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Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, December 26, 1909.
Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, December 26, 1909. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1909 blu1909122601 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, December 26, 1909. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1909 $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 Ai i j 4 if i r BLUE GRASS BLADE I t1Y iixViiij aLEXINGTON KENTUOKY SUNDAY DECEMBER 26 1909 Number 5 Vlij t r 1a 1CkBEUEF InAnother Life Hereafter and Its 4Influence Here and Now t41 i JtiBt ann ng Severance human jace is greatly con ned over he question of immortal tt ity fa idloniJbis subject of continued- r and everlasting life beyond the 5 grave we find the basis for every a y rchurch in Christendom Were it not t afar this euefwl1icb the church and always makes strenuous ef I forts to keep alive it would have mighty little power over the minds of the masses and its ability to tyran offfJil lieves in everlasting life in what is called a spirit world and in spirit i aormtis the perpetual abode of hopes and fears He hopes for joy and t pleasure without end but he fears t that he may get something else The crtUrcht control restrain and env slave him holdsoutrewards and tlJJ l anincentive to do and bcjvhat she wishes and if a man t n be bade to accept her doctrines itR y true he can be coaxed or driven at 5iii The basis of all fear lies in the questionfsttnmortality rt satisfactoryhVid doctnne It is a doctrine whichorig inalij had desire fonts parent and everykindr iJrcuriosityReason OOetfortoestalShiss1it1e Iftfthat some invisible and intangible ement endowed with power and con sciousness survives the destruction of our physical bodies for there is nothing reasonable in tho theory or probahh In Ih nature uf tilings We know nothing cf power cm soiousnms until our niioarnucc iu physical beinjs furl far a bi ration goes that power and sciousness found in flesh and blood is totally destroyed with our last and final breath Reason deals with no thing but facts when forming conclu sions so faith is brought in where reason stops and with faith an ef fort is made to prove immortality But faith never yet provedanything for it has no positive side with facts to sustain it andall its work is duo to the emotional movements of the imagination The pictures of immortal life which faith has parented shadworld Not an idea has ever been advanced relative to another exist ence that was not a duplicate of something connected with this life for there was never yet an imagination that could build a spiritual theo ory without a physical basis to start from That mind never had exist ence which could go step beyond natures reveahnnts in the formation of theories relative to a spirit world and spirit life Every description of heaven and hell produced by inspired or uninspired writers has been based on something seen in this world and our friends the Spirit ualists who talk glibly of the sum merland have got nothing but a spiritual prototype of the tenacious sphere with spirit land spirit waters spirit trees spirit houses spirit food spirit clothes and everything that necessity und comfort require hero and now The summerland us its name in dicates is never visited by Jack Frost and snow and ice have there no place because they are considered undesirable As tho imagination builds this spirit orMand these spirit homes it creates nothing that is not wanted and desirability is as you will invariably observe founded on our likes and dislikes here and now The Indians heaven is a hap f w py hunting ground where in spirit form he can chase and kill game throughout the endless ages of eter nity for having no longer ambition in this life ho is satisfied with these in another mid all his ideas of the world to come are the outgrowth of the material things that have given him pleasure in this one The heaven of the orthodox psalm singer who wants an eternal Sunday in the presence of Gadand Jesus would be hell for the Indian so we see how essential it is for every one who be lieves in a spirit world and spirit life to construct lown heaven and form of amusements The heaven that will suit any man must as a title give him what he has enjoyed the most in this world andas earth life scenes and occu pations are varied and different different localities heaven must pre sent all these conditions again or be a failure to some The summerland of the Spiritualist who does not like cold weather and who wants fruit and flowers all the year round would not suit the Esquimau whose hab its and customs have been formedon different lines and as we look atj these facts ire see more and more clearly whatffolly and nonsense are put when people talk about another world and its probabil iThesurlof life are all that eve r ro ades forimmortala ity any one supposeathat troubles and care would attend exist ence in another world mighty few would care to resume tho burdens laid down here and the laying down of which are termed II finding restin most obituary notices and tomb stone inscriptions- I believe this cultivated desire for immortality would if attended with the thought that suffering and hard ship followed us into the next world be almost repulsive and for this rea son those who hold it never look for ward to anything but rest and pleas ure over there over there We like music here so heaven is going to bo full of it and just so with all the sensual pleasures in spirit form No one seems to want a heav en that does not duplicate all the pleasures of this life and when the Hottentot got up a painting of that muchtalkedof locality he is said to havo enclosed it yith a fence made of sausages while the center was cupied with a foundation that spurt ed pot pie The Mohammedan likes to eat about as well as the Hotten tot but his idea of paradise is one where nymphs and houris are the chief attractions and so taste and desire run the rounds of variation as hope and fear deal with a spirit existence But when we see the imperfections of this world and note the fact that good and evil are closely associated in all things by what course of logic can we arrive at the conclusion that good alone will prevail in tIll next world if there is OIw1 We cannot find the slightest reason for supposing that if we do live again life will have no troubles A heaven built entirely upon joy and goodness owes its crnation to mortal mans aversion to sorrow and evil and while such a place has no exist ence except in his imagination he can built to suit his fancy und then connect belief with it This is precise ly what has always been done and the man who believes in immortality makes his lown mental picture of heaven the same as he creates a god to worship and pray to We know no more about a real heaven and a spirit world than we knew about this world and this life before physical birth and thoughj people persist in believing in such cMl Inb rp things they seek in vain for the dence to prove the reality We can not even in Spiritualism the only thing that claims to present proof find anything conclusive and satis factory We stand absolutely in the dark as far as knowledge is concern ed and Science while able to veal much concerning natures modes and methods of generating life can not give us the least information as to what follows death One can lieve what he likes on the subject but let its never lose sight of the fact that belief and knowledge are two separate and distinct affairs and only knowledge has anything to do with facts and realities Those who want or think they want an endless existence seldom stop to think what hose words imply so it may be well to look a moment at that feature of immortality When Jonathan Edwards wanted to give sinners a realizing sense of the time they must spend in hell if they went that way he used to illustrate eternity by saying If a snail which you all know is not a very rapid traveller should take a grain of sand from this earth and go with it to the moon and then come back and take another grain and repeat the trip until it had taken the last grain on the earth that tremendons and incomprehensible period of time would be as nothing to the years to is an appalling thought to the human mind whether we contemplate an abode in heaven or hell and with consciousness ever awake and active as we are told it would be even psalm sinning and the companionship of God and Jesus would become stale and monotonous We sleep onethird of our time in this world and are oblivious to all things that portion of our lives but even then we are at times afflicted with ongwe and satiety Icannot as Tjrrowoldejnd see more of life conceive of any or condition of consciousness that should care to experience forever and forever The eternity that lies behind us was pass ed very agreeably for we knew noth ing about it and if personal choice could have anything to do with the matter should prefer to pass the next one there In my opinion con fidently expressed that is just what we all will do As far as we can or probe into the mysteries ofna ture a dreamless sleep is the end of every form of sentient life or con sciousness and what is there to ter rify or rouse regret in this thought Nothing to produce terror and only sentiment to stir regret The unman race is born but to die and the tramp tramp tramp of untold millions as with rhythmic tread they beat the