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Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 31, 1903.

Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 31, 1903. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1903 blu1903053101 These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 31, 1903. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1903 $IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognitio n (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has be en done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Librar ies Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. I t t I 1 r If It I f 4e i7ifP 7 J I f Iit 7i iV t BLUE GRABLADEr1lJrr 1 111 11IJ X11 EDITED BY A HEATH512J 0GOOD MORALS PUBLISHED WEEKLY 100 4 YEAR 7V 111 NlIJll w VOL XII NO 15LEXINGTON KY SUNDAY MAY 3L E M 303 1100 A YEAR Ito I r4J 1 C TERMS OF THE BLADE Issuo for one year JlOO I In clubs of five or more cents each a yea- rTerms5100 por year In advance foreign subscription S160 Five copies one year 250 Make all Money Orders Drafts and Express Orders the Blue Grass Blade Lexington Ky When you change your address ad viso thIs office giving your old as I ow1J as the new address t you send your subscription say uj whether you are a new or old sub scriber The address slip on the papet will show expiration of subscription and t eerveahiarecciptas the date changes on the subscriber pays rr ttnsatothispubflcaoo na Jut rl l4unu thsoJpbrdeVed by subscriberThe c hold a responsible to the publisher for the subscription price of all fe celved until the paper Is paid for In full up to date and ordered dlscon tinued Office of publication 161 East Third street near Walnut LexingIAddress all communications to BOXitijStRiyette Telephone 619 Cumberland Telephone 307 THE DAMNED STUFF CALLED I ALCOHOL I believe that alcohol to a certain degree demoralizes those who make It those who sell It and those who drink It believe from the time it Issues from the coiled and poisonous worm of the distillery until It empties Into v vthe hell of crime death and dishonor iiit demoralizes everybody that touches It do not believe that anybody can lc ntem late the subject without coming prejudiced against this liquid f crime i All you have to do Is to think of the t deathsof the suicides of the Insan t Vty of the poverty of the Ignorance of v the distress of the little children tug vyfllnfl at the faded dresses of weeping I despairing wives asking for bread of the men of genius It has wrecked of the millions who have 51 struggled with Imaginary serpents produced by this devilish thing And you think of the Jails of the almshouses of the prisons and of the scaffolds upon either bank do V not wonder that every thoughtful man Is prejudiced against the damned stuff tvcalled INGERSOLL Keep Church and State forever separate Grjt In no sense whatsoever Is this gov ernment founded upon the Christian religion Washington The divorce between Church and State should be absoluteGarfleld I COLLEGEofHFDICINE 1 t SURGERY Chicago Four years Graded Course Laboratories fully quipped Abundance of Clinical Material t 4 EEP MODERATE SeptemberWrite FLORENCE DRESSLER M Di Sioy 245247 Ashland Ave Chteaaa III r NEWS ITEMS FROM THE RELIGIOUS WORLD Charles Whlttlngton a young man of Bath county has become violently InsanomttrrlIglon For weeks he read the Bible day and night saying he had a scheme to unite all the churches Into one Rev Dayton says Sectarianism naa become the scan dal and imbecility of Protestantism However sincere in their origin and Important in the development of hu manity the time has come believe when the most of them will not say all have become distinguished by archaic and obsolete marks On the Itth of May at Richmond Va the Catholic bishops Vandiver and Magrl narrowly escaped death by the side of the bishops palace being crushed in by the fall of an adjoining building Strange how God will de stoy His own property and place the lives of His ambassadors in Jeopardy Trinity Methodist Sunday school of Louisville Ky has formed Jts boy pupils into a military company with uniforms and regular military drill If history tells the truth the members of the army of the Lord have always been experts In the handling of dead ly weapons and spent much more time on the tiring line than at the throne of grace It is a strange method of teaching the young to follow the Prince of Peace by Imbuing thqm with a military spirit If history tells the truth the sword of the soldier has been much mord effective In propagating and upholding the Christian religion than the sword of the spirit for ho religion that was ever launched upon the world has so bloody a record as Christianity After 1900 years of constant warfare It does not speak very well for it that youths have to be enticed into the church by dymilltar y trappfngaTerBibleT- hai O1rY Tne military Sunday school seems to be one method of worshiping the Lord In the beauty of hQlInessjJ J News from Bulgaria says that the Mosque at Klnpruit was blown up by dynamite on May 9th and 200 lems who were at prayer were buried the ruins A Macedonian named Popoff committed the deed and then committed suicide Of course the re Iglonlst Popoff committed his soul to the keeping of his God It seems to me that God would get dreadfully tired welcoming murderers Into Par adise The Very Rev Father Adolph pas tor of the Catholic church at Will lamsville N Y his Just returned from Rome and brought a piece of the cross on which Christ was cruci fied It Is about the size of a very small pin and is in a rich gold frame and Is covered with glass Wonderful relic Of course it is genuine piece of the true cross One has but to a microscope with the Islgenuinehas in its holy of holies a wisp of hay- frorm the manger In which Christ was born and also a few threads of the first twaddling cloth that enveloped the Holy Child Precious relics They must have made wonderful goods InI those days Certainly their wearing qualities could be recommended t Pope Leo XIII the representative of God on earth who lives In Rome in a modest cottage of 1100 rooms has Just conferred the title of Mar quis on Martin Mahoney of Philadelphia Pa because Mr Malony has given such vast sums of money to the Catholic church Here is a tip for American women who sell themselves with colossal fortunes thrown in for European titles and for American men who renounce their American citizenship to have a handle to their names and hobnob with royalty Since Mr Peccl can both forgive sins and bestow titles why not turn In a few millions into the coffers of the old man on the Fiber and receive ab solution and titles at the same time No doubt many of our American wo men would gladly dispense with their counts and dukes of they could hold on to their titles No doubt the bestowing of titles will be one of the most profitable of the Popes Indus tries and when It is well advertised the United States will swarm with Counts Earls Dukes and Marquises of the Popes making You pay your money and you take your choice Marquis Martin Mahoney will soon be joined by Countess Bridget OFlanl gan or Duke Paddy Ryan Titles come high but It should be widely vertised that Pope Leo XIII has them for sale Gen William Booth founder of the Salvation Army came to the United States last winter to replenish his exchequer and this Is a sample of the religious rot he dealt out to the peo ple la order to tap their pocket books s itv I i lIt 4 In a sermon In a theater at San Fran cisco on Confession of Sin he said Oh my brother Oh my brother Oh my brother Oh my sister sister sister Oh my friend friend stringer stranger come to the Lord Many people do not like the General because ho talks of the devil and hell Havent you lived in hell here some of you Oh my God my God my God my God to think that people Im agine that they can taste the sweets of sin and that it would turn to gall on their lips What is the way to deal with your sin Cover it up Never Men and women are fools like the ostrich when death death death has his dart poised for the fa tal blow Your sins can not be coat ed over with a cover of snow while corruption dwells within Why did God come down from heaven to build churches to start the Salvation Army No to destroy the works of the devil Which shall it be Your sins must be pardoned or they must be punished Which shall it be you men and women in the gallery you men and women in the dress circle you men and women in the balcony you men and women In the boxes How people of ordinary Intelligence will flock to hear such stuff and non sense is amazing Yet this man Is considered one of the great preachers of our time The sermons minted in Monday papers are mostly of the same caliber If Rationalists should utter on the platform the kind of gibberish the preacher preaches from the pulpit he or she would be declar ed fit only for an imbicile asylum But the truth Is congregations pay little heed to what preachers say and can not tell ten minutes after a ser mon has been preached what it was about People have a habit of going to church and they go to show their good clothes and meet their friends The preacher is In his pulpit because ho gets a salary and he knows no more about the idealisms he preaches about than a wooden Indian If It were not for the collection box preach ing would go out of fashion When a man stands before a congregation and preaches about the soul heaven and hell he is talking about things whose existence never has been proven The sermons the noted pulpiteers are a tissue of nonsensical Impossibilities and inconsistencies and would not be accepted In a court of Justice or outside of a religious organization All preachers talk about things that they absolutely know nothing about and yet humanity pay millions In t pr whIJIcuanlL m n talk ommon Ben 0 JOSEPHINE K HENRY Our Dead Ingersoll By JOSEPHINE HENRY From Boston Investigator So conservative a paper as the Baltimore Sun in so orthodox a city as Baltimore in a recent issue devotes more than a column of comment and review of the Dresden edition of Colonel Ingersolls complete works Throughout the extended notice there Is a labored effort to restrain enthus iastic acceptance and admiration for the subjectmatter of the twelve vol umes which stand unrivaled In depth of thought humanitarian ideas fault less diction and burning eloquence in all the range of modern literature It will not do for the orthodox to openly accept the teachings of Colonel Inger soll or to accord his ability mental honesty and worldwide influence a scant measure of Justice but The thoughts of men are widening With the process of the suns and the pulpit and the press are pur loining the fire of Colonel Ingersolls reason and eloquence as the world advances without acknowledging the Influence or source of their spoken or printed words and ideas Not long since a Catholic priest who electrified his congregation with a wonderful ser mon had to retreat in disorder when it was demonstrated that his sermon had been plagiarized from the great Agnostic veiled behind a few Romish Sun says It will not review the works of Ingersoll from the controversal but from the stylish viewpoint Twenty years ago the pulpit and the press misjudged mis reresented maligned and wronged this man who never committed trea son against his honest convictions and who left the American people the beneficiaries of one of tae noblest lives In history Why should not the Baltimore Sun review Mr Ingersolls works from a controversial view point Do the ghosts of Gladstone Cardinal Manning Judge Black and Rev Henry M Field warn the Sun that it Is wisdom not to touch upon the controversial mental combats of the greatest exponents of the Chris tian faith with Mr Ingersoll The controversies ore In cold type and the world has declared who won the vie tory The Sun virtually makes this admission In these words As master of logical controversy despite the nonadmission of his prem ises and conclusions by the majority of critics Ingersoll was head and shoulders above his opponents As master of oratory his bitterest opponents concede him the palm While lamenting what they consider the per version of his talent Inger 1 Baby MissionarySociety A wonderful Christian organization whichpromisecarrying the Gospel to the end of the earthj The Cincinnati Post de scribds ff thus BABIHSlAS MEMBERS OF WOMENS AUXILIARY An important organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church is the AuxiliaryDiocese It Is composed entirely of youn children and members are Manybabietaken iijto the society and are mem bers the age of or when the gyl are taken Into the Womens Auxiliary and the boys Join the va rious c urch clubs The ject of the society Is to train childrfrii in mission work of the- church so they may take their parents i places THREE BRANCHES There are three baby branches In Cincinnati and one at Fernbank The latterlwas founded last Wednesday by womeiTjOf the Church of the Resurrec tion with Mrs Eric Wilder as President fOther officers of the society are jifas Gertrude Shannon 10 Treasrfr r Russell Johnson Secretary A age for Librarianlitedrops box It reprints prayer God bless the missionaries and the Little elgers everywnere Amen jfOUNGEST MEMBER Rob J Hudson Caffee months old is the youngest member of the Fernbdtk branch Norman Cecil Presidents 2yearold ent Little Helper and questions anent mission whole auxiliary can Wildlthe mistake In founding the of the Womens Aux of the Southern Ohio DIocesftl4 that the babies should be n Nirl atfonbe orthov are born Dear little chsrry cheruos it is a shame to let them become one day old before they begin their re ious work It should be remembered that the average baby will neces sarily lose sometime from its re Ifglous work by colic nursing sore mouth teething and raising Cain gen erally in the household and by put ting them to Christianizing the world before they are born they might do some effective work before their time is taken up with these things after they ccme Into the world The babies ln this organization should use a mite box for a rattle and as they drop their pennies In they should be taught to repeat this little prayer In the crying language Gou bess all the missionaries and all de itty Help ers everywhere Ahmen If this dont cause the heathen to desert his idols he might as well be given up as a hopeless case If these one two and three day old babies go into active work in the mission field they will settle the Box ers in China without the aid of the Mauser rifle and Lydlte shell The only wonder Is that the Baby Brigades both unborn and born have not been called into the Army of the Lord long ago Norman Cecil Wilder the Presi dents 2yearold son Is an ardent Little Helper and asks more ques tions anent mission work than the whole auxiliary can answer It dont do to fool with babies and when they get on the mission war path at the alvanced age of years their questions will no doubt make their Christian mothers realize that women are fools for Christs sake Norman Cecil aged years has no doubt discovered that one common sense question on religion will floor an Archbishop and make a Womans Auxiliary look like 30 cents I am all anxiety for reports from the Baby Branch of the Womans Auxiliary of the Southern Diocese of Ohio Mr Heathen when the baby missionary says ahgoo to you or sets up a yell that will make the heathen Deities tremblethat means In baby lan guage Come to Jesus The Baby Branch Is doing the best It knows how but this Womans Auxiliary ought to be put on exhibition at the St Louis Fair as Idiots for re ligions sake JOSEPHINE K HENRY Versailles Ky soils style bears printing His wonderful personality did much to win for him his tremendous reputation as an orator and debater but his speeches when printed are striking examples of effective oratory As such they are worthy of careful study and when viewed without regard for the theological opinions of the great orator the series before us is of the utmost value to those to whom the study of public speaking is of inter est Then too the complete works of Ingersoll are valuable for the his torical and political matter the series contains Studied with understand ing amt considered solely for the good Jr 1i If f It r r J It Quarterly Report 7tTohave the honor to submit the quarterly report of the Secretary of the National Liberal Party for the 303i a Yjl i tr 5rJ 94JanuaryFebruary dues r 1JAprlr 26194Expenditures r YJanuary00February i 500FebruaryFebruary changing seal and cuts 100 t f 500AprilApril mailing and expressing same OOj500April J tl 80Balance80tean 11Most i tJNationalMORGAN WAMSLEY f Treasurer Vitithat Is In them the volumes before us are of great Importance There are not a few persons however to whom willbethe faith of their fathers ungracefulworks are worthy of careful study when viewed without regard for the theological opinions of the great orator But the trouble is that those who read Ingersolls works must and do regard the theological Ideas of the author and evenUne pulpit Is not immune the theological Ideas th rIJ1fllnm1nIUl 1 Q Su gives a Tha it a contagion for it says Studied with solelyforumes before us are of great impor tance The great Ingersoll has not been lead five years yet the Amerl can press Is Baying his works are of great Importance Orthodoxy should Inscribe upon its banner Times change and we change with them The Sun says There are not a few persons how ever to whom the works of the great Agnostic will be harmful but these are weak In the faith of their fathers Not a few means literally a great faithlOtIng the faith of the fathers was a success and that he has developed In not a few robust reasoning while the faith of the fathers is a rickety paralytic that is supporting itself in the pulpit ana press on crutches hewn by the great Ingersoll from the tree of knowledge Ingersoll Is more alive today than when he was on the earth The day Is coming when his works will be accorded highest place in our literary pantheon and pulpit press and people will accord him Justice Versailles I- iyADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE GRAVE OF J BECK LIBERTY PA FriendsWe are assembled to pay our last sad offerings to a good and honest man He who lies so calmly hero was my constant friend and it is the request of his brothers that I bear him friendly witness on this sad occasion The deceased was reared upon a farm by Christian parents He at tended the common schools of the township and dug out a fair education Early In life he became a mem ber of tho Lutheran Church Later on In life he became absorbed In the study of the natural sciences This study of science made him skeptical In regard to the doctrine of the Chris tian religion and the more he studied the more he investigated the more pronounced he became in his Agnostic views He believed that honesty and charity constituted the best religion that one could possess Inasmuch as it Is beneficial to the living while ligion based upon the belief of wards and punishment in n future state is selfish In its nature being simply for the benefit of the individ ual professing such belief This occasion of sorrow hallows the last duty of friendship the last act cf love He whom you have known In this life in this can be known no more Those tokens of existence that wero wont to reveal his presence are now bequeathed to memory The peaceful face painted white and cold by the hand of death speaks 11 itfi ilJ f no language we can understand In 1 the presence of death let us be sin cere I would speak to the living as 1though the dead heart me I can say nothing to you more than you know more than you feel more thanyou hope I have no key that fits toturnajrttmessage from the lips of death As we contemplate the universe and y I mannerwe hness summer and winter heat and ccldr life and her shadow death Intmanyyearsand inanity a great solemn pity oflirelaunched into existence He Is car chlldheod whenhepride of manhood the scepter of his tit strength changes to a staff of weak fadesIntoIs the history tdeathThis of hu y thathuman rl candoTThemand of an unknown power faded a away at the command of the same tfpower t hvthislessness x sacredThe tmakes rrestpain cannot enter nor suffering come Friends what can be nobler at the usefulfailInginto the unkno- wnPOSTAL CARDS We desire to call the attention of t systemadopted as a method of increasing the causingItThought among a large class of peo expedleutstand For the simple outlay of 250 sktinsertWill be received as a certificate of aof tpaid subscription for one year in be half of the person whose name is r WhichIs ttwotion of that time let the paper be sent to another person who will al so receive it for two months and so on By these means more people get an opportunity to see The Blade and t read It and many of them may In time become permanent subscribers taSeveral hundred of these cards Ihave been printed and they are now iready for distribution Try It for a vat tseason and help us to build up thetcirculation of The Blade so that it will rank secona to none in AmericattThis is where The Blade ought to be if our friends will all pull together to help It along Send in the cards and see how It worksN rWtJi 1t RASS BLADE 11I y Why I Am j r An Atheist1IWVNHIVN0VV1vMVMl1NVN WHY AM AN ATHEIST Tho reason I am an Atheist Is be cause I could not be anything else Jay parents and teachers tried to make me a goodeygoodey boy and failed In part Then honestly und truly to bo good Went down on my marrow bones and asked God to show mo the way as his book had promised got the same answer that those get who bow to wood and stone minus the presence of the wood and stone I saw that I was a bigger fool than the heathen because he could see his God even If he would not move or speak This started me again to reason and that made me an everlasting Atheist heres no room for a god In this busy world no use for him since the days of Moses It seems to me that If I were an honest consistent Christian and would know of all the loss of life on Ii the ocean and in mines and by vol canoes and all tho suffering conse quent thereto It would make a solid Ji Atheist of me the first jump In tile jif road J IL CONSTABLE Ludell Kans +WHY AM AN ATHEIST I cannot swallow the trinity I have never up to this writing seen heard tasted feltor smelled any god ghost or spirit I iave no creed likewise no is morality and humanity H C COPPOCK Indianapolis Ind +WHY AM AN ATHEIST Why I am an Atheist is because was born that way and have held my own ever since as the man said who was accused of possessing no worldly goods From my earliest collection I was compelled to at tend Presbyterian Sunday school ev ery Sunday morning and Methodist in the afternoons when It was so thoroughly impressed on my mind that God was the incarnation of goodness and if I would always do what I didnt want to do ho would devote a great deal of his omnipo tence to me and my desires But let and the nipotent me go fishing on Sunday string broke and his great rival and superior the devilone of his own creations that was greater than himself picked It up where god let go and proceded to make special preparations for my warm reception In the sweet bye and bye Yet I could be saved by repent ance and tears and sacrificial contrl tuitions but on the next infraction It was all repeated and so on until god In his Infinite goodness and mercy called the name off and the winning depended on trump which as ourvetnt ipadtu tlli1 attttt nine out of every hundred was held by the devil It wrung gods heart to see it so and he sweated great drops of blood over it but was powerless to prevent it for he himself had or dalnea It thus before the foundations of the world when he was nothing and lived nowhere and a matter of such importance must stand Of course he could number the hairs of a mans head and count the useless sparrows and could reverse the order of the solar system and hold the sun and moon In shed while murder and carnage went mer rily on and the very diadem of morality the purity of womanhood was treated with contempt and fiend ishly outraged at his express com wand While the above phase of Infinite character was unfolding before my youthful thinker I was sincerely seeking for Information that would throw light on the Inconsistencies but I was ignored or punished or glv en such absurd Interpretations that my skepticism was confirmed and slowly but surely concluded that the whole business was nothing but an exaggerated Santa Clause the one for children and the other for adults and both equally false In later years as science unfolds the grand truths of nature and the good beautiful and sublime are ours to the fullest extent of our compre hension the idea of a god pales to a ridiculous Insignificance and a man must