The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-09-30


HIS PRIVATE HABITS.
[Rrom Buffalo Expressl
The great preacher never sleeps with his
clothes en-. Once. when demonstrated with
upon the singuarIty Of his conduct in this
respect and the pernicious ELECT the example
might possibly have upon the younger mem
bers fhis congregation, he replied with the
frank and open candor that has alwa,s char
acterized him, hat he would Give worlds 10 be
aDie 10 nd himself of the cuStOm-lnd added
that the anguish he had suffered IN trying
to break himself OF the habit had made him
old before he was ninety. Mr.. Beecher never
wears lis hat at dinner. He does not con-
slider il healthy. 1t does not Immediately
break down ones constitution, but is slow and
si,r,. He knows one case where a man per-
sisted in the habit in spite OF the tears and
entreaties o his friends, until 1t was too late,
and he reaped the due reward ofhis rashness
for it carried him off at last, at the age of
q hundred and six. Had that man listened to
reason, he might have lived TO be comfort
to his parents and sollce to their declining
years.
Mr.. Beecher never swears. In all his life
proiane expression has never passed mis- lips.
But il be we're to take it into his head to try
it once, he would make even that disgusting
habit seem beautiful he would handle it as it
was never banded before, aud il there was a
Wholesome moral lesson hidden away N it
anywhere, he would ferret it out ana use it
with tremendous effect. Panoplied with his
grand endowments-h ind Inent, his dis
eliminating taste, his lelicits Of expression,
his graceful ianey--if Mr.. Beecher ha a mind
to swear, be would throw into it an amount
of poetry, and pathos, and splendid ima-eiy,
and moving earnestness, and resistless energy,
topped off and climsXed with gorgeous
fiouratinn n fa0rnp aud fancy
Swearing, that would astonish and delight the
hearer aud forever after quiver Though his
bswi dered memory an exquisite c'n usiUn Of
raubows and music, and thunder and li.htn-
ing. A man of high order of intellet t and
appreciation could sit and listen to Mr.. Beech
er swear Tor a week without getting tired.
Mr.. Beecher is very regular IN his habits
He always goes to bed promptly between nine
and three O'Clock, and never upon any account
allows himself to vary frOu this rule. He is
lust as pa ticular about getting up, which be
does the next da,, generally. He considers
that to this discipline, and to his aone, he is
iudeb ed for tue rugged heath he has ENJOY
ed ever since he adopted it,
| Mr.. Beecher does not go around and Get
advertisements tor the Plymouth Pulpit. If
| he does it, it is without his knowledge or con-
| sem. If such report has been sta ted. it is
| an absolute duty to reiute it in this article
However, no such iranorl has yet been heard
OF, and therefore il is nou necessary 10 40
more than reiute it IN purely ge... d way
al this time Mr.. Deecher cDuld augmenl a,''
bulk OF the pamphlet to which his sermons
are attached il he chose to 90 around and
soiIcit advertising, but he would not dream or
doing snch thing He has no time Tor such
recreation: He has to preach, and he las to
make dedication speeches Tor all sorts of
things, AID he Is obi ged to make few re-
mIrks ON nearly all distinguished occasions.
because very often Mr.. Greeley is busy and
cannot come. And besides he has to carry
on his farm.
Mr. Be3cher's farm consists of thirty-six
acres, and is carried on on sirlet scientific
princieles. He never puts In any part of a
crop without consulting his book. He plows
and reaps and Digs and sows according to the
best authorities-and the authorities cost
more than the other farming implements do.
As soon as the library is complete the farm
viii begin to be q profitable Investment But
book farming has its drawbacks. Upon one
occasion, when it seemed morally certain that
the hay ought to be cut, the hay book could
not be found-and before il was found il was
too late and the hay was spoiled.
