Year: 1876

NEW YORK, feD. ~, 1870.


The events that are constantly occurring in
real life far surpass any thing in fiction or dra-
ma, in point of interest and sensational effect.
This week we have had an unusual display Of
striking tableaux and highly imposing situa-
tons. Among them may be cited as eliciting
universal concern. 1. the Ecclesiastical Council
in Brooklyn. III. the political trial in st. Louis,
LII. the prosecution of the great ring robber of
New York. place them in the order of their
consequence. Undoubtedly the Plymouth
church affair commands much more general
and Intense thought than any other that has
occupied the public mind in a great while.
There are numerous reasons why it should.
Some of them are creditable to human nature,
and some decidedly the reverse. 1t is a good
sign to see people solicitous about the reputa-
ton of man who is By unanimous admission
the most eloquent and gifted of all living
preachers. 1t is good sign also to note the
jealous watchfulness with which personal
rights are guarded under the po.ity of Congre
gationalism.


There are multitudes Of honest, earnest sin
cere persons noting every stage in the proceed
ings of this convocation, desiring above all
buluSo tudt lGo Will EC5ult III res
cuing great name from the detlement of vul.
gar tattle and brutal defamation. They are
Just as anxious that Plymouth church, in rid.
ding itself of couple of members whose very
names fill the air they breath with pestilential
odors, shall not transgress or invade any law of
church government. The man and the woman
whose proposed expulsion from the society has
caused all this fuss, are of no account whatev-
er, but they have acquired an adyentitious inn
portance by the association of their names with
that of the object Of their calamnies To sens-
tive natures such an unenviable notority would
be positively galliog, but slanderers are not
presumed to be troubled with any excessive
degree of susceptibility. So far as they are
concerned it doesu't matter particle whether
they are contemptuously dropped from the roll
without further ceremony, or whether they are
disciplined for lying and driven out by the
formality of vote of the parish. But the Con-
gregationalsts want to be sure that no preced-
ent is established in this case, that may at
some future time affect the privileges of less
Objectionable people, who may chance to fall
within the purview of theological correction.


Then again, it is an indisputable fact that the
popular appetite for scandal has grown by
what it fed upon SO long, that it has become ex-
cessively purient and Unsuitable. 1t certainly
has been nurtured and stimulated for the past
few years beyond all historic precedent. The
newspapers nowadays devote whole columns
of every issue to matters that no decent print
would have ventured to hint thing about
generation ago. That is one of the reasons be-
yond all peradventure, which has kept this
Brooklyn scan. mag. current for such length
of time.


L had no idea when the Council met that
any new fact would come to the surface. 1t
didn't seem possible that further light could be
thrown upon the lurid scene. But Oliver
johnson has contributed brief chapter to the
history, which literally epitomizes the whole of
it. He has known from the beginning all there
was to know. He was associated with Bowen
and Tilton in the 'Independent' during all
the years when the conspiracy ag inst Beecher
was being Matched. He had heard ths imputa-
tions of Bowen repeated so often that he actu-
ally believed them TO be true. But he found
out after while that they were all coined in
one mint. In short he discovered that Bowen
was false-hearted, malignant and men,
dacious sneak that his pretended knowl-
edge of Beecher's impurity was fabricated, and
that he and be alone filled the mind of Tilton
with the groundless suspicious which ultimate
ly brought ruin to him and his household and
sorrow to all Christendom. He ascertained not
merely that Bowen was without evidence to
support his allegations, but that he had re-
sorted to extraordinary eontrivances to get
some inculpatory points which he could use
against his pastor. This morbid sentiment took
such hold of his mean nature that he became
an easy prey to any adventurer who approached
him with an intimation that he could give him
a clew by which he could follow Mr.. Beecher


One of these sharpers lured him to bagnio
for three successive evenings on the promise
of showing him the sight he so ached to be-
hold, and ne was coolly told when his weary
vigil was over and good deal of his money
gone, that nobody on those premises ever saw
the person he was looking for.


Now Oliver johnson knows all the parties
and all the facts of this whole affair from be-
ginning to end. But he never stated them so