The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-01-10
The BeeCher Case Disturbed by
an Occasional DFealn-Beech-
er'S Lost Experimentation u.
AuthOnY'S ISuDY.

an Occasional Dream-BeecII-
er'S Lost ReputntiOn-SuSan u.
AnthOny's Baby.
New York Correspondent Springfield Republican.
The Beecher case is not dead, but
sleepeth, yet its sleep is anything but
dreamless. Moulton refused to carry his
snit up to Delaware county, because he
couldn't afford it, Roger Pryor told him
he should be obliged to charge $4,000 to
go up there and conduct the case, and
the whole trial would cost him $4,000,
at the least. Moulton is not rich. He
has already lost great deal Of time and
money by this Beecher business. He il
now newly embarked in business with n
young partner, who depends very largely
on his personal attention and
and judgment, and 10 go OF for six
months would. be little lesa than
ruinous. Tom Shearman saw that
he had the mutual friend on the
hip, and came down on him for
$4,000 for special services, which made
MOulton rejoice that he was pagan, and
could relieve himself by a hearty swear,
yowing that he would go to Delaware or
the other place and get satisfaction before
he would pay such a bill, and the Judge
reduced it to $3.50. But the plymouth
brethren Chuckled at the result, and Mr..
Beecher rejoiced that his last enemy was
silenced. His congregations are large,
but not great. The deterioration in the
quality Of his audience is manifest, and
the atmosphere Of his church is com.
posed Of a different class Of moral ingre-
dents. He looks old, and acts older
than he looks. The spontaneity and en-
thusiasm are gone. Whenever anything
like the old Gre flames up, the blowing
ut the bellows is plain to all who have
eyes. The church is no longer n moral
force in the community, and really seems
TO be on its good behavior.
Outside OF it, Mr.. Beecher does not
draw the old time crowds, nor the best
people. 1t was n severe cut, which he
and his friends keenly felt, when after the
burning Of the theatre, he was put down TO
Hooley's opera house, and DR.. Buddington
was cheered for doing his duty. Alter
ward Beecher had the Academy Of Music,
but it was not full, and the receipts, apart
from the subscriptions received before
hand, were disappointingly small. Over
here, his name drops like cold potato,
which awakens no echo, and nobody picks
up. A Western lady spoke of him at an
uptown reception, a while since, and
there was silence for longer space than
Sydney Smith told the women it was he
coming to observe after the mention OF
one newly dead, and her host whispered
in her ear, "That name is not mentioned
in our society,"" There is something al
most terrible in the visible decline
of splendid popularity. II some.
times seems that there is n law Of
moral gravitation, whose resistless pull
makes the verdicts Of courts superlluOus.
But, just now, when everybody thought
the grave had closed over the scandal for
ever, an effort is making TO reopen the
case by m ecclesiastical requisitiOn. Mr..
Brown doesn't interview worth cent.
He won't tell what he knows, which is
that there are prominent congregational
clergymen who are not satisfied to let the
matter rest where it has dropped, and
are determined to have the bottom facts
brought out in way that shall justify
the denomination in taking steps to rid
itself OF what is felt by not few to be a
moral stigma on its fair fame. But there
is deal Of human nature in most men,
and the feeling that the poor old man
has been dogged quite enough is the pre-
valent temper Of our people. And as for
the rest Of it, well a clever lawyer said
Yesterday, in speaking Of the case, "If
Beecher is not guilty, he ought to be, for
he has paid penalty enough" s..I