Show i q > TllAT REPLY How the Rev Mr McNiece Vanquished Van-quished the Free Thinker Interesting Account of Interesting Proceedings Editor Herald I attended Mr Brights lecture in reply to Mr McXiece and on Sun das night I went to hear Mr Mc Niece in his rejoinder I will endeavor en-deavor in brief to tell you what I saw on both occasions Mr Bright at the appointed time accompanied by a few friends occupied occu-pied the stage and in a few seconds thereafter Mr Godbe introduced the lecturer with a very brief speech when Mr Bright began and continued to speak until he had commentel seiatiin upon all the points in McNieces letter Taking bis seat Mr Godbe made one quotation quo-tation from Kent and dismissed the audience this was the entire programme on the first occasion just three exercises by two persons per-sons two by one and one by the other I Now under MdNieces management manage-ment see what we had At 740 I Mr McXiece entered on the right accompanied by another clergyman these two being followed immediately i immedi-ately by seven lady chorister3 and a group of gentlemen of a dozen or I more with one organist and several paid singers It reminded me somewhat that old Mormon recitation which quoting quo-ting from the Bible said Seven women to one man shall cling Here was a fulfillment But to proceed After some preliminary chat with the siugers anda considerable display of hymn books and other paraphernalia the assistant clergyman clergy-man announced that the choir would sing a hymn What this had to do with Mr Bright I failed to see It ws done however After this the gentleman immediately announced an-nounced another hymn I was not sure but that this musical exercise was really a reply to Mr Bright arranged especially the occasion It was not however and still we had to take it Up jumped the assistant as-sistant again and announced another an-other hymn Again oar hopes were aroused and again we looked for the annihilation of Mr Bright but alas twas ever thus The hymn was sung and not a word in reply to Mr Bright At this juncture vague suspicious arose that there was some ulterior object in this continued singing To our relief at last Mr McNiece jumped UP and seemed as if he meant business but he didnt He picked up a book which turned out to be the Testament and not as we had supposed a memorandum of the points made by Mr Bright for the convenience of an exhaustive ex-haustive answer thereto Her He-r ad us several passages bearing bear-ing upon the subject perhaps but I didnt think so and I dont think he did Down he went and up jumped the assistant whi > gave us the Lords prayer in the latest fashion cut bias with hypocritical trimmings en train and modern furbelows a la worthless such as Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Bosh It was hard enough for us to tell the Lord that we foregive tresspasses but to lie straight out and say that we forgive for-give our debtors is an unpardonable unpardona-ble sin and the preacher knew it It seems to me that nothing but a rush 01 business has prevented the lightning light-ning from scalping some of these pious humbugs when they stand up without even a hat on and lie like that It struck me then that it a preacher once escapes the terrible I ordeal of wilfully telling lies to the great Jehovah the said preacher must ever after be at heart an infidel in-fidel because Ananias and Saphira never economised the truth to any such degree In the case of the latter lat-ter we all recognize that it was a busin ss lie a matter in which dollars and cents were concerned and this we all consider pardonable but what shall be said of a man who goes deliberately and without being asked for ir wickedly and designedly endeavors to deceive his maker on a point about which there need not be a word said No wonder ministers sometimes wander from the path of rectitude after a few weeks practice on the remoddled Lords PI ayer because the only thing which the majority of this class can be made to sense is eternal hellfire and when they tempt it thus and do not even get a smell nothing can scare them But revencns a nos moutons After Af-ter the prayer still another hymn was announced and executed and we began to ask Will he never begin be-gin AhI See the conquering herocomes They had no trumpets trum-pets nor yet drums or we would have had them sure Of course we had no assurance that he would stayalthough he was on his feet and for some few minutes min-utes we expected him to call another an-other hymn but he didnt and for this he has our sincere thanks At last the whole scheme reached our understanding and we saw that the singing was not intended to tire us out as we had thought nor to reply to Mr Bright as we had hoped nor to awake the spirits in some invisible invisi-ble cabinet as we had feared but it had been used simply to brace up the speaker and while we did not admire ad-mire the trick we recognize this prudence for he needed the asist ance of his people as was painly manifested when he superficially and spasmodically