Arizona republican., 1899-09-29

take the. field with the Mistakes Ct 'Ingersoll'' The Brooklyn masterpiece i has long since passed into oblivion, as it deserved. It is remembered only by | the laughter with which 1ng5rsCll en- | c0mpaSsed it. It was. for the most part, violent and foolish defense o
 Jonah and the whale and all the myth 1 ical legendary stories of the Old Test-
 ament which even the church had l long since left out of the essential spiritual value of the book. Talmage swallowed both Jonah and the whale, and Ingersoll did not need any other text For enc kcur and half he
 bowled down all the gravity and deco-
 rum Of his assemblage with Talmage
 and the whale. He pictured Jonah in the whales belly with inimitable lev ity, trying to obtain a foothold in that slippery tank. Then he stopped short, and said, But MT. Talmage says he
 was not in the whales belly-he was
 in his mouth. Well. from all the pie
 lures of that reverend gentleman s
 mouth that I have seen - In an
 instant he was cut shOrt with a storm
 of laughter from his audience, who
 saw the mouth Of Mir. Talmage reach
 ing across the entire stage. When the
 laughter had subsid6d IngerSOn fin
 ished the sentence in the following
 manner: +I should think that that
 would be the most reasonable conclu-
 s:on he could come to-" So far 2s this
 was an argument, MT. Billy Birch
 could have matched it at any time. But
 as humor made to fit the occas.On, it
 was worthy of Mark Twain.
 Ingerson did not always have things
 so completely his own way. He once
 fired off h-s gun as a Clover club din
 ner in Philadelphia and the shot
 struck Senator Breckenridge. who, ac-
 ccrdirg to the tI'ad-ti-ns Of the club,
 rose up and historically clOVe IngeT-
 soil in twain.
 It is extremely doubtful that MT.
 Ingarsoll's assaults on Christianity ever made many converts. They were always moving, bq5 they could hardly be called convincing. Even young
 men, who lad the subject thus pre- sented to them for the first time by
 this matchless Ciltcr, would be very aCt, ie they were seriously inclined, to go to some ether authority for verific3- tioni and then find that many of the 2thGist's facts were erroneous. fer h. gerS0ll, whc was consistent and un- deviating in his feelings. was very un- certain in his data. His errors were continually being pointed out by Cath C.icS, ProteStantS and Jews themselves. and he very often placed himself on record as holding firmly to two dia- metrically opposed views. Thus, in his reply to Black, he acknowledged that Jesus Christ was as v5ritable his tCric character and a good man. and, in his lecture on myths and miracles, he declared that he was a myth like \ TNO1ln and Titf1Q nd i6ipo EIs-s-I As it $ impossible to hold both these views, IngersCl probably held them each in succession. One Of his most gi31ing errors was committed in his lecture on Reran. He accused the God of the Hebrews Of having promulgated a -i3w Cn Sinai and then killed a mum Der Of Jews fer disJbedience Of it be- fore it had reached them. This mis- take was characteristic Of Ing6rSoll's superficial reading. He jumped to the that the Jews had never been taught the law because it had not been codffied. Whereas, if he had but turned one page Of the Bible, he would have learned that the TOrah, CT law, had been taught by Moses to the Is- raelites ever since they left EgyIt, and the tables of stone were the mare codi- ication and publication Os that Torah. ne uIdQS d ol1llH1d Si1CI All cilII lDul1u5 the golden rule to. La+0t-zi instead of COnfucius. In his reply to Black he declared that women were freer under Pagan Rome than they were under Christian rule, and before Moses was born women had sat upon the Egyp- -ilan throne, and upcn ancient tombs he husband and wife are represented IS seated upon the same chair. This vas a most unfortunate allusiCn, be- 'ause the effigy of the husband and wife is that of Rameses H. who mar jed his own sister.
 These and similar inaccuracies doubtless prevented Ingersoll from becoming an authority, even among | intelligent atheists, and it is question Ible if his charm of delivery in the | ong run weighed much against the ! traditions and prejudices If persons brought up under religious influences
 The best evidence that Ingersolls | influence was net organizing is seen in | he fact that he left no compact group | If followers. He never, in the height | If his fame, quite departed from the !! oOthold of a negation- In politics he | night have won the highest honOrs of | lis country, had he net antagionized | k Prejudices of the majority It is | lulte possible to place this to his | redit. He does net seem to have been place hunter, and in all his exhibi- | ions of himself, he was thoroughly | nd typically American. All that was ruly great and noble in the history of 'ur country fired his imagination and ipped his tongue With eloquence. As personality he appears to have been
 rdently loved by many men of diverse aiths and opinions. One and all they estify to his sensibility, his philan- hrCpy, his geniality, his tenderness of
 eart, and his extreme sensitiveness to idicule. On one occasion the late Colonel CCckerill prinzed a burlesque tictue of him, and MT. Ingersoll would ret speak to him for year On an
 ther occasion when he and Henry Ward Beecher met in the common 2use of emancipation, he exhibited a nagnanimity quite equal to Beecher's