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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIEs 
 
AWFUL THOUGHTS 
 
 OR 
 
 TAMING MAN 
 
 ROBERT MORRIS 
 
 A Phenomenon 
 
 That is interesting two 
 
 WORLDS 
 
 Boston 
 
 THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Inc. 
 
13^° 
 
 .VI 
 
 13 
 
 Copyrighted 1917 
 
 % Robert 0. Morris 
 
 Rights Reserved 
 
 JAN 24 1917 
 
 ©CU455333 
 
AWFUL THOUGHTS 
 
 OR 
 
 TAMING MAN 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF CONTENTS 
 By Ray Morris 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface ...... 7 
 
 Manuscript Called in . « . 11 
 
 The Red Hot Hell of War ... 12 
 
 Hell Bent on a Foundation ... 26 
 
 Dauphin Island and the Mad Gulf (Poem) 31 
 
 A Storm at Sea . . (Poem) 33 
 
 The Roar of the Gulf . (Peom) 35 
 
 The Forest King . . (Poem) 37 
 
 Your Thinker Say . (Poem) 39 
 
 Japan's National Defense Association . 41 
 
 The Ass That Talked . (Poem) 44 
 
 The Searchlight Turned On . . . 45 
 
 The Melting Pot Staff ... 53 
 My Early Experiences * . .55 
 
 What is the Banner of Christ? Is It This? 58 
 
 The Theory of the Early Christians . . 63 
 
 Comment and Reason . . . 65 
 
 More About Ghosts .... 68 
 
 But I Have Discovered a Beautiful Truth . 69 
 
 What I Saw and Heard ... 70 
 
 Letter from Brother Matison . . 72 
 
 Messages from Heaven ... 76 
 
 St. John's Dreams in Revelations . . 78 
 
 Race Degeneracy .... 83 
 
 The Flying Devil . . (Poem) 87 
 
 Chimpanzee and Man . (Poem) 95 
 
 Our Venture on the Sea . (Poem) 96 
 
 A Vision of Light . . (Poem) 99 
 
 Comment on the Sunday School Lesson . 102 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF CONTENTS 
 
 (Continued) 
 
 The Unnecessary Sacrifice 
 
 The Lost Sailor 
 
 Do You Know Me? . 
 
 What I know About Mrs. Elizabeth Blake 
 
 Sayings of Mrs. Blake 
 
 War Economics . 
 
 Proposition .... 
 
 The Good Old Man (My Father) (Poem) 
 
 Voices from Heaven . . (Poem) 
 
 Some Mysteries in Nature . (Poem) 
 
 My Good Old Devil . . (Poem) 
 
 My Old Corn-cob Pipe . (Poem) 
 
 Prosperity's Engine . . (Poem) 
 
 Noah's Ark as Seen in the Light of Reason 
 
 The Old Hill Farm . . (Poem) 
 
 The Abused Son of Joseph . (Poem) 
 
 The Voice of the Dead 
 
 Morris's Encyclopedia 
 
 Evil Spirits 
 
 Extracts from Conversation . 
 
 The Remedy 
 
 Aristotle Messages (James Morris) 
 
 The Announcement 
 
 Page 
 110 
 118 
 123 
 125 
 126 
 128 
 130 
 132 
 134 
 137 
 139 
 140 
 143 
 147 
 159 
 162 
 163 
 170 
 174 
 176 
 178 
 179 
 201 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Awful, because they are facts — because they con- 
 tradict what the majority believe to be significant 
 truths. 
 
 In the earlier centuries of the Christian era, 
 known as the dark ages, it was extremely dangerous 
 to deal in facts; propagandists of facts back in those 
 ages were humiliated, persecuted, and thousands 
 who persisted in denouncing established falsehoods 
 sealed their loyalty to truth with their life's blood 
 in dismal torture chambers and on the rack. 
 
 In this, the Twentieth Century, it is still dangerous 
 to combat vested ignorance with facts, but we have 
 progressed to such an extent that there is no longer 
 a great degree of physical danger, and with the elim- 
 ination of the stake, the rack and the torture from 
 the repertory of the powers of darkness there is an 
 ever increasing number who refuse to bow the knee 
 to falsehood or refrain from battering at its founda- 
 tion with the sledge-hammer blows of truth; still 
 it is dangerous, for the free mind is crucified but not 
 as ruthlessly, as mercilessly, as was the physical 
 body, when ignorance held practically an absolute 
 sway over the entire human race. Doubly danger- 
 ous for me, because these writings seek to disprove 
 universally accepted beliefs and doctrines without 
 serious consideration. 
 
 Great masses of people prefer not to be disturbed 
 in mind, and rather than learn late in life that their 
 
8 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 beliefs are not facts, turn a deaf ear to instruction, 
 choosing to go to the end of the journey and take 
 chances on being right. 
 
 Because we believe something to be true, or not 
 to be true, does not, in reality, prove or disprove 
 anything. 
 
 Many are satisfied with their belief and never 
 expect to change their mind — simply saying, what 
 was good enough for my father is good enough for 
 me — an acknowledgment that their minds are 
 absolutely closed against all truth and a proof that 
 such minds, selfish and bigoted, are limited to small 
 things and can never grasp the great problems of the 
 universe. Woe! it is with the man who cannot be- 
 lieve anything out of the ordinary — who stops his 
 ears and closes his eyes against everything that de- 
 mands the exercise of reason and intelligence. 
 
 In this book will be found food for thought on 
 many significant subjects, that will appeal to men 
 in all walks of life — thoughts that will touch your 
 heart and find their way to your soul — and handled 
 with such courage that the writer may appear reck- 
 less and cruel. Cruel, because he plunges the sword 
 of truth into the heart of what he knows to be dark- 
 ness and falsehood, and undertakes, with the appar- 
 ent fierceness of a tiger, to tear away the masks of 
 ignorance and prejudice that have so long blinded 
 the race. 
 
 We hate the hell of war, and whatever tends to 
 make it possible, nay, inevitable, and we believe 
 that the misdirected governments and the false 
 basis on which all governments and religions rest, 
 is responsible, not only for the one evil of war, but 
 for the poverty, crime and sins that afflict society. 
 
TAMING MAN 9 
 
 We also believe that relentless," total exposure 
 alone will banish the clouds of ignorance and en- 
 throne TRUTH which is the only antidote for the 
 poisons of ignorance — the only hope for making 
 the earth a fit habitation for the race of man. 
 
 If there ever was an individual possessed of the 
 knowledge and power to successfully rule the lives 
 of men for their best interest, he has never exercised 
 that power. If there are people who believe this 
 has been done, or can be done through the agencies 
 and methods now imposed upon the people through 
 their ignorance, their influence are dangerous and 
 they should no longer be trusted with shaping the 
 thoughts of the race. If there is or has ever been 
 an individual who could tame the savage in man, and 
 train them through human agencies to be kind and 
 brotherly one toward the other we have no record 
 of his existence. If there is a man who has the in- 
 telligence to place the political world on a basis of 
 equity, let us find that man — he is worth the com- 
 mercial value of the world. 
 
 If there be a man who has the power to silence 
 the roar of the world's cannon, dismantle her navies, 
 and snatch from the hell of savageness now envelop- 
 ing society, humanity, and bind it into one solid 
 brotherhood — let us find him, compel him to come 
 out from hiding and take unto himself that great 
 responsibility, at any cost. 
 
 If there is such a personality, sleeping amid this 
 uproar of horrible confusion, while the cannons have 
 belched their hail of destruction and death, the 
 rivers run red and the fields soaked up the blood of 
 millions, he is a sleepy drone and should be drummed 
 out of his hive and held responsible for crimes that 
 
10 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 are blackened with the smoke of hell and crimsoned 
 with the blood of his people. If the Christians know 
 of a personality that could do this and other things 
 more wonderful, let them produce him in all of his 
 omnipotence, or acknowledge that for nineteen hun- 
 dred years they have propagated the blackest of 
 falsehoods. 
 
 We prefer to believe that back of the millions of 
 flashing meteors, whirling universe and solar sys- 
 tems, suns, planets and inhabited worlds far be- 
 yond the power of man's puny imagination to grasp, 
 is a power the character of which it is impossible to 
 blacken; a grand and glorious something that can- 
 not be belittled, that could not harbor jealousy, 
 conceive of punishment, or mete out torture. If 
 that something, that Creator, exists, it sympathizes 
 with man in his natural weakness, could not stoop 
 to threats when its creatures naturally err, but which 
 would gladly take the entire responsibility for hu- 
 manity's actions upon itself, and teach by natural 
 example and through the natural channels of evo- 
 lution, the lessons that will enable mankind to be- 
 come great and good — the master of earth, hell 
 and heaven. 
 
Manuscript Called IN, And The Author, 
 
 Tho Inexperienced Forced And Instructed To 
 
 Do All The Condensing And Criticising 
 
 Him Self. 
 
 We are glad to be here this A. M. and now we 
 have some things to tell you and we will write as 
 fast as we can, and save all the time that we can. 
 
 We want to tell you that the manuscripts are 
 nearly all O. K., but there are some corrections to 
 
 be made in the work — Mr. done as he 
 
 thought best, but the theme of thought to be con- 
 veyed has been lost, and this is the reason we 
 thought best to do all the work under our instruc- 
 tions — as here we can have the congenial conditions 
 to make the right impressions. 
 
 As this work is unlike any other, it is very im- 
 portant to have it about right. Those who are not 
 familiar with the phenomenon are not capable to 
 criticize the work. 
 
 Have it read and convey the line of thought that 
 you intended it to, even though it should not con- 
 form to all the rules of typography and the language 
 not exactly correct — we find that you will have to 
 do the work yourself under our instructions. 
 
 RAY. 
 
THE RED HOT HELL OF WAR. 
 
 Back in the days of our forefathers, when man 
 went out to hunt man — or other game — he took 
 with him an old flint-lock rifle. He carried across 
 his shoulder, straps from which swung a shot pouch 
 made of the skin of some wild animal, and a powder 
 receptacle made from a cow's horn, some ' cotton 
 fabric for patching, or cushioning the leaden bullet, 
 which he poked down the barrel of his rifle with a 
 hickory ram-rod. When the trigger was pulled and 
 the flint snapped down, if the powder in the pan was 
 not wet, if the mechanism was in perfect condition, 
 if the flint struck a perfect spark, and the man 
 behind the gun had aimed straight, sometimes he 
 got his game. 
 
 Following the introduction of the flint-lock rifle, 
 some thinker invented the nipple and percussion cap 
 rifle, which was quite an improvement over the 
 powder pan and the flint; then another thinker in- 
 vented a cartridge large enough to contain cap, 
 powder and ball, and instead of ramming it down 
 from the muzzle of the barrel, made a lock that per- 
 mitted its insertion at the breach. This last inven- 
 tion made obsolete both the flint-lock and the per- 
 cussion rifle, and everybody wanted one of the 
 modern guns — except the fellow who said that the 
 muzzle-loading flint-lock was good. enough for his 
 father and what was good enough for his father was 
 good enough for him, and claimed that ideas of the 
 thinker were infringements on the good old hickory 
 
TAMING MAN 13 
 
 ram-rod guns. But the thinker kept right on think- 
 ing and building his progressive thoughts into im- 
 provements; he conceived the idea of placing under 
 the rifle barrel a long steel tube which held a dozen or 
 more cartridges, and contrived an automatic slide 
 the action of which would cause the empty shell 
 to fly from the gun barrel and a loaded one to take 
 its place. With this gun the difficulties of shooting 
 were almost totally eliminated and much greater 
 speed and accuracy attained. 
 
 From the flint-lock to the modern repeating rifle 
 is a long step in progress. Yet both, in comparison, 
 have their advantages and disadvantages. One of 
 the disadvantages of the flint-lock was the chance 
 of losing the game — if the gun failed to fire on the 
 first trial by the time the hunter was ready to try 
 again the game had usually taken advantage of the 
 delay to gain safety. But this disadvantage also 
 gave the man behind the gun time to cool down, and 
 sometimes he would change his mind about shoot- 
 ing — especially if the game happened to be a fellow- 
 man. Since man is the only animal that does any 
 shooting, and since man is coming more and more 
 to be the game, I will take man as an illustration on 
 the advantages and disadvantages of guns, ancient 
 and modern. 
 
 The old flint-lock was but a small degree better 
 than the club when it came to a combat between 
 man and man. A large, strong man, with a hickory 
 club, tough and seasoned to withstand rough usage, 
 could attack a band of men armed with flint-locks 
 and stand quite a show of beating out their brains 
 before the guns could be gotten into action. The 
 man with the flint-lock was at another disadvantage 
 
14 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 — suppose the man he wanted to kill didn't want 
 to be shot; we will suppose that he rather enjoyed 
 this thing called life; we will say, just to illustrate, 
 that he had a healthy appetite, and enjoyed well 
 cooked meats, hot biscuits and butter, good coffee 
 and ripe fruits; that he had acquired the habit of 
 smoking; that he enjoyed the association of his wife 
 and children — or, if he was unmarried, loved some 
 pretty, rosy-cheeked maiden ; if a man with a family 
 he had acquired the habit of sitting at ease after his 
 day's toil was o'er — watching the smoke curl 
 around his head while he took one or more of the 
 ittle tots on his knees, and talked with the loving 
 wife. I have met these life-loving characters, and 
 can tell by the expression of their faces when they 
 speak of their wife and children — by the manner 
 in which they stroke their hair with calloused, 
 toil-stained hands, that they get something out of 
 life. A man of this kind would naturally resent an 
 attempt to rob him of life on the part of the man 
 with the flint-lock and by flight or fight reduce the 
 chances of the hunter's success. 
 
 One of the advantages of the flint-lock's failure 
 to fire was that it often spared the lives of affection- 
 ate husbands, fond fathers, and faithful lovers. Old 
 man, with hard, stiff beard and the wrinkled visage, 
 were you ever in love ? Old mother, with the silver- 
 ing hair and dimming eye, did you ever love that 
 man? If so, you know something of the passions of 
 youth — the love light in sparkling eyes and the 
 thrilling ecstacy of awakening maturity. I speak 
 from experience, having loved and been loved by some 
 of the fair sex from my birth to this day. I was loved 
 by mother when a child — it made no difference how 
 
TAMING MAN 15 
 
 undeserving I became, her love continued and con- 
 tinues steadfast still. Then came the sweet, pas- 
 sionate and. exciting love of early manhood, for the 
 fond young maiden just budding into womanhood. 
 
 I am addressing myself to the vigorous, healthy 
 young man who enjoys above all other things on 
 earth the associations of that fair one who has just 
 brought home to him the real meaning of life, who 
 stimulates his ambition and elevates his soul to the 
 highest ideals of existence — deep he breathes the 
 perfume from the flowers of love and his entire being 
 expands with the longing desire to fulfill his natural 
 destiny. Yet this is the type of manhood that the 
 hunters of men demand as prey — the character of 
 the sacrifices laid upon the altars of the God of War. 
 
 But few are willing to take a chance with the 
 flint-lock now. When men go man-hunting now they 
 go to kill or be killed. They go out to utterly de- 
 stroy the hopes of the young wife and her little ones, 
 to make her a widow and her children orphans; to 
 snatch from aged parents the staff of declining years, 
 and tear from the arms of the youthful trusting, maid 
 he whom her soul loveth. 
 
 Instead of boasted civilization taking some of the 
 inhumanities out of war it has rather added horror 
 and terror. Men armed with the most terrible agents 
 of destruction inflict wholesale murder upon fellow- 
 men whom they have never seen and by whom they 
 have never been injured. The fruits and successes 
 of civil life go down into a bloody and debasing 
 oblivion before the onrushing march of mad mob 
 murder and the insane shrieks of a society ripe to die. 
 
 A weapon like the modern magazine rifle in the 
 hands of a man whether he be trained or not is a 
 
16 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 deadly menace to the progress of the race toward 
 brotherhood, and the one way to eliminate even the 
 desire for such weapons is to instill into the human 
 mind a realization of the beauty, the gladness, the 
 glory and the value of life. 
 
 We would not care to go back to the days of the 
 old hickory ram-rod and the muzzle-loading rifle. 
 Our motto is "Forward." We want the best, the 
 most convenient, of everything that is useful and 
 beneficial, but we could well afford to let languish 
 progress in those things which are destructive, and 
 turn all our energies to the perfecting of the things 
 that conserve human life and lighten the natural 
 burdens in the struggle toward ultimate perfection. 
 
 If there were enough men in the world who think 
 as I think, no man would dare advocate brute rule; 
 no one would dare for any reason whatsoever the 
 subjugation of another or the taking of a life. We 
 would eliminate entirely all those things which tend 
 to the production of crime and criminals; to accom- 
 plish this all that is necessary is to establish what 
 we term human government on a foundation of 
 truth. When this is accomplished there will come 
 the realization that the most precious of all earth's 
 possessions is human life, and instead of being looked 
 upon as it is now, as the cheapest commodity in 
 which our Captains of Industry deal, energies that 
 are now bent toward destruction will be reversed to 
 conservation, and no one would even think of taking 
 a chance in wood or field with a weapon that might, 
 even unintentionally, destroy life a mile away. 
 
 But don't misconstrue my meaning. No one 
 knows better than I that self-preservation is the first 
 law of nature, and that as long as more brutal men 
 
TAMING MAN 17 
 
 arm themselves with powerful means of destruction 
 with the intent of destroying other men, it would be 
 insanity for the proposed victims to depend upon 
 the antiquated flint-lock and hickory club for de- 
 fense — they MUST, even though the thing is re- 
 pulsive to them, prepare themselves in like manner 
 with their adversary. This comparison shows the 
 seriousness of the situation. 
 
 It affords something really worth thinking about 
 — worth trying to eliminate. All the nations of the 
 earth should be bound together by social ties, by the 
 bonds of brotherhood, and there is no longer reason 
 why this should not be. The ingenuity of man's 
 brain in annihilating space has brought the peoples 
 of the earth virtually into the proximity of neigh- 
 bors, and his mastery of the secrets of nature is 
 rapidly opening her storage house to him and mak- 
 ing the once savage struggle for existence a mere 
 question of the proper distribution of Nature's boun- 
 ties among her children. 
 
 Although there are millions in the world who are 
 thinking on this subject along the line as outlined 
 above, still the nations are hell-bent on war and 
 destruction and engaged in a mad contest to see 
 which can outburn, outshoot, outkill the other. 
 
 We are right in the midst of a world gone mad — 
 races and nations are snapping, snarling, showing 
 their teeth and flashing swords in each other's faces. 
 None of these nations, as nations, have anything the 
 other wants but that could be had in the far less de- 
 structive method of fair exchange — the products 
 of one for the products of the other. Then let us 
 find out what and who are forcing these peoples into 
 the hell of murder called war. Let us find out which 
 
18 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 class in each nation it is that is clamoring for more 
 soldiers, bigger guns, faster Zeppelins and more 
 deadly chemical bombs. Let us find out who are the 
 comparatively few that are firing men's hearts and 
 brain with the lust for blood, and are driving mil- 
 lions to the reeking shambles. Somewhere the spirit 
 of death and destruction feasts and grows strong, 
 while the spirit of love despairs. 
 
 The people of the world can kill the spirit of death 
 and let themselves enjoy the beauties of life and love; 
 kill it, not with the vulgar weapons of more vulgar 
 brutes — the gun, the sword, the bomb — but with 
 the spread of knowledge. Ever has the dark and 
 gruesome spirit fled before the bright shafts of on- 
 marching truth and intelligence. Kill the spirit of 
 hate, death and destruction by educating the race in 
 the fundamentals of facts. 
 
