imaginative pictures he would not part with at any •price. , , The immortal Turner was rust as had. Wealthv men besieged him with cheques which he would not take and his studio was littered with hundreds of paintings and water-colour sketches all of which 'he might have «old fifty limns over bed he an desired. is said of him that.be appeared on a cold, miserable morning in an inn yard when the coach was ■about to start in wh ; oh two of his friends were tn travel. They were amazed and gratified to see him. although them nlwjsnrrt wa« somewhat spoiled when they fonnd that he had come to demand the repayment, of twopence which he had lent one of them the week before. Y«t he refused at leo«t £onn. •fiflfl in his lifetime, left £140.000 to prowide a fund for the support of poor »rHsta. and his matchless pictures to the Nathmal Gallery!