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Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, January 9, 1910.
Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, January 9, 1910. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1910 blu1910010901 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, January 9, 1910. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1910 $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. BLlIEjCiRASS i s d Volume XVm LEXINGTON KY SUNDAY JANUARY 9th 1910 Number 7 JDECLINE I Of the Attendance of Woman at Church Though She Was Once its Chief Pillar By C R Lewis The following clipping from the Central Methodist Advocate the M E South organ of this section of country speaks for itself With due apologies to the author of Maud Muller it strikes me like this Of all sad words eer spoken or penned The saddest are theseWomen- at church wont attend A quarter of a century ago the average woman was a Christian but now it is only the exceptional woman that is religious They once showed such preponderance of numbers in the churches that preachers would some times predict that there would not be enough men in heaven to sing bass The great revivalists and re ligious workers of modern times tell us that the proportion of women verted in fheir meetings is one in about seven The women seem to have forgotten what Jesus Christ has done for thornat least the great majority of them have It seems to matter not to them that the gospel has brought them from bondage to liberty from oppression and drudgery to the position of princesses and queens No intelligent woman ought to ignore Jesus Christ It is only in Christian lands that woman has her rightful place in society We some r r hnrathiugcofaonallr Free Thinkers about Christianity holding woman in bondage and bind ing them to superstition but close students of history everywhere know that liberty has come to woman thru Jesus Christ and the Gospel The hope today is womanhood that is true to Jesus Christ and His church If the mothers and girls turn their backs on Jesus Christ the men and boys will go to the bad and drag the wom en to shame and to a degradation worse than death So many of our time seem to desire lives of case and freedom from responsibility They sell their high influence for positions of worldly pleasure and sacrifice their higher and more spiritual natures for the fantasies of fashion It is pitiable and painful to see women forget ting church and Sunday school on the Lords Day and chasing about over the country in automobiles on the day that they should be leading their husbands sons and brothers to the house of God Their careless con duct toward the Christian religion will lay a withering blight on their womanly character and influence and wound the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ It sounds like the last sad wailof a forlorn hope No intelligent woman ought to ignore Jesus Christ It is only in Christian lands that woman has her rightful place in society Ye gods and little fishes Did ye ever hear the like of it If she has rights in Christian lands it is IN SPITE of the church instead of BECAUSEof it Respected and elevated by the church t11 According to the Old Testament oven at the creation she had no consideration as the equal of man And all through that barbar ous and cruel book her position was degraded that it is astonishing that her offspring ever developed the giant minds of today And the New Testament is worse In addition to her degraded position in life she must end it all by being subject to go to hell Lifet and eternity one con tinual lielldTidings of great joy uThe mouthings of Freethinkers have caused women to rise up and as sert herself and Freethinkers havo made it so hot for the church that it has been compelled to let her go in order to retain its grasp in other directionson all of which it is grad ually but surely loosening its hold Respected and elevated by the church Read of the Old Bible wars in which she was entitled to no L r respect whatever Read friend Paul in the New Testament and see how high she was elevated It is pitiable and painful to see women forgetting church etc It is painfulonly to se bigots who in tho years gone by have made them their dupes in order to fleece the populace of their support The church has always been sup ported by the eniotional elements o society Men became sane years ago Women are fast opening their eyes so fast in fact that the next gale that sweeps from tho church will bring to our ears the crash of ground ing arms Happy New Yenr to Free Thought and Freethinkers and long life to the Blade Milton W Va NO FOUNDATION JFOR SUNDAY LAWS By A A Snow Editor CourierIt might be thought that nothing more of profit could be said in your paper on the above subject but I think I have in f rmation that will further interest your readersand with your permis sion it Three different views of the situa tion hiispf JKSB jyesent djajypur per Mr Samuelson holding that the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath is obligatory to all Christians Mr Smith holding the same view regarding Saturday in place of Sunday while I contend that the last stand of Christianity as given in the New Tes tament permits the gentile world which includes us to use their own choice or reason in the matter as to what day if any they observe Mr Smith thinks as I do that whatso ever Christianity may demand on the subject we are in the wrong forcing observance by law But as Christians like Mr Samuelson think different we are making this subordinate feature the harden of our ar Sabbath as given by the Bible was peculiar to the Tesn sin to distinguish them from other people See Ex 1617 and Ezek 21 12 20 The same is true regarding the rest of the commandments though they contained precepts good and needful to all people as all nations have in part laws common to all oth er nations But I think my friend Samuelson makes one grave mistake when he concludes that since other nations were observing a Sabbath for 2000 years before the Jews were re quired to that Jehovah the Jews cod must have demanded itof thsm Tn the Bible Jehovah never repre cents that he hnrl riven them any revelation hot the contrary Further morn they no where rive Jehovah credit for tho information hot ant forrnilv nccrndit it to their own rods It is a fault with the masses of the earth to hold that their religion is perfect and that all other religions re altogether false The fact is there is truth in all and falsehood in all not more or less borrowed from other re ligious That our religion is in par borrowed from other religious have been proved by the higher critics anti acknowledged by the best educate- people of tho globe and by Christia- men too Mr Blake in his Histor of tho Heavens says The Arca dians or Elamites seen to be the au thors of the legend of solar year vided it into twelve months and int weeks of seven days They wer sunworshippers and tinned the sev en days of tho week after the then known seven planets which they wor shipped as gods which made th earth in six days and rusted the soy enth This legion was passed around among other nations and according to Prof Delitzseh tho Ass liologist our ten commandments with their 7I Sabbath existed in Babylon long be fore the time of Moses Be this as it may by turning to tho fore part of Genesis we find two separate ac counts of creation The first account takes all of the first chapter and the first three versos of the second And from this on the second is given The two accounts disagreeing in many points In the first the word Elohim is used for god but it is in the plural number and originally signified The gods In the second the word Je hovah is used In the first tho gods created the earth animals and plants in six days time and rested the sov enth day while in tho second Jeho vah did the same work in one dry There is also two accounts of the flood save that they are more or less blended together that is a little is taken from one account and then a little from the other until we have the story twice told or nearly so and the two do not altogether agree The Higher Critics have called attention to this and they think the Jewish ligion was a compromise between two twofreasons should observe the Sabbath the one because god rested after laboring six days making the earth etc and the other because he delivered the Jews from the Egyptian exile Which of these two reasons is the correct one Geologists tell us that the earth animals and plants were not brought into existence within six days time but during millions of years and this cannot be denied without denying geology as a science The original idea of a Sabbath was a day of abso lute rest tc make it a day of religious exercises was later evolution There were many reformers in the later day prophets of Israel whose ob ject was to soften the vigorous laws of Moses Jesus was probably one of the greatest reformers the world has ever had and more iconoclastic than is generally admitted While he could not deny the laws of Moses without being guilty of high treason he modified them to nearly the extent of disannnlment He was more often accused of violating the Sabbath than of any other crime He believed in and put in practice a Sabbath of la bor in place of one of rest He con tended that God labored in place of resting on the Sabbath day as the Mosaic law represented See John 5 16 17 The Jewish law required a Sabbath of absolute inactivity the pen alty for going without the camp or picking up a stick of wood on that day wes death On several occasions the Jews came near being annihilated because they refused to defend themselves on the Sabbath Will either of my kind friends contend for this Sabbath of the Decalogue It remained