The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-12
REVEREND BROTHER BEECHER.
A Few Plain Truths in Regard to Irving and
Terry and Their Dupes.

"A II eW ram truths IN Regard TO ArvInS anu
Terry and Their Dupes.
New York Hour.
One hundred and forty-eight gentlemen sat
down to a farewell dinner at Delmonicos to
Mr.. Henry Irving After the dinner there were
speeches, of course, and the inevitable poem by
William Winter. The poem, unfortunately, was
chapiet for Bottom Winter, and not for Henry
irving. In order to make rhyme for paint"
Mr.. Winter took the poetic license of calling the
English king, beheaded by the ancestors of some
of Mr.. Irvings. hosts on this occasion, ENG
lands martyred saint" Hear Bottom, the poet,
sing;
Gone every shape of power and dreadhis magic touch
Gone haunted Aram's spectral face and England's
martyred saint"
Could absurdity go furtherl Could Bottom the
weaver be more grotesque than Bottom the poet!
There is, however, always lower deep, and
after Bottom Winter came Bottom Beecher II
shall read Ophela and Miss Terry as long as l
live" cried Brother b., and then the Plymouth
pastor bewailed the departure of Henry and
Ellen, saying when they had been blown across
the great sea he should feel ''the birds have
gone" Brother Beecher it is painful to see you
in the peculiar decoration of Bottom at seventy.
But Of all the modern Bottoms, Mr.. Irving
was the most remarkable. He said: Il speak for
myself not only, butfor another, whom 1 know
you must almost wish were here. | mean Ellen
Terry, when say of your affectionate and gen
erous sympathy:
LIT filled our spirits with unbdden smiles
And round our hearts before we knew it,
Stole the green shelter of your love-.
Not even Bottom the weaver could have done
as we'll as Bottom, the actor. From his first
speech on the night of his American debut
Oct. 20, 1883, till his last at the Delmonco ban
quet the actor never failed to push the actress
before the public gaze in his speeches Nothing
could have been in worse taSte-nothing moro
coarse than this vulgar concession to a jealous
womans demands. To American men he said,
''Whom | know you almost wish was here'-al-
most-when he knew that these mems wives had
closed their doors against her for two long years
because of him. Bottom Irving, there are sin
certify and decency in the world as we'll as twadde
there Is Still some sense among the multitude,
and the crowd can only laugh when 14S Bottoms
sit down to banquet on 'soft soap" with Bottom
the actor.
II have heard Mr.. Irving with delight thirteen
times" cried Brother Beecher land if all
theatres were sucn and all actors such l would
recommend them to my people as a means of
grace"
Poor Brother Beecher
"Our distinguished chairman has said,' ex-
claimed Mr. Irving, that you are going to send
me back to my parish, and | am sure it will de-
light the many dear friends that l have in my
parish to find that you have sent me back with
flying colors"
Happy Brother Irving!
And yet England has sent us many greater
actors than Mr.. Irving, and most of them their
parish has never claimed again. The bones of
the ornaments OF the English stage from 1900 to
1850 are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific Cooke greater than Irving, greater than
Kean greater than Garrick, sleeps in neglected
grave in st. Pauls church-yar Mrs. Alsop, the
daughter of greater English favorite than
Ellen Terry ever was, rests under the elevated
station at Rector street. Some of them
We're exiled, the elder Booth, in the
interest of other English favorites, such as Mr..
Irving is, but none ever came before us as
teacher of religion-no one until Irving found an
American divine ready to say that if all actors
were such they could be recommended as
means of grace Such utterances are unworthy
of Mr. Irvings art, of Mr. Beecher's cloth. of the
men in whose presence they were uttered, and
by whom they are read-they are utterances that
could only be received in an age when Bottom, the
weaver, has multiplied himself enormously, and
when many shoulders, young and old, wear the
ASS head and ears. We can almost forgive Bot
tom, the broker, for putting up his money to
show wonans naked foot3t TO the world, and all
the other Bottoms, when we see Bottom Irving
returning to his parish bearing the skeleton of
his closet with him, and Bottom Beecher bewail-
ing the departure of the actor in whom he recog-
nizes means of grace.