Blue-Grass Blade from Lexington, Kentucky • Page 4

4J Blade Mail Bag TTTY Continued from Page 3 God had done for him 1 told them I was not seeking religion or salvation but if their Goi would hear their prayers and reveal himself to me in any way according to their declaration and his will i would acknowledge bin before all men but it made little dilterence to me whether they prayed for salvation or damnation The latter might be the most fitting and the easiest to comply with and show forth more fully yn his power and goodness The they told me how sorry Id em when I came to die I told then how glad Id ue to die three four times to please them an 3 gratify the vengeance of their Lord If this had been a century tury ago I would have been cole ashes before midnight I am past 70 and have lived for years without any fear of God or Hell and no hope of salvation through Christ and no desire for a place in the heaven of the Unknown God With best wishes for your success in the cause of truth I am as ever yours for right Enclosed find 1 to apply on acct BOWMAN Glad to See Old Blade Again BRUNSWICK MAINE Mr James Hughes I am very glad to see the old Blade back again in the old form with Bro Moores familiar face in the Northwest corner I lost heart when you I dropped the old form but seeing it again brings back the old times when Charley used to put on his war paint and kick over the beegums and whoop her up for scalps and he used to get em Most Freethought papers are too easy on those fellows of the cloth They dont let up on us fellows whenever they get the chance and I hope you will hand it to them hot and fast as you used to Once when I tried to get some subscribers for it an old woman said her cow gave bloody milk for three weeks after she read it and another one said that reading such a paper it was no wonder I went blind Well I can see again and I will continue to risk it if you will keep her a coming Enclosed please find 1 Hoping you will have success I am yours etc WM HAM I HAAiEnjoys Enjoys the Blade MARCO FLORIDAMr Jasj JasjE Hughes Kind Sir Enclosed find 500 as I am due you on my subscription to the Blue Grass Blade for a year or more Let me know when this is out as I enjoy your paper very much having always been a Freethinker myself Yours trulyW COLLIER Go On With Your Noble Work MADILL OKLA Dear Sir I am sending you herewith a short article for the Blade which you may publish if you deem it worthy of the space I am preparing an article for the Blade The Bible What Is It which I will submit for publication pretty soon if you can use it May the grand old Blade go on with its noble work Yours in Free thought JOHNSON Paper Will Still Come To You QjUASQUETOAVN IOWA Hughes Dear Sir My time I see has expired on the Blade and just at the present time I am not financially fixed to renew but I do not want the paper to stop coming for I would almost asp soon think of going without my regular meals as to think of missing the weekly issues of the Blade Now the reason I am financially embarassed is that my berry crop was almost an entire failure last season I have almost four acres in small fruits and put in nearly if not all my time attending to them and expect to make a living for wife and I off of that four acres but the last season was terribly dry here just when the berries needed plenty of rain We had 65 days of dry weather That put my berry crop on the dry side and I came out financially behind So you see Bro Hughes where I am But if nature does what is right this season I will be able to make ends meet so that I can pay up for the paper provided you continue to send it to me I thought at one time the Blade was going to wind up but now I think different and hope it will continue in the good work and will be able to testify every week at the meeting it and I will have for when I used to belong to the church we were asked to give in our experiences or testimony at every Thursday night meeting Now I have quit that and am reading all the Freethought pa pers I can get which is four and would take more of them if I was able In reading them I dont hear the same humdrum story every week of my life like the class meeting was but something different every weeksomething I can learn that is new and interesting Now Mr Hughes it is up to you whether you will send me the Blade and I will remit as quickly as finances will admit With best wishes for success to the Blade I am truly yoursA STONEMAN IFrom Old Bro Coffin SPRINGFIELD OlIr Jas Hughes Dear Sir Enclosed find one dollar in payment for my subscription to the Blade for one year I admire the change you have made in your paper It makes me feel good and recalls old times to see the picture of my old friend Chas Moore at the head of your paper as it was originally designed by that noble hearted grand old man Respect fully yoursE COFFIN Old Friend Heard From su1IAItIETTA OHHOMy dear Friend Hughes As it has been some time since you have heard from me I thought I would drop you a line or so to inform you that I have not forgotten you altogether or the cause for which you are struggling By the opera tion that has taken place in the Blade it will not hurt her to the extent of her demise for as you aptly say she has weathered too many hard storms to be wrecked by a squall of these dimensions As far as wearing crepe for the death of the Blade is concerned we dont intend to do so And now to a little business The list of names I sent to the Blade will have to be revised I will payout of my own pocket the two dlast names for the last year from the fact they both told me to have the paper stopped at the end of the year and as I did not do so I will make the matter right and I am going to send you a bunch of new names as soon as I can find time to do a little extra work And by the way if the next is sue is a Paine Issue I hope you will resurrect my poem to him which appeared in the issue of Jan 26 1908 Reprint it and credit me with it As it appeared