for Paul to finish the iconoclastic work began by the prophets and Jesus and this had to be done on gentile soil Neither did he dare to advise the Jewish Chris tians to drop the laws of Moses As it was his life was not safe in Jerusalem At a convention they decided that tho gentiles be relieved from the demands of the law of Moses peen liar to the Jews with a few named exceptions the Sabbath not being one of them See Acts 15 28 29 Under the banner of liberty my friend advocates Sunday laws Pro poses only to prevent corporate greed from compelling those ployed from perforator unnecessary work on Sunday He wants both parties to be free in the matter So do I Then why does he not pose as an iconoclast like me and demand the repeal of all Sunday laws that do not float under the banner of liberty Let us put his proposition in an other form and see as long as wo are loyal to it if ho and are not close to gether Wo both propose to prevent ear COMPELLINGtagainst their will those employed from performing unnecessary or for t matter any kind of work on mr bothnWeyer ever require his hands to work sev en days in n week without rest ex absolutelyo ofelabor would be hard to get and mand extra pay would answer as n check on such abuse and so render no timesepay double wages for Sunday But if law should hero bo resorted to let it apply to the abuse and no farth er It is true that circumstances is often a tyrranical master but withal its yoke is never so galling as that L of human tyranny Would my friend limit the enforcement of his laws to those who hire help leaving all fret to carry out their own work If not let him boldly say so I great ly fear that his plea for freedom is only an entering wedge in behalf of in penitentiaries have rights even if they forfeit the right to run at large and they should not be compelled to listen to religious struction against their will The people should not be taxed to teach them or orphans in orphans homes or chil dren in any school anything that has not bn proven true It is tyranny to tenth orphan children a religion that was abhorant to their dying father and mother Lincville Iowa HAS A RESTLESS FEELING Just thought I would drop a few lines lo the dear old Blade hoping that There might bo something in what I would say that would be of some benefit to society And now in the beginning of my few broken re marks let me say when I pull my self out and entirely away from the influence of society so I can look it squarely in the face I am compelled to say that it reminds me very much ofa monkeys face Now for stance we will take this John D Rob afeller system All the churches with their influence and quite a number of Atheist friends too stand right up for it It is defended from the pulpits by the yallerlegged chicken eaters and from the alters by the gents what wear their collars on backwards and a few of our Atheist friends too with their pens So you see when we see our bell weathers of all creeds and different faiths a standing for such highway robbery we cannot hope to see our society wearing anything but a monkeys face rr in other words a sham Another thing that makes me have that restless feeling is to read in some Mheral publication after some of ou Atheistical friends where they tr ding that their love for struggling humanity drove them to Atheism Then maybe in the very next issue of the same publication you cnn find a great long article de nouncing Socialism and the writer of the article will call us Socialist fools grafters anarchists and destroyers of the homes All any Socialist wants or demands is justice between man and man I was reading just the other day a very able worded article in a last July a year Blue Grass Blade where the writer was pretending that he un derstood Socialism In the fifth paragraph of his article he falls down ttvs his weakness If you wilt refer to the article yon will find that he argues that wo Socialist want him to pay us for building him a house but we dont want to pay him rent for living in the house When wo will have adopted Social ism in this country of ours there will bo no moro capitalist wanting houses built It will b dhe government then that will pay the carpenters for tho erection of our homes And this same writer if living that is now so opposed to the movement will be relieved of all his burdensome wealth and all others too that have attained the age of sixty will bo provided with a comfortable and beautiful home and a pension month that will supply them wit the necessaries of life and lots of lux tries too You see our money under Socialism will not be an expensive money but will be backed by th people and not by a gold reserve And now before close Mr Editor I want to say if you see fit to this to the public instead of th waste basket please get my name spelled right The last time I wrote you for publication you got my name wrong and pave some gal under holts on me If you remember I reg istered a kick about a man having t show his intended bride five hundre dollars in cash of his own money tho marriaeo alter or she would not be compelled to extend her hand t him You got my name Skinner an it should have been Skimmer You see when she the gal commenced o me she said right in tho outset o her article that my name blended so nicely with my whole makeup Really she intimated that I would make n woman take long steps to keep from wearing her shoes out so fast By the time she was through with mo had I been in woods I do not believe I could have tall good firewood SKIMMER BODHISMttiJ Indicating that 540 B C This Most filautiful of All Religions eledThe Religion of the Japs HS the Good and None of theBIci- of Christianity tfjjfc By Harriet M Closz I i In view of the fact that Bud ism is one of the accepted religiot itttof Japan let us make a short c of its tenets and its great doing so we will find that teaelInto be little room for missionaries who have caused sojnuch entirelymisrepresented Gautama Buddha was born aoout 540 B C Tho same story of hf dication of birth by a star that i is told of Jesus Yu Aesculapius hammed and others is told of the Buddhist teacher And as heV was born under a great satin tree hilt his mother was making the jourh jrvto her fathers home stories 0 fthis voluntary incarnation were rife pnd the belief in the pretty fiction hat nature kept a shadow over his c idle while the sages came to worshi A im gained credence At the age oG19 Gautama was married to a cofcsin sentinto him just as he had begun to r ize that life meant moro than living nd he left his wife and son to beea Ifdemialthat man might find many tea 9fl practicing selfdeuial eveni omenad tndglit Alsahan place to study but religion of any kind seems to turn the head of its devotees However this great man promised himself to return to his family when he had become a Bfiddha A promise which Jesus couTdj not make as he had no family of his own The word Buddha is a title and means The Enlightened One just as Christ means The Good Man and any one by individual effort may become a Buddha or a Christ After Buddha had overcome the evil pas sions and released himself as it were from the ties of material existence he became an itinerant preacher which work he followed for about 45 years His first sermon to his disci ples is related by Bishop Bigandot as the Sermon on the Mount Dur ing his ministry the son of Gautama became a disciple and the wife of his youth became a nun Tho Buddhist sacred books are the Tripitaka baskets containing disci plinary and metaphysical teachings as well as the discourses of Buddha They are written in Sanscrit and contain five times as much matter as the Christian Bible The Buddhist doctrine teaches that the greatest happiness comes from doing good to others This is entirely different from Christian doctrine in that we are taught to deport our withhunchangeable law of cause and effect that as ye sow so shall yp also etc The Christians have thatethrough miracles therE may be con stunt violation or suspension of not consequencesepossess mys tical powers that are unattainable by others is repugnant to Buddhism for wo are told that the salvation of ery individual depends on the growth of his own inner nature creatortreason the ground upon which Christianity trichindshould bo 0f the earth Buddhisfare an the MASTERY OF SELF And i teaches that the work and experience and effort in this life determine o degree of progress for the next in carnation That men do not differ by accident of birth but by attainments and character and that th same road to perfection must be trav by all This doctrine of equality gives the Christian teaching of elec tion and predestination a serious back in the estimation of unpreju diced minds Buddhism declares that the soul that does right ascends to a higher state until perfection Nirvah nais reached Olcott describes Nir vana as n condition of perfect rest of absence of desire and delusion and sorrow Before reaching Nirva na man is constantly being reborn but when Nirvana is reached ho is born no more Buddha is said to have been re incarnated many times before he reached perfection The eight states by which the Bud dhist reaches the perfect rest are Right Views Right Aims Right Speech Right Conduct Right Live lihood Right Effort Right Mindfulness and Right Rapture What system can offer a better code of ethics than this Certainly not Christianity Vicarious atone ment has no place here but says Buddha By ones self the evil is doneby ones self one is purified Not even a God can change into a defeat the victory of a man who has conquered himself Charlmapada 105 Still another quotation If a man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men and if another conquer himself he is the greatest of con querors Rouse thyself do not be idle follow