 I do not mean by that, what is at present termed 
 education — where youth is taught respect for gov- 
 ernment founded on barbarity, and that falsehoods 
 are truths because they have been taught as truths 
 for so long. No, it is from the graduates of our pres- 
 ent institutions of education that the leaders of the 
 present false system are chosen. Education to me is 
 something more than the use of good grammar, some- 
 thing more than good spelling, something more than 
 a smattering of interpolated history, something more 
 than the acquired ability to conventionally endow 
 falsehood with the outward trappings of truth and 
 hide all that is noble and natural behind a mask of 
 hypocrisy. It means to me a knowledge of nature's 
 laws and nature's plans, and a thought out system 
 as to how man may best adapt himself to these. 
 It means a realization of rottenness, the falseness 
 
TAMING MAN 19 
 
 and the hideousness of the present system — a real- 
 ization of the utter corruptness of the foundation 
 upon which is built the world's governments, re- 
 ligions and laws. It means a grasp of the knowledge 
 that is destined to make new history — an educa- 
 tion that will be fitting to the members of all coming 
 generations. It means that education that will 
 forbid placing in the hands of any man or set of 
 men the destinies of their fellows — that will tear 
 down thrones and refuse longer to be swayed by error 
 no matter how strongly entrenched behind might. 
 
 To what a spectacle has the race of man come. 
 Drilled into acceptance of the decree that it is eco- 
 nomical, just, reasonable, humane and intelligent to 
 settle differences by the ruthless destruction of life 
 and property, that it is commendable to breed and 
 train men to murder with sword and gun. Under 
 the sway of this insanity it is fast becoming neces- 
 sary for men, women and even little children to 
 wear steel skullcaps to protect them from the 
 deadly- darts of monsters who hover over them in 
 the air seeking an opportunity to deal out death and 
 misery. Is this the best that our boasted civiliza- 
 tion and progress has brought us? Is this the fruit 
 of the tree of knowledge — or the dregs and bitter- 
 ness of ignorance that is choking up the avenues of 
 life. 
 
 Let us all unite in placing the world upon a differ- 
 ent foundation — the foundation of FACTS. Let 
 us tame man. Let us show the value of human life, 
 and that the life of the obscure soldier lad is as valu- 
 able to the race as is the life of its most powerful 
 money king. That the taking of life in mass is just 
 as reprehensible as is the individual murder, and 
 
20 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 that there is no more glory in dying in the mud, and 
 blood, and filth of the battlefield than there is in 
 dying amid the crash of our many industrial catas- 
 trophes. Let us help the nations of earth forget 
 the horrible, bloody past and aid in establishing 
 them on a new foundation of truth and reason where 
 they may come together in the spirit of gentleness 
 instead of with powder, lead, bombs and blood. 
 
 We don't want our land converted into a hell that 
 will burn day and night with the lurid, torches of 
 war, held in the hands of men spurred on by the 
 orders of power-drunk kings, nor do we want our 
 people to be in constant danger from the bullet, the 
 dart and bomb from above, and the clouds of poison- 
 ous gases which sweep all life before them; nor 
 do we want to see our beautiful public edifices and 
 our homes given over as sacrifices to the god of 
 flames and war. Life is too precious for these things. 
 There is so much to do that is more worthy. Raise 
 the standard of the nations by teaching that life is 
 too precious to be heedlessly and needlessly ground 
 out on battlefields of revenge and greed, and that 
 there are better ways of settling differences than by 
 wholesale destruction that never settled anything. 
 Let us say that we are done with the ignorance 
 that lurks in the desire to kill, that we are here for 
 a higher purpose than the killing of men. Let us do 
 what we can to elevate the minds of our fellowmen 
 to the plane of independence where they will say, 
 "I refuse to be flattered or dragged into hell's night- 
 mare by the blind ignorance of any set of men; I will 
 ignore the propaganda of murder and hate, fostered 
 by the 'patriotic' manufacturers of munitions of 
 war. Only savages shoot and slaughter men and I 
 
TAMING MAN 21 
 
 am no longer a savage." Then we shall quit killing 
 and there will be no more war. 
 
 I saw an ugly vision which I intend to use as an 
 illustration in closing this chapter, and I trust that 
 you will see the moral of the story: 
 
 I saw three young men enter a stockade wherein 
 were confined a large number of hogs ; one of the men 
 had in his hand a dangerous looking knife that re- 
 sembled a sword. They began to slaughter the 
 beasts, two of the men holding the hog while the one 
 with the knife cut its throat. In quick succession, 
 one after the other, the throats of the animals were 
 cut and when the work was finished the shambles 
 were a horrible and disgusting sight. Only part of 
 the hogs were dead, but all were squealing and moan- 
 ing and dropping down only to struggle to their feet, 
 stagger for a few steps and again fall. The butchers 
 began piling the slaughtered carcasses together in a 
 heap, and when they had finished some of the hogs 
 were still squealing, groaning and struggling in their 
 desperate but losing fight with death, blood spurt- 
 ing from their wounds and flesh trembling with the 
 final death agonies. The entire spectacle was nause- 
 ous, hideous and repulsive. It was a pulsing, vi- 
 brating example of how much man needs taming. 
 
 I said to the young butchers, "Boys, that is a 
 filthy job; can't you find a line of work that is more 
 humane ? Do you realize that this has a tendency to 
 harden your hearts and coarsen your nature? If 
 you are compelled to slaughter why not do it as 
 humanely as possible? You could have struck 
 those animals in the head with a heavy hammer 
 before using the knife and the result would at least 
 have been more merciful." One of the men made 
 
22 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 answer in rather a passionate tone: "Do you think 
 we enjoy this? We have not been at it long enough 
 to become hardened to it; we hate this as much as 
 you or anyone else can hate it, but what is a fellow 
 without education or wealth going to do? Judging 
 from your appearance you are of the bosses' crowd 
 and are in position to avoid the dirty work of the 
 world, but such is not so with us. These are not our 
 hogs and this is the manner in which the owner, our 
 boss, ordered them slaughtered. Give me a better 
 job and I will be grateful to you, as will my fellows 
 here." 
 
 While I was pondering upon the words of the 
 young man, I noticed partly hidden in a far corner 
 of the stockade a healthy young shoat that had es- 
 caped the fate of his companions. His owner, the 
 boss of the men who did the slaughtering, would no 
 doubt have considered this hog's action as a most un- 
 patriotic, cowardly and unhoglike thing to do, but 
 sick from the recent spectacle of death and blood 
 I felt a deep pity for the pig, and admiration for 
 his wise effort to escape, and made up my mind that 
 if possible I would assist him. I made my way to 
 the vicinity of his hiding place and unobserved by 
 the butchers opened a way through the stockade and 
 permitted him to slip through to liberty and safety. 
 The young animal was full of the spirit of life, it 
 ran, it played, it showed its gratitude by racing 
 round and round me, uttering soft sounds, and 
 looked at me as if soliciting my further protection. 
 I took it with me and turned it into the woods, 
 where I hope it will live its alloted span, fulfilling 
 all the destinies for which Nature intended it. 
 
 Now, I don't know whether or not my reader has 
 
TAMING MAN 23 
 
 gotten the moral of this tale or not, but I am cer- 
 tain of one thing — you didn't enjoy the story — it 
 was a dirty, bloody narrative. But these scenes, and 
 worse, are being enacted every day, with men sub- 
 stituted for the hogs — and men are becoming hard- 
 ened and indifferent. With the women it is slightly 
 different, and I probably owe them an apology, 
 but if it has served the purpose that I intended for 
 it, I am satisfied. 
 
 I would prefer, rather to escort you, in my word 
 pictures, over the green mountains, across the 
 smooth plains, and through the verdant valleys, 
 where you could pluck wild flowers and hear the 
 musical notes of nesting birds and watch the little 
 wild animals at their natural play; through shady 
 nooks where you can stand on the mossy banks and 
 listen to the ripple of the crystal brook as it sings a 
 melodious greeting to Mother Nature; where you, 
 fanned by the gentle breezes, can see the sea gulls 
 dip their wings in the billowy brine, and the heaving 
 swells break into beautiful white caps ; watch bright- 
 eyed boys and girls dive and splash in the silvery 
 waters, and the sail boats in which are seated hus- 
 band, wife, and family, and the youthful and joy- 
 ous sweethearts, shove out from the shore on pleas- 
 ure bent. I would that you could spend the days 
 where Nature's dewdrops are diamonds and sweet 
 blossoms fill the air with their unadulterated per- 
 fumes. 
 
 I would prefer that you always hear the music of 
 glad laughter — that you were always far away from 
 danger and unpleasant scenes, and it is my earnest 
 hope that such a state of existence will yet be real- 
 ized — that enough of our people will awake to the 
 
24 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 dangers into which we are drifting in time to pre- 
 vent our own native land being plunged into a hell 
 of slaughter of our young men — for war always re- 
 quires as a sacrifice the best of our sons, and is satis- 
 fied with nothing less. It is the vigorous, red-blooded 
 youth — your sons, husbands, lovers, brothers, 
 oh, mothers of the race, who are the sacrifices 
 offered up on the altars of the brutal god of war. 
 Will you allow the sickening, fly-blown, bloody rags 
 of the war devil to be flung in your faces and strewn 
 oyer the homes of the land of your birth — while 
 the hope of your lives, the pride of the nation, its 
 youngest and best manhood, is cremated in the fires 
 of lust and hate? 
 
 It was cruel, brutal and hideous to slaughter swine 
 in the manner I described, but the methods used in 
 the slaughter of the animals are no more cruel or 
 brutal, nay, not as much so, as are the methods being 
 used this very day in the slaughter of innocent and 
 helpless men and boys in most of the boasted civil- 
 ized (?) nations of the world. The animal is killed 
 outright and never left crippled and maimed to mis- 
 erably creep its way through life. A pension will 
 not restore the lost limb, the blasted sight of the 
 disfigured countenance. A paltry pension will not 
 give back to the young widow the cheery and light- 
 hearted companion, nor to the prattling orphan a 
 loving father, nor return to the aged mother the 
 strong arm of an affectionate son. The wounded 
 and disfigured soldier may be pitied, but he is not 
 the object of admiration as is the healthy, strong 
 and perfect specimen of manhood amply able to take 
 his rightful place and perform his duty in the society 
 of his race. A man of strength. Strong physically 
 
TAMING MAN 25 
 
 and mentally. And a strength of character that is 
 beautiful to behold. 
 
 My idea of a a strong character is one who will 
 boldly deny the right of Czars, emperors or kings to 
 order his and his fellows' lives as their own lusts 
 and desires may dictate; who will not permit jingo- 
 ists to addle his intellect by the monotonous waving 
 of battle flags and the shrill cries for blood, and to 
 flatter him into a nightmare of misery under any 
 pretext. Such a man is willing to aid in the en- 
 lightenment and education, real education of the 
 human race; such a man is not found in the human 
 slaughter pens. 
 
 This is what you will demand if you are a man of 
 strong character. You will demand the right to stay 
 healthy and whole and to enjoy your life — to de- 
 velop in mind and body. You will consider it more 
 patriotic to create than to destroy, and will demand 
 that all people be free, independent, that they be 
 guaranteed an opportunity to earn a living in peace- 
 ful pursuits, and that the degradation of wage- 
 slavery be stamped out. You will insist that it is 
 high time to abandon a system that is responsible 
 for poverty and crime, and to relegate to eternal 
 silences the institutions propagating falsehood and 
 ignorance. You will say that it is just as sensible, 
 reasonable and just for two individuals to settle 
 their differences by individual murder, as it is for 
 two nations to attempt to settle their disputes by 
 wholesale murder. You will declare aloud that you 
 would far rather see your race trained in the peace- 
 ful pursuits of happiness than see them crowned as 
 the blood-guilty conquerors of the entire world. 
 
 Let us face bravely the truth, and avoid the rot 
 
26 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 and hell of war. Let us cry aloud the truth that war 
 is the insane result of ignorance gone mad. The 
 time is here for the taming of man, and the righting 
 of his method of education — the banishment of 
 ignorance and its train of miseries and sorrows, and 
 a steady climb up the path of enlightment to true 
 civilization. 
 
 HELL BENT ON A FOUNDATION. 
 
 The reader will soon discover that I am bent on 
 discovering the foundation for everything. When 
 we have trouble with our neighbor, or our neighbor 
 has trouble with us, we always find some plausible 
 excuse and show that the other is solely at fault. 
 Some times he has something that I would like to 
 have, and sometimes it may be that I have some- 
 thing that he desires, or lays claim to — it may be 
 land, a horse, cow, or property of like nature. What- 
 ever it is, it all too frequently leads us into disputes 
 and we foolishly take our troubles into court, in- 
 stead of endeavoring to settle them amicably. So 
 the first thing our respective lawyers do when the dif- 
 ferences have progressed to this stage, is to build a 
 foundation for our case — based upon the supposed 
 facts. 
 
 In Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, where man 
 is at war with man, war is considered a highly hon- 
 orable and legitimate business. If a country is en- 
 vious in any matter of some other country and wishes 
 
TAMING MAN 27 
 
 to go to war, all that is necessary for it to do is to 
 make an excuse of some kind — declare war and 
 fight. If this country is forced to fight we simply 
 oil our guns, buckle knapsacks on the backs of our 
 young men, and the slaughter begins. And if it 
 proves that we have more and better fighting 
 equipment — more submarines and torpedo boats, 
 better battle cruisers and bigger guns, a better 
 system of hurling more poisonous gas bombs, more 
 and better trained soldiers, or professional killers, 
 so that when one army of these are mowed down we 
 have another ready to take their places, and when 
 this second army is strewn in fragments over 
 blood-drenched sod we still have other substitutes — 
 then the weaker nation can be overpowered, its 
 commerce destroyed and its people reduced to 
 poverty, when its guns have been captured and its 
 active males butchered by shrapnel, gouged with 
 bayonets, their eyes burned out by poisons — the 
 exhausted, miserable, suffering, starved people 
 hoist the white flag, and we have proven that we 
 are right by the power of our might. But does our 
 might prove that we are right? Answer, yes or no. 
 If you believe this is right our government will 
 supply you with a butcher knife, a rifle, a revolver 
 and a brown duck suit — then you can roll up your 
 sleeves, climb into the slaughter pen and begin. 
 After you have witnessed the horrors, the in- 
 humanity, the wickedness, the foolishness, the 
 destructiveness, the indecency of this crime called 
 war — after you have killed men, tortured others 
 with poisons, dismembered their bodies and dis- 
 figured their countenances; cut jugular veins, 
 severed heart-strings, mixed brains with the sand 
 
28 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 and mud of the fields, and your suit is matted and 
 stiff with the blood of fellow-beings, after you have 
 itemized the cost in blood, tears and treasure — sit 
 down and in this blank space write your honest 
 opinion of those who resort to such barbarity; give 
 your impressions of a so-called civilization that 
 countenances such crimes. Then state frankly 
 where you first gained the beliefs that this thing was 
 honorable, patriotic, heroic and virtuous; I would 
 like to know. There are a few million others 
 who are also beginning to think and who- want to 
 know more about the foundation upon which such 
 savage patriotism is resting. Write your answer — 
 tell where and how you got your convictions. 
 
 What moral right have you to instill in the youths 
 of the Twentieth Century, by example or otherwise, 
 beliefs and customs that are so deadly, dangerous, 
 debasing, pernicious and tending toward total 
 depravity and degeneracy? Tame man! Help 
 him rise from his knees and gain a glimpse of the 
 brighter and better future which is just now upon 
 the horizon. 
 
 Let us assist the people from their knees, and see 
 to it that the bloody record of the past is not re- 
 peated and that the war spirit never again takes 
 hold of the people of this nation. If there are any 
 people more deserving of sympathy than others it 
 is- those misguided individuals who fall upon their 
 knees and cry to the WAR GOD of the ancients — 
 a being that is as fictitious and as childish as is the 
 Santa Claus of today. 
 
 I do not seriously object to my children being 
 deceived for the first few years of their life with the 
 Santa Claus myth, for they may get some pleasure 
 
TAMING MAN 29 
 
 and enjoyment out of the idea, but I would not want 
 them taught that there is any virtue or FACT in 
 the Santa Claus story — neither would I want 
 them to worship Santa Claus by a promise of a 
 home here, a crown in heaven, or from fear of 
 punishment hereafter. 
 
 If I can prevent it they will never be taught to 
 fear any god that stands accused of demanding the 
 slaughter of innocent women and children, the 
 ravishment of fair daughters by blood-thirsty 
 warriors and the heartless, brutal massacre of en- 
 tire races simply to satisfy ugly moods and passion. 
 
 If the Catholics had the power to enforce their 
 beliefs upon the people we would all be compelled 
 to bow to the pope ; if the Protestant Methodist had 
 free and unlimited power we would all be compelled 
 to embrace the Methodist faith, and bow the knee 
 to a God who, in the estimation of free thinkers and 
 investigators, is nothing more than an imaginary 
 warrior god — a fetish of the early half -savage Jews. 
 If the Baptists had the power they would close the 
 pearly gates against all people who had not been 
 baptized in cold water — heels and head, and all 
 other denominations would have the people believe 
 as they do or go to hell. 
 
 For me, I don't propose to adopt any of these 
 ready-made beliefs. It appears that there are any 
 number of reasons why parents should do some 
 independent thinking and exercise their authority 
 in breaking the bands of religious slavery. Give 
 the boys a fair show and they will become teachers 
 of truth and the world will be healed of its ignorance, 
 man will rise from his knees, become really civilized, 
 and the race will know war no more. 
 
30 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 In agitating the maxim "Get Off Your Knees," 
 I have been accused of ridiculing the example set 
 by the Nation's Chief in his prayers for peace. I 
 have no way of knowing just how much of his time 
 the President spends on his knees begging for 
 succor from some unseen power in the face of this 
 horrible phantom of war, and for the restoration of 
 peace to a war-mad world, but I do know that his 
 prayers have not been answered, and now, seemingly 
 he begins to recognize that prayer is a poor sub- 
 stitute for munitions and is urging his "country- 
 men to prepare to enter the savage struggle equipped 
 in a manner that will result in the most destruction 
 to any possible enemy. 
 
 I am sufficiently conceited as to believe that I am 
 capable of understanding the Nation's Chief and 
 appreciating his delicate position. I admire his 
 shrewdness, and to some extent his tactics. Sup- 
 pose that in his stead we had chosen a war-mad 
 patriot who would insist in calling out the army 
 and navy every time some foolhardy American, 
 who is not patriotic enough to stay out of the war 
 zone, gets into trouble? I doubt if our Chief has 
 much time for prayer. If he would lock himself in 
 his closet and waste time as do the clergy in empty 
 prayers, the library of his mind would grow clogged 
 with the weeds of despondency, and the lobby of 
 the White House would be filled with loungers 
 resembling the sanctimonious gentlemen of the 
 type of Joshuas, Jonahs and ark builders, who were 
 content to furnish prayers if some god would do 
 the things that they considered desirable. 
 
DAUPHIN ISLAND AND THE MAD GULF. 
 
 When in the adjustment of this sea, 
 By nature's powerful hand, 
 Down in the marsh it left a tree 
 Where built this strip of land. 
 
 The place is known as Dauphin Isle 
 Made by the washing wave: 
 It keeps on building all the while 
 The inhabitants there to save. 
 
 In this old gulf, sublime and grand, 
 Down in its bosom deep, 
 Are countless dead; from many land 
 Where living creatures creep. 
 
 In her fathom in debris and wreck 
 Once worth a mine in gold, 
 Shipwrecked vessels now just a speck 
 And secrets that can't be told. 
 
 In days gone by were battles fought 
 That turned her brine to blood: 
 And those poor creatures never thought 
 Of how nature understood. 
 
 And how those souls who fought in vain, 
 And all the countless dead, 
 Might conquer death and live again 
 If all those sharks were fed. 
 
32 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 On the bodies of the unfortunate soul 
 Who ventured on a rough sea 
 And choose a grave of salt and gold 
 To solve this deep mystery. 
 
 And while you're blind yet to decide, 
 And scorn my unbelief, 
 My comforting secret I dare not hide, 
 It gives my soul relief. 
 
 ^nd frail superstition, dare not say 
 In language we here command 
 Thus hear our scorn from day to day: 
 God help it understand. 
 
 Roll on old gulf, o're sea and land: 
 
 Your boisterous waves and tide, 
 
 Gore cruel your dead, throw high your sand 
 
 With mocking godly pride. 
 
 EXPLANATION TO THE POEM 
 
 DAUPHIN ISLAND AND THE MAD GULF. 
 