stultify his reason to believe In one WALTER COLLINS Los Angeles Calif +1 WHY AM AN ATHEIST am an Atheist because sixty years of experience and investigation have developed no reason for being a The 1st Whoever can point me to the slightest Indication of the existence of a Supremo Being has It In his power to make an Agnostic of me On the side I will remark that fl believe In the beneficence of truth 4 In truth only is there safety sanity peace and justice And therefore do war unceasingly on humbug and hallucination for these have been at the bottom the root of nearly all the cruelties and diabolism of humanity C W CLARK Allerton Iowa WHY AM AN ATHEIST Most of the thinking men and wo men are becoming Aciielsrr fheyil not believe In a personal God or any God outside of matter that governs- lt They believe that matter Is automa tic selfacting needs no God or any other power Giordano Bruno believed In the un ity of matter but could not tell what It was the Catholics burnt his for his belief Aristotle said man cannot reason correctly without reasoning from some known fact We do know there is electricity the atoms of which fill t the infinity of space Bruno did not see It as we do i r N These atoms cannot be seen In Its wonderful power until It Is manifest ed through Its power In nature Now by concentration of the atoms of elec tricity Into a vacuum the sun was formed and took Its motion in the universe by the polarity force of matter Electricity has commenced the thing it did was to form the planet Mercury which was done by concentration of the atoms of elec tricity into a vacuum and the polarity force of matter it took Us ladY motion and b3 the magnetic force of the sun it was carried round the sun which gave It its yearly mo tion All the other planets viz nus earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune were formed In the same way and received their dally and yearly motions the cluck In the egg and babe In Its mothers womb have been formed and brought to life by the same power Electricity has completed the uni verse as far as astronomy has reveal ed it to us By evolution all nature has become manifested to our five senses We have the whole vegetable king dom of this earth placed before us and by the Idea of Aristotle the mal kingdom Is an evolution of the vegetable and the human being Is an evoltlon of the animal kingdom by the Darwinian system Here we are on this earth by this great electrical power without any God to have created us What was the religion of those Atheists when there was not any church or house on the land and no body to teach them superstition It Is natural that they would worship the sun because every thing in ture was revived by Its light and heat This would suggest something good or heaven and darkness with the wild beasts ready to devour them when they had not any place to hideI In but a cave or hollow tree for ter This would suggest the Idea of fear or hell- Heaven and hell were started In this way Those who call themselves Chris tlans must see that science has de stroyed their God and devil Christians shoulc close the doors of their churches and stop preaching what they know Is not true and save their money to buy Paines Age of Reason and other scientific books AARON DAVIS Frederick Md 1d WHY AM AN AGNOSTIC I have just read many letters In the Blade grylngdlfterent reasonsjivhy v stI have6nJoy1lhem very much and now I will proceed to state why I am an Agnostic First beacuse I am not an ignoramus a non campus mentis or a fool I have read a great deal pro and con on that subject and can find nothing to lead me to ueueve in the man made God of the universe and if there are any gods outside the universe I do not know anything about them and am going to be hon est with myself and not pretend to an Ignoramus or a fool for Christs sake N T HARRIS D D S Tuscaloosa Ala ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST Definitions are always In order Atheist One who disbelieves or de nies the existence of a supreme intel ligent being Webster A God to be a GOd must be a creator of Infi nice power These are claimed as Gods attributes and failing to accept or worship such a character lays one liable to the charge of Atheism Let us examine the claims Crea tor Create to bring Into being to form out of nothing Webster This definition is absolutely without meaning as creation Is unthinkable consequently absurd and untrue No chemist has ever been able to destroy a single atom of matter And if matter is Indestructible It must be eter nal forward and if eternal forward It nest be eternal backward hence no and goodness Imply per sonality but personality Implies or ganization and limitation And if llm ted God could not be infinite If he Is unlimited lie must occupy all space and if so there is no room for the universe But the universe Is here and refuses to lie set aside s no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time God does not exist A God of Infinite goodness would desire to prevent evil Infinite wisdom would know how to do this and Infinite power would confer the ability But evil exists therefore God does not A God must be either something or nothing If he is something then he Is material and if material he must be subject to the laws of matter Ands ratiocination is an attribute of matter in an organized form he would be subject to disintegration issolutlon and death To say that God is a spirit is to admit that he is nothingTo that the universe was caused and that God was tho cause does no account for the mystery of existence but adds a new mystery to the existing one A first cause is as unthinkable as a last effect and necessitates a posit- Ing of a prior cause to account for the socalled First Cause Gods always partake of the nature of the people who worship them showing that their existence is asub jective and not an objective one The telescope spectroscope microscope scales anti crucible the tools with which we acquire knowledge furnish no trace of God or gods The Imagination Is the source from which f ulii emerge all the h TiwiH IsMI or cursed mankind fiWJoglcall God Is a theological mythja absurdity ft scientific and a moral monstrosity Jle Is an attempt to explain lliablo and account for the unaccountable He Is the worst attribute of his maker the priest magnified project ed Into space and personified n bug aboo a Mumbo Jumbo to the ignorant superstitious a heavenly Svengall to hypotlze the prlfsts dupes while ho rifles their pookrts do not believe in litcalise I havo sense enough to know that all Gods are frauds and have some solicitude for my reputation for sani ty refuse to worship him because have a pardonable desire t retain my selfrespect That Is Wiry am an Atheist HARRY HOOVER Carnegie Pat+ WHY AM AN ATHEIST Because the sentiment of justice Is a part of my nature becawp was born with common sense The god is to mind as absurll as the shhdbyghost a JOIItSpNSan ++WHY AM AN INFIDEL Because I deem It not right to He and I am too honest to say believe that which my reason teaches me Is untrue I am an Agnostic because like Ingersoll I dont know I am a Freethinker because I think It every mans duty to do his own thinking and come to his own conclusions with stability and bravery enough to abide by the consequences of his own ac tions E NICHOLS Dodge Ky 4+ WHY AM AN ATHEIST Because It has dawned upon me that It Is right to be so and upon in vestigation I find no real evidence of the divine origin of the sculptures rrfinedandaccept a salvation that is wholly upon the dreams of an base nt and superstitious people with no proof save blind faith- Everything that so many people think transpires from the sup rnatu al and many things that would really perplex the average mind ha a nat ural and material foundations in the workings of the human mlndthat Is things that are not connect with our solar system It Is Ignorance of the scientific working of their own natures and mind that keep so much myst ry the air and as long as titer Is a mystery afloat the people will scribe it to the supernatural I am an Atheist because I kn w the Bible will not do to u on I have tried It and found It wanting In fact I found In the scrpturea was UOtlsnl tpotnt to oppress women and keep theta In the realms of Ignorance I am In the ranks Liberalism be cause of its elevating principles its broad road to freedom of thought speech and investigation MINNIE PARRISH Leonard Texas ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST The term Atheist is viewed by most people in that part of the clvllllzed world known as Christendom as be IngHhe most hideous of Ideas and the person entertaining such an idea to be shunned as though they were criminals or moral So this being the case most people that hold such an idea and dare express It are persons above the average in god is only hln conception of nature We are like primitive man every one that thinks or observes nature to any extent nat urally wonders how and when came the Cosmos and all phenomena of which they can conceive Here without scientific knowledge theology supplies the demands of the imagination until he can be better formed To my mind astronomy and geology have done more to wrest thoi minds of man from the clutches of heology and superstition than any thing else am an Atheist because there Is no God The term atheist means a disbelief in God take it that there are two kinds of Atheism nominal atheism and positive atheism Nomi nal atheism Is merely a disbelief in God The other positive atheism Is the assertion that there Is not and cannot be such a being as theologys God I belong to the latter class- I believe that all rational people at some time In life doubt the existence of God especially a personal God but not understanding nature cannot ma are good atheistic thoughts The terialIst conception of all things is tine true scientific conception There cannot be such a phenominon as a God a supreme being or anything of the kind for science has proven that matter in the aggregate or atomic condition has no beginning cannot be destroyed or annihilated so It must have always existed at all times and every where So we come to these three Infinite conditions finite space Infinite matter matter or force not separate and infinite ration and out of these three infinite conditions have evolved all phenom ena Matter Is divided Into seventyone elements these elements afllnitize or repulse each other as the case may be and this process of the action of elements acting on each other as they cannot act according to their relation to every other element about them Is what we call nature or cause and ef fect the same Is an endless causation has no beginning the effect of one cause becomes the cause of another effect so on and on We find that life and death are but a condition of mat- The ter Cosmos Is purely physical and mechanical j there Ig not phenomena that has not a physical law for its base Wo could say a great deal hereabout design but do not care to tako up so much space The design theory is the only plausible one that Is put forth to prove the existence ofi a god It will not do we can seeI more disorder In nature that is from the biological standpolntl while nature In her process of causeI and effect Is orderly but as to the welfare of the different forms of life It Is very disorderly Man eats tho chicken the chicken cats the snake the snako cats the frog the frog eats the fly and the fly eats other Insects all this strife of life or loss ot life to sustain life A man at forty knows no more about theologys God titan he did at ten God docs not appear now or at any other time because there Is no Gull to appear To be a god there have to be form of matter wouldI all other forms appear and which Is the order of all organized forms of life Consequently God would not and could not be all and in all as they nro wont to tell us R W RAY Atlanta WHY AM AN AGNOSTIC am an Agnostic because I simply and honestly do not know that there Is a God that have a soul or what conies after death- ELIZABETH HENRY SPARKS Carlisle Ky- SVtiWWVWVNVIN 1WINVNV i Blades Ii Club l Mrs Josephine K Henry Ver sailles Ky Lucy Waters Phelps West Sutton Esther Van Riper Circle vllle Ohio Mrs Thompson 436 Oak St Chattanooga Tenn Mrs E Davis Rockdale Texas Mrs Vina Hodges Salado Oregon Mrs Ella Wood Fonddulac Wis Jean Harmon Paris Ky Ada Smith Harrison Okla Mary E Crigler Bartow Fla Mrs Krone