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Show Old Jftasters Henry Ward Beecher By C. C. G. TT does not seem so long ago that Henry Ward A Beecher lived and died, for many men of middle mid-dle age remember his last years. Still he was born one hundred and one years ' ago June 24, 1813 and died March 8, 1887. He was one of the most remarkable men of his age. He will be better appreciated a century hence than he is now, for he was one of the most intense in-tense of men, and such men create antagonisms J which outlast their lives .here for a few years until one voice after another of his enemies grows still, and then some one picks up the tangled threads of the man's life, separates them, then weaves them into a fabric in that loom which brings out the true colors of the original so that men can estimate correctly the statue of the man in his niche of the ages. . . He began life with a vast desire to serve his " Creator. He soon decided that the way he could do that best was to si e his fellow men, and then, a little later decided that the best service serv-ice to man was to convince him that to abjure all that was evil in his nature and cultivate what was good was his best way to secure for himself happiness and peace. Hence from the first he was a temperance advocate. From the first he believed that human slavery was an unspeakable wrong, and so with a pen tipped with fire and a voice clothed In music, or in thunder, as ho willed, he began his work in early youth and never rested in hi3 high calling until, suddenly, his summons came. He was a natural orator. One of the foremost of speakers on the lecture platform, the foremost fore-most pulpit orator of his time, one of the most powerful and graceful of editorial writers. To read what he wrote, was and always will be a ' fascination, while in his church, which was al- ways crowded, audiences listened as the lover of J music listens to organ, harp and flute playing in accord. His greatest single achievement was in England. Eng-land. He went abroad for a brief rest. He reached England just when Napoleon III was urging urg-ing England to join him in interposing in behalf of the Confederacy, and when the nobility, rich manufacturers and merchants had combined against the United States in its struggle for life apainst the great rebellion. It was, too, when the efforts of the Union armies in the field seemed overmatched on every field. Charles Francis Adams, our minister to England Eng-land was facing all manner of difficulties a surly and vindicitive public opinion and s'lghts and taunts that made him feel that he was in an enemy's country. All iBeecher's patriotism " and all his fighting qualities were aroused. He volunteered to deliver a few lectures. When he stepped upon the platform to deliver his first (jf- lecture, the hall was crowded with people. He was met by hisses and cat-calls which lasted half an hour. He faced the tumult, his determination deter-mination to be heard hardening all the time, and at length he was permitted to speak. He threw no boquets at the mob before him, but told them he had often heard that true Englishmen Eng-lishmen believed in fair play, and he had been experiencing how true the saying was for the past half hour. He had often heard Englishmen boast how their country had voluntarily freed their slaves, and for half an hour he had been witnessing how , i sincere the boast had been. He had proceeded but a little way when out of the crowd a voice shouted: "Mr. Beecher, are not you the man who said the rebellion in your country would be put down in sixty days?" The instant reply was: "Yes, heretofore my country has only fought Indians, Mexicans, Trip oli pirates and Englishmen, now it is fighting Americans, I was mistaken." Then he received his first cheer from the savage sav-age crowd, and after that he had his own way except when Interrupted by cheers. His lectures on that v it were triumphs of patriotism, power and matchless eloquence. A scandal darkened his last days. Whether there was aught of truth in it, of course, is not known, but this is sure, no man was over more tempted for he swayed men and women alike as perhaps no other man In our country ever did. Had he chosen the law for his calling, and had he entered politics, he would have been the foremost man in his country after Clay and Webster Web-ster died, and before Lincoln, in his last days, made clear that his election to the presidency was no accident, but rather that before his rude cradle was rocked, It had been planned that he should be the central figure in the mightiest tragedy of modern times. Those nearest Beecher loved him most. He had none of the austerity of some of the great men of his day; none of the petty jealousies; he was ready at any moment to look a king In the face or to sit down and exchange pleasantries with a man like "Josh Billings." He had only warm blood in his views and was great enough to realize how idle it was for men in their brief walk through life t,o indulge in petty things or to minister to their own egotism. Our belief is that if the Judgment Angel met his soul at the gate and asked what of his life, the reply was "With the means at my command, I did the best I could,' and that all down the enchanted aisles the harps sounded a welcoming refrain. |