pathway to the grave is a neverending sound on the surface of this old earth But beyond the grave all is silence and oblivion there draws a curtain through which no mans vision has yet penetrated The surging waves of an everchanging civilization still beat the shores of time as men come and go but the enigma of life remains unsolved and theHtiddle of the universe awaits the mind that can read it But what is life anyway I will let the unknown poet reply Life is a play whose fickle players merely greet And go and leave the story incomplete A bud that opens brilliant at the dawn Flings sweet perfume a moment anti gone A breath between a cradle and a bier The blending of a smile a sob a tear It comes and goes on wings unseen a germ That grows to fllla grave and feed a worm Every human life is a tragedy be cause it ends in death and nothing else can be made of it But what is the use of being disturbed over the inevitable Let us all get all of the joy we can out of existence and cease to worry over death and what fol lows for no one knows and it does not matter With this view of life the church can neither inspire fear nor force contributions to sustain a fat and lazy priesthood and it gives one a fearless independence that no thing can equal in making life endur able under all circumstances- Let us do our own thinking be lieve nothing that is not based on demonstrable facts and we can defy all the powers of priestcraft and su perstition and bid defiance to every terror they seek to plant in the man mind Let us live and die by the light of reason and neither fear nor superstition will have power to reachor disturb us Las Angeles Calif THE BIRTHPLACE OF BURNS By Robert G Ingersoll Though Scotland boasts a thousand r names Ofpatriot king and peer The noblest grandest of them all Was loved and cradled here Here lived the gentle peasant prince The loving cotterking Compared with whom the greatest lord Is but a titled thing Tis but a cot roofed in with straw A hovel made ofclay One door shuts out the snow and One window greets the day And yet I stand within this room And hold all thrones in scorn For here beneath this lowly thatch Loves sweetest bard was born Within this hallowed hut I feel Like one who clasps a shrine When the glad lips at last have touched The something deemed divine And here the world through all the years BAs long as day returns Thy tributo of its ov e and tears Will pay to Robert Burns A JUVENILE OPINION Since mas got Christian Science we boys are dead in luck No lint old mustard plasters upon our chests are stuck She never puts the ginger upon the stove to boil Nor doses up us children with that old castor oil She just says Look here children- no need for you to squall You think your stomachs aching Theres no such thing at all Since mas got Christian Science she doesnt use whip To punish us but simply makes puck ers in her lips And thinks and thinks right at us until she near goes blind And then she says shes whipped us by whipping in her mind That is the absent treatment but anyone can see That it doesnt make connections with such a boy as me Rut panow he is different When hes at hone hell say You children best be careful and not be bad today You just believe were careful cause pa he says that he Will give us switching science hot from the willow tree Andas for absent treatment why he says with a wink Ill tend to all the switchin ma can stand by andthink Baltimore American NATURES LAW By natures law we live and by na tures law we die as it is they which hold the stars in their eternal courses and sends the planets rolling forever around the sun A saint may be drowned at sea as easily as a sinner for nature knows no partiality and is no respecter of persons Swearing or cussing will allay a storm as quickly as a psalm or a hymn and lees not call for a collection This is a very religious ngefor we always have the poor with us INCONSISTENCIES Orthodoxy Cannot Stand When the Human Mind Begins to Look Around and ty Ask Questions t By Josephine K Henry- It was smooth sailing for orthodoxy until the human mind began to this day there is some thinking and bold questioning and there is great unrest in Zion All this is entirely the fault of tho church for if all the doubts and contentions rest upon the eternal rock of truth it should demand vestigation and settle them Science and Reason are clamoring for fair treatment and common sense refuses to accept anything else There are all sorts of ministerial associations but one should be form ed of the ablest clerics and its name should be the Reconcilers whose duty should be to reconcile the con tradictions explain impossibili ties and absurdities in the Holy Bi ble and remove the doubts of the Grand Army of skeptics who are searching for and thirsting for the truth Tho preacher tells us that God is NOT the author of evil and preach from Deuteronomy 224 to prove it A God of truth and without iniqui ty just and right is he but the in spired Isaiah 147 says I make peace and create evil The Christian claims that God created ALL things and that the devil is the author of evil If God created all things then He must have created the devil then logically OodJa the author gfevil Romans 211 says There is no respect of persons with God but in Roman 913 it says Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated yet the history of these two characters show Esau to have been a superior gentleman in his time and Jacob the most despicable character in the Holy Bible whose progeny swarm in Chris tian civilization today If I were going to select from the human race a lovable man I should tell Jacob to go way back and sit down Ezekiel 1832 says I have no pleasure in the death of him that di eth saith the Lord God and the 114 Psalm says The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works I should think the people of Galveston and Martinique would think Jeremiah 1314 knew what ho was talking about when he said I will not pity nor spare nor leave mercy but them Ezekiel 1820 sa sThe son shall not bear the iniquity of the father and Exodus 205 says I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation Romans 213 says The doers of the law shall be justified and the 20th verse of the next chapter says By the deeds of the law there shall uo flesh be justified Job 79 says As cloud is con sumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more while First Corinthi ans 1532 says The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised Ecclesiastes 720 says For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not The inspired Solomon wrote that yet John contradicts the wisest man and says Whatsoever is born of God dothnot commit sin he cannot sin because he is born of God He that committeth sin is the devil And in John first chapter and 8th verse it says If we say that have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us Now it is up to the Reconcilers to determine whether Solomon or John is telling the truth It is a logical conclusion that tthe truth is not in lone of them and that one of them is a deceiver If we can believe Da ti J rid the man after Gods own heart when he says All men are liars Solomon and John are both in the list though one may be a bigger one than the other and David maygrMpL the palm from both of them I never thad much faith in Davids integrity chimneyito r the roof of the house and between the veracity of Solomon David and ifev John there is little choice As Sol 1 omon had a thousand wives he of t necessity must have been an accommplished liar Max ORell 4 It All men deceive their wivesttad y I guess Max knows what he is talkpi- ng about Ifa man with one wife S llhndmust of necessity become the champs r on liar of the race for we are alit creatures of our environment a d4n it does seem to me if I were a maty environed by a thousand wives that t I would not only be a liar but would be forced to become a highwayman a pirate a traitor a thief a bush whacker and a boxer all in one kSolomon was always an interesting J character to me and when I get to f1writing about him I never know how t to round torIt is a dead certainty T that Solomon had an interestingrfamily Of course the 1000 Mrs Solomons were all church members t and lived according to Scripture commands as he did The Bibletold J of the ladc of Ati lnoidcas frim ily If they would know anything they must learn of their husbands atfhome Think of a thousand women want ing to know a lot of things andone poor man expected to educate them and square things up with them I cant help having sympathy for Solomon and if I had been in his place I would have taken passage in a balloon for heaven where women are not admitted Solomon though indulging in some inconsistencies made a name for himself but he paid dearly for it but as a thousand women gottthemsalves up in widows weeds t wept at his departure from matri t monial bliss to heavenly ecstasy no wonder his memory is kept green 1 But I believe I was writing about Bible inconsistencies and here is one t of them If God created all things in six days and these six days now known to have been six long creative periods or eons nreIbeings are to rest only at the end every six eons no wonder the facturing machine is running the i man machine out of the market If this is so the holy Sabbath with its t Sunday schools sermons and church connections is an imposition on the Bible statement that the age of Methuselah was 969 years and that he died a few