The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-03-07
BEEEHEE AS 4 MIMIC.
PantoEatsnic Efforts that Made the P,Ymouth
Congregation Langh.
From the New York 1Sun.l


MI Beecher preached last evening upon
die difficulty OF acquiring correct religious
habits, aud the comparative ease Of main
tanning them. MANY look>upon religion"
he sai4 las an insurance. policy against
final less by fire" He described that kind
of reli gion so funnlly that the congregation
laughed outright. They go to CHURCH ev.
cry Sunday" he said, pulling his coat close
around him, drawing his face down dolor.
ousy, and rolling up his eyes. THE hymns
are dofed out to them, good, sound, dry ser.
mon. ID preached to them, and the most eip
quent passage of all is their going cut. They
attend prayer-meetings, toO-most dismal
prayer meetings" Here his lower jaw drop
ped, raore Of the whites cii his eyes showed
and his hands were claspcd before hin
''These are some comfortable thin gsin Green.
wood, but none in one Of these prayer meet
ings. They go through the exercises solemn.
ly, and the brethren try % say something
1hey sio say the same thing they have been
saying twenty years. Then the services are
mereSlessly cut short, aad they go gloonhy
nome"
/ After describing true religion as something
iindcpe ndent OF forms and caaohisms. Mr..
Beeehcr illustrated the process of its practl.
cal requirement. He held an invisible fd.
die, lingering the stlings wfah one hand,
drawing the bow with the other, and adjust
ing the imaginary instrument ander his chin,
while be said:
Have you eyer seen boy trying to learn
to fiddle | don't wonder lhey CALI those
strings catgut should say that the spirits
of all the dead old cats were IN theE0. But
when the boy masters it" stopping short,
he commenced to fiddle gracefully, like .
good vioinlst. Then he showed how q man
learns to set type, tbs desk furnished the case
from which he slowly and awkwardly carried
the letters to supposltiOus composing,
stick, spelling out audibly s-had. When the
congregation had stopped laughing, he gave
the rapid motion Of the same man after his
tion," he said, although you mi ght not think
it, was drilled in gestures" He made the
prescribed gestures, and struck attitudes
in awkward but rapid succession, and then
did them gracefully, in the style of speaker
to whom they had become habiiual and un
strained. When. we try to be graceful" he
said, 1--WE can't bs. All those things come by
long and persistent usage, and then without
thought In the country where board SIX
inches wide is laid in the mud, man will
walk it without effort and never step off v
Taking his place at one side of the platform
he walked easily III an exact line to The other
lSINAN, Win lis HdnuS III MS poNhN'1
and his eyes wandering carelessly
Nov" he went on, put that beard ut
height of fifteen feet, and not one man In a
dozen can walk the length of it without fall
off" Taking his position as before, he fixed
his eyes in front of him as though on the Gle
waited board, looked scared and commenced
the imaginary passage. Wavering and bal
lancing, with his arms extended, he with
difficulty got half way across, and then stun.
bled as though falling. The people laughed
out loud at the deliberately perfect pantcm
inc.
/ The greatest hit, however, was the droll
mimicry of miser, who resolved upon re
form and began by releasing mortgage on o
poor mans farm. The counterfeit severity OF
the miser in demanding the payment the
fright of the debtor, the blandness of the mi
ser IN presenting the cancelled document
and the joyous antics of the debtors wife and
lchildren, were all produced with the skill OF
la trained comedian. Finally, when Mr.
Beecher as the reformed miser, with benev
olent smile on his face, mounted his horse
and rode offending his parted knees and
waying his body in exact imitation OF a rider
and cutting behind with an imaginary whiT
,l-everybody laughed until the tears came.