Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/7

Rh materials for a life of Williamson were gathered; and then the life was written. In its original form it was a considerably larger manuscript. John Wanamaker cut it down; and parts of it he recast. Then he put it aside. It was found among his papers—the only book-length manuscript that he had written.

It is not for this reason, however, that it is being published. We feel that the life of Isaiah V. Williamson should be known to this generation. The little book is a message to young men, written by one man who had achieved success, about another man who had achieved success before he did. But neither the subject of the biography, nor its author, had any thought for success in the worldly meaning of that word. Nor did they measure their life work by the money they had accumulated and the position they had won among their fellows by reason of the power that money gave them.

Honest living, honest thinking, and a passion for service are the characteristics of Isaiah V. Williamson brought forth in this little book. The biographer's enthusiasm for and keen sympathy with the man about whom