years after the flood If that is true where was Methuselah during the flood He was not in the ark He may have been an expert swimmer or he may have waded out The Bible is silent on this point There are a few thou sand other inconsistencies in the Holy Bible but I have not the space to notice them here If the defenders of the infallible Bible can reconcile its inconsistencies NOW is an opportune time to begin Here endcth the first lesson The announcement that angel were seen to rise from a iteM in Kentucky and float off into space arouses a suspicion that some cf the Colonels have been indulcin in the dangerous practice of not taking their drinks straightDetroit Free Press Look at the label on your paper and send in your subscription at once nky J i BLUE GRASS BLADE FOUNDED Dy CHARLES CHILTON MOORE And edited by him until his death February JAMES E HUGHES Proprietor r 126128 Uorth Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky P Box SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall postpaid 125 pr yr In advance Five new yearly subscribers at one re mittance cents each Foreign subscriptions postpaid J201 per year ADVERTISING RATES One Inch single column Insertion cents one month or four Insertions 100 six months 500 one year 800 Quarter column Insertion 200 one month 400 six months 2000 one year 3000 Halt column whole column or larger advertisements at special rates upon plication ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Blade will be discontinued at the expiration of the term for which the subscription has been paid up In advance The address slip on tie paper will show subscribers the date of expiration of subscription Back numbers or numbers omitted will be sent If asked for upon renewal case of discontinuance SHOULD ANY SUBSCRIBER change his or her address advise ths office giving both old and new address as desired THE OFFICE of publication of the Blnde Is at 126128 North Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky to which all Free thinkers will be given a hearty wel come at Lexington Kentucky as second clas mailing matter ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO JAMES E HUGHES Box Lexing ton Kentucky THE PRICE OF THE BLADE With this issue the price of The Blade is reduced to ONE DOLLAR per year or in clubs of ten to one or separate addresses to 50 Cents each per year This is done in order 11 to carry out the idea of the founder of the paper whose great desire was to make The Blade a popular paper oflBladetceived now will entitle the sender to The Blade to January 1911 The Blade is grateful to its many for their kind words of en nt when it was learned Jifriends publication of the notice of was untrue The publi while intended to injure The did more to harm the cause it represents than to hurt the paper This was one of the rare instances where the falsehood did not travel too fast for the truth to overtake it The following card appeared in The Truthseeker for December 18th and has doubtless been sent to other Freethonght publications B G B SUSPENDED Editor of The Truthsecker Will you grant me space to an nounce to Blade subscribers as far as possible and to Freethinkers erally that the Blue Grass Blade wino longer be published after the issue of December 12th 1009 On the 2nd of January 1910 I will mail the first issue of The Rationalist a weekly Freethought paper as its suc cessor fillirtg out all unexpired paid up subscriptions and assuming all its subscription obligations The edit orial announcement which I had written for publication in The Blade concerning its demise has been pur posely suppressed and the paper dropped without slightest notice to its subscribers Should nnv of its subscribers fail to hear from me I would be pleased to have them com municate with me The discontinu pnce has come over my protest and t l without good cause or reason and IIdo not propose that the paper die such an ignominious death John R Charlcsworth Editor Lexington Iirr Nothing has been sail or done in The Blade office that would justify such publication Some time ago the publisher of The Blade finding the expenditures were exceeding the receipts looked about for a way to reduce the former The author of the above card had been employed for some time as an editorial writer on The Blade lIe had no connection with the paper whatever other than as nn employe Two propositions were submitted to him One to edit The Blade in its present shape as he had done for years before at the salary he had received then the other to place his editorialwriting against the publishers expenses and share the profits equally Both of these propositions he declined He submitted a counter proposition that we present him with the paper which we of course declined He suggested that we stop the paper and give him the mailing list which was refused Nothing was left to do but secure another editorial writer which we have done About The Blade there hangs a mistthe breath of the spirit of Charlie Moore and that mist shall never be dispelled by an alien uncontrolled and unchecked The Blade will go on and go forward To it are rallying daily its former friendsmen and women who love fair play and hate the stab in the darkwho resent the underhand methods to kill the paper The American Rationalist Association could bs engaged in better business than attempting to bring about the downfallof the paper that brought the Association into existence The Blade is not the mouthpiece or organ of any association or any society It was established by its founder to present and contend for a cause he believed to be right and while in times past it may have gone out after other teachings it is gratifying to know that it is now renTHE TRUTH NEEDS BUT ONE CREED If you cannot save a man I do not see why you need to damn him Ifa lie would help man and the truth injure him is it right or wrong to lie Perhaps no man is good enough to damn another and no man bad enough to be damned Is it not time that the church was compelled to prove its assertions or else to acknowledge that it cannot do so It has gone on telling its lies century after century and though challenged time and again it has steadily ignored its critics and brazenly repeated its stale false hoods It should be made to stop lying or to show that it is telling truthWe pleased to see that many persons are waking up to the fact that all the kingdoms and monarch ies of Christendom rest upon the Bible for their authority to rule and oppress the people and that if the results of modern scientific discoveries held sway as they should every throne in Europe would crumble to pieces It is true that nearly every great tyranny and wrong in the world is a Bible product A singular incident is relatedof William Jones Sidis the youngest freshman in the history of Harvard College He is eleven years old At the age of seven he was a terrible thelsclloolers young put ears because he explained he didnt believe in God He retains this lief today It will not he astonishing if this wonderful boy proves to be the greatest Freethinker of his areas he is already the most remarkable intellectual prodigy the world has ever knownIJK W in the Truth Seeker Let us trust that the day will soon come when intellect will stand upon the grave of orthodox faith Then and not till then can Americans be come a band of brothers the concern of one being the concern of all Only nn Atlas could sustain the world up nn his mighty shoulders but we have none in these days equal to the task Religion and politics have combined to curse the world and the former deserves abolition the latter a thor ough reformation Thousands of heathen in foreign lands are minus bibles and thous ands of heathens at home are without bread Is not bread of better help than bibles could possibly be In spite of this any fraud can build little turnpike of his own alleged aI be leading direct to heavens t and he can soon gather about him a crowd of sanctified nonentities who will soon strive to heat him at his own game This is the way of orthodox religion and it does not appear to be capable ofchange We want men and women to work in humanitys cause We arc not un der any obligation to find a heaveiil grace for every false god that is shattered by Freethought We rlo to furnish saint for every sinner held up to scorn and tempt For every old falsehood fell ed to earth a new truth will arise and in this we find our greatest work Let us make up an army of brave men and women who are willing to engage in freedoms fight and then the work will jump by leaps and bounds RELIGION AND ILLITERACY Where any religion reigns abso lutely and particularly where the Christian religion has reigned the longest and directed the morals and education of the people there will be found today the greatest per tent age of illiteracy and vice This one fact and argument alone is sufficient to refute ee1 argument advanced by the clergyior the acceptance and maintainance of the Christian faith According to a late statistical re port Russia Roumania and Senna the most religious countries in the world are the least civilized the rate of illiteracy being eighty to every hundred of the population Other rates are as follows Roman Catholics Spain 65 to every 100 Italy 48 to every 100 Hungary 43 to every 100 Austria 39 to every 100 Mixed Catholic and Protestant Ireland 21 to every 100 France 14 to every 100 Belgium 14 to every 100 Holland 10 to every 100 Protestant England 8 to every 100 United