D. L. Bingham---Manchester’s Grand Old Man. 
(This article was printed in the Sunday Globe (Boston) of October 30, 1910.) 
Manchester, Mass., has been 
noted for many years for producing 
men of exceptional calibre, men 
_ who have gone out into the world 
and done things, and she also has 
the reputation of having more men 
of greater longevity than any other 
town in proportion to its population 
in the United States. Anyway, 
there are none to gainsay that she 
has today the oldest active libra- 
rian in America in her respected 
and revered citizen, Dulucena L. 
Bingham, who, if he lives until the 
llth of November will be 96 years 
of age. 
Although nearing the century 
mark, Mr. Bingham seems many 
vears yourger, and thouzh he has 
failed considerably during the past 
two years, he is still able to walk 
down to the library from his home 
and back each pleasant day, a dis- 
tance of half a mile, which he does 
without much fatigue, and when a 
reporter called recently he found 
the venerable librarian busily em- 
ployed in clearing up his garden 
and making things snug for the 
winter. 
Mr. Bingham was ready to talk 
and paused in his labors long 
enough to indulge in some personal 
reminiscences of anti-slavery days 
when he and a handful of other 
men whose names have since _ be- 
come world famous, took up the 
fight for the abolition of slavery 
fearlessly, facing odds which we in 
this enlightened day and generation 
can scarcely comprehend. ; 
Mr. Bingham’s earliest library 
work was with the old Manchester 
lyceum, and it was under their 
auspices that many very promineni. 
men were brought to Manchester in 
the anti-slavery days and red-hot 
meetings were of frequent occur- 
rence. The venerable librarian still 
has very vivid recollections of such 
men as William Lloyd Garrison, 
Daniel Webster, Wendell Phillips 
and a host of others, and he throws 
some very interesting side lights on 
the lives and characters of those 
men. 
*‘T remember Mr. Garrison well,’’ 
said Mr. Bingham. ‘‘He came to 
Manchester to lecture before the ly- 
ceum at my invitation, and he was 
my guest at my house during his 
stay here. The impression among 
the people seemed to be that Mr. 
Garrison was of a erusty and gen- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
erally disagreeable disposition, but 
nothing could be further from the 
truth. I found him a most agree- 
able companion, and a brilliant 
conyersationalist and his conversa- 
tion was not confined to the abol- 
ition question either. He had a 
tremendous fund of general knowl- 
edge and was ready with wit and 
anecdote. 
‘“‘He believed it was wrong to 
vote under the constitution of the 
United States because, before one 
could vote, it was necessary to 
swear to uphold the constitution of 
the’ United States, and this he 
could not do while it sanctioned 
slavery. 
‘‘Garrison was a printer by 
trade, having learned his trade in 
the office of the Newburyport Her- 
ald, I think. It was his custom to 
go to the case and set up an article 
‘or editorial right out of his head 
without stopping to write anything. 
‘‘TIt may be a fact not generally 
known that it was Garrison who 
discovered Whittier. When the 
great leader was running a paper in 
Newburyport a.poem was sent in 
one day by young Whittier, whom 
no one had scarcely heard of at 
that time. The poem was entitled, 
‘The Tixile,?’ and was published, 
and Mr. Garrison was quick to see 
in it the marks of genius and he 
took it upon himself to see the elder 
Whittier shortly after and pleaded 
with him to give his son a liberal 
education. The old gentleman did 
not take kindly to the proposal at 
first, saying that mighty few boys 
benefited by their education after 
they got it. He finally gave in to 
the arguments of Garrison, and the 
young man, who was to become one 
of the world’s most famous poets, 
was sent to college and came out 
with high honors. He always felt 
a deep gratitude to Mr. Garrison 
for what he had done for him. and 
never forgot it as long as he lived. 
‘‘Another man whom I have a 
very distinct recollection of is 
Wendell Phillips. He was ealled 
the most finished publie speaker for 
lyceum work in the United States, 
_but Webster was easily his superior 
out-of-door gatherings. 
Webster was disappointing as an 
indoor speaker. It took a eyelone to 
arouse him, but when he was fully 
aroused to his subject, he was cer- 
tainly a grand orator, haying a 
for large 
-Slave holder is a man thief.’ 
very powerful voice. 
audiences would sometimes go to 
sleep, but in the open air, as at the 
dedication of Bunker Hill monu- 
ment, he was certainly grand. 
‘‘Douglass, who was active in the 
anti-slavery movement, 
white. He was a man of great nat- 
ural talent. 
afterward returned, before the war, 
and it is said they had a very pleas- 
ant reunion. He was a large man, 
of good voice and an able speaker. 
He spoke in Manchester at one ne 
our anti-slavery meetings. 
‘“Charles Raymond was aneater 
i 
man of his stamp. He was a well- 
Indoors his” 
was. half — 
He was a slave and 
ran away from his master, but he 
edueated negro, but he never got 
over the 
the colored race. 
grossly insulted, yet when he was 
in England he was thought every- 
thing of, even by the nobility, and © 
sensitiveness common to © 
He was often | 
on one of his lecture tours he was | 
accompanied to Seotland by My 
Lady Southerland. 
Yet after all | 
this homage to the man, when he — 
started to eross the Atlantic for 
home the steamship company would — 
not allow him in the cabin and he 
was compelled to stay on deck 
throughout the voyage and nearly | 
‘roze to death. This naturally cut 
him deeply after the treatment ac- 
corded him abroad and he eame 
home smarting under the wrongs 
his race was suffering. 
‘Stephen S. Foster was a con- 
verted preacher who drifted intc 
the profession through his evan- 
gelical work and fame as a speaker. 
He was a very logical man and had ~ 
a power of sarcasm that was un- 
rivaled when he chose to use it. 
During one of his lectures in Man- 
chester, he used the phrase, ‘A 
One 
of Manchester’s prominent citizens 
who was in the audience had a 
brother in the south who had just 
bought a slave and the remark 
nettled him not a little, and he 
shouted, ‘Who ealls my brother a 
man thief?’ Mr. Foster paused in 
his remarks and very deliberately 
facing his excited hearer, asked, 
‘Tlow many slaves has the gentle- 
man seen?’ The man answered he 
had seen a few in a certain place. 
‘Well,’ 
‘how many have you seen altogeth- 
(Continued to page 8.) 
persisted his interrogator, 
