Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-09
Especial Correspondence. !

People-WendelI Phillips, Henry Ward
Beecher, Youmans, "Nasby'' and Others
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Nov. 16.-Dr. Lorettus S.
Metcalf, who for nine years was managing
editor Of The North American Review and
for five years editor of The Forum, has met
most of the men that have been prominent
during the last quarter of century and
had an intimate acquaintance with many of
them. In recent conversation he said:
II knew Wendell Phillips well, and saw
him many times at his house in Boston.
In talking with him always used to try
to get position between him and the
light, in order that / might the better
watch the play of his features. No other
face that l have ever seen remains so
we'll pictured in my mind as his. He
was dignified in manner, but kind and
sympathetic. In private conversation he
spoke in low tone and without emotion,
and but for the occasional flashes in his
eye one would not suspect the fires that
burned within him. While on the public
platform no term of reproach was too Sc
we're for the man whose course he dis
liked; in the privacy of his own house no
one could be more gentle in speaking of
an opponent He was perfectly aware of
the pleasing qualities of his figure and
voice, and was almost jealous of them;
that is, he was annoyed because his audi
ences were conscious of them. He wished
his hearers to be entirely occupied with
the thought that he had to express.
"Oratory to his mind was means, not
an end, and when it made itself apparent
to the eye and the ear it was in his judg-
ment overdone. On one occasion he said
to me: i have never gone before the pub
lie till l have become so full of a subject
that could contain my feelings no longer
Then | have tried to speak very directly
and simply, as though were talking to a
small company of friends, but always the
newspapers the next day have said that
have made another great oratorical effort
"Henry Ward Beecher was certainly the
most interesting man that l have ever
met. While in the cases of most persons
of reputation the greatness that COM
mands admiration at first loses something
of its impressiveness upon acquaintance,
Mr.. Beecher's strength constantly grew
upon one as time gave the opportunity to
see the many sides Of his wonderfully
original mind At his Brooklyn house he
always received his more intimate friends
in the family sitting room, declaring that
he never felt quite at home in the drawing
room. There, curled up at one end of
sofa. with his visitor before him at the
other, he would give full vent to his bril-
liant conversational powers, playing all
over and about subject. us though he
thoroughly enjoyed to make use of his
ready command of language.
"Once said to him, perhaps little flip
PANTY, that certain theological positions
that he had been stating were not very well
established, when he retorted instantly,
We'll, what is we'll established?' and he
took up all the popular scientific and philo-
sophical theories in turn, and poured upon
them such food of witty criticism that
at the time l felt that could never after
ward quite safely put trust in any teaching.
He always intended to fix upon the subject
of his Sunday mornings discourse early in
the week previous. in order that he might
have several days in which to turn it over
in his mind, but on one Saturday morning |
he told me that he had not the smallest |
idea as to what he should speak upon on |
the next day. asked him how he sue
ceeded in such cases, and he answered, oh! |
! come out all right. When hear that |
great organ behind me, and see before me |
Hal UuOSo tApcCUttlt CJ dlWdl , liuu SOiuc-
thing to say
"He could, he said, speak safely without
on any ordinary occasion, pro-
yided that at the beginning he had clearly |
In mind the conclusion to which he wished |
to arrive. He declared, however, that he
was never altogether free from stage /
fright; that his knees always shook little
when he went upon platform. In a few
Ipe NJ ooc ha had banorna camp1ata1v on
tranced while speaking, losing not only |
of all surrounding objects,
but the power to remember afterward
what he had said. He told me that his
on those occasions were of a rush
Of blood upward as new ideas came to him,
and then feeling that he had lost his
body and had only head. Afterward he
would find himself seated, covered with
cold perspiration, and see his hearers lean
Ing forward in their seats and looking at
him with close attention.
He was known to disbelieve the doc
triue of everlasting future punishment,
and I urged him to state his views at length
IN the periodical that / was then conduct
ing. He consented on condition that a
paper defending the dogma should be OBJ
tained from DIR. Shedd and published in
advance of his own. DIR. Shedd prepared
mis- argument at once, but Mr.. Beecher de-
ayed, and finally adopted the plan of
1unning him regularly, wherever he might
be, for the promised article. He made a
our through the west at that time, and
when he reached Leadville, Colo, he found
,ne of my reminders Of his delinquency
awaiting him. He answered: L have re-
,eived your telegram, again beseeching me
20 explode hell. But have been to Salt
Lake City, and am now at Leadville, and
I'm not half so sure of my ground as was.
After all, Shedd may be right
professor +. L. Youmans, the founder
Ind for many years the editor of The Pop
liar Science Monthly, short time before
lis death told me an interesting mental ex-
,erience that he had had. Before Richard
A. Proctor's popular scientific books had
appeared or any other important effort had
oeen made to treat astronomical facts in
way to interest the general public, the pro-
'essor delivered, for the benefit of some
worthy cause, in little chapel in Brook
yn, a lecture on the sum- He described
yith great deal of enthusiasm some strik-
ug discoveries that had then just been
made, and produced great impression
ipon his hearers. Soon afterward ap-
,eared in New York city man from one
,f the large towns in the western part of
he state, representing lyceum that had
ost its leading speaker by illness just on
he eve of the beginning of its yearly
course.
''This man applied to Cough, Beecher,
Phillips and the other lyceum stars OF the