States 8 to every 100 Scotland 7 to every 100 German Empire 1 to every 100 Scandinavian none These are interesting figures Ten years ago the rate of illiteracy in Spain was 77now it is 65 The reason for the difference is evident The power is shifting into the hands of the people who are stoning priests and monasteries and clamoring for education and equal rights The voice of the infidel can now he heard in Spain without fear of the rack and the Iron Virgin Ten years ago the rate in Italy was 66 Now it is 48 The reason here is also plain Freethinkers are now in control of the government Brunos statue stands unmolested facing the Vatican An enforced tol eration exists and the pressure of the outside world is too great for superstition to strangle knowledge The ratio of illiteracy is materially lessened in Catholic Ireland and France principally due to Infidel and Protestant invasion The Infidel rules France today therefore the government tI Republic and the Jesuit schools which keep children ignorant and train them against the Republic are being closed The rate of illiteracy in Germany where Rationalism most prevails is remarkably low In the United States it is still hilrh8 to 100 which is due to immigration and lack of schools among the negroes in the South The normal rate ionly three to the hundred Scandinavia which is mixed Protestant and Infidel has the lowest rate The country and people like Scotland are poor and they realize more acutely the advantages and rc ccssities of education Climate must be taken into consid eration however accounting for religion and illiteracy being homogen eous to each other All the dominant superstitions of the world have sprung from the tropics where the emotions and pas sions govern Just as they have spread to tIle Temperate Zone where the faculty of reason dominates these superstitions weaken disinte irate and are finally merged into Rationalism in all its many and vari outs degrees Any one having but an ordinary knowledge of the worlds history is able to perceive that just as men have developed the Temperate Zone and advanced intellectually they have cast aside the tropical superstition which their forefathers brought with them It has been the struggle of a thousand years and it is not yet completed But the intorcommnni cation of nations is bound in time to dethrone Christianity The evolution of the wheel from the segment of a log to the mighty iron castings which bear onr ponderous locomotives hns done more tooducatc and civilize the world and bring its plO pIe together and soften down the hate and asperities of nations and religions than all the gods nail sa iora and popes that ever existed Religions have always kept nations truspiug at enchothel throats while slcam and electricity have brought interchange and travel ant flue gradually broadening and merg ing the human family into one con nuinity of interests Religion can no longer dominate tho world for the simple reason that work in secret B anrllstatepublic opinion of the whole world and against this they cannot stand THE SOUL By John F ClarkeIChristian You have Atheist Where did I get it C From God the Giver of nil thingsA Thnt is a dead easy answer n deep question is it fact or guess It is fact A Show me so that I may be wiseIC How could you have it if God did not give it to you A Then can not show it to meC You know that you have rea Sure I use it in my business C Well God gave you that A Some one told you for you never sucked that out of your thumb in infancy C Well if God did not give it to me who or what did A Echo answers Where C This is a serious subject A It is deeper than a deep well but I am the one to be made wise turn on the current- C You could not have reason without a soul A You say so prove it C 0 anybody of ordinary intel ligence will admit that A As you stand in with Omnipotence and I am not up to snuff on this point you must enlighten my darknessC proving it all there is a soul and God being the only one who can give a I have proved my case A You have not quite convinced me Has a dog a soul C Of cots se not A Does not a dog reason C It uses the instinct that God gave it A Instinct is not reason C No A What is it C A gift from God A Did God tell yon C Not in so manywords hilt He prompted me to believe it that is He tells me secretly- A Then He prompts me not o believe it C No the devil does that A Then the devil must be the Wisest Guy C No lie allures you from the true path of knowledge A Did he tell you C No butt God said so A To you C Yes His word says so A As my friend the Devil prompts me to take no stock in that Wordwe will have to cut out the WordC is an awful risk A Iam up against it you may be a sinner in deep water butt stick to talk as one on the dry bank talk ing to your text C The soul must return to God who gives it A Then He will get the whole bunchC But He will judge them A How do you know that He will judge them C Does not the soul leave the body at death A Yon may search me I never saw one leave C It docs not remain therefore it goes out and it goes to God A When I light this match the fire horns and then goes out Where does it go C That is one of Gods mysteries A And your soul racket is also n mysteryC onlrl not think as you do For all the world A I am afraid that your head is not built that way inherent pYiost mon has dried up your thought cells like oil useless things in nature when not used they drop out C I would rather take Gods word than manes A You nov your money and you lake your choice but thought you were so well up on science that you could show me how the soul came in and goes out C If yon pray with faith and believe von will see things as they ore or if you will take the word of me who does do so you will have nothing to regret A If believe itwhether it seems reasonable or not you mean C It is a duty to God to do so The above is as near as I can member a conversation that I bad Ill with an ecclesiastic onU soul know as much as I did hefore This gent is said to be n learned man and has a brace of Ds to his uniteit would he worth much to the Blndo if an effort onl be mule to send our sllhsc1 ptiontist sailinc enjoyIThen take a walk On the journey you will meet a friend Hand it to him Ask him to rend it and in this way the Blades is helped to a missionary effort on its own part and we are willing to assume such a risk NOTES AND COMMENTS By Josephine K Henry The following gem is culled from a collection of poems by Mrs Tuttle It breathes forth truth and true po etic fire and deserves to remain a living thought in the garden of poesy The grandeur and strength of tions Lies in the mothers of men And the souls of the countrys mothers Are stronger than sword or pen 0 n love for broadbrowed justice Is the root of the noblest lives For justice is more than mercy And on it all virtue thrives Here is a cold hard fact for wom en to ponder Isnt it strange that of all the crime committed in the world five per cent is a generous proportion for women though their burdens are fifty per dent harder to bear The Church muzzles women and puts her to work and the state jnnkcs her an outlaw and cajoles her into being a wirepuller for political parties It is bad enough to be outlawed for crime but when American women arc outlawed on account of sex std for no other reason under the sun it is time to take to lawbreaking for prestige Think of the travesty on Liberty being typified by a woman Every time I see a statue of the Goddess of Liberty I feel like over turning the pednstal and blasting it to atoms As long as women are kept in political slavery a flag of black std green and yellow means as much to them as the red white and blue of the Star Spangled Banner that professes to wave over landof the free and home of the brave Where are the free and the brave in this country Men born of slave women cannot be free and men who fear to give their mothers and wives political power are not brave It is wonderful how lawabiding women are How they can be expected to show moral obligation to laws made by men who slave condemned them as outlaws What a mockery to try a woman by n jury when that jury consists of men instructed from mas culine laws If I were a masculine judge before whom a woman was to be tried I would vacate the bench rather than trample on the rights of a human being who is already con demned to ecclesiastical political and social bondage A male judge and a male jury trying a woman is about on a par with a 20yearold athlete whipping his grandmother Considering the indignities and injustice dealt out to woman in our Christian civilization it is woriflerful how few women transgress the laws and those who do are often better mem bers of society than the judges and juries before whom they are tried There has never been a stable and just government or a moral civili zation and there never will be until the combined wisdom and morality of women and men direct them and this can never be until the influence of tIle Holy Bible std thin priests is wiped from the face of the earth Mrs Tuttle speaks a ringing truth when she says The grandeur and strength of tions Lies in the mothers of men The Holy Bible is the only publication in America that is known to be obscene and is accorded all tits privileges of Uncle Sams mails Funny as one considers its unimpor tance COEDUCATION Vs HYSTERIA By Elbcrt Ilubbard In a recent article on education for women Dr Anna B Shaw says Ten women shut in together will worry ten