The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-23
|NG{RSOLL IN MONTANA
CONTINUED from Page Seven. J

upon all topics, abStTuse or common
place, scientific or philosophical One
of his weaknesses, if it could be called
a weakness, was his affection for his
family. Every time he came West,
either his wife or daughter accompanied
him, sometimes both, and either was
his constant companion everywhere.
They were with him always. Miss
lngersoll, while her father was in court,
looked after his hat, his sun-umbfella
and other effects, and ministered to his
personal comfort in a hundred ways.
Colonel Ingersoll's manner towards hi
wife and daughter was that of an
affectionate young lover, emitting the
bashfulness. In social coter,es, when
ladies were present and Mrs. Ingersoll
absent, the colonel constantly quoted
his wife, and when she was present he
as constantly appealed to her for cor
roboration of all his speeches. Each
day that Colonel Ingersoll spent in
Montana, when Mrs. Ingersoll did not
accompany him and their daughter, a
telegram passed both ways between
New York and this state, announcing
that all was WELL or vice versa, and
this was a constant custom with him.
"One time Colonel Ingersoll was a
candidate before a republican state
convention of Illinois for the office of
governor. He had some time previously
become infatuated with Thomas Paine,
and had made him the subject of a
eulogistic lecture which he had deliv-
cred in the country towns in Illinois.
Naturally, the religious element of the
state took offense, and when Colonel
Ingersolrs friends went to the republi-
can state convention, ssrenely conf
dent that their idol was destined to be
the next governor of Illinois. they were
met by a solid and overwhelming pha-
lanx of the elders and followers of
certain denomination, and, like the
early martyrs who had suffered fer
their faith, Colonel Ingersoll was sac
rificed because he hadn't any. He
found that in public life the expression
of his notions of infidelity had cut off
all the avenues to political preferment
and honors. And so it was not sur
prising that when a friend in later
years, gazing upon the beautifully
bound treasures of his library, asked
him what the library had cost him, he
very promptly and feelingly replied,
The governorship of Illinois,"
with all his power of expression
there was a good deal of bombast
about the colonel" said Mr.. Connolly,
land if you or I said the things-if we
could say them-about the gentlemen
of the cloth and those great agencies of
Christianity which have done so much
for the world. that Ingersoll did, we
would be considered blackguards. But
he waXed fat on controversy. His hu-
NOR had a good deal Of the Rabel-
asian flavor to it. l know this because
] came much in contact with him at
those moments when he threw off
whatever reserve he had. l was en-
ployed to report in shorthand all his
arguments before the supreme court,
and this work gave me many oppor-
tunities to listen and observe
In his opening address to the jury in
the Davis will case, Col. w. F. Sanders
made an appeal to the jury and to be
influenced by the eloquence of Colonel
Ingersoll. and said:
In an old book occur the words, MY
son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou
not"
Colonel Ingersoll, prefacing his argu-
ment, replied to Colonel Sanders as fol-
lows:
Il don't want you, gentlemen, to pay
any attention to what I say unless it
appears to your reason and to your
good sense. Don't be afraid of me be-
cause I am a sinner. l admit that I
am. I am not like the other gentle
man who thanked God that he was
not as other men. I have the faults
and frailties common to the human
race, but in spitr of being a sinner I
strive to be at least a good-natured
one, and / am such a sinner that if
there is any good in any other world
I am willing to share it with all the
children of men. To that extent. at
least. I am a sinner, and / hope, gen
tlemen, that you will not be preiudiced
against me on that account or decide
for the prepayment simply upon the per-
fections of Colonel Sanders"
In his speech at Columbia Gardens
in 1891. on the occasion of the celebra-
ton of the 600th anniversary of the
Swiss republic by the Swiss-Americans
of Butte. Colonel Ingersoll gave express
sion to many beautiful sentiments
some of which are peculiarly applicable
to conditions existing in this country at
present. A few of the good things he
then said are here republished:
Slavery comes from ignorance and
freedom is and always has been the
child of intelligence
I'VE enjoy something like liberty to-
day and We ought to remember what
it cost. This privilege has cost the
bravest and best blood that ever
coursed in human veins. For this
privilege millions and millions have
persisted in dungeons, bound with
rusty chains. Think of the fagots
about their feet, the flames climbing
about their limbs, scorching their eyes
better day. Every man, woman and
child should remember that the price
less pearl of liberty is in their keep
ing, and it is for them to hand it down |
to their children to the last genera
ton.
What is It to be free? In the dear |
old times when everybody hated every |
body else, when every nation hated |
every other nation, and man was so |
degraded that he did not have imagina- |
tion enough to sympathize with one |
who differed from him in nationality, |
or in clothing, or in language, or who |
knelt to a god different from his, all |
power to govern man came from the |
clouds. Men were taught that some |
where in the astronomical spaces, |
in the whirling, circling |
heavens, was an immense barbarian |
who governed mankind who put kings |
on thrones who deCreed that peasants |
should labor and not eat, work and |
not enjoy, and that others should have
the luxuries of life. SO for ages man
was governed from the clouds, and the
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