The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-04-05

SallI OlANC odAQ
Vice is a monster of such frightful
mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her
face,
We first pity. then endure, then en-
brace"
The authority that l ask Rev. Mar
Gus, the pious gentleman who is in
serious doubt whether any other re-
ligion is as good as his private brand,
to consult on IngersolIs Life is "A
Biographical Appreciation" by Herman
Kittredge, and 'Ingerson as He Is
by Il. M. Macdonald.
Marcus statesment that Ingersoll
did some good is very nice in him, and
his further statement that he don't
believe much in preachers is all right.
He is about to get out of the rut, and
were it not for the fact that he is in
his dotage and feeble in intellect, ]
would have some hope for his final
conversion by the great Freethinker,
Col. Bob. As the case with Marcus
now stands he is very much like the
old Scotch woman who was taken to
task by her preacher for being so mar
row. The preacher said to her: why
Mary, if your belief is true, no one
but yourself and husband will go to
heaven?" I'm not sac sair about
John" answered the woman. Marcus
is not so sure about anyone else but
himself
In quoting from eminent men to boil
ster up his cause, he drags in Wash
ington, Franklin and Patrick Henry
AS a fact in history, and one which
can not be controverted both Wash
ington and Patrick Henry had no creed
and while this is true also of Frank
lin, neither one of these three felt, to
use the language of Ingersoll, that it
" as not worth while ito cast the pearls
Thought before the swine of their
generation" AS to Franklin's attitude,
ha was Rationalist, and companion
of Voltaire, and he took his grandson
(See Ridpath's History of the World !,
to France and had Voltaire give him
his blessing; and after this ceremony
both Franklin and Voltaire went to
the Theater in Paris, and after the
~ ho
called to the stage, and the admiring
thousands cried out Behold Solon and
Socrates" Does this look like Frank
lin was a very active defender of Su-
perstition? The French Academy
through the influence of Voltaire whose
word at that time was supreme in
France and who was accorded the
homage of all the people, voted Frank
ling a gold medal on which was in
seribed in Latin, "Fulmen Nubibus
Eripuit Sceptrumque Tyrannis," He
wrested the lightning from heaven and
the scepter from tyrants) Do you
think this proof of Franklin's orth-
odoxy Marcus?
| am looking next to have you quote
something from Thomas Paine in de-
fense of one of Jonathan Edwards
He'll and Damnation sermons.
But to return to Ingersoll Marcus
repeats, parrot-like the old charge that
Ingersoll was shallow-pated his
thoughts chaffy and superficial
challenge this animated phonograph-
this man that repeats the falsehoods of
others to furnish either in sacred or
profane literature anything that will
equal Ingersoll's .peroration~ in his
Vision of War; delivered on Memoir
ial Dad, May 80, 1882:
"These heroes are dead They died
for liberty--they died for us. They
are at rest. They sleep in the land
they made free, under the flag they
rendered stainless, under the solemn
pines, the sad hemlokcs, the fearful
willows, and the embracing vines.
They sleep beneath the shadows of
the clouds, careless alike of sunshine
or of storm, each in the windowless
palace of Rest. Earth may run red
with other wars-they are at peace.
In the midst of battle in the roar of
conflict, they found the serenity of
death. have one sentiment for sol
diers living and dead Cheers for the
living; tears for the dead"
1t is said that it required three of
the best Rhodian artists to chisel the
famous Allegorical group, The Lao
coon; but Ingersoll chisled in a para
graph an allegorical group which is a
companion-piece to the above.
pity pointed to the SCARED and
bleeding backs of slaves; Mercy heard
the sobs of mothers reft of babes, and
Justice held aloft the scales, in which
one drop of blood shed by a masters
lash, outweighed nations gold"
Not deep did you say? Was he alb
normally superficial? Listen!-From
defense of the doubter