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Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 15, 1875
The Beecher trial
A Mrs. Turner was the first witness introduced Mon. and testified to Tilton's conduct in his family, etc. Anna Augusta Morse, frequently a guest in Tilton's family, testified to a change in Tilton's religious views, his conduct towards his wife, and irregular habits. To the introduction into his family of persons advocating free love doctrines and various other things not very creditable to Tilton.
/ On Tues. George W. Lincoln testified as follows: I lived in Palton, N.Y. in 1869. I was proprietor of the Beardsley House at Winsted, Ct. and remember Mr. Tilton coming there on a lecturing tour, and he asked me for two rooms adjoining one another, which were given him. I went to Mr. Tilton's room and rapped. I was turning away when the door opened, and I saw Mr. Tilton with his coat, hat and boots off. The young lady was lying on the bed, and appeared to be about 25 years old. When at the dinner table, the conduct of Mr. Tilton and the lady appeared to be very familiar.
/ The next witness was Albert F. Norton, who testified: I live in New Britain, Ct. I was a contractor in Winsted, Ct. and lived at the Beardsley House in Dec. 1869. In passing Mr. Tilton's room on the morning after the lecture, I saw a lady partly dressed in it. This lady attended the lecture with Mr. Tilton. I did not see any book in the room.
/ Samuel F. Belden testified: I asked Mr. Tilton what sort of women Woodhull and Claflin were, and he spoke well of them and did not say anything against them. I told Mr. Tilton that many people thought he was the real author of the charges, and he replied that people could see in the paper that she was the party who first told him. I asked him if Mr. Beecher ever had sexual intercourse with his wife. He replied with uplifted hand, "No, no, my wife is as pure as an angel from heaven"...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 8, 1875
Negroes in Washington City
Negroes in Washington City - Every experiment of the continent has been tested in the inoffensive District, which enshrines the government. Here slavery and freedom began the overture of that forever memorable contest which, in the triumph of the black man's fortunes, has added Africa to the Kindergarten of Christendom, and made an ineffaceable element of the American type these voting children of Ham, to compete with us perhaps, in every field, social, missionary, and heroic. The capital city is also the capital of the African race. Here they are relatively stronger in population, influence and property than anywhere among the Caucasian races. They are of all religions, Catholic as well as Protestant. Their university at Washington is an exalted and striking feature in the landscape. They are employed in almost every department and sit in Congress, and up to this time there has never been a public scandal associated with a negro. The tenacity with which they cling to property is one of the most remarkable manifestations in human development, and although degraded, underpinned, taxed and tempted, they hold to their lots and shanties in the fashionable west end of the city, with a prescience and resolution as notable as that of the poor old woman who gave testimony before the Ku Klux committee, saying "They took me out and beat me free times in dat one night wid hickory swathes an put de rope aroun my neck, an said dey was a gwine for to hang me unless I moved off Mr. ____s farm; but gent'men, I wouldn't gib up my property. Anything, says I, ef I can keep my land". Here it may be added that the statesmen of the African race are nearly all resident in Washington, or in frequent council there, headed of course, by one of the first literary minds which Maryland has produced. I mean Frederick Douglass, a native of Caroline County, on the Eastern Shore, whose years have been spared to realize the extremest transformations of human nature. Once a flogged slave with an African mother, he tempted the alphabet, letter by letter, from boys who have played around the shipyard where he was a mechanic; next the pioneer negro on the English http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/h/h0335200.html hustings , to plead for American emancipation, and bought and redeemed by the audiences he addressed, finally the guest of an American ship of war, and the editor of a newspaper in Washington; and perhaps greater than all, so self respecting as to prefer the post of private duty rather than move into a Southern State for the sake of a Senatorship (Harpers Magazine).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
(Turners Falls) At a meeting of the School Committee on Mon. last, it was voted to lease the hall in the Oakman school house to the new Congregational Society for a term of 3 years, at a rental of $1
(Turners Falls) At a meeting of the School Committee on Mon. last, it was voted to lease the hall in the Oakman school house to the new Congregational Society for a term of 3 years, at a rental of $100 per annum, Mr. Frost dissenting. The chairman of the committee was authorized to execute the lease.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
(Turners Falls) R.N. Oakman, the chairman of the Selectmen, has made a permanent arrangement with the Fitchburg Railroad company by which all legal voters at Turners Falls and Montague City may herea
(Turners Falls) R.N. Oakman, the chairman of the Selectmen, has made a permanent arrangement with the Fitchburg Railroad company by which all legal voters at Turners Falls and Montague City may hereafter attend all town meetings, by passage over their road at half fare.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
(Greenfield) The Greenfield Lyceum attracted another crowd of people on Fri. eve. It being the time for the monthly election, choice was made of the following officers: President, F.G. Fessenden; Fi
(Greenfield) The Greenfield Lyceum attracted another crowd of people on Fri. eve. It being the time for the monthly election, choice was made of the following officers: President, F.G. Fessenden; First Vice President, J.A. Aiken; Second Vice President, D.O. Fisk; Secretary, J.D. Bouker; Treasurer, E.L. Munn; Executive committee, J.H. Sanderson, Miss Jennie M. Rowley, Miss Belle A. Brackett. The literary exercises were opened by the reading of a critique of the previous evening by Miss Carrie Sawyer. It was an admirable paper, abounding in choice hits and witticisms. E.L. Munn, Mrs. C.H. McClellan and Mrs. Chauncey Bryant were appointed a committee of decision on the debate of the eve., and Miss Emily Potter was selected to prepare a critique to be read at the next meeting. The question of discussion, "Resolved, that the Statutes of Massachusetts sufficiently protect the rights of women" was opened in the affirmative by F.M. Thompson, who quotes from the laws to show that the ladies were not only protected, but had privileges that the men did not enjoy. In the absence of the regular disputant, B.S. Parker was called upon to lead the negative. William Elliot, W. Johnson and W.S. Lee gallantly pleaded for further rights for the ladies, while Judge Conant, Edward Barney and Luther Miller recorded themselves on the side of the affirmative. The debate, which was principally a discussion of the suffrage question was made very interesting. The committee of decision gave the argument to the negative, and a vote of the lyceum on the question stood 18 in the affirmative to 19 in the negative. The next feature of the evening’s programme was the reading of the first number of the "Beacon", which was under the editorial direction of Mrs. B.S. Parker. Its varied contents, prepared with excellent taste and care, was listened to with the most pleasing and appreciative attention, and the future numbers of this bright and cultured paper will be eagerly looked for. Mrs. W.S. Severance was appointed to conduct the next copy of the "Beacon", and the question for this week’s discussion will be, "Resolved, that a return to the former District School System in this State would be a benefit to general education", to be opened by J. Johnson in the affirmative and Rev. J.F. Moors in the negative. Dr. C.L. Fisk, Senior will read an essay. The lyceum, which organized with a membership of 7, now has 69, and the audience of the last meeting numbered nearly 200.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
Congressional notes
Congressional notes - By an almost unanimous vote, the additional China subsidy granted to the Pacific Mail company by the now notorious legislation of 1872, has been repealed by the House of Representatives. That is to say, the company retains the half million subsidy obtained for monthly China trips, from Congress in 1865, but is likely to forfeit the extra half million granted in 1872, for the purpose of securing an extra line of iron built American vessels, which were also to make monthly trips, and together with the old line, to establish a semi monthly mail service to China...A joint resolution giving the term of President and Vice President at 6 years, making the President ineligible for re-election, and making the Vice President ineligible to the office of President, when the office has devolved upon him during his term of Vice President, has been defeated in the House...Charles A. Stevens, successor of Alvah Crocker, from the tenth Massachusetts district, arrived at Washington Wed. aft. with his wife and daughter. Hearing that the House was about to vote on the civil rights bill he hurried to the capitol, lest he should lose an opportunity of placing himself on record in favor of the measure. He was sworn on Wed. eve., and up to midnight had already recorded his vote a dozen times...In the Senate, Thurman made a speech against the President’s action on the Louisiana question and Senator Conklin sustained the President and General Sheridan.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 25, 1875
