The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-01-03


this. the greatest Episcopal church oio-
cese in the western hemisphere, is an
| uncompromising foe of divorce for any
| reason whatever. With him there can be
no compromise on the question. Separa-
ton he will agree to- but re-marriages
during the lifetime of both parties. no.
DR.. Greer will be the successor of Bishop
Potter one of these years They are the
two great pillars of Episcopalianism in
the heart of Episcopalianism. The third
one is DR.. Dix, but the great rector of
Trinity is, in a certain sense, an aseetic.
He is the Episcopal abbot, powerful in
the almost imperial revenues he COM
mands and sanity in the splendid bene-
factions to which he applies them. There
are but few more thoughtful learned
churchmen in the country than DIR. Dix
If his opportunities are great, he has
made great use of them. The talents he
has received, he will return 'tenfold
| This, at least would be the verdict of
contemporaneous human judgment were
, it called to pass upon his deeds.
DR.. Greer's position on what is de-
nounced now as 1.-The great evil and dam
ger of the republic" one of them, at
| least is important. Millionaire Episco-
palians are among the divorce sinners
who are called to do penitence, against
authority with bell and book and candle
| are hurled. 1t ought to do good. and no
doubt it will. DIR. Greers position in his
own words to a friend of mine Is this. II
, recognize the necessity, at times for a
separation where, for any one of the
various reasons the home is impossible
Never, however, should the separation
carry with 1t the privilege of remarriage
in the lifetime of both parties because
~. l.. - H.
broken only by death. Even before sep
aration be granted. every other means
should first be exhausted but. If by rea-
son of brutality or other cause, a separa-
ton offers the only solution, 1t should be
granted, yet never as severing the mar
riage bond or permitting remarriage The
separation, as the Latin phrasing goes,
might be from bed and board, but from
the chain, no. To compass these objects
the churches must first be Interested and
so may come in time to advise and in
fiuence the framing of the civil law. 1t
may be a long time before the views OF
have expressed obtain general practical
acceptance. Yet If they are true-as [
am convinced they are-the time is bound
to come"
Alexander Turney Stewart, the first Of
cur big merchants to whom we prefixed
been dead many year. but his name con-
tinues to turn up IN the news of the day
and, curious to say, always In connection
with something or another. which has
close connection with the wreck and ruin
OF great fortune he accumulated. At
the acme of his strength and aspiration,
he built palace on Fifth avenue, and
decorated 1t with everything best In the
world which money could purchase. In
the way of home, neither the Aston or
the Vanderbilts had anything like It. 1t
was a wonder Of private luxury, although
1t has been since surpassed in splendor
and magnifceroe Stewart had however,
scarcely entered upon its possession when
he was summoned to leave ii and take up
his abode in narrow quarters, In which
the grave robbers would not allow him
pndlsturbed rest, the only rest the grasp
ing, avaricious. ambitious multi-million-
aire had ever experienced Then the pal
ace became practically the prison of his
wife. Judge Hilton. he. too, now dead.
was her jailor, made so by will of her
husband, the prince" with nigh court
decisions, orders and rulings not to be
defied to back 1t. In time. she too was
taken out OF the great house and Ii was
locked up in arlstocratic silence and Sc
clusion. But few In that day could afford
to live in ii, and those who could do so
Ola not want TO SOIL tnelf nDDllily by Nv
ing in the abandoned home of an Irish
emigrant. And so II became. after long
lapse OF time a clubhouse. Years sped on.
and then the club gentlemen went some
where else. Commorcialism Len got on
the track of nearly all that was left of
the greatest commercialist of his genera
tion and ruthessly resolved to tear II
stone form stone, tumble 1t into ruins
and sell the debris for what it would
fetch as rubbish. Poor A. T. Stewart
How the tragedy of the thing would have
affected him. had he lived to see it. But.
after all, he did not build in vain. That,
however, is another story. as Kipling
says. And II Is this: During years and
years, a Roman Catholic pastor In not a
rich part of the city. had been striving to
replace the poor little building where he
performed his ministrations with nobler
edihce. His architectural ambition was
far bigger than the united purse of his
congregation. But he was not to be
thwarted by a little thing like that. His
handsome church he would have. and
when the sale OF the Stewart mansion
rubbish came along he bought cornices
and columns and steps and staircases and
do not know what else for song. IT
was Stewartism on the bargain counter of
his own invention. and the shrewd, de- !