The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-07


strong claim on public sympathy, and Mr.
McKinley's domestic life is an idyl He
is ob1iging, too, and several times when
the result of an election in our state has
been in doubt, he has come out to help u.s.
and he did not stand apart on a pedestal
to be admired affair off, but he spoke from
the tail of a cart or from a car platform,
wherever the multitudes were gathered
together to see and hear him. He made
pleasant impression throughout the west.''
Next Election an Enigma.
While all the indications point to the
election of Republican president Mr.. In
gals says he thinks some strange develop
ments may occur next November.
1.-The election of 1899 was lost to the
Republican party, - he said, Through the
apathy of Republicans. The Democrats
Increased their vote very little. In 1894
the verdict was reversed through the in
difference of Democrats. The Republican
vote was not very largely increased. No
one can foreten the result of the coming
election if the Republicans in congress
drift and dawdle and do nothing. The
people look to the house to define meas
ures which will be recognized as the policy
of the party, if it is restored to power, and
bring prosperity. They will not be salts
fed with criticism and censure of the adj
ministration. Public indignation is ia
tigued already with Democratic delin-
At this point in our conversation there
was a rum bling from the corner where the
steam heater was located in Mr.. Ingalls,
room. He suggested that possibly this
was applause, and that pervading smile
which used to light up the senate chamber
at Washington few years ago fitted over
his face for a moment ventured the
suggestion that some one was trying to
take a cathode photograph through the
adjoining wall.
SIS lot this latest development Of sci
ence amazing?' said the senator. cit
seems as though we were on the verge of
disclosures beside which the discoveries of
the past would seem trivial-as though
we were bout to penetrate the profoundest
depths of natures mysteries. And yet
these revelations of science leave us as far
from the secrets of human destiny as ever
leave US still to wonder why We are here
and whittier we go. And, by the way, is
it not a remarkable commentary on the
moral evolution of our race that l, 900
years after God performed that greatest of
all sacrifces-by sending his Son to death
on the cross that men might be saved
60, 900 martyrs should be butchered in
Armenia for believing in his name?"
I asked Mr.. ingalls, if he sympathized
with those who credited the missionaries,
not alone in Armenia, but in China and
other "heathen'' countries, with stirring
up strife and causing great loss of human
life
"They would be much better occupied
looking after our own heather, who are
many" said Mr.. ingalls, earnestly.
''There are the Chinese, whose government
is wonderful illustration of national
longevity, for it existed long before Christ
and it shows no signs of disintegration. If
the Chinese were to send missionaries to
this country to set up their josshouses and
preach that our religion was sham and
fraud and our God fiction, to proselyte
our children, destroy our faith and under
mine our theology, they would find us very
intolerant. as the Mormons did. They
have la1Ts, institutions, literature and
worship under which they have existed for
SO centuries. Their days have been long
in the land, which is the reward promised
for we'll doing, and it seems both arrogant
and superfuous to go abroad so far for OBJ
jects over which our hearts may expand
when there is such an uncomfortable ag-
gregate of crime, poverty, Ignorance and
misery within our gates.''
He ExtoIs Salvationists.
I suggested the Salvation Army as a
missionary force which was working
among the heather of America with good
results, and the senator said he had the
greatest respect for that organization and
its work.
''Their sermons are not like those of
"but such sermons would go above the
heads of the people Booth is trying to
reach. These methods appeal to class
which cannot be reached in any other way.
The Catholic church is like them in that;
itTeaches and controls an element which
cannot be Influenced by other denomina
tions. The Catholic church is great con-
sentative force in society, and that is the
reason why 1 am opposed to the spirit of
RELIGIOUS intolerance
I asked Mr.. Ingalls, if he believed the A.
P. A. was becoming political factor and
he answered that it was conspicuous
force in municipal politics in many cities
of the west. He would not venture to say
what it might do in the future-whether
1t would die out gradually or become a ma
tional organization. But he said he thought
it was gaining in strength and was based
upon passion that was always formidable
and had often changed the current of his
tory.
When Mr.. ingalls, was more conspicuous
ly in the public eye, few years ago, he
was known as an omnivorous reader. No
question came up for discussion in the sem
ate that did not find him thoroughly in
formed, however recent the literature on
the subject. He still reads a great deal,
and, living on the cars so much, he has
ample time and opportunity to crafty
this taste. He finds little to praise and
much to condemn in the tone of recent
fiction, and he laments the apparent de-
generacy of public taste. He says he con-
siders Thomas Hardy's latest novel one of
the most fragrant illustrations of 'the nude
in literature.
cit has not even the merit of good artis-
tic workmanship, he said. sit is abso-
lutely wooden. AS to stories with which
many popular writers are flooding the
magazines and newspapers, they are the
wearieSt refuse of the literary iunkShoD
a hundred years ago men wrote because
they had something to say; now a man
makes name, and on the strength of that
he writes as rapidly as he can as long as