Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-02-11

goods house of Henry G. Bowen, of New
York. Bowen's house had a good trade, ex'
clusvely from the South; but during the an
ti.slavery crusade he identified himself with
the aboitionists, and so conspicuous did ne
make himself in this regard that his Southern
customers deserted him in body, and, az
consequence, he failed in business. His next
venture was in the publishing business, and
he commenced the publication of the Inde-
pendent, which, besides being the most ultra
anti.slavery paper in the North, has all along
been the organ of Plymouth Church. 1t was
this same Bowen who said he possessed the
power to drive Beecher from Brooklyn within
twelve hours. This and similar asperslons
against Mr.. Beecher ultimately led to the great
scandal suit now progressing in Brooklyn. Re-
garding Bowen's complications with the case,
a New York correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune writes the following:
Last night met one of the numerous Bow
ems entang led in the complications Of this case.
It was one of the SONS of the Bowen whom, at
ter literally building Plymouth church, its
more devoted worshippers propose to offer up
as burnt-ofering and smoke offering on its
crumbling altar. The Tlton faction had sub
poenaed "Old Man Bowen" as we call him,
but, for some reason, he will be denied the op-
portunty of exposing to the world all the
dreadful history which is compressed within
his scraggy bosom. There is no doubt that
he hates both Beecher and Tilton with mag
ni6cent hatred, being held back from the fir.
ing of their unctious pyre by an inspiration
which must steam up from satanic furnaces.
He has an undiscoverable motive for his ter
rible speechlessness In his long, thin head
is hidden the key to other Eleusinian mysteries
than that which twelve men are risking their
sanity to solve in the city court. He stands
at the door of a charnel-house, with his cadav-
erous finger on his lips, and upon his tongue
the icy silence of the grave. More confiden.
ces, more secrets, have been shoveled into that
human sepulchre than could the breast ofany
other living creature contain. He is a grave
stone under which are the dead of many trag-
edies, but upon whose face there is not sin
gle epitaph. On the last day, when the earth
shall vomit forth its corpses and the sea give
up its dead, then Henry C. Bowen will have
to yield the ghastly tenants of his brain. He
is Beecher's gaunt Nemesis, dogging him mute
ly within the constant shadow Of Death; sit
ting face to face with him, and looking into
his eyes every Sunday sharing the sacramen'
tai elements with him in the holy commun-
ion; and knowing his secrets with knowl-
edge possible only to his victim and their God.
When Beecher looks down from bis platform
into that sepulchral face, what phantoms are
they which swell up in spectral procession
from Bowen's eyes. Bowen knows. Beecher
knows
Some great bond unites Beecher and Bowen.
What that bond may be the keenest intelli-
gence, the most persistent search, have failed
to discover. Bowen has publicly said that he
can, when he likes, drive Beecher out of
Brooklyn. How did he achieve that tremen-
dous influence? Why has he desisted from
applying it?
Bowen has more than once opened his jaws,
and let mephitic story escape from the vault
of which they are the portals. The Plymouth
party insist that they must be false, because
Bowen, in the famous Tripartite Covenant,
withdrew all that be had ever alleged against
Beecher-though, indeed, after the signature
of that document, he was only silent and
never the apologist of his pastor.
But Bowen's son tore that strange covenant
into thousand strips when he told me last
night that his father absolutely, and with an
ger, refused to sign the paper when Beechers
agents laid it before him. Every art flee was
employed to induce cancellation of his tes-
timony; but Bowen remained obdurate. At
last. Horace r ClnAip. bio old auu trusted
friend, personally implored him to sign it, re-
miuding him of the fact that when Bowen
was once on the verge of utter and final bank.
ruptcy he had stepped forward and carried
him over the chasm. Bowen at, the t'neH.' q"
b;a nrof,r,d ..situue, pledged himself to
CCiaain with the solemnity of Hebrew; and
it was on the redemption of that pledge, by
the subscription of his signature to the Tri'
partite Agreement, that Clafin at last insist.
ed. Bowen redeemed his pledge, and signed
the covenant.
Tilton signed the same extraordinary COM
pact to save his wife and children from the
awful exposure which eliminated in the cur
rent trial.
What may be the precise value of an agree
ment thus conceived and brought forth is
problem which I leave to be solved by the
undoubted financial genius of Plymouth
Church.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.
The civil rights bill, after long and bitter