The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-08-28


began to talk about that one man.
There was more talk about that one |
nan overheard than all the five hun |
dred passengers that rode on In safe
ty. "Why did he jump overboard2" I |
wonder when he jumped overboard?'
81 wonder If when he jumped over
board he would liked to have jumped
back again ''I wonder If fish caught
him, or whether he went clear down
to the bottom of the sea?" And for
three or four days afterward We talk
ed about that poor man.
Here is the glorious and magnificent
theory that God by his omnipotent
power made man, and by his omnipo-
tent power made the brute creation.
and by his omnipotent power made all
worlds, and five hundred scientists
have taken passage N board that mag
nificent theory, but ten or hfteen
have jumped overheard. They make
more talk than all the five hundred
that did not jump. 1 am politely asked
to jump with them. Thank you, gen.
tlemen, am very much obliged to you.
l think / shall stick to the old Cunard-
jump, and test for yourselves whether
your hand was really flsh's nm, and
whether you were web-footed orlglnai-
ly, and whether your lungs are swim
bladder. And as in every experiment
there must be a division of labor, some
who experiment and some who observe.
you make the experiment and VIII
observe!
There is one tenet of evolution which
it is demanded we adopt, that which
Darwin calls Natural Selection, ana
that which Wallace calls the survival
of the Fittest" By this they mean
that the human race and the brute
creation are all the time improving
because the weak die and the strong
live. Those who do not die survive be-
cause they are the fittest. They say
the breed of sheep and cattle and dogs
and men is all the time improving. ma
turally improving. No need OF coy
or any Bible, or any religion, but Just
natural progress.
You see the race started with "spon-
taneous generation" and then 1t goes
right on until Darwin can take US up
with his natural selection" and wal
lace with his survival of the fttest,
and so we go right on up forever.
! Beautiful! But do the fittest survive!
Garfield dead in September-Gulteau
surviving until the following June.
Survival of the fittest?" All! no. The
martyrs. religious and political. dying
| for their principles. their bloody per-
secutors living On to old age. Sur
vival of the fittest?" Five hundred
thousand brave northern men march
ing out to meet five hundred thousand
brave southern men, and die on the
battlefield for a principle. Hundreds
of thousands of them went down into
the grave trenches. We stayed at
home in comfortable quarters. Did
they die because they were not as MT
to live as we who survived? All! no;
not the "survival of the fittest." ELS
worth and Nathaniel Lyon falling on
the northern side. Albert Sidney
Johnston and Stonewall Jackson fall
ing on the southern side. Did they fall
because they were not rs fit to live as
the soldiers and the generals who came
back in safety? No. Bitten with the
frosts of the second death be the
tongue that dares utter it! 1t is not
the survival of the fittest."
How has it been in the families oi
the world? How was it with the
child physically the strongest, intellec-
tually the brightest, in disposition the
kindest? Did that child die because il
was not as fit to live as those of youl
family that survived? Not ''the sur
vival of the f1ttest" In all communi
ties some of the noblest. grandest mel
dying in youth, or in mid life, while
some of the meanest and most con
temptible live on to old age. Not "th'
survival of the fittest."
But to show you that this doctrine !!
antagonistic to the Bible and to com
mon sense l have only to prove to yol
that there has been no natural prog
ress. Vast improvement from anothe
source, but mind you, no natural prog
ress Where is the fine horse in an.
Of our parks whose picture of eye ant
name and nostril and neck and haunch
es is worthy of being compared to Job
! picture of a horse as he thousands o
years ago heard it paw and neigh an
champ it's bit for the battle? Pigeon
5 of today not so wise as the carrie
) pigeons Of 500 years ago-pigeons tina
? carried the mails from army to arm
= and from city to city; one of ther
t flung into the sky at Rome or Venic
! landing without ship or railtrain il
l London. Look at the great animal
l that walked the earth in olden times
e animals compared with which in siz
: our elephant is a cat-monsters of ole
Y en- times that swan the deep. compare
: with which our whale is a minnov
Comics have learned nothing aboU
D hunting. and the ostrich nothing abor
s climbing and the hounds nothing aboU
t Matching. and the condor nothing abor
= flying, and the owl nothing about mus