382 ikfnas of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, an& Gun 



lacking, and it is not surprising that John Younger's 

 literary first-born died at its birth. Not a score of copies 

 were sold, and John's disappointment was deep. Six 

 years later, however, he had more success with his next 

 literary venture, an article on "River Angling," which 

 appeared in BlackwoocTs Magazine, and was subsequently 

 published with additions in book form, bringing John 

 30 in hard cash, and, what he perhaps valued more, a 

 wide and high reputation among anglers. 



But it was in 1847 that the greatest event in John's 

 life happened to him. There was at that time a notable 

 Scottish philanthropist John Henderson, of Park, in 

 Renfrewshire who annually devoted a large part of 

 his immense fortune, sometimes as much as 40,000 

 in a single year, to the furtherance of religious and 

 charitable schemes. Amongst his hobbies was the 

 strict maintenance of the Scottish Sabbath as a day of 

 entire cessation from labour. His zeal in promoting 

 this object was extraordinary. On one occasion he 

 spent upwards of 4,000 in sending copies of a 

 Sabbatarian publication to all the railway servants in 

 the kingdom, in the hope of convincing them of the 

 sinfulness of Sabbath labour. He invested largely, too, 

 in the stock of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, 

 and distributed the shares among friends whom he could 

 trust to oppose railway travelling on Sunday. In 1847 

 he offered three prizes for the best essays on " The 

 Temporal Advantage of the Sabbath to the Labouring 

 Classes." John Younger was urged by his friends and 

 neighbours, who had by this time formed a high opinion 

 of his literary powers, to compete for the prize. But he 



