The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-05-29
AN ATHEISTS MONUMENT.
Sacrilegious Inscriptions on Shaft Made
for Wisconsin Man.

TOT = Wisconsin MAN,
Bridgeport. Conn, Special
The Monumental Bronze Company of
East Bridgeport, which manufacture mon
uments and statues of q white metal got q
strange order from Louis Knapp. former
liquor dealer of Kenosha. Wis.,. and an
atheist Of the most pronounced type. The
peculiar nature OF the inscriptions which
were to be placed on the sides of the shaft
at first caused the concern to demur. but as
the cash accompanied the order it was de-
cided to go ahead, and now the monument
is nearly ready for shipment. Knapp in
sisted that the inscriptions he sent must
be reproduced carefully and entire. He
proposes to put up the monument in the
town cemetery, where a large marble mon-
ument, erected to the memory OF his wife,
is covered with atheistic sentiment. The
monument here is ten feet high, and on
the front are the words:
Erected by l. Knapp. an unwavering adhercnt
10 science, philosophy. history, and sound logic;
discerning all snc ent aud modern bumbug
religions; q truly diedin-the-wool infidel to ali
priestly orthodoxy. / am bold champion sin
ner, compete with me any one who will will
lie, cheat steal. rob aud murder. and do a
daanaab.e deeds--iaat will. Only ceasins in
time 70 get sorry. and viii settle the bill.
On lower plinth is this attempt 1t
poetry:
By those who our pulpits do I'LL;
But my reason rejects all such teachings.
My conscience will never be still
For IL continually forces me to feel
That you, aud you only, viii have to settle
the dAmnsole bill
Ye SANITY, pries.-rode. jeering, simple apes
Who scofing reads what Knapp relates,
Step lightly on tnis holy sodcy
For fear Knapp might have bsen your daddy.
quotation from Robert Burns on an
oil .l.xsrh Aa1
Christian Religion"
o Thou who in the heavens do dwell-who
as it peases best Thyself send one TO heaven
and millions TO he'll aud eli for broken laws
thousands of years before their alton. gh
Ewes and Adams curse. X. b.
On another tablet is the following:
Human vampires, soriid. thieving. lying
swindling scoundrels, have preyed upon my
labor and substance until ! have writhed IN
anguish. sore. even until lie and seemed mis-
mated, and made to fee. like restless wrath
full. wandering spirit on some iuiernai, heIlish
fey shore. And those who have thus plum
dered, robbed and swindled most have been
prompted and protected so to do by government
protection laws also by the nineteenth century
priesersit religion which teach one--will iorgive
and settle tue bill. hope to meet. and loathe
those hlsck-hesrsed. yi.lainous ak-thieyes
IL an endless e;ernIfy-i do Louis KSAPP.
Knapp is not at all selfish in comment
Grating the dead. for he devotes one whole
plinth to the record OF one OF his friends
and sympatkizers. William Bruse. His
tribute TO Bruse is in these words:
purer aud pobier soul never lived on earth
The earthly record OF William Bruce Is one un-
broken chain OF unselfish, nozzle, kindly. chart
table deeds TO moor unfortunstes OF earth. His
body WAS accidentally killed while perform IN q
one of his everyday charitable acts of mercy ana
kin6ness The nineteenth century priestcraft
religion sends his soul 10 the plsce where
damned devils roar and yell In birthstone burn
ing lake, with fsry tongues and forked tails,
stirring Infants up IN hellish giee. and all be-
cause Bruse never joined the orthodox church
and literally paid lis tithes thereto.
Since the monument has been in the
works some strange stories are told about
il. One of the men who put on the in
scriptions declared that just OF dark one
night, after most of the shop hands had
gone to their supper, flames of FIRE danced
about the top OF the shaft and cast lurid
glare all over the room. He refused TO
work the next day. and related his expert
ence 10 his companions. They ieered him
until he was persuaded to return to his
bench but that night. on a repetition of
the strange and ghostiy phenomena. he
disappeared, taking his tools with him, and
leaving word that when the "hoodoo'
monument was shipped away be would
come back if wanted, but until then moth
ing could induce him to gaze on the sacri-
legioGs shaft