ough to
go and hear Robert Collyer speak on "Why I Am a Unitarian."

After the address Mr. Oliver said to Mr. Collyer, "Almost thou
persuadest me to be a Unitarian."

"Had you taken to the pulpit, you would have made a great preacher, Mr.
Oliver," said Mr. Collyer. "And if you had stuck to your bellows and
forge, you might have been a great plow-maker," replied Mr. Oliver--"and
it's lucky for me you didn't."

"Which is no pleasantry," replied Mr. Collyer, "for if I had made plows
I should, like you, have made only the best."

The Oliver Exhibit at the great Fair was a kind of meeting-place for a
group of such choice spirits as Philip D. Armour, Sam Allerton, Clark E.
Carr and Joseph Medill; and then David Swing, Robert Collyer, Doctor
Frank Gunsaulus and 'Gene Field were added to the coterie. 'Gene Field's
column of "Sharps and Flats" used to get the benefit of the persiflage.

Collyer and Oliver were born the same year--Eighteen Hundred
Twenty-three. Both had the same magnificent health, the same high hope
and courage that never falters, and either would have succeeded in
anything into which he might have turned his energies.

Chance made Oliver a mechanic and an inventor. He evolved the
industrial side of his nature. Chance also lifted Collyer out of a
blacksmith-shop and tossed him into the pulpit.

Collyer was born in Yorkshire, but his ancestors were Scotch. Oliver's
mother's name was Irving, and the Irvings appear in the Collyer
pedigree, tracing to Edward Irving, that strong and earnest preacher who
played such a part in influencing Tammas the Titan, of Ecclefechan.
Whether Oliver and Collyer ever followed up their spiritual relationship
to see whether it was a blood-tie, I do not know: probably not, since
both, like all superbly strong men, have a beautiful indifference to
climbing genealogical trees.

I once heard Robert Collyer speak in a sermon of James Oliver as "a
transplanted thistle evolved into a beautiful flower," and "the man of
many manly virtues."

Seemingly Mr. Collyer was unconscious of the fact that, in describing
Mr. Oliver, he was picturing himself. Industry, economy, the love of
fresh air, the enjoyment of the early morning, the hatred of laziness,
shiftlessness, sharp practise and all that savors of graft, grab and
get-by-any-means--these characteristics were strong in both. And surely
Robert Collyer was right: if the world ever produces a race of noble
men, that race will be founde