 Superstition would say God made it. Ration- 
 alism says, the waves made it. Superstition says 
 not only did God make the islands, — he also made 
 the people who inhabit the islands, made the earth 
 in a few days, then the trees, the sharks, the oc- 
 topus, the little and the big fish, controls the waves 
 and the storms. 
 
TAMING MAN 33 
 
 Teach the doctrine of a judgment, when the sea 
 and the graves shall give up their dead. 
 
 We know those claims are not true, know why 
 the people believe it, we would help it understand, — 
 but it would rather not know. Superstition is 
 afraid of hell. Rationalism knows no fear. Super- 
 stition would beg and pray itself to heaven. Ra- 
 tionalism would reason, think and search for know- 
 ledge, prepare to do useful things here and then 
 we will be able to do something when we pass from 
 this life, into the spheres of higher knowledge. 
 Superstition, can't explain of how the seas shall 
 give up her dead. Rationalism answers, — the seas 
 and the grave will never give up their dead. 
 
 The so termed mysteries, will always remain so, 
 with those who have closed their minds, established 
 a code of doctrine and beliefs. 
 
 Oh "God," that which speaks to us through na- 
 ture's beautiful intelligence, who gives to the 
 seeker of knowledge a torch that penetrates the 
 blackness of night. Help the doubter and the 
 stubborn to know this blessed truth — that God 
 would hide nothing from the earnest seeker of 
 knowledge. 
 
 A STORM AT SEA. 
 
 In South American there raged a storm 
 That swept across the sea 
 That beat and howled o'er cape and horn- 
 'Twas Nature's cruel decree. 
 
34 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 It rocked the ocean with mountain waves, 
 It tore great ships in twain, 
 And plunged its dead in watery graves 
 With awful wicked main. 
 
 The lightenings flashed, the thunder roared, 
 And caused a dreadful sound; 
 The dead and dying were cut and gored, 
 By debris scattered around. 
 
 • All day long it howled and screamed 
 Like hungry wolves it yelled; 
 And searched the decks for prey it seemed, 
 Like devilish fiends from hell. 
 
 All through the night it mocked and hissed 
 
 At those who prayed for life, 
 
 God could not see in the dark and mist, 
 
 But mocked with angry strife. 
 
 The hand of fate he could not stay 
 Nor help those in distress: 
 On land and sea, fate has its sway, 
 And wreaks its awful best. 
 
 In storm, in famine, in war, in death: 
 No GOD will interfere, 
 Rely on FAITH— you sink bereft, 
 That's just YOUR danger sphere. 
 
 Now when the waves sweep o'er your deck 
 And threaten your demain, 
 Waste not breath — grip hard the wreck, 
 And bravely fight life's game. 
 
TAMING MAN 35 
 
 Rough storms in life will come and go, 
 We'll drift down with the tide — 
 And through this lesson learn to know 
 To in thyself abide. 
 
 THE ROAR OF THE GULF. 
 
 What's that roaring, rumbling sound, 
 That seems so far away 
 It almost seems to jar the ground 
 And rumbles night and day. 
 
 Can it be that we are so near 
 The roar of gun and shell, 
 The din of battle I have a fear, 
 The same I have of hell. 
 
 It is a natural sound I've heard before: 
 
 It rocks my soul to rest, 
 
 I learn to worship more and more 
 
 It lives down in my breast. 
 
 Sometimes I hear it roaring loud, 
 And frothing like it's mad; 
 Threatening like a black storm-cloud 
 But it never makes me sad. 
 
 It is not like the roar of death 
 That belches and barks for blood 
 And blows its contaminating breath, 
 In rivers of human flood. 
 
36 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 When it roared so coarse and loud 
 We wondered what it could be, 
 That disturbed the old gulf so proud: 
 It was a storm at sea. 
 
 And when it struck America's shore, 
 It tore its road inland; 
 Then it had a different roar, 
 And did not appear so grand. 
 
 With devil-dare it struck down life, 
 Without respect for age; 
 Mowed a swath like a two-edged knife, 
 And mocked with savage rage. 
 
 When the storm god decreed his will, 
 The wind then ceased to blow, 
 But the wild waves are never still, 
 For Nature arranged it so. 
 
 How harsh and cruel is Nature's god, 
 How gentle and how kind — 
 Who doth rule with sword and rod 
 And leave the people blind. 
 
 His strength is in the ocean wave, 
 His voice is in its roar, 
 Master of Hell and the Grave — 
 Frowns and smiles on every shore. 
 
 When this old earth rocks with quake, 
 We feel his awful tread; 
 Volcanoes burst, foundations shake, 
 We have a cause to dread. 
 
TAMING MAN 37 
 
 And when the meteors dart and fall, 
 And comets sweep their trail, 
 I tremble with fear, I feel so small, 
 But on and on and on I sail. 
 
 And if my ship should go to wreck, 
 Sailing life's stormy sea, 
 I'll pin my faith down to the deck 
 And trust my Gods near me. 
 
 THE FOREST KING. 
 
 There's something in these wavering pines 
 That appeals to nature's heart; 
 
 Their suggestions, from time to time, 
 With me shall never part. 
 
 And when the gentle breezes blow, 
 
 To my tired soul they bring, 
 A language that I'd love to know: 
 
 It speaks of a forest king. 
 
 Then when the breezes shift around 
 
 The pines will let you know 
 For when they have a different sound, 
 
 The wind is most sure to blow. 
 
 Ah, the pines, they howl so loud, 
 
 And shake their heavy main, 
 Of their strength seem so proud; 
 
 And to my heart they cling. 
 
38 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 I ne'er can forget I woke in fright, 
 
 I heard a wicked sound: 
 The pines were screaming with their might, 
 
 And things were whirling round. 
 
 When I discovered my old pine tree 
 
 Was slowly giving away, 
 I ventured all alone to see, 
 
 What the young was going to say. 
 
 I had concluded they didn't care, 
 For they struck me in the face : 
 
 And with their gesture did compare, 
 That pine with the human race. 
 
 I wondered about that tree so tall, 
 
 Seen how its form was bent 
 And when I heard it groan and fall, 
 
 I knew what the young pine meant. 
 
 That old tree stood in the way, 
 
 Of the progress of the race: 
 When it died the world would say, 
 
 Let us respect the sacred place. 
 
 Where once stood this brave old tree, 
 
 And waved a shining light, 
 False or true we must agree, 
 
 To defend our sacred right. 
 
 The night was dark, the storm was hard, 
 And that forest to me is dear, 
 
 For the young and strong stand guard; 
 And for the storms I will not fear. 
 
YOUR THINKER SAY. 
 
 Sometimes, we think, and think, and think: 
 
 And never think a thing: 
 Until my eyes begin to blink, 
 
 And my ears begin to ring. 
 
 And then I think I'm thinking wrong: 
 And think this thing, won't do, 
 
 And if we move this game along, 
 We must drive some think in you. 
 
 As we watch from day to day, 
 
 We see a busy throng, 
 Carelessly marching along the way, 
 
 Not knowing where they belong. 
 
 Who never think of something new, 
 
 Nor reason out a thing, 
 Just drift alonng the same as you 
 
 The same old song to sing. 
 
 We see the people all dressed up fine, 
 
 And rushing here and there, 
 We read the thoughts that's in their mind 
 
 And find them on the square. 
 
 And when we hear them think out loud, 
 
 We hear them think or say, 
 Think is easy, think with the crowd 
 
 Just throw your thoughts away. 
 
40 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 And if you sift this think down fine, 
 
 And try to sift it out, 
 You'll find we're drifting down the line, 
 
 Not knowing what we're about. 
 
 That think is a habit handed down 
 From ancient days of old, 
 
 That's the reason you squirm andfrown 
 When of those things you're told. 
 
 We are taught to think with Josua, 
 With Moses and the rest, 
 
 But the modern thinker of this day 
 Does seem to me the best. 
 
 Suppose you try to think like this; 
 
 It's just and fair to you, 
 Then watch ancient warn and hiss, 
 
 Let us see what he will do. 
 
 Since God is good and just and kind, 
 
 Does for his people care 
 Speak to us so deaf and blind, 
 
 And in our troubles share. 
 
 Give us a message, tell us how, 
 Peace to this mad world to bring 
 
 Though omnipotant send it now 
 We will thy praises sing. 
 
 Speak to us, if thou dos't know? 
 
 The hell in bloody war, 
 Make known thy power if it be so, 
 
 For Christ dos't sure abhor. 
 
TAMING MAN 41 
 
 Whatever tends to flatten hell, 
 
 Or degrade the soul of man 
 A word from thee should compell 
 
 Ah, — show thou omnipotant hand. 
 
 Now if it be hell that speaks to me, 
 And warns of this wicked trend, 
 
 Then give us hell, that we may see 
 To hell your message send. 
 
 For in hell is life, that hopes for peace, 
 
 That hates the hells of earth, 
 That would the joys of earth increase, 
 
 And light it with new birth. 
 
 JAPAN'S NATIONAL DEFENSE 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 This Association, composed of war agitators, 
 has published a book for the purpose of inciting 
 hatred and raising the passions of the populace 
 to the point where they are ready and willing to 
 committ wholesale murder at the command of 
 the war lords. 
 
 Extracts from this revolting volume have found 
 their way into the American press and have been 
 eagerly seized upon by our own Jingoists in their 
 campaign in the interest of the War Devil in this 
 country. But one will have to admit that the 
 
42 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 character of the work is such as to bring trembling 
 fear to our people who pursue its pages in earnest, 
 for if Japan's dream were to ever be realized the 
 War Devil's grip would close over the throat of 
 America's manhood with a grip of steel. 
 
 One of the amazing features of the Association's 
 propaganda and plan is the disposition of the Ameri- 
 can Navy, the ships of which they have located, 
 attacked and destroyed with the utmost ease 
 (on paper). Take for instance our battleship 
 Georgia, so powerful in her death dealing strength 
 that even the strongest would fear her. But not 
 so with the Japanese National Defense Association. 
 In the estimation of these gentlemen the Georgia 
 was just a toy and easily vanquished by the little 
 yellow men. This magnificent man-of-war, proudly 
 and fearlessly floating the stars and stripes, and 
 manned by a picked crew of officers and men met 
 with shameful defeat in her first battle with the 
 valorous yellow men. The ease with which these 
 mighty people wiped up the earth with our inferior 
 forces, cowered, conquered and occupied America, 
 is without doubt, the most amazing piece of ficti- 
 tious prophecy ever recorded. There has been 
 nothing to equal it since Moses inscribed the story 
 of parting the waters of the Red Sea that his fleeing 
 slaves might escape the wrath of their masters. The 
 climax comes with the signing of the treaty of peace, 
 dictated by victorious Japan, the terms of which 
 are enough to shame and disgust any warm-blooded 
 American, or cause any Japanese coolie to consider 
 himself a world conqueror. 
 
 Then the Association's writer works on the 
 love-bubble of Japan's brawny men. They tell 
 
TAMING MAN 43 
 
 the men that the Americans are jealous of them, 
 especially the Calif ornians. Japs are pictured as 
 very alluring to American women, and are assured 
 that these women would make fine mates for the 
 brave sons of Nippon. 
 
 On such as this are PATRIOTS fed. The war 
 has been fought to the everlasting glory and honor 
 of Japan and the lasting disgrace and humiliation 
 of America, which has been invaded and its wonder- 
 ous wealth and women apportioned as spoils to 
 the victors. But this is the stuff that has been 
 handed out to the masses always to raise their 
 patriotism to the blood-letting point, and Japan 
 is only copying the methods that have been so 
 successful with her more civilized (?) neighbors. 
 It seems that a people who can be influenced and 
 led to war by a group of war-crazed teachers of 
 falsehood deserve the hell into which they are 
 plunged. 
 
THE ASS THAT TALKED. 
 
 In days of old when mules were scarce 
 
 And asses were scarcer still ; 
 When one ass spoke t'was thought a farce, 
 
 It filled the world with thrill. 
 
 There are freak asses, as sure as Mike; 
 
 One brayed in old Japan, 
 The fool asses all want to fight, 
 
 To defend their native land. 
 
 When big asses with pomp and pride 
 
 Blurt out their warlike neigh, 
 Those little asses in him confide 
 
 And prance and strut and bray. 
 
 This old ass with conscience seared, 
 
 With a hide as tough as hell; 
 Shouts in voice with sword and beard, 
 
 Tells of the mules that fell 
 
 In battle, under his command, 
 
 Of glorious victories won, 
 Of armies that can never stand 
 
 The fire of Jap's big gun. 
 
 Then the animals cannot see 
 
 The scheme of this old bait, 
 Know not of what there is to be, 
 
 Their danger nor their fate. 
 
TAMING MAN 45 
 
 Now may I venture to command, 
 
 With me you should agree, 
 Peacefully rest in your native land : 
 
 Meet not AMERICA, on land or sea. 
 
 THE SEARCHLIGHT TURNED ON. 
 
 In the January number of the 1916 Illustrated 
 World, there is an article by Baily Millard: WHAT 
 IS THERE IN THE OCCULT ? 
 
 He says ; — when out of all the mass of chicaney, 
 charlantry, and Humbug as to fortune telling, 
 mind reading, and the like, there emerges some- 
 thing that apparently proves psychic power in 
 human beings; it is seized upon by the friends of 
 the occult, and flaunted in the faces of the skeptical. 
 
 Nothing in the psychic they cry triumphantly: 
 look at this; — what did I tell you! Then in order 
 to establish evidence of the existence of psycholgy, 
 of the human soul, he relates incidents all of which 
 are important and should help to establish the 
 confidence of those who are in search of scientific 
 knowledge; only the very ordinary things referred 
 to, yet there is enough to it to convince the reader 
 that Mr. Millard, might give to the world, some- 
 thing that it needs, and would make interesting 
 reading. 
 
 Mr. Millard acknowledges that he is just a layman. 
 There are laymen who have stored away in a rusty 
 brain cell hidden secrets that the world would like 
 
46 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 to know about. But how cautious, how careful 
 we must tread. 
 
 We will take it for granted that there are two 
 classes of individual. One in search of facts, and 
 scientific knowledge, the other in search of evidence 
 that will contradict, whatever force in nature, 
 that looms up to combat with dogma and anything 
 out of the ordinary is sign of trickery, and dishonesty. 
 
 The fact that a man is connected with a society 
 of Scientific Research, proves or disproves nothing; 
 eepecially when it comes to dealing with those 
 who are possessed with phenomenal power who 
 converse with the dead. 
 
 If Mr. Millard is blessed with that power, he 
 is qualified to handle the subject. If he lacks the 
 phenomenon, he can only give the experience of 
 others, and has no intelligent understanding of 
 that he would have the reader know. 
 
 And I only have to deal with the case of Mr. 
 Kellogg and his statement that he had been for 
 twenty years in search of an honest medium, and 
 is still searching — to prove that only those who 
 are qualified to handle the subject are those who 
 are possessed with the psychic power. 
 
 Let us learn how much there is in the statement of 
 Mr. Kellogg. If it is a truth that he has searched 
 for twenty years for an honest medium, and is 
 still searching, and we know of thousands whose 
 qualifications are as good to judge whether or not — 
 all who are possessed with phenomenon powers 
 are dishonest as that of Mr. Kellogg, who in the 
 space of a few years through their investigation 
 have gathered evidence and through their knowledge 
 and experience are converted to the truth of the 
 
TAMING MAN 47 
 
 phenomenon must discredit Mr. Kellogg's qualifi- 
 cation and method of research. 
 
 Was he inclined to be fair with himself and the 
 public he might visit one of the several honest 
 mediums who could be found within only a few 
 hours' ride of his home. 
 
 One Mrs. Elizibethj Blake, of Proctorville, Ohio, 
 for example, where he might converse with departed 
 friends and recognize voices. 
 
 Did he condescend to visit a campmeeting 
 where the Reverend Sam Jones in his day preached 
 to his people, it would be interesting to Mr. Kellogg 
 to hear that deep musical voice again. 
 
 To me the witty sayings of Sam Jones and the 
 gosts of my dear friends are interesting and helpful, 
 and I covet their association, — but I never go to 
 a graveyard or look behind a tombstone to find 
 them. 
 
 Twenty years in search of an honest medium! 
 Why should a medium be dishonest? The fact 
 that anyone claiming phenomenon power resort 
 to fakery, is evidence that he is not possessed with 
 phenomenon power. 
 
 Those claiming to have discovered evidences that 
 mediums work sorcery, sleight of hand, Ven- 
 triloquism, and Magic Wand exposes their lack 
 of knowledge as to what a medium in reality is. 
 We contradict his statement, — we would prefer 
 to say that there are no dishonest mediums. 
 
 If that society has offered a reward of five thou- 
 sand dollars to anyone with mind reading power 
 who will tell him the number of Oranges that he 
 will place behind his back — I cannot understand 
 why some one has not claimed the reward; neither 
 
48 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 can I understand why it would be a greater mystery 
 to tell how many Oranges was placed behind my 
 back than it would be to tell how many people 
 are in a room, how many children, how they are 
 dressed, how many eggs in the incubator or under 
 the hen, the amount and date of notes, the amount 
 of interest, and a thousand other things of greater 
 importance. I would not care to make a trip to 
 New York at my expense to test out his orange 
 proposition, for I would be as suspicious of fake 
 oranges as I would any other fake business. 
 
 The London society would have us believe that 
 to make sure of getting water when you dig a well 
 we should find someone with phenomenon power 
 who with a willow stick or a rod, walk over the lot 
 where the well is to be dug, look wise, and one 
 end will drop where the well should be dug. 
 
 We are willing to confess that would be better 
 than digging a deep hole and getting no water. 
 
 I remember when I was a boy seeing my Uncle 
 Tom walking over the yard with a willow stick 
 balanced across his finger and the well was dug 
 where it tilted and we found water; our neighbor 
 dug a well without the test, a foolish thing to do, 
 but as luck would have it, he also found water. 
 
 When I grew up I lost confidence in that willow 
 switch business, my father says, who, by the way, is a 
 ghost now, that I grew away from the willow and 
 hickory switch. 
 
 The London Society may be composed of great 
 men of science, whose word is law in the world of 
 psychic, but in my opinion it will in time outgrow 
 the willow switch. 
 
 It would be unfair to suppose that Europe would 
 
TAMING MAN 49 
 
 believe in a reasonable phenomenon until they 
 have advanced in the evolution of intelligence and 
 civilization to where they will find a more reasonable, 
 economical and humane way to settle disputes 
 than by the destruction of wealth and the slaughter 
 of her young and healthy sons. 
 
 Then as to the phenomenon of apparition. What 
 was the conclusion? that between death and ap- 
 parition of a dying person a connection exists that 
 is not due to chance? 
 
 Of course this accounts for, and establishes the 
 phenomenon of ghosts. 
 
 For the consolation of our dear friends who 
 believe in ghosts; the cloud that shrouded your 
 honest soul in a deep mystery and shut out your 
 vision from the awful depths of eternity, is brushed 
 away, and you can conceive of why it is that you 
 see your friends' ghosts just before, or just about 
 the time of their death. 
 
 Where, then, is the consoling thought do you ask? 
 I frankly confess that I do not know, unless it is 
 that the soul of your loved ones is cut off from earth 
 and there are no people with medium power who 
 receive messages from the dead, that the dead will 
 not come back to earth meddling in our affairs, that 
 we will not be tormented with our friends beyond 
 the grave. 
 
 It is the general conclusion that old abandoned 
 houses are natural haunts for ghosts. There are 
 houses in every section of the country where the 
 rental value has depreciated because a ghost has 
 taken possession and people don't enjoy their 
 peculiar pranks and innocent jokes. 
 
 A Mr. French Canfield, formerly.of Elkins, W. Va., 
 
50 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 now living at Irvington, Alabama, was telling how 
 it was believed that a certain man that he knew 
 had murdered his wife and child, and of how a 
 woman would scream, and strange noises heard, 
 around the old house. While I could not believe 
 that ghosts visit abandoned houses, the story in- 
 terested me, as I was impressed with his earnestness, 
 knowing something of his character; we decided to 
 see what we could do toward finding out the facts. 
 The supposed murdered woman was called for. 
 And when we were in touch with the murdered 
 woman, she described an old log house that she 
 was killed in, instead of a frame where it was be- 
 lieved she was killed, and that the child had been 
 dashed on the floor, or against the wall in the frame 
 house and killed, and that the bodies were burned 
 into ashes on heavy log heaps, which corroborated 
 with the suspicion, except mother and child were 
 believed had met death in the frame house. 
 