times as much as ten men shut in together So also 100 wom en shut in together will exhaust them selves merely by being together the sensitive temperaments eating into eachother like corroding acids One of the advantages of coeducation is a distinct lessening of the emotional and nervous strain among women students Just why the presence of men as teachers and fellowworkers should have a tonic and quieting effect on the nerves of women I do not know but there is certainly less nervous tension morbidity and selfcon sciousness among college women sociated with men than among those in the strictly womens colleges Of course it is a delicate ques tion for a man to discuss butt I am more than pleased that women are publicly acknowledging that it is not only not good for a man to be alone butt it is a deal worse for a woman Personally Ill admit I dont know much concerning the subject in the concrete but Ill sny right here and if I ever reach heaven it will be be cause I have associated with good Shaw probably got the cue for her articles from a little book issued some years nee by Dr Charcot on Hvstcria The learned doctor was a bit of a theorizer and possibly ho believed a thing first and skirmished for proof afterward but in the main his conclusions are correct Hysteria says Dr Charcot is a sex manifestation and represents an electric explosion resulting from lack of ground wire Near the doctors once in Paris was aU female academy to which lie was one day called by n messenger who came in lint haste The doctor lost no time in getting across theJstreet and running upstairs found class of twenty young women fif teen of whom were crying lan 1intr croaming sluicing and three girls wore stretched out seemingly life lessThe terrified teacher explained that one of the girls had fainted and when she crime to her senses began to laugh Two of the girls that were waiting on her began to cry and as others sought to pacify them they too caught ituntil the whole room seemed like a bacchante picnic On inanity thin doctor found that many girls were subject to such spells Whnt oh what shall we do tor berg d the matron uI11 tell you said the doctor and then he cast about in his mind as doctors often do for what was the cst to prescribe A bright thought came to him carat were teaching these girls drawing you said Yes doctor Well no woman can teach draw ingthnt is as well ns a man Give each girl a teaspoonful of this med icine three times a dayand Ill make arrangements to have these 20 pupils down an hour daily at Mon sieiid Mnumicrs ttOhI doctor but they are all young men in Monsieurs classes cI know butt we cant help that The doctor say Monsieur Maumier and arrangements were made to haetthe twenty young women join the elMs each morning from 10 to 11 After the cass there was a recess for fifteen minutes The girls were allowed to remain too so they staved and compared pictures criticised joked and after a week played tag pussywantsn corner and a little innocent natural rough lions with the young men And behold there was never another ease of high strikes in the academy Let the boys and girls meet in a frank natural and simple way and we obviate the danger of the secret the clandestine anti the morbid m WINTER TOURIST TICKETS TO TH E SOUTHand SOUTHEAST ON SALE DAILY wrA QUEEN CRESCENT ROUTE GOOD RETURNING UNTIL MAY 31st 1910 For full Particular call or write B C KING P 4 T A101 St Ky I IIJriTm A SENSE AND SUPERSTITION MoreIAll the Priests That Ever Wore Robes By J Emerson Roberts What is superstition To believe without evidence or against dence to dogmatise about the un known to accept myths as facts mir acles as realities fables as history allegories ns actual event to put caprice in the place of law to sup plant the natural by the supernat ural to ignore the relation between cause and effect to believe in the im possible the ridiculous the idiotic or the absurd to raise faith above fact tradition above science revelation above demonstration credulity above honest doubt to ignore reason sult intelligence and erucify common sensethis is superstition- It is a fact well known that in passing from infancy to maturity the child repeats and epitomises the story of the race He has his period of ignorance credulity was unreasoning faith he does not know the world Ho docs not know the meaning of distance perspective force and motion He is utterly ignorant of cause and effect Everything is real to him The belief in th supernatural de clined as science arose Natural causes were discovered for the things that had been mysterious and occult Things that wanted explanation and were counted with the supernatural ranged themselves in line with order sanity and law The devils have dis appeared The dark is no longer thronged with imps Ship captains no more bribe witches not to raise storms at sea or purchase from them fair weather Angry Gods no long er send plagues and diseases offend ed deities no longer threaten to de troy the world with a comet or eclipse It cannot be denied that the interests of the church led her to foster this belief in the supernatural Possesss ing as she claimed all possible knowledge being capable of settling any question that might arise among mankind assuming all responsibility for the temporal and eternal welfare of man it was to her interest to keep man obedient to keep him in ignor ance subserviency and fear For this reason she resisted the advance of knowledge she kept hack the day and man would be still dwelling in the night he would be still kissing the crucifix and mumbling prayers he would be still prostrate in the dust he would still be seeking healing shrines for the cure of disease the world would still be a madhouse had it not been for the few brave intrepid souls who dared to explore to enquire to reason and to doubt One telescope pointing towards the sky with a man like Qnlielo looking through it did more to civilize man kind and make man free than all true priests that ever wore robes and nil the alters that ever pandered to the richor filched their substance from the poor One thinker brave self poised confident and unconquerable dying nnshriven at the stake like Bruno constitutes the death wanant ofreligious oppression One unpar alled and resistless man like Voltaire letting fly the arrows and shafts of sarcasm at her hypocrisies and hurl c ing thunderbolts of denunciation at the churchs crimes was the herald dawn And proudly declaring the universe is governed by law the dawn widened to the morning broadened into day In our own time there are not so much of what might be called active superstitions as residuary supersti tionsSuperstitions are manifest now and then in our modern life It was not many years ago that the Governor of one of the northwestern States ing the land overrun with grasshop ers solemnly called a day for fasting and prayer that the good people might beseech the good God to take away the grasshopers This is superstition pure and sim ple from the fact that there is no possible proof there is no legitimate course of reasoning that can by any sort of ingenuity attach the effect to the alleged cause Prayer itself in its ordinary manifestation is based solely upon an ancient supersti tion If anybody believes that by bending down and imploring the in finite he can change a fact he is sim ply a victim of superstition Any prayer if it were answered would n conviction of the infinite It would bo an arraignment of his own wis dom a confession that his knowledge from the beginning was insuf ficient and needed the prompting of the finite mind It is not susceptible of proof that a prayer was ever an t I swered since men first began to head the pregnant hinges of the knee In two departments of human thought superstition most abound Those departments arc theology nail medicine In this respect they pre sent a glaring contrast to allothor fields and pleases of human activity Manufacturers are not prone to vagaries and weird imaginings trade and commerce do not beget superstition The artist in his studio the inventor in the shop the farmer in the field none of these arc given to hallucina iins to believe in the irrational and the absurd butt in the case of theo logy and medicine the situation changes Here men experiment and guess Here fear and hope enter as factors emotion and ecstasy terror and despair warp the judgment dis tort evidence and foster hallncina tions In these two fields most of our current superstitions have their roots Why are superstitions harmful Any superstition is by its nature n menace to human welfare n hin drance to human progress And this is true notwithstanding a given sup erstition may be believed in by multi tudes or may effect an air of super ior wisdom or may wear the robe of respectability or religious sanctity Religious superstitions have cursed every land in every age in which they have become dominant in the minds of men Religious supersti tions and fanaticism have retarded the progres of Scotland by almost a century They have kept Ireland in ignorance and servility They have impoverished Italy blighted Spain made of Russia the horror of the age and they would have destroyed France beautiful France if the Radicals had not arisen to extirpate the foul monster and rescue the Ret nh iio from priestcraft our own country the effect freligious superstition is tnensnrnably harmless from the simple fact that few people take religious dogmas seriously The odtime preachers tire gone The old