The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-09-08
Our New York Letter.
The True Story of Nzoulion and Ply
mouth Church-A Little Righteous Hn-
dignation-Iayor Eavemeyer again.

tographed themselves Wltn SUCH accufacy thao
the public can have no difficulty in arriving at
conclusions respecting their motives or their
credibility. There has been mountain Of
statement, but not so much as moehill OF
proof The quantity of noise which has pre-
faced every manifesto emanating from the hos
tile camp, the hints, shrugs, threats and ora
cular gestures which have been indGlged in
throughout the long siege, help to sustain the
theory which is very prevalent in Kings coun-
ty, that this is sort of Chinese war in the
sense of being prosecuted far mere with halloo,
than with facts, and that the intimation of re-
sort to the courts is mere buster.
But am moved to renewed allusion to the
matter, by noticing rumor evidently emanat.
ing from one of the numerous descendants of
Baron Munchausen who have found their way
into the journalistic profession. 1t is to the eff
feet that Plymouth parish was the theatre of
much disorder and turbulence, on the great &C.
casion when the committee made their report.
The statement is generally accepted as true and
is going the rounds. This narrative is spiced
with some blasphemous words, put into
the mouths of members of Mr.. Beecher's
quoted and commented upon with pious severi-
ty to wit, 'Give him hip Vast numbers of
people have ever since been and are now ex-
hibting the whites of their eyes and exclaim-
ing, what kind of congregation can it be, in
which such profane utterances are allowed?
confess never realized before this wild 70
nance found Judgement irIthe gullible craniums
Of To ub
sibIe to impose upon human creduity. A story
did get into extensive circulation years ago
that Mr.. Beecher on one very sultry Sabbath
began sermon with the words sit is id
hotp' adding that this was a sentence he had
heard on his way to church.
This ridiculous canard, strangely enough'
found an occasional believer, or, if not exactly
believer, simpleton who was so destitute Of
common understanding that he would ask in
stupid kind of way if it was true. OF course
a tale SO extravagantly improbable could only
deceive very thick skul,ed dupes. But this Ia
ter imputation of profanity to the people in
stead of the pastor of Plymouth society, has
taken in quite number persons, who are not
generally regarded as destitute of acumen. l
have actually heard censorious comments on
the proceedings from the lips of several gentle
men, who appeared 10 take it for granted that
the Objectionable words heretofore quoted were
actually used at the meeting referred to. And
they are gentlemen, too who are not often as
easily imposed upon.
Now not only did not for a moment credit the
report that any profane language was used on
that eventful evening, but 1 had no idea that
anybody with the smallest pretension to the
possession of reasoning faculties would be
humbugged by so bald an invention.
Discovering, however, that it really found ac-
ceptance as a fact and elected expressions of
Indignation very damaging to the pride and
self-respect of Mr.. Beecher's Pensioners, I
resolved to embrace the earliest opportunity OF
contradicting it. But in order to be perfectly
sure of my ground l first ascertained, as 1 was
very sure 1 should, from two well-known gen.
tlemen of the highest reputation for veracity,
who were present, that no such
words were used, and that the representations
about disorder were gross exsggeratons. A la
dy in the gallery did address Moulton
twice as 'Iago," leaving her hearers to infer
that she considered him guilty of infaming the
crazy jealousy of Tilton. That the presence of
Moulton produced excitement was natural
enough. If Surratt or any other accomplish of
Wilkes Booth had dropped in while Lincoln was
breathing his last, the surrounding mourners
would have been wrought up to an extraordin-
airy pitch of wrath at so unseemly an intrusion.
The part which Moulton had played in the
drama from the beginning was intensely often
sive to Mr.. Beecher's friends. The great
posed confidence in him up to the day when he
refused to restore letters which had been hand
ed over to him for safe keeping. But he had
been constantly warned that he was making an
egregious mistake, and he found it out, to his
utter amazement, when he received that cool
Butlerian specimen of pettifoggery, the letter
in which Mouton impudently avowed his pur-
pose to withhold from Mr.. Beecher the private
notes he had received from his own brothers
and sisters. From that hour he was the I'M
masked and deadly enemy of the Plymouth
pastor pursuing him with all the arts and con-
trivances of malignity and treachery. 1t was
altogether too large draft to make upon the
magnanimity and forbearance of that congre-
cation to ask them to listen to a. speech from o
fellow whom they held in such utter loathing.
1t was as much as they could do to tolerate his
presence.
1t has been Moulton's misfortune to figure as
an unwilling and too willing witness in the
celebrated case with which his name will be
associated for all time to come
When he was wanted he couldn't be found.
Mails and telegraphs alike failed to unearth his
hiding place. But now that he has unbur-
dened himself of those ponderous secrets which
he has been carrying beneath his waistcoat so
long-pounding the padding every little while
with the palm of his right hand as if to make
sure they had not escaped-he becomes sudden
ly voluble and exhibits an anxiety to be heard
when everybody has got completely tired out
with the subject, and especially with his mystic
rious and STACEY way of dealing with it.
But, after all, there would have been precious
little in the matter if these chaps had told their
stories at once in plain, straightforward, sem
sible manner. They have given great deal of
to the SANDER by weaving around
it drapery of ncomprehensibility. But truth
always appears to the best advantage when it is
entirely naked. Nobody who proposes to desl
in and adhere to it ever has any occasion to
travel two or three hundred miles in search of
lawyer skilled in dressing it up. A witness
who has to be crammed is not safe reliance to
the cause he is expected to bolster On the
whole, Mr.. Moulton, by the time he got ready
to tell all he knew, had so disqualified himself
from appearing as an impartial narrator Of
facts, by the elaborateness of his preparations.
that nothing he had 10 Say produced the least
impression upon thespublic. But then, 1 seri-
ously doubt whether, without all this prelimin-
airy fuss and flourish, they would have made
anything like as much sensation as they sue
ceeded in doing for the six weeks preceding the
publication of Mr.. Beecher's final statement.
Mr.. Havemeyer's Commissioners are con-
stantly getting into hot water. The board of
charities and corrections is mercilessly shown
up in report of the commissioner of accounts
in which numerous specific allegations appear,
of evasions and violations of the charter, loose.
ness in keeping or neglecting to keep books,
purchases of supplies from favorites Sc. sc.
m