Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1874 — Robert Collyer’s Anvil. [ARTICLE]

Robert Collyer’s Anvil.

Once upon a time a gentleman drew up his horse near a smithy in a Yorkshire village. On entering it he hardly arrested the attention of a boy who seemed to be absorbed in the work of blowing the bellows. Closer observation revealed the presence of a book—its pages kept open by two bits of ironplaced on a shelf near the lad’s head. Each time he brought down the bellows or released it he seemed to catch a sentence from the book. A generation passed away. The little pillage had grown to be a brilliant town, houses had made way beore fine mansions, and the smithy in which the above incident was observed was drawing near to its disappearance. But before that day arrived another gentleman appeared at the door, and inspected with some interest an anvil standing in the center of the shop. “How long has that anvil been here?” he asked of the blacksmith. “Why,” said the workman, “it must have been thirty or forty years. ” * “Well,” said the gentleman, “I will give you twice as much for that anvil as will buy you a new one.” “ Certainly,” replied the puzzled smith; “ but I would like to know what you want with this anvil.” “ I will tell you. There was formerly an apprentice ’in this shop who used to work on it. That boy has now become a great man. Thousands love and honor him as a friend and a teacher, and I wish to carry back this anvil as a memorial of the humble beginning of bis life.”— Harper's Magazine.