hairraisin sormons that made you feel hair hanr and breezeshaken over hell are heard no more We hear no more about angry Gods and th wrlthIlf the judgment to come Though creeds for the most part remain formally unchanged yet they are so deftly concealed that they are no longer r f fensive to the ppwholdev nor anybody else Indifference to nlitrion is the salvation of tho penpln flue cerity and earnestness if the Chris tian Scientists is likely tt ho their undoing No man cnn without peril forswear reason Who ever turns his hack upon common sense invites his feet to take the path that lends to madnessA died in this town some time ago as the result of a gasoline explosion She was a Christian Sci entist The healer soon arrived and while the woman writhed in the death agonies they stood around saying There is no pain there is no death there is no gasoline God is all That was insanity Whatever else it may be whatever those people may be that was an exhibition of is meant hv progress The application of intelligence to the af fairs of man Intelligence implies and includes the experience of the race tho accumulated knowledge of mankind the common sense of the world All is natural There is no room or place for the supernatural The miracle does not exist Prodi cries and wonders are either the ex asrgeration of facts or plain and baseless fabrications and falsehoods All s governed by law Every effect in the child of some cause and GAT iTFT8F BLADE comes in turn the parentof some oth er effect There is no break no gap no hiatus Not priests and popes not prejudies and prepossessions not rit uals nor revelations nor miracles nor wonders not faith nor fanaticism not altar nor oracles but reason anell common sense Whenever these er things do aught but interpret na ture and teach men so they become Receivers or destroyers of mankind How have men struggled and en dured How have they suffered sacrificed and inspired How have they stumbled in ignorance been deluded by their fears mocked by their faith cheated by their hopes robbed by the altar and deluded by the priests How has man struggled suffered and endured and not all in vain Behind him is the ago of myth and miracle of faith and fear of unreason and superstition Before him is the ture inviting with its possibilities achievements Around him in the un iverse governed by law and within him strong and brave is the conviction rooted deep and unextingnish able that reason is the only guide PAINE BANQUET Paine s Birthday Anniversary will be commemorated by n Banquet at Hanscoms Cafe in Philadelphia on January 29th 1910 Cards of admis sion one dollar can be had of Hugh PhihadelIpluia ++ M H ft ttIH fr MH+ + + Y Mans Origin and Destiny I- y By Dr A Hausman Alameda Californiai1ThIS is the Greatest Book of modern tim s on the theory of Evolution applied to Sociology U will shortly be issued in book form by the Blue Gras Blade making a book of nearly 500 pages The author has i dedicated it to Prof Ernst Haeckel and tii great Jena philosopher has accepted the dedication i i 200 200 t i Subscribe Now and Save Money i i b I All charges of postage will be prepaid advance yrare now press ++ follow its serial publication in the blade columns yr ix Su ascribe Now Subscribe Now + 9 3JAMES E HUGHES Lexington Ky 3 4 + x tA MIDNIGHT NEW YEAR GREET ING TO MY FRIEND Mrs Josephine K Henry Ver sailles Ky IcOllnt myself in nothing else so happy As in n remembering my good friends And as my fortune ripens with thy love Hshall still he thy true loves rev compense My heart this covenant makes my hand thus seal itShnkes peare At midnight Jan 1st 1905 The clock strikes twelve tis the closing year While I alone by my fireside dear Am watching the glow of the fires red flames Thinking of all those heroic names Who will live immortal and I think of you In superstitions fight so staunch and true Grand deeds are yours Immortality- is thine When men review the past some future time Bravest of the brave with thy wiz nrd pen You have lured us on and on to master men To superstiItions And hail the glory ofn brighter day When God ghosts devils angels all Will totter like past empires to their fall Ah had I the power of great Shel leys flight With sculptured words T wouldseat you tonight Upon a throne within a palace grand And men would homage pay in every land would chisel you in Parian marble white Emblem of the purity Isee to night The flames are curling in fantastic form Giving birth to thoughts that are rather warm Cremation somo day these voiceless lips and pulseless hands Will lay beside me on iron bands And purified by the elemented fire I too like the flames will rise higher and higher Into the great world but you In the minds of those who dare an Grand deeds in Libertys name You will always like be always same Just as we hold these heroes of tho past So will your memory always last By the stars of your inspired Others t will climb till they see light In that shadowworld where thought is born The stars will shine for them some morn And they themselves arise theyll praise your name Led through the wilderness of super stitions shame And so with friendships tie on this New Year I give you midnight greeting midnight cheer May the bond grow stronger in years In this world of trials passion fan cies tears n f yyyyyyyyy 4AAA eyY AA Searchlight y A 20 Page Liberal y A Monthly AA Published by J D SHAW Waco Texas A AAa Single Copies 10 Cents A Write for a sample copy which will be sent frees iIMay all that you love be held in sacred shrine Relatives friends all comrades mine May your friends be many all staunchand true As the one who writes these lines to youi years be many all sun shine thine Prosperity always goodnight Ill sign Yours for Liberty Justice Honor Right Is my parting greeting this New Years night Albert Johnson BLUE GRASS BLADE WILL LIVE From Peoples Press Chicago Ill The Blue Grass Blade the staunch Kentucky Freethought paper will be pagesdHughesits supePeoplesPressers to the Blue Grass Blade to sub scribe for it HELP IT Dont let this able exponent of Rationalism iseono of the oldest and ablest Free thought papers in America Send 0e or 1 for a trial subscription Comrade Hughes its publisher will do his share and Freethinkers should do theirs Address Blue Grass Blade Lexington Ky Give a boy brains in his head and iron in his blood and he wit never want to be a preacher There will be too much push and courage in him lazyeexpect a without work and chronic laziness has too often been mistaken for a call to preach tho gospel of Christ Y r t II TWO NOTED BOOKS Doa THE Charles Chilton MooreIWhen a young man the author had started out to walk through the Holy Lands on foot Reaching Paris he gave up the Journey and returned home lIeI made the trip by rail and boat about three years before his death This book gives an account of what he saw and explodes numerous Christian myths It Is especially suitable for a present Cloth Bound Pages Postpaid 125 Address orders to BLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington Ky their candor compels them to ally themselves with tho intelligent thought of the day Is your name on the Blade muster roll Ho who is not master of himself is unworthy to rule others Now is the accepted time to arise hump yourself and do something to keep the Blades head up The Blade is making preparations for a strenuous campaign and urges its friends to give all possible encouragement in spreading the beneficent light of Freethought over the land nu aauiuvn Hopkins Bleaching wlrumrLal paae GlDvesI TomlLh rr 1IIln eNVrltu tennttrrnt-u mat iOS 1I1I A TRIP TO ROME by DR J WILSON The International Congress of Free thinkers was held In the City of Rome Italy September The author attended that Congress as the American delegate It Is an account of travel and personal experiences that has received- an universal encomium from press and people In It religious dogmas and tales of priestly fiction are ruthlessly exposed while the general style Is without com parison In American literature of travel Cloth bound pages Illustrated Address orders to BLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington KytI 1makes IhasMary HILL hes Todd the ablest writ irof fiction since Grant Allen and Is a Liberalipresentation of the essentially problem Woman In Business THE WHBBL OF LIFE i ItofImmortality It treats Human Instincts and Ideals It takes In the whole Wheel of Life treating all subjects In such a clear plain and spicy way that the dust Is shaken out and they become as In readnngAendlOceititornIxmonthset lalsubscription or a quarter a year CONFESSIONS 0 F fDRONE by Joseph Medlll Patterson itlmr of A LITTLE BROTHER OF KIOII sent without extra charge months trial nubsorlptlonto the OKL1KK Address clFE PUB CO Desk A St Louis Tillr t pr ENEMIES PLEASURE AND PIETY THE CLERGY ALWAYS ARRAYED AGAINST POPULAR AMUSEMENTS There was a time in the history of this country when the clergy ruled bothstate and society with an most merciless despotism Their pow er extended from the laughter ofa child to the swearing into office of the governor of a colony Along with education taxation official selection compulsory worship and Sabbath ob servance every game recreation and even the style of apparel and dressing of the hair were prescribed by them If a man observed anything in nature which would provoke him to a smile on the Sabbath or if he should be tempted to kiss his wife on that holy day the vials of clerical wrath were