The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-01-21
midst Of an assemb1age Of other men dis.in

guished for goodness and humanity.
In many ways the previous life and euvir-
onment of Mr.. Palmer seem to have curiously
prepared him for this work, into which he has
thrown himself with such zeal, OF building an
organization upon a broad basis and OF the
unique character of the Nineteenth Century
Club. Probably no other man in thia country
held or could have maintained relations coin
innate with classes so opposite or individuals
so widely divergent in opinions and ideas. No
man could because no other man would. The
fact tells the whole story. He was never os-
TRACKED even by his own order on account OF
his opinions, because his own federation was so
large as to include every shade of honest con-
viction, and no one could be uncharitable to-
wards a man who exercised so large "a charity
towards others. When, therefore, he gathered
q few of his friends together and announced as
a platform for the future club Willingness to
try all things and hold to those that proved
good" it was received with reclamation, and
it may be said the Nineteenth Century itself
so memorable in achievement-was crowned
by that act with a glory that it had not before
known-that of Unity, in difference and in
degree, the nearest approach we can make 20
the divine life.
Not many of those who crowded Mr.. and
Mrs. Palmer's parlors understood the signifi-
canoe of the step that had been taken-of the
structure they were building. Exteriorly, the
assemblage presented a brilliant social specta-
Gle, for while it was religiously radical, or rad
ically religious-free as air in its intellectual,
theological and scientific flights-it was con-
servatiye socially, and employed its lady MEM
beers principally as a wall of defense against
the intrusion of Objectionable elements. This
would probably not have been Mr.. Palmer's
policy. 1t is not in him to shut any one out Of
any heaven of his making, but it was sound
and wise policy for all that, and has done much
to increase the prestige of the Club. Every
one could not be invited or admitted, and the
difficulty increased the desire till it became a
passion, especially on the part of women tired
of the routine of fashionable life, or who wish
ed to enjoy the mental exercise of these intel
lectual tournaments. For the social atmos-
phere, the freedom in expression, the quick
renown which the meetings achieved, and the
fact that they were, and are, the only thing of
their kind, induced the most distinguished
speakers and writers to give to the Nineteenth
Century for love what they would hardly have
given to the outside world for money, and
brought men into the arena to break a free
lance who could not have been induced to do
it under restrictions. 1t was the finest sight
in the world to see such men as the Rev.
DR.. Rylance, the Rabbi Gottheil, Professor
Adler, T. B. Wakeman, other Reverends, and
a Unitarian, to make the circle complete, all
differing in brilliant and caustic ~antitheses,
all agreeing in the great fundamental princi-
pie of ultimate unity. A Persian story Illus
trative of this idea closed one of the speeches.
1t was of four mendicants of different nation
%alities, who meeting on a common road,
agreed to pool their small stock of coins in
order to obtain a sufficient dinner at the first
inn at which they might arrive. But each one
had a favorite dish of which he insisted it
should be composed, and the name of which
he gave in his " tongue; whereupon from
words they came to blows and arrived at their
destination broker and battered, but without
having arrived at any agreement, and clamor-
ing each for his own dish. And at last when
the dishes were brought they were found to be
exactly the same. only called by another name.
This has been the drift of the theological dis
c~ussions, but there have also been others that
were scientific, still others that were purely
literary, but the President is not quite happy,
not strictly on his native heath, except when
he has an Old School Presbyterian, a Hard
shell Baptist, a Congregational Methodist, an
Agnostic, a Materialfst, a T~heosophist, a Posi-.
twist and a disciple of the Ethical school all
engaged in discussing some knotty psyche
logic problem, and agreeing at last to disagree.
1t is not likely that converts are ever made
to any form of faith at the Ninteenth Century
Club, but what a school it is for the enlarge
ment of ideas, the training of the faculties,
and thu development of the different sides OF
standpoints from which a question may be con-
sidered, while its work mirrors the brightest
side of our Intellectual life.