The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1903-08-28

How the blood is chilled when W,
read of the worlds great disasters.
What pen can depict the horrors O
the Hood? Compared with it tn,
Youngstown and Galveston disaster,
were mere mimic performances. Save
Noah and his family, every human
being and every creeping thing per.
lshed The whole earth was left des-
Olate and barren.
Then we have the destruction Of
oOdOm and GOmorrah, and "other elf.
les Of the plain;n and the disaster
which befell Pompeii and Hercula-
neum are brought wildly to our sight
oy the recent terrible catastronhe
which overwhelmed Mt. Pelee where
every human being persisted almost
within the twinkling of an eve.
Fearful as these things were the loss
OF life was not so great nor the suffer.
lngs so terrible as have resulted from
religious prosecutions.
The history of religious intolerance
would Nil volumes. 1t is chapter in
our religious life which we wish couId
be blotted out.
Every torture that could be invent.
ed for the infiiction of pain was re.
sorted to.
Men ana women were stretched up
on the rack and torn limb from limb. |
their bleeding bodies were scared and |
pierced with red hot irons; their eyes
were burned from their sockets and
their tongues were cut from their
Threats; their bones were broken with
hammers; new born habes were
thrown into burning furnaces; they
We're thrown into lakes, ponds and
rivers and fed to the fishes; delicate
women were disemboweled and again
were tied to the tails of fiery horses
ana dragged 10 their deaths; IN hears
men and women Were covered with
pitch and oil poured over them aid
they were then set on fire. Molten
cad was poured down the throats of {
innocent victims and the earth con-
'erted into a hell with all its imagi.
nary horrors.
1t Is estimated that twenty millions a
uttered death in the most awful and t
evolving manner from the hands of q
he crusaders. There was almost An
discriminate massacre of men, wom- :.
n and children and few escaped raw h
'hment and plumber. el
II was a saturnalia of crime q
The mosques were piled seven feet =,
Ugh with murdered Saracens and tha
ews were burned in their synagogues.
he MOOrs, who had done and were u
ping 20 much for civilization, were ,
-iven from Spain; the Huguenots ~
ld Waldenses were murdered with. ~
1t mercy. Under the text "the "'
eathen are given to US for a possess - .
on" millions of the abOriginees of
merlca were enslaved and died from
'rsh and inhuman treatment. III
I'm America" says Draper, Thu. '1
an sacrifice was part of religions al
ntlment, unstained by passion. The HI
ITO da f. of Europe was a dreadful Pi
uelty; not an offering to heaven. III
1t a qualification of spite, hatred,
al, Vengeance-th the most malignant
SslOns of earth. There was no snec. de
Gle on the American continent AT cit
hlch just man might so deeply no
ush for his race as that of Western :.
Irope when the hereto from whom
nfession had been wrung by torture
ssed to his stake in a sleeveless do
with flames of fire and eff ov
IS OF an abominable import depict all
upon IT, Let ii also -,
remembered, considering the 'e'
of the body of man, and Del
At, at the best, it is at last food for IF
worm-considering the infinite no,