emptied on him Women were not allowed to make a noise in church as big as the squeak of a mouse Then as now the only churchoffices to which they were eli gible were scrubbers beggars and waiters on the table at a church festi valChildren who looked to the right or to the left of the path which led to Sunday School and gave joyous expressions at the sight ofa bright winged bird or the frolics of a squir rel had hearts as black as that which hovers over the impassable Styx and pions austerity was plainly written in unmistakable lines upon the faces of the babes The clergy ruled su preme The only recreation permitted in burnItizing drinking rum killing Indians and chasing slaves These pious pastimes have been gradually put aside in proportion as the clergy have receded from power and innocent games and sports genial to the hearts of child and man have taken their places But we cannot help but reflect upon what would be the present social condition throughout the whole world if the clergy reigned supreme now as then Would not the same uncheck edreligious zeal conduce to the same sombre depressing conditions Every wellinformed historian knows that men and governments arm not better today on account of the clergy but instead the clergy are bet ter on account of the rebellions pro tests of men and governments Be tween an arctic canctity and tropical doom all joy and gladness were driv en from the human heart It is within the memory of mot of us when music and the drama were the chief instruments with which the devil ensnared the souls of men If the clergy could have had their own way the world would have had no Mozart no Beethoven no Verdi no Wagner no Strauss nothing in the line of music but psalm singing dox ologics and funeral marches We would have haelno Shakespeare Sheridan Booth and Jefferson but instead the Knoxs Wesleys Edwards and Talmages would furnish alone our public entertainments Fiction was the next in line with pure hellishness The world would have had no Scotts Bulwers Elliotts Hugos Irvings Hawthornes and Tol stois Romance and imagination would have been choked with the thought of the smoke of the fire that is never quenched But the effect of the growth of liberal thought is well instanced in the fact that ministers Chnresjj John Watson are now producing works of fiction Thus the preachers today commit the damnable sin of yesterday monstrouRjsupple grace the exquisite ease the poetry of motion of which the human body is capable were wholly lustful in the minds of the clergy who some how more than other people possess a superior instinct in detecting lust All books and histories not ofa re ligious character would have been suppressed The nude art would never have been pictured have been pictured- Mirth was corrupting quid pacre ligious Why should a man laugh when in each minute of his fleeting existence his soul is in danger of being plunged a million feet deep in to the white heated furnace of eter nal hell Artemus Ward Josh Billings Bill Nye Mark Twain and the many bright beings who have made sorrow ing humanity forget for a few mo ments its cankering griefs and toil some cares would have been com gelled to wear a Jonathan Edwards countenance and their infectious mirth be turned to grievous gloom k f UJlJLJ 6 II and sourest sancity All humor was utterly dippicablc detracting the mind from the holy contemplation necessary for the salvation of the soul To be natural here was to forego all hope of supernatural hap piness hereafter To relax from sol enmity was to recede to the devil The poems of Bobby Burns and Eu gene Field would have been blotted from the human memory for their impious insolence in daring to write such verses as Willie brewed a peckof malt and II The clink of the ice in the pitcher The marvelous power speed spirit and endurance of that wonderful animal the horse would never have been developed The highest service would have ended in carrying saints to church at a gait not exceeding a common walk- Women would never have been per mitted to dress in colors brighter that the somber gloom of a parsons face Notwithstanding this God had dressed this earth in myriad hues of blended light and canopied it with a blue mantle fringed with purple dawns and amethyst runlets yet none of nil this bewildering array of shimmering sheen and dreamy tints was ever intended to decorate luis master design Had the clergy their own way the world would have been hunted over for draperies that add to beauty and which charm the eve The flashing diamond and sparkling- rub would never have been hunted in the dark caverns of the earth for all is vanity and vexation of spirit saith the preacher The sane old puritanical nusterit and intolerance still survives and like the smallpox breaks out in oc casional epidemics manifesting then selves in attempts here and there to stop street cars on Sunday milk wn gons baseball golf excursions ex cept those which run to camp meet ings and close up theaters art leries bath houses barber shops cigar stands and suppress even the Sunday newspaperthe poor ma- nlibertyin fact close up every busi ness and building in which money is exchanged except those conducted by themselves If the clergy could have their way children would be permit ted no diversion except attending Sundayschool and rending tracts in which the good little boy died cause God wanted him to be an angel in the skies or those in which the good little boy lived and become judge or president because he never took a drink At all times their little lives would be made as miserable as possible that their piety might be made permanently puritanicnIThe merry ponIiesthe jolly minstrelsthe joy of childish hearts would be forever shut from their wondering eyes or closed from their eager ears There are but few of us of mature years who have not ina greater or lesser degree experienced all these different pleases of puritanism We have all observed how the cler PhY1sicndrunkard the criminal the bully and the brute They have always arrayed the spir it against the body On the same principle a man should despise the home that shelters him The clergy discover gross immorality in a glove contest which as now regulated is nothing but a test of physical endurance hut in strange contrast they enshrine and worship saints whose only qualifications to saintship rested upon physical suffering and endur once selfpunishment of the most horrible and exquisite torture In fact the first requisite to saint ship was contempt for the abuse of the body It hnd to be scoured to the limits of physical endurance until all that was left of the once God like form was an insane saint encased in a shrunken bag of skin and bones and such manner of physical debase ment much of which was as disgusting as horrible is classed with spir itnality and reverence and pointed to with a pious bragadocia showing the physical endurance the Christian nay bo capable of Carefully guard ing thc Jown bodily comforts the clergy have ever pointed the rest of humanity to the examples of the saints until gradually mankind grew to believe tint pure religion and un dented depended wholly upon con tempt of the physical and repose of bodily chastisement The world has outgrown this idea just as it has always outgrown the clergy It knows better Consistency should be a jewel specially to those who set themselves up as enlightened standards and teachers of men The clergy have the same right of protest in this country accorded to all other classes of citizens Much of their work is practicable and commendable and much is inconsistent and out of harmony with existing conditions and with the advanced thought of the nlJL JfJ T L 1909 1909 fI i Blue Grass Blade Bound volume A t yA Containing Fifty tVl o Copies of The Blade and all handsomely 1boundin Blue Buckram with gold letters y- f 300 Reduced from last years price 300 i- A Subscribe NOW and get your name on the list in time + ti A STILL BETTER OFFER I For Five New Subscribers For Five New Subscribers f fWewill send ONE COPY of the Bound VolumeA r A FREE OF COST A iToany person sending us five new subscribers in one club at the regular rates before Dec 31 1909 t THE CLUB IS PREFERABLE GET UP ONE SECURE A COPY FREE Y 6 BLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington Ky AA I N N N K N N N N N N + l+ + + age They are generally goodciti zens but as a class are not above the average as criminal statistics will show The majority of them meat well enough but they inherit the narrowmindedness of puritanism and their power is always retrograde They exhibit this narrowminded ness and inconsistency in rising en masse to oppose a glove contest or the Sunday opening of an agricul ture fair while the world is being drenched in the blood of struggling patriots and of defenseless unarm ed halfcivilized men women and babes and not a single organized protest do they make Barbarities and cruelties savage horrible ana monstrous have been committed in the name of Christian civilization within the last few years and what regard was given them b the clergy What mention was even made of these national crimes Christian soldiers have irrpaled Chinese babies on their bayonets tossed them into the air to be caught upon their bayonets lucid in Christian Lands Defenseless human beings men women and children have been slaughtered and pitched into Chinese rivers in such numbers that their swollen corpses have impeded the FilipinoIground and children end the and