Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-09-19
A Few Words From Mr.. Allen.

A Few Words From MIR. Allen.
Ell. Registrars your paper is de-
voted to the interests of the people and
you seem to winnow out the trashy
from the literature Of religion, politics
and general Information, | think | may
be pardoned in an effort to conform to
your rules. while | seek your indulg-
ence in a matter of supreme interest
to myself and the public.
In the long ago, fairy tales absorbed
the attention of both young and old:
with the progress of learning and en-
lightenment. they gave way to the
practical. The chimerical still retains
hold upon human imagination and
the absurd and prepOsterOus often finds
Judgement and propagation in the
minds of the fairly well educated and
those belonging to the upper strata OF
society Ghosts and hobgOblin tales,
originated no matter how, are dwelt
on and repeated al Hbitun. al iftfnt-
tuD2. dd 2lauSeana, for lack of something
better or of more real interest. without
| thought or care of the consequences:
for. when affecting the character and
| property of the living, the habit be-
comes a sacrilege. The popular SEN
timent which has thus been invoked
to perpetuate an infamy. should be
wrested to the arraignment and pun
| ishment at the same bar, of the auth
ors and abettors of what becomes, by
no means, harmless joke. Now this
is the matter to which | wish to call
your attention.
First. My credibility as witness,
Mr.. Editor, of which you and others
are aware, by my honorable record,
civil, military and educa ,ional, which
| exhibited before you for his purpose,
is sufficient to give me a hearing,
against the moles, the underlings and
assassins of human character who have
been so busily at work with unrelent-
ing ardor or persistence during my
absence.
I'd. The revival of my interest IN
the Christian religion, which was the
work of the Evangelist, and the brush
ing the dust from buried talent, in
the graniest inspiration that ever
moved the human breast, the gift of
the Holy Spirit, the language of which
had been taught to repeat in all the
beauty and glory of its rythmical
splendors in the four years of seclusion
in Divinity school, though it was not
accredited to me in the Valley,
through a singular prejudice; and ap
old woman's story was foisted on the
belief of the ministerial fraternity and
church officials in preference to the
| l1 n of
| we'll known honor and veracity, whose
calling although legitimate is not ap-
proved by the religious element. This
is why, | beg leave, in addition to my
religious experience, to refer to my
honorable record as soldier, and
pioneer official in the Reconstruction"
and a graduate from school of learn
ing of the highest repute. Although
my civil and military career was not
conducive to the furtherance of the
Gospel or cultivation of religious
zeal, my integrity was maintained in
all my official acts and my character
IS private citizen has always been
regulated as nearly as possible by the
same rule of conduct. and | defy any
successful asseverations to the contrary
Notwithstanding the ghost story referr-
ed TO has that for d basis. | do this
for the sake of her who was born and
raised on the place and who during her
| whole life there, saw nothing of the
| kind limited at or as fabricated; also
for myself who, during a three years
residence and recent seventeen days
sojourn upon 1t, was not bothered in
the least by any ghost fakirs or fakes,
who had too much regard for their
miserable, shrinking cowardly bodies
to expose them for an instant in any
such a way. to become a target or
seiu for sitting out their benighted,
| shrunken, illiterate souls, thus Secur-
ing a fee for the good DR.. Farrar. So
| denounce the ghost mongers as no
better than the ignorant author of the
story and the sooner they try to make
the anaende honorable by discrediting
the lie the better. There seems no
way of reaching such people through
all the preaching the Valley can af
ford, especially when the church itself
takes up the cause from a worldly
standpoint and defends the authors be-
cause their names are enrolled on the
church books. The belief of the
hoodlum fakirS that l would do them
bodily harm, is all that prevented
them from making demonstration dur
ing our pleasant stay in the Valley of
more than two weeks in our little par
adise called home, the birth place of
my wife and her own by the laws of
the land and her own rightfnl earn
ings, and | hereby warn all persons of
whatever station. .'be they of high or
low degree" to desist from their evil
ways. so long as the press is free to
the oppressed, like the great magma
ctarta of British liberty. and affords a
channel for purifying the body social,
rescuing it from the thraldom of the
lower element, the dregs of society,
who have SO long moulded popular
sentiment concerning your humble
servant and fellow citizen of the great
commonwe alth in which | have thrice
earned my right to live and feel the