tho law of virtue ITames Freeman Clark says Bud iiit vns utfaiid3fintense morn earrl nestnesssincere truthful and pro foundly humane This illustrious man had no thought of founding a religions system but after twentyfive centuries onethird of the people of the world are his de vout followers and who recognize the practical utility of the doctrine as set forth by Spencer Hardy in his man teal of Buddhism There are three sins of the bodymurder theft im purity There are four sins of speech lying slander abuse unprofitable conversation There are three sins of the mindcovetousness malice skepticism There arc also five other evils to be avoidedthe drinking of intoxicating liquors gambling idle ness improper associations and fre quenting places of amusement The socalled sacred books of the world the Bible included can offer no better list of the things to bo avoided than the above and yet send missionaries to Japan to weIthe Buddhists to Christianity- A great monument covered with inIscriptions of the life of Buddha erected in Pekin and there are ples innumerable all over China and Japan there being 170000 shrines in the flowery kingdom Tn Kyoto thereIis a temple which cost and is a marvel of art Buddha died about 475 B C His last words were Belovedwhat causes life also causes decay and body was cremated and the relics are supposed to have been bur red near his native town at the foot of the Himalayas in a mound some 20 feet in height which was excavat ed in 1898 and from the ornaments gems engraved tokens and Buddhist cross found in the receptacle within- it was pronounced the tomb of the great Buddha For lack of time we are compelled reluctantly to close this unsatisfactory article on The Enlightened One who said Forever and every where will I strive for the universal throghrout the world I would suggest that the Blade ofmpredalongsidetthe Bible dogmas rWebster City Iowa You can do some good mission try work by sending the Blade to ten Jof your friends for a year It will cost you only five dollars i BLUE GRASS BLADE FOUNDED By CHARLES CHILTON MOORE And edited by him until his death February JAMES E HUGHES Proprietor 126128 Uorth Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky P Box SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall postpaid 100 pr yr In advance Five new yearly subscribers at one re mittance cents each Foreign subscriptions postpaid 150 per year ADVERTISING RATES One Inch single column Insertion cents one month or tour Insertions 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 ap placation 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 iie paper will show subscribers the date of expiration of subscription Back numbers or numbers omitted will be sent If asked for upon renewal In case ot discontinuance SHOULD ANY SUB3U1UBKU cnange his or her address advise this oJllce giving uoth old and new ddress as desired THE of publication of the Blade is at 126128 North Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky to which all Free t thinkers will be given a hearty welcome =TUG BLADE Is entered at the PostotUre at Lexington Kentucky as second des mailing matter ADDUKSS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO JAMES K HUUllUd flux Lexing ton Kentucky We are rapidly getting mutters in the blade office straigliteued out after the late unpleasantness JJr kLaus mans book The Origin and Destiny of Man is in the bindery and will be ready for shipment some time this month A local minister recently preached a sermon in which ho took the stand that morality alone will not save a man Perhaps not but it is a very valuable asset to have around when ono goes to casting up the two sides of the ledger The newspapers make much of the fact that Use President was able to leave his home and walk to a prominent hotel without encountering an assassin The Blade congratulates the country that the world is growing better The observance of Sunday is being more agitated in the public press and has found its way into the columns of Freethought papers In this con nection we publish elsewhere in the Blade a little gem from the late Col Ingersoll in which he said he had no objection to two Sundays a week In this we quite agree with him provided we are not afflicted with two Saturday nights HAPPINESS Happiness is a condition of evolution and although our conditions are far superior to those in ages past happiness still remains a very uncertain quality It is a condition which entirely depends upon conditions or ganizations and environment The evolutionary tendencies are to ward happiness and to it we attain just in proportion to the subsidence of vice selfish greed and crime We should enter into a careful confidential communion with our own inward consciousness in search of it enemiesIf find within love hospitality kindness honesty and justice we there a soil favorable to the growth of happiness All we can do is to purge ourselves- from sin and try to aid those us to do the same To comply with the requirements of natural law will give us happiness To combat error advocate goodness and practice purity is nil that we can do JESUS A MYTH- sThere will always linger around the name of Jesus an atmosphere or in terest and be he god or man divine or human as long as men live he will bo talked about We have long ago decided in bur own minds that Jesus was neither god nor mart but just a myth just n name The more we read the gospels the more are we confirmed in this opinion There is nothing human in his make up He is superhuman in his birth life and death We just believe and we cannot help it that every person in the shape of man or woman who hns lived on this earth had only human parents human pow ers and performed only human deeds Jesus docs not fit into the history of mankind When a mans genealogy is interrupted by the appearance ofa Holy Ghost there is a mystery surrounding him that better not be inquired into Jesus never saw his father And it is only kindness iu deprive him to his mother and regard him as one of the children of the im agination We have often wondered why we were expected to believe that contradictory narratives in the gospel meant the same thing Were we to read twoI different accounts of a certain event by two authors in works not regarded as sacred we should believe only urn of them and should say that the other was a little off Contradictions in Uods word are changed to divine license But we do not allow any apology for God He must tell as straight a story as a man tells or stand discredited In Matthews gospel we read thatI when Jesus was born wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and in quiredL Where is he that is born King of the Jews for we have seeu his star in the east and have come toI worship him When they were told that they would find him in Bethlehem II the star which they saw in the cast went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was The wise men saw a young child in the law of a young woman and fell down and worshipped him and presented him with gifts Very nice in the wise men to come all the way from the east to Jerusalem to see a baby that was nothin te them Wo should say that only foolish men would perform such fool ish a journey Very nice in the star also to leave its place in the heavens and conduct the men to the babys cradle It is stated that the men re turned to their own country but it does not say whether the star ever found its way back to its place in th sky or not Only a fool of a star would do such a trick as that If there were no other story huu around the cradle of Jesus we woul not believe such a yarn as that Luke as well us Matthew writes a marvelous chapter about Jesus fore he was born But Luke has a totally different story to relate abou- the events immediately succeedin the birth of Jesus Luke never hear of the wise men from the east nor of a traveling star nor of presents of gold frankincense and myrrh to the new born babe But he tells improbable a story as does Matthew He says that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be taxed in obe dience to a decree from Caesar Au gustus and that while there Jesus was born and that Mary was to put her child in a manger as the was no room for them in the inn There was just one inn in Beth lehem In this same country were shepherds watching over their flocks at night While they were looking cf ter their sheep an angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone about them and the an gel told them that a savior had jus been born unto them Wondering such news they decided to go to Beth lehem and see this strange thin which had come to pass They sae a man and a woman and a babo lying iu a manger and went around circulating the gossip of the angel con cerning the child Thats Lukes ver sion of the affair According to Matthew a star an nounced to the wise men the birth of Jesus According to Luke an angel performed this office to the shepherds The wise men came from the distant east the shepherds were near b Now there is such a dissimilarity h tween the two accounts as to warren drawing the conclusion that both are fabrications It is exceedingly unfortunate that gasIsome one these matters who knew somethin about them Luke tells us that Mary pondereh plandt gels or holy ghosts cannot hear ce lestial choirs cannot credit the statement that the Lord talked to a lot of ignorant boors tending sheep A person with such beginning as Jesus had and attended by such strange circumstances was never born of woman or begotten by man Rea on and common sense put tho stamp of impossibility upon the birth life and lentil of Jesus and Nature says Amen And that settles it The soon er the remains of Jesus are removed from all literature the purer and cleaner will be mans thoughts of things human