Anecdote 1...

Arriving at Plymouth church one Sunday, Beecher found in his mail a letter containing just one word: "Fool." During the service that morning, he related the incident to his congregation, adding the remark: "I have known many an instance of a man writing a letter and forgetting to sign his name, but this is the only instance I have ever known of a man signing his name and forgetting to write the letter."

Anecdote 2...

Beecher possessed a beautiful globe depicting the various constellations and stars of the heavens. Robert Ingersoll, visiting Beecher one day, admired the globe and asked who had made it. "Who made it?" said Beecher, seizing the opportunity to attack his guest's well-known agnosticism. "Why, nobody made it; it just happened."