The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-06
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
The Great Preacher Sketched by Mark
Twain-His Private Habits.

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congregation, he replied with the frank and open
eandor that has always characterized him that
he would give worlds to be able to rid himself of
the custom-and added that the anguish he had
suffered in trying to break himself of the habit
had made him old before he was ninety. Mr..
Beeeher never wears his hat at dinner. He
does not consider it healthy 1t does not i'm
mediately break down ones constitution, but is
slow and sure He knows one case where man
persisted in the habit, in spite of the tears and
entreates of his friends, until 1T too late,
and he reaped the due reward Of his rasbuess-
for 1T carried him off at last, at the age of 106.
Had that man listened to reason, he might have
lived to be a comfort to his parents and a solace
to their declining years.
Mr.. Beeeher never swears In all his life
profane expression has never passed his hips.
But il he were to take it into his head to try it
once, he would make even that disgusting habit
seem beautiful-he would handle it as it never
was handled before. and if there was n whole
some moral lesson hidden away in it anywhere
he would ferret it out and use it with remarka-
! BILE effect Panopied with his grand endow-
ments-his Judgment his discriminating taste,
his felicity Of expression, his graceful fancy-if
Mr. Beecher had mind to swear he could throw
into it an amount OF poetry and pathos, and
splendid imagery, and moving eaPneStpesS, and
resistless energy, topped off and elimaXed with
gorgeous pyrotechnlc confagraton and filigree
and fancy swearing that would astonish and
delight the hearer, and forever after culver
through his bewlldered memory exquisite
confusion of rainbows and music, and thunder
and lightning. A man of high order of intellect
and appreciation could sit and listen to Mr..
Beecher swear for a week without getting tired
MIR. Be9cher is very regular in his habits. He
always goes to bed promptly between 8 and
o'clock, and never upon any account allows him
self to vary from this rule. He is just as par
ticular about getting up which he does the next
day. generally. He considers that to this dis
ciphne, and to this alone, he is indebted for the
rugged health he has enjoyed ever since he
adopted It,
Mr.. Beeeher does not go around and get ad-
vertisements for the Plymouth Pulpit If he
does it, it is without his knowledge or consent
If such Il report has been started, it is an abso-
lutte duty to refute it in this article. However
no such report has yet been heard of, and there
fore 1T is not necessary to do than refute it
| in purely general way at this time. Mr.
Beecher could augment the bulk of the pamphlet
to which his sermons are attached if he chose to
go around and solicit such thing He has no
time for such recreation. He has to preach, and
he has to make dedication speeches for all sorts
of things, and he is obliged to make few re.
marks on nearly all distinguished occasions, be-
cause very often Mr. Greeley is busy and can
not come. Aud, BESIDES he has to carry on his
farm
Mr. Besehers farm consists of thirty-six acres
and is carried on on strict scientific principles
He never puts in any part of crop without con
sulting his book. He plows, and reaps. and digs
and sows according to the best authorites-and
the authorities cost more than the other farming
implements do. AS soon as the library is com
plete the farm will begin to be profitable IN
vestment. But book farming has its drawbacks
Upon one occasion, when it seemed morally GER
tain that the hay ought to be cut, the hay book
could not be found, and before it was found it
was too late, and the hay was all spoiled Mr.
BeecheE raises some of the finest crops of wheat
in the country, but the unfavoFable difference
between the cost of producing it and its market
value after 1T IS produced has interfered consid-
erabIy with its success as a commercial enter
prise. His special weakness is hogs. however
he host foTt
He buys the original pig for 81 so, feeds
him $40 worth of corn, and then sells
him for about So This is the only
crop he ever makes any money on He
loses on the corn, but he makes 81. 80 on the hog
He does not mind this because he never expects
to make anything on corn, anyway. And any
way it turns out. he has the excitement of rails
ing the hog anyhow, whether he gets the worth
Of him or not. His Strawberries would be a
comfortable success if the robins would eat
tufnips, but they won't, and hence the difficulty.
One of Mr.. Beechers most harassing difficult
ties in his farming operations comes of the close
resemblance OF different sorts of seeds and plants
to each other Two years ago his far-sighted-
ness warned him that there was going to be a
great scarcity of water1nelons, and therefore he
put in q crop of twenty seven acres of that fruit
But when they came up they turned out to be
pumpkins, and dead loss was the consequence
Sometimes portion of his crop goes into the
ground the most promising sweet potatoes, and
comes up the infernalest carrots-though never
When he bought his farm he found one egg in
every hens nest on the place. He said that here
was just the reason why many farmers
failed-they scsstered their forces too much
concentration was the idea. So he gathered
those eggs together and put them all under one
experienced old hen The hen roasted over that
contract night and day for eleven weeks, under
the anxious personal supervision of Mr.. Beeehep
himself but she could not phase those eggs
Why! Because they were those infamous poree-
lain things which are used by ingenious and
fraudulent farmers as ''nesteggs. But per-
haps Mr. Beecher's most disastrous experience
was the time he tried to raise an immense crop
of dried apples. He planted 81, 500 worth, but
never a one of them sprouted. He has never
beer able to understand to this day what was
the matter with those apples
Mr.. Beechers farm is not triumph It would
be easier on him If he worked it on shares with
some one; but he can not find anybody who is
willing to stand half the expense, and not MANY
that are able. Still, persistence in any case is
bound to succeed He was Il very inferior farmer
when he first began, but a prolonged and ul1
inching assault upon his agricultural difficulties
has had its effect at last, ana he is now fast rising
from aff1uence to poverty.
l shall not say anything about Mr.. Beecher's
sermons. They breathe the truest and purest
spirit of religion; they are models of pulpit ora
tory, and they are proofs that the subject which
is the nearest to the interests of mankind can be
pat to nobler uses than the ehl0rofoPming of
congregations Mr.. Beecher has done more
than any other man, perhaps to inspire religion
with the progressive spirit of the nineteenth
century and make it keep step with the march
of Intellectual achievement and the general
growth of mems charities and impulses. 1t is
such men as Beecher that persuade religious
communities to progress to something better
than witch burning when the spirit of the time
progresses from OK wagons TO stage coaches, and
by and by to steamboats,; and who persuade such
communities to progress beyond The indorsing of
slavery with their Bibles when the spirit of
the time progresses to the subordination of the
steamboat to the railroad. and the discarding of
pony expresses for the telegraph. He has done
as much as any man to keep the people from
reading their Bibles by the interpretations of
the eighteenth century while they were living
far along in the nineteenth. His name will live.
His deeds will honoF his meneRy. He has set
his mark upon his epoch, and years hence when
the people turn over tho bales and bundles of
thi.s crae,.nt q id.aa thaAz III Graa