The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-03-31
EDITORIAL BRIEFS.
BY REV. I. M. ATWOOD, D. D,
Canton, N. Y.

Il
b1ne, of Syracuse, should afford an in
structive object to the young min
listers of the Universalist church. He
graduated from the Theological Seminary
in June. 1885, having graduated from COL
lege In 1883. He obtained the pastorate
of the church OF Syracuse, under recon-
mendatior from his instructors, and was
taken at once into the confidence of tbe
people. He made an unusually favora-
BILE impression in the first months of his
ministry, drew large congregations, and
had the luxury of beng praised nv
united parish. After year he WAS still
popular and the affairs of the cburcb
seemed to be steadily improving in every
way. But in the middle of his third
year he is at the head of a hostile
congregation, worshipping in a hall in
the same city, his old church is GRIN
pied, If net killed, he is filing the public
prints with bitter and scandalous attacks
on his late parish and Individual mar
shloners and his own usefulness as q
Universalist minister is at end.
If the parish and people we're eyerv-
thing that Mr.. Grumbine in his raqe has
called them, there would still be no Az
cuse for him, unless it should be the plea
OF lmoeclllty. 1t is patent to the rest of
the world and we hope is beginning to
be dlscerned by him, that he has plav.d
the fool with extraordinary brilljancv
and success. II he found that he could
do nothing with the Syracuse parish if
was open to him to go away and leave If
to Its own devices. He wss not sent
there to kill it, still less to make if the oc-
caslon OF his own destruction. "What is
the matter with Mr.. GrumbineY We
have been asked hundred times. Well.
two things, chiefly: ID He was carried
away with the idea of his own powers.
1hls is the root and sap of most of his
mistakes and miseries. (2) He has invar-
iaoly construed advice proffered him as
personal hostility, springing from malice
or some other diabolical motive.
Col. Ingersoll, besides knowing a
good many things that are not so forgets
some things that are so. He was cbare-
ed by clergyman in DUBUQUE with
heading a petition to have the law re-
pealed that forbids the o. s. mails to
carry indecent literature. Col. InRersoll
denied the charge with a great show of
indignation and flung volley of hard
eplthets at the Rev. Mr.. Brown, not
omlttlng to shy heavy handful at the
clergy in general. Now Mr.. Brown pro-
duces the authenticated document from
the archives Of Congress and confouuds
the gallant colonel with his own sigma
ture. Robert can now sympathize with
Moses.
1t must be sweet solace to many
FELLOW sufferers to learn that the first ar
tlcle Miss Alcott sent to the atlantic
was returned to her by Mr.. Fields with
the advice that she would do better to
stick to her teaching. Editors cannot
see much further into a milestone than
other people, and Mr.. Fields was innate
~ too much of an adorer Of the reigninR
celebrities to have an eye to any new
prophet. The advice given Miss Alcott
wss' 1t may be presumed, the stereotyp-
ed counsel given to ambitious but crude
writer's. 1t may relieve Mr.. Fields men,
ory from any hard reproaches to reflect
that his advice was probably never fol
lowed. To this spirit of Decentralization
to the editorial edict we owe the triumnb
of Miss Alcott and the blessing she
proved to the world.
The controversy between General
Grants family and Gen. Badeau is most
unfortunate. 1t is already apparent.
that nothing to be disclosed can effect
In any important way the name or fame
OF Gen. Grant. We can accept the view
he took of the matter, as presented in
the letter, ''all in Col. Fred Grants hand
writing except the signature" and we
can believe the essential facts detailed in
Gen. Badeau's version of the affair. with
out thinking very differently of either of
tnem from what we did before. 1t is one
OF those cases where disinterested OBJ
server sees plainly enough why both
men felt and acted as they did.
! Gen. Badeau had been called off
from writing his Life of Grant" to as
slst the General IN writing articles for
the magazines and in preparing his own
memoirs. AS the work went on he be-
came convinced of two things: a That
his own Life" would be eclipsed if not
extinguished (2) That the General could
not bring out either the articles or the
memoirs without the aid of his old staff
officer. Considering that the financial
return to the General promised to be
eight or ten times what either of them
expected, he not unnatuTaliy desired a
share in the unexpected receipts. This
| may have been unwlse in Gen. Badeau.
1t may not have been magnanimous: if
may wear the appearance Of greed; but il
was quite human and pardonable.
As to the equity of the matter: II
would appear to unbiased minds, that if
Gen. Grant set as high a value on the
services of Gen. Badeau as to contract to
pay him $4,000 from the first $4,000 of
sales and $4,000 more from the next
$4,000 he had no good reason for sur
prise or indignation that Gen. Badeau
wanted $1,000 more when the receipts