 And as to the story about ghosts visiting aban- 
 doned houses, she said was imaginary. Departed 
 friends could, and do visit the earth through medium 
 power, but do not visit graveyards, nor lonesome 
 places; that they come to earth to get in touch 
 with people and to help them know the truth, — to 
 instruct and advise, and that ghosts are the imagina- 
 tion of the brain. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Hyslop's decision that mind reading 
 belongs to spirits, and since it is known to a certainty 
 that they do know every thought of the brain 
 when in touch with that brain and no theory has 
 ever disproved the claim. 
 
 And we believe Prof. Hyslop to be one of the most 
 reliable as well as the best qualified, has had a wide 
 
TAMING MAN 51 
 
 experience in the investigation of mediums, I, 
 though a layman in the Occult World, believe his 
 judgment more worthy the consideration of those 
 in search of scientific knowledge than incompetent 
 and prejudiced critics. 
 
 FOR THOSE WHO WOULD PREFER TO 
 BELIEVE IN GHOSTS: I recommend that they 
 test the congeniality of their association. If you 
 find them intelligent, instructive and honest, I fail 
 to find a reasonable excuse for showing them a cold 
 shoulder or treating them with disrespect. Shall 
 I close the door of my heart against them? Why 
 not offer them the best seat in the parlor, buy for 
 them the best cigars, and give them the best of 
 everything that we have? Continue your search 
 for them around old dilapidated houses and grave- 
 yards, — when you have found a ghost stay with it, 
 sleep with it, in that old house, and in the cemetery. 
 
 What is a ghost? Nobody knows; Webster says 
 to haunt with an apparition. Webster didn't 
 know much about ghosts, but he knew that other 
 people did, and he based his definition on this. 
 
 GHOSTS AND SUPERSTITION ARE GOOD 
 
 FRIENDS. 
 
 I would like to have superstition dig down into a 
 grave, find a dead body, kiss and caress it, thump it 
 and roll it around, until it shows signs of life, lift 
 up its head and talks with you, you will have a real 
 
AWTl 1. HkUViUTS OK 
 Spartan Press. 1265, Gal r LMO McMahon 
 
 er.ee wr.r ,\-:s\iov.;;\^ r^:r,i:\v 
 in it. worth giving out to the world. 
 
 But if it makes no sign of life, displays no 
 
 te'./.^'-ee. •.:" ; .: -.s stubborn. ae:s s ; .ek. .\r.J. refuses 
 to ta.'.k with you. w!:,;: thou, wul ho your doeisior. ■ 
 Will you cone s sleeping — wa i 
 
 tor the ese serr.ethir.i; 
 
 disp'.a\ \:\U 
 ::: your o.ir setuo row ;: 
 It :::^::: bo a r.ulher. ye. 
 
 W'er. v that 
 
 sleeping soul, because of that million years of 
 
 Is that the sweet res: wo sin$ 
 
 about? Would not be better to say that is time 
 Lost That is worse than nothing. LET US MOVE 
 ON IK THE REA1 M OF LIGHT AND EVOLU- 
 TION: — if you fail to find in the ghost or dead 
 body what you would • o bo know. If in all of 
 your experiences through the journey of life you 
 b Dot met u] in the spiritual 
 
 realm, that appearee igent, If nothing except 
 
 or. soo w ith 3 our natural e\\ 
 ir soul, it wha know about eterni: 
 
 what you have n cold unintellig 
 
 creeds, faiths and the dreams of primitive 
 
 life 
 and power to demor.stra: vity and display 
 
 intelligence in si 
 
 If it blackens your vision of the future, and 
 associates your soul with devils and hell, it it 
 preaches to you about ghosts holy or unholy. — if 
 it farms i you no direet and positive evidence 
 
 of the whereabouts of vour loved ones. Whether 
 
TAMING MAN 53 
 
 it appears intelligent to your mind or not, I shall 
 advise you to bury it, associate it with decayed 
 flesh and dusty bones and find something that has 
 life and power. 
 
 That something that can teach, that knows and 
 talks, has the power of love, can sympathize, is 
 educating, reasonable, and refuses to sleep the long 
 and silent sleep of death. That says if you would 
 aid in building an earthly heaven you should chain 
 the false, and strangle that monster ignorance that 
 grins in the face of truth. 
 
 THE MELTING POT STAFF. 
 
 The Melting Pot speaks of a real ghost, with 
 long yellow curly hair that pulled out easy. It 
 must have been captured in a cemetery or drug out 
 of a morgue; judging from the way it was handled, 
 it must have made a slip somewhere, for evidently 
 it lost out with the Melting Pot Staff. It struck a 
 live crew there, they must have discovered that it 
 lacked life and intelligence, and the Melting Pot 
 Crew, don't bother with anything that is deficient in 
 mind, but even they are subject to error. 
 
 I admire their method of handling ghostly sub- 
 jects, and whether this ghost deserved the cruel 
 treatment that it received is a question. 
 
 Was this ghost a respectable ghost? Was it 
 intelligent, or was it a dead ghost? The writer of 
 that article must have decided in the negative, and 
 
54 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 associated it with graveyards and old abandoned 
 houses. And unless he is in a position to determine 
 whether or not there are such things as ghosts, or 
 spirits or a soul, I am sure that he could not define 
 the psychology of the soul, — why should we have 
 confidence in his judgment when it comes to a 
 phenomenon that deals with man's future destiny, 
 and is to settle a deep mystery that has for thousands 
 •of years, shrouded the world in a veil of darkness and 
 flooded its rivers with human blood. 
 
 The situation is plain: the reporter must have 
 undertaken to handle something that he couldn't 
 manage, and instead of confessing that it was out 
 of his line, that it was something that his mind 
 could not conceive, he left the finger marks of 
 ignorance, and made a trail that no man could 
 follow with safety that leads nowhere. 
 
 Mediums have to deal with two worlds: The 
 intelligence and truth of one — the superstition 
 and ignorance of the other. 
 
 Knee pant reporters with gosling voices, old case 
 hardened subjects with stiff beard, het in the 
 furnace of prejudice, — good honest souls hammered 
 on the anvil of creeds, doctrines, and faiths. 
 
 If thou hast discovered something through knowl- 
 edge of science and natural law, we care not how, 
 if it is helpful and you can back it up with evidence, 
 let us have it. It is fair and just that you expect us 
 to back our claims with evidence. And unless you 
 are in a position to show knowledge of your sub- 
 ject we shall erase you from our memory so far 
 as your judgment and advise is concerned. 
 
 And we would advise the critic to know his 
 subject. 
 
MY EARLY EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Since writing the first chapter of this awful book, 
 entitled * 'Awful Thoughts," I have had so many 
 interesting experiences it would be impossible to 
 give them all to the world. 
 
 When I first discovered my medium power in the 
 early period of my experiences, I did not see any 
 visions. 
 
 As I gained in strength, the visions became very 
 interesting, until I would see them almost every 
 morning about the time I was waking. Some will 
 say, "he is a dreamer." Everybody dreams, but 
 they dream when they are asleep — having had 
 several years' experience, I believe, I am able to dis- 
 cern the difference between the two. "Visions," 
 are wonderfully impressive; and every one of them 
 has a deep significance. I would prefer not to see 
 them so often, as they place on me responsibility. 
 
 I do not see visions when I am asleep, sometimes 
 I am in a trance and again I am wide awake. 
 
 There is as great a contrast in a vision and a 
 dream as there are in a photograph and a person. 
 
 A vision is real — like life ; voices are heard, 
 which is the natural voice. If the first vision fails to 
 impress me deeply — I will see it a second, or 
 third time if necessary; if there is anything that I 
 fail to understand, the interpreter who is usually 
 the one causing the impression, is there to explain. 
 
 In my writing I have but little to do in selecting 
 my subject; it is given me through a phenomenon 
 power. 
 
56 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 One vision will impress me with the wrong of 
 race prejudice. The inhumanity of separating 
 brother, sister, father and mother, in slavery time. 
 The affection of the negro is as tender as it is with 
 any other race of people. The folly of the * 'white 
 man" driving the "black man" to do his bidding, 
 and resorting to outlawery and mob rule, which 
 exposes the brute spirit in man, and makes of him 
 a lawless murderer, and a dangerous character. 
 * It is our duty to encourage education, which is the 
 only safe remedy for this insane spirit. 
 
 How the Music and Song Is Conveyed To Me 
 Through An Unseen Power : 
 
 On one Sunday morning, about six o'clock, in my 
 wanderings through a strange land, that resembled 
 a lumber district, I seen and heard a man singing 
 and playing on a violin. I was touched by the soft 
 strains of music that were sweeter, than any I had 
 ever heard produced by a violin. 
 
 The poetry also touched my soul, because it told 
 of this man's sadness, who had strayed away from 
 loved ones and home ; and of how in a pinch of want, 
 he had been forced to violate some law or code, and 
 forced to hide away from the thorny hand of law. 
 
 His sad heart and anxiety mingled with fear and 
 love — that told of his situation, and that of hun- 
 dreds of thousands of other men who had been made 
 outlaws, in the sight of the law because of the 
 inequality and evils in society. 
 
 The impression was strong enough that I re- 
 membered the tune and the poetry and with the 
 assistance of my mother, and John A. Burner, I am 
 able to place the song, "Memories Of The Past," 
 before the public — my affidavit will appear on the 
 
TAMING MAN 57 
 
 cover. At another time, I heard music apparently 
 played by a banjo and mandolin. 
 
 I remembered all that I heard but because the 
 song was not complete, I became careless and a few 
 weeks later I heard the same music again; the first 
 part of which was played on stringed instruments 
 and the other half complete Band Music; this time 
 the song was completed, so far as I know. 
 
 John Burner was a music teacher, who had passed 
 over about two and a half years; he advised me to 
 get a harp and learn to play the music, which I did, 
 but could not remember it well enough to play it 
 correctly, and place every note in its proper place ; 
 with his assistance I learned to play the song — 
 which is also in the hands of the publisher. 
 
 My affidavit will also appear on the cover of this 
 song, which is entitled, "Joshua's Sun." The 
 Poetry and Title was taught me by Rev. Dr. Walker; 
 who was one of the leading spirits in the Baptist 
 Church and is supposed to have died in Huntington, 
 W. Va. The Church lost this good man, because of 
 its lack of knowledge, of natural law, — over-con- 
 fidence in the sacredness of Ancient History. And 
 while I did not know of him until he spoke to me at 
 a night circle at Mrs. Blake's, — since then he has 
 been one of my most competent advisors. And the 
 Church's loss was my gain. What is true in this 
 illustration, is also true with other denominations. 
 I believe I have more advisors among the Church 
 people than I have among non-church people. 
 
 I am also certain about their rationalism, and the 
 superior strength of the spirit mind, and while 
 others may feel doubtful — about the welfare of 
 men like Dr. Walker, I have a way of knowing 
 
58 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 that it is well with them, and gets better all the 
 time, — and if they are in hell I would like to be 
 there with them when my work is ended on earth. 
 The following message was given to David E. 
 McQuain, who has for the past few years resided in 
 Huntington, W. Va. 
 
 THE MESSAGE. 
 
 This is Brother Walker talking. I want you to 
 deliver this message to Brother for me 
 
 as I was very much interested in him in the earthly 
 body, and am still interested in him. 
 
 I know he wonders why I do not speak to him. 
 But he has not the gift. You ask him if he has the 
 gift of healing. All do not have the same gift. 
 He is a doubter, but an honest one. Tell him when 
 he comes to pass over, he will see things different like 
 I did. Now he believes the word, you ask him what 
 about the apostles on the day of pentecost when 
 they were all with one accord in one place ; and they 
 were all filled with the Holy Spirit — and began 
 to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them 
 utterance. 
 
 Tell him when I left the body all was dark in the 
 room — and I went through the water which 
 purified from the earth to Spirit conditions. A 
 light was held for me to cross the river — and I will 
 hold the light for him. 
 
 WHAT IS THE BANNER OF CHRIST, IS IT 
 
 THIS? 
 
 A Christian gentleman said, I am pained because 
 of your reckless attack on the Bible and the Christian 
 
TAMING MAN 59 
 
 faith. He says, Are you so blind and depraved in 
 nature, that you can not see the progress in civiliza- 
 tion? How any man could deny the Christian 
 Religion since the banner of our Lord Jesus, waving 
 triumphantly wherever the Gospel is preached, 
 I can not conceive. Since the Gospel of Christ and 
 the true religion is being preached by the missions 
 of civilized nations, to the heathen — people are not 
 worshiping idols of wood and stone, nor killing 
 one another. 
 
 And there have been men of large caliber, thun- 
 dered their infidelity on the Christian Religion, 
 whose influence is no longer feared nor felt. Can 
 you not find a more sane course to pursue, in order 
 to establish the phenomenon of spiritualism? 
 
 My friend, the return of the spirit, establishes 
 itself. But itjcan neither communicate nor reason 
 with the powers of darkness and prejudice. To- 
 night I am writing by oil light; I am thankful that 
 it is not a pine torch or a tallow candle. 
 
 When I am in the city I appreciate the bright 
 electric light and I would like to have our little 
 brown cottage out in the pines, lighted by electricity. 
 When I was here three years ago, I drove a horse 
 that I called Ginger. He was dangerous, but because 
 he would take me to the station five miles away in 
 thirty minutes and not tire I loved him and because 
 I gave him the rein and treated him decent he loved 
 me. Now I drive a Regal automobile and make the 
 same distance in ten and fifteen minutes. I wish 
 there were more Edisons and we admire the man 
 who invented the Gas Engine. The high wheel loco- 
 motive, the steam boat, steel cars, and the ships 
 that face the storms and plow the briny deep. Do 
 
60 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 you not have more confidence in the sanity of the 
 Edisons and men of science than did your fore- 
 fathers? Do you know that the man who gave to 
 the world the first steam boat, was thought insane ? 
 The man that harnessed electricity and predicted 
 that man would converse with man at a distance of a 
 thousand miles over a wire was thought a fit subject 
 for the lunatic Asylum. Some of us thought it was 
 wicked to talk about drawing electricity from the 
 clouds and harnessing the lightning. 
 
 Where did those men of genius find their in- 
 spiration? I do not believe that any man was ever 
 inspired or helped to do great things by reading the 
 bible. The man of genius has not had the encourage- 
 ment that he should have had, and our government 
 has done but little to help the inventor. Thousands 
 have given up hope and died in poverty, because they 
 did not have the means to complete the undertaking 
 that might have proved a blessing to the world. 
 And I am admonished and told that when people 
 accept the Christian faith they become docile and 
 stop killing one another. Are you sure that state- 
 ment is correct, my friend? 
 
 Why not work in Europe a while longer, and 
 preach double doses in some of these civilized people ? 
 
 The people may not be kissing the feet and 
 images of old warriors, but had they not as well 
 worship stone gods and be kissing the toe of some 
 monster, as to be falling on their faces and crying, 
 pleading and begging, to something that no mortal 
 man has ever seen or heard? 
 
 As to the phenomenon of spiritualism, that was 
 established before I knew anything about the 
 phenomenon. And as to the phenomenon of 
 
TAMING MAN 61 
 
 mediums, that is a reality, a beautiful truth, that 
 need not hide under a cloak, and is going to correct 
 all the evils in society. 
 
 In this book that you would have me believe is 
 the word of God, in which is recorded the fundamen- 
 tal principles of your faith and religion I read 
 where Christ said : Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the 
 meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are 
 they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 for they shall be filled. 
 
 And many other blessed sayings; then we read in 
 the 10th Chapter of St. Matthew, where it is claimed 
 that the same man said : Think not that I am come to 
 send peace on earth; I carne not to send peace but 
 a sword. For I am come to set man at variance 
 against his father, and the daughter against the 
 mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother- 
 in-law, and the man's foes shall be those of his own 
 household. The writer caused him to say, He 
 that loveth father and mother more than me is 
 not worthy of me : and what I tell you in darkness, 
 that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, 
 that preach ye upon the house-tops; and fear not 
 them which kill the body; but rather fear him which 
 is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 
 
 I have a strong reason to believe that a good 
 man Jesus, lived in the first century, who was 
 abused; the history of whom is incorrect; who was 
 killed by a howling mob, but not crucified; never 
 uttered the language; nor done the things that he 
 has been accused of. 
 
 WHO ARE THE MEEK THAT INHERITED 
 THE EARTH? Not the laborers, the producers of 
 
62 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 wealth, the widow and mothers whose husbands 
 and sons have been crushed in the mines and 
 slaughtered in the mills of greed and profit. In 
 your religious delirium, you preach that the time 
 for this and that passage of holy scripture to be 
 fulfilled is just at hand. 
 
 This yell has been ringing in the ears of the mis- 
 guided people for hundreds of years. Now we plead 
 with you to use your influence with the master. 
 Ask him to speed the time when the masters of 
 earth will complete the slaughter. Tell him that 
 the Kings and the money lords, and the men who 
 have robbed the meek of their portion of earth, 
 have turned a deaf ear to the cries of oppressed and 
 would make obedient slaves by reducing to poverty 
 all men and women who are so unfortunate as to be 
 so situated that they are forced to sell the muscle 
 or brain to the masters of earth in order to sustain 
 life. If it was he who sent the sword, plead with 
 him to take it away. If it was he who set at variance 
 and caused disputes between father and mother, 
 son and daughter, husband and wife, kings and 
 presidents, ask him, the Christian God, if the 
 reign of hell should not cease. Ask him to restore 
 peace on earth. 
 
 In the light of reason and rationalism — would 
 you indict this splendid man by declaring the 
 Jewish bibliolatry to be the word of God? Fear 
 not those who kill the body, but rather fear him 
 who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 
 
 "How glorious, How consoling" is the language 
 of this paragraph. What does it mean? That we 
 must believe and obey the doctrines; the propo- 
 gandists of the bible, or lose your soul? 
 
TAMING MAN 63 
 
 An appropriate text to preach from, if you think 
 it right to excite and scare children — when you 
 preach the sermon, I would like for you to extend 
 to me the invitation, to visit your city and grant to 
 me the privilege to teach to the matured minds 
 from the same text from your pulpit. 
 
 And I will prove to the people that the doctrine 
 that you teach is "dangerous" and is not true. 
 
 I am admonished by the civil heads for my 
 recklessness. Can not see why I am so blind and 
 depraved in nature. 
 
 Fear and stay on your knees lest he send on you 
 calamity. Are we fools who do not see in the 
 Christians' God the only hope for eternal life? 
 Was it the son of Joseph who taught that poverty 
 is a blessing? That this good man supplies the 
 wants of the needy — answers prayer — then turn 
 a deaf ear to millions of cries and prayers — and 
 then expect us to wait patiently for the time when 
 he will through his ominpotence end the hells of 
 earth. Please answer me. 
 
 THE THEORY OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Was, The earth was flat and the sky was a solid 
 dome above it — the sun revolved around the earth 
 to give heat and the Moon revolved around the 
 earth to give light by night. God created the Stars 
 for lights, for man's special purpose. 
 
 And he did it all in a few days by word of mouth. 
 
64 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 The center of the universe was the earth; and those 
 who denied that theory was an Infidel — and was in 
 danger of being murdered, tortured in Shackles or 
 burned at the stake. Modern thinkers do not 
 believe in the early Christian's theory. 
 
 God also created the one universe, the System 
 and the Solar System, and all there was and is. 
 God, called the Heavenly Father, was all-wise, 
 all powerful and is revealed to us in the Scriptures, 
 as the great Omnipotent. 
 
 It has since become known that there are con- 
 siderable more of the Universe as revealed by 
 science. 
 
 It is believed now there are numerous suns. Our 
 Planet is only one of eight, which revolve around the 
 Sun. There is probably millions of solar systems, 
 each containing millions of solar systems. Our 
 Sun's diameter is a hundred and eight times that of 
 the earth; it revolves at a speed of about four 
 thousand miles an hour. 
 
