The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-28
COL. INGERsoLL ON LIBERTY.
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT SHOULD BE
GIVEN MAN. WOMAN AND CHILD.

pIauded Ills Anti-ReligiOu Epi-
erams-Liberty the Child of Intel
Iigence, and Superstition the Child
of IgnOrance-BeIieves in Prog
ress in Religion as in All Other
Affairs of Men-His Respects to the
Prcsbyterians.
An intelligent. representative and oul-
tured audience Of 800 to 100 Savanuahians
greeted Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, The
great agnostic. at the theater last night
when he appeared to deliver his famous
lecture upon THE Liberty Of Man, Woman
and Child"
There were in the audience people VINO
go to church every Sunday, and there were
people who never so to church. There
= were among those assembled reasoning
thinking people, and people who have no
time to reason and think except upon their
daily cares. There were about as
many women as men. There were those
who laughed at Col. Ingersons wit and
humor but who did not applaud his bias
phemous sentiments nor his anti-redsious
anathemas. But there were others, lew
In number. who applauded the, epgrahiS
of agnosticism, and broke into mlrth over
the ridicule cast upon the sublime. Such
an audience it was, exemplifying the very
differences in mankind to which Col. In
gersoll called attention.
Col. Ingerson came on the stage I'M
introduced. It was expected that he would
pay his respects TO the clergy, particular
ly to that of the Presbyterian cloth, and
his arraignment of John Calvin for the
persecution of Servetus was horrible ~ It's
severity. Servetus was burned at the
stake because he refused to believe in the
Trinity. and Calvin. he SAID, was there to
enjoy it, He said: And when the wind
blew aside the fame so that they could
see him. Servetus asked John Calvin, who
was present enjoying the festivlty' 10 put
some wood on the other side and hasten
the end of his torture, and John Calvin
looked at him with cold presbyterian eyes
and denied the request.
lover the pulpit of every Presbyterian
Church there should be Inscribed, ne sa49'
This church was founded by John Cai-
vim, a murderer I'm not lighting Pres"
byterian Churches, but Presbyterlanlsm.
l don't hate man because he has the
rheumatism, but l hate the rheumatism
because il has a man.
Such were Col. IngersolPs outbursts.
eloquent flights of poetical oratory, IN con-
versational tone, approaching higher pltch
In climax, with graceful gesture carried
his nearer to nights of suBlimity only TO
be dropped over some precipice of BIAS
phemy. Col. Ingersoll's argument is sum-
med up in his desire TO improve on re-
ligion, as everything else has been inn
proved on in the progress of man. 1t
was the mental slavery OF the human race
that prevented this. BY liberty he meant
sa..Ns -.
cordance with nature without being inter
fered with by like intelligence. Every
body has the right 20 think; the real ques-
ton is shall we have the liberty of express
sion.
He abhored the idea that there was
God who wanted all people to think alike.
If il had been So then why were not all
men made alike, instead of ali being differ
ent. Here we are all travellers, he said, and
nobody knows where they are going, and
they know they don't know. If he did
not believeefn the Bible he thought ID his
duty as an honest man to say SO. People
should be honest with each other;
when new idea comes receive
IL. If it's a tramp, don't set the orthodox
dog on il.
There is no argument in fear. nor is
there any argument in torture. = He spoke
of the fortunes of the middle ages inflicted
upon those who refused to accept pre-
there was ever a martyr, for he regretted
to live in an age that had been lifted to
civilization by the blood of the bravest
and best. Col. Ingersoll's argument was
on this line:
"A little while ago 1 saw models of
nearly everything that man has made
j saw models of all the water craft, from
the rude dugout in which floated naked
Eavage-one of our ancestors-a naked
savage, with teeth two inches in length
with a spoonful of brains In the back of
his head-I saw models OF all the water
craft Of the world, from that dugout up
TO a man-of-waT, that carries a hun
dred guns and miles of canvas-from that
dugout to the steamship that turns it's
brave Prov from the port of New York,
with compass like a conscience cross
ing three thousand miles of pillows with
out missing throb or beat of its mighty
iron heart.
II saw at the same time the weapons
that man has made, from a club such
as was grasped by that same savage,
when he crawled from his den In the
ground and hunted a snake for his din
ner; from that club to the boomerang, to
the sword to the cross-bow, TO the blum
derbuss, TO the fint-lock TO the cap
lock, TO the needle-gun, up to a cannon
cast by krupp, capable of hurting a ball
weighing two thousand pounds through
eighteen inches of solid steel"
ne spoke similarly OF progress in other
lines, in armor, musical instruments,
paintings, books, implements of agricul-
ture. and said:
While looking upon these things 1 was
forced to say that man advanced only as
he mingled his thought with his labor
only as he got into partnership with the
forces of nature-only as he learned to
take advantage of his surroundings
as he freed himself from the bondage OF
fear-only as he depended upon himself
only as he lost confidence in the gods.
Il saw at the same time a row of human
skulls, from the lowest skull that has
been found, the Neanderthal skull-the
skulls from Central Africa, skulls from
the Bushmen of Australia-skulls from the
farthest isles of the Pacific sea-up to the
best skulls of the last genera tlon-and
noticed that there was the same difference
between those skulls that there was be.
tween the products of those skulls. and
said to myself: After ell, it is a
simple question of intellectual develop
ment There was the same difference be.
tween those skulls. the lowest and highes,
skulls, that there was between
the dugout and the man-of-war and the
al,