The record-union., 1899-07-22

outraged maidenhood. he exclaimed
Gentlemen, can you go to your wives
and little girls If you set this man free? +?
ask you whether you'll do justice?"
I'VE will, Bob" replied a weeping
juror. The case was won in a few
minutes by plea that played on emo
ton.
In politics Ingersolls reputation
rested largely on his power of bitter
invective and humor. 1t has often
been said that his so-called "Plumed
Knight" speech, favoring Blaine for
President made him. but the facts do
not bear out that statement. Inger-
soils reputation was made long before
that day-at Indianapolis and elsewhere
In famous speech on Democracy, he
said: Every man who ever voted for
slavery-was Democrat; every man
who ever shot at the flag of the free
was a Democrat; every man who ever
tore an innocent babe from the bleed
ing breast of it's mother-was a Demo-
crat"
That speech was for years quoted
all over the country
In religious controversies Colonel
Ingersoll was best known by a lecture
called, THE Mistakes of Moses" and
by one called What Must We Do to Be
Saved" lecture called '.The Liberty
of Man, Woman and Child" was also
popular. 1t was printed by cheap pub
fishers and often printed under the
name Skulls
In 1882 Colonel Ingersoll made re-
markable lecturing tour, travelling
across the continent. In the principal
Eastern and Western cities he spoke to
large audiences, often composed of re-
igious people and ministers. At Omaha
minister asked: Colonel, how could
you improve on the plans of God, which
you have so freely criticised?'
II deny that 1 have criticised God s
plans" replied the Colonel, but if you
credit God with existing conditions, 1
will say that his plans could be i'm
proved upon by making good health
catching, instead of disease"
In recent years Colonel Ingersoll has
been best known by a thoughtful lee
ture on Shakespeare. in which he said
the bard of Avon was. IAN intellectual
ocean," which washed the continent of
every thought. Another popular lecture
was on Lincoln. In this he said if the
martyred Presidents Grafton at Gettys-
burg: ITS delivery consumed less than
fifteen minutes, but it will live until
lips are dust and languages are dead.
Everett's grafton. which consumed two
hours, and which exhausted the splen,
dor of rhetoric, will never be remem-
bered."
About ten years ago the great agnos-
tic created much controversy among
the clergymen of New York, by de-
Tending suicide. Among other things,
he said: II have often wondered why
a poor man consents to live amid
crusts and rags, when all he loved
had passed away, when nothing but
the wintry disappointment of life is
before him-desolation on every side
The great agnostic was a strong be-
lever in love and human happiness,
which he often called the apex of all
hope" Rather than to believe those
love have been swallowed in ever
lasting night" he said in one lecture.
- would hope to become a speck. sof
dust. Death, eternal silence is sweet
er than hell. Eyes that have been
curtained by the everlasting dark can
never feel again the burning touch of
tears; hearts of dust do not break
Rather than to believe in hell, would
hope that all love had been touched
by the dreamless silence of the tongue
less dust"
Though many persons believe that
Ingersoll spoke extemporaneously, such
is not the fact. Nearly all his lectures,
even his newspaper interviews, were
cautiously ands patiently written out in
advance. He was a fine reader of his
own addresses, but Pope Bob often
stuck to his manuscript for hours with
out single break. Night after night;
in city after city, and at enormous
in the same way His manner was
that of animated conversation, which
he believed the best style for eloquence,
even of the highest type.
81 like California and all the Vest
he said when on this coast nearly two
decades ago; "for out here the people
are free, and the human brain is given
chance to grow. There are places
East where the churches pass their
hats before rich men. in search of a.
crumb of comfort, a certificate that the
Bible is true. Out here, and all over
the West and South, people are free
Colonel Ingersoll believed there were
but two things in which this century
was lacking-poetry and sculpture
THE plays of Shakespeare have never
been approached" he said, "and the
marbles of Greece have never been
equaled. Our sculptors cannot even
copy them. They cannot give the
breath of life to stone and make the
marble feel and think AS to Shakes
peare, he reached the summit and fitted
the horizon. He told the secrets of the
heart. In him the buds of all hope
blossomed, all seas were crossed. and
all the shores of thought We're touched. ;,
According to Ingersoll Darwin was a
rare genius in science, Dickens was the
greatest of novelists, and 1.-The Tale of
Two Cities" the greatest story ever pc
rused by man. He had no faith in Kip
ling and modern writers. There is
now no poet of laughter and of tears. -
he recently said. none equal to Hood
There is none with the aerial footsteps
of Shelley: none with the amplitude
sweep and passion of Byron
AS an orator. Ingersoll's manner was
that. of an animated conversationalist
He never yelled or strained but pathos
and laughter were side by side. His
broad common sense and his love of
humor carried his audiences. Though he
denounced creeds, he hoped for here
after. One of the finest things in the
language is an oration wherein he
says: ''The idea of a hereafter was
not born of Bibles and creeds; it was
not born of religions and priests-but it
has lived since first the fight of time
began. The idea of a land that is bet
ter than this, the hope of a world be-
yond, was born of human love; and it