Cincinnati Helen Collins 639 E 21st St Los Angeles Calif Emily Jones East Lynne Mo L Everett Phelps Epperson Ky Mrs Lyndall 196 S Grant Ave Columbus Ohio Mrs Lee Blue Earth Minn Elizabeth Henry Sparks Carllse KyMiss Ora L Baughman 540 W ter St Lima Ohio Mrs Nellie Evans 540 W Haller St Lima Ohio Mrs W Royster 426 W Durall St Jacksonville Fla Alice Rbby Ca linger Jrdllls II linger tJocniiu Roby CapllngeriNtillsMoj Ella Roby Caplinger Mills Mo John F Clark Arlington Md Mrs E Marked Belleville Kan Mary A Emerson Oak Center WIs Mrs Kelsey Bellvue W Harp Kathleen Fla Andrew Cock Manatee Fla F L Church Essex Mich Mrs Pape 12 Vine St Lexing ton Ky Miss Elizabeth Wiley 4069 Page Ave St Louis Mo Marllfa Ricker Dover J W Rlgglns Diamond Ala Mrs Aline Wrlght Denton Texas Robt Wright Denton Texas Mrs Eliza Martin Mableton Ga J W Byler Comins Mich Minnie Lowry Woolsey Ind Ter Mrs Jessie Hazelrigg Ryan Iowa Jas Davis 526 Prospect St Lima Musgrove Arnettsvllte W Va Mary E Collins Cincinnati Ohio Capt GeoW Loyd New Rochelle New oYrk Mrs E Oades OlympIa Wash 420 Third St Thomas F Flood Barrs Mills 0 Clark Corrlgan Texas Wm Emmitt Johnson McLea c boro Hans F Hanson Eslef Minn Mrs Isadora Davis 528 Prospect Ave Lima Ohio Alberto Fisher New Haven Conn George Gibson 112 Post Ave St Elmo Tenn Miss Lula Gibson 112 Poet Ave St Elmo Tenn MrsM C Gibson 112 Post Ave St Ejmo Tenn R Hassler 1849 Mullanphy St St Louis Mo Mrs Rachel Grober 105 W Fourth St Covlngton Ky Mrs Pefferle Ontario Ore Mrs Sarah E Richards Ashland Ore Wm Richards Ashland Ore John Wulf Exchange St ford Mass Mllllam Jones Mary and Patton St Covlngton Ky Harriet Closz 537 Bank Sreet Webster City Iowa Hortense Malcolmn Phelps Otter vllle Ont W Simpson Ft Wrangle Alas ka Mrsl Jean Pohl and Dr Gustav A Pohl 96 Lemon St Buffalo Y Mrs Caroline Rowell 30 Locust St Buffalo Y Mrs Carrie Becker 27 Harlow St Buffalo Y Mrs John Lawrence 113 Spaulding Ave Buffalo Y Mrs Ausln 410 E Fayette St Connellsvllle Penn Frances Praetz Rochelle Ills Mrs Mary Preatz Rochelle Ills Margaret Coppock Indlananolls Ind W Hachbart St Angers Iowa Anthony O Nelson Box 879 Shelton Wash Wm Martin Mableton Ga Shoenfield 1181z 10th Ave Birmingham Ala J Todd 1831 Avenue Blrm ingham Ala MAN AND HIS DESTINY The Ylews of a Materialist Philoso and a Pessimist To the Editor of the Sun SlrOer a half a century ago brave Harriet Martlneau said From tho moment when a man desires find the truth on one side rather than on the other It Is all over with him as a philosopher This Implies that- In searching for truth we must nore preconceived notions likes and dislikes emotional sentiments etc and base our belief strictly upon evi deuce and facts The Innumerable arguments which are continually advanced by the clergy and your correspondents based upon the alleged universal human longings and desires for con tinuous life weigh not a fraction of a hair In settling tho question of our postmortem fate If they didif our preferences could be a factor In the matter all that would be neces sary for human beings to live a hundred years or forever In the flesh here on this earth would bo to tensely desire such prolonged sub lunary existence and then behold their wishes and caprices would be forthwith realized If not a factor now and here to prolong Indefinitely our present life how can such vague egoistical notions possibly procure for us Immortality when tho human body as such living organic form exists no more Nature or God Is sadly inconsid orate of our welfare and notions are all ushered Into existence with a death warrant In the hands of Fate and doomed to go through our brief life like convicts sentenced to an early death We long In vain for continued health happiness and prosperity but instead ate mostly af flicted with disease pale and sorrow How many actresses famous singers public men and society women in tensely yearn for prolonged youth beauty and tho continuation of their prime In life only to behold their charms and talents speedily fade and struggle bravely for many years In commercial and professional pursuits build elegant homes grand business houses occupy enviable po sitions of honor only to be compell ed after a very brief period to leave all In possession of strangers Are we not In love with this life Is It not really a prolongation of earthlife we all most desire Who would not cheerfully resign life claims to a mystic inscrutable eternal lifeminus tine physical body for a paltry hundred years of physi cal health and vigor added to the life we know the life we possess and en joy because In possession of a tangs ale body of flesh and blood But what does Nature or God care for us Must not this wondrous phy sique which constitutes our ego and without which we can not even think of ourselves as men and women soon go back to dust disintegrate Into gases fluids soil vegetation and the owes order qf ahimhV life St r4 tritr5nn st cu531trt when the form which originated aU constituted individual man during life exists no more the man Is dead There Is no mystery about death whatever It is precisely what it pears to be what we all know it to bo from observation and experience The sole mystery connected with s simply the mystery with which it has been Invested by designing or ig norant men If we confine our belief concerning it to what we know and sco we have the entire truth At the time life ceases the total dynamic activities of the human structure simply stop that Is all not a grain of anything to make the sur viving soul or spirit ofnot even tho breath escapes as supposed In view of all of this is it reasonable to believe that the power that controls our exlstencewhatever this may boand so utterly and cruel ly Ignores our wishes now during tile only life we know should so rad ically change Its mode of procedures to grant us a mysterious eternal existence In the absence of the plex organic structure which we know to be an absolute necessity for our existence here And this transcen dent existence is utterly Incompre hensible to us unknown to science and in localities nondlscoverablo with the strongest telescopes or photo plates If wo can live during eternity without this wonderful complicated phy slcalvltaldynamlc mtheow- nhig work of God as it has been called why In the name of reason ask has this body been bestowed upon us for a few paltry years only Neither is the universality of the belief In Immortality an argument in its favor Many of the wisest men of RHEUMATISM 11 MUNYONS RHEUMATISM CURE t positively cures Rheumatism in any part of the body It seldom fails to cure sharp shooting pains in the Arms Legs Side flack or Breast and Rheumatic Swelling or Soreness of any part of the body from one to three hours It effects a speedyand permanent cureIof all forms Lumbago or in the Back Lame ness Stiff and Swollen Joints and all pains in hips and loins It does not put the disease to sleep but drives it from the system all nations have rejected It The Egyptians Grecians Hindoos the American Indians Catholics Protes tant Spiritualists and Theosophists all entertain radically antithetical views of a future life All Christians of the Now Theology from Jeerer son Franklin Clmnntng Emerson Parker to Savage Swing and Thom as peremptorily reject the views of the old school theologians pagans and heathens alike as grossest superstition If then these several be liefs contradict and are of each other how can destructlvojl ly prove that any one Is truth Like auses produce like effects AllInations and races in tho past been alike Ignorant alike conceited in their own selfimportance alike controlled by their emotions clinging to life and fearing death alllCIalike consequently originated beliefs It proves universal Ignor ance not eternal life Many wise in other directions inherited these tional beliefs and accepted and IrraImulgated them without personal vestigation Ian actually Is a transient form of matter a purely physical product of purely physical causes All formsIof matter are mutableall endthe separate elements composIIng all forms alone persist Hence man Is not Immortal threats of Hell and hopo of ParaIchisel One thing at least Is certainthis life flies One thing Is certain and the rest IsIlies The flower that once has blown for ever dies Where there Is thought there must be a thinkersome organic structure 1 1psychland effect Remove the cause and the effect vanishes In the air ace of or nervous system and Wain there tfiot itiid attributes of a human being hence when man is Inhumated or ore mated he exists no more To say he survives the destruction of the body is equivalent to affirming that man can exist made of nothing To affirm that this is horrid trine is only to exhibit Ignorance Nothing can be horrid to the The present condition of future erations cannot be horridthe deadIdition of the dead is identical nal life however possibly even In the absence of a literal hell horrors beyond La Grange CONVENT CRUELTIES IF the title of a pTmrnpIef by asformer monk Besides the intlO luc tion the phamplet discusses How Gills Become the Brides of Christ A Peep Into tho Convent The Con vent Horrors Taking the Veil etc Its tales are thrilling For a snmrple copy send 10 cents In silver to HENRY A SULLIVAN 209 W Madison St Chicago Ills JUST ANOTHER CHANCE for cheap rates to California 3000 from St Louis 2500 from Kansas City These rates will be withdrawn Juno 15th Dont neglect this oppor tunity Tourist car through to San Francisco without change leaving St Louis every Tuesday 832 p m on tho Katy Flyer Ask for Informa tion Address Katy 504 Wainwright St Louis Mo The Blade In dubs or rive or moredIs now reduced to 50 cents teach J f CHOCTAW OKLAHOMA GULF RI RJCombines the Advantages of Eastern ServiceWith the Opportunities of a WESTERN COUNTRY DIRECT LINE Memphis to Little Rock Hot Springs Indian and Oklahoma Territories Texas Coirorado New Mexico Arizona Old t Mexico and the Pacific Coast WIDE VETIQULED TRAINIPULLMAN DRAWING ROOM 8LKIPIN9 OAR PULLMAM TOURIST SLEEPING OARS FREE RECLINING CHAIR OARS I1 list PHI tCliclmn I I 1 4 L i- Rid IrkiHH tt t 1 r I t k- J IiBLUEGRAS 3L1DE iv Mrs Closes ColmnlUNIQUE CAUSE FOR DIVORCE Out here in Iowa we keep right up with the procession and part of the time we get ahead of tho hand wngoi Des Moines furnishes the latest in do mestlc innovations A thc loglcal student sued his wife for divorce cause she was an Infidel Think of that Did he got It Yes certain ly The poor fellow claimed ho wns being so badgered by his wifes questions and her persistent ridicule of Chrlstianty that he was In danger of losing his faith The Judge evIdent- ly thought the precept pray for thoso who despitefully use you amI persecute you did not apply in fam fly relations and decided that theolo gy should not lose a shining light for tho remote possibility of converting an Infidel so the decree was grantee despite tho belief of doctors of di vinlty that divorce should bo grantee only for biblical reasons The question arises whether had the case been reversed and the woman asked for separation because the husband was a Christian would a divorce have been granted do not believe It would I can not conceive anythIng that would cause mo more mental dls tress and physical weariness than a companion constantly harping on tin beauties of holiness sanctification of saints damnation of disbelievers tin Justice of Jehovah and such hypocrlt teal hodgepodge Should an Infidel woman ask for a divorce from a Christian husband sin ought to get It and the Judge was right In answering the prayer of the Christian for release from an heretlca spouse It Is my opinion that divorce should be granted for the asking deed think there would be an provement in domestic relations if a large number of persons were pelled to take divorces who had not even asked for them But while mIn Isterlal conventions declare that dl vorco should not be granted eIther for cruelty or desertion there seems to bo little hope for domestic provement until the sympathies of humanity super a the cruelties at Christianity CHAPLAINS SALARIES RAISED The Blade has some good supporters over In Pennsylvania but they must have been so busy attacking Jehovah that a flank movement was executed and the enemy won the field The State Legislature has raIs- ed tho salary of chaplains from to a day We have howled our selVes hoarse not only about three dollars a day but because any chap lions liaVe been