 Mercury's distance from the Sun, is approxi- 
 mately thirty-six million miles; Venus, sixty-seven 
 million miles, the Earth ninety-three million miles; 
 Mars a hundred and forty-one million miles; Jupiter, 
 four hundred and eighty-three million miles ; Saturn, 
 eight hundred and eighty-six million miles; Uranus, 
 a thousand seven hundred and eighty-two million 
 miles; Neptune, two thousand seven hundred and 
 ninety-two million miles. 
 
 The distance from the earth, to the nearest star 
 is about four light years ; light travels, at a hundred 
 and eighty-two thousand miles per second, and 
 would be four years reaching the earth. 
 
 As to the number of stars, no one can even guess. 
 
TAMING MAN 65 
 
 This is only a hint, at the unexplorable mysteries in 
 nature. And yet, it is claimed by the Bible Writers, 
 that this insignificant God that has been portrayed 
 to us, did all this in a few days. 
 
 My Christian friends and my enemies will say 
 this is evidence of a God. That no intelligence less 
 than God could do these wonderful things. I claim 
 that it disproves the theory of the Christians' God. 
 Could the Moses burning bush God have done this ? 
 The reason that the bible writers tell us nothing 
 about this magnincant, grand and glorious system 
 and solar systems, is because they had no way of 
 knowing anything about them. Had they had some 
 knowledge of this wonderful inexplorable phenome- 
 non in nature, they would have wrote that God 
 made them, by word of mouth, and that God told 
 them to write it down in a book, and the confusion 
 would have been greater. 
 
 Let us look into this God theory that the Bible 
 tells us about: — What about him? Read the 
 following passages of Scripture and ask your reason 
 if a God like the Christians have pictured to us, 
 driving, scaring and threatening; favoring a part 
 of the people and cursing the other, had anything 
 to do with the making of this wonderful creation. 
 
 COMMENT AND REASON. 
 
 Deuteronomy Chapter 28 : — The Lord shall smite 
 thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and 
 with inflamation, with an extreme burning, and with 
 
66 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 a sword, and with blasting and with mildew. Is 
 this the portraying of the character and the dis- 
 position of the Christians' God? A God "with a 
 capacity for cursing, we neither fear nor respect." 
 The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before 
 thyne enemies. A revengeful spirit we hate. 
 
 Thy carcass shall be meat unto the fowls of the 
 air and unto the beasts of the field, and no man shall 
 •fray them away. We hate a "God"' that will 
 pollute the air with the stench of the children of men, 
 and then guard to make sure that their carcass shall 
 be devoured by the fowls of the air and the wild 
 beasts. 
 
 The Lord will smite thee with botch of Egypt and 
 with emrods, and with the scab and with the itch 
 whereof thou canst not be healed. 
 
 This portrays a character so loathsome and 
 dangerous that he is not fit to look upon our cities 
 as corrupt as they are. The Lord will smite thee 
 with madness and blindness and astonishment of 
 heart. IS there a Devil or a demon even though 
 he had the power to do so — so depraved in nature 
 who would execute the fiendish threats of this war 
 God? 
 
 So that the man that is tender among you and 
 very delicate his eyes shall be evil toward his 
 brother and toward the wife of his bosom and 
 toward the remnant of his children which he shall 
 leave, — for a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall 
 burn in the lowest hell. Is this the God that you 
 would have me pray to ? I would not so much as re- 
 move my hat in his presence. I would not have 
 my brothers and sisters bow a knee in any "church" 
 where such a monster "is enthroned." 
 
TAMING MAN 67 
 
 I will spend mine arrows upon them, they shall 
 be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning 
 heat and with bitter destruction. I will also send 
 the beasts with teeth upon them with the poison 
 serpents of the dust. The sword without and terror 
 within shall destroy both the young man and the 
 Virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hair. 
 Then a quotation of the Bible; it is a terrible thing 
 to fall into the hands of the living God. Then have 
 some noted Artist paint a picture of this * 'monster," 
 that the Bible "writers" have portrayed to us, and 
 hang it in your Library, and in the institutions 
 of "education," and in the halls of "science." 
 And we will teach "this generation" to neither 
 "worship nor fear" this phantom and they will 
 learn to hate and look upon him with scorn, and 
 the "church" may discontinue their worship of 
 this horrible nightmare. 
 
 Praying is right thinking; it is appealing to one's 
 manhood; it is talking to the soul; you appeal to 
 the God in you; we may not speak a word when we 
 pray; we can pray with ourself, but we can't "pray 
 for other people" ;to pray for our friends in public, 
 where the public hear our pathetic plea for the poor 
 lost sinner — sympathize with them in their weak- 
 ness, does no good, and belittles them in the 
 estimation of thinking people. To beg God, "for 
 what by nature we are entitled to, is an insult to 
 an intelligent Supreme Being." 
 
 No intelligent being would expect puny mortal 
 man, to so much as thank him when it rains, after 
 a long dry spell, or to bless his name when the crops 
 are all drowned out by too much rain. Such a 
 God as pictured by the Bible writers, never existed. 
 
68 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 The bunglesome blunders as he is credited with, 
 has made of him a fiend and proves that he is not 
 qualified to do the things that is claimed for him. 
 
 MORE ABOUT GHOSTS. * 
 
 Some people might go into a room where a seance 
 is being held and hear the voice of loved ones whom 
 they suppose dead, witness the moving of objects, 
 musical instruments, leave the stand, float in air 
 and cause strains of music, by some unseen 
 power, they might rush from the room with a face 
 as colorless as death. Look for secret closets, 
 search adjoining rooms, and climb in the attic to 
 catch the man that made a business of imitating the 
 voice of the millions of dead. But if the same 
 people should spy a Gypsy camp, where fakers could 
 be found telling fortunes with the settlements of 
 coffee grounds, or the lines in the hand they would 
 cheerfully pay the price and patiently wait for the 
 fortune that will be soon coming and argue with the 
 postmaster about the letter that was to reach the 
 office the following week. 
 
 It does seem like a hard task to undertake to 
 convince some people that there are no ghosts, 
 especially those who have been seeing them all their 
 life. But people are learning that when a ghost is 
 cornered it turns out to be a squeaking door, a loose 
 plank, a chunk, stump or a cow with the spots in 
 the wrong place. I knew a young man who hid in a 
 
TAMING MAN 69 
 
 cemetery with two old fashioned skillet lids, and 
 ground them together and on a dark night it 
 sounded like all the skeletons in the graveyard 
 gritting their teeth at the same time. I have made 
 ghosts by cutting eyes and a mouth in a pumpkin, 
 placing a light in it and swinging it so that it would 
 move around. Some people may be telling about 
 that ghost yet, and it has been twenty years since 
 I cut the teeth in the last pumpkin. 
 
 Having taken an active part in their manufacture 
 at one time, it would be hard for anybody to excite 
 me with a ghost story, BECAUSE THERE ARE 
 NO GHOSTS. 
 
 BUT I HAVE DISCOVERED A BEAUTIFUL 
 TRUTH, NOT A THEORY. So that there can be 
 no misunderstanding as to my position, — I will 
 give a brief explanation of how I discovered the 
 phenomenon. The first that I knew about it was 
 about a year ago, when through the Medium powers 
 of Mrs. Elizabeth Blake, of Proctorville, Ohio, I 
 conversed with my father, mother, son and several 
 other people that I knew and recognized. 
 
 Then I first learned to converse with departed 
 friends through a code. Information received 
 through the code is just as reliable as that re- 
 ceived through any other method of communication. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL TRUTH. 
 
 In the beginning of my experience, I could get 
 results by sitting in the dark what some times 
 seemed hours to me. The power was very weak. 
 I was so elated and my interest so great that I 
 encountered some experiences that the child would 
 
70 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 in learning to walk. I might have been content, 
 being a child, until I knew my alphabet. And if this 
 apology is not satisfactory to the public it will have 
 to wait further development. 
 
 Then everything became so real and lifelike, that 
 it was like talking and associating with earthly 
 friends, as I could talk with them through the code 
 and by impression and through psychiG writing. 
 Then when I began to see visions and hear voices 
 and learn music and songs through the power, I 
 could no longer resist the influences that were thrown 
 around me. I know who to consult nowadays in 
 matters of importance. 
 
 Since our friends' description of their new heavenly 
 home sounds reasonable and is in accord with nature 
 I am more inclined to believe them right, and have 
 sufficient reason to place more confidence in their 
 judgment, as they are evidently more familiar with 
 conditions in their sphere than is any fiction writer, 
 and it grants to us the privilege of dismissing from 
 our minds all creeds, isms, faiths, beliefs, and 
 dogmas, takes away the doubts and fears, gamble, 
 and speculation, — and while I feel that I have no 
 moral right to contradict what they tell me, I 
 shall write and speak out fearlessly whatever 
 information that I receive worth giving out to the 
 world. 
 
 WHAT I SAW AND HEARD. 
 
 On the morning of May 18th, 1915, I seen some- 
 thing that impressed me deeply. In my rambling 
 
TAMING MAN 71 
 
 in a strange country, I met with some people and 
 two lions. The lions and people were mixed up 
 together about like we would mix up with pet cats. 
 
 The lions looked dangerous to me — and I felt 
 very much out of place in that society, and was 
 afraid. 
 
 When one of the lions began to sniff around me, I 
 became very much excited and spoke to the keeper 
 in a commanding voice, to look after them dangerous 
 brutes. 
 
 He placed his hand on the animals' heads with the 
 intention to impress me of their gentleness; but 
 when one of them placed its nose in my mother's 
 face, and began to pull and chew at some part of her 
 dress, I commanded the keeper again to take care 
 and take no chance with the lions, and felt if my 
 mother was injured I would take my revenge out on 
 the keeper. 
 
 They seeing my fear and excitement, the lions sat 
 down by the side of my mother, and smiled as 
 pleasantly as a young lady when her best man was 
 around. My mother smiled and I smiled. I was 
 embarrassed and felt out of place. 
 
 This was intended to impress me with how much 
 out of place I would be in that strange country 
 if we could be kidnapped and rushed into that 
 tame society before we had an opportunity to 
 change our physical body and carnal mind; in 
 other words, before we had time to dress or undress. 
 
 Our friends advise us that there are no animals 
 in that faraway country ; if there was, we would want 
 to take our guns and knife with us, and the first 
 thing we would want to do would be to start out 
 killing. One writer has given an account of wars 
 
72 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 over there, another speaks of the governments, 
 another of libraries. 
 
 Can't we get away from the artificial: these 
 claims are incorrect and misleading. If it's fiction 
 why not compel the Author to state so, — instead 
 of confusing the people. 
 
 We are not debating whether or not life of lower 
 animals continue to exist after the death of the body, 
 but we believe when our friends who are qualified 
 to advise us, tell us that they are not associated 
 with animals, the statement is correct. Life over 
 there is gentle, there is nothing that we need fear, 
 and everything gets a square deal. 
 
 Would not feed a family of children on the milk 
 and butter from old Piny for fifteen years, then 
 cut her throat and sell her for young steak to be 
 cut up in slices and fried on a hot griddle — we 
 will leave our gun and knife here. 
 
 I was also impressed with the wonderful physical 
 strength of the people — that a man could crush 
 the skull of a lion as easily as we would the head 
 of a mouse. 
 
 I am advised that the strength of a man or a 
 woman who have reached the higher spheres, is 
 about two hundred and forty-seven times that 
 of ours. 
 
 LETTER FROM BROTHER MATISON. 
 
 The following communication received from 
 my brother, Matison Morris, whom I thought 
 had died about fourteen years ago. 
 
 It was almost a year after the death of my body, 
 before it began to dawn on me that some strange 
 
TAMING MAN 73 
 
 phenomenon in nature, had brought about wonder- 
 derful changes, that I could not understand. I 
 knew what was going on around me, could see 
 people moving around and talking as they did on 
 earth. I could feel no pain, and my appetite for 
 food and drink was supplied supernaturally. I 
 was not happy, and felt an unpleasant and an 
 uneasy feeling. I thought that I had died; in fact 
 seemed to realize this from the time my spirit left 
 the earthly body. 
 
 My feeble effort to think and solve a mystery that 
 I could not understand, no doubt, aided me in 
 gaining strength. This mystery, the people of 
 earth possessed of a knowledge of science, can not 
 fathom. Only the experienced know. And we 
 are unable to explain. Our knowledge of natural 
 law, compared with the knowledge of the best 
 educated men of earth, is like comparing a mother's 
 knowledge with that of a nursing babe. 
 
 As you are aware an attack of scarlet fever when 
 I was a child left me deficient in some ways, deformed 
 in body, my sight, speech and hearing was affected. 
 At the beginning of the second year, I was entirely 
 rational. How glad, how delighted I was to know 
 that I had taken on a new body, and all my defects 
 had been healed. There is nothing artificial over 
 here. 
 
 We never forget anything. Spheres are measured 
 by knowledge and knowledge is strength. Believing 
 something without evidence or through faith, proves 
 nothing and demonstrates weakness. 
 
 You might believe that through belief and faith in 
 a certain doctrine you will shun a hell and gain a 
 heaven. In fact all churches are founded on belief 
 
74 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 and faith, that line of thought is childish. The 
 bible propagators were more ignorant of the world's 
 foundation than the people of this generation whose 
 minds are open to reason and who have the courage 
 to delve into the supposed mysteries in nature. The 
 bible is a vague history, some of which is about 
 correct, but that amounts to nothing — other 
 history is more correct and the errors in the bible 
 are many; it teaches a mythical foundation. It is 
 believed by a part of the people that it has done a 
 great good in the world, but instead it has done a 
 great harm. It is not the word of God; the word 
 of God is not recorded in any book. It is unfair to 
 impose its doctrine on the people as a truth. 
 
 The theory of man's creation as taught by Chris- 
 tian believers, is not true; we have a way of knowing 
 all truth. And we know an untruth as easy as we 
 know a truth — and there is no need of people 
 blindly groping in darkness as we can know your 
 future as well as the past. The time is not far off 
 when the people will know these mighty truths; 
 when educational institutions will teach science and 
 the protests of ignorance will have no weight. 
 The people of earth speak of a spirit world. There 
 is no such place as a spirit world. If we are not in 
 Heaven, then, there is no Heaven. No abnormal 
 baby that the bible writers imagined, had anything 
 to do with the making of this beautiful and de- 
 lightful place that we will term Heaven, the Home of 
 the soul, by the consent of the Priest-preachers 
 and Jonah teachers of earth. 
 
 You can kill the body, but you can't kill the soul ! 
 That is life: It is this intelligence that is giving to 
 you this information through your phenomenal 
 power! 
 
TAMING MAN 75 
 
 Why waste time strewing flowers on the grave of 
 your loved ones. Do all that you can to drive out 
 superstition, and strew your flowers in the paths of 
 the people of earth while they are alive. The 
 bodies of our departed friends will never be resur- 
 rected. Heaven will never have any need for dead 
 bodies, and that "Great Day" that you sing about 
 will never come. No judge. We have no need of 
 a Judge to pronounce sentences for the deeds done in 
 the body: there is no power on earth, in Heaven 
 or in hell that could remove or interfere with the 
 people of Heaven. It is as natural for us to know this 
 as it is to know any other truth. 
 
 The Judgment Day is an imagination that will 
 never become real. If the Christians want it that 
 way, don't worry about that, you have no time to 
 waste around cemeteries; go right on teaching the 
 truth, and when they talk to you about the sins of 
 the body, ask what body. People should not 
 care anything about what punishment is inflicted 
 on their dead bones and decayed flesh. 
 
 The natural evolution that healed me and brought 
 me to my mind gradually, is strengthening me, and 
 leading me on and on; and supernatural knowledge 
 gives us access to nature's library, and on natural 
 evolution is founded Heaven and Earth, all the 
 Systems and Solar Systems. When the people 
 understand this mighty truth, the clouds of 
 ignorance will disappear, and truth will become 
 master and king. 
 
 Walter Matison Morris. 
 
MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN. 
 
 The following message is from my son Ray, who 
 died at Weston, W. Va., when he was a child, 
 fifteen years ago. He says, I am speaking to you 
 in my child voice, because you would not recognize 
 my natural voice. I am seventeen years old, 
 and according to your measurement of weight, I 
 weigh about 135 pounds, and have a deep, heavy 
 voice, and in the future I will speak to you in my 
 natural voice. 
 
 This information is important, because it proves 
 the theory of evolution, and in reality disproves 
 universally established theories that the people 
 of earth ought to know about. 
 
 Can you conceive of anything more delightful 
 than to know that your loved ones whom you 
 thought dead, are alive and through your power, 
 converse with, laugh and joke with you, as they did 
 when associated with you in the flesh — to know 
 that it is well with them, and that you have for all 
 time dismissed from your mind, false, foolish ideas, 
 beliefs and doctrines? 
 
 How your soul rejoiced when you discovered this 
 most beautiful truth, — and to know that you have 
 the gamble of life taken away, and the future is no 
 longer speculation and that you are in a position 
 to do a wonderful work that is so badly needed in 
 the world, it seems to me is all that any earthly 
 mortal could expect. 
 
 We are glad that you have decided to teach the 
 
TAMING MAN 77 
 
 truth. To know the truth and then be too cowardly 
 to tell it to those who are in the dark would be a 
 crime on your part. 
 
 It is this truth that is going to revolutionize the 
 world's governments, and place it on a basis of 
 facts. Most people believe we are just spirits; 
 spirits could not exist without a body. Spirit don't 
 have weight: just a spirit would not need to eat. 
 We are people — but we don't have wings. You 
 speak of a spirit world, and confuse matters and 
 have things in horrible disorder. The question is 
 often asked if we are in the spirit world, happy 
 and content with our lot; we naturally agree with 
 you, because you have suggested that your edu- 
 cation has taught you that there is a spirit world and 
 we don't volunteer to correct your error, but the 
 people can learn the truth when their minds are 
 trained to grasp it. You speak of a country, the 
 home of the soul, with mansions, and sing of the 
 city of the New Jerusalem, of rubies and diadems, 
 and you probably have imagined a city with walls 
 around it, with gates of pearl, paved streets, and 
 other artificial arrangements. This imagination 
 with primitive man, was not so unreasonable, but 
 in this age you must not believe it because it is 
 childish and is untrue. 
 
 Teach the people that this is a world called 
 Heaven. That there are no Judges and Kings that 
 they need fear. And the earth and Heaven and the 
 system and solar systems are founded on natural 
 law, and evolution. 
 
 EVOLUTION. Is the law of Heaven. Was it 
 not true, I would have always remained a child. 
 We have a natural sun, natural lakes of water, 
 
78 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 the earth is carpeted with natural flowers, natural 
 fruits, about five thousand different varieties of 
 grapes, but there are never more than one variety 
 growing on a vine. 
 
 Our principal diet is fruit. We have five hours of 
 night every hundred hours. But it is never dark, 
 and birds of wonderful beauty, and of more colors 
 than you know anything about. There can never 
 be sickness, pain nor death over here. 
 
 Many people will believe that what you are 
 writing is a contradiction of the word of God. 
 
 Take no notice of that, no man has ever heard nor 
 read the word of God and never will. The claim 
 that Christ was the son of God is false. Write down 
 these truths as you receive them and we will stand 
 responsible and back your fight. 
 
 If we had no interest in the people of earth, 
 we would not need to combat ignorance. Our 
 interest is mutual. Because you are my father, 
 is not the reason that we are working through you. 
 It is because of your Phenomenon Powers, and your 
 mind purged from superstition and falsehood, and 
 your disposition to work for the adjustment of the 
 wrongs, and the establishing of truth. 
 
 SAINT JOHN'S DREAMS IN REVELATIONS, 
 OR FACTS, WHICH FOR YOU? 
 
 How many sermons have you heard preached 
 from Revelations? Unless church going is one of 
 
TAMING MAN 79 
 
 your hobbies, you may not have heard any. I 
 at least hope you are familiar with the book of 
 Revelations, if you are not there is danger of you 
 being classed with Atheists and Infidels and de- 
 nounced as a heathen ; — if you are either, you must 
 be a very bad man; — but it can be no less sacrile- 
 gious for the African to worship gods of stone and 
 wood than for boasted and spoiled Christian 
 nations to worship imaginery Gods. And the 
 display of intelligence with one is as great as the 
 other. 
 
