The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-03-04
Bcecher as n Mimic.

Mr. Beecher preached Sunday
evening upon the difficulty of acqui
ring correct religious habits, and the
comparative ease of maintaining them
when once they have become second
nature Many lo,k upon religion,
he said, "as an insurance policy
against final loss by fire." He de,
scribed that kind of religion so funni-
ly that the congregation laughed out
right. They go to church every
Sunday" he said, pulling his coat
close around him, drawing his fare
down dolorously and rolling up his
eyes. THE hymns are doled out to
them, \ good, sound, dry sermon is
preached to them, aad the most ele-
giant passage of all is their going out.
They attend prayer meetings, too
most dismal prayer meetings.' Here
his lower jaw dropped, more of the
whites Of his eyes showed, and his
hands were clasped before him
There are some comfortable things
in Greenwood, but none in one OF
these PRAYER meetings They go
through the exercises soiemnly, and
the brethren try to say something
they do say the same things they
have been saying twenty years Then
the services are mercilessly cut short
and they 90 gloomily home"
| After describing the true religion
as something independent Of forms
and catechisms, Mr.. Beeeher illustra-
ted the process of its practical acquire
ment. He held an invisible fiddle,
lingering the strings with one hand,
and drawing the bow with the other,
and adjusting the imaginary instru-
ment under his chin, while he said {:
Have vOu ever seen a boy trying to
learn to fiddle? ] don't wonder they
call those things catgut. | should
say the spirits of all the dead old cats
were in them. But whom the boy
masters it" stopping short be COM
menced to fiddle gracefully, like a
good violinist Then he showed how
man learns to set type, the desk
furnishing the case, from which he
slowly and awkwardly carried the let
ters to a suppositious composing
stick. spelling out audibly s-h-a-d.
When the congregation had stop
ped laughing, he gave the rapid mo-
tions of the same man after bis trade
had been learned. Il was taught el-
ocution," he said, although YOU
might not think it. Il was drilled in
all its gestures. He made the pre-
scribed gestures, and struck the alti-
tudes in awkward but rapid success
sion, and then did them gracefully in
the style Of speaker to whom they
had become habitual and unrestrain-
ed. When we try to be graceful"
he said, I'VE can't be All those
things come by long and persistent
usage, and then without thought.
In the country where a board six
inches wide is laid in the mud,
man will walk it without effort, and
never step off" Taking his place at
one side of the platform he walked
easily and in an exact line to the
other side with his hands in his
pockets and his ewes wandering
carelessly Now" he went on.
put that board at height of fifteen
feet, and not one man in a dozen can
walk the length of it without falling
off" Taking his position as before,
he fixed his eyes in front of him as
though on the elevated board, looked
scared, and commenced the imagina-
~ passage. Wavering and balan
cling, with his arms extended, be
with difficulty got half way cross,
and stumbled as though falling
The people laughed ont loud at the
elaborately perfect pantOmine.
The greatest hit, however, was the
droll mimicry of 4 miser, who resolv-
ed upon reform, and began by releas-
ing mortgage upon & poor mans
farm. The counterfeit severity of
the miser in demanding payment, the
fright of the debtor, the blaDdness of
the miser in presenting the cancelled
document, and the joyous antics of
the debtors wife and children, were
all produced with the skill of train
cd comedian. Finally Mr.. Beecher,
as the reformed miser, with a benev-
olent smile on his face, mounted his
horse and rode Offending bis part
ed knees and swaying his body in
exact imitation of rider, and cutting
behind with an imaginary whip
everybody laughed until the tears
came.