Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-03-07

cntcd, kind spirited, wcll-mannerod ana en-
thusinstic beginner than the teachcr con-
Armcd IN hard, dcnd Journalism.
While we have no sympathy what
ever with the utterances or with the
methods Of Col. Ingersoll, and per-
sonally we may confess that we would
like to stop his talk; yet In our opin-
those preachers In New Jersey made a
blunder in their resurrection of an old
law against blasphemy. In this age.
at least, 1t helps rather than Injuries his
side. For twenty-five years, or more,
Ingersol has been going up and down
the country retailing his jokes and
telling us what he does NOT believe.
The Jokes are now stale, and this neg
alive talk Is very sickly diet for n
strong and positive people, such as we
are. We demand something positive;
and 80 1t does not surprise us to hear
that Ingersoll has large audiences
when he lectures on Shakespeare, and
that Of late he has had only fair
houses when he talks about his Mis-
takes of Moses. The people arc not
with him here; and If let alone, rs an
inlldel lecturer-the novelty having
passed away he would soon cease to
attract public attention. But now this
little episode in New Jersey has sup
piled him with some new material for
some new jokes, and 80 1t has given
him temporary boom. Again, what
ever we may think about the article In
the constitution about religious free
dom, there are thousands of protested
liberal Christians who interpret this
article AS giving the right to every
one to express his opinions on relig
ious subjects, or any other subject, pro-
vided his utterances are not treason
able or obscene. And so this New
Jersey incident, in their estimation,
looks like the persecution of tho
Qnakers IA dark page In our national
history. Suppose we call this, as these
people assume, "religlous persecu-
tion," does it payH Has it ever paid 7
"The blood of the martyrs Is the seed
Of the church." Why some mems
views only thrive In times of persecu-
ton. They secure attention, and en-
list sympathy which they may not
deserve. There Is also this other fact,
that this is u matter of constitutional
construction. We may hold under
this article that Col. lngersoll Is not ut
liberty to attack Christianity. Others
say he has this liberty; and can we
decide this in way which these lib
eral Christians call persecution F.? This
Is not the way we decide the different
views In regard to the power of the
President under the constitution. And
there Is this other fact: lngersoll in
our estimation is u plasphemer. He
may not think so. And so there are
n great may others in the same boat in
regard to themselves. Profanity Is
profanity, although the ono who utters
It may deny 1t. The woman who, last
summer, in her temperance talk, said
that she "would like to be God
Almighty for n short time, in order to
show how she would settle this ques-
tion," did not mean to be profane.
But she was, rs well rs lngersoll, or his
more orthodox friend Sam Jones in his
profane and vulgar way of trying to
preach. These are examples which we
have gathered from newspaper reports,
and teach that "when we are living
in glass houses 1t is not we'll to throw
stones" And while on this subject
we may add, that profanity for the
sake of profanity, is only an idication
Of a mind and heart which should find
no welcome whatever in the most lib
liberal construction of our constitu-
tional rights as American citizens. 1t
has no apology whatever for its utter
ances; and IL has any constitutional