The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-03-11
Beecher's Home and Study.
New York Herald.l

At first sight the visitor to Brooklyni is
disappointed both with Plymouth church
and the houses in which its dignitaries
reside. Columbia street, which runs
along the parapet of Brooklyn Heights
leaving enough space between it and the
scarp of the East river for row of fhouses
and back-yards, contains the two resi-
dences of the famous pulpit orator. One
of these houses is painted frame, a sort
Of bright-pink color, which has been
raised and enlarged since Mr.. Beecher
made it his home and study. There he
lived in the earlier years of his ministra-
tion in Brooklyn, when some of his chill
dren were babies. His present dwelling
is brown stone house, not particularly
roomy or ornamental. The average good
residence in Brooklyn is inferior to the
New York house. A New England char
acter belongs to all Brooklyn. The gen.
orally wide streets, lined with shade trees;
the abundant white frame cottages and
frame mansions, set at random, gable end
to the street, with porticoes and verandas,
and green and white shutters, are very
suggestive of life in New Haven, Hart
ford or Worcester. Even the brown stone
house of Brooklyn has minor, humber
look. In such brown stone house Mr..
there is noble view of the bay, the East
river, the profile of New York island and
the shores of Jersey, extending far off to
the soft line of the Orange mountains.
Probably no spot in the world affords
scene, under generally clear skies, ofsuch
variety and strength. The granite tints
of American scenery abound in land and
water. The bay itself has something of
the color of the melted rock. The chang
ing seasons variously affect this animated
scene; in spring and summer bringing
out the foliage; in autumn making the
foliage gold and crimson, and in winter
mantling all the vista with snow. The
street running before Beecher's door is
nOtan overrun thoroughfare, and is gen.
orally very still. He can look down from
his windows on the incessant panorama
of human activity and the shifting of the
tides, and discover illustrations almost
infinite for his sermons and writings.
Only the whistling of the steamers,
mellowed by distance, penetrates to his
study. He is as quiet on the shores of
the East river as Mr.. TennysOn, his con-
temporary, hidden away in his seaceast
home on the Isle of Wight.
A very short distance from this house,
on transverse street, is the celebrated
Plymouth church. 1t is plain and al
most forbidding in appearance. A slight
touch of satire might liken it to ware
house or brewery. Built of red brick,
with rather crouching roof, its great
depth alone suggests the call upon its
capacity. People in the neighborhood
say that it has raised the price OF real
estate around it, and not the least of the
peculiarities of the church and society
is the Identification of pecuniary and
moral values. The income of the corpora
tion or society is always referred to in
the same breath with eulogy upon the
moral influence of the preaching and
praying there.
plymouth church is power, sir"
exclaims the Brooklynite. "It is rich,
sir"
But Mr.. Beecher is wonderful man,
without whom Plymouth church would
not get along. They can raise money in
that congregation for anything they
please. Beecher only has to mention it,
and all the hands of his hearers 60 to their
pockets. They built the Howard Uni
versity, helped the Jubilee singers, raised
an annuity for Herbert Spencer, and
whenever old Plymouth feels an impulse
she plants seed.