The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-30
GLOBES "CYNIC' A GREATER MAN
THAN INGERSoLL.

To the Editor of the Globe
Why didn't the G 10 b e publish it
sooner-that article on IngersoH by 1.-The
Cynic?' In that communication of yes
terday, THE Cynic" ach eyed the great
est scoop in the history of journalism.
She dt Isl only fair to say that TIE
Cynic" avQws that she is not a woman)
Is the very first to announce the death of
Christianity at the hands of one Robert
g. 1ngersoIl. Her account Of the event is
given in these dainty words: HE Qnger-
SOLD did not fight with heavy battIeaX,
but preferred the steel-tipped lance. He
saw the weak points in the armor of his
adversary and drove his keen lance
home. After the battle the ancient
knight was left in the saddle, but
corpse. Lest the identity ef the "ad-
versary." and later the corpse" might
be doubtful. the Cynic expla ms: HE
challengeda,the citadel of ancient beliefs
and the whole herd of retainers swarmed
forth to combat the bold invader of their
sacred precincts. By ancient beliefs"
the essential doctrine of Christianity
must be meant; for it is upon these that
Ingersoll Waged war and not upon the
ancient beliefs of Brahminism, Buddhism,
or Confucianism. There is no longer
doubt of it, Christianity is dead, pierced
through the heart by the 'Idol-breaker"
of Peoria. Had intelligence of the
tragedy been permitted to break out at
the time of the catastrophe much energy
and money would have been saved DUR
ing all that time Ctill yesterdays article
appeared) there was no lult in the build
ing of Christian churches, schools and
homes for the orphan, the aged, the
crippled, the hayward, just as if Mr.. IN
gersoH had never lived, not to say had
never made that fatal thrust, with his
'steel-tipped lance"
The Cynic does more than tell What
the late apostle of unbelief did, she tells
what he was. However, 1t is safe to
say that Mr.. Ipgersoll would have bee II
greatly pleased by the portrait of him
self drawn by The Cynic. She calls the
blasphemous reviler of the Bible "a great
man. great apostle of universal love
and Christian brotherhood. Love, char
ity, Kindness she says, marked all his
acts and words. Ingersoll lived the life
of a Christian It is strange that the
highest tribute which a nservile disciple
can give the champion of unbelef is that
he lived like Christian. 20.
Perhaps that blood-curdIing account of
Ingersolls attack on his armored adj
Versary should be understood in Pick
Wickian sense, as The Cynic admits:
Nothing genuine ever suffered from the
words or the pen of Robert G. Ingersoll."
So the ancient knight" was a straw fig
ure, after all! It can be said in all truth
that in the manufacture and destruction
of straw men and straw gods, Ingersoli
had no equal.
This sentence is the most shocking
sample of The Cynic's blasphemy-
Gould Christ and Ingersoll have been en-
earth together, they would have been
friends and cO-workers for humanity and
right" IngersoH and Christ! The one
carried the fagOt of death and destruc-
tion the other eheId aloft the lambert
light of truth and life. Ingersoll con-
ceived it TO be his mission to destroy be-
liefs which have sustained and beautifed
the world for many centuries. Where
in all Of his publications can a word of
consolation be found to whisper into the
ear of her whose mother heart is break
ing at the, grave of a noble son? What
staff did the champion of unbeIief put
into the hands of the wretched and the
dying? What asylum or home of mer-
cy, or institution of learning, can be
traced to the teachings of Ingersou? AS
the advocate of unbelief he never sa, ID
a word or performed an act to lessen
by one tear drop, the sum of human woe
or to increase by one manly thought
couple the name of this pigmy destroyer
of life with the Divine Giver of Life! The
Cynic is greater man (although she is
a woman) than Ingersoll. With a few
strokes of her facile pen size has reduced
Christianity to a mere corpse, task
which all the infidels of nineteen CEN
turtles could not accomplish. A NJ.
st. Paul, July %, 1901.