Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1891-11-21

1udt cOuuuS Wei IHuCu Ike TIE
editor of the Standard had read
some things that 1 have recently
said about Col. Ingersoll that We're
complimentary of him.
Before 1 saw this piece in the
Standard however, 1 had written,
as suggested by the letter of Bro.
A. H. Mason of Cleveland, Ohio,
which 1 published, a pretty tart
structure upon Col. Ingersoll.
charging him with inconsistency
in not having advocated Prohibi-
ton and woman suffrage.
1 do not think though that 1
was quite as bitter in my remarks
against him as our Christian
brother Of fine Standard is.
/ now reafirm my conviction
that while Col. Ingersoll has done
great good in the world, simply by
combating error, his influence for
good has been greatly weakened
by the fact that he is not the
recognized champion of any
modern reform.
He is Republican, and sticks
to Blaine whom he immortalized
by calling him a "plumed knight"
despite the fact that Blaine has
made a bid for the support of the
liquor traffic. for presidency, by
using his official position to extend
the business of the United
States into South America.
Nor is Blaine's "bloody shirt"
record, nor some little matters in
his life of an amatory nature, ex-
actly what we would expect would
elicit the admiration of any man
who poses as a moralist, as 1 think
Col. Ingersoll does.
But for all this 1 must insist
that about this editorial of the
Standard there is a kind of double
back action arrangement that is
somewhat suggestive of a boom
erang.
Haddock, a Prohibition preacher
was killed by the liquor men for
preaching against the liquor traffic,
and these liquor devils have killed
two other Prohibitionists; whether
preachers or not ]. do not know.
But excepting this one, or posi-
bly, these three, can our brother of
the Standard show that in any
modern days any preacher in the
United States has gotten "egged"
or "stoned" or "shackled" any
more than Ingersoll has? Who
in America has "shrieked' longer
and louder than Talmage has?
He has advertised himself more
than Barnum ever did, and while
neither Jesus nor Paul ever got a
nickel for preaching the gospel,
Talmage has made more money
by preaching than Ingersoll has
made by his lectures, his books
aud his law practice.
Lyman Abbott, Beecher's sue
cessor. who lately went with Billy
Breckenridge to Iowa, to beat
Prohibition, and was doomed and
boosted by the liquor papers for
what he said there, gets more
money for his preaching than
Ingersoll does for his lectures, and
"shrieked for liberty" of men to
get drunk when they want to; and
we don't hear anything about his
getting his "shins" into shackles,
or having omelettes made out of
back number eggs pasted over his
anatomy.
Beside this Ingersoll is not in
the martyr business, while the
preaching brethren are. Don't
we read somewhere that "They
who live godly shall suffer perse-
cutiOn?"
Poor little Bro. Paul was kicked
about until he could tell a stOgy
boot from French calf the dark
est night that came. just by feel
ing the toe of it, with his back to
it and his hands in his brooches
pocket. But what preacher in
these days has such treatment as
that?
That thing about "the rabble in
the immediate background" of
"heathen Bob" don't go down
with me worth a cent. / claim to
be the social peer of any man in
America, and when as a news
paper reporter, l have sat in the
Immediate background" of Inger-
soil when he was speaking, 1 saw
in the foreground, an audience
whose faces bespoke as much in
telligence as l ever saw in any
church; and to-day fthe editor OF