 In Revelations it is thought that St. John has 
 given a beautiful description of Heaven — and 
 portrayed the excellent character and disposition of 
 a loving heavenly father. 
 
 Now John, is saying to the seven churches of Asia, 
 several things in sevens; he saw several funny 
 things and says several funny things. 
 
 Beginning with the first chapter, which reads: 
 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto 
 him to shew unto his servants things which must 
 shortly come to pass. 
 
 And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his 
 servant John. And in the third verse we are 
 again warned that the time is at hand. The bible 
 inventors have caused John to say that God says 
 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end- 
 ing saith the Lord. 
 
 At the time John says he heard and saw these 
 things he was in the Isle called Patmos. 
 
 In the tenth verse he says I was in the spirit on 
 the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as 
 of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the 
 first and the last : and, What thou sees't write in a 
 
80 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 book. And send it unto the seven churches which 
 are in Asia; then he says, I turned to see the voice 
 which spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven 
 golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven 
 candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed 
 with a garment down to the foot, and girt about 
 the paps with a golden girdle. 
 
 His head and his hairs was white like wool, as 
 white as snow, and his eyes were as flames of fire; 
 and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned 
 in, a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many 
 waters. John is describing what is supposed to be 
 the Omnipotent, Son of Man. John must have 
 been very much excited, for in the seventeenth 
 verse he acknowledges that he fell at his feet like 
 dead. And he says this man that slipped up behind 
 him and yelled at him through a trumpet, and 
 talked to him like bubbling water, with fiery eyes 
 and metal feet, told him that he, this man, held the 
 keys of hell and death ; then John calls our attention 
 to the several attractive promises, that this man that 
 scared him so badly made to those who feared him 
 and lived up to the teachings of the holy word, 
 The promise that he made to the Woman Jezebel" 
 he would kill her children with death. 
 
 And that all the churches shall know that I am he 
 who searcheth the reigns of the heart. And to he 
 that overcometh and keepeth my word to the end — 
 will I give power, over the nations. To others 
 he promised precious stones, with strange names on 
 them. Then he describes the beasts that he saw 
 before the throne of God. As having eyes before 
 and behind, one resembled a lion, one a calf, one a 
 man, and one an eagle. And the beasts each had 
 
TAMING MAN 81 
 
 six wings about them, and they were full of eyes 
 within, and the beast was saying: holy, holy, 
 Lord God Almighty. 
 
 Then he saw a book in which was kept the record 
 of those who believe the bible to be the word of God, 
 and John wept because he found none worthy to 
 open the book. 
 
 AH! What a humiliating, embarrassing position. 
 In the presence of all those beautiful beasts, solemnly 
 standing before the Throne of God. But, lo, and 
 behold, a great warrior, a great, good man of God, 
 he who believed whatever was written about Jahew, 
 whether it was good or bad, right or wrong, whoever 
 was the author. David is believed to have accepted 
 it as the word of God, and his belief and faith com- 
 bined with his war record qualified him to open 
 the book. David's posterity: the slaughterer of 
 mothers and children, the butcherer, was the only 
 man found worthy to open the book and read. 
 
 Read again the description of St. John's and the 
 Christian's Heaven in Revelations. In the light of 
 reason : ask yourself these questions : 
 
 Who built the city of the New Jerusalem? What 
 kind of material is used in its construction, and why 
 were precious stones inlaid in the walls of the 
 mansions; who mined the gold, and smelted it, 
 shaped it in squares and paved the streets? Who 
 built the walls around the city; for what purpose is 
 the wall? What about the gates of pearl? Who 
 carved the pearl and shaped, and hung the gates? 
 In the light of reason would it not require an army 
 of skilled laborers to do all this ? 
 
 Would it not require a great army of bookkeepers 
 to write down the names of this innumerable army 
 
82 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 of Christian believers, and as many to erase the 
 names from the books as we fall by the wayside, 
 and deny and denounce the bible, as we become 
 converted to reason and rationalism? In the light 
 of reason, should we not expect that our friends who 
 are carpenters and architects, and masons, and 
 bookkeepers would have something to do with 
 paving the streets, and the building of the mansions 
 for occupancy, for those of us who keep the word 
 and join the church and go to Sunday School, and 
 pay the preacher, for thundering into our system 
 every Sunday, this nightmare, and propounding the 
 scriptures, that we might know, just why it was that 
 those beasts had more than their share of wings, 
 and so many eyes within and without, and honorat- 
 ing David for murder and massacre, and defending 
 slave drivers, vindicating a group of men for their 
 indecency and cruelty, because of the claims that 
 it is written in the book that is wrongfully and 
 ignorantly termed the word of an all wise and 
 merciful God? 
 
 Is it any wonder that we believe in an artificial 
 Heaven, and expect to walk the golden streets, 
 wear crowns, play on golden harps, expecting to see 
 a King and stand before a Judge, lounge in richly 
 furnished parlors, play on pianos, drive auto- 
 mobiles, dress in linen, silk and satin? Is there 
 anything strange about it that we have swallowed 
 the whale and the beast's eyes, wings, hide and 
 hair? 
 
 Believe in Miracles? Certainly. Believe in 
 brimstone hells? Certainly. Believe the sun 
 stood still for Joshua? Certainly. Why didn't 
 he command the EARTH to stand? still Why, 
 that's none of our business. 
 
RACE DEGENERACY. 
 
 Mothers, you should hide away this chapter from 
 your daughters, because it treats on a very delicate 
 subject and exposes one of societies' pet evils and 
 lifts the black curtain of secrecy and ignorance, 
 and invites a peep into the dangerous abyss of race 
 degeneracy. 
 
 I do not need to write about the danger and 
 contagion of Smallpox, Scarlet Fever and Bubonic 
 Plague. Their contamination is so feared that all 
 civilized countries compel a rigid quarantine. 
 Science has given to us an instrument which is 
 knowledge, to combat disease. 
 
 "Smallpox," this once dreaded disease, through 
 the medical profession and vaccination, has become 
 so mild that the patient continues to eat his three 
 meals a day during quarantine and the per cent of 
 casualties, has been reduced to a minimum. 
 
 A man who would deliberately infect society with 
 the scab and pus of Smallpox, would be liable to 
 indictment and prosecution. When the rodent had 
 hid behind a bunch of bananas without the con- 
 sent of the captain of the ship, crossed the Gulf 
 and made his escape in New Orleans, and spread 
 the disease among the people of that coast city, 
 there was great alarm and the excitement became 
 intense. Experts were sent by the Government to 
 advise and aid in the control of the plague. 
 
 The state and city officials issued a proclamation, 
 declaring war on rats. Anyone who showed 
 
84 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 symptoms of the plague under diagnosis were 
 guarded, and the result was, the plague was wiped 
 out, and the South may never permit another ocean 
 freighter to drop anchor at her wharf until the 
 boat is searched and the health of the crew looked 
 into. 
 
 But in every city in the land, there are men, 
 women, boys and girls in great number whose blood 
 has become poisoned with disease so loathsome, 
 that to speak the name, brings a blush of shame to 
 the face of modesty. 
 
 Because of slack law and inefficiency of legislation, 
 the false face of society, the humiliation in exposure, 
 the vulgar mind, the innocence of some and the 
 ignorance of Sexiology, — is a guarantee of race 
 deterioration. 
 
 So long as there is no moral standard, whereby 
 men, women, boys and girls can guard against un- 
 equal and improper marriage there will be a con- 
 tinuation of imbecile and deformed children, born 
 at a dangerously increasing rate. 
 
 Religious societies and reformers, preach against 
 the evils of the Red Light District, the continuous 
 bombarding whiffs out the lights, the fallen girls 
 are driven from place to place, the Divine and 
 church, that forced them on the street, are not 
 in the business of finding them homes and employ- 
 ment. 
 
 They have played their hand, when the girls 
 were put on the bum. A sane or practical remedy 
 has not been outlined and put into execution by 
 the Religionists. 
 
 We are not excusing the Crimson Girl, yet how 
 innocent is her crime of Commercialism compared 
 
TAMING MAN 85 
 
 with the crime of bringing into the world, children 
 deficient in body and mind and the part of the play- 
 that is responsible for Race Degeneracy. 
 
 If there was a National Law, better still an 
 International Law, requiring men and women to 
 undergo an examination and measure up to a 
 healthy standard before they can be legally married 
 and requiring medical doctors to report to the health 
 department those whoever is detected with in- 
 oculating disease, there would be some hope for 
 checking the nauseating cancer and healing the 
 tainted blood. 
 
 But so long as the monster is secretly concealed 
 in high and low society it will continue to feed on 
 the vitality of the human race and its contamination 
 will tell on this and coming generations, and we will 
 become a people of Imbeciles and poisoned blood. 
 
 EUROPE'S DOUBLE STANDARD. 
 
 Europe's impotency will come first, because of 
 her system of drafting and compelling the able- 
 bodied young men to fight their wars. 
 
 And when we see mere children drilling and being 
 trained and educated to fight America's future 
 wars, we fear for the people of the United States. 
 
 The inconsistency of the theory of some noted 
 scientists and writers to make no distinction between 
 the lower and higher animal, life, is detected with 
 regret by many who seem to better understand the 
 
86 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 changes that are coming, and the readjustment of 
 conditions. The big fish eat the small fish is true 
 with the fish. It is also true in this sense of the 
 word with people, — the strong conquer the weak. 
 
 Was it not true — the waters of earth would 
 become thick and slimy with Fish, Sharks, Eels, 
 Crocodiles, creeping and splashing life, that would 
 make it impossible for a ship to cross the ocean. 
 
 Destroy the bird life and insects will take pos- 
 session — destroy all vegetable life, feed on man's 
 carcass, and drive mankind from the face of the 
 earth. Kill no poison snakes for a generation and 
 it would not be safe for man to venture in the fields 
 and woods. 
 
 The finny tribe and insect life is no more in- 
 telligent, the instinct as extinct as it was six thousand 
 years ago. And while we, by custom, environ and 
 force of habit, have learned to look upon the de- 
 struction of life as a commercial proposition and a 
 legitimate business, — the human family is being 
 educated. 
 
 And while there was a family of twelve and 
 fifteen with our grandfathers, there were ten or 
 twelve children at our fathers' home and now the 
 average family is five and the average will drop to 
 four, three, two, and then one. 
 
 Then it will be a problem of populating the earth 
 instead of depopulating and thinning out by wars and 
 other destructive methods. It has come to this 
 the greatest burden now rests with the poor and 
 illiterate. 
 
 With them children come entirely too fast, — and 
 their hardships and struggles are almost unbearable. 
 
 While with the rich, babies are few and it is the 
 aristocracy that howls for wars. That spirit that 
 
TAMING MAN 87 
 
 assails the motherhood and accuses her of un- 
 patriotism because she don't take delight in caring 
 for a large family and taking on herself the burdens 
 and cares of motherhood, is unworthy the recogni- 
 tion of mothers. 
 
 Rest assured; that it is the average animal spirit 
 that is counting on future wars ; — and he might 
 learn how to determine the sex of the unborn chil- 
 dren and introduce a bill in Congress making it 
 compulsory with mothers and fathers to raise and 
 train boys for the army. Until we have found a way 
 to improve the blood and strengthen the human 
 race and to eliminate poverty — it is a BLACK 
 HANDED DAMNABLE CRIME to make our- 
 selves responsible for an unnecessary increase 
 in childbirth. 
 
 We stand a better show in America — because we 
 make a fair stagger toward electing men to high 
 office by the voice of the people. 
 
 While in most European countries ruling offices 
 are inherited. For centuries; — Europe has been 
 ruled by heritage, and in the Royal Families, 
 are evidence of tainted blood and insanity. 
 
 For a correct history of Europe's insane rulers, 
 consult Dr. C. Astor Palmer and when you are 
 familiar with the history, you can better understand 
 why that country has run war mad. 
 
 Suppose an Imbecile should inherit the Kingship ? 
 
 THE FLYING DEVIL. 
 
 Among the mean devices 
 Conceived by human mind 
 
 For meeting all the crises 
 And keeping with the time. 
 
88 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Are battle planes and mistles, 
 Bombs, guns and gases, too 
 And devilish things that whistle 
 That kill for the devil's crew. 
 
 Things that chew, hiss and growl: 
 Throw slugs of iron and steel: 
 
 That sing and scream and howl 
 But none that think nor feel. - 
 
 Flying squadrons float in air, 
 With darts and devilish things 
 
 With reckless passion kill and dare 
 Like devils on the wing. 
 
 We sneak around both night and day: 
 With firm intent to kill 
 
 The sick at prayer, the child at play: 
 A worldly pride to thrill. 
 
 But we dislike to waste our time 
 And money on small game: 
 
 But to do so is not a crime, 
 And kill it just the same. 
 
 'Tis devilish fun to shoot gases, 
 And hear those devils yell: 
 
 Who are fighting for the classes: 
 Just for the sake of hell. 
 
 And pump poison gases in their eye 
 And fill their heart with lead: 
 
 To torture men until they die 
 Then smash them on the head. 
 
TAMING MAN 89 
 
 We throw our bombs near the trenches 
 
 Where those poor devils stay 
 Who contrived a scheme of barbed fences 
 
 That checked our march one day. 
 
 They strewed kinky, thorny wire 
 
 And took us on surprise; 
 Caught us knapping in thick of fire 
 
 Like devils in disguise. 
 
 Now who'd a thought men had a heart 
 
 To do such sneaking things 
 Since 'tis the game we'll do our part, 
 
 We'll shoot them on the wing. 
 
 We will cripple, cut and slay: 
 
 With Krupp and gattling gun: 
 And show war devils how to play 
 
 The game of war for fun. 
 
 And when it comes to pulling of! 
 
 A howling glorious stunt 
 At our progress you dare not scoff — 
 
 We're HELL on a big man hunt. 
 
 And when it comes to a count of head 
 
 And measuring blood in pail, 
 By old hunters it is said 
 
 That's just what tells the tale. 
 
 But what the devil it's all about 
 There's dam few soldiers know: 
 
 I'm about all in for this old scout 
 I believe you think it's so. 
 
90 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 But if you like to drink hot blood 
 Don't you murmer — nor complain — 
 
 We're going to have it understood 
 You imps shall fight the game. 
 
 A bloody battle we fought today, 
 
 With guillotine and gun 
 One old lobster began to pray, 
 
 I told the coward to run. 
 
 I'm tellin' you hell's no place to pray: 
 
 For God's not foolin' around 
 Such damnable sights as that today 
 
 Where such as we are found. 
 
 Now when I cut the throats of steer 
 
 Get hardened to the sight, 
 At their bellerin' I did not keer, 
 
 I thought the thing was right. 
 
 But gitten drunk at this damn game 
 
 And Swimmen in the flood, 
 I b'lev I'm mad less I'm insane 
 
 At drinkin' human blood. 
 
 Now stop right thar; I'll get your goat 
 For sure; you're thinkin' right: 
 
 I learn, you're with me in this war boat, 
 And ready for the fight. * 
 
 You fine people hatched this lie — 
 That made a brute of me 
 
 'Tis your old game; you can't deny: 
 The subject you plainly see. 
 
TAMING MAN 
 
 Don't feel fainty, don't be skeered, 
 
 It's PATRIOTIC game; 
 But some folks never keered 
 
 For fight or manly fame. 
 
 What's that your caryen on that pole, 
 You don't look good to me, 
 
 I'll take this chance to send your soul 
 To, to where it ought to be. 
 
 Hold captian, see this white flag? 
 
 'Tis sure the flag of truce: 
 I'm too hardened for that old gag, 
 
 Such things I have no use. 
 
 In days gone by when folks were sane 
 Such rags as that would do: 
 
 This stage it's a different game — 
 I'll shoot the darn thing through. 
 
 I'm here to say train loads of men 
 
 And mothers on the sly: 
 Are driven out o'er hill and fen, 
 
 And left alone to die. 
 
 Your right old pal give me your hand : 
 We've nothin' to fight about: 
 
 I've no enemy, no home nor land, 
 Weel' let em fight it out. 
 
 Stay your sword — less strike for peace: 
 The world will plaud our scheme: 
 
 Such as this grow with increase: 
 I'm sick at this damn game. 
 
 91 
 
92 
 
 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Down goes my sword — less hear your plan 
 
 See if the scheme will work: 
 If twill ' I'm with you heart and hand: 
 
 I'm not the kind to shirk. 
 
 Truce man 
 
 When all men 
 lay down 
 arms: the 
 dawn of 
 peace: 
 
 The millions 
 refuse to 
 obey. 
 
 There's nothin' to it, except to strike: 
 
 Strike, all soldiers everywhere: 
 I mean us chaps who do the fight 
 
 To please the snappy cur. 
 
 Your' talken right, it shall be done 
 
 Weel' have it all our way: 
 We have the navy, sword and gun; 
 
 And sure we'll have our day. 
 
 Kaiser king, and the lords of earth 
 Are shocked with astonishing maze: 
 
 A mad world smiles with new birth 
 And — on a new — sun — we — gaze — 
 
 FIGHT ON MY MEN AND WIN THE DAY: 
 
 Was the authorative stern command: 
 Among the millions none dared obey 
 For sure and we held the hand. 
 
 Just as I 
 seen in a 
 vision. 
 
 Seen them 
 in a pool 
 of blood. 
 
 AH; the wealth destroyed blood was shed: 
 That should have been preserved: 
 
 I — see — millions of useless dead: 
 And the folly they have served. 
 
 Those poor souls must be in hell: 
 
 I'm sure they are all insane: 
 A sight like this no tongue can tell: 
 
 I'm sorry and should feel ashame. 
 
TAMING MAN 
 
 93 
 
 If they are 
 rewarded 
 it must be 
 here not 
 after death. 
 
 Just as I 
 seen it. 
 
 But what do 
 we offer as a 
 compromise 
 with the dead. 
 Nothing that 
 we can say or 
 do will cool 
 the hot basin 
 of blood. 
 
 Heaven save us from such cruel fate: 
 
 They fight like fiends insane: 
 'Tis claimed was for the country sake 
 
 And pride and manly fame. 
 
 HORROR, HORROR, look how they splash, 
 
 In basins of red hot blood, 
 CAVALRY, ARMY, how mad they dash; 
 
 They swim in crimson flood. 
 
 And on this earth all is well: 
 
 The reign of peace is begun: 
 And by the strike the devil fell 
 
 And not — by — sword — nor gun. 
 
 How dare you kaisers, lords and king 
 
 The people souls did sell: 
 Of your freedom dare to sing 
 
 When for the sake of hell. 
 
 You plunge the world in a pool of blood: 
 
 With false and foolish pride: 
 And in your Satanic insane mood, 
 
 A god: you claim for guide. 
 
 Explanation. 
 
 When I had written the first sixteen verses^of 
 this poem I thought it was finished, but my spirit 
 friends insisted that I continue. 
 
 I became careless about it and the next morning 
 I seen the portrail of the horrors of the hell of war. 
 Men in a state of insanity, wild eyed fighting in 
 a lake of blood. 
 
 " 
 
94 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 I saw armies and cavalry dashing madly through 
 this lake of blood. Was I an artist, I could waste 
 years — in an effort to portray the horrors of this 
 scene. I hope to never see anything that resembles 
 that gruesome picture. 
 
 I might have taken a longer rest, but no man with 
 a soul could sleep who had been permitted to see 
 and feel as I did. 
 
 Blood drenched soldiers by the thousands in- 
 terceding with me to continue my fight to free the 
 mad insane world. 
 
 I placed my fingers in my ears closed my eyes 
 hoping to get away from that awful specter which 
 added more horror and terror to the scene. Mothers 
 and daughters by the hundreds came to me with 
 tears rolling down their cheeks ringing their hands 
 and pulling their hair pleading with me to continue 
 my fight. 
 
 I sprang to the table, tears rolling down my face, 
 picked up my pen and commenced to write, and the 
 scene faded away. 
 
