The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-07-21
Our New York Letter.
Tilton's coming Pronuncimento--AnH u-
dietyneH Mt of the Sensntional Order-Th
eOmoIaints in regard TO the Plymouth
Church Observation-Disclosures prOba-

TItt0n's coming PrcnuncImentO-An lu-
dietrzneHt of the sensntional Order-Th
como Iaints in regard TO the Plymouth
Church investi -fseecher's Proba-
bic course.
New YORK, July Is, 1874.
There is very little room for doubt that the
forthcoming pronuncamento of Tiltop, which
he is understood to be preparing with. great
elaboration, and which is promised on Monday
evening, will be exceedingly defamatory of Mr..
Beecher. Tilton evidently begins to realize
what desperate position he has placed him-
self in, and the sense of it is very likely to goad
him to madness. The length of time he is taxi
ing to compose his narrative is not calculat
to prepossess one in favor of its straightfor-
wardness and simplicity. 1t will undoubtedly
be woven with careful eye to startling situa-
lions and dramatic effect. But Mr.. Beecher's
friends entertain no apprehension that it will
contain any statements susceptible Of proof
which will sully his fair fame. Allegations,
whether wholly unsupported or bolstered up by
hearsay, will have very little effect at this late
day. There has already been a nauseatlng sur
felt of that sort of thing. Mrs. Woodruff over
did it tremendously in her wicked and horrible
scandal"
Tlton has largely discounted the force of his
recital by making such ridiculous amount of
preliminar fuss over it. And then, there is SO
much cod-blooded malignity manifested in the
devotion of days and nights of literary skill to
production which, after all, is represented to
be merely reluctaLt exhibit of the ''plain, un-
vanished" truth, that by the time the witness
comes into the box, he will present such indi-
cations of having been coached and crammed
for the purpose, that the public will be prepared
to reject every iota of his tale that isn't sub
stantiated by overwhelming collateral testi-
mony.
MIR. Tton's sole organ already begins to
whine about the composition and mode of Sc
lection of the committee, and to crawfish by
talking of packed jures. This isn't a jury
case at all. The simile is inapp;cable. Mr..
Beecher has, very properly, invited some of the
leading members of his church and congrega-
ton to inquire and ascertain whether there are
a sufficient number of grains of truth in GER
tain vague, shadowy, incoherent, rambling. in
comprehensive stories about him, which were
originally put in circulation by couple of no.
torious women, and are now revived by two
men who profess to have been his friends, not
only at the time of the occurrences narrated,
but for years subsequently, of them going
so far as to affect, even now, to ''love"
him--whether these indefinite, intangible
webs of gossip contain so much OF the
element of veracity as to impair the
confidence of his Pensioners in his min
istry. That's all there is of it. And yet the
organ aforesaid modestly suggests that Mr..
Ill -,
of half the committee, albeit he is neither a
member nor an attendant of Plymouth church,
and has not the slightest interest in its affairs.
The case is not one of arbitration, or subject to
judicial rules. Mr. Beecher in effect says that
he has been grossly DETAINED and maligned-
that as long as the ISLANDERS had no more de-
cent sponsors than the base women who first
gave them currency, it was impossible for him
to notice them, but now that they have found
an equivocal kind of endorsement in a less
disreputabe quarter, he requests the fullest
investigation concerning them, for the salts
faction of his own religious society.
The most natural thing for his accuser to have
done, if he simply desired to get out the facts,
would seem to have been to have gone before the
committee, and stated verbally in concise and
inaltificial language precisely what he was
driving at. The idea of writing it all out be-
fore hand, punctuatng it, interlarding it per-
haps with exclamation points, trucking it
astefuly with typographical gewgaws in
dime-novel style-there may be wood-cuts for
what KNOWS so repugnant to the ordinary
sense of propriety, that l am quite sure the
means taken to make the thing go off with
eclat wik have precisely the opposite effect,
and lead to a tame and spirtless performance
The long advertised "thunderbolt'' which Mr.
Tilton is forging by the midnight lamp ire
sistibly brings to mind the hifalutin ukase in
which Macawber declared his purpose to pull
verize HeeD Here is choice extract from
Mr.. Micawber's brochure:
"Without more directly referring to any
latent ability that may possibly exist on my
part, of welding the thunderbolt, or directing
quarter, may be permitted to observe, in
passing, that my brightest visions are forever
dispeled-that my peace is shattered and my
power of enjoyment destroyed-that my heart
is no longer in the right pace-and that L no
more walk erect before my fellow men. The
canker is in the flower. The cup is bitter to
soon dispose of his victim. The sooner the
better"
The world in general is much too prosac to
appreciate so lofty a style, especially when it
is applied to the affairs of every day.1ife.
And when it is employed in such serious
matter, as the portrayal of incidents affecting
character and entailing incacuIable suffering
upon vast numbers of the worthiest people in
Christendem, it becomes positively revolving.
tits impossible TO contemplate this painful
domestic drama, in any of its phases without
feelings of intense sadness. 1t has yielded a
harvest of sorrow already. A dismembered
household, and irreconciable alienation from
life long friends are among the calamities it
mas brought to the chief accuser. And then
Mr.. Beecher is so loved and horored, not for
bis marvellous talents alone but for his
genial, kindly, large hearted nature that
his myriads OF friends regard any imputation
upon his name as personal indignity. They
steadfastly refuse to believe him capable
of any mean or unmanly act There is sem
timent of intense exaspe ration prevailing in
Brooklyn and its vicinity, that one so great and
good should have been singled out for assaults
from batteries so skiifully masked, that it has
been extremely difficult hitherto, to avert or
turn the fire. As the time wears on and the
smoke OF these volleys in ambu,h darkens the
atmosphere, the public faith in, and sympathy
for, the intended victim becomes stronger and
deeper, and the wrath against his assailant
gathers accumulated force.
From all the information can gather, the re
is a probability of practical conclusion of this
.,,X I.
Tilton will exhaust his magazine of complaints
They will be found to be general instead of
specific, inferential rather than positive, de-
clamatory in lieu of being demonstrabe. 1t is
expected that he will make little or no refer
ence to his own putatiye grievances, but con-
fine himself to hearsay allegations, concerning
other people. The moment he goes outside of
the record the committee of investigation will
decline to entertain or consider his charges.
He will then take an appeal to the public