Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1897)
FIELD NOTES. I meet and have a pleasant conver sation with m any friends, am ong whom are Mr. ami Mrs. Naylor, Mr. and Mrs. Coleman, Mr. and Mrs. Mirch, and others. The next morning friends call and we pass the time very pleasantly until time for departure arriv es,an d I go hack to Eugene, where I take the train for Roseburg. K ate D e P eatt . LITTLE POINTS. “ O h ! G ran d m a, you d o n ’t know th e awful tim e We had in o u r back y ard . My dog and J o h n n ie ’s h ad a d read fu l tight, I never prayed so h a r d .” “ T hai'.- rig h t; y o u ’re G ra n d m a ’s.own sw eet, precious 1 m ,v; Your little p ray er repeat. W hat did you say ?” “ W hy, G ra n d m a d ear, ofYouree I prayed my dog would l>eat.” —Selected. Monday finds me in Eugene, the “ City of Knowledge.” The U niver- eity of Oregon opens today and the streets are thronged with guy» laughing girls and the more serious minded students. The sight brings hack pleasant memories and also pleasant hopes, f earnestly look forward to the tim e w h e n S ilv e r to n NEW S AND NOTES. If “ God loveth a cheerful giver,” will present such a spectacle, and The Liberal U niversity will open why arc not the m inisters who get the Liberal University colors wave big salaries noted for giving? triu m p h an tly in the breeze. I c a ll W ednesday, November 3rd. “The pope is infallible,” says the upon some friends of the cause and Work on the dining hall is now then take a rest before lecture time. being pushed more rapidly than Catholic. “ The hihle is infallible,” says the P rotestant. “ Scier.ce is In consequence of the opening of ever before. our best guide,” says th e S-cul u ist. the university, the audience is not Please send us the nam es of your so large as coidd be expected, Secular friends, so we m ay send W hy isn’t the whole “ word of however, those present gave undi sam ple copies of the P orch to them . God” tau g h t in the orthodox S un vided attention and we had a good There will he a regular business day schools? Is it possible th a t meeting. 1 understand the Liberal meeting of the Silverton Secular God isn ’t alw ays good com pany for sentim ent is not very strong in E u church at Liberal H all, Sunday, | young people? gene, and quite a num ber are pre W rite certain portions of “ G od’s Oct. 3rd. at 2 o’clock p m. vented from taking any active part Erank S. Bowers of S m F ran word” on a postal card; try to send in the work on account of their it ihrough the mail, and you will business. Now this is not wh.it it cisco, a sketch a rtist on the E xam i be arrested and perhaps sent to should be. The civilization of the ner, ami a cousin of our business prison. W hy? nineteenth century should be far m anager, has been visiting with us “ Keep vour shop ami your shop enough advanced to allow men at this week. Dr. A. A. Leonard of H untington, will keep you,” is a good saying of least freedom of thought. This is a wise m an. This world is our not the true spirit of the American. Ore., who occasionally contributes shop, and we should not he bother W hen the founders of our govern articles to the T orch and money to ing about an im aginary one in the ment succeeded in their struggle for the U niversity, m ade us a w ry *kv. freedom they declared that man pleasant call last week. God was obliged to have a blood A splendid article for the “ Pro should worship according to the dictates of his own conscience, ami moters of Scientific W isdom ” ha- atonem ent in order to keep him th at noreligiousqualification should been received from Eliza Mowry from letting his children go to an be required to hold any office; yet, Bliven, too late for publication. It eternal hi ll, and now’ those that don’t believe in the atonem ent are I regret to say, men are persecuted will appear next week. going there anyw ay. “ 0 , how he on account of their religious opin The m onum ent to he placed over ions, and no office-seeker dares ex the grave of Katie Kehtn Sm ith, at loves! *’ press his honestconvictions if he does W agner, O re g o n , has been ordered, Two C lasses of C rim inals. not uphold C hristianity. Friends, and will be placed in position soon. it is time this was done away with. We are not informed as to what thei E ditor T orch of R eason : It is tim e that character and real m onum ent cost. R egarding the tilt of the A lbany worth should take the place of pre It is possible for every reader of college professor (I wish his nam e tentions. The church will, as in this paper to send us a new sub had been given) with Miss D ePeatt, the past, move onward only when it scriber. If you will do this it will on the occasion of her lecture there is forced t«> do so, and let us force greatly help the paper and the t h e 21st inst., while I think the them to take this step, so th at work. Ju s t try once, and see Imw lady sustained her side of the case men can he really free. easy it is to get us one subscriber. W ednesday m orning they send very w’ell, yet a different sort of Miss D ePeatt writes from S o u th for me from Coburg, and I enjoy a ern Oregon th at she has secured answ er appears to me suitable. pleasant drive through the country. I’he