The daily gazette., 1874-09-01
NTos'a tho Baltimore Sun. '''t'"
FHiteI. 0wH Broken Idols.

| Mr.. Moulton TO have been confessed L
him by the accused, and also Of an,
8 unchaste remark or solicitation, We
, there can hardly be adoubt that a.
\ mems minds were made up before, 81
, will they generally remain OF the sam,
opinion still, whether it shall have beer
IN i favor OF or adverse to his 4 innocence
II But for the present exposure no on.
Icould have dreamed of the amount O.
rottenness, .indecehcy, and vulgarity
. which could exist. beneath the surface
J OF society not only 1eateeme ed respec
taDie, but Claiming to be, and having
. It's claim recognized by Others, among
the elite OF the cultivated religious and
literary circles of the country. Mr..
Beecher was himself according to his
own estimate, "the centre, first, of the
great church, second, of the newspaper
third, of the book" What Mr.. Tilton
! was In bis own conceit it would be hard
to say. Mr.. Beecher has endeayored
n to sketch the several stages of his intel.
lectual growth by describing him first
as the grateful and admiring protege
and pupil OF him, Mr.. Bcecher; second
as aspiring to be the intellectual peer
and rival of his forinerguide and teach
/ er; third, as occupying in his own opin-
i Ion the position of first man of the
age" from which he blandly and pa
tronizingly looked down upon all man
Kind. But it is not simply what these
people thought of themselves; the lam
guager OF tlatteryy and adulation in
which they were habitua1ly adressed g.
spoken ofby others all cast inthe same
mould of hyperbole and extravagance.
Even within the past few weeks since
the investigation began, we have hada
journal like the New York. Tribune,
which might be supposed to know bet.
Ter and to be endowed with some mea-i
sure OF historical knowledge and schol-
| arsllip, as well as common sense, saving
that II Mr.. Beecher should be proved
guilty then sthe greatest preacher since
Saint Paul, and t'the most famous pull
tpit since Mars HIP would be silenced
&C, One would suppose that st. Chry-
sostem and st. Bernard never existed,
and that nobody had ever heard of
the Monk Savonerola, or of Bossuct, or
Luther, or Calvin, or, of Whitfield, or
Chalmers, or Claiming, or even of |
fere Hyacinthe, or Spurgeon, in our
own days. The comparison with St,
raul is evidently familiar one with
Mr. Beecher; he isaccustomed to it and
rather likes it. He runs the parallel be- |
tween himself and the great apostle to
the Gentlles on more than one occasion
in his statement. He is also accustomed |
to be called "the greatest preacher in |
the world, and mildly deprecates the |
compliment as calculated to "cast a sha- |
dow" upon him. And that some of the |
actors may fall below the dignity which
belongs to such exalted ASSOCIATIONS,
they are all described as persous of ex-
traordinary epdowments, intellectual
and moral, possessed of singularly l
"white SOULS" which contrast eyeh
more singulary with the smutty black
ness OF much OF their language and be-
havior. Tilton when "A mere youth, is
LETT by Mr.. Beecher, according to the
latter, throned I'm one Of the proudestl
editorial chairs in the world" though
what there was to make the chair proud
beyond the fact that it had been previ-
ously occupied by MIR. Beecher does
not appear. Probably there is not one
person in Europe, or more than one in
hundred in this country, who before
thepresent investigation sncwanything |
about Mr.. Tilton, or had ever heard OF
the newspaper he edited. l.
Now, we trust there will be an end
tor q time of all of this ''tall talkn
about these people II must be remem-
bered that Mr. Beecher has never been
anything If not sensational He has
always ridden like n cork of bladderI
upon the top wave of some popular
sensation in politics OF religion, and
The same is characteristic of the whole
Beecher family. Mr. Beecher himself,
Sharpe's rifles from Ply /,
mouth pulpit, OF ''opening the cam &
oaign for Grant, f" differs in no essential {
particular in temperament and charac-
er from his sister, Mrs. Hooker, taking | ]
he lead in woman suffrage and free
owe movements, and consorting with :
he Woodhuls, or from his other sister,
Ars. Beecher Stowe, libelling the le
whole South and Southern people in q
ier book, "Uncle Toms Cabin" and | t
helping TO SOW the seed of civil war, II
" with pruient and ghoul-like un- j
,leanness and earnestness, defilimg the
srave and memory of Byron. TheI
,atent right Of this family to lead in
II movements having for their object :,
he elevation and Improvement OF hui y
nanity is badly damaged by the recent
and exposures in Brook =
ynl "A number of other would-be :
uides, patterns and apostles of hui h
aanity, pioneers of progress, have o
come to grief in this great n
1reck of names and regulations. The "
1hole set of woman slffrageists, male y
nd female, who were the chosen II
riends, associates and icronies of these y
eople, who shared their. disgusting =,
onfidences and retailed over their tea. 4,
lbles the vile gossip now become 70
ublic property, have fallen into th
ae pit with them! Other useful results ht
l'one way or another are likely to al
ow, and to be more or less widely a.
1t, from this, clearing up Of the ele. n IN
ents-this p,lrging Of the bad blood % =,
hich has too. long gperyaded the sys- :, ~
~. People hereafter, for. a little n
hile at least, will probably prefer to- :
ave their politics and their religion
30 mixed, and the separation between
le pulpit and the hustings, a little L,
ore distinctly marked. Perhaps they
i'll be more solicitous about theirI I
.stor's private life and morals than