Mr.. Deecher raises some of the finest crops
in the country, but the unlavoTabe difference
between the cost OF producing it and its mar
ket value after it is produced has interlered
considerably with its success as a commercial
enterprise. His special weakness is hogs.
however. He considers hogs the best game
farm produces. He buys the original pic for
dollar and a half and feeds him forty dollars
worth of corn, and then sells him for about
nine dollars. This is the only crop he ever
makes any moTey on. He loses ON the corn,
but be makes seven dollars and half on the
hog. He does not mind this because he new
er expects to make anything on corn, anyway,
Andp anyway it turns out, he has the excite
ment of raising the hog any how, whether he
gets the worth OF him or not. His straWber-
ries would be comfortable success II the rob
ins would eat turnlps, but they won't and
hence the difficulty.
One OF Mr. beechers most harassing diff
cnltieS in bis farming operations Games of the
close resemblance OF different sorts of seeds
and plants to each other. Two years ago,
his far -sightedness warned him tnat there
wes going to be great scarcity OF water mel
ons, and therefore he put in crop OF twenty-
seven acres OF that Iruit But when they
came up they turned out to be pumpkins.-
Sometimes portion oil his crop goes into the
ground the most promising sweet potatoes,
and comes up the infernalest caIIots-thoueh
Ineyer have heard him express it in Just that
way. When he bought his farm, he found one
egg in every hens nest on the place. He said
that here was just the reason why so many
farmers faied-they scattered their forces too
much was the idea. So be
gathered those eggs together and PUT them
all under one experienced old hen. That hen
roasted o er that contract night and day for
eleven weeks, under the anxious personal
supervision OF Mr.. Beecher himself, but
she could not phase" those eggs
Why? Because they were those infamous
porcelain things which are used b, ingenious
aud fraudulent farmers as '.nest eggs" But
perhaps Mr.. Beechers most disastrous eXpe-
rienee was the time he tried to raise an i'm
mense crop of dried apples. He planted tit-
teen hun lred dollars worth, but never one
af them sprouted. He has never been able
TO understand, to this day, what was the mat
ter with those apples. If,
Mr.. Beecher's tarm is not triumph. Il
would be easier on him il be worked it on
shares with some one; buthe ca mot find any
body who is willing to stand half the expense,
and not many that are abe. Still, persistence
in any cause is bound TO succeed. lie was
very inferior farmer when he first began, but
prolonged and un1Inehino assault upon his
aoricultnral difficulties has had its effect at
last, aud he IS now fast rising from aflluence
| to poverty.
Mr.. Beecher has done more than anv other
man perhaos, to inspire religion with the pro-
| gressiye spirit of the nineteenth century, and
make it Keep step with the march OF intel
| leLtual achievement and the generous grow h
| of mems charities and liberal Impulses 1t Is
| such men as Beecher that persuade religious
communities to progress to something better
| than WITHDRAWING when the spirit OF the
time progresses from oX-wasons to stage
| coaches, and bye and bye 10 steamboats,; and
| who persuade such communities to progress
be,o the endorsing of slavery with their
| Bibles when the spirit OF the time progresses
| ~ tho subordination of the steamboat TO the
railroad and the discardng OF pony-expresses
i for the telegraph. He has done as much as
| apv man to keep the people from reading
| their Bibles by the interpretations of the
eighteenth century while the, were living far
along in the nineteenth, His name will live.
His deeds will honor his memory. He has
set his mark upon his epoch, and years hence,
| when the people turn over the bales and bun
dies of this generations ideas, they win find
III. W. b." steneied on good many OF them.
.re MARK TWAIN
milwaukee Boys Composition en-
hager.
LAGER Beer is made i'm Milwaukee, and this
is whv it is called Milwaukee Lager Beer
Germans drink Lager Beer, likewise Ameri-
cans, too; but it doesn't do Americans so
much good as it does Germans, who Get fat
and jolly, while the American doesn't get fat
only in the nose, and red, too, which a German
don't. Everybody don't drink lager beer
boys don't drink it because they ain't bio
enough. When they gets big enough they do
German boys do cause their pas lets 'em
and thinks il is Good for tla,, 1 4.,,l q,