Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1869-09-01
Personal Gossip---lhe Responsibility

Miss Catherine Beecher has addressed
sort Of circular letter to the conductors Of the
public press denying number of stories, con-
uuuany repeated in the newspapers. about
members of her family. She says the old and
oft repeated tale that her father, DIR. Lyman
Beecher, went through with the usual devo-
tional and preaching services ON a certain
stormy Sabbath mornag when only man was
present, who was converted is not true Nor
is the story of the same gentemans abrupt
courtship true; nor that a brother Of hers,
at his sons ordination, charged him not to
forget that he was the grandson Of his grand
father, the son of his father, the nephew of
his unce-which foolish speech was made
by another person. Nor did Henry Ward
tain proiane expression touching the heat OF
the weather, Nor has Mrs Stowe lost her
country home in Florida for want Of good
title, nor had her orange crop blasted, nor
has she come to the conclusion that the negro
character is utterly worthless. She also de-
tends herself aud sisters from the charge Of
being poor housokeepers-they are irst-ratt
housekeepers as their mother and certain
prim aud excellent aunt were before them.
Commenting on her letter, the LiJera
Christian well says
a" The demand for personal gossip on the part
D OF the public is enormous, and is constantly in.
4 croasing. The appetite has grown with what il
has fed upon, and OF late years has had plenty t,
= feed upon, not only in papers, but in books ant
: sermons also. Mrs. stowe and her brother min.
stered to i. nota little in the life of their reycr
o end father. book which opens up one American
@ home q tie glze ui the public in q way that car
hardly be rec1nciled with nice dclicacy, 10 50,
the least, " The Minister'S Wooingn catered {,
?, the same morbid appetite 10y its recital of Incl
dents IN which lnct and fancy play hide-and-gO
y seek with each other about the person and IN,
e Of the venerable DR.. Hopkins. Henry Ware
lieecher constantly enliyens ms sermons with per
" sonnl incidents and "reminiscences, turning hi,
Y life upside down and inside out for the entertain
ment OF the people, who care much more for th,
Incident than the idea, and forget the Gngpe in
G the gossip with which IL is tricked cut Indeed
It is thought by not few, that if he saw, and
heard, and felt, and experienced in his boyhon,
what he has described at different times his ymtl
MI was the most wonderful Of which there is an,
itNplut luz htWNtfs OF tine ltetntr nmilN have
Il done their full share 10 create the present morbit
desire for gossip and personalities, and ought moi
20 complain Oyer-much il the viper they hay,
g helped 70 feed, tries his tooth upon them
a Ii is a coincidence not a little singular thai
Z about the same time that Miss Beecher wa,
Il writing the letter first alluded to, her sister
Is Mrs Stowe, was furnishing to the Atlantis
d Monthly the GROWING sensation Of the day
l. being the most improbable aud sanderou
Is charges against man who was sinful enough
i doubtless, but not beasty, and a woman
n against whose good name no word Of accuse
n ton was ever breathed--both now in tbei
graves The morbid imaginings of woman
lie said to have been vain and violent in he
4 youth, and monomaniac in her old age, ar,
l. given to the world for veritable facts by oul
'r best-known female writer's so that while tn,
a. press of the country willingly gives in on,
lie column Catherine Beechers denial of il,
: various petty ISLANDERS on her family, it /,
Z obliged to condemn, as it does emphaticaly
A and almost unanimously, Mrs Stoves ggan.
g. tic Islander on Lord Byron and his sister.