The people of the East Charlemont district are holding a series of Lyceums the present winter, which are a credit to the town. Last Fri. eve., Mrs. Sylvester Smith of coleraine, on invitation of the
The people of the East Charlemont district are holding a series of Lyceums the present winter, which are a credit to the town. Last Fri. eve., Mrs. Sylvester Smith of coleraine, on invitation of the committee on speakers, gave an interesting talk, which was both novel and instructive. After the address the question: "Resolved, that the government bonds ought to be taxed" was discussed. The Lyceum adjourned till next Thurs. eve., when the following question will be discussed: "Resolved, that our government ought to be more in the hands of the farmers and merchants". By a previous vote of the Lyceum, Mr. Z.W. Kemp of Buckland was invited to address the society on the eve. of the 28th. subject: http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1067.htm Professor Tyndall's Prayer http://www.ccel.org/...c09/htm/iv.iv.xv.htm Gauge . All are cordially invited to attend.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 25, 1875
Dedication of Erving's new town hall
Dedication of http://www.northquab.../index_page0005.html Erving 's new town hall - Friday was an important day in the quiet little town of http://www.rootsweb.com/~mafrankl/zerv.html Erving . The morning was a stormy one, rain and snow alternating, and the afternoon came off clear, in time for the parade to assemble for the dedication of the new http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/08.html Town Hall . Whatever may have been the opinion of the citizens of the town to the necessity or practicability of building the Hall, they are now all united in their admiration of the beautiful structure, which in the past few months has been erected in the heart of the village. Several town meetings were held in the spring before an appropriation was carried for the new building; and it was then decided by a very close vote. The first appropriation was $12,000, but at a subsequent meeting $2500 was added, to permit certain changes from the original plan and for furnishing the hall. The following gentlemen were selected as a building committee: E.H. Spring, http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/03.html Charles A. Eddy , http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/12.html M.F.B. Howe , L.L. Perry, W.F. Hanson. The land for the new building was purchased of Danforth Putnam of Orange for $1000. L.L. Perry of http://www.franklinc...ng/everts/index.html Erving was the architect, furnishing all the plans and specifications, and the beautifully proportioned building and its convenient arrangement attest to his good taste and skill. The foundations were put in by Morse and Ward of Orange. The contract for the building was let to George O. Peabody of Turners Falls, who has constructed several of the manfacturing establishments and large buildings of that place. The superintendence of this work was left to his foreman, Chester N. Tyler, and so faithfully has the contract been carried out, that at no time during the construction have the building committee had occasion to complain of any slight in the work. The best material has been used, and the building is a model of thoroughness in every part. Mr. Peabody's original contract was for putting up the building and finishing off the hall for $8400. He was afterwards given $4300 more to finish off two stores in the first story. The building is 50 x 70 ft. outside, two stories high with a French roof. The basement is finished with two rooms that are suitable for a market in the grocery business, and here too has been built a fireproof lockup for the accommodations of rogues or tramps. The first floor above is divided by two stores, 24 x 50, and connected with each is a back room, 29 ft. deep. The Hall is on the second floor, taking in with the gallery the full length and breadth of the building, and measuring 20 ft. in height. The floor is of southern Pine, the woodwork is painted a neat drab, while the walls and ceilings are beautifully frescoed. The stage or platform is made so that it may be extended or contracted. The hall will seat when filled, 500 to 600 persons. It is furnished with Morse's patent [?] manufactured at Athol, and a great improvement to those formerly in use. There are inside blinds to the windows, and a chandelier of 12 lights is suspended in the center of the room. There is nothing about the Hall but what has been dictated with the best of taste. The painting deserves special notice. It was done by the Bartlett Bros. of Turners Falls who employed Germans from Springfield to do the frescoing. There are two anterooms under the gallery. The upper part of the building, well lighted by the French roof, is unfinished. It is proposed someday to fit it up for a Masonic Hall. The brick work of the building was done by Campbell and Hazleton of Turners Falls, and the plastering by R.B.P. Wheeler of Orange. The building is painted a plain white outside, and was slated by a Mr. Johnson of Fitchburg. Mr. Peabody commenced his contract the 11th of July and finished it by the 1st of January, within the prescribed time, and what is more remarkable, within the appropriation, so that the committee find now in their hands an unexpended balance. It shows an honest stewardship on their part and corresponding uprightness in the builder. The building is certainly one in which Erving may take pride; for a better one for the purpose to which it is to be devoted cannot be found in the county, and it will meet a want that has been long felt. The ceremonies of the presentation were presided over by http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/03.html Noah Rankin , and were opened by prayer by Rev. A. Stowell of Erving. Next came a song by a quartette of gentlemen from Orange: A.J. Fisher, William P. Barker, A. Kendall and H.A. Leisure, while Walter Stone of Erving accompanied them on an organ. The singing was exceedingly good, and a very pleasant feature of the programme. The orator of the occasion, George W. Horr, Esq. of Athol, was now introduced to the audience. He announced the theme of his address to be "Towns of Massachusetts: their history in colonial times and under the Constitution of the State and the nation; their influence in shaping, moulding [sic], and perfecting a democratic form of government". He compared the towns organized by the early settlers with those of other countries where they are merely collections of houses with no power for self government. Here each [?] the primary organization was an independent municipality. Counties were here formed long after the towns were organized. He looked upon the instrument signed in the cabin of the Mayflower as the foundation from which was derived the system of State and National governance. The town of Erving cast a vote of 49 to [?] when it elected in 1832 Hon. Whiting Griswold a delegate to the constitutional convention. Erving was originally [?] or plantation, and was purchased in 1751 [?] by http://www.northquab.../index_page0005.html John Erving Esq. of Boston. [?} http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/03.html Asaph White , a prominent and wealthy man of his day [first settler in 1801]. From the record of 18[?], it appears that the total tax for town expenses was $34, and that Col. White, the heaviest tax payer, paid $4.54. The town now has a surplus fund of $900, {?] which is used for school purposes. The speaker [?] unqualified term...commendation...Greene's orchestra from Fitchburg...A letter was read from [?], the only survivor of the first of our town. She lives in the family of Deacon S.W. Dutton of Northfield, who married her...she recalled that when she came to Erving Grant 74 years ago there was no neighbor within two miles. Austin DeWolf Esq. of Greenfield was the next speaker. He had been trying out a road on Bear Mountain, and didn't know why they should call upon him, unless they were carrying out...Mr. DeWolf is the owner of extensive... http://www.frcog.org/emptp.PDF Erving . He had had occasion ...to look over the early records and maps of the township. He found that the Grant contained [?] lots of land...R.N. Oakman Esq. of Montague...H.C. Tenney of Orange...congratulations...Dr. Roswell Field of Gill... http://www.franklinc...rving/everts/08.html blessing ...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 25, 1875
(Greenfield) There are but a few weeks now until our voters will be called upon to make appropriations for the coming year. Although we believe in tight economy in town affairs, we think the town sho
(Greenfield) There are but a few weeks now until our voters will be called upon to make appropriations for the coming year. Although we believe in tight economy in town affairs, we think the town should make some outlay for sewerage. There is a great deal that will have to be done before we have a perfect system. It cannot all be accomplished in one year or two but a beginnning can be made. Let the town appropriate all it can afford for this year for the purpose, and let the work progress from year to year until the end is attained. There is no disguising the fact that our open sewers have become an intolerable nuisance, the source of illness and perhaps death. We want to see the subject fully agitated, and the town take wise and judicious action.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 18, 1875
(Shelburne Falls) Uncle Isaac came out in full force this time, voting for H.M. Burleigh, thinking that he would help achieve one Democratic victory more while yet on earth. Life opens up with new ch
(Shelburne Falls) Uncle Isaac came out in full force this time, voting for H.M. Burleigh, thinking that he would help achieve one Democratic victory more while yet on earth. Life opens up with new chances for him, as the Republicans grow weak in the knees and restless.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 11, 1875
"A Chapter for Women, By a Woman" (poem by M.M.W.)
