5
TH E TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, AUGUST 24, isne.
T r ib u tes to In g erso ll.
-----------
pressions of disbelief in regard to
orthodox dogmas.
Ingersoll came before the general
public as an eloquent and powerful
opponent of Chiistianity as a divine
system, and of the Bible as a super-
human production, about twenty-
five years ago. He was familiar
with the ar.ti Christian writers, like
Voltaire and Paine, and he pre­
sented their arguments and objec­
tions to the divinity of the Bible
with an eloquence which, in its
way, perhaps had never been
equalled.—[B. F. Underwood.
Colonel Ingersoll was a strong,
independent character, an unique
and picturesque personality who by
his presence and speech made a
marked and widespread impression
upou the popular mind. His influ-
ence was direct and immediate,
His thought did not have to perco-
late down through several intel­
lectual strata before it reached the
masses; for it was plain simple
thought, easily grasped and pre­
sented in the most attractive man­
ner. Ingersoll was a master of sim­
Ingersoll’s brilliant mind never
ple, forceful impressive oratory.
In thought he dealt with the con- crawled in the dust. Knowing the
crete, not with the abstract, and his goddess of doubt to be the herald of
talk was full of imagery as well as truth, he followed her with implicit'
of emotion. He never tired an au- faith, and made the desert of skep-
dience with abstruse arguments, ticism blossom as the garden of
with labored processes of reaching truth. He drank from every fount-
a conclusion.
Indeed he stated aiu of learning, and died the un-
what he believed, and then often crowned king of orators. He wor-
brought an illustration or told a shipped liberty and reverenced
story to make the opposite appear right. He broadened every church
false and absurd.
in the land, and did the God of
Ingersoll was a wonderful word- love a service the world can never
painter. He was, too, bubbling forget. The God he despised was a
ov * t with humor, and saw’ the lud- god of the dark ages
[C.A.W endle.
icrous side of every subject first.
.
His wit was as keen as a razor’s
P isto n and prejudice .nay tend
edge, and he couid make his satire •« ^ nil'h ,he lu8ter of,
.I n‘
etingingly severe. He was full of g<-'.soil’s fame, but in the widening
emotion and sentiment, of poetry J ears. when “ an sha11 be “ ore
and pathos, and he could arouse 8aared thal> a book> tho6e ,hen,es
sympathy and melt his hearers to wb'<b b's 8en'us clothed in an
tears as well as excite them to un- abiding beauty will continue to
controllable laughter by amusing live and be blight. He was the
anecdotes and funny illustrations. ideal “plumed knight,” the friend
Ingersoll’s strength as an orator of liberty. He wanted to have the
• i-
- . v his simple,
izv epigram- ( s 0,0
1 ave know t hat he
was in
his wit,
. w as also a man,
. , language, his
kid pathos
v.nd.nc and
««a and that the 1 price of his liberty /
matic
r sarcasm, ««a
It was he
power of
and in Via»..;»»
keeping could not
. be too high.
°
... .
„di.onukxr« who took Frederick
Douglass
to his
eanily w ithin the com prehension "
.
6
and on the average intellectual level °«n home ... Peoria, when all other
of his audience. Ingersoll did not d”°rs were ' ur" ed agaln6t hlm‘-
have originality of thought which [«<"• Reverdy Ransom,
estranges a teacher from the multi-
As an earnest believer in the
lude, at first; but originality of ex- djvjnjty of our Lord, I come to pay
pression which attracts, gains an my tribute to one who was an in­
immediate hearing and commands spired believer in the universal
attention.
brotherhood of man. We are not
Ingersoll took common place here to judge of his conscience and
thought and put it in a dress of his creed. we only know of his kind-
own, which made it appear new. negg and his sympathy. As man,
The creation of his mind was al­ citizen, and patriot he dwells in the
ways the phraseology. For cen- memory of every man of these
uries men had repeated the ex-
Washington, Lincoln,Grant,
pression, “From
from nothing,
nu.umg, nothing Logan, and Ingersoll are the
«
«
____Iv
ArvOt*
comes
It was reserved for Ingei- mjghty group of our great dead.
1 Vi considered
Cl il orpfl in
. . . . had . a friend
•• 1 in
• T-.1
»oil to say, . “Nothing
in All
Robert . G. T_
In­
the light of a raw material is a de­ gersoll. He measured manhood by
cided failure.”
its true worth to its fellows or its
Ingersoll’s effectiveness as a pop- country. if he found fault with
ular orator was helped by what, for
exi9ting order of things it was
the philosophic thinker, is a de- because he loved man more than
feet—lack of consecutiveness, of creed pie was as honest as any
continuity, of completeness in the man jn his sincerity and belief, and
treatment of his subject. Moving for ap his many talents his name is
rapidly from one subject, or from wr¡^en upon the imperishable
one part of a subject to another he gcroy of time.—[C. P. Johnson,
left no chance for monotony or de­
The
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cline of interest.
He was the greatest poet since ,
f
Ingersoll, although the son of a Shakespeare, and the most^power |
rt
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,
„,QÜ Q ful champion of the people we have
Congregational clergymen, was a eyer bad He had a warm heart
skeptic and a Freethinker from boy- where warm hearts are seldom
hood. When he was a small lad found — beneath popularity and
he shocked his playmates by ex-,fame. [John McGovern.
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SILV ER TO N .
&
OREGON-