The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-30
A man OF MANY NOBLE TRAITS.
Kate Sanborn Writes Of the
Great Agnostic as She
Knew Him.

Breezy Meadows, Metcalf, July H.
At railroad junction near me, a
baggage truckman works, who is a
character, his remarks being often
most original and worth repeating.
For instance, he was intensely inter-
ested in the sudden separation and sub
sequent divorce of an old maid and
aged widower, who, after long ,ac-
quaintance, had at last got married.
IT'S a mystery, those two a-leavin'
each other, and wish 1 knew what did
drive EN- apart. But they are so close
mouthed they'll never tell, and no one
else is any wiser'n 1 am. So L suppose
never shall know till the day of judg-
ment, and then there will be so much
goin' on, I presume l won't care Moth
in about it!''
And of death, which he breads, he
said: Il do wish we could die alive!"
As I passed him yesterday, he bowed
sadly and said Terrible thing-Mr.
Ingersoll dead; great loss; he was a
good man.
And really that seems to be the
prevailing opinion. Even the clergy
(who dare to be sincere) admire his
fearlessness and his many noble traits.
l have spent several evenings in the
happy home of the IngersolPs in New
York city, and know that the husband
and father made it an earthly heaven;
and that is a pretty good test, isn't il?
Bob" was born to question. to doubt
the improbable, and to deny the impos-
Sible He inherited liberal tendencies,
and could not believe the Old Testament
stories, which seem to very many able
minds as extraordinary and preposter-
Gus as any of the legends and myths of
those we choose to call heathens.
He has been accused of banging the
Bible leaves to shake dollars out of
them, and do wish he had told the
world what he felt to be true, that the
teachings of Jesus were a sufficient
guide. He helped to pull down pillars
that had long been lettering and
shaky. In this he only repeated in his
striking, forceful way the arguments
of many thoughtful scholars.
There are too many ministers of to-
day declaring solemnly what they cam
not believe-for the consideration of a
comfortable salary. Many are really
hypocrites, preaching what they can
not accept, and at heart believing what
they hesitate to express for fear of be-
ing scored as heretical.
AS regards the inspiration and infal-
libility Of the Old Testament accounts
OI GTSdttOIl3 the QeluSe, lHG uSIlN6FdnCG
Of Jonah from stomachial incarceration,
etc, etc, I think that Lyman Abbott,
DR.. Briggs, Heber Newton, Minot Saw
age and even the Rt. Rev. Bishop Potter
believe just about the same as did the
outspoken agnostic
Mr.. Ingersoll hoped for continuance
of personal identity and for a happy,
progressive immortality, and his creed,
If followed, would bring the millennium.
Gov n rl.eer ~ vol n
vine in a Boston street car last week.
and asked him what he would give as
the most convincing proofs of immor-
tality. First, he considered our univer-
sal longing for it, strong proof But
how many persons long and pray all
their lives for satisfying love, a con-
genial companionship and go to their
graves, starved, repressed, heart-dead
long before.
Longing does not bring what is
longed for; often quite the opposite.
We are told by wise heads that we
don't know what is best for us, and all
must be disciplined Lowelrs oft
quoted couplet is to me untrue:-
1.-THE thing we long for-that we are
For one transcendant moment.
Then the learned reverend said that
the mystery of pain was another proof.
But, said l, you do not believe in the
future life of animals? 20, no.
Well they suffer in many ways about
as much as humans. / see nothing in
that.
Just then he grew restless and weary
of my society," and with a relieved air
left the car.
Mr.. Ingersoll never advocated free
dom Of conduct or immortality. Far
from it. Utterly removed was he from
the man who owned that if he was
sure there wasn't any hell, wouldn't he
carry. on POWERFUL"
When l was young girl, heard a
minister announce that morality was a
crime in itself; that all the virtues
without sanctification. would be as a
well of thistle down. against the
searching horrors of the judgment day.
Some minds are SO constituted that
they cannot experience the agonies and
raptures of a conversion" yet their
lives are all right.
know many believed that Ingersoll
would have deathbed scene OF hor-
rors, and possibly recant and repent at
the last moment And 10! if he had
been a saint, we should have waxed
poetic and alluded to his translation.
And a saint, real saint, l know,
after life Of closest adherence to ear
ly belief life of self-denials, heart
torture, disappointments and delusions,
endured with Christian cheerfulness, is
slowly. too slowly dying with hid
eous cancer!
Humboldt said at the last, that the
whole of life seemed to him the great
est insanity. And doesn't not seem
tragic and vet farcfcal the efforts we
make to educate ourselves and our
children, when life is but parenthe-
sis between ---?
Many papers have said of Ingersoll:
Now he knows it ALL"
Isn't that rather a foolish statement:
MY reverence and awe about the future,
leads me to believe that we are led
slowly like unto little children, from
one step to another.
We certainly know precious little
here, and yet some do seem ON almost
confidential terms with the great power
that governs the universal But | do
not intend to moralize, so let us turn
to new books
DO you think quotability a test of
lasting worth in a book and at least a
spark Of genius in its author? l do.
read many a book, highly praised
by professional reviewers from which
l can elicit nothing but the passing
pleasure of the plot, or meeting a new
girl or an interesting man. Not one
sentence worth remembering, and If |
kept commonplace book for gems of
thoughts, it would long remain COM
monplace and, plankly empty
And one more question: DO you think
in the new books OF the present day,
the man contributes more quotable par
agrapha or the woman author?
ii strikes me that women are doing
themselves proud in that line. Now that
Charming woman who has given us
"Elizabeth and her German Garden, .
and later, "a Solitary Summer is one
OF the best Instances Of facile mono
logue, where bright, original witty
thoughts are as carslessly poured forth