"A Chapter for Women, By a Woman" (poem by M.M.W.) - "Good gracious, Zeke, what ails our world? / What are our women saying? / Dressed so like dolls, and why those men / So like wild asses braying? / Tut, tut, dear Miss, if you were me / With pretty babes to nourish / Of words, about your "equal rights" / Is simply made of fancy / I'm sure the world no better is / To Jonathan, than Nancy / Indeed, she takes the roughest part / Lets no rude hail storms pelt her / But when life's storms beat cold and hard / Provides for her a shelter / The trouble is, Madam or Miss / Your pride usurps your senses / In good old times, when I was young / We heard none of this whining / Saw not fair forms for "liberty" / Or freedom sadly pining / They found their sphere without the aid / Of Women's sly "Conventions" / And to be faithful in that sphere / Was ever their intentions. / Was it a daughter? She could make / And wash her clothes. A mother? / She could always tend her child / And welcome yet another! / But now adays, alas! alas! / Girls sit all prim and painted / Miss Blank was asked to wash her clothes / And for the insult, fainted! / Her sphere is "higher", yet her ma / Works hard with no assistant / While daughter dear, for wider sphere / Lectures and begs persistent. / As for the married of today / They do not "help", but hinder / A laboring man, as well might burn / His money to a cinder / As to expect his wife to save / Or add to it, a dollar / She'd spend the wages of a week / For one ride, for a collar / And as for children, is he "mad" / To bring such bothers to her? / "No sir, I'll never be tied down / To young ones, sir". Nor do her / Unnatural feelings rest at this / She kills her fine affections / And boasts that she has power to rend / All such unliked connections / And if, by watching faithfully / (Aided by her physician) / She sees a child approaching her / she pleads a better "mission" / Which simply is but visiting / Dressing, http://webtext.libra...2html/music/ci-d.htm piano drumming / So, when the babies start for her / She kills them, while they're coming!!! / "Lo! children are a heritage / From God", the Word declareth / But such a heritage as now / The world most gladly spareth / The precious gifts are counted "plagues" / Few arms with joy enfold them / They Heaven's gifts! Then glad would we / Let Heaven forever hold them" / And yet, such plagues some women need / To bring them to their senses / To keep them in their proper sphere / And kill their vain pretenses / O woman, first learn faithfulness / In labors God ordained you / And never yet a burden gave / Where grace would not sustain you / Then we more readily would yield / for you to build our nation / As yet, we think you've work to do / In your becoming station". Erving, Mass.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 4, 1875
(Greenfield) The Town Clerk drew from the county Treasurer the other day, Greenfield's share of the dog money which had been accumulating 3 years, and which the town voted should be appropriated to
(Greenfield) The Town Clerk drew from the county Treasurer the other day, Greenfield’s share of the dog money which had been accumulating 3 years, and which the town voted should be appropriated to the school fund. It amounted to $747.80.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, December 28, 1874
The West Deerfield Social Union met Dec. 8 at A.R. Hutchins' with the following officers, who serve 4 weeks with the exception of the Secretary and Treasurer, who serve until excused by the Club: Pr
The West Deerfield Social Union met Dec. 8 at A.R. Hutchins' with the following officers, who serve 4 weeks with the exception of the Secretary and Treasurer, who serve until excused by the Club: President, C.D. Wood; Vice President, W.A. Hutchins; Secretary, Hattie S. Robbins; Treasurer, W.A. Hutchins. Executive Committee, Julius Robbins, Filer E. Hutchins, Hattie S. Robbins, [?] Wise, Herbert Andrews and Frank Powers. The Union met Tues eve. Dec. 13 at http://memorialhall....nner&transcription=0 Amasa Jones 's. Then voted to change the time of meeting from one to two weeks with a dramatic entertainment once in 2 months. The Union will meet Tues. eve. Dec. 29, at the house of G.W. Robbins.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, December 28, 1874
(Greenfield) The Greenfield Lyceum, by a unanimous vote at a large meeting, respectfully request that the following letter be published in the various newspapers in Franklin County: [This letter stat
(Greenfield) The Greenfield Lyceum, by a unanimous vote at a large meeting, respectfully request that the following letter be published in the various newspapers in Franklin County: [This letter states that the Club was meeting regularly in the new Court room, but that people in other towns complained, and so the Court house decided to raise the rent for the room so high that the Lyceum could not pay it].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, December 14, 1874
The President's message to Congress...compliment the Chief Executive for his firmness and wisdom...We have been so long accustomed to an inflated currency that we overlook many of its evils...We qui
The President’s message to Congress...compliment the Chief Executive for his firmness and wisdom...We have been so long accustomed to an inflated currency that we overlook many of its evils...We quite forget that what we call a dollar is not a dollar at all. That what we buy with it is not worth more than 88 or 90 cents, whatever the premium on gold may be. The fluctuation of values is one great cause of the present financial depression. It opens the way to speculation and unhealthy traffic. There is a plenty of capital lying idle, a great deal of labor unemployed and natural resources that might engage the activity of both, but still the whole country is suffering from a business stagnation. Now the President would get rid of the legal tender currency that has driven the coin from the country by taking it from its legal tender quality and paying the notes as fast as they may be presented. He would get the specie for this purpose partly by borrowing it, partly by spending less of the revenues and partly by increasing the public income. With the inauguration of specie payments he would inaugurate true banking...The President’s views on other issues are alike sensible and statesmanlike. In the South he proposes to administer the laws impartially as long as he remains President, guaranteeing to all its citizens a right to vote, and says that when the whites make up their minds to treat the negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain, then there will be no occasion for interference from him. Civil service reform he proposes to abandon until Congress sees fit to legislate on the matter. He speaks of our friendly relations with foreign powers and treats briefly the usual topics of a Presidential Message...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, December 7, 1874
Feminine flaws
Feminine flaws - You met a remarkably modest and timid appearing young lady today, and you notice that her http://www.insecula.com/us/oeuvre/O0013845.html hat has a meek and shrinking indentation in the crown. It looks as if it wanted to shun the wicked world and hang itself up in a nunnery. Tomorrow you meet the same lady, and what a change. She appears as daring as Jean of Arc and as independent as the President of a Woman's Congress. And her whole appearance is thus altered by planing up the front of that http://gallery.villa...lery/chapter16/251_G hat . Next day she appears like a brigand. The brim is flattened out and her eyes gleam furiously from underneath as if watching an opportunity to order you to stand and deliver. You see her again, and the rim is turned up behind, while it is very flat in front, giving her an appearance of a female http://content.lib.w...actorsweb/essay.html Solon Shingle , trying to find a customer for that http://memory.loc.go.../S?ammem/rbpebib:@OR(@field(TITLE+@od1(Solon+Shingle!+and+his+great+apple+sass+case++Words+and+music+published+by+Firth+Son+++Co++563+Broadway+N++Y+++++J++E++Owens+as+Solon+Shingle+at+the+Howard+Athenaeum+tonight++[n++d++++))+@field(ALTTITLE+@od1(Solon+Shingle!+and+his+great+apple+sass+case++Words+and+music+published+by+Firth+Son+++Co++563+Broadway+N++Y+++++J++E++Owens+as+Solon+Shingle+at+the+Howard+Athenaeum+tonight++[n++d++++))) "bar'l of apple sass" . Again, and it is pitched on the extreme back of the head, reminding you of Toodles in his cups, when he is assuring the sailor man that when his father heard of the sailor man's death, he went broken hearted to his grave and died there. With all these advantages, it is no wonder that the reigning http://gallery.villa...lery/chapter16/252_G hat is popular. It is comfortable to the head, so they say - and it is an ornament or a disguise as required. It is jaunty, demure, meek, saucy, bold, sly, obstinate, conciliating, tender - whatever you please - everything by turns and nothing long. It is the http://gallery.villa...lery/chapter16/253_G hat of the period, cunning and deceitful, but above all things desperately wicked.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, November 30, 1874
