The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-09-23
Reply 10 Mr.. j. N. LIndIer.
Editor Of tie Chronicle.


Some one sent me a copy of the Boze-
man Weekly CHRONICLE of august 26th,
containing an article by Mr. Lindley
over column in length. that seems to
be an average of infdel literature, in
which occur such phrases as "ialse state
ments," "moral truth and justice" ere he
fairly sets to work. What he means by
moral truth in that connection may be
well understood by Free Thinkers"
Mr.. L. thinks we are not to look for
consistency of views nor accuracy OF
statement, from one Who has large
emotional nature with an active imagin
ation2 Then of course Col. Ingersoll is
utterly unreliable, for in that line he has
no superior on the continent. They are
his almost entire stock in trade. But in
this we have confirmation of the sting
ing facts we adduced-that those So
called Free Thinkers" never think at
all. By his rule Bacon, Keplar, Shake
speare, Milton, Addison, Irving, Raleigh,
Dante, Goethe and most of the greatest
men this earth has produced, including
Plato, Pythogoras, Homer and Cervantes
would all be ruled OFF the In forum in
vestigating 1t is one thing for man to
have only the emotional and imagina-
ton faculties, like lngersoll, and another
to have those as mere allies with vast
historic information, poetic culture held
well in hand, deep and incisIve analysis
andscombining, generolizing views, all
dedicated to their noblest uses and not
prostituted to low, selfish and reckless
ambition.
We will analize only the leading points
sought to be made by this "pink ofeour-
tesy" who brandishes epithets SO readi-
ly He (Ditzler) informed us that D. NJ.
Bennett is now working out sentence
in prison for sending obscene literature
through the mails" He then adds, "A
beautiful monument in the Brooklyn
cemetery, erected by one thousand
friends tells another story" ] speak of
this as an illustration of the manner in
which he (Ditzler) could give his audi
ence the undulterated falsehood." Now
notice the following
1st. The above statement of what we
said is wholly untrue, as the writer
knew. We stated that Bonnet was sent
to the penitentiary for violating the laws
against obscene literature, and for ought
we knew was serving out his term there
for, but we made no statement as to his
present incarceration beyond the doubt
thus expressed. The only point we had
to make that he was so incarcerated.
End We call the attention OF the read
er to the sympathy l.. has for informers
obscurity. See how well posted he is on
the death of the wretch who seeks to
food the land with obscenity. See how
he keeps up with his very tombstone.
He knows far more about the tombstone
Of the infamous slanderer and defamer
who relies on obscene literature as the
right arm OF infdelity than of the tomb
stone of the author of the Decl ration of
independence, or ofthat of the Father Of
the Constitution of the United States.
L. proceeds-he 3D. informed us that
there was not good lawyer in the land
that was not Christian. L. knew that
to be Islander" and a "falsehood" when
he penned it. But he had waited over
r,ava1tl- from tie tiule of my lecture to be
sure that ID. was out of the land ere he
dared publish such "ialsehoods." What
we did say was that there never had
been first-class lawyer as far as records
60 that was not believer in religion
Many men believe the Bible to be in
spired that are not protested Christians.
Many men are good" l. e., able and
great lawyers who do not stand in the
ranks of Matthew, Hale, Bacon, Coke,
Selden, Blackstone, Webster, Chief JUS
tees Marshall, Chase, fancy or Greenliff
Clay or Story. Had We made such silly
statements as L. puts into our mouth,
the cultivated people of Bohemian would
have treated us as such a character would
have deserved. He then represents us
as saying of infdels-"no invention of
any note (false) no reform mad ever peen
terminated by any one of them false
hood out and out; they were like tur-
nips, etc" What we said was this "No
first-class invention, no first-class scienti-
fic discovery was ever made by an inf 7
del. By first-class we mean those great I
and discoveries such as cleo
5ricity by franklin. telegraphy, power of