if not divine- L K WASHBURN THE OHEISTLIKENESS OF CATHOLICISM A Mexican weekly newspaper La Cronica published in Laredo Texas in the Spanish language is suffering a boycott by the Catholic church The editor Mr N Idar has incurred the enmity of the priests and the Cath olic press especially the Revista Cat olica of Las Vegas New Mexico has attacked his paper in the bitterest language advising Catholic women to appoint themselves a committee to go from house to house and from adver tiser to advertiser and ask them to withdraw their subscriptions and ad vertisements One Catholic paper says To help La Cronica to a good death we advise a boycott without mercy upon every grocer and mer chant who aids with his advertise ment the unchristiauiziug work of that weekly This cure is infallible That is the Christlike spirit the churchclaims for its clergy It is the spirit of the Christ who said He that believeth not shall be damned Although not confined to the Roman Catholic church as witness the ban on The Truth Seeker by ministerial library boards that church is its fiercest exponent The boycott is the answer of the church to any exposure of its true character In France and Italy it is interdiction anathe ma and excommunication In Spain there is another answer the bullets of military assassins All these will follow in America as naturally as death follows infection and disease with the growth and increasing fluence of Rome in political affairs Editor Idar writes us that the Cath olic attack has been seconded by three socalled independent newspapers pressgre iuajieu tiul All newspapers must 2elp the boycott or be boycotted themselves Ilia church proceeds on the theory that all who are not for are against it The careless may say that the rule of Rome can never be established and theyepoint to anything in the attitude of politicians or even statesmen to ward the church which does not like anddreceive Where can be discerned any incli nation to check Romes advances in America Protestants can not be de aftertwillgsensesduntil compelled to be the crumbs that fall from the Cath olic table openasly or means Rome as inevitably as a crevice in a dyko means an inundation As an in stance the Bible in the public schools is going to lead to state supported denominational schools including of parochialreand of olic denomination will destroy first the common school and then the schools of the other denominatins un til the entire system becomes Cath olicized with the exception of such as may be maintained by Jews and Freethinkers and these to be closed in time as Ferrers schools have been Spaint to the case of boycotting Cronicavis help He asks Freethinkers to supply him with ammunition in the shape of Freethought reading matter which he will distribute among both Cath olics and Protestants Secondhand tracts and pamphlets will answer his purposeNew York Truth Seeker L1he Freethought Society that has been organized at Cleveland toleta at the Forest City House A lunch and a program of addresses is being arranged and the Liberals of Cleve land and vicinity are looking for pleasgf the committee having charge of tho banquet and would be glad to haven all Liberals in Cleveland and vicinity join them on this occasion Mr Jef feries will glad to furnish tickets at 50 cents per plate THE PRESS GIVES THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE TO THE MILLION AIREARE THE PEOPLEeNOT TIRED OF THIS- JOURNALISTIC POLICY By Josephine K Henry I get so tired of reading of and hearing about millionaires that I wish I could emigrate to Poverty Flat or that they would emigrate to II Jerusalem the Golden It seems to me that that climate soil and cality would suit them exactly Poor old Mother Earth docs not seem to be a suitable place for the above of such fine folks I wish we could colonize those of royal blood and royal fortune The American press devotes its greatest energies to exploiting the millionaires telling of their summer and winter palaces regal wardrobes and jewels yachts dinners at 1500 a plate 50000 collie dogs with a retinue of attendants automobiles dinners o monkeys weddings with disgusting and vulgar display All this andmuch more is dished up daily to the AmerI ican people The influence of enters into the daily conversation ofI oldand young until every one youI meet rings in the conversation some thing about their millionaires rela tive visitor or greatgrandfathers stepdaughters cousins niece who is going to marry a millionaire or isI being divorced from one It seems to me people have gone daft over millionaires It may be there is a good deal of counterfeit coin in the millionaires coffers diluted dollars and watered stock that could not pass current over the bank counter and then again it may be up to the gold having had experience in handling millions I only view it from a newspaper standpoint but I doI know that the average industrious struggling man and woman is in the fierce battle of life and it requires the greatest effort to earn our honest dollar I know people who sit up and talk complacently of millionaires who cannot find 25 cents loose change in their pockets This talk of 100000 houses 500 gowns and 1000 dinners is like the talk of the parson about the golden streets slippers crowns and harps in heaven Whether these things are true or false they are cruel in the extreme In a country that is swarming with beggars paupers halfclad poor starving sewing women legions of desperate miners with starved famil ies and indigent children working at starvation prices in factories and appalling conditions struck tho tenderest chord in the heart of our own Robert G Ingersoll when he said I dont see how it is pos sible for a man to dio worth five or ten millions in a city full of want when ho meets almost every day the withered hand of beggars and the white lips of famine I shouldnot think he could do itany more than he could keep a pile of lumber when hundreds of thousands were drown ing in the sea Thinkof a woman wearing hun dreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and guarded by policemen to keep her from being robbed in this Christian country Think of women wearing gowns that cost thousands while in the slums of their own cities other women are giving birth to wretched children in cellars on beds of muddy straw without a garment to put on the new born infants and the sheriff knocking at the door to evict the woman in travail An impassable gulf is fixed between our millionaires and paupers and the halfway house between the two is swarming with human beings who are the bone and sinew of civilization the creators of wealth the guardians of morality who realize every hour that lifes pathway has its thorns its debris its foul odors its dark pes tilential scenes and terrific battles which crush that which is noblest in the human heart Strange old world this While the millionaire drives his auto at 80 miles an hour and finds deaththe bastard infant lies in the morgue while the millionaire girl with royal robes and jewels writes in rose water about Joy Jubilee and Jesus the wretched outcast the vic tim of poverty and lust fills the pau per suicides grave While the lionaire swell is giving dinners at hundreds o dollars a plate the strug gling young man who can not find work puts a bullet in his brain Is it any wonder that suicide has become a mania f Is it any wonder that all this talk and print about millionaires breeds discouragement and despair Is it any wonder the masses feel that Christianity has dropped them through its riddle as slag and turned its pious attention to savages in foreign lands We have miles of misery to one million aire and the Gehorrah of our dens of doom overshadows all trio splendor of the millionaire palncjs The woman in the millionaire palace brings forth a son for Harvard or Yale for revels at Sherrys for plunging at Monte Carlo who dies gout She brings forth a girl to be traded for to ratio prinoelets for a tle The mother in the slums bears children by the dozen destined for the prison brothel and gallows compounds of criminals and prosti tutesAfter nineteen centuries of the Gospel of the Galilean this is the picture Ward McAllister made an insido history of society exclusive 400 but the bitter cry of outcast America is still to bo written In the face of all this we go on writing and talking about million aires as if we knew what we are talk ing about But we dont Who ever saw or handled a million dollars out side of bankers f Who can realize how much money n million is The people in business life who deal in thousands of dollars are few in number A few more deal in hun dreds but the great masses of the people and reputed rich ones too handle dollars and cents and consider themselves lucky if they can always have a few of either in their pockets Give us a rest on the millionaires Personally I have nothing against them but I am weary of hearingof them I guess they will go right on until they run against some thing they were not expecting Strange things are happening in this old world and stranger things nre in the future Versailles Ky THE OVERTHROW OF SATANS EMPIRE Editor Blue Grass Blade On Saturday Dec 18th Brooklyns notable Pastor Russell delivered a lecture at Columbus Ohio upon the Overthrow of Satans Empire Ho takes the first and second verses of the 20th chapter of Revelations as his text where it speaks of Satan being bound for a thousand years In the course of his lecture he asks several very important questions which we propose to examine and answer for ourself not in answer to himFirst he asksHIs Satan a per son We answer he certainly is if wo are to take Bible testimony for our guide We askHWasJesus a All ChriStendom will answer yes he wasThen we say We find Satan and Jesus on several occasions