Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-11-30
AN OLD MATTER RECALLED.

John T. Perry, whose death a
Exeter, \. H.. was chronicled in oul
telegraph columns yesterday, wa:
one OF the editors of the old Cincin
natl Gazette. He was a New Eng
land man and for a number of wears
was connected with the Boston
library. When the Gazette and Com
mercial were consolidated Mr.. Perry
returned to the east and continued
in literary work up to the time of his
death He was possessed of a won
derfnl store of information and was
regarded as sort OF walking ency-
clopedia in the Gazette Office. He was
especially well posted in ancient and
Biblical literature, and was staunch
defender of orthodoxy as opposed to
inidelity. In 1879 Mr.. Perry pub
lished a little volume of l47 pages,
entitled Sixteen Saviors or One. F."
The name was suggested by that of
book published some time previously
by kersey Graves of this vicinity,
entitled Sixteen Crucified Saviors. ,
In the preface Mr.. Perry gave the
following explanation how he came
to write and publish his book
Some time ago my attention was
called to the works of. Mr.. Kersey /
Graves, a skeptical spiritualist of /
Richmond, Indiana. / first heard of T
their wide circulation in the east. As
they have passed through several ed
ltions, | do not feel that | ran any
risk of giving them undue publicity
by commenting upon them 1t
seemed best to make my structures F.:
known in the authors own locality. .
My friend, Mr.. Daniel Surface of the
Richmond Telegram. kindly gave me
ample space in his columns, and | re-
viewed at length the two volumes of {
Dir. Grave S which haye gained the t
wide. b circulation. t
He replied, and l rejoined. The
controversy then closed, not because t
dr. Graves had no desire to prolong t
I, but because the publisher of the /
telegram thought the subject had f
'een exhausted. The three articles
maze up this volume. The public {
are of course very little about Mr..
raves and myself, but | have chosen
0 reproduce the discussion, with 10
Ranges save the correction of typo-
raphlcal errors. the asnan6r.onS n sssHs
" hastily written sentences, ana the g
EDITION OF a note or two, in my own a.
tiers. l have made no alteration :,
i Mr.. Graves defense, but have in r
,rted two or three short communi- a
atoms in which he corrected or ex =
lained what he had said before. q
The discussion attracted a good d
cal of attention at the time, espe- IL
ally among theologians. The pa =
ers containing it, before the r
latter was put in book Y
orm, were sent to a number OF prom l
aent divines, and received due recOg- :,
ition. Tn Ter date of Brooklyn, n. Z
+, Feb. 10, 1879, Henry Ward [
seechec wrote the following re \
ponse: The papers containing re
ly to several skeptical works came ,
uly 10 hand and read the matter }
nth great interest, thinking all the L
While that it ought TO be published d
nd circulated as a tract or thin
.ook Ii might, should that be done, :
s made little fuller on some
,oiLts. that men who have
lot seen The books replied to
night have the statements more
ally set forth.
Prof. David Swing, who was then .
pastor of the People 5 church in Chi
ago, thus acknowledged the receipt
IF the papers:
When you see Mr.. Perry tell hun
.or me that he has done good piece
,f literary and logical work over Mr..
Graves book.
Rev. Joseph Cook simply sent an
acknowledgement on card with the
following characteristic remark;
Thanks for the excellent review
you send me of shallow and foolish
intidel babbler.
Bishop Simpson, at that time IN
his prime, sent, on receipt OF the pa
pers. letter highly eomplimenting
Mr.. Perry's work and commanding
its deep research and its unanswer-
able defense OF Christianity. Numer-
Gus letters of similar purport were
received from men OF less distinction
I'll, ,>-oS,,oosS ara that more money