Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-05-14
TRIBUTE TO BEECHER.
WHAT an OId-Tine Fire-Eater Says of
His Liverpool Speech.


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. IT. time they did
and l shall send in my subscription. y
l looked up surprised. Il thought
you fought for the other side during
| the war;"
/ 80 l did, and perhaps that's why I
know he deserves a monument" said
the colonel, smiling. Il know he was
the greatest orator who ever lived"
"Demosthenes and Cicero amt in it.
l suppose?"
Not with him." the colonel in
, sisted. Let me tell you a story to
prove it."
| So | settled back in my armchair
the coloneTs "reminiscences were al
ways little vacation in my work-a-
day life.
you know during the war I 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 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. It wasn't ex-
actly generous, l admit. but, you know,
those were desperate days.
80 when ne entered it was pande-
mOnium let loose-HOu never heard
such racket. He had to come in
, at the rear and walk the whole length
Of the hall down the middle aisle
through a bowling mob 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 oveTcOat 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 voice that went through our yell
ing like a cannon ball through a cot
ton feId":-
Boys, this amt fair"
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. l know only
that it appealed to the British love of
fair play. to the old, historic British
sense of justice. And I know from
that first moment every man of us
forgot why he was there-utterly for
got himself and his country. and I
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 a man, but some supernatural
power. Every soul there fell under
the spell, even the reporters. The
London papers all sent their best men.
with orders to take a verbatim report
of the speech, and not one of them got
beyond Boys, this amt fair The
London Times actually discharged its
representative because of his failure
'.Afterward Beecher made many
speeches in England, and good ones
you can read them if you care to see
how he, as 1 think. saved the day for
the north over there. But none of
these was like that first speech which
we tried to silence am sure moth
ing anywhere was ever like it.
Ten or fifteen years later 1 met