• THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 5 1899.
R e m in is c e n c e s .
F ellow . I n f id e l s :—
Circumstances beyond my con
trol will prevent wife and I from
treating ourselves to the pleasure of
being personally present at the
Liberal University commencement,
but I believe that the Oregon
branch of the Matteson family will
be worthily represented by our
daughter Katie. By her we are
present “in spirit and in truth.”
I had been quite a number of
years an Infidel before I heard any
one'publicly speak in advocacy or
defense of anything which called in
question the fashionable supersti
tion—religion—of the day.
I believe that a disposition to
doubt accepted dogmas in religion,
politics, social problems, etc.,and to
think and investigate for them
selves is inherent in the Matteson
blood. It certainly is in my own
immediate family, and I trace thin
characteristic through the family
of my father to my revolutionary
blacksmith grandfather, who, in
the Continental armory at Peeks-
kill-on-the-Hudson wrought arms
for
“ T he old C o n tin en tals
In th e ir ragged re g im e n ta ls,”
ty. 1 have an “abiding faith” in
the works of the “brethren and sis
ters” at Silverton, and now’ I would
like to be “born again” a number
of times and live a thousand years
longer. To die is not to “gain,”
just now.
And here allow me to repeat a
“prophecy,” which I have made be
fore, and upon which I am willing
to risk my reputation for foresight.
It is that this movement will prove
to be of greater portent and wider
usefulness, and greater advance to
ward a higher plane of civilization
and enlightenment than did the so-
called “reformation” of Luther,
Malancthon, Zwingli, Calvin and
those old Freethinkers of their day,
who kicked against the ecclesiasli-
cism of the then dominant super
stition, the church of Rome.
We are today the successors of
those old time stalwarts as they
were the sucessors of the Christ and
Paul and the Apostles. And from
this institution, whose fourth open
ing you celebrate, like a prolific
mother shall come other schools,!
colleges and universities, and from
them again still others, until they!
wil) “cover the earth as the waters
cover the great deep; and all shall
be bro’t to know them, whom to
know aright is life”—worth living,
the building of a new republic; and
science and civilization shall reign,
and all the ghosts of the ancient
superstitions—holy or unholy—
shall “cover their eyeless sockets
with their fleshless hands and fade
forever from the memory of man.”
Press on, fellow Infidels; “weary
not in well doing; for in due time
ye shall reap, if ye faint not. Suf
fer not your mouths to cause your
flesh to sin; for it is better to hear
the rebuke of the wise than to list
en to the songs of fools;” and
to fight the British with; and by
inference to my old great-great
grandfather, who came impiously
from old London, England, to pi
ously help John Winthrop, Jr.,
to found the town of New London,
in New England. Those old Puri
tans were the Freethinkers of their
day, according to their light, if they
didn’t allow their kittens to play,
their boys to whistle, or men to kiss
their wives on Sunday. But I
never expected to live to the day
when I should see Infidelity, and
all that that word means, publicly
proclaimed, much less to see it tak
“ To p a tie n t faith th e prize is sure,
ing the form which it now is.
And only to th e end en d u re ;
The ‘cro ss’ shall w ear th e ‘cro w n ’.”
When I learned that Putnam
Patience, brothers, and courage!
was to lecture in Silverton, I re
“new dispensation,” now’ open
solved that the twelve miles of dis The
ing, has a better future in store
tance which separated me from than the old superstitions and priest
that town, should not prevent me rule.
“Rah! Rah! Rah! Zip! Rah!
from hearing it, for I felt that if I
Boom!
Liberal University; give us
could only hear an able man pub
licly proclaim the thought of my room!” Respectfully yours,
mind, I would be ready and will
F. S. M atteson .
ing to die. So wife and I went to
Silverton; and we heard it and
W a n ts a F in g e r in th e Pie.
more.
Was 1 willing to die? No, in D ear F r ie n d s :—
deed! I was better pleased with
I feel that I can not let such a
life than ever before. Die! Me? great and good undertaking as that
Why, I wanted to live a hundred in which you are now engaged pass
years! I never before under without giving it some assistance
stood the Christian longing for myself. I, therefore, subscribe for
the “new birth.” I, too, wanted to two shares of stock in the Liberal
be “born again,” and live another University Company and enclose
lifetime longer.
$20 for same.
And while at divers and sundry
Sincerely yours,
times my “faith has been weak,’’
I. M. M acomber .
and I have been harassed with
Lennox, 8. D.
“doubts and fears” regarding this
Secular movement, my “fears’ have
There is as much greatness of
vanished and my “faith is strong” mind in the owing of a good turn as
when I see the movement culmi in the doing of it, and we must no
nating in the form of an education more force a requital out of season,,
al institution—ft Liberal I niversi- ‘than to be wanting in it.—Senecal.
* I L LIBERAL*
I UNIVERSITY
THE
O NLY S C H O O L OF T H E
K IN D
F a c u l t y — i 8 q q - ’ o o .
J. E. HOSMER, I’h. 1)., B. S. I)., P resident ,
Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Psychology.
A . A. LEONARD, M. D., M. E.,*
Superintendent D epartm ent of Biology,
Anatomy, Physiology, Hygiene, Electricity,
M icroscopy.
THADDEUS B. WAKEMAN,
Superintendent Department of Sociology and Law,
History, Sociology, Law, Linguistics, Ethics.
MINNIE P. HOSMER, L. S.,B. S. I).,
S u p erin ten d en t P rep arato ry D ep artm en t,
History, English, Botany, Vocal Music.
PEARL W. GEER, M. G. IL, S ecretary ,
Osteology, Religion of Humanity, Lecturer.
MINNIE PRESTON,
Primary and Kindergarten.
SOPHIE WOLE,
Piano, Elocution, English Literature.
CLARA WAKEMAN,
Art.
ALICE DAVENPORT.
Short 1 i an d, J y pe wri ti ng.
LOUIS RAUCH, Assistant
Bookkeeping, Commercial Arithmetic.
LORA AMES, Assistant
Physiology, Hygiene.
KATIE MATTESON,
Librarian.
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Our New building is nearing completion, and will give
ue room for increased attendance and much better facili
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ties for teaching. For further particulars, address,
♦Dr. L eonard has consented to tak e th is c h a ir u n til some one
can he found to fill it p e rm an en tly .
P e a r l W . G e e r , S e c ’y ,
SILVERTON.0 { z 1 > >1 .
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T |,e G overnm ent nationalized th e Postal System , why not also
th e Money System ? A plan ie told by C. ELTON B L A N C H A lD
1,1 his book e n t i t l e d .................................
CX U N C LE S A M ’S
H O M IL IE S ON FIN A N C E
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P o s tp a id f o r 25 C e n ts .
All profits on th is l»ook will l>e given to th e Lil>ernl I ni\< r i ity
It should Ize in th e h an d s of everv th in k in g r»er«on. A ddress all orders to
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