The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-11
STORY OF THE MAN
IN BEECHER'S PULPIT
INTERESTING CAREER OF REV.
NEWELL D. HILLS.
Not Yet Forty Years of Age Yet Is
in the Most Prominent Pulpit in
American Has Won His Own Way
Through Life-Early Struggles.

1nIOuRh
From the Washington Star.
TO grip the hand of Newell Dwight
Ilulis 70 meet his alert kindly eye, To
talk with him. to know him as he is,
as no gives himself unrescrvedly to his
closer friends. is to go away convinced
that he is not only great man among
men but that he is genius. Those
who have heard him preach have felt
the intellectual, the spiritual man;
those who have met him in quiet dis
cussion of books or Of social conditions
have seen the keenly alive, the broad
thinking man. but those who know him
hest. who understand what life means
to him, who know of his early struggles
and Of his later responsibilities. who
are i'm 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 quail
tiles which may have brought him
fame.
To be called at thirty mine years or
age TO occupy a pulpit that is larger in
tradition and in requirements than any
other i'm this country. If not in the
English sneaking world. is n rare dis
tinction. DR.. HILLS will step into the
place built up by Henry Ward Beecher
and added to by Lyman Abbott, with
the authority of a man who has sue
ceedcd already far beyond the dreams
of the country boy who struggled hard
for an education, and who denied him
self many comforts that his little
library might gradually expand.
81 MAN or THE WEST.
Or. HHls-the degree of D. d. was
conferred by Northwestern university
in 1S9i-is an Iowa man, so far, that is,
as birthplace and early education go;
the son of a preacher; but after his
seventeenth year his circle of work was
broadened SO materially as TO make
him rather a man of the west than of
any single state. He was born of good
Old Puritan stock, in Magnolia, whittier
his parents had migrated, the father
to devote a rugged life to spreading his
own conception os education and of re-
ligion. Thus the boy was brought up
in a home which. though plain and
barren Of luxurics. gave him the i'm
potus to follow the scholars life. He
began life, real life, much earlier than
is usually the case nowadays. When
but seventeen, after teaching country
school and managing to save pitiful
sum. he left home for Grinnell college
and an education. How he strove and
struggled and all but starved, how he
pinched 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 reminiscent smile.
yes" he said, in reply TO a question,
"it was a little hard at times, but it
didn't last long. Oatmeal gets mon
otonous for steady diet, you know"
ORGANIZED SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
1t is with considerable quiet amuse-
ment that he tells of hard knocks and
odd experiences. While at Grinneli,
hanging on to life and work by sheer
nervous persistence, he interested him
self in organizing a Sunday school.
Though but a boy he showed such
marked aptitude. and his labors
brought such immediate success, that
the attention of ID man of means was
focused upon him. An offer was made
him to leave college and to drive
through the west organizing Sunday
schools. at a salary of $50 a month
tunity to gain experience in his chosen
field and to enable him to start
library, so he accep ted.
From the start he was successful His
zeal and fervor, his magnetic person.
atty his remarkable gift of eloquence
all were concentrated upon this work
He drove from village to village in a
covered buggy, stopping at each Ions
oh, IN trat ha iDGtitltiOn fair
~ under way before driving on. From
the middle west he continued into tn,
mountains, mingling with all kinds o
men, sometimes Identifying himsel
with the lowest grades of society. On,
incident in particular he likes to Re
call:
PREACHING IN A SALOON.
I'm one mining settlement | had
strange experience. Probably some on
of my former pupils had preceded me
for on entering the village | was halle
by beetle browed villain who an
nounced himself as the mayor an,
tavern keeper. He asked me if | wa
the preacher. As / had not been or
dained / said no,
"'You do preach sometimes, don
you? he insisted. l told him that
talked on occasion.
"'Well,' he said, Tu tell you, W
haven't heard any talking for a goo
while, and the boys would like 1t
you'd preach to them
1T was little outside the line of m
experience but | agreed. The tavern
keeper entertained me until the aI
pointed hour, when he led me to tn
harroom. Seats had been made by lay
ing planks across beer kegs. The roor
was dimly lighted with kerosene lamps
and the air was heavy with tObacC
smoke and the odor Of liquor. Cow
boys had been sent to scour the nea
nnnnlrN and nNerN hnlN had Cnme- III