Year: 1874




Ninety-nine years ago there was born in
New Haven, Conn, child who was des-
tined to become one of the foremost preach
ers of his day and the father of numerous
progeny, many Of whom are no less distin-
guished than he was himself Out of the
thirteen children of DIR. Lyman Beecher-one
of whom died in infancy, and another, the
Rev. George Beecher, was killed by the acci.
dental discharge of his own gun while still a
young man--eight are well known all over
the country The most eminent member Of
the family is the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher,
whose unfortunate complication with the
Tfltons is now the source of so much scandal.
1t is unnecessary to review his public career,
even for the purpose of contrasting it with
that of the other Beechers; but we must be
excused for remarking that, as Livingston
street was his Golgotha, so has there been a
place of skeletons for nearly every one of the
eminent Beechers. The fathers popularity
of playing s'Auld Lang Syne" on his fiddle
or dancing the "double shuttle after SER
mon seems to have been transmitted in one
form or another to each of his children, and
nearly all Of them have at some time acquired
notoriety by freak characteristic of this re-
markably family


After Henry Ward Beecher. Harriet Beecher
Stowe is the most eminent of old DR..
Beechers children. Married early in life she
was at first absorbed in her domestic affairs,
and she showed no decided literary genius till
she was forty years of age. But in 1852,
when everybody believed that slavery agita-
ton was ended by the repeal of the Missouri
compromise, she gave abolitionism new inn
petus by the publication of her remarkable
story of ''Uncle Toms Cabin" The success
of that novel was simply marvellous, and the
story still remains unsurpassed as picture Of
the old slave life in the South. In her subse-
quent works, however, Mrs Stowe has showed
only mediocre talent, and she has fatally
blurred her reputation by her famous vindiea-
ton of Lady Byron. AS vindication it can
only be called Beecherion, and it was, in fact,
only relation of the gossip she had gathered
from the woman Lord Byron once called his
wife. The Beecher sisters have singular
knack Of dealing with the domestic affairs of
others, and even Miss Catherine Beecher once
wrote book called ''Truth Stranger Than
Fiction" in which she gave an account of an
infelicitons complication in which some of
her friends were involved. A more remark
able illustration of this singular faculty than
either Of these is found in the conduct of Mrs.
Isabella Beecher Hooker in regard to the
calamity which had overtaken her brother.
According to the letters exhibited as part OF
the Moulton statement Mrs. Hooker sent her
enfeebled husband abroad, possibly to die,
while she remained behind to save her brother
Henry and vindicate that fragrant essence of
womanhood, Mrs. Victoria Woodruff, for her
assaults upon his character. This proposition
was not more astounding than the method by
which such wonderful results were to be
achieved. 'But if it is essentially true" says
Mrs. Hooker to Mr.. Beecher, speaking of the
story about which we have recently had so
much testimony, ''there is but one honorable
way to meet it, in my judgment, and the pre-
else method occurred to me in bed this morn
ing and / was about writing you to suggest it
when your letter came will write you sis
terly letter, expressing my deep conviction
that this whole subject needs the most earnest
and chaste discussion; that my own mind
has long been occupied with it, but
is still in doubt on many points that
1 have observed for years that your reading
and thinking have been profound on this and
| kindred subjects, and now the time has come
for you to give the world, through your own
paper, the conclusions you have reached and
the reasons therefor If you choose, will
then reply to each letter, giving the woman S
view-for there is surely mans and a
woman's side to this beyond everywhere
else-and by this means attention will be di-
verted from personalities and concentrated on
social philosophy-the one subject that now
ought to occupy all thinking minds" This
was sisterly as no sister ever wrote to brother
before, and people must belong to a very re-
markable family, indeed, where one can rec
ommend such course to another in mat
ter of such great moment


! The youngest OF the Beechers, cast in the
shade as he is by his more eminent brothers
and sisters, seems to have monopolized the
common sense of the family. This is the Rev.
Thomas X. Beecher. Henry tells his sister
Belle that they are nearer together than any Of
their brothers and sisters. About the same
time Belle writes to her brother Tom speak
ing of Mrs. Tilton, that it was Henry
"who has dragged the dear child into
the slough and left her there and
who is now sending another woman to prison
who is innocent of all crime but q fanaticism
for the truth as revealed to her, and I, by my
silence, am consenting unto her death" The
other woman was Mrs. Woodruff, for whom
Mrs. Hooker declares her heart bleeds as for
her own flesh and blood. But Tom is of the
sturdy sort. He is evidently man who sees
the hard corners of truth very plainly and ex-
presses what he thinks very clearly. ''ln my