 And this is one of the reasons why I shall, in 
 spite of protests from those of my friends who would 
 discourage me, continue to write and talk and do 
 what I can to tame the savage spirit in man's 
 breast. Take the husbands, sons and fathers 
 away from the battle-fields and give them back to 
 the fair womanhood of this our native land who 
 are entitled to our protection and the companion- 
 ship of father, son and sweetheart. 
 
THE CHIMPANZEE AND MAN. 
 
 Educated Monkeys. 
 
 Tis said I am an old chimpanzee, 
 Said Peter so nice and proud: 
 Tricks I'll show you like to see 
 To amuse this gawking crowd. 
 
 Then his cycle he led around, 
 
 And shoved it to and fro: 
 
 Walked and stamped upon the ground, 
 
 Says, "Master, I'd like to know: 
 
 Is this darn thing propelled by steam? 
 Or will Peter have to tread, 
 And will I sit down in between 
 Those things you call the tread." 
 
 He gripped firmly the handle bar 
 And spun around the curve. 
 Of all the monkeys 'twas said, by far, 
 Old Peter had the nerve. 
 
 He sat straight up in his seat 
 
 And ped with all his might; 
 
 With this monkey none could compete, 
 
 His tricks were out of sight. 
 
 He sped it up a steep incline, 
 Then turned and rode it back; 
 For an amateur he sure was fine 
 At performance on the track. 
 
96 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Then Consul came and bowed his head: 
 Dressed up just like we, 
 Says, "Look how I this needle thread 
 You folks that can not well see." 
 
 1 'Consul's had but little show," 
 Says Peter looking stern, 
 "So many things he wants to know 
 And tries so hard to learn." 
 
 But you folks who hate to see 
 Our foreheads filling out, 
 And with John Monkey can't agree, 
 Don't know what you're about. 
 
 And if we put it good and strong, 
 Go back to ancient day, 
 You'll find this monkey not far wrong, 
 When'er this monkey say. 
 
 That in the envolving of nature's hand 
 When from some tiny mite, 
 Came mamels, monkeys, then came man 
 And put the cowards to flight. 
 
 OUR VENTURE ON THE SEA. 
 How the Captain took the Girl. 
 
 Ne'er shall I forget that sunny day 
 When we strolled along the shore, 
 
 Watched albatross and sea gull play, 
 While the gulf we did explore. 
 
TAMING MAN 97 
 
 The sea was smooth the air was clear, 
 
 The sun was warm and bright, 
 And for the venture we had no fear, 
 
 There was not a cloud in sight. 
 
 Sails were floating here and there 
 
 Proud ships were passing by, 
 And we were tempted to think it fair, 
 
 To take a little fly. 
 
 We seen the gulls floating around, 
 
 And courting on the sly, 
 Their echo had a cheerful sound: 
 
 We felt that we should try 
 
 To imitate those playful birds, 
 
 That floated on the sea, 
 That hovered around in numerous herds, 
 
 And seem to all agree. 
 
 And when we hailed a fine old ship 
 That now was passing through, 
 
 Old cap, smiled, and cap did tip, 
 To see what we would do. 
 
 We told the captain if he didn't care 
 
 We'd like to join his crowd. 
 "Reverse the engine; stop her there;" 
 
 He yelled so coarse and loud. 
 
 And when they had taken us atow, 
 
 They eyed us suspiciously: 
 They were curious then to know 
 
 If we were on a spree. 
 
98 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 When we had told the story well, 
 
 Of our venture on the sea, 
 The captain smiled, but to it fell 
 
 And threw the blame on me. 
 
 Told the Captain I'd foot the bill 
 
 If he'd allow us to stay awhile: 
 He vowed it was against his will, 
 
 But he liked my friendly smile. 
 
 But the captain knew what made me smile 
 
 For smiling is not my game: 
 And he kept grinning all the while, 
 
 For him I felt ashame. 
 
 But I discovered that it wasn't me 
 That the captain was interested in, 
 
 For it did not take me long to see 
 That the whiskers on his chin 
 
 Had received some bran new paint, 
 
 That made them look like new; 
 And his breath had a sweeter taint, 
 
 So said this little Lieu. 
 
 Then I watched him in disguise, 
 
 To see what he would do: 
 When he kissed her I was surprised, 
 
 And wondered to at Lieu. 
 
 One night we courted in the light of the moon 
 
 While sailing through the sound: 
 It was a delightful place to spoon, 
 
 When the captain wasn't around. 
 
TAMING MAN 99 
 
 Then the day begin to break, 
 
 Down in that splashing sound, 
 Creeping monsters begin to wake 
 
 And whirl the water round, 
 
 Then when the porpoise began to play 
 
 And tumble o'er and o'er, 
 With seaman smile old cap would say, 
 
 "We're a hell of a way from shore." 
 
 Swell his chest and look so fine 
 
 And strong tobacco burn, 
 Fill the cup and pour the wine, 
 
 And say "you've hell-of-a-lot to learn." 
 
 And when I found he had the girl 
 
 Straight to the shore I went: 
 And when my head begin to whirl, 
 
 I knew what the captain meant. 
 
 A VISION OF LIGHT. 
 
 As I SAW IT THROUGH A PHENOMENON POWER. 
 
 Long in the silent, sleeping night 
 When all the world seemed still, 
 
 There came to me a vision of light 
 That filled my soul with thrill. 
 
100 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 I seen the world in steady pace, 
 
 Marching along the way. 
 Characteristic of the race, 
 
 When I to her did say. 
 
 This procession it seems to me, 
 Is traveling most by guess: 
 
 Most lonesome, it seems to me, 
 I'm willing to confess. 
 
 Now can't you see how I'm alone 
 
 Most of a different sphere, 
 No sweeter ending the sun ne'er shone, 
 
 And the way is smooth and clear. 
 
 She ventured closer to the brink, 
 Of a gulf that seemed so wide 
 
 And for a moment her heart did sink, 
 As she watched the ebbing tide. 
 
 Others ventured and took a peep, 
 
 While passing to and fro, 
 The way seemed dence, the water deep, 
 
 And danger in its flow. 
 
 Then as she watched the passersby, 
 
 With an intelligent smile 
 She seemed to grasp the reason why 
 
 Then waited for awhile. 
 
 A while ago, t'was hard for me 
 
 I could not see my way, 
 But now with you I must agree, 
 
 I then to her did say. 
 
• TAMING MAN 101 
 
 Reach me your trembling hand, 
 
 I need you in my life 
 This is my soul's command, 
 
 This is a friend's advise. 
 
 Then she wondered how it could be 
 
 And how I'd pave the way, 
 If she could cross this strange sea, 
 
 She felt that she could stay. 
 
 Then when she traveled with me awhile, 
 
 The debris cleared away: 
 Her heart was light, and in her smile, 
 
 Her soul to me would say. 
 
 While sailing down life's rocking sea 
 
 And drifting with the tide 
 I'll kiss the rose you gave to me 
 
 And stay right by your side. 
 
 Her beauty, inspired my soul, 
 
 She strewed flowers, along the way, 
 
 Helped its secret buds unfold, 
 And the barriers to burn away. 
 
 It is life wonderfully real: 
 
 To know the secret mind: 
 The passion of the heart to feel, 
 
 And leave the world behind. 
 
 For in its false, insane mood, 
 
 And ignorant myth and pride, 
 War and death we brood, 
 
 Our ship of state to guide. 
 
102 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 And while she's rocking in her fright 
 And plunging to and fro, 
 
 We'll throw out a beacon light, 
 And let the captian know. 
 
 If he would land the ship of state 
 And save its beardless crew, 
 
 To change its course ere 'tis too late 
 The storms are beating through. 
 
 COMMENT ON THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 LESSON. 
 TURNING THE TABLET OVER. 
 
 For the benefit of those who are not in the habit 
 of studying the Sunday School Lesson, as well as 
 for the benefit of those who are in the habit of 
 reading them, but who have never seen the other 
 side of the subject; I have copied the International 
 Lesson, as it was taught. (Augus t 29, 1915.) 
 It is expected that the lesson be accepted as facts, 
 without any serious consideration, — as it is uni- 
 versally accepted as about correct by the churches. 
 
 We will take it for granted that you would like 
 to buy a good sound horse with certain qualifi- 
 cations; or a good family cow. He must be a good 
 driving horse and able to do the chores on the farm. 
 Mr. Jones, a prominent man in your community, 
 tells you that he has just the kind of an animal that 
 you need. 
 
 Jones having the reputation of being honest, 
 
TAMING MAN 103 
 
 truthful and reliable, expects everybody to accept 
 his word as he is considered authority. Jones' 
 price for the horse is Two Hundred Dollars. Says, 
 "If you want the horse at that price, I will send him 
 over." 
 
 Now if you believe in transacting business, 
 according to business methods, you will say, "Jones 
 — not that I have reason to doubt your honesty and 
 judgment, but I make it a rule to test out everything 
 before I enter into a contract." 
 
 Jones says, "Well, brother, that is all right, 
 but you know that I wouldn't deceive you for the 
 world." You will refuse Jones' offer till you have 
 personally inspected the animal. 
 
 Then you discover that the horse has some bad 
 blemishes — and you call Jones' attention to it; 
 Jones says, "Now brother, I have not had the 
 horse long; I bought the animal on the word of my 
 neighbor Dolph, and supposed the animal to be 
 sound." 
 
 Jones goes over to his neighbor and says, "Dolph, 
 — I discovered some blemishes on the horse that I 
 bought of you. You told me the animal was sound. 
 I came near selling him to my neighbor on a guaran- 
 tee, — but he came over, being a good judge of 
 horses, called my attention to the blemish; I will 
 return to you the horse, and would like you to give 
 back the money that I paid you." 
 
 Dolph says, "Surely, you are mistaken about 
 that, brother, the man that I bought the horse from 
 told me that the horse was sound, and I have 
 believed him to be a good honest Christian gen- 
 tleman." And Dolph excuses himself on the 
 ground that a man's eyes is his market. 
 
 If you are a shrewd business man, you will look 
 
104 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 into all matters pertaining to business and religions 
 before you write them all down in the memory of 
 your mind, as facts. 
 
 Now let us turn the tablet over and see if we can 
 discover anything worth considering on the other 
 side. It is said we have had a sample of Kings, 
 good and bad — .and are not asked to consider the 
 life of another King until the end of October. 
 
 Among the several Kings, the Christians have 
 their favorites. All along, I have only dealt with 
 those Kings and Rulers, universally acknowledged 
 the Christians' favorites. Elijah and Elisha are the 
 Christians' ideals. 
 
 Are to have seven lessons on Elijah and Elisha. 
 I see the injustice in saddling these men off on the 
 public as Christian Ideals and great men of God. 
 I am anxious to have the people study the character 
 of these Bible Heroes, in the light of reason. 
 
 If you will do this, with your mind purged from 
 prejudice, in my opinion you have done a wise thing. 
 Unless you are free to do this you will gain nothing 
 by its study. 
 
 The majority of people would read the passages 
 of Scripture that the Sunday School committee and 
 the Church Propagators have referred to and con- 
 clude that these Bible Heroes' garments are clean 
 and spotless; Yea, "as white as snow." 
 
 It is not so bad for the old iron shell, deep dyed in 
 the wool, stand-patters; a musket ball would flatten, 
 if fired against the thinking apparatus of some of 
 those men, who have undergone the necessary op- 
 erations in the hospitals of priest-craft and church- 
 dom. 
 
 Some of them have had cut away everything 
 
TAMING MAN 105 
 
 except their superstition and creed. It is a crime to 
 take advantage of the young and tender, and de- 
 prive them of the privilege to reason and think for 
 themselves. Since it is the young we hope to reach, 
 we hope to attract attention, with an appropriate 
 story, that I have read several times with much 
 interest. 
 
 In the beginning of time; no one can even guess 
 when that was; — we will suppose that it was a 
 thousand thousand years ago . There was at that time 
 one man. He was an extraordinary man. The first 
 important work that he did was to make a world, 
 the Sun, Stars and Moon. Now how do you school 
 children think he did this? You answer, "he made 
 them by word of mouth." The next important 
 work was to make man. How did he do that? 
 (Answer) "out of the dust of the earth," of course. 
 Then he made a woman. All Sunday School 
 children know how that trick was performed, that 
 was easy you say. All that he would need to do, 
 would be to rock the man to sleep, take from his 
 side a rib, and mould it into a beautiful woman. 
 It would be as impossible for a perfect God to err 
 as it would be for man to interfere with the re- 
 volving machinery of the Universe. 
 
 Therefore, everything that God had anything 
 to do with, would be perfect. Perfection can do 
 nothing wrong. What a splendid foundation is 
 that. But in spite of this, God, called our Heavenly 
 Father, the father of the entire human race, soon 
 began to have trouble in his own household. 
 
 This man, whose name was God, planted out an 
 orchard and a garden of fruit and placed this man 
 and woman in this beautiful Paradise to partake 
 
106 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 of all its blessings — except for the fruit on a 
 certain tree, he commanded them not to eat. 
 
 In disobedience to the command, they ate the 
 fruit — it is said that they were commanded not 
 to eat. Then the trouble begun. God was grieved 
 because the first man and woman that he had 
 made turned out bad. And he pronounced a curse 
 on them and told them to leave. God's family be- 
 gan to multiply, some of his children he liked and 
 some he did not; a part of them had been favored, 
 had good treatment, and hundreds of thousands 
 have had very bad treatment. 
 
 When things commenced to go wrong, he made 
 threats against them so it is claimed — and they 
 warred one nation against the other. God favored 
 those whom he thought most worthy and capable. 
 Prayer and obedience is the watchword. What- 
 ever good his children is to receive, they must pray 
 and beg for. 
 
 Through Elijah and Elisha, two of his servants 
 and favorites, Israel must be established. The 
 story runs : 
 
 Joshua, David and Moses, of uncompromising 
 and ugly disposition in war, — God said to one of 
 these prophets, Go and declare war. And he took 
 down to the Brook Kishon four hundred and fifty 
 Priests and had them slaughtered in cold blood. 
 
 To show that it pays to always be obedient, read 
 here the story about Elisha, in the Second chapter 
 of the Second Book of Kings. The Bible says, "And 
 he went up from thence unto Bethel : and as he was 
 going up by the way, there came forth little children 
 out of the city and mocked him, and said unto him, 
 Go up thou bald head; Go up thou bald head. 
 
TAMING MAN 107 
 
 And he turned back and looked on them and cursed 
 them in the name of the Lord. 
 
 "And there came forth two she-bears out of the 
 woods and tore forty and two children of them." 
 This is one of the beautiful Bible stories that I 
 wanted to tell you. 
 
 Picture in your mind, those innocent children, 
 playing in the suburbs of the city of their own home. 
 Children are sometimes a little boisterous, and un- 
 less they have had good training, they are sometimes 
 abrupt and rude. But there is no harm in children. 
 We teach our children they are not to have their 
 way about everything, — but we never punish them 
 just for revenge. 
 
 They have a child's mind. It would demonstrate 
 a brute-like spirit in anyone who would punish a 
 child for revenge. 
 
 How unthoughted is a child. Those children 
 made a fatal blunder in their innocence, making 
 impolite remarks about Elisha's bald head, it cost 
 them their life. 
 
 No doubt Elisha took the insult to heart, it is 
 possible that the children's parents influenced them 
 to do this impolite thing, and that the grievance 
 was well founded. If it is true that the children 
 were torn and killed by the animals, it proves that if 
 it was Elisha's desire that this thing should take 
 place, he was unmanly and a murderer at heart. 
 It also shows that if God had anything to do with 
 the murder of these children, he is a savage bar- 
 barian. But you have no way of knowing that it 
 ever occurred. Unless those children were very 
 small, just learning to talk and walk, many of them 
 would have made their escape when they seen the 
 bears tearing and killing their playmates. 
 
108 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 The parents should have known better than to 
 pitted little children against a hardened, tough, old 
 man like Elisha. 
 
 That we may learn more about the character of 
 Elisha, if the bible story is true, read the Third 
 chapter in the Second Book of Kings, about the 
 slaughter of the Moabites. You will, question 
 whether or not these Kings and Rulers were justi- 
 fiable in the crime of killing. 
 
 According to the teaching of the Bible they are. 
 But according to reason and mercy, and the humane 
 side of the question, they are not. And here is 
 another saying, "I am Gabriel; that stand in the 
 presence of God." But that is not true. 
 
 A true man of God has to do only with God; 
 take orders from him, and look to him alone for 
 supplies. And notwithstanding the fact that the 
 claim is made by millions of Christian believers, 
 that God supplies their wants and cares for them, 
 the thorough acid test burns out the life of the bible 
 story. 
 
 The Reverend making the comment, might be 
 honest about it, and it is expected that we accept 
 the statement as the word of God, without any seri- 
 ous consideration of the other side, — and try to 
 believe the story; we realize that those who deny, or 
 undertake to disprove it in the estimation of the 
 Christian teachers are Infidels, and bad men. The 
 bible accuses God of saying, if any man shall take 
 away from the words of the book of this prophecy, 
 God shall take away his part out of the book of life, 
 and out of the holy city, and from the things which 
 are written in this book. But the teachers tell you 
 nothing about the thirteen books that they them- 
 
TAMING MAN 109 
 
 selves take away. Namely, Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 
 The Rest of Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 
 Withe the Epistle of Jeremiah, The Song of the 
 Three Children, The Story of Susannah, The Idol 
 Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of Manasses and 
 The Maccabees. Yet the committee, who done 
 this little piece of cutting out; many of them have 
 passed over into the spheres of higher knowledge. 
 
 As to the ravens feeding Elijah; that could be 
 possible, — if men could tramp through the hot 
 sand, and over rough hills for forty years, undergo 
 hardship and live on manna, without meat or any 
 substantial diet. 
 
 The flour or meal barrel at the widow's home 
 might have been empty; they are empty all over 
 this land. Some will be filled and some will not- 
 Some are Christian believers and some are not. 
 What people believe has nothing to do with rilling the 
 flour barrel. Believing a thing whether it is true 
 or not true, won't fill the meal barrel. It takes 
 courage to beg your bread, and if you have friends 
 who are able to help you, whether they are believers 
 or not, if their heart is right they won't allow a poor 
 widow to starve, especially, if they believe she is 
 deserving. Faith, belief, or doctrines won't make 
 people good or bad. It won't give to you a tender 
 heart, nor take you to heaven. A man or woman 
 that can't be gentle and manly or womanly without 
 belief or faith in a Savior to die to redeem them 
 from sin, are not made of the right kind of material. 
 
 There might have been a period of three years 
 without rain; the brook might have been dry. It 
 might have been God's plan to punish some tribe 
 or nation of people. 
 
110 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 People in that remote age, could believe that 
 there was a God so childish and mean to do such 
 undermining and wicked things. But we should 
 not expect people at this age to believe that there is 
 such a monster, as has been pictured to us fighting 
 their wars. The earnest prayer of Elijah brought 
 rain: Did it? If so, it proves one of the two strange 
 and unreasonable characters. 
 
 If God did interfere with natural law, and dry up 
 the streams, he did so to compel obedience through 
 fear, and had some selfish motive in doing so, and 
 not because of his love for the people. Otherwise, 
 it is an acknowledgment that he withholds from a 
 part of his people the necessities in nature, and grants 
 blessings only to those who pray and plead and 
 believe certain things, he is jealous and childish, 
 and is not worthy to have bestowed on him the title 
 of a God. 
 
 The claim that God withholds the necessities of 
 life from any people, and favors any other class, or 
 even had or ever will have anything to do with 
 persuading one nation of people to exterminate the 
 other, or inducing David — and other men to fight, 
 punish or slaughter, any people for any cause 
 whatever; is wrong and foolish and there never 
 was nor never will be any evidence to prove the bible 
 God ever existed. And if we had no stronger proof 
 than our natural intelligence, that the story is a fake, 
 that is all the evidence that we would ever need. 
 
 THE UNNECESSARY SACRIFICE. 
 
 But few know the danger and hardship of the life 
 of a missionary. 
 
TAMING MAN 111 
 
 Thousands of mission workers have suffered 
 unnecessarily and sacrificed their life in their zeal 
 and anxiety to preach what they believe to be the 
 only true religion, to heathens in Africa and other 
 foreign countries. 
 
 We give here an example of the folly of Christian 
 Mission work in Africa and other Heathen Countries. 
 
