get others aroused on the subject; and not meeting with the response he desired, he simply did it himself—a little later conveying to the association property on Chestnut Street above Seventh, worth $85,000 or more, and making his total subscription to the fund $100,000 at the lowest valuation. Among the managers and ardent friends of the fund in those days was Edmund A. Souder, one of Williamson's young business contemporaries when he first came to Philadelphia.
Regarding the gift of $105,000 to the House of Refuge, there are some especially interesting features. In one of the semi-official accounts of the history of that institution the date of his gift is entered as February 2, 1889, only a month before his death. But the subscription seems to have been made during the preceding year, in three payments of $35,000 each. The special occasion was the removal of certain departments of the institution from the city to the country, in order to erect new buildings and establish the "cottage" system at Glen Mills, giving the boys more freedom, and so far as possible doing away with the prison-like methods of former years. The idea