walking and talking together as two distinct personages Was one a man and the other a myth We answer No there is just as good Bible testimony for the reality and personality of one as there is for the other Look at the interesting conversation between the Lord and Satan about his ser vant Job See 1st chapter Again If thou be the son of God command that these stones be made bread See Matt 43 And Jesus instead of turning every stone in sight into a loaf of bread and gaining a victory over his Satanic Majesty sneaks out of the challenge by stating that Man shall not live by bread alone and he leaves the victory to Satan Again Pastor Russell asks Where is Satans empire We answer find out where Jesus and his empire are located and Satans empire will be in sight Find the ono and the other is not far away They are so inseparably connected that the one could not exist for a moment without the help of the other All tho dif ference we see is that Satans em pire is much the largest of the two Ho has tho advantage in every re spect His is by far the most popu lar has by far the largest amount of converts and is by far trio most generally known Again Pastor Russell says When will Satans empire be overthrown We answer Never for just so longs there are men and women enough on this earth to constitute an em pire Satans will be right there It was hero thousands of years before any Jesus or his empire were ever heard of and it will be here thous ands of years after thoy are forgotten Then Jesus ran off and left his empire in care of Satan and has not been seen or heard of since So Satan lies hud to look after them both Ho is a faithful old servant and is al ways at his post No danger of his skipping out Since the day he told Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden that they should not surely die he has been right hero and intends to stay A dozen more men like Jesus mny come and go it willnot interfere with Satans empire a particle All that he would do would bo to take them up to tho highest pinnacle of tho Brooklyn Tabernacle and dare them to jump off Then how very small it looks in estimation of all honest unprej udiced people to see and hear of gettingpreaching myths visions and dreams ofan old Spiritualist like John the Revelator as tho inspired teachingitAgainassigned to Satan that they call Hell and that ho rules and reigns there in Johnthedownfrombind him for a thousand years Now wo ask In case Satan has an em pire all to himself why did not tho angel go there to look for him in notthe t pine was f Tim truth is the Revelator empireawaywhere Satan was and ho comes to theIright place exactly to find him Then ministersintelligentwhere such a place is located f And where is the sense in keeping suchrn place locked BERRYNatl GRANDADDY LONGLEGS Gran daddy LongLegs I found him Asittin on our garden wall I longButAn where ho is I want to sit Right where the Honeysuckle Vine Has saved a little place for me Sos I can smell italljh time I guess hes wonderin bout his legs spectsThatsS cause he cant member which comes nee An mebbe hes got rhcumatiz All Grandpas have that His legs see look jus like bentup yonIMy knee Grampas got some in But when I helped him wif a leafLHe came an walked right up my arm grounICause then I splained it all to him How rheumatiz makes you go slow An if he didnt hurry home His youknow Mary Louise Tompkins in Harp ers Weekly FAIR PLAY Mamma said the little boy the day after Christmas as he lay in bed dutifully took the paregoric and other things you said yesterday that I poorlittlemuch candy and cake and things as I got didnt you f Yes dear poorlittlodayfJudges The Blade is LibraryIfor a strenuous its friends to give all possible agement in spreading the encourIlight of Freethought over the WINTER TOURIST TICKETS TO THE SOUTHand SOUTHEAST ON SALE DAILY v QUEEN CRESCENT ROUTE GOOD RETURNING UNTIL MAY 31st 1910 For rail Particulars call or write 80 KING P ft T A L St Kj HiSONOF A GHOST II Who was conceived by the Ghost born of the Virgin Mary HolyI The Apostles Creed If a revival preacher wore to goI about in this age pretending to be tho Messiah ho would in all proba t bility end his days in the lunatio asylum We are aware that Piggott pretends to be the Messiah but he does not go about preaching he cludes himself in the Agapemono and devotes himself with a number of ladies to obeying the commandment ofIILove one anotherIt is very unlikely that a paripatctic Messiah would found a powerful sect that a vast literature would accumulate around his memory or that his devotees would gradually repudiate his human parentage and assert his trance into the world by a supernatural process of generation Great changes have taken place since the beginning of the Christian era Superstition still exists but it is less gross and active Sporadic miracles still occur in the most benighted parts l of Catholic countries but to the ma jority of Catholics and nearly the whole of Protestants a miracle is a thing of the past The order of na ture once so frequently broken is now invariable Faith turns its face to antiquity and reads its charter in the dubious records of ignorant and credulous ages No man in his senses would believe that a child was born last week or last year without a father but many men who in other respects are ra tional believe that such a prodigy once existed and are perfectly ready to regard those who are sceptical on I this point as heretics and blasphemers deserving of punishment in this 1world and everlasting torture in the next At this time of the year they are accustomed to thinkof Jesus Christ tha Virgin Mary and the j Holy Ghost They hear sermons on the Nativity They stimulate a faith which is possibly waning They do not reexamine the grounds of their faith they simply hear the old story retold and go away convinced that what is related with such confidence must be true For the moment they have no doubt about it Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and his other parents was the Holy Ghost Now the Holy Ghost is only a ghost and that such a shadowy personage should beget a lusty boy is enough to stagger the stoutest credulity If God had not said it wrote old Donne I would never have believed itI And if God did say it we have something to go upon Jesus Christ himself in the whole of the gospels never so much as alludes to his supernatural birth Nor was it suspected by his countrymen who regarded him as an ordinary carpenter with several brothers and sisters Even the Apos les were ignorant of it if we are to rely upon the Acts Joseph and Mary give us no firsthand testimony Ev erything is related in the third person by the evangelists And who were they Not a man on the face of the earth is able to answer this question God only knows at least no one else does where when and by whom the four gospels were written This much is certain and admitted by every scholar that the gospels as we have them did not come from the pens of Jesus Christs apostles Earlier docu ments may have existed and probably did but we know not their actual contents yet judging from St Pauls epistles they could hardly have contained a tithe of the miraculous stuff which the church preserved as the II Life of Christ Orthodox Christians are fond of claring that the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ was predicted by the prophet IsaiahII Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son the prophet says according to the Au r thorized Version The word Almah however does not mean a virgin but a young woman and thus it cannot have the slightest reference to the Virgin Birth of Christ Besides it is evident that Isaiah saw person ally to the fulfillment of his own prophecy He did not leave it to oth er men or future ages What is the real evidence that Jesus Christ was born without a human father t The presumption is in favor of any baby having two earthly par ents and evidence to the contrary must be as strong as the alleged fact is extraordinary Mark and Johnthat is the sec ond and fourth gospels say nothing whatever about the miraculous con ception and birth of Christ and their silence seems to balance the loquacity of Matthew and Luke who do not pretend to bo giving firsthand testi mony Luke indeed avows in his preamble that he is only putting into n literary form what has been hand I ed down and Matthew might have made exactly the same confession From the very nature of the case all who first promulgated the story of Jesus Christs father being a ghost themsolvlsInever a wordon the subject It may be argued that he told his apostles privately but how on this theory can we account for the silence of John Joseph is said to have been engaged to Mary and to have been shocked by her premature maternal appearance indeed he resolved to breathe engagement Supposing this to be true it may prove that Joseph was not the prospective babys father but it cannot prove who was its fath er It is said that Joseph was subsequently satisfied But how was he satisfied An angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that the baby was the offspring of the Holy Ghost a personage by the way with whom Joseph like every other Jew of that time was totally unacquainted so that instead of allaying his appreh- ensIOns it would only have increased his perplexity In any case the celestial visitor appeared to Joseph in a dream consequently the story itself is but a dream A man finds his sweetheart in the state in which ladies love to be who love their lordsbefore she has a lord He knows he is not tho cause of the phenomenon he is puzzled and grieved and he resolves to leave her to the other gentleman But he goes to bed and dreams that her condition is miraculous ho wakes up satisfied and marries her All this is very in teresting and