Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/320

Rh some correspondence with the makers of that charter; I think I drafted a section—yes, here it is. [He read it to himself.] It isn't mine—not very clear—but" [handing back the book] good enough for your purpose, you see."

William Simon U'Ren, the lawgiver, was born January 10, 1859, at Lancaster, Wisconsin. His father is a blacksmith, and his father's seven brothers were blacksmiths; their father was a blacksmith, and their father's father, and his father, and his. As far as the family can trace from Cornwall, England, back into Holland, they see an unbroken line of blacksmiths. And preachers. Five of U'Ren's seven uncles preached and, among their ancestors, other blacksmiths preached. And William U'Ren himself is both a blacksmith and a preacher in a way; in a very essential way.

"Blacksmithing is my trade," he says. "And it has always given colour to my view of things. For example, when I was very young, I saw some of the evils in the conditions of life, and I wanted to fix them. I couldn't. There were no tools. We had tools to d o almost anything with in the shop, beautiful tools, wonderful. And so in other trades, arts and professions; in everything but government. In government, the common trade of all men and the basis of all social