there is no name signed or no telling who wrote it and I think this is due me and I hope you will straighten this matter out Will write you again soon and remit what is due you from a financial standpoint So wishing you and the Blade the greatest success I am your friend WM COX NONOT DEAD By Whitaker They said the Blade was dying I knew somebody was lying It is now out in its old clothes And may live forevermorewho knows Some people would like for it to die But I assure you it is not I It had a small financial chill And really was a little ill But now its health is very good For it has had the best of food And again it does appear In many a home far and near Its pages four are clean and 1 bright Its Freethought principles are just right It will enlighten and amuse For it is edited by Mr Hughes I Now let us help this gentleman And do our part wheneer we can If its only the widows mite 4 Send ittwill be all right I 1Jt fA Mans Origin and Destiny egi I 3t By Dr A Hausman Alameda California A IBy 0 3 This is the Greatest Book of modern times on the theory of Evolution applied to Sociology tItill shortly be issued in book form by the Blue Gras Blade making a book of nearly 500 pages The author has dedicated it to Prof Ernst Haeckel and tiz great Jena philosopher has accepter the dedication I 1 200 2 OO ISubscribe Now and Save Money I All charges of postage will ho prepaid upon advance subscriptions The first chapters are now in the press and publication in book form will immediately follow its serial publication in tho blade columns columnsI Suoscribe Now Subscribe Now Ii JAMES HUGHES Lexington Ky i IJAMES A 40 And now to Editor and subscribers too I must bid you a fond adieu May happiness prosperity and love Descend upon you It like a dove McConnelsville 0 iTHE GREATEST WONDER OF THE WORLD By A Lutterman The greatest wonder of the world is that people otherwise intelligent confess that a dead Jew can take away all their sins and transgressions if they only believe that the Jew was born of a Holy Ghost Last week I noticed an illustration in the Church by a magic lantern show that a moral man could not enter into heaven unless he plunged himself into the blood of Jesus The illustra walkingu out on the moral plank extending about sixteen feet from the shore over the great lake filled with the blood of Jesus and he could seethe New Jerusalem beyond in all its splendor but his plank would goot works would not buy him a title in heavenBut But as I looked upon that great sea I saw a multitude of men and committede crimes of all shadesthieves murderers liars rascals and rogues who were all hurrying to that great city where they were being admitted as qualified citi zens And as I looked upon that picture I thought to myself This is a true illustration of modern Christianity and it but served to strengthen my belief that a Christian cannot be a moral man THE TRUST OF THE PRESENT TIME By A Lutterman In God We Trust our Dollar says But no we trust just what it pays And he who has no ready cash Will find his trust to be but trash Your house and home is to be sold When trust demands his trust in gold In God We Trust the parson says But still its true they want their pay In dollars or cents or glittering gold To buy their bread and save your soul They preach for pay and trust in you And not in Godno that wont do In God We Trust and in our guns We trust in warships of a thousand tons We trust in armies and enlarge them still To nurse our trusts but not to kill All this we do with willing hands To spread the truth in other lands In God We Trust we still obey When trust will tell us what to say True speech and press will not known When God and trust are on the throne The last farewell the trust will say In God we trust thou hast thy way it LYING ABOUT INGERSOLL By George MacDonald Last June it came to our notice that David Eugene Olson an evangelist had repeated from the pulpit and published in the religious preSs East and West the affidavit of one Arclie Berry of St Johns Oregon that his father Joehiel Berry was the brother of Mrs It Ingersoll and received the dying confession and recantation of Colonel Inger soll in the presence of his daughter Maud Ingersoll Berry also affirmed that Mrs Ingersoll was a strict Baptist and that Col Ingersoll advised his daughter to live the life of her mother Every statement in the affidavit was untrue No one named Berry was near Col Ingersoll at the time of his death Mrs Inger soIls maiden name being Parker she had no brother named Berry she was not and is not a Baptist nor did Miss Ingersoll receive any such advice from her father Colonel Ingersoll did not confess or recant and to have advised his daughter to live the life of her mother would have been to recommend that she should live that of himself since their lives were the same Mrs Ingersoll being like her husband a Freethinker FreethinkerThe The imposition was exposed in the Truthseeker of June 19 and that the facts reached Evangelist Olson there can be no doubt Nevertheless while conducting revival services in Silverton Oregon during the present month Evangelist Olson repeated the falsehoods of the affidavit and when local Freethinkers challenged its truth he brought the affiant to Silverton placed him in the pulpit and had him reiterate the statement that he is a nephew of Mrs Ingersoll and that Miss Maud Ingersoll was I present when her father made his confession to Joehiel Berry The Freethinkers next came out with a fourpage publication called the Agnostic issued as a supplement to the Silverton Leader in which our article of June 19 entitled Lying Extraordinary is given in full with other matter appropriate to the issue The Lender announces that Evangelist Olson has purchased a page in which to reply A subscriber in Silverton applied to the Truthseeker for a restatement of the denial and we are glad fo be able to forward the following My Dear Mr Mac onnld I most emphatically deny that Mr