Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-21
BEECHER-TILTCN.
A Doubtful Story that Pretends to Clear
Away Mystery.

A Doubtful Story that Pretends to Clear
Away Mystery.
A new version of the famous Beecher-
Tilton scandal is made. In brief, this is
the recital as telegraphed to the Examiner.
A party who was friend of Mr.. Beecher's
and of the j. C. Hendrix who reported the
Beecher-Tilton scandal for the press, did
aver that he and Hendrix, from the first,
knew the inside history of the affair. That
now that Beecher's posthumous papers are
| to be published, which will reveal the truth,
he is at liberty to reveal his knowledge.
Mrs. Tilton was about 10 bear child, when
a meddling acquaintance informed her of a
| liaison between her husband and Victoria
| Woodruff. The wife was nervously
agonized and in her distress sent for her
pastor. Mr.. Beecher was Mortified to hear
| the story, Tilton being a member of his
church, and one in whom he had faith.
Accepting the story as true, he said TO Mrs.
Tilton that a wife should not bear children
| TO a husband so untrue 10 his VOWS, and
who was consorting With SO notorious q
woman as Woodruff. This advice Mrs.
Tllton misconstrued, and sending for her
physician, after long supplication, induced
| him TO aid her in a crime and
her child was born prematurely and
dead. This physician was man to
whom Beecher was under unusually heavy
obligations. Tilton, who had been absent
| from home, returning found his wife ILL.,
and in her delirlum naming Beecher and
| referring to some crime. He assumed that
there had been Illicit relations between Mr.
Beecher and his wife, and wrote him the
| famous letter charging it. 1t was 4 bomb
shell in the Beecher household, and for the
| first time revealed to the clergyman
| that his expression had been misun-
| derstood by Mrs. ilton. When he
| ascertained all the facts, his mouth was
closed to save his friend. the physician.
| While on the ecclesiastical trial he denied
with indignation the charges made against
| him, he refused to explain saying that TO
| do so would open the doors of the State
| Prison for some one. So he bore the iguo-
| miny of suspicion and charge to the end 10
save friend misled by mIsconstrued ad-
| vice. All Mrs. Tilton's references to
Mr.. Beecher are explained to have
| referred to the advice given. Beecher's
note TO Tilton begging for mercy, and con-
strued as confession OF guilt, is now ex-
planned to have referred to the advice given,
and which Beecher looked upon, after its
| results, with remorse and horror. In the
same trial Beecher and Mr.. Tilton both de-
clared their innocence, and the jury dis
| agreed. But Tilton. with the letters of
| Beecher in his possession, was able to COM
mand large following that believed in Mr..
Beechers guilt. That belief, however, he
| largely lived down, and his character and
life rose superior to the doubts entertained
by the few. There are weak points in this
story, as the reader will quickly see. The
chief one is the statement that Mrs. Tilton
and Beecher both accepted the gossip's
story as true without inquiry, apparently
1t is said that the time has come when
Beecher's unpublished papers will be given
to the world, and that they will substanti-
ate the story here told, and this assumes
that the physician by whom Mr.. Beecher
so long stood is now dead.