The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-12-03

anu senQOrS0 every line | have
read; more especially your mastery
attacks and arraignments of the two
great, crying ailments now affecting
us, VIZ: the insidious and stealthy
1nroads of Roman Catholicism into
our body polite, and the tyranny and
injustice to which the masses are
subjected through the perfidy and
dishonesty Of those placed in au-
thorlty; treachery after trust,
which is suspected and detected so
often all the way from cabinet Off
GERS to bailiffs;; deplorable condi-
ton, which if not righted, has in
past history, brought about rebellion,
revolution and anarchy.
l had no thought of ever writing
you, much less sending you an arti-
Gle for publication in the Jeff, but
after reading an article in your issue
of Nov. II, under the caption, Glow
Roman Catholic Editors Deceive
American Catholics" although l am
not Quaker, the spirit moved me
nightly, and forthwith I determined
to say something in defence of that
llustrious Briton, ''The Prince of
Novelists," Charles Dickens, although
everybody who is anybody knows he
needs no defence: that he is above
criticism, and that his works have
done untold good throughout the
civilized world.
Any humane, gent1emanly man
who reads them will have his
human sympathy deepened, his
chivalry kindled, his benevolence
broadened, his contempt for rascality
and hypocrisy heightened, his rever-
ence for holy and sacred things in
creased, his walk and conversation
improved, his soul elevated, and his
mind stored and embellished with
glorious gems of thought; in short,
he will be good to himself and bet
ter to his fellows
/ have thought that I knew a few
things, but I find there are many
things [ have yet to learn, and one
new thing that I never heard of be-
fore is, that the papists have a list
of books called The Index which they
are not permitted to read and are
classed as bad. Well, whoever says
that the works of Addison or Dick
ems or the Protestant Bible are bad,
must either be so vile themselves as
to be unable to feel any good i'm
pulses, or in such pitiable state of
imbecility that their opinion is not
worthy of the least consideration.
Dickens portrays some very bad
characters. Maybe in them they see
the counterparts of themselves.
There can be no doubt but that the
Romish priesthood of high or low
degree, have been guilty of all the
crimes in the calendar, from murder
down to petty larceny Then what
is their opinion worth as to what is
good or bad in anything? 1t is al
most an insult to the British flag
and certainly is to all true Anglo
Saxons and every cultured, civilized
being on the globe, to say that the
works of the immortal Charles Dick
ems are bad.
/ wonder if these moles, who are
attempting to burrow under and I'M
dermine our liberties, these vipers,
who are lying in wait in secret thick
cts to strike their venom into all we
hold dear on earth, have any objec-
ton to anyone reading Shakespeare?
You know in Henry Will, Cardinal
Wolsey is shown up in rather an en-
barsassing position one morning,
when Henry says to him, Read that,
and after that to breakfast with
what appetite you have" What he
was accused of was little bit scan
dalizing for a holy man of God, and
then to be called Thou scarlet SIM
by those scoffing English earls, and
he wearing the scarlet hat of Ro-