Punkin Pi
Punkin Pi - Punkin Pie is the sass ov Nu England. they are vittles and drink; they are joy on the half-shell, they are glory enuff for one day, and are good kold or warmed up. I would like to be a boy again, just for 60 minnitts and eat myself phull ov the blessed old mixture. Every man who dont luv punkin pi, wants watching clues, for he means to do somethin mean the fust chance he kin git. Giv me all the punkin pi I could eat, when I wuz a boy, and i didn't kare whether Sunday school kept that day or not. And now that I have grown up to manhood, and have run for the legislature once, and only got beat 856 votes, and am thoroly married, there aint nothing I hanker for wuss, and I kan bury quicker, than 2/3 of a good old fashioned punkin pi, an inch and a half thick, and well smelt up, with ginger and nutmeg. Punkin pi is the oldest American beverage I kno ov, and ought to go down to posterity with the trade mark of our grandmothers on it, but i am afraid it won't, for it is tuff even now to find one that tastes in the mouth at all as they did 40 years ago ( http://www.honeybeew...2003/diary122003.htm Josh Billings ).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, November 23, 1874
(Greenfield) Notwithstanding the inclement weather of Fri. eve., there was a large attendance at the meeting of the Greenfield Lyceum. The question for discussion, "Resolved, that the laws for the ob
(Greenfield) Notwithstanding the inclement weather of Fri. eve., there was a large attendance at the meeting of the Greenfield Lyceum. The question for discussion, "Resolved, that the laws for the observance of Lord’s Day ought to be repealed" was opened n the affirmative by E.L. Munn and in the negative by W. Luey, and the debate was participated in by Judge Conant, S.O. Lamb, B.S. Parker, W. Johnson, J. Johnson, E.J. Ruddock, J.B. Whitmore, C.H.G. Miner and others, and finally decided on its merits by the Lyceum by an almost unanimous vote in the negative. At the next meeting Fri. eve., the question will be, "Resolved, that the Prohibitory Liquor Law ought to be repealed", to be opened in the affirmative by W.D. Chandler, and in the negative by J.B. Whitmore. The committee to whom were referred the matter of enlarging the offices of the Lyceum and a permanent place for holding its meetings will report at this meeting, and a new code of bylaws will be presented for adoption.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, November 16, 1874
The women of Europe by Mrs. E.B. Duffey
The women of Europe by http://www.geocities...ace20/etiquette.html Mrs. E.B. Duffey - In those nations of Europe which have attained the highest degree of civilization, women are found enjoying the greatest number of privileges, mingling freely with the other sex, most respected and honored, and most worthy of respect and honor. This is especially true of Germany, England, France, Sweden and Norway. Russia is just passing from a semi-barbarous state into a civilized one. With the reign of the present czar, the nation awoke to a new life. The serfs are already set free, and next follows the emancipation of women. In the higher ranks, women are already permitted to enjoy peculiar privileges, and the emperor has given his voice in favor of the higher education of women. In truth, many Russian women were allowed to depart from their country and become students in German universities, until for political reasons, it was deemed best (whether wisely or unwisely it is not for me to say) to recall them. Sweden and Norway have, until a few years past, presented a strange contrast in the condition of their women. Mayhew tells us that " http://odin.dep.no/o...ex-dok000-b-n-a.html women in Norway occupy a position of superior honor. They have, perhaps, more to do with the real business of life, and more share in those occupations which require the exertion of intellect and study than in England. They enjoy less compliment, but more respect, which all the sensible members of their sex would infinitely prefer. She indeed who provides for a household, under the peculiar domestic arrangements of the country, and presides over its economy, is held in higher estimation. Women, in fact, hold a very just position in http://www.likestill.../english/norway.html Norway , having that influence and participation in its affairs which develop their mental and cultivate their moral qualities. Yet it is far from true that they occupy themselves entirely with the sober business, paying no attention to the elegant arts of life. Many of them adorn themselves also in those lighter accomplishments which gracefully amuse a leisure hour; but they certainly do not exhaust on song or dance, or the embroidery frame, the most valuable powers they possess. The able and observant traveler, Laing, supplies a true picture of their character and position, observing that among the wealthier merchants the state of the female sex is less natural and less to be admired than among the humble classes, which compose the general mass of society. Generally speaking, therefore, women nowhere play a more important part in the affairs of social life, than in that remote and romantic part of Europe. Among the poor the division of labor between the sexes is excellent; all the indoor work is assigned to the women, all the outdoor labor to the men. With respect to the actual morals of Norway, we may assign them the highest rank. The same author from whom I have just quoted, gives the following as the great difference between the institutions of Norway and those of Sweden: "In the former, manners influence the law. In the latter, law attempts to regulate every detail of public manners". The position of women in Sweden has hitherto been an exceedingly inferior one. http://www-rohan.sds...n1/History_Page.html Fredrika Bremer uttered her heartfelt protest against the wrongs done her sex, and others have spoken and are still speaking, so that already these abject conditions are becoming somewhat modified. The present king and queen hold exceedingly liberal ideas and as a consequence, under their rule progress is more rapid. What the condition of women has been in Sweden, and what it no doubt still is, in some degrees may be discovered from the following quotation, also from Mayhew: "Men, says the public law of Sweden, attain their majority at the age of 21 years, but women remain in tutelage during the entire period of their lives, unless the king grants a privilege of exemption; widows, however, are excepted. Men cannot legally marry before the age of 21. Even to this rule there is an exception, for among the peasants of the north it is lawful for a youth of 18 to take a wife. Women may marry immediately after their confirmation, which never takes place before 14. A man may marry without the consent of any one, but a woman must obtain the sanction of her parent or guardian. The condition of women in Sweden is low in comparison with the other countries of Europe, and offers a strong contrast with that which we discover in Norway. Talks are assigned among the humble orders to the female sex, against which true civilization would revolt. They carry sacks, row boats, sift lime, and bear other heavy labors. Among the middle classes they hold an inferior situation; but among the higher, though little respected, they are comparatively free". I have had some conversation with a Swedish lady of intelligence concerning the present status of women in that country, and am gratified to learn that there has been a marked improvement in the condition of women during late years. Those women who show talents of either literature or art, receive great encouragement and