[* "If Robert G. Ingersoll indulges in blasphemy to-night in his
lecture, as he has in other places and in this city before, he
will be arrested before he leaves the city." So spoke Rev. Irwin
H. Torrence, General Secretary of the Pennsylvania Bible Society,
yesterday afternoon to a _Press_ reporter. "We have consulted
counsel; the law is with us, and Ingersoll has but to do what he
has done before, to find himself in a cell. Here is the act of
March 31, 1860:
"'If any person shall willfully, premeditatedly and despitefully
blaspheme or speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, Christ
Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of Truth, such person,
on conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding
one hundred dollars, and undergo an imprisonment not exceeding
three months, or either, at the discretion of the court.'"
Last evening Colonel Ingersoll sat in the dining room at Guy's
Hotel, just in from New York City. When told of the plans of Mr.
Torrence and his friends, he laughed and said: ]
I did not suppose that anybody was idiotic enough to want me arrested
for blasphemy. It seems to me that an infinite Being can take care
of himself without the aid of any agent of a Bible society. Perhaps
it is wrong for me to be here while the Methodist Conference is in
session. Of course no one who differs from the Methodist ministers
should ever visit Philadelphia while they are here. I most humbly
hope to be forgiven.
_Question_. What do you think of the law of 1860?
_Answer_. It is exceedingly foolish. Surely, there is no need
for the Legislature of Pennsylvania to protect an infinite God,
and why should the Bible be protected by law? The most ignorant
priest can hold Darwin up to orthodox scorn. This talk of the Rev.
Mr. Torrence shows that my lectures are needed; that religious
people do not know what real liberty is. I presume that the law
of 1860 is an old one re-enacted. It is a survival of ancient
ignorance and bigotry, and no one in the Legislature thought it
worth while to fight it. It is the same as the law against swearing,
both are dead letters and amount to nothing. They are not enforced
and should not be. Public opinion will regulate such matters. If
all who take the name of God in vain were imprisoned there would
not be room in the jails to hold the ministers. They speak of God
in the most flippant and snap-your-fingers way that can be conceived
of. They speak to him as though he were an intimate chum, and
metaphorically slap him on the back in the most familiar way
possible.
_Question_. Have you ever had any similar experiences before?
_Answer_. Oh, yes--threats have been made, but I never was arrested.
When Mr. Torrence gets cool he will see that he has made a mistake.
People in Philadelphia have been in the habit of calling the citizens
of Boston bigots--but there is more real freedom of thought and
expression in Boston than in almost any other city of the world.
I think that as I am to suffer in hell forever, Mr. Torrence ought
to be satisfied and let me have a good time here. He can amuse
himself through all eternity by seeing me in hell, and that ought
to be enough to satisfy, not only an agent, but the whole Bible
society. I never expected any trouble in this State, and most
sincerely hope that Mr. Torrence will not trouble me and make the
city a laughing stock.
Philadelphia has no time to waste in such foolish things. Let the
Bible take its chances with other books. Let everybody feel that
he has the right freely to express his opinions, provided he is
decent and kind about it. Certainly the Christians now ought to
treat Infidels as well as Penn did Indians.
Nothing could be more perfectly idiotic than in this day and
generation to prosecute any man for giving his conclusions upon
any religious subject. Mr. Torrence would have had Huxley and
Haeckel and Tyndall arrested; would have had Humboldt and John
Stuart Mill and Harriet Martineau and George Eliot locked up in the
city jail. Mr. Torrence is a fossil from the old red sandstone of
a mistake. Let him rest. To hear these people talk you would
suppose that God is some petty king, some Liliputian prince, who
was about to be dethroned, and who was nearly wild for recruits.
_Question_. But what would you do if they should make an attempt
to arrest you?
_Answer_. Nothing, except to defend myself in court.
--_Philadelphia Press_, May 24, 1884.