Freethought Ideal and Vindicator du lieu suivant : Ottawa, Kansas • 3

The Fbeethought Ideal. Wisconsin; to write passionate poems, to suggest teat you steer clear, of dogma. For it seems that the word infidel" if that "lone widowers" appeal for a wife, drag ged into your inner conciousness the idea of and for what a viperous return! How could you do so? But that you are still young, on paper, I could believe; that you had begun to think of the "next world" and to "lay up treasures" beginning to show first, that strongest characteristic of true believers," the disposition to throw sneers, jeers and insinuations at them who differ with them in either quantity or quality of "faith," Such melancholy examples incline one to dub religious faith, mother of hate, misunderstanding and misrepresentation. But cheer up, we all stumble and sometimes tumble, and there is comfort in the thought that infidel women, sometimes assisted by poets of passion, are so busily breaking up and cleaning from the path of man's advancement, the snags and boulders of religious dogmatism that in trie next generation, poets will stand in little danger of accidents, such as have befallen you. With best wishes and regrets, your friend, W.

Clark, Allerton, Iowa. Keep a Going. often go to bed with an empty stomach, garnished with a supply of remorse. But you are eighteen, and if you wish to cast your lot with Mortality, and become an ex-preacher's wife, I have only this to say, you make your bed, so in" it you must Mortality, I flew in the face of this advice and now I must bear the consequence, and the grim thoughts that you were too truthful, too honest, to take $15,000 to tell the dear. people lies.

Ex-Rev. C. Moore and Ex-Rev. J. D.

Shaw and you would make a fine triangle. All as poor as old rooster soup, Now had you been smart enough to have picked the "golden fleece from the lambs of your flock" we might have been faring better, but alas My How I wish certain Ex-Revs, were my husbands. I would give them a good round piece of my mind, and urge them on to lie for god's glory and the cash, rather than tell the cold truth for colder remuneration. Should you evsr take a tumble to yourself, Mortality, and return to your church I want you to "keep a going." If you strike thorn or rose, Keep a goin' If it hails or if it snows. -Keep a goin'L 'Taint no use to sit and whine When the fish ain't on your line; Bait your hook an' keep a tryin' Keep a goin'! When the weather kills your crop.

Keep" a goin' When you tumble from the top, Keep a goin'! 'Spose you're out of every dime. Gittin' broke ain't any crime, Tell the world you're feelin'. fine. Keep 0 goin' I When it looks like all is, up, Keep a goin'! Drain the sweetness from the cup, iKeep a goin'! See the wild birds on the wing, 4 Hear the bells that sweetly "ring, When you feel like sighin' singiri-r-Keep a goin1. When religion gets too thin, Keep a goin' Remember you are after tin Keep a goin'.

Then Roxy slept. Ex-Rev. Old Mortality. dogma, and on that rock you split. While you go on thz even tenor of your way, without thinking of such disturbing things, you are quite likely, as, ever, to say sometimes, many sensible, and even, heretical things, but beware of dogmas and their concomitant prejudices.

Are you really sure that the "most re-pellant object to you on earth is an infidel woman?" How about the woman saturated with the "religious faith" 4 you seem to set such store by. In the confessional, her modesty womanhood her very humanity abused, degraded, cowering at the feet of a fat, celibate priest? And what of the poor female slaves of Methodism, say, scrubbing out the filthy temples, begging from door to door, running fairs, donation parties, selling kisses and hugs for god's sake, and then submitting themselves, dog like, to exclusion from the clerical and laity banquets and conferences? Perhaps you will say that this is a woman's quarrel, in which the other sex have no right to interfere, but your words, I a man, I would contemplate any existence, however lonely, rather than accept life's companionship with a woman devoid of religious belief," that is, of course, your of religious belief, lets me in the game to remark that you are away off. For it is a fact that if you were a man, like me, you would find that not the absence of religious faith, but the possession of even the small quantity that you can claim, would utterly disqualify any woman, even a very Hebe for looks, as a candidate for a job with me. you are an infidel yourself, to the 1 uncoquid" and if a little 'faith" can so fill a brilliant woman's heart with bigotry and prejudice, what wight not an unfortunate man expect from a "real good" christian woman, as devoid of doubts as a mill pond is of fire brands, and at the same time mediocre and pig-headed? Horrible! the thought. But, honest, don't you really admit, to yourself, that with all your genius, you are a mere scintillating firefly, compared to those steadilly shining great lights of Frances Wright, Mary Wols-stoncraft, Hariet Martineau.

George Eliot. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. An- -N thony, Matilda Jocelyn Gage? And infidel women, too, so quick to note your best work, and to give you credit Mortality, before 1 you, my grandmother told me never to consent to become your wife. 'Roxy" she said, "I have long kept an eye upon that young man, Mortality. I find him a trifle too intelligent, too smart to remain long in the pulpit.

Often he appears to labor under mental strains and frequently stops short in the middle of a sermon, just like be was holding some important fact back. At these times his face turns scarlet and he trembles from head to foot. No he won't remain long in the pulpit. I know the symptoms. It won't be long before he renouDes religion and the bible, and proclaims the writters to be a hoard of designing scoundrels.

Now he may reach a point where he will take pleasure in stating that if he owned hell, he would not allow these vile wretches to dwell therein. Dear Roxey, you know your father and grandfather do not bank on the bible, nor take much stock in religion, but they are smart enough to keep their opinions to. themselves and draw their salaries Thousands of preachers do the same, and it is astonishing how they hold the 'rag-tag' and 'bob-tail' in this age of books and newspapers. "But this young Mortality will not' re main long in his pulpit. Mark my words; he is too honest to lie for the glory of god, as the bible recommends its votaries to do: 1 Kings, 23-23.

I fear, should you persist in marrying this young fellow, you would Dan Again. Chicago, 4 13, 1901. Editor Ideal: As you ask for comen-tary on the third chapter of D.miel,es-pecially the twenty-fifth verse, for he hath said" Thou shalt not worship graven images. God proved that assertion by Continued on page 5.