the genuine respect of the community. This lady related to me a significant incident concerning higher education for women in Sweden which is really worth repeating. Upsala University [i.e. http://info.uu.se/fa...university.id5D.html Uppsala University ] was opened to admit women, and recently a woman bore off the highest prize which had been accorded to any student for years, if not a generation, whereupon it was immediately decided by those having control over the university that it was not expedient to admit women to its privileges in future. The lady said she thought the public voice would be so strong in protest, that they would be obliged to revoke this decision, especially as royalty was in favor of giving women the best educational advantage. There is a marked contrast in the condition of the women of Germany in the different classes of social life. In the higher classes they are intelligent, refined and exceedingly domestic in character. They show an aptitude for study, and since some of the universities have been thrown open to them, they avail themselves eagerly of the opportunity for thorough education. The present crown princess of Prussia, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, is, in that country, exerting a strong and most beneficial influence upon society in favor of the higher elevation of women. In the middle classes the women are notable housekeepers, and perhaps, more or less the servants of the men with whom they are connected by marriage or ties of blood. The peasant women are mere slaves and beasts of burden. In this lowest rank in life they perform all the drudgery, while their husbands sit idly by, smoking and watching them. Women in Germany may be seen carrying the hod, wheeling handcarts, plowing, hoeing, chopping wood and engaging in all the menial offices of life, from which they are exempted elsewhere. They are even harnessed to the plow and made to do the labor of horses and mules. A traveler in Austria tells us all this, but goes on to say that these women are strong-minded as well as strong handed, and that their nominal masters suffer in every respect in comparison with them; and that if ever the time comes when political equality shall be extended to the lower class, the women will demand their rights at the same time with the physically and mentally weaker men, and will know how to make a good use of them.In all social revolutions this lowest class is always the hardest and the last to reach, but we may hope for a speedy improvement. In the condition of the women of the upper and middle classes, so that Germany will not long stand behind other nations in this certain evidence of advanced civilization. It is difficult to give any definite idea of the condition of the women of France. It is in many respects most favorable and in others most unfavorable. The http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/salic.htm Salic Law , which rules in France, and which totally excludes women from the throne, or from any political power whatsoever, has worked disastrously throughout society. Women are unconsciously degraded in the minds of men by the knowledge of this seclusion, and the laws are in many cases unjust to them. As a further consequence, those women who have aspired to political power have been forced to seek it in unrecognized channels and by unfair means. Forbidden to be stateswomen they have sought to influence statesmen, and to acquire by craft that power which they were forbidden to seek directly. Thus, less than a century ago, we had the spectacle of France ruled by an unscrupulous woman through a weak and dissolute monarch. In business relations women in France stand on an exact equality with men. The husband and wife are partners in business, the wife usually the head of the firm, and evincing her capabilities by the superiority and discretion of her management. Nearly all avenues of industry for which they are physically fitted, are open to women. In home life, if we go out of that great, boiling, seething cauldron of immorality - Paris - we find great happiness and fidelity. Husbands live for the love of their wives, just as in certain other countries wives are enjoined to live for the love of their husbands without any hint of mutual obligation. The family tie is very strong in France, and domestic happiness is perhaps the rule. The education of women in not yet all that it should be. The girl is a prisoner by her mother's side until she is sent to the convent, from which she issues to go to the http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/rmn/rmn38.htm conjugal roof . Even the book education is narrow and superficial - a mere smattering of accomplishments; but of human life and the grand interests of science and the world, the girl knows absolutely nothing. She has been kept jealously from this knowledge as though it would contaminate her. Until this false system of education shall be superseded - until convents shall no longer be the training schools of young girls, and they shall find instead a broad life within coeducational institutions, we shall never know the full capabilities of the French woman. Until that shall be done, and young men shall be taught to look upon all women with respect and consideration, it will probably be found, as it is now, unsafe for any woman to walk alone in the public streets, in broad daylight even. Men and women alike need this education in fellowship. Among the peasant class, French women, like German women, perform much of the drudgery. Indeed this may be said, the world over, of that class which is the farthest removed from complete civilization. I have even seen, in this enlightened America, the wife of a farmer get up at daybreak on a summer morning, chop wood, build fire, draw water, milk one or two cows, and then get breakfast for three or four men who sat idly waiting, and never offered to help her in any way. When I have seen such instances, I have been forced to reflect that we would all be savages still if circumstances had not made us, and that these circumstances seem yet to bring no force to bear on some individuals. The position of women in Spain is one especially humiliating and false. They are kept in ignorance and under restraint, and regarded with suspicion. A recent English writer who has had ample opportunities for witnessing social life in Spain, gives the following account: "In the lower walks of life the Spanish maiden is absolutely a prisoner - the prisoner of her madre or 'tea' [i.e. tia] or aunt - until a kind Providence gives her a husband. No Spanish maiden, however poor, can ever walk alone in the street, even for a few paces; if she do so, her character is gone. She cannot go out to service unless her madre or tea be in the same service; and hence all the 'criadas' or maid servants, are widows, who are allowed to have their children in the master's house under their own eye; or unmarried over 40. The Spanish maiden has her choice of only two walks of life, until married life and a husband's protection become her own. Up to the time of her marriage she may, if her mother and father be alive, go to a tailor's shop each day, returning at night, thus earning a few pence a day, and learning a trade. She is escorted thither and homeward by her mother, whose tottering steps and gray hair often contrast strangely with the upright carriage and stately walk of the daughter by her side. If the Spanish maiden, however, have a mother who is a widow, or who has no settled home with her husband, and is for this cause obliged to go out to service to earn her bread, the maiden will probably be with her mother, and, receiving little or no wages, take an idle share in the household duties, and receive each evening - of course in her madre's presence - the visits of her lover. As to saying a single word, or at least, having a walk or a good English chat alone, the young couple never even dream of such a thing. The mother during this period treats her daughter quite like a child. If she does wrong - no matter though she be on the very eve of marriage - the mother administers a sound beating with her fists, and sometimes even a sound kicking. The Spanish mother has no idea of trusting her daughters, nor does she ever attempt the least religious or moral culture. Her system is to prevent any impropriety simply by external precautions. Mother and daughter, though constantly quarreling, and even coming to