A GREAT CATHEDRAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 92, 8 June 1911, Page 3

A GREAT CATHEDRAL.

America's groat episcopal cathedral, the first worthy of the name, is being .slowly completed. The building was begun twenty years ago, and within thirty years more the entire edifice,, dedicated to St. John the Divine, promises-to bo to Mew York what St. thud's is to London. In a sense, also, it will ho America’s Westminster Abbey, because . here many of her- illustrious dead will be buried. America's great metropolitan cathedral, like the basilica of the Sacred Heart at Montmartre, Paris, is set imon the city heights, in protest ,as it were, against that spirit of irreligi.m, materialism, and dollardom which here, as elsewhere, is often described as the loading characteristic of the age. Already £BOO,'OOO has boon spent on the cathedral, and £3,500,000 more is required. St. John’s hopes to rank lifth amongst the cathedrals of tiro world in point of size. In the construction of the cathedral Gothic architecture predominates, with groined roofing, and the spire, when erected, will bo about fifty feet higher than the cross of St. Paul’s. Adopting the New York skyscraper standard, the measurement of tiio spire will bo forty storeys high. l ' The interior of the central area'depends upon one single great dominating feature-, for effect —that of -.a- large- con Hal space, grandly domed;lantl loading'up to the long, distant'vistas-'of the altar and choir-loft. ;Tho orgim is -a remarkably line instrument,- and has cost £13,000. Am.ei'icaiis,! taken individually, arc not: accustomed to subscribe so liberally to: church and charity as Europeans, and in the case of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, tiie American millionaires, as usual, have so far borne the chief burden of the financial cost, in this connection it is pointed out that men like Messrs llockcfcllcr, Carnegie, Iherpont Morgan, and a score of others could pay the entire cost of the cathedral and still remain rich, and it is hecanse America has so many very wealthy and well-dis-posed, generous’ citizens that the rank and lila of the population, who fil'd the cost of living very high, and are doubtful 1 whether reciprocity with Canada will make it much cheaper, ref rah) generally from subscribing. It is understood that Mr Pierpont Morgan lias .given the cathedra! £ UK),()()(), besides, other gifts,, and the same philanthropist,; with other wealthy Episcopalians, has assured the trustees of conti ibutious sulhcicnt to allow’ the work to ho- prosecuted vigorously. Mr and Mrs Levi Morion have given upwards of £!5(1.000; Mr John Jacob Astor, Mr William Aotor, Mr Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mr WJlis Janies, and the Trinity Church Corporation of Now York are each credited with L£(). (!(}(). Then there rave been .several large legacies and other big individual donations.