The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1903-05-22
A "REMINISCENCES

As5 = oeS Ny v ~. ID X6A
II see they are going to build a meuA@SssS
rial to Henry Ward Beecher," said 3nsss# NJ
white-halred southern friend, who.
spite OF his soft voice and gravely cd
tie demeanor, had been a n%re-eater In It'd
old days. TITS time they did, and
shall send in my subscription"
I looked up surprised-'I thought ya
fought for the other side during the warn
80 I did. and perhaps that's why
know he deserves q monument" saidtA
colonel, smiling. II know he was til
greatest orator who ever lived
"Demosthenes and Cicero amt in Il,
suppose"
mot with him." the colonel insisted
let me tell you a story to prove it's
So I settled back in my armcha!r-h
colonel's "reminiscences We're always a In
tie vacation in my work-a-day life. f.
You know during the war I was seasSss
to England by the confederacy to work up#SS
public sentiment for our side. Well, thesa
were a number of us, and we worked ppssNS
a good deal of sentiment, so much thaa8
Abe Lincoln began to take notice OF ID
and after awhile he sent Beecher over ii
make some speeches against us.
when Beecher landed in Liverpool thu
town was already billed for his first
speech, and we We're already there iii
force to see that IN shouldn't make n
The night came n the nall was packedN
largely with our sympathizers and withN
men whom we had scattered through thsk
audience and hired to boot and make cat]s
calls and utterly drown out the speakers
voice. 1t wasn't exactly generous, / adj
NIT, but you know those were desperate
days.
so when he entered it was pandemont-|
UNI let loose-you never heard such al
racket. He had to come In at the REAR
and walk the whole length Of the hall
down the middle aisle through a nowllngl
moi of enemies. I can see him now as]
he braced himself, shook that name OF
his. walked slowly to the front, and
climbed the platform. He took off his
overcoat deliberately and put 1t and his
nat on a chair: he tested q reading desk
that stood in he middle, found 1t loose
and carried it out of his way. Then he
turned, walked slowly to the front, faced
the whirlwind a minute, and then said. in
a voice that went through our yelling
like q annon ball through a cotton field:
Boys, this amt fairl'''
w forgot to yell for a minute, stopped
to draw breath against him. And in tina,
pause he hurled upon us the most wonder.
Full sentence that ever fell from the lips
Of mortal man. A thousand times I have
tried to re-word it, but always in vain.
know only that 1t appealed to the English
love of fair play, to the old, historic Brit,
lsh sense of justice. And L know that
from that first moment every mar of us
forgot who was there-utterly forgot him-
self and his country, and I know also that
within ten minutes we were breaking the
hush with cheers that took the roof off.
ACheers, yes, sir, we who were there to
silence him, who hated him and his causel
He held us there cheering for two hours.
and not till it was all over and we had
left the place Of magic. did we begin to
come to ourselves, to realize what we had
dor If you can find in all history such
another miracle wrought by an orator. I'd
like to know Of it.
derbolts that night-there were lightnings
iashfng from him. He was not like q
man. put some supernatural power. Ey-
cry soul there fell Under the spell. even
the reporters. The London papers all sent
their best men with orders to take q
verbatim report of the speech, and not
n OF them got beyond Boys. this Amt
fair.' The London Times actually dis
charged Its representative because OF his
failure.
Afterwards Mr.. Beecher made man,
speeches In England, and good ones-you
can read them If you care to see how
ne, as I think, saved the day for the
north over there. But none of these Was
'ske that first speech which we tried to
silence-I am sure nothing anywhere was
ever like 1t.
Len or fifteen years later I met Beech
er n told him SO. He agreed With me
that that night in Liverpool was the
great momen Of his life, sad that then.
and then only, he had felt as though pos
sessed by a god as though uttering, not
MS own words, u those of some ARCH
angelic power. He regretted deeply that
the one speech by which he would like to
ne remembered should have persisted In
the utterance." y
But Is mo- that usually the way with
the finest %things?" / asked, "Who can
perpetuate a rapture-the orators voice,
the singers song, the souls supreme de.
sire! How can they last?"-By Harriet
Monroe.
Not So Much.
Puck: She says her face is her for.i
tune"
Really! Well, she could swear oft
all taxes on 1t with o perfectly clear