employed at all but our protests haye been disregarded ui uHrTt lino beri vlolattJU fBffIfhtror thepeople nave been Invaded and the taxpayer lias been that the toms plundered Why So j of tradition might bo perpetual oil and the fetters of eccleslasticlsm welded moro firmly upon the people It is reported that Bishop Muldoon of Chicago said that Catholicism would rule the world In 50 years by gaining control of the United States Whether the report bo true or not the sentiment seems to about express the condition If wo are to Judge fromII the frequent and flagrant of tho church of national social domestic affairs Bishop Potter andI New York says it Is not so to put God In the constitution ot country as It Is tb get God Into constitution of the men and women theI the country But there Is too of god already in the constitutions men and women They are so much like Him that they insist on thrusting upon the weaker ones their dogma ol damnation so that wholesale looting may be made possible Another mln Ester with an honest fibre declares the churches ought to be more particular from whom they receive money Dui the get rich quick get all you car and give nothing In return Idea hae been the policy of tho church for cen tortes To proclaim the power to reg ulate the morals of the community and thereby secure good salaries tc wheedle tho umliscrlmlnating multi tude into contributing of their sub stance is bad enough but to accept for a two minute prayer to a body of men who care nothing for religion except as it serves to place them in their seat Is nothing short of a large sized orthodox steal The hue and cry from press and pulpit about an archy makes mo sick but nothing Is said of these chaplains who not only violate tho constitution but tho law f of decency and Justice when they acept such salaries THE RIGHT KIND OF MEN Rev J S Littell has resigned hIs charge of tho Second Presbyterian Church of PItts burg because an gan Is being Installed He says the innovation amounts to a desecration Wo wonder Where Brother Littell has been living If ho calls an organ an Innovation in the twentieth century He must havo been taking several Rip Van Winkle naps but we are glad to hear of won who have the courago of their convictions and thus proclaim to world that everything on the face of the earth changes and becomes adjusted to surround ings except Christianity That ligion is the quo thing that perpet uates error no matter now plain how harmful such error may Last night at church tho minister asked the question Wore a man to live for years a good consls tent Christian life and then commit a wrong act would he be lost He paused Impressively and continued- I answer unhesitatingly yes Such declarations as these servo to show the people where they stand on this momentous question and turn them from such doctrine quicker than sound reasoning by Infidels Some th j lIi rVWMW1N1rl time ago an Eastern dIvIne refusct to permit the corpse of a man who had not professed religion to be burled iron his church He did rIght- If all ministers yould do likewise tin funeral fees would decrease and the common people would have to choose whom they would serve There would bo no setting on both sides of the fence ready to Jump either way when they found out the Inhumanities of the dogmas Iof revealed religion IntoIcan be disposed by bishops without a Catechism MORMON LITERATURE A couple of beer sent mo for comment by a member of the Blade Club iLet mo urge thIs member who is also a press writer to follow my suggestion made In an other part of the paper and go after these subjects personally as she Is abundantly able ttjdo as know from her press work One of these pamphlets Is an account of friendly dIscus- sIon upon religious subjects The other The Mormon people theIr true character etc The writer of letter begins by stating that there have been many evil reports circulated about the Mor mons but that he believes the bull of the people want facts Ho Is mis taken The bulk of the people want anything but the facts Had the ple wanted facts hey would have had them long ago Inseelcnga1ll1 procuring facts ey would have sounded the death knell of religion Scientific facts e the best disperses of the vagaries of faith that has ever been brought forward Scientific men have said OLtChristendoml How often would I ifcave gathered you der my wings laa a hen gathers her chickens hint we would not and not only has Christendom refused to con sider facts but she has sought to prevent heathen arid pagan nations from gaining fads And when different sects imagine 4tlrey have discovered the variation a from the aged brand Its Is cried down and its promulgators denounced and persecuted asilho Mormons can test No the bulk of the people dc not want fnctsfItwoulcl be Impossible to touch the polnts raised in the friendly discussion of religion in which a Mormon elder tears to tat tern the Episcopal minister ariCBiitritofan converts a crowd of thin BIble But sincethieproved t ology by unearthing Vrcheolqglcal finds the Bible us proof Of its own statements can not be admitted Into a scientific court and the assertions that ministers must be called of God to preach that faith must be our pre mary principle and an unwavering following of Jesus mark our life antis Paul says If any man teach an other gospel let him be accursed Gal 18 All these assertions are as so much writing in the sand to be faced by the Hood of knowledge that is pouring overt these supersti ions They can not be proved The Mormons claim to be living in the dig pensation of the fullness of times when God is gathering together all things In Christ We are told that an angel has come from heaven and brought tne everlasting gospel and on the 6th day of April 1830 God through revelations to man organIz- ed tho Church of Jesus Christ In the axact pattern of the true church as it existed In the days of Christ Let us hope that this true church may never gain a very strong foothold for ve have quite enough vagrants now tromping through the country and respasslng upon the resident tax payers who aro straining every nerve o supply luxuries to the parasites at ho other end of the line I once talked with a Mormon teach ir about that revelation from God tfhlch put Moses anu his stone tablets away In the rear ranks this one made so recently being more valuable- they were mado upon gold ask ed what became of the golden tablets and was Informed that during the per secutions of the Mormons they were lost can easily believe that If thin bullion In said tablets equaled the gross weight of Moses tablets of stone they could not have escaped tho United States mint though tho gold standard was npt then an issue The Mormons made a mistake In dat- Ing their revelation wltliln the life time of present members The more remote a revelation Is claimed to be the moro adherents it gains and tho more unreasonable and unjust its dog masi the stronger its organization comes I trust the time may soon como when the bulk of the people will want facts and assert their right to search for them- IIAIIRIGT CLOSZ ITS UP TO YOU to grasp the good things that come our way Read up on the money iiaking possibilities in Missouri Kansas Indian Territory and Texas Let- send you buslness chances Timely Topics Texas The olden Square and ether Interesting Katy publications pertaining to tho Great Southwest Addeiress iKaty 501 Wainrlght Louis o 928 IS THE NUMBER OF COPIES OF DOG FENNEL IN THE ORIENT UBSCRIBCD FOR TO THIS DATE tYt Y Dr Barre MAKES HIS ARGUMENT AGAINST ANY PUNISHMENT OF INALS As Paul said about his kingdom of heaovn a free society cannot be taken by force Force Is antagonistic to the very genius and spirit of a free socle ty It must come by educatlqn We may eliminate law after law as the- N L P proposes by repealing prohlbl tort laws against freedom of speed and the press Laws must be repealed and penalties minimized till both disappear or are dissolved or dlsslpal ed by society us mist before the morn Ing sun Thero is an aspiration In all tient beings toward more freedom That aspiration need only to bo quIck- ened by Intelligence sentiment of freedom Is axiomatic Intuitive All that Is needed Is an Intelligence that will dissipate tho superstitious prejudice against a free society As the doctrine of total depravity Is grown It Is easier to educate peopli In freedom The man who believes that he and an other men were b nature totally depraved and that by miraculous power of God he has been snatched from an Impending doom of damnation as a favored child of God naturally feels that he Is better than the damned and has a right as a chill of God to dominate and make laws to govern tho unregenerate who cannot do a good act Until Tom Paine wrote It scarcely ever dawned upon tho Intellect of man that any one could do a good thing except he was regenerated through the fear of hell or of the I make an exception to the rule In George Fox and his followers wbo have already been opposed to government They are opposed to all Instl tutlonallsm all artificial organizations Nature should be the only or ganlzer With all artificial obstruc tlons removed by which man arro gantly and blasphemously attempt to improve on or supplement natures or Gods laws nature would build up a symmetrical and perfect free socIe- ty Wo have enough to do to learn natures laws and conform our lives to them without having to also learn mans laws Nature says If you pul your hand In the fire you shall suffer Man says if you violate natures law by putting one hand In tho fire the State shall put the other innatut does not punish enough What right lens one man or a thousand to set himself or their selves ui as Judge Jury and executioner by pun Ishlhg any man Where and how dId they get right It may be said the get it from natural Instinct In sell defense No It Is not a natural In stlnct of society to take up quarrel ol two individuals It is an intellectual error If two men quarrel and one strikes the other and beats him un mercifully whotpbusIness Is It but their own never a flght 1roraTa 5 bJ it I been one of the parties could not have eVaded As a rblethe parties to a quarrel or a lawsuit are about equally to blame if any one blameworthy In the sense of deser ving punishment Thea1 In a free so ciety no one would Invade anothers rights can trace every socalled crIme directly or indirectly to govern mont Every law makes a crime The moro laws the more crimes and the moro litigation Then how often Is anything like exact Justice dono law But to revert to the right of any one or tho State to punish an other person If have a right to strike my child one lick I have a right to strike him any number of licks Then who Is to determine how much I may punish hIm If any one deserves punishment at the hands of the State In the name of Justice he deserves Just sc and no more If he receives a just punishment he has paid the debt to society and Is thenceforth inno sent If the State Inlllcts one stripe too few It Is deellct in its duty and it inflicts one stripe too much it criminal In punishing an innocent erson It Is Impossible for any manor any Jury to determine the terpltude or deserts of a crime if any one deserves punishment Two men may do tho same thing for which they receive the same sentence and owing to dif ference In temperament and nervous system ono Is punished much more than the other So government is very unscientific It is argued that as a deterrent from crime we need pen iltles If so tue greater tho penalty the less crimes and a death penalty for all trine would make a paradise here But the consensus of the Ized world Is that penalties do not lessen crImehence the tendency to the abolition of all penal Institutions As SaId in a previous letter Indiana ias abolished one of Its penitentiaries and converted it into a reformatory Two hundred years ago over one iundred crimes had death penalties England and when Queen Victoria took her throne the number had been r to eighteen When she died but two as In this country treason and murder are punishable with death Even Judges and Juries are moro lenient and seldom Inflict as se yore sentences as tho law allows Se tee penalties are now inflicted In irlvate for tho reason that the nessIng of cruelty begets cruelty To hear or read of capital punishment is icarly as bad as to see it anti cruel- rnlshment will soon sease The army whIch Is government In Its Intensity must