blows, are very fond of each other, and the old woman, when they go out shopping together, will carry the heavy basket, or cesta, under the burning sun, that she may not spoil her daughter's queenly walk. Her dull eye, too, will grow moist with a tear, and her worn face will kindle with absolute softness and sweetness, if an English senor express his admiration of her child's magnificent hair or flashing black eyes. The moment, however, that the daughter is married, all this is at an end. The mother, to use a vulgar but expressive phrase, "washes her hands of" her care. From the moment of the completion of the marriage ceremony, the mother declines all responsibility, seldom goes to her daughter's house, and treats her almost as a stranger. "Among the higher classes, although different in kind, the treatment of the young, unmarried maiden is almost as strict. She, too, like her humbler sister, can never have the privilege of seeing her lover in private, and very rarely indeed, if ever, is he admitted into the sala when she is sitting. He may contrive to get a few minutes' chat with her through the barred windows of her sala, but when a Spaniard leads his wife from the altar, he knows no more of her character, attainments and disposition, than does the priest who marries them, and perhaps not so much." With the above graphic description of the life led by Spanish women, and their total want of moral and intellectual culture and discipline, can we wonder that Spain, as a nation, is so degraded, so superstitious and so unstable? The mothers mould the men, and give character to the State. How shall I describe the condition of women in England? In many respects it is as similar to that of women in our own country, that it needs no absolute description, only an indication of points of difference. Among the abject poor, both women and men sink far below the level of degradation and suffering, common to the lowest class in this country. If women in that class have no respect paid to their womenhood, and become mere human machines, the same is true of the men also, with this difference, that between individuals of the two sexes, man is always the master and woman the slave. That is to say, there is always one step below the man which the woman occupies. I need not speak of the injustice which the English common law is guilty of toward women, in nearly all instances in which it recognizes her specially. Every intelligent reader is already familiar with its various details. Besides, public sentiment is fast outgrowing this relic of a barbarous age, and already acts of special legislation are doing the sex tardy justice. But woman's position before the law in England is far inferior to that in the United States. Among the higher classes, women have many social privileges accorded them, and many of them display rare literary and scientific attainments. Some of the choicest scholars, artists and literateurs of the age are English women, whose abilities and performances compare favorably with those of the other sex. The English woman, however, of average attainments, and in the middle walk of life, must lead, as viewed from an American point of view, a monotonous existence. Shut out, as she is, by popular sentiment, from all participation in active life, forbidden in the name of her womanhood to seek a career of her own, her mental growth is stunted, her moral nature developed in abnormal directions, and her energies paralyzed. If she is married, and living in the country, her life must be strictly a domestic one, which can only be varied by indulging in the frivolous pursuits of society, or in the highly enspiriting pastime of district visiting and almoner to the poor. I do not wish to speak lightly of the latter task, only, when viewed as the sole mental and moral relaxation in an otherwise humdrum and narrow life, it seems a little dull, to say the least. But the married woman is, after all, exceedingly fortunate tempered with her single sisters. The unmarried gentlewoman, if left unprotected and without means, has no choice whatever in regard to her future occupation. She must go out as a governess or starve. She would certainly rather do the latter than venture into the many occupations which her more independent and (shall I say it?) sensible American sisters adopt without loss of self-respect or esteem of friends. If she have a little means - even if she be an earl's daughter, or the daughter of a millionaire, she is not likely to have much, unless she is an only child, as the law of primogeniture secures all the real estate to the eldest son; the personal property is needed to start the younger sons in life, and the daughters are not supposed to need more than just enough to secure them from want - she settles down in a narrow home with her maid, and her cat, and her vegetables; becomes intensely respectable, and more narrowed in mind and contracted in ideas as the years roll around. There are tens of thousands of English gentlewomen leading this selfish aimless life, forced thereto by the false ideas of an artificial society, to whom a profession or even a trade, to take their minds and thoughts out of the mean center of their own little worlds and give them an objective interest in life, would awaken them to undreamed of energies, and add a vital force to the physical, intellectual and moral power of the nation. Yet England, with all her conservatism, has taken one step toward radical reform in advance of this country. I refer to household suffrage, in which all possessing a certain qualification, irrespective of sex, are entitled to vote in municipal elections. In these elections women have voted quite as generally as men, and no disastrous results seems to have followed. On the contrary, the positive advantages have been so marked that the fact has proved a strong argument in the mouth of the advocates of female suffrage. However, in a country over which a woman rules, it does not seem incongruous that women should take active part in politics. The strangest thing is that there should be any doubt about the propriety of it. Well, the world moves. What we look forward to today as a goal to be reached, may to a future generation be only a landmark of the past. One thing is certain, as the world goes round, and as nations move in ever ascending circles of progress toward perfect civilization, we behold women becoming freer and freer, and more and more completely recognized as her own mistress, the arbiter of her own fate, and as holding the destiny of the world in her hands. Free men must be mated by free women; and wise men descend from wise mothers.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, November 2, 1874
Interview with
Interview with http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/tiltonbio.htm Theodore and Victory : extracts from "My opinions and Betsey Bobbett's" [by http://www.bartleby.com/227/0205.html Marietta Holley , who was frequently cited as the http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/holley.htm female Mark Twain ]. The young black African opened the door and says "Josiah Allen's wife and Betsey Bobbett, mom". He had asked our names just before he had opened it. http://www.class.csu.../Woodhull/WQart.html Miss Woodhull was a standin' pretty near the door a talkin' with 3 wimmin as we went in. But she came forward immediately and put out her hand. I took it in mine, and shook it a very little, mebby 3 or 4 times back and forth. But she must have felt by that cool, cautious shake that I differed from her in her views, and had come to give her a real talkin' to. One of the wimmin she had been talkin to had just about as noble a face as I ever see, with short white curles a fallin' all around it. The beholder could see by the first glance onto that face, that she hadn't spent all the immortal energies of her soul in makin' clover leaf tattin' or in cuttin' callico up into little pieces just to sew'em together again into blazin' stars and sunflower bed quilts. It was the face of an earnest, noble woman, who had asked God what he wanted her to do, and then hadn't shrinked out of doin' it. Who had grasped hold of life's plow, and hadn't looked back because the furrows turded over pretty hard, and the stumps were thick. She knew by experience that there was never any greensward so hard to break up as our prejudices and custom, and no stumps so hard to get round as the ridicule and misconception