Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/92

74 regular calling place for those interested in various charities."

This quotation should doubtless be taken with several grains of salt. How could General Chamberlain fairly assume to know what no one knew, but the man himself, as to his dedication of himself, not in public, a score of years before that visit to solicit for the University Hospital? Other assertions have been made that Williamson gave grudgingly, particularly at that period; but hesitation for careful examination is not the same as disinclination. One of the editorials in the Philadelphia papers at the time of his death declared that "he was seldom a voluntary and never a cheerful giver"; that "he was never a leader, and often not even a follower, in the movements of the progressive or the philanthropic"; and that if it had not been for "the ceaseless and wisely directed efforts of sincere philanthropists who cultivated his friendship and confidence, the Williamson School would never have been founded."

This is painfully untrue.

If ifit [sic] could be proved that Mr. Williamson never gave anything spontaneously and