bo abolished by the consensus of tho civilized world as its sympathies ire elicited by refinement The fact is no one deserves Ishment Nature punishes not cause we deserve It but because we need it Then do not children need It from their parents and people from tho State No teach them that cer aln acts are wrong and that nature punishes without mercy all wrong acts and there is no evading natures lenaltlcs A parent who brings child into the world without Its voll Ion and then requires obedience of I i 7it lt must bo very brutnl As Lillle D WJke says should consider It one ofi thin greatest misfortunes of life tc h voa thoroughly obedient child Obedience Implies command and commariel Implies punishment for lotehlenpe for behind every command ambush If you dont Ill superlorltydespotletj and slavery which is a vio Iatlorlr the law of equal freedom Why toes any one deserve punish meat Tf i had been organized edu cated nfld environed precisely as any other person should have done precisely did We ore not free Wo are creatures of heredity circus stances and environments There Is no free om of volition We act as aro act d on and our mind moves like nil ottyir objects In line of least resistance and greatest attraction We oslngTolence fc language for a thing cannot oct be ore It exists and choice does not exit until a thing Is chosen Theijef can be no act or volition a motive and our motives are controlled by circumstances over which vo leave no control Then why puigfsia person for anything We havtvfinly a right to teach by precept ld example We have nothing to do with mens thought or mens words ut to put better thoughts and beftGijwords against them and so to great moral and Intellect nail dl fcl that is all the tuna goIng on anti i which all progress depends the itruth was generally known and acted pn that we have only a right to teach nd lead men out of error there woulcJ be more exchange of real thong it and better listeners Men notes depraved not so bad naturally as thi y are Ignorant Ignorance Is the only iln Allmen seek happiness If they dontattaIn It they err that Is all If It was known and taught as a scion e would not all learn What Is lit plncss but the gratification of our eslresIn the exercise of our facul If all could exercise their 1 leg in freedom no one would oxen se abnormally or to excess It Is 0 restraint of government that calt excessive exercise of animal propc nsltles when opportunities offer Tie some abnormally constituted pert ns some that were unwelcome child en when born would need the infly nee of good example and lect ures to restrain them In degree but the j ve of approbation and imitative nesS which is strongest in the weal mini id would be enough to control then The approbatlve and Imitative fac ties are very strong in all espec ally children and weak minds The are lot appreciated as factors In the con olaf society They give rise to coo mtlonalism to fashion As well be out of the world as out of fas on In tho absence ofrestrain ing aws the better class would be circumspect and decorous In deportment before young and wea as examples to be Imitated Nin nine things we do every flay onto one without a thought as to fft ltSi or ful or unlawful trod the ono thing In a huhdred we do because the law compel Itis oftener wrong that right Then why law at all Paine says in his Rights of Man A great part of that order which reigns among mankind Is not the effect of goyern ment It had its origin In the prlncl pies of society and the natural con stitution of man It existed previous to government and would exist If the formality to government were abolish ed The mutual dependence and re- cIprocal Interest which man has In man and all thin parts of a civilized community upon each other create that great chain of connection which holds It togetner In my next will show the logical effect of a free society and lastly will quote from the greatest men who ever lived and some that are now living to corroborate what have said J C BARNES Hindsboro Ills TEDDY THE CHRISTIAN Teddy old boy those Russians have Insulted you What are you going tc do about it Are you to permit such an Insult and bo branded a coward No Teddy that will never do Those devout followers of Jesus those bigoted Christians have dared to Insult the family and relatives of your recently begotten god J Christ- I Jerusalem Palestine You know how you love Jesus and his teachings do unto others and how you would If needs be fcr that principle You also know that Jesus was the son of Mary or as Charley Moore calls her when ho wants to get real next Mollle And you know that Mary was a little Jew ess and that Jesus was a little Jew And you also know that those bar- barIc Russians dont give a damn about Marys or Jesus family or rel atlvess and have acted ungentleman ly like towards them to say the least Are you going to stand that Insult or are you going to resent it Are you going to have your Gods family grossly insulted by that Freethink Ing liberalminded Atheists in Russia Remember you are a Christian and those Russian farmers Russian user chants and Russian officials nevet heard of thin Greek Catholic churcl hey are all followers of Ingersoll they are all Infidels or Freethinkers They are Insulting your Gods kins people What are you going to about It M S WHY DONT YOU enter Into thin spirit of the times and progress No better way to gain few live pointers regarding Indian Territory than by writing for the May Issue of tho Coming Country now rfrady Address Katy 503 Wainwright St Louis Mo your order for five postal 250 and good for five cordsLmnly at any time that them f t J f Premiums For New- Members A great many Liberals Incline to unite with us but from the habit of delay do not send In their names In order to reach these as well a to stir up an Interesting competition and to awaken endeavor and en thusiasm especially among our younger members we offer tho fol lowing awards the contest to close September 1st E M 303 The Conditions Ar- eIThe person joining must be a new member and tho fee of one dollar accompanying his name 2The names should be sent In as soon as gotten 3The contest Is open to all old members except the President First Second and Third Vice Presidents Secretary and Treas urer ITho contest Is open to all new members Premiums- To the persons securing tho largest number of members we will award forFirst Prize Ingersolls Complete Works Dresden Edition value 30 Second Prize Palnes Complete Works value 1000 Third Prize Walking stick from the Paine tree Fourth Prize Walking stick from the Paine tree Fifth Prize History of the Chris flan Religion to the year 200 by Judge B WaIte Sixth PrizeIKrstory of the Chris tian Religion to the year 200 by Judge C B Waite Seventh Prize History of the Christian Religion to the year 200 by Judge B WaIte Eighth Prize Wettstein Gold Pin Ninth Prize Wettstein Pin Tenth Prize Wettstein Gold Pin Elevelth prlzeDog Fennel in the Orient by Charlos C Moore Twelfth prize Dog Fennel In the Orient by Charles Moore Thirteenth Prize Dog Fennel in the Orient by Charles C Moore Fourteenth Prize Napkin ring from the Paine tree Fifteenth prize Napkin ring from ihe Paine tree- Sixteenth prize Napkin ring fron the Paine tree- Seventeenth prize Penstock from alma tree- Eighteenth prize Penstock fron e Paine tree- Nineteenth prize penstock fron he Paine tree Twentieth prize Full figure por traIt of Capt Gen W Loyd standln by the side of Paines chair Sendlall communlcatlonc direct ti By order of tho Exec hive Committee MORRIS SACHS Sec Atlas Bank Building dt CJnt1IDi tIf t n1eis DID IT EVLt OCCUR TO YOU i note iae rapid development of last Texas as a truck and frult grow 1ng country No Then write for the lamphlot Timely Topics No2 and become convinced tnat the resources Texas are Illimitable Address Katy 500 Walnwrlght St Louis Ho Frisco System WILL HAVE ON SALE A- T5t Louis O MemphisC- HEAP ONEWAY and ROUND TRIP Homeseekers Rates IRST AND THIRD TUESDAYS OF EACH MONTH To ARKANSAS MISSOURI SAS OKLAHOMA TERRITORY IN IAN TERRITORY and TEXAS For rates anti information address McGUIRE W R POWE Tr Pass Agent General Agent CINCINNATI OHIO LOUISVILLE HENDERSON ST LOUIS RY DOUBLE DAILY TRAINS DJTWUHN Louisville and Si Louis Parlor Cars Trains Pullman Sleepers Night Trains rates and further Information ndJrei L J IRWIN crIOUISVILLC Rr iii i1 d Help Blade along by ordering rfive postal cards only 250 DO YOU JttUllforetellits P doneto r ciated write for copy of book entitled Toples JMo4Homoor money refrmlwl by purrmiermanhoodsell wn JUllrlllltt1 It to cure any case of ofllaeCOBROTHER LIBERALS make a specialty In the treatment of Hem orrelolds When a patient comes to my office for treatment do not take J1thatpiles are not able to come hero to to treated have formulated a home treatment that costs but five dollars per month including the necessary correspondence between patient and physician A number have been tuoroughly cured with one months treatment others by the use of two Sfivethrough the mails to any point In the United States This treatment givec Immediate relief and Is a perfect sure guarantee perfect satisfac Lion In every case entrusted to my taro or refund the money Write for the Little Red Booklet and learn for yourself It is free for the asking Address DR STOWES CHEMICAL CO 119 North Santo Fe Ave Salina March 20th Doctor Stowe will send his Home Treatment for piles to any who will write him their sympt gins free of any charge whatever for thirty days- LEXINGTON t EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY 4No2 1lv8201lvau Jackson 615 1130 Ar Cannel City 1245 Westbound No1 Dally No3 l Ex Sunday Dally a m pm- Lv Cannel City 105 Lv Jackson 625 225 Btvllle Junction 72G 3 26 Lv WI tester 923 61 t r Lexington 1020 6Uo Nos anti 4 make close connection it O K Junction for Cannel City fuel points on Ohio Kentucky Rail vay trn r 7 iJunction with Chesapeake Ohio for tit Sterling and local points Nos and connect dally extept Sunday at Beattyvlllo Junctionrwith A Ralway for BARR Gen Mgr ULiS SCOTT P A jrT R MORGAN P A r i If t lt THE WELLKNOWN PHYSICIAN Cares Where Others Fail FOR PROOF READ HIS BOOK Tho ted Ift Uccay Enrh P VAtE 10 4f char es 1nriro crle Mental and Fhrxlrnl liebllltr- tand of IswkietWnibe5PnttotbeIraddfefiS r i ten cents a gtviagcauseannmsemptomsorthecom t nlalnt3nnd Doctors turdjelyot the cslsteuce of iuo fiss tAddress FET Te V9i iwgywheceyouaawtldsiulver Vlnelund NI Jhaof private nature which were looked upon as incurable that he Is now considered far and near as the most reliable and trust specialtyEditorInrrrraa Dr Fellows has for a number of ears held an enviable reputation In the medical line and has made aipecia- lty of a number of diseaseswhereby becoming familiar with them and enabling him to treat them suc hcessfully He Is wellknown as a pro nounced advocate In all lines of free thought and stands well In his pro tsslon wherever hes known ITHE BEST LINE rLOG MONON ROUTE ChleaQoInJiana oogtsrtLoouilleljaiLJay j ONLY LINE TOTHE FA M USn c Tl ej jTJ r 5pIt4 t jltI ftltL WjBLADEjtt loneAims l8l Ideals of Free TKouglt t By Rev Dr J E Roberts I Freedom to think anti to spell 1ones honest thought is the right of every human being endowed with brains To secure that freedom and preserve that right thousands have suffered obloquy imprisonment exile or death When ignorance and fa naticism could not answer the thinker they killed him It was opposition to j freedom of thought that gave the hemlock to Socrates burned Brum at the stake and nailed Jesus Chris to the cross Every man who has suffer ed or died to make thought fearless and free has become one of the saviors of the world The ashes of Bruno are as sacred us blood of Christ The supreme aim of free though Is to define and preserve the dignity of the individual It is a protest aglhtRt the fetter placed by any aitthoritj on brain it is a demand to face the light from whatsoever quarter of the sweet heavens that light may Every man has a right to feel thntI the census of the Universe would incomplete unless he was tour Every man has tho right to attar to the dignity of the unit The authorI ity that seeks to compel the coerce the mind Is the authority baclI of which lie the germs of all oppres t slon the promise and potency of all bondage Man has not long had the hardihood to refuse to bow d- owitthe to pretensions of the past but reason stands erect its knees are