of the world. What made her face look so calm, then, when she was doin' all this hard work? Because she knew she was a makin' a clearin' right through the wilderness that in future was goin' to blossom like a rose. She was a givin' her life for others, and nobody ever did this since the days of Jesus, but what somethin' of his peace is written down on their forwards. This is the way http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/bios.htm Elizabeth Cady Stanton looked to me, as Miss Woodhull introduced me and Betsey to her, and to the other two ladies with her. One of the other wimmin I fell in love with at first sight, and I suppose I should have been just so partial to her if she hadn't been as humbly as one of the http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07497a.htm Hottentots in my old http://www.memoriall...telope/1868/five.htm Olney's Geography , and I tell you why; because she was the sister of H.W. Beecher. As a general thing I don't believe in settin' folks up because they happen to have smart relations. In the words of one of our sweetest and noblest writers, "Because a man is born in a stable don't make him a horse" [attributed to http://www.the-villa...HOP.ASP?CAT=6&SUB=76 Duke of Wellington ]. Not as a general thing, it don't...The other lady was smart and sensible lookin', but she was some like me, she won't never be hung for her beauty. This was http://www.hypatiamaze.org/halloween/hallow.html Susan B. Anthony . Betsey Bobbett sot down on a chair pretty nigh the door, but I had considerable talk with Susan. The other two was awful long discussin' some question with Miss Woodhull. Susan said in the course of her remarks that "she had made the Cause of Wimmen's Rights' her husband, and was going to cleave to it till she died"...As I took my seat I see an awful handsome gentleman sittin' on a sofa - with long hair put back behind his ears - that I hadn't ketched sight of before. It was Theodore Tilton, and Miss Woodhull introduced him to Betsey and me. He bowed to Betsey, but he came forward and took my hand in his'en...Says I to Miss Woodhull: "You are right in thinkin' what a solemn thing it is to bring up children in the way they ought to be. What an awful thing it is to bring the little creatures into the world without their votin' on the subject at all, and then neglect 'em, and abuse 'em, and make their poor little days awful long in the world, and then expect them to honor you for it. You are right in your views on health, and wimmen's votin' and et cetery - but you are wrong, Victory, and I don't want you to get mad at me, for I say it with as friendly feelin' as if I was your mother-in-law - you are wrong in this free love business, you are wrong in keepin' house with two husbands at the same time". "Two husbands! It is false, I was divorced from him, and my husband, I found him perishing in the street, and we took him home and we took care of him till he died. Which would the Lord have done, Josiah Allen's wife, passed by on the other side or took pity on him?" "I don't know what the Lord would have done, Victory, but I believe I should have sent him to a good hospittle or tavern, and hired him took care of. I never could stand it to have another husband in the house with me and Josiah. It would seem so kind of curious, something in the circus way. I never could stand it, never!" [Woodward] "What would you say to livin' with a man that forgot every day of his life that he was a man, and sunk himself into a brute. Leaving his young wife of a week to the society of the abandoned? What would you say to abuse that resulted in the birth of an idiot child? Would you endure such a life? Would you live with the animal that he had made himself?..."Hush up, Victory" says I, "women must submit to some things, they can pray, and they can try to let their sorrows lift 'em nearer to heaven, makin' angels of 'em". Here Mr. Tilton spoke up, and says he, "I don't believe in she angels exclusively, I don't see why there shouldn't be he angels, as well as she ones"...{Josiah Allen's wife} "Another thing you are wrong in, Victory, is to think you can be lawfully married without any minister or justice of the peace...I thought after I convinced you that you was in the wrong, I would make you this offer. That if you and http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/blood.htm Col. Blood [ http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/blood.htm Colonel James Harvey Blood ] will go home with Betsey and me, Elder Wesley Minkley shall marry you right in my parlor, and it shan't cost you a cent, for I will pay him myself in dried apples"...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 23, 1870
Nasby [Petroleum V. Nasby, or David Ross Locke] after the Negro vote (from the Toledo Blade)
Nasby [ http://www.harpweek....nth=November&Date=15 Petroleum V. Nasby , or David Ross Locke] after the Negro vote (from the Toledo Blade) - his Harp of Erin Saloon in the 6th ward, New York, made a recruiting station - "The New York World, in a recent ishoo, remarked that the nigger vote must come to us, becoz the dimocrisy had allus had success in managin the ignerent and degradid classees..Father McGrath insisted it be done to wunst, becoz the minut they become dimocrats the way wuz paved for their coming under the speritooal direcshun uv the Catholic church; ...Timmy O'Ryan becoz he had either to incorporate em into our ranks or kill em, and he didn't believe it would pay to raise another riot right now; and I wanted em atached to our party becoz I wanted em in front of my bar regerly. We decided that the shoorest way to get at em wood be to get one nigger interested with us who wood serve as a decoy duck to bring in the others. We wanted a nigger to associate with; to embrace and sich! to show other niggers that we could and would affilyate with em...We caught a sick nigger and hed him in tow three days. We nussed him, and fed him, and hed a doctor for him, which doctor give him medicine and dimocrasy in eqal doses, all of which he seemingly gulped down with ease. We got him on the score of gratitood; and he went away, promisin to jine us, but the 2nd day he came back and laid down on the bar 12 dollars, with the remark that sum wood pay for all the trouble we had bin to on his account. 'What do you mean?' said I sternly, sweeping the money into the drawer, however, to make sure of that. Bustin into a paroxysm uv tears, he remarkt that ez low and mean a nigger ez he wuz, he cooden't reely jine us...'I can't be a dimokrat' he sobbed, 'I can't reely. I have a grey-haired mother livin, and a younger sister! I can't! I can't, for I'm spectably connected!' And he rushed out...All efforts to sekure an Ethiopian to our standard seemed to come to naught, when one morning Johnny O'Shoughnessy came rushin in exclaimin 'I got it', 'Got what?' I askt. 'The nigger we wan'. In the police court, ther's a nigger up for drunkenness, vagrancy, steelin, assault and battery, and some other thing, and ez he hasn't a blasted cent, uv course he'll be sent up in short meter. We kin get him sure, ef we go about it quickly'...Rushin frantically down to the court room, I gave myself ez bail for his appearance, which the judge, who is a politikle friend of mine accepted, without question, and seezin the nigger by the coat collar, I hustled him off to my place in triumph, and seezin a bottle from behind the bar I put it to his lips. The nigger drank with eagernis which gave me hope. 'Now' said I, 'are you willin to allus vote the dimokratc tikket?' The nigger by this time, wuz crazy drunk & swore that he would promise this. 'Gib me some mo' dat whiskey' he loudly shrieked' [It goes on in this vein; they call a colored convention, but their man is too drunk to speak, and when he sobers up, he refuses to do it. Finally, after a barrel of liquor is wasted on this guy, he is sent back to jail for a year or two. He remarks "It's hard, but it's better than wat yoo proposed"]
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 7, 1874
A New York view of the Beecher
