Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1883 — Beecher. [ARTICLE]

Beecher.

When Henry Ward Beecher was editor of the Independent, sixteen yean ago. he wrote a few editorials, but soon got tired of such work, and his name was dropped. Editorial life requires stated labor, which is just what Beecher intensely dislikes. When he wrote for the Ledger his disinclination annoyed Bonner to such » degree that he was compelled to adopt $ new method. This was to send a man to Beecher’s house every week with orders not to leave until the “ copy” wag placed in his hands. Beecher being thus put under siege at first was wont to “ beg off” and make promises, but after a while he found that there was no and hence fulfilled his contract. Bonner paid Beecher during an engagement which lasted only three or four years, nearly $50,000 —including $30,000 for “ Norwood. ” This was then a profitable engagement, but the scandal destroyed the sale of Beecher’s writings, and Bonner dropped him. Beecher has made more money by preaching and writing than any other man that ever stood in the pulpit, and it is hardly probable that his success will ever be equaled. He is really a wonderful man, and his powers, even at 68, seem but little abated.