Evening star., 1899-02-04
Story of the Man Who is to Fill
Beecher's Pulpit.
NOT YET FORTY YEARS OF AGE
Dr.. Hills is Famous as a Preacher
and Orator.
HAS MADE HIS OWN WAY
Written for The Evening Star.


To grip the hand of Newell Dwight Hills,
to meet his alert, kindly eye, to talk with
him, to know him as he is, as he gives him
self unreservedly to his closer friends, is to
go away convinced that he is not only a
great man among men, but that he is a
genius. Those who have heard him
preach have felt the intellectual, the spirit
ual man; those who have met him in quiet
discussion of books of social conditions
have seen the keenly alive, the broad
thinking man. but those who know him
best who understand what life means 10
him, who know of his early struggles and
of his later responsibilities, who are in
touch with HIM as a charitable, loyal, warm
hearted friend, have seen the man himself,
and they know that he is greater than any
quality or qualities which may have brought
him fame
To be called at thirty-nine years of age
to occupy a pulpit that is larger in tradi-
ton and in requirements than any other in
this country, if not in the English-speaking
world, is a rare distinction DR.. Hills will
step into the place built up by Henry Ward
Beecher and added to by Lyman Abbott,
with the authority of man who has sue
ceeded already far beyond the dreams OF
the country boy who struggled hard for
education, and who denied himself many
comforts that his little library might gradu-
ally expand.
Man of the West.
DR.. Hilis-the degree of D. D. was con-
ferred by Northwestern University in 1S94-
is an Iowa man, far, that is, as birth
place and early education go; the son of
preacher; but after his seventeenth year
his circle of work was brOadened so ma
terially to make him rather man of
the west than of any single state He was
bern of good old Puritan stock, in Mag
nolia, whittier his parents had migrated,
the father to devote rugged life to spread
ing his own conception of education and
of religion. Thus the boy was brought up
in a home which, though plain and barren
of luXuries gave him the impetus to follow
the scholars life. He began life, real life,
much earlier than is usually the case now
adays When but seventeen, after teaching
a country school and managing to save
pitiful little sum, he left home for Grinneil
College and an education. How he strove
and struggled and all but starved, how he
pinohed and worried is known to few; the
full story may some day be told-it may
not. DR.. Hills himself is inclined to pass
over this period of his life with a reminis-
cent smile.
YES" he said. in reply to a question, ''it
was a little hard at times, but it didn't
last long. Oatmeal gets monotonous for a
steady diet, you know
Organizing Sunday Schools.
that he tells of hard knocks and odd ex-
perences While at Grim al. hanging on
to life and work by sheer nervous persist
ence he interested himself in organizing
a Sunday school. Though but boy he
showed such marked aptitude and his la
bors brought such imm ediate success that
the attention Of a man of means was TO-
clsed upon him. An offer was made him
to leave college and to drive through the
west organizing Sunday schools at a sal
airy of $50 month. This would give him
his chosen field, and to enable him to start
a library, so he accepted.
From the start he was successful. His
zeal and fervor, his magnetic personality,
his remarkable gift of eloquence. all were
concentrated upon this work. Hs drove
from village to village in covered buggy,
stopping at each long enough to get the
new institution fairly under way before
driving on. From the middle west he con-
tnued into the mountains mingling with
all kinds of men, sometimes identifying
himself with the lowest grades of society.
call:
Preaching in "a Saloon.
I'm one mining settlement I had a
strange experience. Probably some ons of
my former pupils had preceded me, for on
entering the village l was hailed by bee
tle-browed villain who announced himself
as the mayor and tavern keeper. He asked
me if ! was the preacher. AS / had not
been ordained, / said no.
You do preach sometimes, don't YOU?
he insisted. l told him that 1 talked on oc-
casiOn.
Well he said, I'll tell you, we haven't
heard any talking for a good while and the
boys would like it if you'd preach to them
1t was a little outside the line of my