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VOLUME I. NUMBER 3.
TAUGHT IN
PULPIT AND
ON STAGE
Strange Dual Personality Was
That of Wright Lorimer, Pas
tor and Actor, Who Believed
He Had a Message to Deliver,
and After What He Considered
v Failure Died by His Own Hand,
-y —"
HEW YORK.—Wright Lori
mer, actor, lived a dual
personality. He died a
mystery.
Upon the man-shape
mound which marks his
new-made grave In God's Acre, a lit
tle way out from the sleepy drone ot
Dana, Mass., two offerings ot flowers
rest side by side —one the remem
brance of a friend of Lorimer, the
star of the drama, the other the token
of a friend of Lowell, the pastor of a
flock.
Lorimer was both. He lived his
life along parallel lines, He believed
, he was called to deliver a message to
\ mankind. But. while knowing In
\which direction his life work lay, he
las not so certain how he should
*4tlay his part. And so he told his
story, now to a congregation In a lit
tle church with helpful voices in the
organ loft, and now to an audience in
a theater, with orchestra in front of
the footlights. He was dramatic in
the pulpit, he preached from the
stage.
And at thirty-seven, believing that
he bad failed in his mission, he fixed
a day on which it should end, and
died tragically.
One may not write the full story
of this actor-preacher’s mysterious
life. There are gaps in It which are
hard to bridge, as there are things in
it which are hard to explain.
May Be Story of His Life,
It may be that in the novel “Against
*he Tide,” which he himSeif penned
during his early ministry, and which
strangely turns up just after his
death, the story is told. Rev. Dr.
Baldwin, a Baptist clergyman of Troy,
who prepared the preface to It, says
that it is.
While he, whom theater goers knew
as Lorimer, was ttill a slip of a boy
in Athol. Mass., he was left an or
phan. A family of the name of Low
ell. at Cape Elizabeth, up the bleak
Maine coast near Portland, adopted
him and gave him the name—Walter
M. S. Lowell—by which, in turn, he
was known.
A fund was forthcoming to educate
him —a fund large enough" to see him
through Colgate university and per
mit him to enjoy the broadening ad
vantages of Oxford university, Eng
land. As a student he became an
idealist. He took a step to the seri
ous.
Returning to this country he enter
ed the ministry, believing, as he said,
that one whom kindly fortune had
favored with an education should use
his talents in a field wherein there
was an opportunity to uplift others.
His first pastorate, as the story now
is told, was in the arsenal town of
Watervliet, a suburb of Troy, in 1902,
where he was admired alike for the
fervor of his oratory and his earnest
ness and enthusiasm in the service of
his flock.
Ability Manifest.
At the start he gave evidence of
ability to fill all the requirements of
a leader among his people, but later
on, whether from Inexperience—he
was scarcely more than a youth—or
a failure to realize that a struggling
church organization requires careful
financing, he became involved in
money difficulties. They were simply
the ordinary embarrassments that any
young minister is apt to meet, and
which some knowledge of business
would have adjusted without serious
friction. To young Lowell they were
as a millstone about his neck.
Suddenly, and scarcely without no
tice, the young minister announced his
Intention of resigning his charge. Soon
he went away.
It is unimportant to set down in
order the list of the other pulpits
which he filled. The interesting fact
is that his failure to achieve a real
success at the start did not discourage
him or turn him to other things. He
preached to the people of the coal
mining community of Honesdale and
later ministered to the congregation
of the Baptist church of North Scran
ton. In the latter town his sermons
shot wide of the Baptist doctrine and
there was a severance of relations be
tween church and pastor.
Turns to the Stage.
From this time on until he finally
transferred his work from the pulpit
to the stage, a struggle was going on
within him as to how he might best
Hvo according to his Ideals. The
pulpit still continued to call him. but
he began to have doubts as to his own
She guileful
ability to accomplish in his chosen
field the good that he felt should come
from his efforts. He wanted to in
spire men to well-doing in away that
was new.
While he was still a minister in
Groton. Mass., whither he went from
Pennsylvania, and In Richmond Hill,
the Brooklyn suburb, he began work
ing on a play.
All through his life be had a fond
ness for Bibltcal art. It inspired him.
He became convinced that the subject
and the spirit of a great painting
could be given a dramatic setting and
made to do the work he, with indiffer
ent success, had sought to do in the
pulpit
He saw a picture one day In which
was a figure of a young shepherd and
some sheep. It was entitled "David
Watching His Father's Flocks on the
Hills of Hebron.” The story of young
David was familiar to him. He had
read it and preached from It. He set
about to make a stage character of it
—and succeeded. He called the play
"The Shepherd King." Others aided
him. but it was his thought.