Archie Berry or his fattier heard my father recant in my presence or in the presence of any other person Neither Mr Berry nor his father is known to me or to any member of my family My father never recanted to any one and any person who says that he did or abets him in such an assertion wilfully cruelly and maliciously lies Sincerely yours MAUD INGERSOLL New York Dec 8 1909 My Dear Sir MacDonald I wish to deny most emphatically that I ever had a brother by the name of Berry or that Arch I ie Berry is my nephew My faI thers name was Parker my mothers name was Lyon and I have no knowledge of any one by the name of Berry in any branch of either family I will give the Rev David Olson one thousand dollars if he proves that Arohie Berry is my nephew and one thousand dollars more if he proves that he or his father or anyone else heard my husband recant on his deathbed or at any other time The whole recantation story is a monstrous lie Last June I exposed the Rev David Olson and I wish to declare that every time he tells his story he knows himself to be a malicious falsifier He and his tool Berry should be shunned by every reputable person EVA A INGERSOLL New York Dec 8 1909 Here is an inducement for Evangelist I Olson and the fellow Berry to furnish the proof that they are not conscientious liars If Berry is a nephew of Mrs In gersoll the fact can be easily substantiated If Mrs Ingersolls name was Berry that also is susceptible of proof If Joehiel Berry was present at Ingersolls dying bedas the affidavit states somebody must have seen him and yet three persons have solemnly affirmed before a notary that Colonel Ingersoll died sitting in a chair that only members of the family were there these being Eva A Ingersoll Sue Shark ey and Sue Farrellandwe understand that Miss Maud In gersoll was absent that Colonel is dependent upon collections and contributions Here is an oppor tunity for him to save himself the trouble of passing the hat for a few months When the Editor of the Truthseeker compiled and published Ingersoll As He Is he exhorted the readers when they heard a preacher accuse In gersoll of anything discreditable to at once challenge the statement and offer to wager one hundred dollars that the accusation could not be proved The Editor promised to cover the preachers money This promise is still good Mr Berry and the Rev Olson san have one hundred dollars from the Truthseeker on each of the propositions concerning Col Ingersoll contained in the affida vit of Berry that they will show to be true Friends Colonel Ingersoll have spoken in accents of despair possibility ity of ever persuading the preachers and other Christians to cease promulgating the volume of falsehoods they have invented about or adapted to the great Agnostic Some are so trusting as to suppose that if these evange lists once learn the falsity of their stories and if the public is made acquainted with the truth the lying will cease We indulge in no such bright anticipations The fabrications are an essential part of the body of the Christian faith and as true as the rest of it Refuting them is only a detail of the work of Freethinkers a part of the task which includes showing that the whole system is fabulous and fraudulent from its mythical creation and fall of man to its ghostparented Redeemer and thence onward through its miracles and legends creeds credentials and falsified history There have been Berrys and Olsons in every generation some of them accounted inspired and each has made his contribution to Christian mythology Those of our day are after all perhaps performing an unintended service for truth We know that they are unreliable we prove them to be untruthful we expose them in their bas eprevarications their absolute and unfounded fictions and when we have done this we are justified in asking why we should place any trust in their spiritual and religious predecessors when the evangelists ofour own day are such unmitigated liars Since we must suffer these afflictions we should turn them to profit as far as we can learning from them the lesson that the champions of religion tell what they wish were true though it be the exact opposite of the truth and that they have done so from the beginning and will do so to the ond1lhe New York Truthseekeri PATERNALISM Continued from Page 1 slack mild medium paternal and severe and so far as giving any degree of justice peace or happiness I to the majority is concerned each and all have proved signal failures The problem of a gov ermnent which shall extend these things to the majority is yet before the world paternalismhave have been thoroughly tried and we ought to recognize that we have nothing to hope for in that direction To tax all to build I houses for all would be a most unnecessary undertaking as well I as an extravagant and unsatisfactory one There is a tendency on the part of all new parties to attempt too much and drift into paternalism Government ownership of mines quarries oil wells forests and waterpower sufficient to insure against famine and of two or three transcontinental lines of transportation and communication would go far toward preventing the concentration of wealth that is proving so disastrous to general welfare By a majority vote the Socialist Party it has been decided not to include all lands in the public domain But nothing can eradicate wage slavery so quickly as the lowering of the rate of interest to 2 per cent fixing the salaries of nil publie officials so that they shall not exceed tho income of an average worker and exempting all actual homes from taxation There is no necessity for child labor laws compulsory insurance laws old ago pensions a graduated income tax or an inheritance tax Parents are not so inhuman 8S to put their children in sweatshops unless compelled to When every one is paid what ho really earns he will save a competency for old age and the world has tried out taxation and has nothing to hope from it JULIA COON.