第41章 Baptism Under Fire (3)

That is likewise possible.But I have a feeling that Storrs has some reason for wishing to repudiate his views on this subject just at this time.What it is I do not, of course, know, but his vehemence makes me think so.I think I should let him have his rein.Keep you quiet.It may damage you a little here and there, but in the end it won't harm you.In the main point, you are right.You are not a forger.The sentiments are his and he uttered them, and he should stand by them.He threatens to bring you into court, I see from to-day's paper.Wait until he does so."Bok, chancing to meet Doctor Talmage, told him Mr.Beecher's advice, and he endorsed it."Remember, boy," said Doctor Talmage, "silence is never so golden as when you are under fire.I know, for I have been there, as you know, more than once.Keep quiet; and always believe this: that there is a great deal of common sense abroad in the world, and a man is always safe in trusting it to do him justice."They were not pleasant and easy days for Bok, for Doctor Storrs kept up the din for several days.Bok waited for the word to appear in court.

But this never came, and the matter soon died down and out.And, although Bok met the clergyman several times afterward in the years that followed, no reference was ever made by him to the incident.

But Edward Bok had learned a valuable lesson of silence under fire--an experience that was to stand him in good stead when he was again publicly attacked not long afterward.

This occurred in connection with a notable anniversary celebration in honor of Henry Ward Beecher, in which the entire city of Brooklyn was to participate.It was to mark a mile-stone in Mr.Beecher's ministry and in his pastorate of Plymouth Church.Bok planned a worldwide tribute to the famed clergyman: he would get the most distinguished men and women of this and other countries to express their esteem for the Plymouth pastor in written congratulations, and he would bind these into a volume for presentation to Mr.Beecher on the occasion.He consulted members of the Beecher family, and, with their acquiescence, began to assemble the material.He was in the midst of the work when Henry Ward Beecher passed away.Bok felt that the tributes already received were too wonderful to be lost to the world, and, after again consulting Mrs.Beecher and her children, he determined to finish the collection and publish it as a memorial for private distribution.After a prodigious correspondence, the work was at last completed; and in June, 1887, the volume was published, in a limited edition of five hundred copies.Bok distributed copies of the volume to the members of Mr.Beecher's family, he had orders from Mr.Beecher's friends, one hundred copies were offered to the American public and one hundred copies were issued in an English edition.

With such a figure to whom to do honor, the contributors, of course, included the foremost men and women of the time.Grover Cleveland was then President of the United States, and his tribute was a notable one.

Mr.Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Pasteur, Canon Farrar, Bartholdi, Salvini, and a score of others represented English and European opinion.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, T.De Witt Talmage, Robert G.Ingersoll, Charles Dudley Warner, General Sherman, Julia Ward Howe, Andrew Carnegie, Edwin Booth, Rutherford B.Hayes--there was scarcely a leader of thought and of action of that day unrepresented.

The edition was, of course, quickly exhausted; and when to-day a copy occasionally appears at an auction sale, it is sold at a high price.

The newspapers gave very large space to the distinguished memorial, and this fact angered a journalist, Joseph Howard, Junior, a man at one time close to Mr.Beecher, who had befriended him.Howard had planned to be the first in the field with a hastily prepared biography of the great preacher, and he felt that Bok had forestalled him.Forthwith, he launched a vicious attack on the compiler of the memorial, accusing him of "making money out of Henry Ward Beecher's dead body" and of "seriously offending the family of Mr.Beecher, who had had no say in the memorial, which was therefore without authority, and hence extremely distasteful to all."Howard had convinced a number of editors of the justice of his position, and so he secured a wide publication for his attack.For the second time, Edward Bok was under fire, and remembering his action on the previous occasion, he again remained silent, and again the argument was put forth that his silence implied guilt.But Mrs.Beecher and members of the Beecher family did not observe silence, and quickly proved that not only had Bok compiled the memorial as a labor of love and had lost money on it, but that he had the full consent of the family in its preparation.

When, shortly afterward, Howard's hastily compiled "biography" of Mr.

Beecher appeared, a reporter asked Mrs.Beecher whether she and her family had found it accurate.

"Accurate, my child," said Mrs.Beecher."Why, it is so accurate in its absolute falsity that neither I nor the boys can find one fact or date given correctly, although we have studied it for two days.Even the year of Mr.Beecher's birth is wrong, and that is the smallest error!"Edward Bok little dreamed that these two experiences with public criticism were to serve him as a foretaste of future attacks when he would get the benefit of hundreds of pencils especially sharpened for him.