Daily globe., 1879-03-16
BEECHER ON BLAINE.
1he FtHnaouth Preacher Arr0igns the Sem
0tOr from the Pine Tree State.

The plymouth Preacher Arr0tgns the Sem
dto1 From the Pine Tree State.
Philadelphia Press.7
1t was magnificent audience in point of
numbers, culture and social status that
greeted the renowned pastor of Plymouth
church, Brooklyn, when, in company with
Col. Alexander X. Mcclure, he stepped on
the stage of the Academy of Music last
night. There were no vacant seats in the
house; eligible standing room could have
been disposed of at a premium. Mr.. Beecher
looked the perfection of robust man
hood, and his recent illness had evidently
resulted in more good than harm. But his
lecture, "New Men in the New Nation" was
unworthy of him. Not that he did not treat
the subject matter in a mastery and at times
an eloquent style, but it was more of dress
rehearsal than finished performance. He
stumbled frequently and read badly, and had
his notes So mixed occasionally that one SAD
ly missed the fine, flowing and exquisitely
rounded sentences, so full of the unques-
toned genius of the man, that people are ac-
customed to expect from the finest pulpit Or
ator of the day. It was not so much the
"New Man in the New Nation'' as it was
"Beecher vs.. Blaiue'' on the Chinese ques-
ton. The reading public are familiar with
the position assumed, and the reasons which
ne gives for that position, on the part of the
distinguished Senator, Blaine, of Maine;
the lecture going public now know how the
same question is regarded by Beecher, of
Brooklyn. It was in that inimitable COLO
quial style of his that Mr.. Beecher referred
to the "assimilation of the Chinese question
in this country" He took up seriatsna
Senator Blaines charges against the sons of
Confucius. There had been, he showed,
1877 Chinese members in one Christian
church in San Francisco, the same church
having two Sabbath schools ssThey
would not adopt the Christian reli-
glon,'' said Senator Blaine. ''Seventeen
thousand were baptized by the Methodist
church alone in Canton within three MONTHS
responded Mr.. Beecher. Then he awakened
to something of his characteristic impetuosi-
ty, and, raising his hand to heaven, In a
voice which made the crowded academy ring,
he exclaimed: II don't think since the Jews
were expelled from Spain there has been
more cruel persecution more suicidal
policy" And that sentiment drew thunders
OF applause. Then he went on to show how
healthy the Cinnamon were; how
~" WoA0 LII LAo uOSplGalE, lie AIMS
house, the pest-house, compared
Wltn Irish and other foreigners, and followed
this up by really fine bit descriptive of the
tenement houses in New York compared
with the Chinese quarter in San Francisco.
In this he showed that New York had dis
tricts more denseIy populated than London
these districts being inhabited by Ger
mans, Irish and Italian. In an eloquent eu-
logium of the Chinese character, he spoke of
their cleanliness, their frugality, thrift,
quietness and sobriety. 'Whoever,'' he
asked, ''saw drunken Chinaman?" A burst
OF applause answered. Reading Joaquin
Millers recently published letter on the
question, the lecturer paid a high tribute to
the "Poet of the Sieras," and then went
on to prove that the high wages paid to the
Irish chambermaids and cooks in the flush
times were curse rather than blessing.
He claimed that Chinese cheap labor was in
dlspensable to the growth and prosperity of
the Pacific slope; urged that Mr.. Rlaines
objection to them might be found in the fact
that they had ':no VOTE, said he would rather
have the teachings of Confucius than the
teachings of Christ-as exempllfed by some
so-called Cristians of California and con-
cluded by magnificent display of vocal pyro-
technics, in which ''justice and equal rights
for alp was the center-piece, and liberty,
equality and franterniiy," the colored fire
works on the outside edge.