HISTORIC WORKS OF ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11855, 6 January 1902, Page 5

HISTORIC WORKS OF ART.

BOUGHT BY AN AMERICAN , MILLIONAIRE. By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright. London, January 3. Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the wellknown American millionaire, has paid half-a-million dollars for Raphael's Madonna and Saint Anthony of Padua.

Mr. Pierpont Morgan, besides being a millionaire, is a most interesting personality. He has been spoken cf as " magnificent in his loneliness," bvt he takes a deep interest in many other tilings besides his millions. An American paper referring •to his recent visit to San Francisco in connection with a great ecclesiastical gathering, gives another side of his character as follows:— l 'A primate in the practical business world, a money master who unites and controls vast sums, who welds great iron and steel enterprises into one huge co-operative combination, who consolidates under one control vast railroad systems, who lias a directing voice in thirty-odd of the great corporations of the country, comprising nearly every phase of enterprise; who is the head of the most powerful and widely influential bankinghouse on the continent, if not in the world. John Pierpont Morgan comes to the General Convention of the Protestant Kpiseopal Church as a simple lay delegate from St.. George's parish, New York City, of which ho lias been an active working member ever since he took up his '-residence'in New York in the early seventies. At the lcJst six conventions, covering a period of 21 years, he has been in his place as delegate and performed most valuable service on;the committees to which he has been appointed. Always a regular' attendant at the sessions of the convention, an attentive listener and taking a keen interest in the proceedings; yet his voice is seldom heard oil.the floor. When it is, whether speaking to, the question or making a committee report, there is never any doubt as to his meaning. Never taking upon himself the proper duty of the others, Lis purse ever opens to supplement their efforts, or to bridge over an emergency when the need comes. Yet, with it all, in this one field of action Mr. Morgan performs his duty and pleasure (lor such duty is to him) without seeking to dominate, as perforce of circumstance and surroundings lie does in the business world. It is the same in the vestry meetings at St. George's, where Mr. Morgan is senior warden of tins church, and where as such lie can be seen at the Sunday service passing the plate for offerings of the iralion, always adding a comparatively libera! contribution, if not the scripturally en joiner, tithe. With his pastor, . the .Rev. _W. S llainsford, who came to St. George's in 1831 when quite , a young man, Mr.; Morgan has always been on the most intimate terms 'anc given him the most hearty support and cooperation in his work for the temporal anc spiritual ' betterment of the • people. wituii reach."