Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-09
BEECHH MEMORIAL
MASS MEETING IN NEW YORK
LAST NIGHT.
Funds Subscribed for the Purpose
Prominent Speakers Laud the
Cheat Preacher.

A dispatch from New York last night
says: A greatness meeting was held In
the Academy Of Music in Brooklyn tonight
for the purpose Of raising funds to erect
memorial In honor Of Henry Ward Beech
er, the founder of Plymouth Church and
for forty years its pastor. Many hundreds
who were turned away from the doors
gathered at an overflow meeting in Ply
mouth Church. Mayor Seth Low presided,
and among the prominent persons who paid
tribute to the memory Of the great preach
er were former President Grover Cleveland,
Justice D. J. Brewer Of the United States
Supreme Court, the Rev. Newell Dwight
Hills Of Plymouth Church and the Rev.
Frank w. Gunsaulus of Chicago
Mr.. Cleveland delivered the first address,
referring to a sermon he had heard the
great pulpit orator deliver when the for
mer was young man. This sermon he de-
lasted till the present time.
Justice Brewer, who spoke next. said:
He was natures child, and in some re-
spects always child. The overf1owing ma,
ture of the boy remained a perennial
spring He could not reDress that over
flow. In him pathos and humor were al
ways at home. When some of his minis
terial brethren gently expostulated with
in the pulpit, he promptly replied, An,
brethren, You would forgive me II you
knew how much / kept back. He never
placed his heart in strait-jacket nor let
it, be chilled by the cold touch of business
age All through life he followed Its I'M
pulses.
ut has been said that he would have
made great actor. Doubtless he would,
for the great actor is the one who fully
and faithfully interprets to us the deep
things of the soul Shakespeare Is read
where Lord Bacon is unknown. one telt
while the other reasoned. The voices OF
the heart came from the one; the cold
processes Of the intellect from the other.
So Mr.. Beecher as minister OF christ
gospel will be known and loved long AFTER
he who fashioned into form the most log
ical creed has been buried in the cold OBJ
livion of unread history.
"He was pre-eminently a patriot, and
patriotism is not an offspring of the intel
lect, but of the heart. 1t means love OF
requires nature capable of the strongest
love. Hence it was that during the bitter
hours of the civil war, both at home and
abroad, his voice rang out strongly, hope
fully and triumphantly. He stood on
English platforms and conquered Englisn
prejudices. Pulpit and press were filled
with his patriotic utterances.
while Henry Ward Beecher numbered
forth the memorable demands of Justice
and righteousness, there was minor key
which sweetly sang out blessed words OF
comfort, and bade all sorrowing and fallen
ones to look to the heights whence cometh
strength and peace.
at is fitting, then, that on this ami
versary of his death we gather today to
do homage to. his memory; fitting that In
this city, where his great work was done,
there be erected memorial building, which
shall speak his name to those who shall
come after u.s.
Dr. Hills spoke in detail of the plans for
a great memorial CT Mr.. Beecher.
DR.. Gunsaulus, who followed DR.. Hills,
said, in part: $50
81 bring the rheartiest concurrence of the
middle west in this movement for a memo
rial to Mr.. Beecher They rejoice that
Henry Ward Beecher belonged to no east
or west but to all the people. l saw him
once out weste and he said: There is some
thing out here that widens and strengthens
and deepens me- We believe in him in the
west as the immortal son of God"
At the conclusion of the addresses a SUBJ
scription for the Beecher memorial fund
was started by Mrs. w. c. Wallace with a
contribution of $4,000. Other contributors
were Henry w. Phipps, $1,000; DR.. Rossiter
w. Raymond, $780, and John Arbuckle,
IS, OOO 4 r-ls
The total amount Of the subscriptions was
not announced