endeavored to sting Mr Eriglit with his orthodOX tailpiece At last he thought he had said enough and so did weand he sat downon Bright as he hoped but on himself as we could see But though down he seemed uneasy un-easy and another hymn was announced an-nounced Hello up again I Is this a dagger which I see before be-fore me No tis McNiece who when he collected himself announced i an-nounced that he had not had time to reply to Mr Bright but he would senfl a letter to the Tribune some day this week in which he would show that he was right and Mr Bright was wrong He also assured his audience that he wished Mr Bright was here so that he could have a better chance at him He said he had no time when Mr Bright was here I suppose he would make time now As the hymu was about to be discharged the manager of the Opera House announced that MrIliff the Methodist Method-ist minister had made statements in regard to his intention to reply to Mr Bright which could not be reconciled re-conciled He did nut say that the remarks were untrue but evidently somebody was mad and did every e-very good opinions of some one elses veracity Jesus lover of my soul was then sung and so far as I know the show ended it did for me for I was afraid it might be merely an intermission and I escaped Now I simply submit sub-mit as a proposition in consideration con-sideration of the method of Mr Bright who went directly to his work made his reply and ceased whether Mr Mc iece acted the part of an honorable opponent or not when he arranged for all the circus accompaniments surrounding his alleged reply Was he fair with his audience What aid we want with a lot of singing and prayer Who asked for the organ Who attached the professional singers sing-ers Who wanted the Lords Prayer Were any of these theatrical surroundings sur-roundings necessary to a reply to an absent gentleman who had remained re-mained here nearly a year altogether for such an opportunity as the reverend rev-erend gentleman seems willingly to giant now Mr Bright is on the ocean Fie upon such manhood Pie for shame + A few comments and I have done Mr McNiece said many pretty things of much merit and some pretty things which perhaps he thought were witty evidently they were baits for applause On a Sabbath Sab-bath evening from a Christian minister min-ister people did not know how to take them Being in doubt they paid no attention to them They were right igThe gentleman is not entitled to a consecutive review of his sayings because he did not reply seriatism or otherwise to Mr Bright who adhered ad-hered closely to the courtesies of debate hence if I comment upon one of Mr McJTiecea items and skip others his friends will know the reason Referring to Mr Girard and the clause in his will prohibiting professional pro-fessional Christian ministers from aa entrance to Girard College Mr Niece instead of looking at the matter mat-ter as presented by Mr Bright took occasion to say Mr Girard was a freethought bigot and that his actions were a fair example of those ofall freethinkers Admitting that Mr Girard might have been more liberal let us look at the causa It is generally understood that Mr Girards reasons for his act were as follows He had married a charming charm-ing lady and his soul was given up to her He loved with an intensity almost superhuman and the love was mutual She was his idol his joy and priceless treasure His wealth was dross compared with her pure love and cherished com panionhip She had not the strength of some women but her heart was as pure as an angels She loved I him with girlish love all too pure and tender for this wicked world Having a deep respect for his wifes religious convictions Mr I Girard had encouraged the visits of a clergyman whom the household treated as an honored guest I Absence made necessary by vast business interests caused the loving husband to entrust his heatts jewel in the pastors hands I Returning after a few months the griefstricken wife confessed I her sin and laid it where rightfully belongedupon the representative of Him who taught us to love one another but not that way The husband was morally assassinated assas-sinated His heart was paralysed I Hia poor wife then fully realizing I I her crime although it appears that I details show her really to be almost i if not entirely innocent was stricken down and horror dwelt I i where love had reigned supreme i I In endowing the establishment referred tOJ perhaps he could not forget this If he did not though it were not liberal how supremely human i One more and I am done I wilt not even announce a hymn I Mr McNiece referred to the fact that the dodgers announcing Mr Brights reply mentioned Col R S Ingersoll as Bob I Being done by a friend it had no special significance but Mr McNiece said he thought it very ap propriate I will give 310 for the reason why it is so very appropriate It is altogether different to Mr McNiece saying Tom Payne with the venom of hate upon his tongue How would Bob McNiece sound En Salt Lake City Feb 12th 1SS3 |