Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-03-07
THE REPLY
Father Mayer Replies to Rev. An
dersOn, Whom He Accuses of
: BigOtry and Bias.
Calls the Presbyterian Pastor to Task
For a Misleading Trick of
Discussion.
SympathiZes With Him For Lack of
knowledge and Imparts Some
Valuable Information,
A Lively 9 TT.

A Lively RetLrt.
EDITOR TRIBUNE: l had hoped that
when l replied to the assaults made upon
my church by the pastors of the Presbyte-
rian and Baptist churches of this city, and
closed the defense with the hope that har-
mony would soon prevail, that the hasty
pastors would let the matter rest.
To have sat silently under the reflections
cast by them upon the Catholic church
would have been cowardice or unpardon-
able indifference on my part, and what l
said regarding "people who live IN glass
houses" was not as censure for the acts CT
the church, but as proof that these very de-
nominations have done that for which they
so ungenerously assaulted the Catholics.
l am a little surprised to see the veneer
able J. NJ. Anderson STOPPING to that old
and re~prehensible trick of discussion by
which the party making the attack plays
the role of injured innocence to distort the
d efense of his opponent into the first as
sault.
The case briefly is as follows:
In discussing the lottery question both
the Presbyterian and the Baptist pastors
stepped beyond the bounds of Christian
charity and fairness to assail the Catholic
church evidently in the hope of directing
the attention of those who criticised
church lotteries from their denomina-
tiOns.)
Up to that time l had supposed that the
churches of Bismarck were working har-
moniously for the good of mankind, no
matter how they might differ" in form.
On Sunday last I took occasion to defend
my church against the assault. to maintain
that lotteries, when properly conducted for
a commendable purpose, are not immoral
and to show that the very churches whose
pastors held up their hands in holy horror
at the Catholics for having lotteries at fairs,
had themselves resorted to lotteries and
"voting" devices to raise funds. In proof, l
cited the recent Presbyterian fair at which
a certain article was voted to the "home-
Hest man" in the legislature, and for which
l understood a large profit was realized.
In reply to this the Rev. j. NJ. Anderson
denies the assertion that he had anything
to do with such lottery at the fair given by
his church and by profession of total ig-
norance of such lottery on an occasion
with which he should be so thoroughly
conversant, makes a strong inferential de-
NAL OF my statement.
Happily, however, Mrs. Z. H. Wilson, one
of the most highly esteemed members of
his congregation, admits that what I said
i was in effect true and makes the admis-
sion in the columns of the TRIBUNE over
her own signature and says that the money
realized was devoted to the payment of
debts on the church.
With this statement of the case and what
l have already said, further argument
seems useless, yet the old seventeenth cen
fury spite and bigotry displayed by MI. An
derson, coupled with the fact that he pleads
ignorance of prominent events in his W
congregation which have been published
in the daily paper, cOnstrains me to ex.
press sympathy rather than enmity to-
| ward him.
He is evidently still living in the old at
mosphere of intolerance and hatred which
left so black a history in the past, when
Catholics were put to death for their be-
" uhu AAS OA OAp3CoClOIlO VI uOuCSt
conviction, human beings were burned at
the stake.
Since those days many important events.
of which the all unconscious MI. Anderson
should be informed, aside from the Presby-
terrain lottery in Bismarck, have trans
: PRED.
For instance, a constitution of the United
States has been adopted and it guarantees
civil and religious liberty to all.
There has been a mighty wal through
which slavery was abolished and in which
loyal Catholics and Professionals marched
shoulder to shoulder for the preservation
of q free and tolerant government.
There have also been numerous interest
ing political and social events since the
days in the spirit of which MI. Anderson
still lives, of which, if that gentleman is so
blindly Indifferent to published events, he
may be ignorant. For instance, George
Washington, the father of this country, has
passed from earth, as have Jefferson and
Lincoln and Grant and sGarield and num-
erous great men who followed and
who, by the way, have been presidents of
the United States.
A centennial exposition celebrating the
hundredth anniversary OF American indie
pendence was held in Philadelphia in 1876
and it is actually proposed to have a great
named Columbus, who discovered America
and planted the cross upon her shores.
(Mr. Anderson may remember Columbus
personality
A great exposition has been held in Paris
where o tower 1000 feet high attracted con-
siderable attention; steamships now cross
the Atlantic in less than a week; an instru-
ment has been invented whereby people
can converse while separated by hundreds
of miles, and In the year of our Lord
1889, a lottery device was resorted
to at a Presbyterian fair in Bismarck
| to raise funds for the church.
l will say To MI. Anderson that 1 have
numerous newspapers and publications
In which a recital OF these events appears,
which I will loan him, if he thinks his
seventeenth century bigotry can stand the
shock of these nineteenth century revela-
lions.
He is pleased to style me the priestly
"autocrat," whilst he designates himself in
his profound humility the servant" of his
congregations pretty good expression of
the two extremes.
He says he is the servant of his people
and does not assume the role of dictator so
as to tolerate or forbid anything whatso-
| eyer"
l have been fattering him by consider
ing him the servant of the LORD and the
PASTOR of his congregation. But I have
been in error. TO be q servant of his con-
gregation a minister must obey their will.
Hence il he should accept a charge in a
community where all were extreme pro-
hibitionists he would make war on saloons;