The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-02
BoechcF.Tilton.

Beechcr-Tilton.
brooklyn Letter (Feb. 26) Chicago Tribune.
The defense is now pledged to establish
the theory that Bowen, Tilton and Moul-
ton were vulgar conspirators, and that
Beccher's fear of exposure was OCCASION.
ed solely by dread of being accused Of
mere error Of judgment in advising Mrs.
Tilton to leave her husband. Rather
than appear in the light of foolish do
mestic counsellor to his deeply-attached
congregation, he preferred to supplement
his letters of agonizing remorse and con-
triton with the endurance of the vilest
impositions at the hands of Tilton, NJ oul-
ton, Woodruff, and the firm of Woodruff
& Robinson. According to that theory.
the simple horror Of Plymouth criticism
made him hug Moulton as the best
friend God ever raised up for a man:
made him humble himself before Tilton
as he did before his God made him VOW
to Mrs. Moulton that he would end his
mundane troubles with little white
powder; and made him dissuade West
and others from inquiring into Tilton's
charges. The extraordinary scnsibility
OF Beecher is relied upon to prove every
thing; but then, this is no extraordinary
case.
A MOST ASTONISHING REPORT
IS current in town to-day. 1t is to the
effect that over $l75,OOO is missing from
the treasury of Plymouth Church. The
loss is cumulative. Every year over
1000 has been divided up among the
principal stockholders in Plymouth.
which is neither more nor less than a
close corporation, Beecher being the atlas
which supports it. This year large sum
of money, said to be in the neighborhood
of $4,000, has disappeared. The sup.
position is that it has been applied with
| out the knowledge and consent of all the
! shareholders to the payment of expenses
incidental to the scandal. Fees for de-
| tectives. compensation Of the Investigate
ing Committee. retainers of Council. all
these outlets have drained the pious we'll
spring pretty dry. It is because Bowen
is likely to insist on an investigation into
Shearman's accounts that Tracy made his
violent attack upon the editor of the H.
dependent and Clodca Marina of the
scandal.
BowEN's KNOWLEDGE.
Some information which | have long
been in possession of, but which l have
hitherto suppressed, has now become of
transcendent Importance in this trial. 1t
| throws much light upon Bowen's card
published to-day. Some years ago,
Bowen told this story: One day he had
left his home to go to New York, and had
just reached the ferry when the sudden
increase Of malady he was suffering
made it necessary for him to return to
his bed. He had not been in his room
very long before he heard some one ar
rive at his house, ring the bell, and enter.
| One of the members of his household
! was very pretty young girl, to whom
he was sincerely attached. She went
down 70 the parlor to entertain the visit
or, and remained there for some time.
All of a sudden she uttered succession
of piercing shrieks. Bowen was alarmed
his CONSERVATION being increased by the
sounds of struggle. Descending to the
room as Q lickly as he could, he found his
protege
| ALMOST IN THE VIOLENT EMBRACE OF Mr..
BEECHER.
A lifetime vanished with the silent fight
Of second, and then, after the first par
alyzing shock Of surprise, the pastor
groveled at the feet of his parishioner,
and s'humbled himself before him as he
did before his God.'' This is Bowen's
own solemn description Of a scene which
Beecher afterwards confessed-if Moulten
is not perjurer-to Moulton.
1t is only one of the awful disclosures
which, whether they be true or false, es-
capped from Bowen's keeping before Til
ton doomed up as an accuser of Henry
| Ward Beecher.
Bowen, from the first. had fine oppor-
tunities to become acquainted with Beech
ers characteristics. If the present
charges of Tilton are true, they are but
WASTED FIRES WHICH LIVE IN HIS ADVERSE
RVS ASHES.
Those licentious flames Bowen was we'll
able to contemplate in the young man
Beecher, who, twenty. five or thirty years
age, was an inmate of his house, and af-
forwards the object of his bounty. So
poor was Beecher, in the early days of
Plymou, h, that he chopped his own wood,
and once shoveled snow for the trivial
compensation which rewarded such labors
| in the golden age of the Republic. This
was Just after Beecher had been sum-
moned from Cincinnati to build up the
church and creed in which Bowen sunk
all his first earnings.
To the Beechers, Bowen has always
stood in mastery relation. Their ftful
economy depended upon him to fill up the
chinks. Their larder had an underground
connection with Bowen kitchen; and in
Bowen's grim keeping, as in an iron safe,