The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-25

used the same metapnof we cannot
trace 1t may have come into use SIM
ultaneously with the arrow, and it's
origin lost in the web and wool Of noary
antiquity
Having. disposed of the eagle of By
ron and Moore, l now come to the owl
of IngersoIl and the Rev MacCorry.
There is nothing TO my mind more like
ly and feasible than both Ingersoll and
the Rev. Mr.. MacCorry have, from the
very nature of their callings, both been
students and readers of the same au-
thorities Concerning Christianity inf
deity, Ingersoli is as we'll yersed in
the Bible and in the works of it's de-
Tenders as he is in Noltaire Shakes
peare and the poets he has lat his fin
gers ends and with singular and dex-
ferrous perversity knows how to apply
chapters from the Bibla, passages from
Shakespeare and verses from the poets
to his own purpose. His mind is as
spacious museum wherein is stored the
most beautiful images gathered frcm
the laborers of every age and every
cline, and when he wants one he has
nothing to do but "reach up to a shelf
and take it down." Fer instance in his
lecture on "Individualtsm.' which
will alIude to further on, he wants
striking comparison for the stupidity
wise" Presto, He enters his museum Of
belled Milton" the following:
"And on the Ire of Life,
The middle tree, and highest there that
grew,
Sat like a cormorant
Paradise Lost.
Now a cormorant would never do as
an emblem of wisdon-stuptd wisdom
at that-and of course Minerals ia
vorite bird is brought in to do service
for the cormorant.
Colonel Ingersolls lectures are tenn
ing with good things from the grsa:
and comparatively unread poets di-
luted, disjointed, and in some instances.
like the above quotation, Vulsarized so
as to enable them I" strike a common
order of Apprehension
I would take it that as a churchman,
the Rev. Father MacCorIy would, as
one of the church militant, be careful
ly equipped to repulse all attacks on
Christianity made by atheists or agnos-
tics, and / should assume him TO be
thoroughly prepared fer any onslaught
from the enemy. He would. like a
careful general, endeavor to find out
their strength or weakness and make
himself conversant with the resources
of their citadels, Noltairc, TOland, Tom
Paine, and especially InpeIs1ll. Like
| Insersol, the Rev. Mr. MacCorry has
| doubtless most intimate acquaint-
ance of the poets. Like Ingergol, he
has a repository of his own, wherein
are carefully stored fer future use or
ornament many a gem OF purest ray
SERENE" and prompted by the sans
| laudable motive as the great iconoclast,
| which is ito adorn a tale The boot
| ing owl is in evidence:
Forth from his dark and lonely hid
ing place
'Portentious sightD The owlet Athe-
ism
Sailing on obscene wings athwart the
moon
them close,
And hooting at the glorious sun in
| heaven" etc.
From Colerfdge's Fears in Solitude, y
In the parallel columns of Ingersoll
and the Rev MacCorry, l think that
| on the pronounced sameness of both
| paragraphs a case of plagiarism is evil
| dent at first sight, and had the rever-
| end gentleman been Of only a limited
| education, or more correctly speaking
| limited in his readings | should he dis
posed to condemn, but as have shown
! already that these condolences are
| much more frequent among the gods OF
| high Olympus" than the groveIers a
| find the literary thief in all degrees
| from petty larceny to highway robbery
| 1t does not always follow that because
| identically the same language and SEN
| timents are expressed incidentally in d
discourse on a given subject say In
| gersolPs lecture on "Individualism' OF
the Rev. MacCOrry's "Ruts and Anti
Ruts," that the one should be q pla-
| giarlsm of the other. Ingersol chooses
to compare the diversity of mankind
with the dssimilarity of any two blades
| of grass or any two leaves of the for
est. An insnuation of plagiary fol
| using these Illus tIations is far fetched
| The same has been used for genera
tons by preachers and orators, 'an6
made familiar to our mouths as house
hold Words
Since when has that venerable ole
joke of the silent man at the breakfas
| table been the exclusive property O.
| Ingersoll? 1t has come down the ages
to us in various forms. The best Yer
| sion. however. was that of Hank Monk
the famous stage driver. In ante-rail
road days in Nevada, Hank Monk wa:
! king of the whip between Placerville
Cal, and Carson City. On a certain
| trip "Bilf' Sharon, afterwards enc o
the Comstock milli0naires, was seated
beside Hank en- the coveted box 81 t
| Sharon was for a great part of thu
journey evidently buried in thought
for many attempts of Hanks to draw
him into conversation failed. AS thu
coach was speeding along over the
| Sierras, at length Sharon's icines:
| thawed out and he requested some GER
| tain information or news cOncernins
men or things on the "Comst0Ck
| Quickly as he mad finished his ques
ton, Hank retorted: by gosh, 'Bl,
Sharon, / did not think there was {
passenger on board until now" Fanl
Monk used to tell this with some it'll
| detailed elaboration of bow he snubbet
"Bill' Sharon. Hank Monks is th'
| better joke.
| Robert Ineersoll himself acllrowl
edges there is no public speaker o
writer but is very often unconsciously
| a plagiarist. He certainly ought tt
know. His most brilliant sentences il
the celebrated speech naming jaime!
G.. Blaine for the presidency, the mag
nificent panagyric in which was EN-
bodied "the plumed knight and ''th
Rupert of debate was spoken in /
eulogy and in the very same words
half century before by member of tht
Eoolisb horse of commons TSep ,JuS