proves him to be a very goodnatured man But it proves nothing else His evidence would be absolutely worthless in any court of lawMary of course knew the father of the child But she did not tell Joseph she let him find it out in a dream Neither to our knowledge did she tell anyone else On one casion when Mary Jesus and Joseph were all three together she spoke to Jesus of Joseph as thy father Now this should be cient for a person of common intelligence and common decency Marys authority is quite good enough Her wordought to settle tho question Luke tells us without telling us who informed him that the angel briel who visited Mary as the herald of the third person of the Trinity said to her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee Now these overshado wings are familiar to the students of ancient history and mythology A priest sometimes duced a pretty woman to spend the night in a temple on the pretence that the god was in love with her and it is conceivable of course though we should be sorry to assert it that Mary was the victim of a similar imposition In other cases the deity actually took a physical form witness the multitudinous amours of tho gods of the ancient pantheon One wonders therefore whether the incarnation of Jesus Christ The story of the son of a ghost will stand no chance in the world to day It is an inheritance from ignorant and superstitious times Marys misfortune was a posthumous libel According to the gospels them selves the Jews believed that Jesus Christ if he ever existed was born in lawful wedlock When the dogma of his divinity was established the story of his being the son of a ghost was devised to support it ands avatars or incarnations of deity in the form of men were universally credited both the story and the dogma gained a ready acceptance and ministered to the success of the Christian faith The time was bound to come however when men would be sensible enough to see that the birth of Jesus Christ without a human father was only half a miracle To complete the miracle he should have been born without a motherG W Foote in London Freethinker Honesty is better than holiness The biggest trust is the steal trust It is hard to tell where money will go that is left in a will A hcavn on earth is worth two in the sky or anywhere else A hotwater bottle is a better thing to have in the house than a Bible No man who fears a God can fully appreciate tha world he lives in Give the world more comforts and it will not need so much consolation- It is bad for the poor t rb tho rich but worse for the rich to rob tho poor It is true that man is an animal but he is expected to be a decent ani malWhen you say you love your fellowman say it so that people can see it Religion says to morality I am holier than thou But morality is a better foundation for human life In a series of articles upon the subject The Highest Deityof the 1 In AM + 3r MMjyWvWvWvM MvW J i i 19091909 i i Volumeot o o Containing Fiftytwo Copies of The Blade and all handsomely i bound in Blue Buckram with gold letters Z 300 Reduced from last years price 300 4 0s0ti A STILL BETTER OFFER i 3For Five New Subscribers For Five New Subscribers 4 2 We will send ONE COPY of the Bound Volume i i FREE OF COST + To any person sending us five new subscribers in one club at the regular rates before Dec 31 1909 2 THE CLUB IS PREFERABLE GET UP ONE SECURE A COPY FREE y tBLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington Kr f 12 Church it was noticeable that no writer suggested that it might be to take a large docs of strychnine Such an omission shows little knowledge of the churchs history Suppose that Romanism should try to manifest its antagonism to free free schools in the United States in the same way that it did in Spain when it pursued Ferrer to his death what apology would our crooked pol iticians make for this enemy f twen tieth century civilization The les son which every European nation teaches us is Beware of Roman Cath olio majorities IIJK W in Truth Seeker CLAUSENS BIBLE CLASS QUIZS The Philosophical Bible Class text book II Bible Myths and Their Par allels in Other Religions by Doane Lesson for January 1910 Chistian Symbols Chapter xxxiii from page 343 to page 347 Q1 What sign or symbol did Anu II a deity who stood at the head of Babylonian mythology have Q 2 What symbol did the Baby lonian god Baal have Q 3 In the British Museum can be seen a large tablet from Nimrods time Who is represented on it and what is seen hanging on his breast f Q 4 Another king from the ruins of Nineveh wears what kind of a 5 Which is the most common of crosses and where does it occur re peatedlyQ And what was the form of standards carried by the Persians during their wars with Alexander the Great It C 335 Q 7 What form did the ancient Romans standards have Q 8 Of very ancient antiquity a basrelief showing a Persian king II BaharamQour and his standard bearers we see a standard in the form of what Q 9 Tell us about Sir Roberts discoveries of crosses in Persia Q 10 Ancient coins from Asia nor have what kind of emblems on 11 Describe the rosary emblem of Phoenician coins Q 12 Arc these rosary emblems on the coins like those used now by the Lamas of Tibet and China the Hindoos and the Roman Catholics Q 13 Tell us in what ruins Dr Clark found a Phoenician medal on which was engraved a cross a rosary and a 14 Could ancient Etruscans emblems used on their tombs answer perfectly for a Christian cemetery- Q 15 Was the cross adored by the ancient Greeks and Romans centuries before the Augustan era Q 10 An ancient inscription with a Calvary cross was found where Q 17 A Greek cross of equal arms adorn the tomb of what ancient king Q 18 Did the Christian Father Minucius Felix in his reply to the Pagan Romans deny the adoration of the cross and then accuse tho Pagan Romans of worshipping cross es and wooden gods and mint out that their victorious trophies not only represented a cross but a cross with a man upon it Q 19 29G B C the cross was on the roll of the Roman soldiery a sign of what Q 21 State the name of tho ceme r 144oo i A i OniA I Searchlight Y i A A 20Page Liberal tA MonthlyAA Ao iPublished by J D SHAW Waco Texas A AAi A Single Copies 10 Cents A YYa copy sent free y Y J tery which confirms that more than a thousand years B C the cross was already a religious emblem of fre quent employment- Q 22 Was the cross a sacred em blem among the ancient Scandinavians Q 23 What was the Scandinavian cross called Q 24 The Cross of Thor is still used where Q 25 When the Laplanders mark ed their idols with the cross what did they use Q 26 Tell us how the Druids of Britain of Ireland and Scotland handed down their veneration of the cross to us A J CLAUSEN 1000 BOOR for 100 1Wff mall oa rtcelpt off IJO BLUE GRASS BLADE Palmers Box Lextazton Kv 1TWO NOTED BOOKS IFENNEL In THE Charles Chilton Moore When a young man the author had started out to walk through the Holy Lands on foot Reaching Parts he gave up the journey and returned home He made the trip by rail and boat about three years before his death This book gives an account of what ho 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 SEciDSBuckbees Full Northern Pedigreed Seeds have a reputation years a growing behind them It pays it the Seasonable Specialties BEANS Earliest Valentine Extra Early Stringless pod 370 Wardwells Imp Wax frsDavis White Wax Curries Rust Wax 450 PEAS Extra Early Alaska New Early Gradus 550 Herefords Market Garden 350 Buckbees Lightning Express 500 Lettuce Tomato and a line Seeds Plants and at VOwing prices for catalogue or submit a your requirements quote prices the growerSave Write today this paper H W BUCKBEE Hopkins Bleaching Gloves uo arumulroburwe weoTa Jan ar UoIIO4Iltrhl- BoJRllbE 0l8o flely iwwuw 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 Ky BILLS AVENUE makes you cheerful and thoughtful It Haperson department In the WHEEL OF LIFE that grows on yi u You and yourself waiting with Interest for what Bill has to say next RN flWBRIOrtN- MftDONNfVlsftser WHEELjfiLLMary Ives Todd the ablest wrltsr of fiction since Grant Allen and Is a beautiful presentation of the essentially modern problem Woman In Business THE WH BBL OF LIFE A monthly periodical It deals with ORIGINS the orlaln of Marriage of Ethics of Religion of Dr other hood of the belief In Immortality It treats broadly of Love of Human Instincts and Ideals It takes the whole Wheel of Life treating all subjects In suchaclear plain and spicy way that the dust it shaken out and they become as In teresting as a novel to even the casual reader Bend cents for a six months trial subscription or a quarter for a year CONFESSIONS 0 F IR DRONpby Joseph MedfllPattereon BROTHER OF THE RICH sent without extra chare a wltha- 6neonthstrial nubsorlptlon to the WHEEL OFL1FK Address LIFE PUB CO Desk AI St Louis Mo Correspondence Having a Gay Time Lineville Iowa December 30 09 Brother Hughes The top of the morning to you Jimmy I am enclosing some MSS that will tell for them selves Having a gay old time through the Ottmnwa Courier on the Sunday question I was delighted to get the discussion going in this paper One Christian woman Iunderstand threw her Courier into the stove I keep spreading a little further and each time fear that my last may be my last but the editor seems to hi Jimmie dont become afraid of Freethought still look out for th thumb screws I see on your mailing list you havnt moved my date up though I paid up early in November But perhaps when you get time you will fix it Very trulyA A SNOW Must Keep the Blada Going James E Hughes Find check for years subscription If the foregoing the waste basket send me 25 Imisses containing it for distribution will pay for them at your rates We must keep the thins going This is a hot bed