The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1899-03-25
INGERSOLL IN Chicago
ARRIVES THERE TO DELIVER HIS
LECTURE ON THE DEVIL.
Thinks Governor Roosevelt Should
Have COMMITTED Mrs. Places Sem
tence. Denounces the President of
Humane Society as Fir Only to
be President of Society of Hyenas.

SOlOuci ItODCIG VI. 1HScESOit, de
urbane and as sarcastic, as ever,
arrived in Chicago Sunday, and
gave his views that night on the
devil. The mellow-voiced icono.
clast has not lost any of his vigo1
of intellect or pugency of express
sion with advancing years, land age
not taken any color from his
ruddy check or widened the shin.
ing bold spot on his head. He
does not like Governor Roosevelt
for refusing to commute the sem
tence of Mrs. Place, and thinks
John G Shortall ought to be pres
ident of a society of hyenas, IN
stead of the Humane society, since
he came out as an advocate of a
wife -beater's whipping post. The
colonel said at his room at the
Annex to a reporter:
| think the refusal of Governor
Roosevelt to commute the sem
tence of Mrs. PlaceI is disgrace
to the State. What a spectacle of
man killing a woman-taklng q
poor, pallid frightened woman and
strapping her to a chair and then
arranging the apparatus so she
can be shocked to death. Many
call this a Christian country. A
good many people who believe in
hell would naturally feel it their
duty to kill a wretched, insane
woman.
"Society has a right to protect
itself, but this can be done by i'm
prisonment, ana it is more hu-
name to put criminal in a cell
than in grave. Capital punish
ment degtades and hardens a COM
munity and it is a work of savage
ly. 1t is savagery. Capital pun
ishment does not prevent murder,
but sets an example-and exam
pie by the State--that is followed
by its citizens. The State murders
its enemies and the citizens muir
ders his. Any punishment that
degradeS the punished must nee
essarlly degrade the one inflicting
the punishment. No punishment
should be inflicted by human
being that could not be inflicted by
a gentleman.
"For instance, take the whip
ping post. Some people are IN
favor of fiogging because they say
that some offenses are of such
frightful nature that flogging
is the just and only punish
ment. They forget that the
punishment must be inflicted by
somebody and that somebody Is a
low and contemplate cur. | un-
derstand that John G.. Shortall,
president of the Humane Society
of Illinois, has had a bill intro
duced into the Legislature of the
State for the establishment Of the
whipping post.
"The shadow of that post would
disgrace and darken the whole
State. Nothing could be more in
famous, and yet this man is pres
ident of the Humane Society. Now
the question arises what is humane
about this society? Certainly not
its president. Undoubtedly he is
sincere. Nobody deliberately pre-
tends to be bad, but the idea of
his being president of the Humane
Society is simply preposterous.
With his idea about the whipping
post he might join a society of hy-
enas for the cultivation of feroci-
ty, for certaily nothing short of
that would do justice to his bill.
| have too much confidence in the
legislators of the State, and may
be my confidence rest in the fact
that | do not know them, to think
that the passage of such bill is
possible. If it were passed | think
| would be justified in using the
language of the old Marylander,
who said, Il have lived in Mary
land fifty years, but l have never
counted them, and my hopes is
that God won't. -