Considered Play Taught Lesson.
“I do not know if the dramatic-pos
sibilities of the character of David
have ever occurred to a playwright or
an author before,” he confided to
friends who knew of his ambitions,
“but to me the story from a dramatic
point of view is intensely interesting.
There is every known passion that
can enter into a stage portrayal —
love, envy, hatred, malice, jealousy,
joy and courage are all set forth in
the story of David. It teaches a les
son such as I have tried to teach.
For three seasons he played David
in "The Shepherd King.” It was
profitable in a money way, and to him
a satisfaction, for he felt that he
could so Interpret the Bible character
as to make it a portrayal worthy of
one who had started out in life to
preach the gospel.
In the booking of the play he had
the opportunity of appearing more
than once in cities where, under other
conditions, he had appealed to the
people.
On the occasion of his professional
appearance In the opera house at
Troy he was warmly received by
members of his former congregation.
In Scranton old parishioners came by
his invitation to the stage and dined
with him amid scenes showing the
country of David. He told them he
had transferred his ministry to the
stage.
Defended His Course.
“I beg of you not to upbraid me for
doing this,” he said, “for the inspira
tion which came to me when I stood
alone in my pulpit and preached to
you is still my inspiration in the
drama, and I am quite certain that my
success, which is now of larger meas
ure than it used to be. is productive
of even greater good than it used to
be.”
When he was at the height of bls
tage success and his purse was well
filled, Lorimer lived in fine hotel
apartments, in which his taste for the
artistic In furniture, art and draperies
was seen In many rare examples. His
library was valued at that time at
not less that SIO,OOO. and no volume
on his shelves was prized so highly
as the Bible, book marked at the text
of his last sermon, which he kept for
daily reading.
The dark days came to Lorimer the
second time in his Use when he got
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1912.
into a legal controversy over the
rights of the play in which he had
successfully starred. The play was
withdrawn from the stage and, not
withstanding his best efforts, he could
not again secure ..employment in a
role such as he had come to believe
he was fitted by nature to interpret
Planned Return to Pulpit.
Then, for a time, reduced in cir
cumstances and forced to withdraw
from the society of those who enjoy
ed his fair weather companionship,
Lorimer thought he again heard the
call of the pulpit. He spoke to one
or two of his friends about it and
they discouraged him, saying that
having abandoned the pulpit for the
stage the church folk would not be
likely to accept him again. With that
be abandoned the idea and set about
looking for another play in which the
religious theme was dominant.
Still holding to the idea ot teach
ing a moral lesson from the stage,
Lorimer’s final c^ort was with a play
let called “The Crucifix.” It did not
succeed, and in his de-nondency the
young enthusiast ended bis life.
The discovery of the novel came as
a strange coincidence on the day that
the actor-preacher’s body was borne
to its final resting place.
OPPOSED USE OF THE FORK
For Many Years After Its Introduc
tion It Was Considered an Ab
surd Affectation.
The Italians, with their delicate
good taste, were responsible for the
substitution of forks for fingers, but
it is difficult to trace their use there
further back than the time corre
sponding to the reign of Queen Eliza
beth, and then they were not widely
known.
In some parts of Europe forks were
considered a useless luxury and sinful
indulgence and were for a long time
under a ban of the clerics, though
these latter eventually had to give
way and tolerate their use by those
who wished to keep their fingers
clean.
In Germany the ordinary people re
garded the innovation an absurd af
fectation, while the clerics considered
them an insult to Providence, who
had given man wholesome food which
he ought not to be ashamed to touch
with his fingers. In courtly France,
however, forks were a welcome addi
tion and speedily became popular.
The custom in England was of very
slow growth. In the reign of James I.
and Charles I. the fork wis only par
tially used, according to the writers
of those periods, and even under the
commonwealth honors were equally
divided between them and fingers.
Later on, at the Restoration, their
use became more general, but people
were by no means agreed on the best
method of handling them, and rules
were soon formulated for guidance, so
that genteel persons could pride them
selves on the nice conduct of the fork
after the manner observed at court.
Yet it is difficult to overcome the
prejudices of old customs, and the
satirists of the day often amused
themselves describing the awkward
ness of their country cousins who, on
visiting town and using the Instru
ment for the first time, thrust the
morsel they had transfixed over the
shoulder, while their fingers, from
force of habit found their way into
their mouths.
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