never covered with the dust of earth Au thority implies the assumption of right either divine that is derived from God or a right based In a su periorlty of reason The first claim Is flatly denied It Is not reasonable that the Infinite ever gave one man supreme authority or control over other JHe is not tho author of slaver or the maker of bondage nor the In spirer of oppression nor the Instigator r of fear The other claim may be dis credited because if authority is con tended for on the ground of superlo ity of reason then In virtue of that su periority the man claiming it can vince the reasonable man of the jus tics of the doctrine or the truth that he proclaims t o that in either case the ultimate authority rests and cali rest with the individual reason alone In all the ages it has been imagii that there was some necessity for au thority for truth that it could not be potent it could not fulfill its mission unless it had the backing of the traneous power All the modern I questions of religion of change resolve Itself finally into this whetber tio4 i i kttzt ar us u f sanity and reasonableness of the world they live in and of the people that they live with There is an analog in the mental world to that of the physical world o In the physical world every planet and sphere every world and star in 3whatever place of the universe it may or in flight every atom of every world is itself an Illustration- the of e universal power No one world or set of worlds were specially and r exceptionally endowed In order that through the majesty of their sway the rest of the universe might be held In order There was no great central source of natural laws from which edicts and decrees should issue and all the rest of the universe be kept in b thrall but everywhere through the worlds and throughout space the eternal forces reside The atom no less than the round sphere of which It Is a part illustrates and obeys those forces Whatever It may be law or force or power or intelligence or God whatever It may be it is a universal endowment it is everywhere dlffus ed there is no place where it is not A man might say of the physical dis trlbution or diffusion of force as old prophet said of God Though take the wings of the morning and dwell In the uttermost parts of the sea thou art there though I descend Into hell even there shall thy handhold me and thy right hand shall lead me The universe Is ever where Intelligent and the resident place of force The analogy with the mental world comes this way Assuming a parallel or correspondence then one Is not warranted In saying that there Is any man or set of men that there is any company or coterie or school or college of apostles or disciples in any age that there are any Inspirations so exceptional and unique conferre or vouchsafed upon any man or men as that they represented the one and only contribution of the infinite In telllgence to the finite world That infinite intelligence finds Its corn spondence In diffuslo of reason of intelligence and of mind and as in the physical world each planet has its part as in the world each atom knows and obeys the law set for Its goverance so in the mental world every mind is a unit an tegral part of all There Is no just ground for the authority to be assumed by any man or any hierarchy an priesthood The first and preme end of free thought is to ac centuate to define to demnrk to awaken the consciousness of the individual responsibility The teacher ol Nazareth himself laid stress upon the same doctrine he not only taught on ts his own authority but he ignored k the authority that was venerable and to which his corellgionlsts looked up with homage and respect Standing 1n a Jewish city confronted by Rab his priests and scribes surrounded 7bythe symbols of a religion that was antique and unchallenged in the midst of a people who bowed town with unfaHterlng devotion to what was ancient who revered tradi Lion and followed it he thrust the blade of his challenge Into the verY J Q Irtr heart of the entire system whet he said to them Ye have read that It hath been said by men of old the men of old were the distinguished tho lawgivers the fatners of tradition they were the venerable the august the ones in wllose memory great thorIty and power vested the men of old were the bulwark of defense of the entire system that Jesus con fronted yet he said of it We have read that it hath been said by men of old but say unto you hatever they may preach or proclaim about Jesus of Nazareth when he stood there in Jerusalem and placed In that modest unboasting way the against the tradition the dogma the aristocracy of the old religious tem when ho did that he made the most important step in the way of free thought He denied to any au thority however imposing or popular the right to take from him the Indl vidual judgment the right of Inter pretatlon of conscience and of reason Tho second aim of free though Is to remoVe from the hearts and minds of men the destroying fears In der to do that it Is necessary first of all to deny the Irrational absurd and fear creating dogmas it is nec essary to blot out from the minds of men the thought or conception of eternal pain It is said now that when a man goes about to do that denies the dogma and claims it is believable and foolish and creates In the minds of the timid the agony or apprehension and fear when a man toes that they say of him he is slm ply setting up and knocking down a man of straw and yet there Is not among all of the socalled evangelical hurches one of them that has bad the honesty and the goodness to cleanse from the pages of their creed that odious stain The time was with- In the memory of men not yet old when that dogma of an endless hell shadow Childrenvas a perpetual vent to sleep at night in terror lest hey should wale and find tbemselves lead and in hell The imagination Is rarely able to picture the abject fear the terror and horror of children whe had been taught that tning when it ante into their thoughts at night vas an actual fear the dark was ter Inc and even the little prayer the aught us to say lent a kind of em ihasls to the fear If I should die before I wake I pray Thee Lord my soul to take for if He did not If he had not been implored and was not there and watching when the death ccurred why the child might hae j ist t 11eKlenceanl1 catlgflJl fcssgone to that fear way to be honest about It to deny It to make it an act of worship deny it is one of the necessary all toI of free thought For one I shall glad when the necessity of those It Is not things passes entirely away congenial It Is not klnoly to at tacit the faith or the dogmas or tbe beliefs of others No well wisher his race would ever do it if it were not that some of those beliefs dogmas stand like mean and miser a1lle obstructions in the way of man happiness The free thought men and women will be glad to fellowsh the religionists of every name and Idnd and school and sect whenever they bring nothing that Is positive tensive to the best reason the clear st thinking or the most illun nated and exalted moral sense Is one of the alms not only to natural- Ize God but to rationalize Him Where in all the past can there be found one conception or notion God that can stand in the presence of civilization without a blush Hae we not Inherited our ideas of God from the past and can anyone them be made to square with the best moral sense of the best people of today Men in pretending or thinking they were loyal to God in keeping up certain Ideas have been false Him fancy that if the Infinite could speak If the eternal silence could find a voice If the Infinite should deign to plead with men his creatures upon- the earth the first thing the Infinll wouM ask would be that men punge from their thoughts of him whatever was irrational absurd true unkind foolish or unjust It must that If the Infinite knows or care aught about the worship of his creatures if there is any possible or cot celvable relation between God the finite and man the brief and transient child ota day If there is any posslbl connection between the Invisible man who thinks and reasons then- there can he no act of worship morE- lofty there can be no service more profound there can be no homage devotion paid more pleasing In sight than the thought of the man- that thinks highly and nobly about- the unthinkable one So long as cannot know the Infinite so long as we cannot understand him so long as to define him with our logic and place the limitation of a definition upon him- would he to destroy him so long every thinker knows he must remain alwa s unknowable what can be In the least degree more offensive whai well meanlnicnn nearer approach and unintended blasphemy than thlnl unjust and unreasonable thoughts of the Infinite Intelligence It Is Just here that the virtue and the- excellence of agnosticism appears an molly says they fcnow God the- thlnlt1ng man has the right to say that he knows the other one does not- Imow God and the thinker knows that the other one knows he does not- Imow God It will always be true as Tenn lon says that There dwells m tQ faith In honest doubt believe me than in half the creeds It Is the aim of free thought to In ffIi i a spire fearlessness In mint nlY onehalf of tho work is pcvfoi ed when the fearcreating dcgmafc havo been removed Then the Is to make thinking IllxtjteP lIar Ing and fearless Why fear to be simply self There Is an element of the community most difficult to bind sl fled They make the argument t that it is better to be on the safes he cause If we should at last d that we are mistaken we will be sat luny way Do you know that it Is not thinkable that the man who w a gambling chance like that wn suI vatlon is worthy of being saved A that will fllshoneslMsimply man his professing to believe the which ho knew tacitly he could not and did not to think that 1consider will that as honesty and a Is a libel on the justice and good ess of God The only safe side Is the honest side If there Is any saInt to be merited or won it Is to belmerl ted by absolute downright sincerity There is the virtue the beauty of the position occupl d by the man of free thought Suppi s be mistaken suppose at last it transpires that everything he tl tght about the reason of the unlvers was i mistake suppose everything tbat was ever written or said to be In spired was true in tho Bible mid he finds himself all wrong what c n he do Precisely what he has dole fore precisely what he did heu je attained position of the Free Thinker namely change his op alon lie has that choice he has tjc tin elllgent rational opportunity a If here Is any wisdom or goodne s In his universe and there is a God then that God respecting the honest an he Intelligent man would sure be willing to use some means to a peal to his Intelligence and persuadi his eason to correct his mistakes and set him right I hold that the nos tic and the Free Thinker is the only one that has the really reverent onception of this unlverrse an of he God of this universe And yet again the aim of free thought Is to awaken the sense i responsibility for the use of nes brains In all the past it has een tbe habit to put the responsibillt on somebody else What shall we lIeve Seek the creed What all we believe Read the Bible and nd out How shall we be saved ely upon the tortured Christ And nnp of herilmiof honght to malc it ciear at that res s Uty stsfpon the individual alone There aD be no intellectual vlrtueina bllnd belief It nelthercear ness of thought nor mental progress It Is not so much what a man be lIevesthe content of his creed IS not- the paramount thing but the sin cerlty of the that he does be lreve He has a right to be recltoned within the Intellectual world Brains were meant for universal use else ther would not have been universally given There was an interesting a et a pathetic Illustration in cite our suburbs a few weeks ago A cer taln sect gathered for their annual eeting All of the elders of the church and modern apostles held breath while their chief was receiving a revelation from God It is pnac countable that the temper of mind of rational beings could ever be such- that such a thing were possible 1Vhat Is the process of reasoning by men arrive at the conclusion that there Is one man and the great God Is about to illuminate his mind and whisper In his listening ear 3ome truths which shall therefore becon authoritative over them