Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-11-01
SELECT.
WILLIAM PENN.
His Life, Fortune and Dealt Z.

From leading English weekly mag
azine. Sunday at Home, published by
the Religious Tract Society, is condens
ed the following biography:
William Penn stands out as one O.
the great characters in the history o.
England. He occupies more special
and consicuous position in the history
of the United States, being the founder
of the Colony of Pennsylvania, which
has acquired the title of the keystone
State" of the vast Federal Union.
Lord Macaulay, whose groundless pref
udice against Penn is well known, rs a
historian SAYS, "Rival nations and hos
tile sects have agreed in canonizing
him. England is proud of his name.
A great Commonwealth beyond the
Atlantic regards him with reverence
similar to that which the Athenians
felt for Theseus and the Romans for
Quirnius. The respectable Society of
which he was member honors him as
an apostle His name has become,
throughout all civilized countries, a
synonyme for probity and philanthro-
py."
The retrospect OF his life, like that
of other good and useful men, shows
that God used him and prepared him
in a remarkable manner as a means of
blessing to his fellow-creatures and as
may also be-observed in such instances,
the Divine Providence wrought in his
case through the instrumentality of hu-
man means and natural laws He was
born in 1864, on Tower Hill. London,
where so many other illustrious men
and women have looked their last upon
this world with the headsman's axe
shining bright beside them. His par
ents were young, energetic and talent
ed; his father, afterward Admiral Sir
William Penn, being one of the greatest
sea captains of the age-taking place
among the brakes, Frobishers, How
ards and others who first raised the
British navy to a commanding position
on the oceans of the world His moth
er was pretty and intelligent Dutch
girl-Margaret Jasper-the daughter
of rich Rotterdam merchant. Thus
the union of British energy and Dutch
shrewdness which surrounded Penn's
childhood contributed some appropriate
elementstoward the foundation of that
broad, statesmanlike mind which distin-
guished the founder of Pennsylvania.
At Chigwell, a few miles from Lon
| don and on the outskirts of Epping
Forest, Penn's school-days began in
the picturesque, low-roofed, ivy-cover-
ed grammar school founded in 1929 by
the excellent Archbishop Horsnet, who
concluded his inscriptions on the foun-
dation in the words, II charge my
sehoolmasters, as they will answer it
to God, that they bring up their schol-
ars in the fear of God and reverence to-
ward men," 1t is somewhat a matter
of surprise that not one of Penn's nu-
merous bographers, neither Clarkson
nor Hepworth Dixon, nor even Janney,
! (the American writer of the most COM
plete life of him, appear to be convers-
pnt with, or at least to have noticed,
the excellent arrangement for securing
both the piety and the condition of the
Chigwell scholars which must so de-
cidedly have influenced the open-heart-
ed. bright t-minded boy of tender con-
science. 1t was at Oxford, however,
whittier he went at the age of fifteen,
that the strong religious bent was CIV
en- to his character which lasted his
lifelong. At first his stay at the uni
versity was marked by the esteem of
all around him for his proficiency in
classical studies and in manly sports
and exercises. But an humble individ-
uaI in the town. Quaker named Thom-
as Loe, now presented himself to the
notice of Penn and other students, and
by fervent exhortations to a life ofspir-
itual religion succeeded in giving sew
eral of them distaste for some of the
arrangements ordained by the uniyer-
sity authorities Not only did young
Penn and some companions now with
draw themselves from the services of
the college chapel, but when an order
came down from the King prescribing
the wearing of surplices by all the stu
dents, these enthusiastic young men
not only refused to obey the mandate
themselves but set violently upon some
of the collegans and tore their surplices
from their shoulders. Such proceed
ing could not, of course, be justified,
and it resulted in painful consequences,
especially to William Penn, who was
expelled from the university. His
father, greatly incensed against him,
actually beat him and turned him out
of doors but, at the intercession of
Lady Penn. the Admiral relented and
tried gentler means to bring about his
reform"
He was sent on the Continent for a
while, and served few weeks at sea
with his father in the then war against
the Dutch This change of life had
for time the desired effect, but during
the Great Plague the awful ravages of
the disease and the widely ditfused
sense of danger again aroused in his
mind deep and serious impressions OF
the Importance of eternal things. Ad-
miral Penn, seeing the increased sobri-
ETY. of his sons mind, sent him to Ire
land, then Lord Lieutenant, the Duke
of Osmonde, being personal friend
and willing to advance the interests of
the Young man thus favorably COM
mended to his care. He greatly dis
tinguished himself, shortly after his
arrival, in assisting to suppress for
midable mutiny at Carrickfergus, was
recommends for promotion, and brill
liant military career seemed to be open
before him. 1t is a curious circum-
stance that the only authentic portrait
of him is one taken at this period Of
his life, when, at his own desire, he
was depicted by the artist as clad in a
comprete suit of mail. His fine and
pleasant features, expressive eyes and
mouth, long, curling locks, parted in