The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-22
in INGERSOLL'S DEFENSE.
Sharp Answer to n Criticism of the
CoIonePs Recent Lecture.


CoIonePs Recent Lecture.
KANSAS CITY, Dec. ITO the Sta1 ::
In the Star of the 18th inst appeared a
communication criticising Ingersoll S
lecture and, by implication, his audi
ence. The writer says: ITO my GER
tain knowledge the colonel has been
saying the same things in pretty much
the same way for twenty-five years,
and yet his audience never calls for
something fresh. OF course, as long
as they are willing to pay round
price for chestnuts that is what they
will get" 1t is very common for In
gersoll's orthodox opponents to charge
him with an utter lack of originality
and gross ignorance in his arraign-
ment of orthodox Christianity and the
Bibles foundation. 1t has always puz-
zled me to EXPLAIN these prevalent
charges consistently with perfect can
dor in those making the charge. If it
is fact that Ingersoll started cut with
borrowed ideas and for twenty-five
years has, parrot-like, been repeating
the same things, why is it that these
stale and unoriginal discourses have at
tracted so mucf1 notice, amounting,
sometimes, to almost panic in orthodox
camps? 1t is not very orthodox pull
after one of his lectures. ! have at
tended several of Ingersolrs lectures
and SO far as 1 could judge the audi
ence was composed of very Intelligent
men and women and, if they are salts
fed to pay for "chestnuts'' why not let
them? Have the defenders of orthodox
got a patent on "chestnuts?" Perhaps
they have and do not want infringe
ment. Their Gcd-men and men-godS,
their immaculate conceptions, ascen-
sions of mortals and immortals and a
multitude of other things they have
been repeating for eighteen hundred
years were chestnut5 long before Chris
tianity had its birth. Well may Inger-
soils audience retort: "Of course, as
long as they are willing to pay a round
price for cheStnuts that is what they
will get
And again sit is a pretty large asser-
ton on the part of Colonel Ingersoll
to claim that he is the only person who
truth about the Bible" We do not be-
Heve that any who are well acquainted
with Ingersoll's beliefs, speeches and
writing can believe for minute that
Ingersoll would admit, or really believe,
any such thing. In his lecture he men
lions some classes of society occupying
foremost opportunities as teachers, the
clergy, presidents of colleges and edi-
tors who, for prudential reasons, for
bear telling the real truth about the
Bible, so he Thought he would No one
knows better than Ingersoll that a null
titude of thinkers of this and previous
centuries have told the truth about the
Bible substantially as he believes it.
The colonel is also charged with
great narrowness and illiberality in
dealing with questions in which some of
the "wisest and best" of men in the
world differ from him. If this were
not penned in apparent seriousness we
might think it a joke. The graveyards
of the past are full of the darling be-
Hefs and wrongs of the ''Wisest and
best" There was a time not long ago
when such noble defenders of the cause
of man, woman and child would not
have been allowed publicly to differ
with the "Wisest and best men, who
believed the Bible text: Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live" This text,
carried out by the ''wisest and best"
according to DR.. Sprimger's estimate
prenatively extinguished 100000 hui
man lives. Religious intolerance, that
which it should hide it's head in shame,
through all its future existence that
greatest fountain of injustice sorrow
and torture was defended from the Bible
standpoint of the 'wiest and BEST
The same can be said of slavery and
nearly every great evil that, by er-
roneous belief, has been imposed ON a
long suffering humanity. The 'wisest
and best have taught the existence
of a personal devil and a reality of
eternal pain for their neighbors and
their neighbors' children. In all these
pernicious beliefs and many more Mr.
Ingersoll has the honor of differing
with the ''Wisest and best and in some
of them he has the honor of differing
with the Rt. Hon. w. E. Gladstone
Oxford, Mr.. Gladstone's pet college, it
has been said, has been on the wrong
side of every great question affecting
human progress. But as Oxford is now
doing some good work in favor of the
New Criticism it may yet redeem
it's reputation
The slur that Ingersoll imagines he
could have given God some pointers at
creation as how to make the world, is
entirely gratuitous. 1t cannot be
shown from any of IngersoIls writings
or speeches, that he has any contention
with the existence or order of the uni
verse, which he believes is governed
by fixed and Interchangeable laws, al
The writer of the article in re-
view seems to believe in the crea-
ton a la Moses, and in this respect he
is modest enough to differ from the
'wisest and best in fact from all the
great scientific men of his own genera
ton, for I am not aware that there is
single living scientist who is noted for