of orthodoxy But we are making inroads insomuch that we cant get an argument much less a debate Twenty years ago when I came here the church was rampant The preachers reared up and cavort ed about Voltaire and Tom Paine they called him Now they never mention such men They say it does no good to argue That Gods cause suffers by agitation Wishing you personally a Happy New Year I am very trulyC R LEWIS Likes Our New Duds DENNISON OJas E Hughes Dear Sir and Comrade I like the Blade just as well in the old duds as well as the new Long live the Blade and the founders memory I am glad the Blade is such a lively corpse I was opposed to a change ofname The Blue Grass Blade is the proper name Old Charley christened it and I hope it will not only always live and hurl hot shot in the camp of superstition but that the name which has spread both far and wide will al ways stand at its head with the grand old Romans picture whiskers and all Charlie Moore will never die as long as that good picture keeps its place Now Brother Hughes Ill try and get a few subscribers for you and in the meantime mv wife and I are going to Fort 1Ifyers Florida for three months Will you please send oiir paper there for that time instead of Dennison With kind regards and best wishes for Blue Grass Blade and thyself I am ever thineGEO 0 ROBERTS Looks Like Old Times ELKTON KYDear Brother Jim I enclose you check for 750 toI put my subscription paid to March 5th 1910 I never intend to get be hind again I am a physician and very busy and would forget and neglect it is the only reason I can give for not sending my dues more promptly to the Blade I beg your pardon and promise to do better in the future It looks quite like old times to see it coming in the old form with old brother Moores face up in the northwest corner of it I have always been greatly pleased with the new form but if circumstances are such at the present that it must be published in the sheet form let it conic The Truth and Facts are what we want I have been a reader of the Blade some sixteen or seventeen years and have tried to keep on file all the copies I could While Inever have time to reread one still they are dear enough for the truth they contain that they are not destroyed as some day they may fall into the hands of some one else who may wish to read them The day has come now when the more intelligent class are demanding to know the facts as near as possible that concerns us in this life rather than blind faith and superstitious- lies We find lots of truths in the bibles we know they are truthsbut- we read ten times more lies than we do the truth in the same book Science demonstrates that thev are false assertions The majority of mankind who accept the bible are honestly deceived A great number however who pretend or say they believe in all it says and teaches are acting the hypocrite straight for some motive to gratify their own selfish interest not caring for the good of truth that it might do others Thous ands of people who believe the bible is the inspired word of God are strictly honest and would gladly and bravely work against its false teach ings if they could once see that they are deluded The paper and print are fine in this weeks issue and I feel sure that it will continue to do its work for truth and the uplifting of mankind as it has for so many years I am go ing to try to get up a club list and send you soon I used to send them in Wishing you and the coworkers of the dear old Blade a prosperous and happy new year I remain yours for the good of mankindALVA T M KINNEY M D Been Knocked Out PRINCETON INDNo doubt you will think me very dilatory with reference to speaking out about our organization Will say I have hew so knocked out for the last eighteen mucheheart to talk much less write I cer tainly was pleased to read the resolu tion that my Socialist local adopted with reference to the way Hulman d Co at Terre Haute Ind treated me in the dear old Blade I have been out of work ever since they snatched the territory in which I worked at a loss for a number of years intro ducing their goods I tried to reason with them and show them that they had no rights to the territory what ever That I had made the territory what it was and that we were simply copartners on my sales I might drop a hint right here and say I hope when we get our organization perfected that no firm or grafter will come along and buy or browbeat our lead ers off as was done in my case And I may get in the notion some of these days to give the public the facts in regard to the most diabolical con spiracy that was ever perpetrated against any man through the Blue Grass Blade Of course I understand that the Hulmans had to dissolve our copart nership after they were informed of my being a Socialist provided they wanted to be in good standing and full fellowship in the Catholic church You sec the Pope and priest alike tell their dupes that Socialism will do away with their church and so far as I can see the Socialist movement will ben little binding on all creeds grafts churches and hold upsNow then a few words with reference to our organization and I will drop my pen for this time Will say I am strictly in favor of us organizing it gives such a leveredge to be organized We can through a com mittee ask for certain legislation Then again should one of our members be singled out and imposed upon as I was by that Catholic bunch at Terre Haute we could call their atten tion to tho fact that there was an organization back of our brother and that to continue the abuse against our brother might earn them a graceful record upon our Secretarys books Must closeW C DALY Reply to Geo W Lesson LINEVILLE lOWAEditor Blue- Grass Blade With your permission I will endeavor to reply to the questions asked me by Mr Leeson in your Blade of December 12th were asked in regard to my letterto Rev Powell challenging him to prove in debate that Infidelity is born from the pithell as he had affirmed In the first place I wish to say that if the Rev Powell intends to debate- it takes him a mighty long time to load his guns Mr Leeson s questions with my an swers are as follows 1 Please kindly advise us Mr Snow how we as Freethinkers can consistly take exceptions to Rev Powells denominating us heirs of the pit or bells hatchings while we contend that heaven hells gods ghosts and devils are fabulous farcesAnswerOn the ground that his statements was not true and on that ground only The fight would be tween falsehood and fact and not tween Powell and Snow The latter two could only pose as attorneys for the former And as to whether I could expect anything better from him than his affirmation believing as he and I do would have nothing to do with the question The unfair ness and unjustness feature of his proposition grows out of the fact that orthodoxy cannot allow for an opponent the sincerity and honesty that it claims for itself branding as it does all motives that are not Christian including those of the en tire heathen world as born from a source void of any good whatever This I think my letter plainly showed 2 How are you going to defend your protest against being closely related to one of the twin sisters Socialism hatched in the pit hell after admitting it a terrible reflection against the characters of the Freethinkers of the world AnswerI made no protest against the charge of being related to Socialism For aught I know Socialism may be infidelity It might be infi + H N N N N N N N N N N H + H N + H N I P + + + + + + t Mans Origin and DestinyaBy Dr A Hausrnan Alameda California f This is the Greatest Book of modern time son the theory of Evolution applied to Sociology hasXU willshortly be issued in book form by the Blue Gras Blade making a book of nearly 600 pages The author dedicated it to Prof Ernst Haeckel and tlu great Jena philosopher has accepted the dedication + j 200 200 i Subscribe Now and Save Money I All charges of postage will be prepaid upon advance subscriptions The first chapters tfollowNow Subscribe Now tIJ3scribe JAMS E HUGHES Lexington Kyi3 i +It t Vdelity and yet never prove the eman cipator its friends believe it to be Just like Mohammedianism is infidel ity to Christianity and yet not true I was not so much ashamed of So cialism as Col Maple was of Infidelity I simply proposed to deny that Infidelity was born of the pit hell a source void of virtue or innocence 3 Is not this an admission on your part that hell exists and is a place of depravity AnswerNo Mr Leeson says yes Then I will show he is a witness for Christianity Say he is brought before the court of the Holy Inquisition under the charge as ad ministrator of a certain estate of being in league with the devil The au gust judge asks Do you plead guilty or not guilty Now if Mr Leeson pleads guilty he di rectly admits there is a devil If he pleads not guilty ho implicitly ad mits there is one So either way we have this Infidel standing up for Jesus for he has to either admit or deny the proposition 4 How do you justify your de nunciation of Rev Powells pit as being unfair unjust and untrue being born or prejudic- eAnswerPrejudice means an opin ion or belief held or formed before there is an adequate amount of dence presented to logically justify that opinion How do I justify such a charge against Christianity Why what is the matter with Powell now sneaking off in the brush lest he gets all the evidence before the people 5 And then you denominate So cialism as an ignis fatus etc Now Mr Snow was not ignis fatus born of your prejudice AnswerWhy does he ask me that question And is he willing to take my word for it Does he not know that of all the unpleasant features of prejudice she is always clothed in the garb of honesty When one is convinced of prejudice on his part that moment