The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-05-13
BAfAAM,s ASS.

This is the rather vague and mol
altogether courteous title to a little
pamphlet of nineteen pages purport-
ing to be "A reply to OBJ. Whitford,
M. D., on christianity q Reward for
Crime by John KEITH" that has
been laid upon our table. The writer
seems to be actuated by more than a
mere polemic spirit; there is an
undercurrent of sarcasm and per-
sonal malice that destroys much OF
the effectiveness of the arguments.
The writer opens by saying that the
Doctors ''new departure from physic
to prophesy so much reminds him OF
the Bible narrative of Balak, Balaam
and his ass" that it determined him
to address the Doctor by that old
prophets name, Balaam.
The writer takes up the "argu-
ments" of DR.. Whitford in detail and
annihilates them, which he eau, OF
course, readily do. The burden OF
the work is that the Doctor, instead
of cursing the christians by his work,
blessed them, and that his effort to
eclipse the Christian God was simply
confessing his power and glory. He
refutes the theory that the liberals
or unbelievers have more than TO-
600, 900 majority in the United States
and demonstrates bystatistics that the
Christian Churches have increased in
a greater ratio than the population
of the world. He argues that it isn't
Christianity that fills our peni-
tentiaries and insane asylums-a few
of the flimsy arguments advanced BY
the Doctor-but that the use of strong
drink is the prevailing cause-both
of crime and insanity. He declares
that montana pays the largest
whisky tax per capita of the
population of any State or Terri
tory in the Union" and from
this fact draws the reasonable
conclusion that this is the cause "of
the OVERLOOKING condition of the Mon
tana Asylum" He argues that be-
cause a few clergymen have lapsed
from the paths of virtue and found
their way into the penitentiaries is
NO more a reflection upon the whole
body of the clergy than that "the
prosecution of a quack doctor casts a
stigma upon the whole medical pro-
f~ession." He calls the attention of
DR.. Whitford to the fact that in the
history of the world there has been
but one government that did not
recognize some form of religion as an
essential part of its system. That
was the French Government be-
tween 1893 and 1899, preceding the
First Consulship, brought about by
the revolutionary teachings of Vol.
taile e. OF this Government the au'
thor says:
They sowed the wind and reaped the whirl.
wind. The great French revolution came, in
which over two million lives were sacrificed on
the guillotine, as one faction after another came
into power. The Convention in 1891 unani
mously voted that all religion should be abol
ished, the Bibles burned and the existence of
no,<1, 1nriaI Tho ohurohoc yuoro rohho6 NJ
their property and the priests forbidden to hold
service, and 1000 titles of nobility were de
stroyed and their property confiscated for the
benefit of the State, which soon ~squandered it
In the National Assembly the Goddess Of Reason
was set up to be worsh1ped, and was bowed
down to by the entire Assembly. What wa
this Goddess of Reason? b was led into thu
Assembly by Chaumette, yelled in blue. As
Chaumette throwed off the veil he said: ~
offer you it's noblest and purest image" and ex
hibited to the gathered infidels anG lovers o
reason and liberalism, Madame Mi]liard, a dan
seuse from the opera, clad in tights. Is this the
government you would have, my dear Balaam.
1t existed, fortunately, only for the brie
period of six years, when that master mind
Napoleon, was elected First Consul, who re
stored the churches to the priests and provided
for their maintenance, as he knew it to be tn,
only means by which the Government could b.
maintained. He did not profess to be a Chris
tan, but he did know how to govern people, a
| Voltaire, Rosseau, Ingersoll and others coult
not.
The most disgusting part of DR.
Whitford's book is that portion de
| failing the affiiction visited upon
| poor child-"his heart thrown to hi
right side, his left lung torn to pieces
and now to decompose and exud'
from the body" rendering the chilt
a monstrosity and an invalid for life
This is attributed to "the act of
merciless God'-whose existence tn,
Doctor denies. This matter, being
local subject, MI. Keith replies t.
like one who had a knowledge of tn
case, somewhat bitterly as follows:
AL this to the perplexity Of an ignoran
though devoted doctor father, and to the dis
| tress of the affectionate mother who may be LEI
in her distress, to ascribe to Providence tina
which is the result of deplora BILE ignorance an,
maltreatment on the part of the physician VIII
through egotls1n and prejudice, might proven
the more skillful treatment by those more wis
in the healing art. These lamentable result
| neither your god of nature or the Christian GO
does or will prevent, especially in the face Q
impious and ~blasphemous raillery. So you see
Balaam, now it sometimes turns out that peopl
who respect God, still curse Him for not pre-
venting the evil consequences which are tn
legitimate results of their own willful i~gnoranc
or gross egotism. And when you ask "why doe
God permit such little innocents to suffer?
can only answer why does God permit ignoran
| and prejudiced quacks to live and torture such
little patients? Nevertheless, I will answer agai
so it is, ever has been and ever will be in thi
sinful world.
The rest of the work is devoted t
an effort to prove that what DR.. Whit
ford has publicly taught he has pri
vately renounced. The pamphlet i