Rev. Professor’s fam ily This is a farm ing country, and a tu o new students for the U niversity, splendid one it is, too. Old Mother and th a t one of them will come to were, of course, all sm art and re Silverton with her when she re spected men and women. It is E arth is assum ing her most lovely turns. T hat is right; we are going the otiier fellow who isn ’t respect gown. The leaves are passing to have a good school this year and through all the varying tin ts from able. But if th e Rev. Professor’s i the more itu d en ts the better. green to a golden brown, and I join neighbor’s children were a had lot, Where, oh where is our editor? j and grew up with the sam e su r with the poet in saying th at a u tum n is the grace and poetry of the No word of him has reached this roundings am i instructors which year. I am received at Mrs. Be office for nearly a week. We hope his fam ily had, it appears to me Lane’s pleasant horn«*, and meet Mr. he has not had another one of those th at the great influence of C hris John Diamond, the old veteran in dream s like the one described on tianity was shown the wrong wav. the ranks of F reethought. Mr t lie editorial page, and turned into Why d id n ’t the influence of C hris Diamond has been in Oregon for a fish and sailed off through the tianity m ake them sm art and respectable like him ? It seems over fifty years, and despite his age, briny waters of the Pacific. We have for »ale a work by C. to me th a t th e great moral influ eighty-three, his mind i- still vigor ous ami active. He is a great Elton B lanchard entitled “ Uncle ence of C h ristian ity m ade a failure. reader and is a subscriber to nine Sam ’s Hom ilies on F inance.” All But the bad fam ily did not, nor different periodicals, am ong which the proceeds arising from the sale could not, grow’ up with the sam e are the T orch of R eason , the Bos of the book are to go to the Liberal surroundings and in stru cto rs as ton Investigator and the T ruth- University. The au th o r is a Secu the Rev. Professor, for they «lid not seeker. Mr. Diamond had made larist and people on all sides of the have the sam e parents, and did not arrangem ents for th<* lecture most money fence should read what he grow up in the sam e household. thoroughly, and by eight o’clock has to sav. If for no other reason, And it appears th at the Rev. Pro the hall is completely tilled with buy a hook to help along the U ni fessor takes no account of heredi an audience of intelligent people versity. Price 25c. tary difference .»f character, or in tellect. or condition in life, and fam ily environm ent. Therefore, his argum ent isn’t worth serious consideration. But taking the Rev. 4’rofess<»r on his own ground, if these people died in jail, it is infer able th a t ihev were ra th e r low in the m oral scale, ebpecially as this Rev. Professor d id n ’t like them . The “ I am holier th an th o u ,” u s u ally is ap p aren t in these Revs. And another answer to this Rev. Professor, more severe perhaps, hut none the less corr ct I deem, occurs to me. One lot died in jail, the other lot took up the C hristian m in istry, and this one became a teacher and a college professor. T he ja il birds probably com m itted a “ to rt,” in law parlance; a trespass upon other people’s rights. T h at was an im moral it v, also a crim e, by statu te. Was the other more m oral and less crim inal, de fact«»? L*-t us see: The one trespasses on property rights of people, the other on t h e i r right to he tau g h t facts. The one crim e is mad«^ punishable by statu te law, the other is not. The one trespasser is deprived of personal liberty and branded with infam y; the other is allowed the largest lib erty, not only of person, but of speech, to m isrepresent and m align those whose efforts protect him in the very liberty which he is not slow to abuse. And he is honored, and enabled to eat bread (and pie and cake) in the sweat of other people’s faces, and is clothed in broadcloth and “ fine linen,” as though he was a public benefactor. The one trespasses upon the rights of grow nup people and takes the risk. The other trespasses upon the in tellectual rights of helpless and confiding children, deceiving them as to facts, and filling th eir recep tive m inds with a false and degrad ing superstition, to the end th a t he and his class m ay dodge th e curse ihey tell us was placed upon all m ankind through our remote a n cestor, one Adam. W hich of the two are more m oral, or more h a rm ful to society? The isolated and one-sided instances which these Rev’s, are so fond of giving us, prove nothing, of course. They only go io show th e poverty of their resources in trying to bolster tip their pet superstitions, an d en able them to hold on to th eir fat jobs. But they should board up their own windows before they throw m any stones at F reeth in k ers’ houses. M. U n iversity Fund. Tin* am ount given in this fund is actual cash paid in. regardless of w hat has been prom ised: Previously acknowledged, $410.80 W. M. R ichards, Oregon, 1.00 C. E. Glaze, “ 3.50 J. E. Johnson, “ 5.00 M utual Im provem ent Society 5.00 MATERIAL, ETC. Previously acknowledged, E. J . T hurm an (w ork) A A. Leonard “ 1228.50 6.00 10.00