The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-12-28
Heresy In Chicago,
IChicago Tribune. /

There seems TO be something in the
atmosphere of Chicago peculiarly IA
vorable to heterodoXy, so much so
that she is beginning to be known
abroad as the great centre of grain,
pork. lumber and hereticS. In the
Presbyterian ranks, Prof. Swing set
the fashion, and, judging from his
present frame of mind and the pleas
ant discourses which he delivers every
Sunday, he has not regretted that he
is at large in a new pasture, up to his
knees in clover, and that he is not tied
to any denominational fence, but can
wander round and browse wherever
he pleases and the clover is most
abundant. Then came Bishop Che
ney, and after long struggle he quit
the old church, and now stands at the
head of the new reform organi-
zation. DR.. Thomas caught
the disease in the Methodist
ranks, and after his brethren
had put him through the forms of
trial, and tested him with all the acids
of discipline that detect counterfeits,
he was pronounced spurious. He
didn't ring soundly on the Methodist
counter. Consequently he packed up
dIlu QulG, IuOuSn uc SIll1 DcAONCo IAd1
he is the Methodist and his bouncers
are the heretics. Brother7 Min in the
Unitarian ranks was the next to shy,
and he flew the tracks entirely. Like
an eccentric comet among the orderly
Unitarian consultations he flew head
long into the sun of agnosticism, and
was utterly squelched for the time be-
ing, and when he reappeared, instead
of being young and Jealous Timothy
in the pulpit he was the melancholy
Dane of the stage-boards, from that
plunged wildly into Iago, and at last
accounts was astonishing the ruStics
with Richelieu.
And now comes Bro. J. Fletcher
Wilcox, in the ranks of the Christian
church. His career has been short but
decisive, for he had hardly warmed
the cushions of the First Christian
church pulpit before he was requested
to step down and out. He, too, had
caught the disease, and, instead of
preaching the accepted doctrines for
which he was engaged, and leading
his flock through the pasture specially
owned by them, he tried to get them
through the bars into another pasture
where new and strange views of i'm
mortality abounded. They not only
refused to follow him, but asked him
not to preach any more, and he there
upon abandoned his flock. The here
tic is ungracious enough to say that
he never was paid anything for
his work, but as he was hired to
preach certain doctrines and failed
to do it, why should he complain !?
| If he ordered his tailor to make a
suit of clothes for him, and
they proved not only to be made of a
material different from what he select
| ed, but were so badly cut that they
| would not fit, he would let his tailor
whistle for his pay, and this was sub
stantially what he did in the pulpit of
| the First Christian church. His doc
trines were not what they bargained
for, and there was no way of making
them fit the creed. Hence Brother
Wilcox is out in the cold.
The new hereto, however, can con-
sole himself that heresy pays well in
Chicago, and that if he can only get
in the shadow of theatre somewhere
he can keep warm. Prof. Swing COM
menced his new career in McVicker's s
theatre, and soon had to move to the
large auditorium of the Music Hall,
where it is with considerable difficulty
even now that his audiences can be
accommodated. DIR. Thomas moved
at once in Hooley's theatre, and he soon
will have to seek more extensive
quarters. Brother Min did not go to
preaching in the theatre. Being a
young and frisky hereto, and not
knowing whether he believed any
thing at all, he went to the farthest
extreme, and boldly perched himself
upon the topmost rung of the theatri.
cal ladder, where perhaps he may
stick after he RECEIVERS. his balance
though the chances are equally good
that from his lofty situation there
will be very facilic decensus to the
theatrical Avernus. All the heretical
traditions and analogies therefore be.
ing connected with the theatre, il
would seem to be the proper thing fol
the new hereto to do either to preach
in a theatre, or play in atheatre, OF
buy theatre. As ministers usually
have not money enough to buy the
atre. or sufficient dramatic ability tC
play in one, the next thing is to preacf
| In one, and to make new departure
by preaching in the evening. 1t would
be useless to compete with the Othel
two IN the morning. but an evening