Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-03-07
Governor Cumbacks Lecture

10 seUtlc ludt QueStlOH aiming tucM.
selves and totheir own satisfaction.
Governor Cumbacks Lecture.
Avery intelligent and appreciative
audience listened to Governor Cum
backs lecture at the Congregational
Church last night on the "Invisible
Some People"
The burden Of the lecture was an
exceedingly ingenious and successful
effort to show that the invisible spirit
of scandal is identical with the spirit
of witchcraft, the spirit of the devil,
and the spirit of priestcraft, which
have been doing duty for the pur-
poses of malevolent people from the
foundation of the world. In other
words, the scandal monger, the tat
tier, the infamous lying newspaper,
whose Upas poison kills everything
whichit touches, or covers with its
shadow, are the lineal descendants of
the invisible some people who gene
rations ago disposed of their rivals in
society, in politics, in love and re-
ligion, with neatncss and dispatch at
the stake and with the faggot.
Unquestionably the invisible some
people, the identity we call "They
say" for the want of a more atrocious
name, have done more to poison So
ciety at its fountain, have been the
most fruitful progenitors of crime,
violence and misery, have done more
to add to the harvest of human woe,
than all other agencies bequeathed to
mankind.
| Take the modern sensational news
paper, for instance. If you would be-
lieve the daily drivel of scandal
which percolates through them, there
is not an honest man of prominence,
or a vlrtuous woman in the country.
And, if the readers of their papers
really believe their charges to be
true, the people would be justified in
erecting the guillotine again, and re-
enacting the bloody scenes of the
French Revolution, even in free and
educated America, to rid the world
Of such leaders. And, it is very
true, as the speaker illustrated in a
forcible way, that scandal which is
intended to blight and make bitter
the life of man or woman forever,
receives almost universal credence,
| if it is coined by villain who hap
pens to have money enough to buy a
press and fistful of dirty types.
And moreover the law is framed so
much under the dictation of the Sin
visible some people," those mercena-
ry scoundrels who with impunity
daily malign people in answer to the
cravings of morbid APPETITE, that
there is substantially no law of libel
in this country, and no remedy for
the victim of defamation.
Governor Cumback is man of
fine personal presence on the stand, a
natural-born orator,and a citizen and
friend of unimpeachable character.
His lecture was one of the best and
most instructive ever delivered in
Ottumwa. If the man or woman
who heard him last night, did not 60
home bettered by it, and with a
stronger mental determination than
ever to give the "invisible some peo-
pie" wider berth hereafter,then we
do not envy that man or woman's
mental or physical characteristics.
l. At the close Of his lecture he re-
ceived quite an ovation from the
many Indianians present, who had
known and admired him all his life.
He is to-day having an ole. fashioned
Hoosier dinner with Uncle Ben Ran
dell and family and ncighbors, and
tonight goes to Council Bluffs where
he lectures tomorrow night. From
there he goes to Sioux City, and from
thence to his home at Grecnsburg, In
diana.
Donation.
On the 18th day Of February, 1877,
while all was very quiet within our