and the rest What right has any man called by whatever name Invested with whatever dignity clothed with whatever thority honor or power what right- has any of the creatures of this arth to believe that he stands any nearer or any higher or any nobler or anymore worthy in sight of the finite than does the least and lowest of all mankind Remember that when we speak such words as the finite the eternal the uncreated use words so vast in their meaning that imagination faints in contempla- tlon If there Is an Infinite so vast- and immeasurable Is the Illfrercnco- between him and the highest of earth- that it Is practically the same as the 11Ifference between him and the humblest In the presence of eternlt the mountains are as transient ns the- clouds To make then one man any men lawgivers for us or Interpreters or thinkers Is to put down tho- very thing and the first thing that gives dignity and honor to a human being To increase tlis reo sponslblllty then the sense of fearless- freedom Is not the least aim of Ire the Ideals that It holds are- these First of all that reason in self is trustworthy and that reason- today is better qualified to judge make conclusions to approach finall- ties than It has ever been in ahy age- before It is not a foolish or Idle boas to say that the Intelligence In the- word at the present time Isillgher- than it has ever been The standard has been elevated The school House has been born the child has crossed Its threshold Natural Jaws and forces unsuspected In other ages have been discovered and for those reasons the- present age Is better qualified o pronounce upon the things no man news an thing about than were thliaJes- that were darK with ignorance super stltlon and night The old peepused to say frankly that ignorance as the- mother of devotion some oCIthem used to boast that the more r b i1No1 1 Tile n thing was the InoroneceaBary It was to bellovo It Ono of tho nr guments one of the old church fathers made was this beliee It because it is Impossible All that Is changed In place of ignorance has come intelligence In place Of darkness light above night the morning has dawned and widened into day All the progress this world has ever mantle in any direction has been mndo through tho Instrumentality of reason It was not even religion It was not faith it cannot be said to have been brought forward by prayer even almsgiving did not do It none or tho things that we associate with plet with the service of the gods have been factors In the making of this world better It has been free thought It has been the unfettered brain and the daring mind The first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress and as men have been dlssatlslled with the past and trusted the reason of the present as they have relied on their own Intelligence their own Inspiration and wrested from the rockbound secrets of nature tIer laws and forces as they havo done that the world has been amelioratCll the storm has been tempered to un sheltered man tho pathway of progress has been freed from Its obstruc lions heaped there by Ignorance perstltlon and fear and the world has turned Its face again towards the light Still another Ideal of free thought is that the duty or the reo sponslblllty of making progress rests upon the men and women that aro free Here again is one of the strH ng the most conspicuous differences between tho new and tho old The old was to accept something ready- made and mako the best of it the new position Is to take the old as It Is and make it better and the respou ilblllty for doing that lies upon us iVe have come to the point where we can honestly relieve God of the reo ponsibillty of very much of this worlds conduct And In doing that we must take the burden of it upon ourselves It is not sufficient to tell our story of longing and need In the ears of a listening God It is rather ecessary that we should equip and arm ourselves to achieve results and accomplish ends to make the old world better There is coming a time and It is not far away when the world will witness the play the con filct perhaps the clash and storm of Intellectual forces such as the past has never known The school house Is to bear fruit the university and the allege practically free are to malC themselves known in the Intellectual life of the people These are new Institutions notably the school house generation ago the children had no such opportunities as they possess now Twent five or thirty years ago- In very many portions of this country it was looked upon as a little doubtful for the fashionable and the rich to permit their children to tend the common schools They must lJesent to private institutions where ley could be flattered and pandered to Now for a generation the rich and the poor have met together n1ll0 In tho school liouserthat altar fllb- errr7 l1iTtJfnmctOcy tba has been constantly d In few generations more and perhaps in time much nearer that thesothlngB will begln to bear the legitimate fruit In other words we will have multiplied ten thousand thousand times the intellectual energy activity and capacity of the people We shall no longer be swayed by terror or subjected by fear or carried away bY fa natlclsm or partisanship Every man- wl1 have to be reckoned with at the- bar of intellect and free thought Then all these questions will be again questions that are by no means settled yet Old propositions have to be restated civilization ciety custom code and creed will all be called upon to give an account of themselves in the judgment day of reason Tho only safety the onl guarantee of the wellbeing of men- when that time comes is in solute fearless freedom of everyl- mind There will be then no oppc tunlty for fanaticism there will Je- then no stampeding of the people aqalnst things that appeal to sen or the passion butt when the- peollo are once persuaded and each persuaded for himself there will be no power of evil or oppression Injustice that can for a day stand against that august and all but finite power Our safety does not In religion for religion Is falling does not lie In the church for the- church says do not think it says let us pray Our safety lies in the trustworthiness of the reason and of the- sanlt between the reason within and the reason without Everyone of rJghtly Interpreted Is a factor and tegral part of the universal Intelll- gence We can only be loyal and- truo to the responsibility laid upon us as we exercise that power of reason The final Ideal of free thought is Improve the world we are living now It Is really the only one that- concerns us much Some other time- some other where there may be other- worlds and other problems and perhaps other responsibilities but for the present all those things are hers An creed or any institution that lays- upon struggling mew and women burden and attempts or professes comlensato them by giving them sight draft on pleasures In some otherworld is more than an obstruction and a hindrance it Is from the tlonal standpoint a positive crime thlnl that any man who rents a grays or n catacomb to somebody to plats the body of his dead and charges bin an annual rental and In consideration also of the price paid for the rcstlng- place of the dead agrees to say a cer tlon number of prayers for tho repost of his soul and that when the man- whose dead sleeps there Is no longei ablo to keep up the rent of the catacomb and defaults in the payment therefore and the man who has Jeen- receiving the rentals not only takes the body out and leaves It unburied but threatens the poor Ignorant man with leaving the soul of his dead In heH because lie will say no more pln ers for him without pay I think t at approaches an Indictable offense t t1i1IJ 3 MY PRICES j 7 iJf For COMPARISON i o In 12 a or 4 Ounco tSllverino Screw Cases Prepaid ff o i Deuber 18 size Special RWay 23 lls 32 same JlstElgin Veritas 23 Jls 29 same or No 149 150 all 21 Jls 25 Father Time 21 Jls or new Raymond 19 Jls 20 Raymond 17 Jls 1850 i Waltham Vanguard 23 Jls 29 same 21 Jls 25 Str Jls 20 Appleton Tracey Co Premier new 17 JlaF1850 same not Premier 17 Jls nickel The above guaranteed to pass R Way InspectorsFWaltham P S Bartlett or Elgin Wheeler 17 Jls nickel aa justed same gilt 9 same Hampden nickel 10 Elgin r Waltham or Hampden nickel 15 jlo 7 Elgin or Waltham nickel 7 Jls noncatchable hairspring 5 Hampden 7 Jls gilt 450 Standard or Century The above In goldfilled screw cases guaranteed twenty years 350 or In hunting 550 more In 25year screw cases or hunt Ing 850 more than sllverlne cases THE IDEAL GENTLEMANS WATCH Small 12 size Hampden elegant artistic handchased or en glneburncdf Juergensen style always nice goldfilled hunting i case guaranteed 25 years Genl Stark 15 Jls Deuber Grand 17 Jls 1750 John Hancock 21 Jls extra fine 1f28- 50Iin t open face hinged case 50 cts screw case less All watches guaranteed new perfect cases latest designs hand tno die work engraving and accompanied by mfrs and my pay freight and watches kept In order one year If used Send for prices of ladles size solid gold sliver and other not listed above Diamonds Opals Sliver Plated and Optl cal goods Music Boxes Jewelry Chains Clocks Freethought and other badges Ingersoll Spoons and my tract Theism In the Cru clble fr- eeOTTO WETTSTEIN La Grange Ill + + + + + +++ ++++ +++ Oil II+ U + + MHH + + IllinoisCentral RailroadVIAyVERY LOW ONEWAY RATES r TO California f iIJAnd the Northwest Daily to June 15 19O3T- HROUQHi PERSONALLY CONDUCTED EXCURSION SLEEfvK EFfSTO C Af lN4TWICEJA WEEKr REDUCED ONEWAY COLONIST AND HOME SEEKERS CURSION J RATES TO POINTS SOUTH AND WEST FIRSTHAND tii THIRD TUESDAYS IN EACH MONTH WRITE THE UNDER SIGNED FOR CIRCULAR DESCRIPTIVE OF LANDS IN THE SOUTH ASK LOCAL TICKET AGENTS FOR THROUGH TICK ETS AND FURTHER INFORMATION OR ADDRESS F W HARLOWDivi- sion f Passenger Agent t Louisville Kentucky 1 VERY LOW ONEWAY AND ROUND TRIP RATES TO THE NORTH WESTVIA THE X Northern Pacfic Railway ONE WAY COLONIST RATES ON SALE s UNTIL JUNE 15 1903 ROUND TRIP HOMESEEKERS TICKETS ON SALE FIRST AND THIRD TUESDAYS APRIL MAY AND JUNE AT RATE OF ONE FARE PLUS 200 FOR ROUND TRIP FOR RATES DETAILS AND GEN RAL INFORMATION WRITE TO r CHARLES s FEEIGENERAL PASSENGER AND TICKET AGENT Saint Paul Minn1dijCorrespondence and Inquiries are given our prompt attention t to articles lettliemsend let think it nears a crime If the Free tens showing the advance of Ration linker has any mission more sacred allsm in their own minds sociologicaly amI holy In time world than another stances of religious and It is to persuade every man that there evolution in different sections of Is no man and there are no men that our country This method will be have a right to presume for an In helpful and encouraging to all tant to stand and the members of the cjub and will bring us ff Infinite Tho time of the mediators In touch with each other and with Is gone they are needed no longer all Tne Blado readers We demand In the right of hum be correspondence with such ngs of rational creatures we demembers of the club as you may nand In the right of the children of lect and send in your articles and the Infinite a personal audience with letters to The Blade and suggestions the most high God Salvation Is not for the advancement of our cause egged or bought Too long tills sol greeting and best wishes to all nsh hope sufficed too long men reek members of the club Let us hearI ed In lawless thought and leaned up from you through Blade on a tortured Christ like shriveled Fraternally leaves the worn out creeds are fall JOSEPHINE K HIJNRYfIng from religions tree o world Versailles Ky eglns to know freeiare crying to be mind on this glorious spring morn THE BLADE CLUB gl TO have lived and have loved I have waked and I have slept- have sung and have danced The suggestion of Harriet Close I have smiled and I have wept that members of tho Blade Club have won and wasted treasure Rend In communications to The Blade have had my fill of pleasure And all these things but two things Is a wise one and one that will be helpful to us all Let those who wish Were emptiness and pain And Love it was the best of them send In articles on any subjecta they may select bearing upon the And Sleep worth all the rest HENRY of them K pIes of Free Thought for which weJOSEPHINE are battling Those who do not wish Versailles Ky CjV 1Nl YJ 1 +Tfff iH h i ti

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