Blue-grass blade., 1894-04-01
and the sun tried to make him take it

and the sun tried to make him take it
off
You don't often have an infidel to tell
YOU plainly of the effect that a course
like yours has upon him.
1t makes me hate religion and drives
ME further from it.
The miraculous claims of Christianity
can not be sustained by cold logic and
demonstration; and neither Won nor
any preacher i'll Lexington will hazard
those claims, by all attempt to sustain
them, even with me unskilled in the
arts of oratory, as an opponent before
a Lexington audience There is then,
by the consensus Of the competent, left
for religion no support but sentiment
the conviction that, whether logically
tenable or not, it makes men and wo-
men purer and better and more gentle
and patient and loving than others. But
to me you do not show these character
istics to anything like the extent that
number of infidel women have done
With such men on my side, as Jefferson,
Franklin, Tyndail, Darwin, Herbert
Spencer, Huxley. Buckle and Draper,
and with such women as Madam de
Stael, Mrs Ward of Robert Elsmere,"
and Helen NJ. Gardner, and with such
men on your side as Talmage, Sam
Jones, Drs. Raiusford and Van de Water
and Billy Breckenridge. YOU do not hesi-
tate SO to assume the infallibility OF
your position, and the fallability of
mine, that YOU cut me off from all dis
cussion, and, rolliug out your little Pro-
crustean trundle bed. stretch me, or saw
me off, as the case may demand, 10 suit
the standard that you can successfully
erect only because you have the advan-
tage of numbers OH your side.
If might makes right you and should
alike most reverentlv retire from our
contest with the overwhelming numbers
that oppose our views of Prohibition
and Equal Rights.
At least nine-tenths of the voters of
Lexington are Christians, and vet the
strong tendency of this city is to throw
off the disguise by which the brothels
here are licensed uuder the name of a
fine" and plainly and defiantly call this
alleged fine a license as 1t really is and
is intended to be.
Three Christian men here, one of
hem being a minister of this town. and
he names of all of whom | am ready to
furnish you OIL demand, have argued
with me for the licensing of the bro
thels of Lexington, just as earnestly and
dogmatically as you defend your relig-
ion.
About the same time that | got your
letter ordering discontinuance of your
paper, and adroitly stiking ME with an
iron hand in velvet glove, / received a
letter from man ordering discontin-
uance of his paper, the grievance against
me being, as i'll your case, "the attitude
the Blue Grass Blade takes on religious
questions" Like YOU he kindly and
Justly paid me for the papers that went
to him and to his mother in distant
state. That man has been my personal
friend, and ! have spoken kindly of him
both when | was Democratic editor
and Prohibition editor. He is mem
Der of the Short Street Baptist Church
in Lexington, and has recently become
the keeper of a government whisky
bonded warehouse, appointed by the
Presbyterian Internal and Internal Rev.
enue Collector Shelby, who was ap-
pointed by Sweet William" my cousin
willie" of the "silver tongue" and the
brazen cheek. This same Shelby is the
son of the noble grandsire who was the
first Governor of Kentucky, and he is
also the daddy of the feather-weigh,
pugilist that recently figured in that ca.
pacity as "Willie's" champion i'll the
Washington court house.
This Baptist whisky storekeeper lately
met ME in Lexington at the corner Of
East Short and North Limestone, and
in language even more Jealous and ell
thusiastic than that in which you de
fend your religion, argued to me tina,
the brOthels of Lexington should be Ii
censed, and made for the licensing o
the brothels exactly the same argument
that is being made for the licensing o
the saloons; namely, that the saloons
and the brothels are equally intended to
crafty the appetites of men that have tC
be gratified either lawfully or unlawfully
and that, of course, it is better that i
should be done lawfully. \ very veal
thy gentleman of this city, who is a ply
sician and banker and an active ant
prominent man i'll the Methodist church
made exactly the same argument to me
as we stood on the southeast corner O
High and South Upper streets. A cler
gyman in the Episcopal church i'll Lex
ington, with a cross hanging around hi.
neck, made exactly the same argument
to ME in the jewelry store of Mr.. A
Jones i'll this city. Mr.. Jones, one o
his Pensioners, being present, anc
joining me in opposing him.
Miss Clay, am going to speak plain
ly to you. You as a woman, like my
self as man, have dared to use plair
language, and we must learn to take on,
own medicine. Your letter to me doe.
you the injustice to identify you with
those three men, and tends to shut my
mouth to any defense against the state
ment of Mr.. Grober, of Covington, tha
i'll helping Woman Suffrage am furn
ishing a stick to break my own head.
am the only editor i'll Kentucky, Sc
far as know, who defends Prohibition
and Woman Suffrage. There may be il
the State, some obscure papers or peri
odicals that are attempting to do this
but they are unknown to the great read
ing public because their efforts are cir
cumscribed by defense of effete relig
ious orthodoxy
This reply to you is made i'll the nee
essary defense of my position as Pro
hibitionist and Woman Suffragist, ant
my columns are not only unreservedly
open to any reply from you, but sucl
reply is most respectfully solicited.
{. c. NJ.
""E