A New York view of the Beecher-Tilton matter - Whoever has read, as to some extent I have been professionally reuqired to do, the papers of different sections of the country for the last few months, can hardly have failed to notice that where Mr. Beecher is best known the least weight has been given to the scandals propagated so sedulously against him, while, where he is less personally known, they have been felt to cast a darker shadow over his name. In this city no reptuable paper except the Daily Graphic (is that a reputable paper?) has pretended to give them sanction, while The World, in New York, and the Eagle, in Brooklyn, both particularly hostile to Mr. Beecher, have been, throughout, among his staunchest defenders. It would be difficult to find a single clergyman or a single well-known businessman in the community who gives any credence to the accusations of Mr. Tilton. I mingle naturally largely with conservative men, who are not personally attached to Mr. Beecher, many of whom were heartily opposed to his anti-slavery course, and to him his peculiar methods are distasteful, and I have yet to hear one who does not believe that he has been the victim, in part, of the cunning of his foes, and in part of the unwise trustfulness and the undue charity of his own nature. In the http://www.picturehi...ind/p/1859/mcms.html Union League Club , where Mr. Moulton and Mr. Carpenter are both personally known, and where for two years Mr. Moulton has been whispering mysteriously that he was in possession of tremendous secrets, and that Mr. Beecher "is under my thumb", it would be difficult to find half a dozen men of any character who attach any weight whatever to anything Mr. Tilton has said, or that Mr. Moulton can say, unless supplied by strong corroborative testimony. I propose in this article to give the readers of the Advance a history of this case as it appears to the New Yorker. In this history I shall state some facts not in evidence, but nothing on newspaper gossip, nothing that I do not know personally or on testimony that is unquestionable and direct. It is no secret here that Mr. Tilton has been for 10 years animated by an ill-concealed animosity to Mr. Beecher, incited by envy, and aggravated by Mr. Beecher's increasing popularity and his own rapid downfall and accumulating disasters. For years, Mr. Beecher's best friends have endeavored to persuade him of the fact - in vain. He "thinketh no evil", and carries his disregard of prejudicial rumors and stories to the extent of shutting his ears against well-authenticated evidence, and always has. Mr. Tilton began his attack on Mr. Beecher in Plymouth Church itself, for holding on to the Home Missionary Society after the American Missionary Association was organized...The next attack was at a Woman's Suffrage meeting, if I remember aright, in Dr. Cheever's church. Mr. Beecher quoted from a little Bible or Testament in his hand. Mr. Tilton picked it up, and following Mr. Beecher, quoted from its fly leaf the words which showed it a gift from some lady, and made it the theme of what was, at the least, an unseemly witticism. Mr. Beecher repelled it with a quiet dignity which those who witnessed the scene will not soon forget. When the famous trio retired from the Independent and Mr. Beecher became its editor, it was only to make a place for Theodore, whom he had almost adopted, and whom he loved as his own son. And when, at the close of the war, Mr. Beecher, misled, as I thought then and still think, adhered to President Johnson after the rest of the Republicans had withdrawn from his support, and wrote that true but unwise Cleveland letter, Mr. Tilton seized his opportunity to prove what he had often before publicly asserted, that Mr. Beecher had done his work, and other younger men were coming up to take his place. He ceased the publication of Mr. Beecher's sermons, and commenced a series of editorial criticisms upon him. The public, who were not behind the scenes, as I happened to be, thought that Mr. Beecher had, in a pique, to punish the Independent for the Independence of its editor, withdrawn his sermons, and I suppose there are multitudes who think so to this day...It was no secret that Mr. Tilton, the editor of a temperance paper, was accustomed to drink his wine, at Delmonico dinners; the editor of an evangelical newspaper disavowed belief in the evangelical creed and sympathy with evangelical people; the editor of a religious paper became a habitue of the French theater, and he was currently beleived to carry his devotion to the drama to attendance behind the scenes and to personal acquaintance with the popular actresses of the day. The stories which were brought to Beecher, and on which he advised Tilton's dismissal, were common talk in Brooklyn and New York, and the rest of the world was never charitable enough to believe them untrue. It does not to this day. Tilton's ambition had been to be the leader of a new movement in church and State, a party whose social principles involved the dissolution of the household; a religion without a church, a Bible, or a Christ. And he did not abandon the ambition when the editorial chair of the Independent was taken from him. The Golden Age became the prophet of the new unformed organism. Moulton became the treasurer of the new paper. A fellow student of Tilton's, a man of analogous mold, like him a born sensationalist, like him always histrionic, like him, as a leading citizen described him to me recently, "always on the boards", he gave Tilton the assurance that whatever funds were wanted for the Golden Age should be forthcoming. And on that assurance it was started. But from first to last the Golden Age was a failure. Experiment proved that it was not Tilton that had kept up the Independent, but the Independent that had kept up Tilton...The appeal to the Spiritualists, the cajolery of the anti-church and anti-Christian portion of the community, the sharp satire on religious work and religious institutions, and the mild-mannered silence respecting licentiousness and intemperance, the scarcely concealed advocacy of http://www.bookslut....n/2003_06_000460.php free love , the impetuous devotion to the Greeley cause, and finally the novel, were all failures and the Golden Age was golden only because of the gold it swallowed up, never because of the golden eggs it laid. Meanwhile the Christian Union, assumed now by Beecher, "whose work was finished, and whose place was to be taken by younger men", ran up in 3 years or so from three thousand to a hundred and twenty thousand circulation. He that knows http://www.antjeschr...hull/fotogalerie.htm Theodore Tilton , and how with him vanity has always been a mania, can understand how embittering to him would be such an unexpected issue. He who knows Beecher, and how ill success and misfortune always appeal to his kindlier nature, can understand the charity which, to those who do not know it, seems like fear, and irresolution, and moral weakness and even the sign of guilt. It was just like Beecher to impose himself between Theodore Tilton and the consequences of his own folly, and trust by love and patience to win him back to parity and truth. He believes that love is omnipotent. He has tried his philosophy and it has failed...Beecher...is about the most trustful man I ever knew. His knowledge of human nature is never set to watch over his own personal interests. He never distrusted Theodore Tilton till the publciation of the letter to Dr. Bacon in the Golden Age, and never distrusted Moulton till Moulton's refusal to give to him his own papers...In his earlier ministry, and until experience and a prudent wife had taught him better, he was an easy prey to beggars...He is always on the side of the weak - instinctively...Beecher's whole heart went out to the bankrupt Tilton...It was just like him to pay money, time after time, and finally in one sum, $5000, to set the fallen friend up again. And it was just like him to fire at the first threat of blackmail, to dare the worst when no longer his good nature, but his fears were threatened, and to demand a searching inquisition of all that could be said or had been said against him. If his course was weak, it was the weakness of a charity too large and too unsuspecting. If it was fear, it was fear for others - for a friend he fain would save, for a woman crazed by her own wrongs, whom he would protect from the madness of her own husband...I put my name to this article that your readers may understand the more clearly that it is the reflection of another's views, not of your own. But you and they may be sure that it reflects the better judgment of all the better classes in the city where this extraordinary drama has been enacting. http://www.havelshou...20Leaders%20A-AK.htm Lyman Abbott .
- Mon, Dec 1, 2008
