The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-06
wJUST A CHATS

voung North Carolina Evangelist who
evangelizcs for God and not for Mann
mon. spoke in Savannah the same
night that Robert c. Ingersoll delivered
q lecture there. He had a great crowd
who came to hear sensational stuff. an
attacN. it might have been hoped, upon
the brilliant agnOstic who was talking
almost within n stones throw. The
congregation got a plain gospel sermon,
sincerely spoken, and when, afterward
they came to consider, they praised the
yolIng man in their minds for that ne
had pursued the way of simplicity, strip
ned of tangle. aItcr the manner OF the
Master. 1t was all well enough. Inc
cargo of sinners in this weeping world
is heavy enough for Christianity to carry
without weighing it down with these
latter-tlay evangelist" whose cloquehce
rings best to the accompanying ring OF
the coin they crave.
-
Robert G. Ingersoll is as interesting
as he is wrong / once heard him say
speaking of the word wrong, Il nave
no clay patriotism; if my State is right
I'm for her: if she is wrong, / ain
against her. 1t was in Il drawing
room Of Il home in Chicago, during the
coffee. after dinner at which | CHANGED
to be one of the guests \ young man,
even in the midst of the cffulgent flow
of words. to which all were listening in
tently, with some trepidation, interrupted
him just at this point.
MIR. IngcrSol." said the young man.
you use the words right and wrong.
YOU have no right to use the word
right unless YOU believe in the eXls-
tence of moral law and moral response
hility. The word right is dynamic with
every claim that is made by even the
most ardent defender OF Christianity
Mr.. Ingersoll paused long enough al
most to clectrify those present with
the dangerous smile of disdain and
shock n smile. i remember, Keen with
Il gathering CLINT, and then the smile
softened and broadened into the quality
of pity for the agitated youth.
There was but one escape for Mr.. In
gersoll and he took it. the beaten track
Of SociologistS that honesty, for example,
was pxacted among the sayageS, even,
because society i'm its simplest form
could not exist. If one man We're al
lowed with inGpunity to take another
mans ownings. The ten commandments
are treated by these SOciOlOgists from
similar view point. And so it comes to
he said even among the heather that
it is not right to steal, &c. Mr.. mger-
soil followed this line with delightful
and suggestive flow, but with flow that
did not carry conviction to the youth
and To n few other friends of his who
were there.
had never heard this point made
before and it slept during the years
since that evening until one night at one
Of he Mission services conducted here
some months ago by Dean Bradley at
the Church of the Good Shepherd, this
claim startlingly formed the theme Of
the discourse. Under the treatment of
Dean Bradley the postulate laid down
by the youth seemed to get complete
confirmation from the trained mind of a
theologian, and it was, therefore, re-
freShing to listen to the exposition.
| do NOT suppose Mr.. Tngersoll has
been South often; he had never been
South at that time, but he wanted to
come. Turning to me who was sitting
next to him and who he knew was from
the South, he asked:
Have you got any young intidcls
down South? sRH
| hesitatingly replied that did NOT
think the young men had advanced any
further than Herbert Spencer. but that
his platform Eowens were well known
in the South and that me could draw a
crowd. | yentured, moreover, TO ask
him why could he not speak on some
other subject than religion.
NO" said he. ''if l can't speak on
that subject, | will not speak ut al"
Mr.. Ingersoll was then out on a lee
ture tour: he said at the open table that
his money had given out and that the
odd woman" had sent him out to get
some more. And just here he explained
his manner of domestic financiering. He
said he had box, and all the money
was put in there, and wife and children
and he helped themselves until it was all
gone, and then he went out TO get some
more. 1t was the same way with his
law partnership as | was told by Judge
Puterbaugh with whom he once practiced
law in Iowa. They kept no books and
put the money in strong box to which
each had Il key and they helped them
selves I'd lIbifum until there was none
left. These are lights among the shad-
cws that Turk in the marvellous mind OF
this man. | wonder can it be true. the
cause l once heard assigned of his ag-
Mysticism. Rev. DIR. Iyey in the Central
church in this city stated in the course
Of = sern on that tie mother OF Mr.. In
gersoll was reading Tom Paine previous
to the appearance upon the stage of NJ.
lngersCll. | do not know anything a.
bout these deeper mysteries, but / have
heard that the learned physicians see
nothing impossible in prenatal impress
si0ns. And the strange part of it MI
was, his father was an orthodox Presby-
terrain clergyman. But all this aside. it
would be well everytime Mr.. Ingersoll
speaks in Southern town, to- have a
man of Weston II. Gales's quality and
character talking near by just as he was
in Savannah.
These torpedo boats we hear so much
nhont nowadays are curious things.
The one | saw was the Winslow wollow-
ing in the sea like a watermelon. and
lust about of such Il shape. round on
top and round under the bottom. A
close %uard-rail gives one a narrow
Sn1rp To WALL aIonor