sick cremated b the hundreds With such bnrbarities as these facing them and the whole world how can the Christian clergy find time to oppose a glove contest or Sunday opening Havethe clergy of this city at anytime held a mass meeting to protest against these monstrous outrages Have they called upon the Mayor and our political leaders and gressmen and Senators to join them in protest to all the world against these uncivilized barbarities Right in our own country human beings are being burned at the stake for crimes ungovernable passion due largely to bad breeding bad environments and lack of educational advantages Some of these burnings take place in nature ofn sport and the torIturersthis digrncefulcrime Ignoring all this how can their present activity in opposing the opening of the theaters on Sunday be regarded other thou a pious pec cadillo one of those irritating inconsistencies of gnatlike dimensions with which they periodically pester the legislative camel B W REMUNERATIVE Well Bobby how do you like church asked his father as they walked homeward from the sanctuary to which Bobby had just paid his first visit fine ejaculated the young IIts How much did you get fatherHow much did I get Why what do you mean How much what asked the astonished parent at this evidene irreverence Why dont you remember when the funny old man passed the money around I only got 10 cents The churches have ever been the means used by tyrants to hold the people in subjection J J WHY CHRISTIANITYJSPOPULAB If an Answer Can Be Found We Shall Know Why Rationalism Gets the Cold Shoulder By E A Fitch The ono thing most surprising and I might say most perplexing to those fully emancipated from the thraldom of theological superstition is whyso many seemingly intelligent people flue either indifferent or else cling tenaciously to the old To the real Freethinker the trast between the natural and the supernatural is so marked and so much to the credit of the natural as to cans wonder and surprise that any considerable number of people could be found that would discard the real and be satisfied with a shad owIn the full blaze of the sciences astronomy geology and biology and after the advent of these great apos tles Huxley and Tyndal and Haeckcl and Herbert Spencer Now any one with a modicum of observation and reason could still be a devotee to the hosts and goblins of ignorance and barbarism is the marvel of marvels It is manhood enamored of the twilight fairy tales Ptolmaic Astron only after the demonstrations of Copernicus sun and stars revolving around the earth after Galileos great though heretical discovery fifth century ideals projecting their shadow athwart the horizon of the twentieth Has mysticism and supersti tion a stronger hold and a greater charm that the sensible and sublime truths of science So it seems at least for comparatively the number is small of those who are fain to stand in the clear white light of knowledge All honor to that noble few The praised and petted majority are only willing to allow that the earth is a little roundish and they tell you half confidentially that if you destroy belief in the infallible book and faith in theological God you let people down and the direst consequences will follow This too in the face of the painest fact that most every embezzler defaulter and even murderer is so far as belief goes Christian Horace Greeloy once declared that he did not say every democrat was a horse thief but he did that every Christian was a criminnl but it must be admitted by every fair minded and intelligent observer that rent transgressors are almost invar iable theoretical Christians more often perhaps Roman Catholic Gillet who was executed for the murder of Grace Brown is an example It is very rare thingnn exceedingly rare thing to find a criminal that is a ra tionalist or Freethinker Humanitar ianism is their distinguishing char teristic Blood atonement finds no favor in their code of belief It is a barbarism to bo discarded Equally fallacious and demoralizing is the Christian contention that war and carnage are the necessary promoters of individual or national advance ment Peace has her victories not JILr less renowned than war Sherman said war was he11aud Freethinkers almost ton mat agree with him Legalized slaughter is honorable A thousand Thus saith the Lord cannot make it otherwise War has been the handmaid of Christianity down through the ages It is blood atonement nationalized The Romish church grants indul gences The Protestant if it does not grant indulgences teaches and proclaims that There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuels veins And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains And it is not here the explanation and the answer to our query Instead of letting people down Rational ism holds them up to a higher standard than popular theological Christianity It proffers no patent medicine curenl1 for crime or the criminal natures Laws including the moral are inexorable and no fictitious atonement no mystical auasthetie administered by priest or pope can absolve the transgressor or blot out the sults of his evildoing much less can any blood of the innocent wash all his guilt away For two thousand years Christi amity has been preaching and tench ing its doctrine of blood atonement and the remission of sins and with what results Not much account is made of natural crimes theft robbery murder etc It is the crime against the Holy Ghost that eon er be forgiven Rationalism enjoins and emphasizes justice and the hu inanities kindness to all living things here and now It believes in making thus the II higher life And though it does not dazzle the eye and tickle the car of the unreasoning and thoughtless it should be the hope and joy and satisfaction of all who walk in the light of the beneficient scien tific rationalism TEN NEW COMMANDMENTS Intended to be Used and Followed by All Men as a Substitute for Those Given by Moses By Harriet M Closz 1 Thou shalt have no other god than the one which money and church influences places upon the throne 2 Thou shall not bow down to image except it be to one wearing ecclesiastical petticoat and marked with the seal for I the modern god am a jealous god conferring of fice and influence onlyupon those who serve me faithfully and pay my assessments even unto the third and fourth generations 3 Thou shalt not utter the name of this mighty god with irreverence or complaining else the terrible fate of the starving workers here and the condemned sinners hereafter shall be thy portion 4 Remember the Sabbath day to the end that nil the poor and sick and distressed be prevented the en joyment of leisure that they may be herded into the churches where they may bo taught humility and subjection and hear of the philanthropic exploits of the despoilers of virtue and substance JI JI 5 Be obsequious to thy master and spiritual ruler enrthlyInot decreed that the common shall aspire II To him that be given but him that math not shnlljbe taken away even that he lath Thou shalt not kill without the sanction of ruler or priest but with it thou mayest make wholesale slaughter either at thine own fire side or in foreign fields 7 Thou shalt not commit adultery unless belonging to the chosen thou nn est conceal it from the critical eye of the common herd and thereby t shift the responsibility of reproduc tion upon unsuspecting victims 8 Thou shall not steala paltry sum but thou mayest loot the heath en wreck savings banks and form mergers to be called to high positions in sanctuary and state councils Thou shalt not bear false witness Iun less the glory of god aboundeth more through thy lie and unfinancial benefits accrue to the powers that Thou salt not covet that which is thy neighbors but thou mayest take over unto thyself his hard earned belongings or his II one ewe lamb so that covetousness may not dwell in thy heart 10 Thou shalt pray loud and fervently for any inadvertent kindness toward thy fellows and the lord will listen to and forgive such kind deeds ISitesIrightfeeing to assist the weak to forgettc wrongs and remember benefits to ihouestrelentless 1Idend war against slavery in nil i I love the beautiful in art nature to cultivate the mind to be familiar with the mighty thousands tint genius has expressed the noble deeds of all the world to cultivate courage and cheerfulness to make others happy to fill life with the splendor of gener ous acts the warmth of loving words to discard errors to destroy preju dice to receive new truths with glad ness to cultivate hope to see the calm beyond the storm the dawn be yond the night to do the best that can be done and then be resigned this is the religion of reason creed of science This satisfies the brain and heart Ingcrsoll iiicausc some church communi cants arc hypocrites does not argue that religion is necessarily a humbug but it does prove its inoflliwuy to keep them on the straight und narrow path Because God if there is a God fails to reveal himself it J does not follow that he ia fake hut a the argument points very strongly in that direction The one proves itself in the practice the other by theory The Christian God is a forlorn hope and only called on when human agen cies fail At this stage the end is mighty nigh at hand for god can only help those who help themselves Help spread Freethonght by ire lating the Blue Grass Blade You can get it in clubs of five for 75 cents Order five copies sent to your friends JL