his
age."

IV.

PUBLISHERS.

CHAPTER XXI.

JAMES HARPER.

Some years ago a gentleman having business with the great house of
Harper & Brothers asked one of the employes of that establishment,
"Which one is Harper, and which are the brothers?" He was answered,
"Either one is Harper, and all the rest are the brothers." This reply
fully sets forth the difficulty which must be experienced by any one
attempting to write the story of the life of either member of this
house. In such an undertaking it is very difficult to select "Harper,"
and impossible to pass by the "Brothers." The interests of each were so
thoroughly in harmony with those of all the others, and there was such
perfect unanimity of sentiment existing between them with regard to
their private as well as their public affairs, that it is hardly
possible to separate them. Since, however, it is not consistent with the
design of this work to relate the history of the "house," it is the
purpose of the writer to select the eldest of the brothers as the
representative of the group, and to offer him to the reader as a type of
the American publisher.

The grandfather of JAMES HARPER came to this country from England about
the year 1740, and was one of the first of the American Methodists. His
son Joseph was born in 1766. He married Elizabeth Kollyer, and settled
at Newtown, on Long Island, as a farmer. It was here that James, their
eldest child, was born, on the 13th of April, 1795. He grew up with a
vigorous constitution, and the pure influences of his home, together
with the sound religious training which he received from his parents,
laid the foundation of those simple and steady habits for which he was
noted through life. In the winter he attended the district school, and
in the summer he worked on his father's farm. Thus his life passed away
quietly and healthfully until he had completed his fifteenth year.

It now became necessary for him to make some choice of a profession in
life, and when the matter was presented to him he promptly decided to
become a printer. His father cheerfully seconded his wishes, and he was
accordingly apprenticed to a printer in New York. On the morning of his
departure from home, when the family assembled for "prayers," his
mother, who was a woman of superior character, took the father's place
and led the worship. With trembling tones she commended her boy to the
love and protection of the Saviour, and when the m