The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-05
REV. PETER MCQUEEN
is BARRED OUT.
The Patriots of a Church in Bronxville, n.
Y, Think He Has Been Too Loose
With His Criticisms Against
American Army Officers.

The Bronxville, y. Y, Reformed
Church, the Kings Daughters Society
and the village officials are engaged in
a by no means friendly discussion as
10 the right Of the Rev. Peter Mcqueen,
war correspondent, who spoke in Wor-
cester recently, to deliver a lecture on
his experiences on the Philippine ISL
auds in the lecture room Of the
church. The Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen was
formerly the pastor Of the Bronxyille
Reformed church. He was succeeded
by the Rev. DR.. Webster. Last spring,
before Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen went out 10
the Philippines, he visited his former
parishioners in BronXville. Some Of
the women thought that his intended
journey was most romantic. They ask
ed him to come to BronXyille on his re-
turn and deliver a lecture on what he
found on the other side Of the Pacific.
He came back in October, and the
Kings Daughters Society sent him an
invitation TO come down from his pres
ent church at West Somerville, and de-
liver a lecture in the lecture room Of
the Bronxville Reformed church on the
evening Of Dec. 8.
The feeling Of some Of the men in the
Rev. Mr.. McQueen's former congrega-
ton had been greatly altered since he
went out to the Philippines. They had
seen interviews and articles and lee
lures attributed to the Rev. Mr.. Nc
Queen which made them feel that he
was not altogether a patriotic Ameri-
can citizen. Among other things he
had been quoted in the East Chester
Citizen-Bulletin Of Friday, Oct q, as
having given an interview to the Bos-
ton Herald in which he said things
like these:
With the coming of Gen. Merritt the
devilment began. This general is de-
scribed to me by the best men Of our
land as a naughty martinez He Il
was who sent his inferior officers to
negotiate with Aguinaldo, and then,
when Aguinaldo came for the lulflnent
of agreements made by the officers
thus sent, the general haughtily said
that he had no dealings with insur-
gents"
mo sane man can believe that with
Iawton on the firing line Aguinaldo
could not have been captured and the
rebellion ended. He, with Admiral
Dewey, could have given US peace with
honor"
Mr.. Brown is often seen with Amer
lean officers, when these officers are
intoxicated, taking them to their
homes. Mr.. Brown is connected with
the saloon business, and that is the
business which hourishes best in Ma
nila''
An American chaplain in Malabon,
whose name I withhold, told me that
in his first parish work he had been
told by the natives Of Malabon that
their wives and daughters had been
raped by our soldiers. He could only
authenticate five cases"
The interviews with Gen. Lawton. in
which the general was made to say:
This accused war must stop" was
also put out, it was declared by the
Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen. The patriots of
Bronxville asserted that even the Eve
ming Post had repudiated the Rev. Mr..
Mcqueen. Some of them made up
their minds that the man who talked
that way about American soldiers and
sailors under fire was not the man TO
be encouraged to talk to the people of
Bronxville. Alfred E. Smith, the town
counsel, former parishioner, wrote to
the Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen to ask what he
had to say for himself. The Rev. Mr..
Mcqueen replied to the effect that
newspapers always misquoted him, and
then enclosed a clipping in which he
was quoted as saying that he was a
red-hot expansionist and thorough go
ing supporter Of the administration.
This denial failed to soften the patri-
otie wrath Of Bronxyille. Mr. Smith
and his friends declared that they did
not care whether Mcqueen was a dem
ocrat, republican or mugwump, ex-
pansionist or anti-expansionist. but
that he had no business to malign the
nations heroes and put words in the
mouth of Lawton that never belonged
there
The Kings Daughters came to the
consistory Of the church at its meeting
on Wednesday, Nov %, and asked for
the use of the lecture room of the
church for the Rev. Mr.. McQueen's
lecture. The consistory sat far into
the night. When it adjourned it had
declined to let the Kings Daughters
have the lecture room for the purpose
stated, on the ground that 1.-The sentl-
ments uttered by Mr.. Mcqueen since
his return from the Philippines, as ex-
emplified in the Citizen-B Bulletin of
Oct. q, were unpatriotic, un-American
and were worthy of the severest rebuke
II was possible for the church to adj
minister"
The gossip of Bronxville says that Of
the six members Of the consistory, the
Rev Dr. Webster declined to vote. on
the ground that, while he did not and
could not approve of the things the
Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen had said, yet his
position as successor to the Rev. Mr..
Mcqueen made it quite improper for
him TO take an active part in barring
him out Of part of the church build
ing, the Rev. Mr.. Mcqueen having so
lately left the church. Francis Bacon,
a New York piano manufacturer, and
the president Of the village, and mis-
son. William P. H. Bacon. have let it
be known that they voted against
granting the use Of the room They are
both members Of the Mayflower society.
and they said that their patriotic blood
boiled within them with indignation.
Mr.. Smiths vote made the third Mr..
Smith is not only the counsel for the
village, but he is an x-assemblyman
and member Of the Society of the Gin
cinnati. His grandfather
was the Capt Ebenezer Smith who
guarded Mai. Andre at Tarrytown the
night before his execution.
DO you suppose" said he, that 1.
with such honorable blood in my veins
as that, that /, an honest American and