The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1878-03-22
RADICAL IxFlDrL scoRED.
We clip the following from tn New
York Express of late date:

York Eepress of late date:
Colonel Robert Ingersoll, the Republi-
can orator and politician, who invented
the phrase San honest God is the no
blest work Of man. performed at
Chiekering Hall last night The lower
part of the hall was full Of alJplauding
listeners, but the galleries were as
spafsely settled as the desert plains.
PR. Ingersoll was In all his glory. He
Is a large well-develeped, and evidently
a well-fed and well-kept man, between
fifty and sixty years Of age. His face
Is full, with well-cut features and we'll
shayen, with eyes that iadiate bumsr
andetwihxle every NOV and then with
fun. 1t is an honest face, though it
lacks the impression Of sincerity and
sensibility and the liner qualities Of
mind. He has good front head from
which the organs of veneration, and
reverence, and such needless appendages
have been kindly omitted BY mature
spelled with a large Ma head bare
of hair on the top, and shining like
well-scoured copper kettle, while his
face has a metallic, nickel-plated look,
glowing with the most exquisite and de
lightful selfeomplacency. 1t is rather
agreeable to see full-grown man 50
thoroughly satisfied and in love with
himself as Colonel Bob mgersolI seems
to be, and if he is an out-and out athc-
ist, as is contended, it is probably be-
cause the poor man has taken Off his
hat to himself so much that he finds it
impossible to bow to another, even if
he can conceive of being superior to
himself.
IngersolPs lecture was long and
ingenious assault ON orthodoxy. He
did not condescend to argue; that
would have been STOPPING too low. He
made assertions He ridiculed. He
caricatured He cracked jokes. He
kept the audience in a roar BY clever
hits and ribald jests. He said a great
many capital things capitally, things
which everylody would approve And
all at the expense of what thousands of
intelligent and geod people regard as
true and sacred The whole undereur-
rent and sweep of his long ebillition of
wit, and jest, and sparkle, and clever
ness were against not merely the errors
and superstitions of ignorant ages, but
against religion itself 1t is doubtful if
sober and sa5fed themes of momentous
import were ever treated in more gar
rulous, irreyerent, and superhcad way.
Not new idea was Advanced !! was
the current thought of sc:enti.ir and
nlaterialistic skeptics dish.l III, in a
new way, and ladl,sl out in ;lie most
dexterous and entertaining manner. and
made palatable as possible by saues.
piquante of honor and eleverness. The
sum and substance Of the whSle was
that anybody who is not orthodox is
just as good as anybody else that eYery
man and woman and child ought tn ls,
absolutely free to do what the, please
without interfering in the lea;t wi;l,
anybody else; that what is visible aud
palatable is all that can be known OF. is
worth the knowing; that faith Is guess
work, and belief folly, and religion non
sense; that men came they know not
whence, and go they know not whittier,
and he is a fool who troubles himself
about either question. The chief end
and duty of man is to give the orthodox
hell in this world and have jolly time
while he STAYS here. And this is the
stuff Colonel Ingersoll, the distinguish
ed Republican statesman, who did as
much rs anybody to get Hayes into the
White House, hawks about the country
and peddles to the lyceums.
There is no use in arguing with such
a man. He seems to be absolutely des-
titute of the faculties that deal with
religious verities, and, as he cannot see
and does not feel them, he naturally
concludes that they do net exist He
seems like deaf man who denies the
existence of music because, having raked
tune-book over with a fine-tooth comb,
he is unable to find it; or man with
cut the sense of smell ridiculing the
people who rejoice in the fragrance of a
rose, which he has examined with a
microscope till satisfied that it has no
fragrance whatever. His irreverent and
ribald way of dealing with what people
of equal intelligence and superior cul-
ture regard as certain and sacred, is
even worse than the lame and impotent
conclusions to which he has come. We
go out of our way to notice him because
he is one of the representative Republi-
can standard-bearers, high-priest Of
the party which has men like Conkling
and Zach Chandler, and Blaine fol
leaders.