Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-05-14
TRIBUTE TO BEECHER.
What an OId-Time Fire-Eater Says of
His Liverpool Speech.

Il see they are going to build a me
mortal to Henry Ward Beecher," said
my white-haired southern friend, who
in spite of his soft voice and gravely
gentle demeanor, had been a fire-eater
in the old days. Its time they did
and l shall send in my subscription"
! l looked up surprised. 81 thought
you fought for the other side during
the WARP"
$50 did, and perhaps that's why ]
know he deserves a monument" said
the colonel smiling 81 know he was
/ the greatest orator who ever lived"
"Demosthenes and Cicero amt in it
I suppose?"
mot with him." the colonel in
sisted. Let me tell you a story to
prove it,"
So | settled back in my armchair
the coloneps "reminiscences were al
ways a little vacation in my work-a-
day life.
You know during the war | was
sent to England by the confederacy
to work up public sentiment for our
side. Well, there were a number of
us, and we-worked up a good deal of
sentiment, so much so that Abe
Lincoln began to take notice of it, and
after a while he sent Beecher over to
make some speeches against us.
when Beecher landed in Liverpool
the town was already billed for his
first speech, and we were already there
in force to see that he shouldn't make
it. The night came and the hall was
packed, largely with our sympathizers
and with men whom we had scattered
through the audience and hired to boot
and make cat-calls, and utterly drown
out the speakers voice. 1t wasn't ex-
actly generous, admit, but, you know,
those were desperate days.
80 when he entered it was paude-
monium let loose-you never heard
such a racket He had to corle in
at the rear and walk the whole length
of the hall down the middle aisle
through bowling mob of enemies.
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 it and his hat on a chair. he
tested a reading desk that stood in the
middle, found it loose. and carried it
out of the way. Then he turned,
walked slowly to the front faced the
whirlwind in a minute, and then said,
in a voice that went through our yell
ing like a cannon ball through a cot
ton field":-
Boys, this amt fart"
1--WE forgot to yell for a minute,
stopped to draw breath against him.
And in that pause he hurled upon us
the most wonderful sentence that ever
fell from the lips of mortal man. A
thousand times l have tried to reward
it, but always in vain. know only
that it appealed to the British love of
fair play, to the old, historic British
sense of justice. And | know from
that first moment every man of us
forgot why he was there-utterly for
got himself and his country. and
know also that within 10 minutes we
were breaking the hush with cheers
that took the roof off. Cheers, yes.
sir; we who were there to silence
him, who hated him and his cause. He
held up there cheering for two hours.
and not till it was all over and we
had left that place of magic did we be-
gin to come to ourselves. TO realize
what we had done. If you can find in
all history such another miracle
wrought by an orator, I'd like to know
Of it.
Il tell you, he was forever hurting
|thunderbolts that night that were
lightning flashes from him. He was
not like man. but some supernatural
power. Every soul there fell under