The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-09-11
TIE PACIFIC
Commercials
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER ~
Manliness as 4 Fine Art.

ms people that be had stfIvcn % ue a manly
man. and that be was q d. manly fellow This
was said boastfully. and 10 such relation TO the
great trial as 10 render il certain that L- relied
upon the developments made in that - the evi-
dence TO sustain the assertion. Bat look ct the
question Of guilt as concerns the main charge Of
filton, as We NAY, and coHcedc. If re gill, that
adultery was not proven. Il Is manifest that IN
several instances during the progress OF the
scandal the conduct OF Mr.. Beecher failed to
iustify the boast that he was 4 manly fellow.
For instance Bessie Turner and Mrs. Morse
went to Mr.. Beecher with certain infamous
stories relating L. the conduct Of Tilton towards
his wife. Beecher was TiIt0n's pastor. menSor
and friend. lie was the one promising Young
man Ia whom lie had given has especial confidence
and instruction, and from whom he expected tie
grandest and n1bleet things. lie was on such
terms with him. had 81 weighed and estimated
hum. that on the face Of it the stories must nave
seemed to Beechcr a. impossible as the scandal
against Beecher seemed 1T fir. 20 the public.
As his pastor it was his professional duty 10
inform Iiit0n OF the tatt!e Of these women and
get his side Of the story, and advise with him on
the situation. -As his friend i t was his duty 10
have presented the case 10 iis attention, and At
least have made an effort TO save such Il beautiful
family from wreck. This he did not do, AMI
therein he failed to show true manliness. Ne
manly fellow would have done thus.
But the case is worse than this. When David
allowed himself 10 be controlled by 4 base passion
for a married woman he sought to place her hus-
band in the power OF the enemy that he might be
slain, and in this respect the conduct Of Beecher
is very like n plagiarism upon that Of the singist.
Tilton had an unsparing enemy OF many years,
who was relentless in her antipathies, and would
pursue Il culprit with the rod Of justice and
vengeance to the last Extremity, If occasion seemed
to Justify. This enemy was Mrs. Beecher, who
had denied TIlton the hospitality Of her house,
and had slammed the door of the shepherd in the
face Of this lamb Of the flock. When Bessie
came rs a tale-bearer it struck Mr.. Beecher with
great force that he had n wife, who, by tempera-
ment, sympathy and long predisposItion toward
the straying one, was emlnentIy calculated to give
judiciOus advice in the premises, and, feeling that
his own cordial relations with Tilton might cause
his Judgment to wayer from the line of strict
impartiality, he turned the case over to the tender
mercies of that seyerely-just and rigid matron
whom he knew would be as impartial as the hosts
fighting against Uriah. \ manly fellow would
hardly treat Il friend in that way If he desired to
Mr.. Beecher alleges that he saw this error after
ward, and it caused his remOrse. lie repented
so far, ut least, that in the subsequent proceed
ings he took good care not to cOnfide any more in
Mrs. Beecher, and no more allowed her energetic
and itching fingers to NEEDLE in the pusterior pies
which were TO be cooked and served in this ban
quet Of scandal But after the discovery Of this
tremendous error, and after suffering all the
tOrtures of the damned > on account of it, after
being informed by Tilton that he had n q cause
u OliCliCE uRIliiSi Nun, tile truth Oh WHICH ne
might verify by going TO the sick bed of Elizabeth,
he went and obtained a written retraction. Now,
IN the higher arts OF maniineSs, tho true course
would have been for Bcccher to return 10 rilton
and report to him the grave mistake which he
had committed in surprising that there had been
any cause of offence of the nature stated i'm Eliza
beth's confession, for this would have convinced
1ilton how sadly he had been barking up the
wrong tree, and would have deprived Tilton OF
the chance to accuse him OF clandestineIy obtain
ing an important family document and coucealirg
ii from tha husband Of the woman by whom il
vas executed. Having Just made aud rapeni,d
the tremendous mistake Of dealing with his
friends, Mr.. and Mrs. Tilton, by coHccaling from
the former his transactions with the latter, and
Just AT the moment when Moulton had convinced
him OF the true nobility Of Theodore, he sneaks
home, hides the document in his desk. keeps
away from the husband, and proposes 10 let the
world wag as ii will thus repeating the error
for which he had just suffered so intensely
failing again in the fine art of manliness which
had been with him such an especial studg. 4
iittle later and he fails again. lie had come to
regard Triton rs = m~aligncd and unfortunate
individual, capable, nevertheless, Of the nQblest
things They were on good terms and Beecheg
had no suspicion of foul play. One Of Tilton's
mIsloftunes was that Elizabeth distrusted his
fidelity, and it was the knowledge of thIs among
other things which caused Beecher to advise 4
separation. The way for Tilton to recover from
this misfortune was to avoid the company Of any
and all women whose standing was in any degree
called in question. Well, there were the free
lovers OF New York, Woodhull and Clafin, whose
regulations and principles were very %unsatis-
factory TO Plymouth church, and association with
them Beecher knew To be damaging. lie says
he kept clear Of them himself, and wrote only
two notes to Victoria, very short and crusty-of
Il business nature. which were sort of forced from
him. Knowing the suspicious of Elizabeth and
the perils Of Tilton, 1t would seem as though true
manliness would have impelled him to take some
steps to get his friend away from the association
of these lree-loye women, but he never gave even
an expOstulatiOn 10 save him from this fatal road
to uin-nOt 4 single one either as pastor. friend,
or human brother.
And there was another failure i'm this Tilton,
in spite of the letter of retraction which BeecLer
from Elizabeth, still affected to think he
had 4 cause of offence forgiven, to be sure, but
not so far fogotten that ne deemed it wise on the
whole Tor Beecher to visit her, or even speak to
her without the presence of her husband. This
was the situation, and so acknowledged by Mr..
yet, while the strict embargo was on,
and Mrs. Beecher was off, there sprang up n little
loving, MISREPRESENTATION correspondence,
very warm and affectionate, and only Z. permitted =
because Madame Beecher was away. This was
not manly as respects Mrs. Beecher, and was a
violation OF the understanding with Iilton as TO
the relations which were to hold between Beecher
and Mrs. TiltOn. Had there been no understand
ing in the matter, the fact that Beecher knew she
MN, anu tult Iilton WIS jealous ana desired
absolute accommodation should have oper-
ated on his manliness to prevent a clandestine
l0~ve-letter correspondence Of the nest-hiding,
trailing-arbutus sort. And once more Beecher
failed III manliness in his conduct toward DIR.
Storrs. Storrs was Beecher's most intimate cler-
brother and friend. He had views s" OF
duty which he frankly and publicly stated.
Beecher did not meet these views On the square
he did not meet StOrTs and reason with him, but
him dead, and wrote 4 letter TO the heathen-
ish M0ulton accusing the distinguished doctor
and apostle of the basest motives, and pronounc-
ing him worthy of damnation. This was not
and cannot he defended, even by church
people.
Another departure from true maniiness Was n
the case Of Mrs. Moult0n. Beecher had been to
her bowed with grief, and she had administered
aopSnla f;op -, tho Shara 81 n hiss aud mo bad