does the prejudice take wings and fly away So my reply to the question is I dont know I believe Socialism would not be a suc cess but a test might convince me otherwise 6 A more terrible reflection against Socialism then Rev Powells pit hell is against Freethought I judge Is it not as unfair unjust and as untrau- eAnswerTo say that Socialism was born of hell is to cast reflec tion on the characters of the found ers while to say it will not work on ly accuses them of being mistaken 7 Is not your golden streets and jasper walls far fetched or thrown into emphasize your prejudice AnswerI think not Powell had affirmed that Socialism was Infidelity I was an Infidel But Infidel as Iwas I looked at Socialism as nearer Chris tianity in the one feature viz that it like Christianity was mythical as to final results and I trust my Social ist friends will not feel agrieved at my methods of expressing it for I have naught but the kindest of feel ings for them and may vote their ticket when I see more truth and propriety in it than in the others in the field Now I will admit that the question- I challenged the preacher to debate was not exactly fundamental as touching his religion but rather an inference drawn from it yet withal- a perfectly proper question I had two reasons for debating it as stated 1 You dont know how modest I am I am so modest that I am a little slow at challenging another for discussion without it be where he began on me first Even Pat had to give an excuse for scratching his head in company His excuse was Faith but the bastards began on me first And second It was the preachers own affirmation and it put him right where I wanted him It put him in all kinds of trouble and I havent much sympathy for preachers if Iam modest I have often put them right where this preacher put himselfand when they see the storm ahead snow storm they try to squirm out of it But there is no squirming when they put themselves thereA A SNOW A PIOUS PROPOSITION By Harold Banning- It is now generally admitted that Christianity must be abandoned and the question immediately arises What will take its place The religionists are anxious to re place it with some kind ofa new Rationalists are equally deter mined to replace it with scientific rationalismA ago the etPresident of Harvard set forth his views on the new religion His statements immediately aroused the anger of the preachers and all kinds of Christian insults were hurled at him After amusing the world for a few days with their ignorant godtwaddle they saw their mistake and ceased But tho question still remains un answered What will take the place of dead Christianity- As a Rationalist I am opposed to all forms of religion knowing that they are all based on the shattered godtheory and believing that they are all equally degrading to the human mind why abolish one relig ion and replace it with another surd godtheory But since the religionists demand some kind of a religion with god worship and absurd ceremonies I shalloffer my advice for what it is worth I have just discovered a good cheap religion one that will not oppress the people and at the same time will furnish them with a visible god It is said that some savages wor ship mud believing that it contains the holy spirit While such a method of worship is repulsive to Freethinkers it is certainly better than the Christian method of worshipping an invisible god Mudworship is a kind of pan theism and has many advantages over Christianity It would furnish plenty of good cheap god It would do away with churches prayermon gers and all the expensive trappings- of Christianity It would relieve poverty and beautify cities by plac ing the streams of cash in the right channels Many towns are today neg lecting their streets and public prop erty in order that they may support large churches with their trains of janitors and prayermongers Many families are denying them selves the little luxuries of life for the same reason In some cases chil dren go to bed hungry that the churches may thrive The preachers get the grocers money and the grocer gets into deep water Every town furnishes such examples They ire pitiful but common sights To illustrate this I shall refer to my own town Mi Vernon is a place of about 12000 inhabitants Nine churches prey upon the people and there is talk of building more Thousands of dol tars are wasted in maintaining these temples of superstition This money if properly used would beautify and improve the town in many ways The town needs paved streets and a sewer the religionists hear this argument they throw up their hands and explain II But the churches lead people to God They also say that god is omnipresent therefore the sewer would also lead to God However logic cant appeal to religionists and the churches still thrive although many frankly admit that the town cant afford a god Mt Vernon 0 TWO SUNDAYS A WEEK Many people have an idea that I am opposed to Sunday Iam per fectly willing to have two a week All I insist on is that those days shall be for the benefit of the people and that they shall be kept not in a way to make folks miserable or sad or hungry but in a way to make people happy and to add a little to the joy of life Of course I am in favor of everybody keeping holidays to suit himself provided he does not inter fere with others and I am perfectly willing that everybody should go to churchon that day provided he is willing that I should go somewhere else Ingersoll TO THE PARSONS There is not a poet a writer a tphilosopher a thinker that you ac cept All that has been written dis covered dreamt deduced illuminat ed imagined invented by geniuR the treasures of civilization the sec ular heritage of the generations the common patrimony of human intelli gences you reject this And you claim the liberty to teach Hold let us be sincere let us under stand what is the liberty that you claim It is the liberty NOT fc you wish us to give you the people to instruct Very well Let us see your pupils Let us see your productions What have you made of Italy What have you made of Spain Victor Hugo SEX EQUALITY IN FINLAND When you feel like grumbling at the advancement of women in Amer ica and their evident determination to stand on an equal footing with men do not imagine that you have discov ered something new In a corner of Europe the subject was thrashed out years ago and set tled In Finland while the women cannot vote no other door is barred to them Behind the counter at the bank you will often find a woman Women attendants only are found on sleeping cars there are many women street car conductors In married life husband and wife share each others property Infidelity is sin for a man as much as for a woman divorce is raro and the righteous party invariably holds the children and the prop erty while society closes its doors to the doer ofevil No sex equality has not made of Finland a second Eden The country- in the grip of Russian is anything but that But it is a fact that the rise of woman has not harmed men nor has it coarsened women They love and bear children as they did before They seek education and find it but it has not made them the worse mothers Almost universal education has advanced the type of Finishwomen In colleges they stand shoulder to shoulder with males Their brains are as keen or keener their wits as fine and their steadiness in the pur suitof knowledge something to ad mireand emulate Among 212 fellows that compose that organization of fine minds the Royal Geographical Society of Fin land 73 are women When your wife joins a club and the girls yearn for a career dont nag or throw cold water on advanced ideas Dont prate abut a womans sphere being at home Nine times in ten she has brains enough to discover her own sphere CLEVELAND FREETHOUGHT SOCIETY TO GIVE PAINE BANQUET The new Freethought Society of Cleveland plans a Paine Celebration on Saturday evening Jan 29th 1910 when they will hold a Banquet at the Forest City House Cleveland A lunch and a program of addresses is being arranged and the Liberals of Cleveland and vicinity are looking forward to the event with great pleas ure T C Jefferies is Chairman of the Committee having the banquet in charge and he would be glad to have all Liberals in Cleveland and vicinity join with them on this occasion Mr Jefferies will be glad to furnish tick ets at 50 cents a plate- T C JEFFERIES 1612 Ansel Road Cleveland 0 TWENTYFIVE DOLLARS FOR A JESUS In a wholesale idol house and man ufactory of small idols is a workman whom I examined for life insurance Ho is a Catholic but not a really good one In answering the ques tion What is your occupation I was told that he was a moulder of images I ventured to ask him about the work and trade in these imagesIand led him out extensively on the subject He laughed at his own nar ration and said that all a man had to do to rid himself of superstition is just to trade in it He said ho had just completed three Jesuses which were to be shipped to the city of Mexico These Jesucea were about two feet How much do you of that size said I longITwentyfive dolln plied The trade in images in this country must be something enormous run ning up into many millions yearly These very people are sending mis rionaries to the heathen with the view primarily of changing their beliefs but their real intent is to displace heathen idols and switch their pat ronage to those of their own make With the heathen world converted to Christianity there is a billion dollars in sight in the trade of images alone If there be a God why dont he pro tect the poor heathen from these idolatrous priests of prey J B WILSON Dr Cook is a recent addition to the ranks of those who see the sound ness of the doctrine preached by the Blade that II truth crushed to earth will rise again