The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-30
THEY QUIT THE THEATER
PEOPLE WHO DID NOT TAKE KINDLY
TO COLONEL INGERsOLL.
He Delivered His Lecture on "Super-
stitiOn" Last Night at EnEIish's
Opera House.

The audience that greeted Colonel Inger-
soil at Englishs Opera House last night was
rather disappointing in size, due, perhaps,
to the nipping cold of the atmosphere and
the fact that there were religious services
at most of the churches in the city Colonel
IngersoH possesses great power of wit.
humor sarcasm and logic but the fact re-
mains indisputable that most people prefer
weH-lighted and heated churches and homes
to paying from 50 cents to a dollar for the
privilege of listening to a lecture Astounding
in gems Of rhetoric and bristling with shafts
of wit and ridicule. From the location of the
applause, which was frequent and hearty, it
could readily be discerned that it was con-
fined, in the main, to friends and followers
of the great agnostic scattered over the
house. Occasionally the doughty colonel
glanced over his spectacles in his own pecul-
lar audacious style and emitted, with the
| suddenness and violence of a popping cham
payne cork remark that shocked the SEN
sibilities of some of his auditors, who arose
and left the house abruptly.
AT point early in the delivery of his lee
ture on Superstition" he paused and, with
the air of a youngster defying his teacher,
said: why should we worship our ignor-
ance? Why should we kneel to the I'M
known? Why should we PROSTATE ourselves
before a guess? do not know" This proved
too much for a couple of women in the
front rows, who had perhaps been persuaded
| by an admrer of Mr.. IngersoH, ito just go
| and hear him this once" and they marched
| resolutely to the exit, with looks of uncorn-
promising condemnation stamped on their
| features. Later on, when discussing the
| probability of the existence of a personal
| devil, the lecturer spoke of 1.-The old woman
| who said, of course there's a devil, else how
| could they paint pictures of him." and this
fling at the sex cost him two more of his
| audience. After he had driven out another
| couple the progress Of his address was in
| terrupted only by applause and laughter.
Colonel Ingefsoll entered, as usual unan-
nounced and plunged at once into his lee
| ture, without so much as the formality of
bow. His opening sentences We're quite
| characteristic. Ladies and gentlemen,
superstition is the daughter of ignorance and
| the mother of misery. She wears robe of
| pictured legends, brOidered with cunningly
| woven lies, wet with human tears" He
! then proceeded to define superstition. 1T is
| to believe in spite of evidence or without
evidence, TO account for one mystery by an
| other. to believe that the world is governed
| by chance or caprice, to disregard the true
| relation between cause and effect" He
| enumerated minor superstitions, such as
| the dropping of dish cloth, which is sup
| posed TO mean the coming of unexpected
| guests, seeing the new moon over the left
! shoulder, which portends bad luck, and the
| belief in Friday as a day OF i'll omen. Re-
! ferring to the superstition about Friday be-
| ing an unlucky day, he spoke of Sunday as
| a holy day and said: How can space of
| time be holy any more than vacuum can
be VirtuouSY' he also, in passing, took Oc-
casion to whack the free-silver faIlacy after
| this fashion: If Congress by law could
make so cents worth Of silver a dollar that
would be a financial mil, miracle" The follow
| uIterances of the great tconoclast.
| "A miracle is something done by master
| of nature, without regard to any fact in
Sculpture a theological countenance on a
| gravestone and you will add another horror
Il am glad that there is no evidence to
| support the existence of devils, but, to tell
| you the truth, am sorry that the good
| angels have faded away. 1T would be de-
| lightful to know that the good angels hover
| in the air. that they guard the innocent,
| that they protect the good, that they bend
| overthe cradles and give health and happy
| dreams to pald babies, that they NIL dun
| geons with the gracious light of their pres
| ence speaking words of comfort to the in
| nocent to the imprisoned. Oh, It would
| be delightful to know that they follow the
| erring, the outcast, the friendless, and win
| them back to virtue, love and JOY. But
| we have no evidence that angels exist.
| There is not an orthodox preacher that
! can lay out the route from indianapolis to
| the New Jerusalem.
| How do you know God cares for us? Be
| honest. Do you prove it by the history of
d dur woTg Has He cared for heroism on
the scaffod? Has He cared for the slave
| beneath the lash? Has He cared for the
philosopher when the flames were climbing
! round his limbs? Be honest. How do you
| know God cares for us? Thought is a pair
| of steps by which we reach conclusion.
MANILA BAY VICTORY.
Claiming that Christians believe pestilence
cd
the colonel said: only a little while ago
cur President-good mandy proclamation
thanked God for the victory at Santiago,
and yet he did not thank Him for sending
the yellow fever. To be consistent he
should have thanked Him for both. if they
were both acts of infinite kindness and
wisdom and 1 suppose he acted in accord
ance with precedent. L do not thank God
| for the victory at Manila bay. / do not
know that He had anything TO do with IT..
thank Admiral Dewey and his brave COM
rades. [Applause.1 | can understand that
heroism wrapped in flesh, heroism that
| loves wife and child and dares death and
looks at the skull of fate with smile on it's
| lips. | thank these men. II ever ma
that God did it l will thank Him, and He
knows l will. Applause and laughteIr.I III
| Spain had whipped us preachers would have
| said, That is because of unbelief. IT IS be-
cause of bicycles, bloomers and beer"
The speaker declared that the popular
| ideas about hell have become modified. and
! in this portion of his lecture he hurled forth
! this remark with his usual vim: when l
| was boy hell was hot There was nothing
| the matter with the draught then. After
! wards it got to be hades, and then sheol,
! and then "a place for the dead" and then
| they said, We'll, in the next world you
| won't be allowed to associate with Meth
| odists and Presbyterians and Baptists.
| think l could stand that.
The lecture concluded with the following
| eloquent tribute to science: We know that
| science is the only civilizer It has freed
| the slave, clothed the naked, fed the hum
cry, heightened life. 1t has destroyed the
| monsters, the phantoms, the winged horrors
| that filled the savage brain: Science is the
| real redeemer. Science is the only possible
savior of mankind. We need more sense,
| the development of the brain. Science will
| put honesty above hypocrisy, even II
| hypocrisy looks solemn. 1t will teach the
| religion of usefulness, and it will put mental
veracity above all belief. 1t will put
/ thoughtful doubt above thoughtless faith.
| II destroys bigotry in all Of its forms, and,
/ in my judgment, science will in time abolish
| poverty, in time it will abolish crime, and,
/ what is grander, nobler than all else it VIII
| make the whole world free.
|