The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-02
BELIEF NOT CHANGED
Mrs. Ingersoll Is Unmoved in
Her AgnOsticism
BY HER HUSBANDS DEATH
Study of the Family of the
Great UnbeIiever.

New York, Aug. 1.-The Journal says:
There can be no sadder home in America
than the one from which the body of the
great agnostic Colonel Robert g. 'Inger-
soil. was borne to the crematory at Fresh
Pond, L l., on Thursday.
There are left in the big. castle-like
gray house among the cedars overlooking
the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry three women
who refuse to be comforted. For Mrs.
Ingersoli and her daughters there Is no
star in their night of grief.
It was rumored that In Mrs. Ingersoil
there had awakened a nope that she
would meet her husband again, that the
home that supports the Christian was
sustaining her. This proved to be untrue.
To a question about this alleged change
OF belief she replied:
IT have in no changed my belief. I
do not know whether shall ever see my
husband again My consolation is in
memory. / have as much consolation as
anyone who is bereaved. know as much
as they do about the hereafter. It Is
nothing"
They were cheerless words, falling as
duly on the heart as clods upon q coffin.
Mrs. Ingersoll chung to her dead as long
as the awful process of dissolution would
permit. He died on Friday, July q. She
would not permit the remains to be taken
from the house until Thursday. It had
been arranged that they should be taken
to the crematory after the funeral ser
vices on Tuesday, but the widow could
not yet bring herself to part with them
'Good-by'' is infinitely sad when its echo
whispers forever
Another day! Let me have one more
day with him." she pleaded from the
first. Another day became we'll night a
week. and then only necessity drove her
to consent to a final disposition Of the
body. Two days after the strange fun
eral services-the bood-by said in the
reading of the agnostlc's last poem, his
Greed" and his funeral grafton over his
brother Bben-the remain were taken TO
Fresh Pond and cremated. and then only
because Nature would permit no further
delay. IT. -- "a.
The week was one of night and tears
and hopelessness. When the bud Of hope
blossomed for a moment In the hearts Of
the widow and her daughters, it was
blighted by the memory of some cold,
splendid raillery from the dead man. If
some simple utterance of faith rsng
through the chambers Of memory It was
echoed by the laughter of the dead.
Mrs. Ingersoll and her daughters sell
dom left the room OF death. They watch
ed together, and for what? It was q
longer and miller and sadder vigil than
that of Nary at the tomb OF Christ. For
no angel rolled away the stone from that
tomb of doubt not even in their dreams.
They sat by the still form in its sliroud
amid its massed tribute of flowers. They
talked OF his life. of his battle for truth
as he saw it. Of his tenderness to his
family. of his love for humanity. They
said that the end was so pitifully sud
den. They recalled the doctors attempt
at comfort. He said that IL the colonel
had lived ten years longer they would
have been years of suffering. But mourn
ers are apt to think that doctors are mis-.
taken. This was to comfort what GRIM
ace is to a smile.
When they spoke of the sunniness of
his nature they were reminded that II
was now night. When they spoke of his
love OF humor they realized the mockery
Of laughter Downstairs Eva Brown. who
had been named in honor Of her mother
and grandmother. and whom her grand
father called Eva the Third, swung In the
hammock and sang in childish ignorance
of her loss. They put their hands over
their ears to shut out the Joy that found
such dIscord with their woe. Eva had
inspired her grandfather's most quoted
homily. that on 'Tife." The three wept
anew at the thought.
Little Robert G. Ingersoll Brown clam
ored to be allowed to ''go up strairs and
see grandpapa." The futility of his wish
tore their heartstrlngs. They could not
bear to reveal the mystery and sadness
of the death that knows no hope to these
little ones. So in their childish ignorance
the babies stabbed anew the hearts Of the
mourners.
There were flowers in the room. The
blooms were heaped in mountainous pro-
fusion about the bier. There was the
mufied tread OF watchers. Servants tap
ped lightly upon the door and left a new
furry of the snowfall Of sympathetic
messages and departed silently. There
were true mourning hearts in the room OF
death. and in the rooms below and in the
world outside. It was like other cham
bers of death in which lay the remains of
the brilliant and the loved.
But there was difterence-such q sad.
chilling. hopeless difference. No man of
God brought His message OF hope to the
chamber door. No soft hymn of faith
and promise soothed the tortured hearts.
Not once were spoken the words, Eve
shall meet again. Love gilds life. but
It makes death the darker. 1t is hope OF
a meeting afterward that makes the bur-
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