Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-04-19

the sturdy old SHIRE OF Ork.
Collyer got all his schooling from an
odd character many of the Ikley folk still
remember, b. the name of Willie Hardie.
In those days, by favor, all cripples We're
fddlers or teachers. Willie Eardie was
both. He was about the worst cripple and
best fiddler and teacher the Ilkley district
ever knew. He had a strange squint in his
eyes. but for all that was q great marks
man with the ferule There was no use of
lodging. If you did, the ferule would find
you out and thump you all the harder.
COllyer and his young companions SWore
solemnly to thrash him when they grew TO
be men. In ISL, COllyer came back here
from America, with d friend, Ito thrash
owd Willie'' and they found him at Few
ston. teaching and humping just as they
had left him. Crossing the worn thresh-
old, they very sternly inquired:
lis this Willie Hardie!'
And if it - he answered cannily.
Glow are you getting along sir?"
Use weel enough, but l doan't know
We"
I'VE used to be your scholars, sir.
We've come TO give you back your thrash
ings."
',Noa, noa-an' We will notr' shouted
''owd Willie" At the iutruders, instinctiyely
grasping his ferule.
Then they made rush at him, telling
him who they We're and giving him great
HuSlllEp, uiltll ne purchased lIttuOul w Il
promise to play for them tune on the OLD
fiddle then and there; and he gave them
Sweet Home" until there was not Il dry
eye the little low school house.
At fourteen, Collyer was - 'prenticed' TO
''owd Jackie" Birch, the llkley village
blacksmith The lad was pretty steady.
About middling about middling!" he
will himself tell you, with a twinkle of the
old Yorkshire light in his eyes. The old,
old women OF Ilkley tell me they We're
pretty sure of the orthodoxy of any little
village fun lie had a hand in. One recalls
certain night long ago, when there had
been some ''dOings" which held until
o'clock in the morning, at which time she
overheard, from the window of her cham
Der. little conversation between the
miller and his wife. who was awaiting the
truant something after the manner of Tam
o Shanters good dame. She greeted him
with.
why, David, mon, thaa be out too later.
''Noa, noa, woman, Boab Coliyer,s yet
behind me- - he Tetorted in an injured way.
What .-Boab! Then thaa be home full
airly!"
But these were days of insatiate book
hunger for the young Yorkshire black
smith. The only industries OF likely at that
time We're "wOol-comblng and ludgerS."
Wool-combng is gone, but now, in the sum
mer time, thousands come here as ''ludg-
ers,' for rest and health-getting at llkley's
famous hydropathic institutes and springs
One of these wool-combers. John Dobson.
q farmers boy named Tom Smith, another
lad named John Hobson, and the prentice
boy Collyer, became friends, and formed
\ COMPACT ABOUT BOOKS,
reading ana study. MOrning. noon, night
and SUNDAYS. they s.took turns" reading
aloud. exchanging ideas and aspirations,
and thus grew into possession of noble self
reliant manhood The wave of WESLEYAN
ism was still strong over the northern
moors a local preacher named Bland, now
in Canada, preached a sermon one Sabbath
which took q wondrous hold on the Young
blacksmith. though no '.revival'' was in
progress: and, lat last the light came. =
The Methodists took him ..on probation
and put him in .:old jim Delye's' class. A
few nights after. Delye was absent; and, as
Coilyer has often told me, up spoke Tom
Smith from, across the room; :Naa. lad
thaa nun lead t'class. t'night thaa can do
it if thaa tries, So he took hold and led
In little while they made him a local
preacher. His first sermon was a great
event in the district. 1t was preached at
Addingham, little hamlet three miles up
the Wharfe from Ilkley
"Oh, l thought | had a capital sermon
thought" Mr. Collyer once said to me-
1T was in three parts each, of course, es-
sential to the others. They didn't allow a
fellow paper in those DAYS. either Their
curious eyes were all wide open: and
thought | had done splendidlv. But half
way back TO flkley, I suddenly remembered
l had left the secondly out entirely. l
was quite overwhelmed about it. But the
Joke of it all was that had bodily stole j,
nv secondly from a fine sermon preached
by a good PRESBYTERIAN brother named
McCnine. | felt the weight of that iudg-
ment on me so heavily that have never
stolen sermon since,''
Then they must hear him at Ilkley. All
the boys and girls were there: and the
young blacksmith thought he had made a