 A company of European Mission Workers sailed 
 for Africa. On the way over, they did not appear to 
 encounter any danger unless it was while sailing the 
 War Zone of the Nations that were then at war. 
 
 And when they had reached the foreign shore and 
 were in the heathen land they read to the heathen 
 from our bible, and preached to them about our 
 God, told of his goodness and of how God loved the 
 whole human family, of how he watched over the 
 Christian, fed and clothed them: how the christian 
 nations had advanced in the progress of civilization 
 and enlightenment. 
 
 They preached about the bible wars and told how 
 God gave victory to those of the rulers and kings 
 who believed the word and loved and feared him, 
 and of the curses and calamities that our God 
 permitted the disobedient to fall heir to. 
 
 Those of the heathens who could read and reason 
 wanted to know why a merciful God, who had 
 promised to watch over and guard his children in 
 storm, and feed them in famine, he who had made the 
 world, and the Heavens, the Sun and millions of 
 sparkling diamonds in the sky, could permit the 
 slaughter of mothers and innocent children, and 
 show signs of jealousy and display a spirit of sav- 
 agery. 
 
 And the Missionary undertook to reason with 
 
112 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 the patient seeker of truth as they do with the 
 sinners in Europe and America. 
 
 But they found the heathen stubborn and the 
 only hope to reach that black heart was to portray 
 the danger of their calling down the wrath of a 
 revengeful, jealous God. 
 
 And were told about God's wonderful love in 
 giving his only son to be crucified on a cross, of how 
 Christ was compelled to bear the weight of the 
 cross, of how the nails were driven through his hands, 
 and that in his struggle with death, cried, "My God! 
 Why has thou forsaken me?" Of how he was buried 
 in a grave and rose from the dead, ascended into 
 heaven, of his promises to return again, and the 
 heathen was in sympathy with the Christian in this 
 one example, — but he discovered that there was 
 something wrong, — and he saw contradictions in 
 the Christian bible and in the teaching of the 
 Missionary. He was sad when he was told of the 
 crucifixion, of the two sinful men, one on the right, 
 and one on the left of "The Son of God." 
 
 Then he said to the Christian teachers, "I have 
 been a wicked man, I have been guilty of theft and 
 robbery, and have shed the blood of a great many 
 men, and women, and your God won't forgive me." 
 
 Then he was told that Christ said, — "I have 
 not come to save the righteous, but the sinner." 
 
 That he said to the thief on the cross in the last 
 awful moment of his life, "Thy faith hath made thee 
 whole: this day thou shall be with me in paradise." 
 
 And the wicked murderer shook his head when 
 he was told that the dying man on the cross had 
 wasted his life, had been a bandit — and had not 
 done anything during his life that God could look 
 
TAMING MAN 113 
 
 upon with favor. Then the heathen thought, 
 "How my life resembles that bad man." 
 
 Then he wanted to know if that was all the 
 punishment that the robber had been given and if 
 faith in God was all that was required to gain 
 favor with the Christians. 
 
 They preached, "Though Your Sins Be As 
 Scarlet They Shall Be As White As Snow." 
 
 And the heathen wanted to know what punish- 
 ment was meted out to the sinner whom the Christian 
 Religion condemned, and he was advised that they 
 would be lost, and that God had prepared a hell of 
 fire for the wicked. 
 
 Then he thought of the sinful men that he had 
 sent to hell through his instruments of death. 
 
 He discovered in this doctrine weakness and 
 injustice. 
 
 He told the Mission worker that he did not like 
 the idea of going through so easy, and of those whom 
 he had killed going to torment and being tormented 
 in flames forever. And he was warned against the 
 reckless denial of God's word that no man had 
 authority to add or take away, one jot or title from 
 the word, and that God would punish him for his 
 carnal reasoning. 
 
 But the heathen was not a coward, — he had 
 heard also about the dangerous character of the 
 heathen's God, was also told of its power, but he 
 was a doubter and nature had blessed him with 
 more than ordinary reasoning power, so there was 
 danger of him losing confidence in all Gods. 
 
 So he told the Missionary that the man that 
 Christ had forgiven on the cross ought to be in hell. 
 
 And that he thought the doctrine they preached 
 
114 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 was dangerous; that murderers and robbers would 
 make bad neighbors ; that the doctrine of hell might 
 be accepted providing those who do the murdering 
 and those who are responsible for the hells of earth 
 are punished and permitted to serve their own 
 sentences. 
 
 He said I am a bad man, but he despised the 
 principle in man, who would spend his 'life in sin, 
 "in causing the unfortunate, weak and oppressed to 
 suffer, enslaving mothers and children, then fall 
 on their knees and beg to be forgiven and want 
 to settle on such easy terms. 
 
 The heathen says, "I am too much of a man for 
 that — I won't settle it that way. But I will sail 
 for Europe; and when I return, I shall be glad to 
 debate the subject with you." 
 
 On board the ship he discovered among the 
 passengers a company of Missionaries returning 
 to Europe, and talking glibly of their success among 
 the poor heathen in Africa. 
 
 He saw them kneeling in groups and asking God 
 to save the heathen. He heard them asking God, to 
 save and bless the King. 
 
 While passing through the Mediterranean — they 
 were chased by Torpedo Boats and Submarines — 
 evidence on every hand of danger, and he wondered 
 what part the Christian God would play. A 
 torpedo struck her and amidst screams, prayers 
 and curses, the ship went down in the sea, and 
 among the fortunate who escaped death, was the 
 African; the ignorant wicked wretch who had 
 rejected God. 
 
 And when through hardship and struggle, the 
 shore was reached he discovered a lone Missionary 
 
TAMING MAN 115 
 
 kneeling on the earth, with the few who had been 
 rescued from the catastrophe, giving thanks to the 
 Christian's God and portraying his goodness, and 
 mercy for showing his omnipotent hand. 
 
 The heathen was also thankful that he had 
 escaped with his life, but being a heathen, he took 
 no stock in the Christian's faith, and foolishly and 
 stubbornly schemed and fought his way inland into 
 the cities where the confusion was as wild as it was 
 on the mad ocean. Here he detected in the manners 
 and expression of the people fear, hatred, excitement, 
 and there was a mad uproar wherever he went. 
 
 Dangerous bombs had fallen from Battle Planes, 
 wrecking homes, and mutilating noncombatants. 
 To this heathen it was a sickening sight to see 
 mothers and children buried beneath falling walls, 
 disembowled and heads torn from their bodies. 
 
 It was Sunday morning: Church bells were 
 ringing and he was attracted by the silence of the 
 factory, except the ones that manufactured muni- 
 tions of war. 
 
 He followed the crowd and after persuasion with 
 the Sexton and consultation with the Priest and 
 Divine and Officers of the Churches of the different 
 denominations, taking advantage of every oppor- 
 tunity from time to time, he was admitted in the 
 doors of several churches. This gave him an 
 opportunity to familiarize himself with the customs 
 of the people. He noted that the disciplines and 
 creeds differed, some stood, and others kneeled, 
 in prayer. He said this is a matter of pride. They 
 all prayed to the Jehovah God, and the Catholic 
 prayed through the Pope, and mother Mary, and 
 through confession to the Priest their sins were 
 forgiven. 
 
116 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 He was affected by the pathetic pleas to the war 
 God for favors and for the exercise of his omnipotent 
 power for victory over other warring nations. 
 
 When this people made headway by bullet and 
 saber, the old reaper had given to them a rich 
 harvest, special services were held and prayers 
 went up to the "Great Jehovah," who sat on the 
 "Great White Throne," and he was pleaded with to 
 end the war and make it possible for their victory. 
 
 Then when he had had enough of this, he ven- 
 tured in sight of the battleground where he could 
 watch the devastation and desolation of battle. 
 
 He heard a continuous roar of gun, the rumble of 
 wheels, the hand-to-hand clash of steel. And when 
 the savage grcwl of death had ceased, and the clouds 
 of black smoke had partly cleared away, he witnessed 
 a sight that made him sick at heart. 
 
 He saw men mangled, flesh and bcnes scattered 
 over the battleground — men praying and cursing, 
 rising and falling, wallowing and tumbling over one 
 another, seen the dead dumped in trenches by the 
 thousands and when the sun shone hot and the 
 flies began to swarm, a sickening stench polluted the 
 air. 
 
 He h ad learned to pity humanity — and wished 
 that he could do seme thing to influence the world to 
 see the crime of killing, and to tame the savage 
 spirit in man's breast.. 
 
 And the Christian's Gcd he learned to hate, and 
 he sailed for Africa. 
 
 When he was again with his people, he inquired 
 as to the whereabouts of the Christian Mission 
 workers. 
 
 And was advised that some of them had sailed for 
 
TAMING MAN 117 
 
 America. There had been a terrible storm at sea, 
 and the ship and all aboard was lost, and that the 
 others had starved and died. 
 
 He inquired why his people allowed the Mission- 
 aries to starve. He told them that it was wicked 
 to treat the Christians in this manner, that they 
 should be punished for their crime. 
 
 That his \ : : sit to Europe had proven very profitable, 
 he told thei what he saw and heard about the 
 shipwreck, the Christians' customs and habits, the 
 destructive modern machinery employed in war, 
 his visit to e scene of battle and of his conversion 
 from heatl i^m; and his hatred for the heathen's 
 as well as t Christian's God. 
 
 And the: the more ignorant heathen told him of 
 their surpr . because the Missionaries had died. 
 That the j\ sionaries prayed continuously and they 
 did not ki but what the Christian's God was 
 
 feeding an aring for them. 
 
 Then h< his people that he would persuade the 
 
 African G aiment to destroy their Gods. That 
 their Goc re no good, they were no more than a 
 
 rough sto : a fallen tree, and the Christian's 
 
 God was i. inary and to him a horrible "Night- 
 mare and lonster." 
 
 He tolc i that he would influence the African 
 
 Governr enact compulsory educational laws. 
 
 And whe they learn that "No God" has life nor 
 power that Natural Law" was the only basis on 
 which i 1 safely build. 
 
 That res in and natural intelligence will develop 
 the "Goc the breast of the African, and they 
 
 then v. a great people and send Mission 
 
 Workers to the civilized nations, and teach the world 
 
118 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 that the Supreme Creator is the intelligence that 
 surrounds the universe — which is the divine law — 
 the God "that lives in the breast of the heathen, 
 that becomes a part of man, when man becomes 
 tame and through effort and a hungering for knowl- 
 edge, evolution and education conforming with 
 nature, will mean the destruction of fictitious gods. 
 And this, and this alone:" will for all time silence 
 the roar of the cannon, prepare the earth for the 
 habitation of man, and make him worthy and use- 
 ful here, and in the life in the great beyond. 
 
 THE LOST SAILOR. 
 
 Three Looks at Christ: Look unto me and be ye 
 saved, all the ends of the earth: Isaiah, 45 and 22. 
 
 This was one of the greatest sermons ever preached 
 from this text. This great preacher is not in the 
 line with the ordinary preachers. He said, "first is 
 the look of faith." 
 
 There are two texts of scripture which would be 
 well for us to have in mind: first, "mine eyes are 
 toward the Lord that He may pluck my feet out of 
 the net," and the other is in vain, "A net spread 
 before anything that has wings," from which we 
 learn if we are but living as God would have us 
 live, looking constantly unto Him, we should not be 
 entangled with the things of the world. 
 
 Second, the look that sanctifies. "Wherefore, 
 seeing we are compassed with so great a cloud of 
 
TAMING MAN 119 
 
 witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
 that does so easily beset us, and let us with patience 
 run the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." 
 
 Third, is the look that glorifies — the look that 
 comparatively few people take, for our conversation 
 is in Heaven, from whence we also look for the 
 Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 3: 20. "Look 
 to Jesus and thou shalt be saved." That touches the 
 spirit. Look for Jesus, and thou shalt be sanctified, 
 this reaches the soul; look for Jesus and thou shalt 
 be glorified, this delivers the body from sin. 
 
 He says this is a very important truth, this return 
 of the Master. One verse in every twenty-five of the 
 New Testament speaks of his coming, and in Thess., 
 one verse out of every three, speaks of his return. 
 He closes the sermon with the following illustration. 
 
 ''On the rocky coast of Wales, a company on 
 shore were watching a ship go to pieces on the rocks. 
 At last they descried clinging to the vessel, a single 
 sailor. There was no chance to save him as no boat 
 could live in the rough sea. They brought a speaking 
 trumpet hoping to convey to him some message, and 
 handed it to the old village preacher, who wondered 
 what to say. He thought over his sermons, but 
 could not think of anything he dared to utter at 
 such a time. Raising the trumpet to his lips he 
 shouted, 'Look to Jesus: can you hear?' And back 
 came the faint answer almost drowned by the noise 
 of the wind and wave, 'Aye, aye, sir.' Then as 
 they watched and listened, some one exclaimed, 
 'he is singing.' 
 
 "And to their strained ears came over the waves 
 the murmur of these lines: 
 
120 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 'Jesus lover of my soul, 
 Let me to thy bosom fly,' 
 
 And it thrilled them as they again heard, 
 'While the nearer waters roll, 
 While the temp test still is nigh" 
 
 Then fainter still 
 
 'Safe into the haven guide, 
 O receive my soul at last.' 
 Fainter yet came the opening of the next verse : 
 'Other refuge have I none, 
 Hangs my helpless soul on thee.' 
 
 Then his frail hold on the vessel gave way, and the 
 singer dropped into the sea. Those on shore said 
 he passed to be with Jesus while singing that hymn." 
 
 I believe it was Sheldon who preached this sermon. 
 There may have been better preachers, but I doubt 
 it. I have read this sermon many times; I loved, 
 and still love the man who .preached it. I have 
 given here what I believe to be the cream of the 
 discourse. If mankind can be saved by faith, this 
 sermon is sufficient. If faith will pave the road that 
 leads from earth to Heaven, there would be no need 
 of listening to other sermons, or of further in- 
 vestigation of the scripture, or worrying any longer 
 about a hell or about the salvation of your soul. 
 
 "Three looks at Christ. ' ' This good man stamped 
 this photograph in my brain, and I thought I saw 
 Christ through faith, walking with the shipwrecked 
 sailor, on that mad sea. I was taught to believe 
 that through faith men could remove mountains, 
 heal the lame and restore the sight to the blind. 
 
TAMING MAN 121 
 
 One day my reason came to me, and in violation 
 of the rule — against the advice of my elders, I 
 turned the photograph over. And to my astonish- 
 ment, I discovered that the Photograph had two 
 faces. In the first I was only to see through a mist 
 what the great man said could not be seen, felt nor 
 heard, ONLY through faith. 
 
 But to me the second face portrayed a great mass 
 of humanity fighting their way through an earthly 
 hell. I saw them struggling against the weakness of 
 the flesh, falling prey to disease, and combating with 
 Old Reaper Death: I saw them falling on their 
 knees, begging for mercy: I saw them trying to 
 believe; know of them waiting and watching for 
 almost two thousand years for his return. 
 
 Saw them watching and looking for a sign in 
 the heavens; heard them crying and praying, facing 
 streams of lead on the battlefield, starving in 
 famine, wollowing in vermin and alleys of poverty, 
 dying of cold and starvation ; succumbing to disease 
 because of overwork in factory; suffering hardships 
 and abuse ; heard them begging for food in the midst 
 of plenty, shot down in labor wars. I was attracted 
 by the pinched faces of factory girls, the young and 
 tender, overburdened with responsibility that mould 
 age in youth. 
 
 The poor deprived of education and pleasure, 
 driven to crime through the pinch of want, the 
 young women driven to the factory and into the 
 great department stores, and from there to the 
 bawdy-house or on the streets of the city, forced 
 to sell her virtue because of insufficient wage. 
 And men by the hundreds of thousands becoming 
 millionaires at the cost of misery, and this is only a 
 hint at the hideous face that the other side portrayed. 
 
122 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 I heard the heads of the nations and the officers 
 in war pleading with this same God for victory in 
 battle: and when through some hundreds of thou- 
 sands of lives of brave men were slaughtered and 
 crippled, they felt that this same God had guided 
 and given them victory. 
 
 I saw men sitting in their richly furnished homes 
 in the city, drinking wine, making elaborate banquets 
 that cost thousands of dollars, far away from the 
 scene of battle, yet reaping rich harvests at the 
 expense of the unfortunate and the sacrifice of the 
 blood of men who fight the battles of earth. Build- 
 ing churches at cost of half a million dollars, com- 
 plimenting the Sunday sermon but taking no notice 
 of the poverty and misery at their door. 
 
 The poor sailor might have sang that song, yet it 
 counted for nothing, for he was lost in the rough sea. 
 That was a sad picture. A man looking and listen- 
 ing for something to save him, he needed help; a 
 preacher standing on the bank, safe from the mad 
 dashes of a stormy sea, shouting to him to look for 
 something that he could not see nor hear, — that 
 something which in nineteen hundred years has 
 never prevented the wreck of a ship, fed a hungry 
 mouth nor stayed the sword in battle. 
 
 I wonder who is standing on the shore with gloved 
 hands today out of reach of the hell of fire that is 
 raging in the war zone, and yelling to the abused 
 slaves to look and listen and sing ? Who is throwing 
 out the life line to the sailors in the North Sea today ? 
 What a harsh echo that comes back to the War Devil 
 as he shouts through the window of his mansion or 
 from his office in Wall Street, who are profiting a£ the 
 cost of the unfortunate? But he doesn't hear, he is 
 not sensitive to the touch of sympathy. 
 
DO YOU KNOW ME? 
 
 Do you know me? Yes; do I know you? Yes; 
 did you ever live in the United States of America? 
 Yes; did you die? No; Are you in the Spirit world? 
 No; Are you in heaven? Yes; Can you tell me 
 where the spirit world is? No; Is there a spirit 
 world? no; do you know to a certainty that there 
 is no spirit world ? Yes ! can you tell me what state 
 and county you lived in and what kind of a house? 
 Yes! well that's about right so far, but, tell me 
 how old you was when you died and what disease 
 you died with: I didn't die: didn't we bury you? 
 no: are you rational? yes; have you the power of 
 reason? yes: what is your name; can you tell me? 
 Yes; well that's right and I am awful glad of this 
 privilege to talk with you, but say: there must be 
 something wrong or something about this thing 
 that I can't understand; yes: well say: I have a 
 friend in New York City that says you cant tell 
 how many oranges that he will place behind his 
 back and if you tell him he will pay you a hand- 
 some reward. Do you know him? no: YOU DONT? 
 no : well I will describe him to you : he is about five 
 feet and eight inches in height, square shoulders, 
 black hair and brown eyes, a grey red mustache; 
 do you know him now; no: can you locate him? 
 no: can't you tell me how old he is? no: Well do you 
 know where I live ? Yes : what was I doing yesterday ? 
 I don't know : YOU DONT? no : have you known me 
 and been interested in me and my family since you 
 
124 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 left here? yes, well then tell me how many children 
 I have? Five: how many boys? three: how many 
 girls? two! can you give their exact as well as my 
 and my wife's exact age? no! you cant? No: can you 
 tell pretty close? Yes! then tell me how old is 
 David? six years! No, you'r wrong about that, Dave 
 won,t be six until the week after next! Yes, well how 
 old is Sarah? Seven and a half! no you're certainly 
 wrong, Sarah is seven years and five month next 
 week. Are you just a spirit? No: do you have a 
 body a head? yes : just like my head? NO. Can you 
 see me? Yes: can I see you? no: can you explain 
 that phenomenon to me? no! can you explain it so 
 that the people will understand about it and won't be 
 so doubtful ? no ! YOU CANT ? no : If you could don't 
 you think it would be a great help? Yes; would 
 you like to? Yes: will you? No: Can you tell me 
 why you won't? Yes: all right: I will be willing to 
 listen to it, but, but, well go ahead with the ex- 
 planation. What explanation? you said you 
 would tell me. You misunderstood me: well then 
 can you tell me what you said? That would not be 
 hard to do, but you are not in the frame of mind 
 to comprehend it. Well, I am not supposed to 
 understand like you, am I? NO. Do you know 
 anything about conditions where you are? yes! 
 very much. Yes. We will see how much you 
 know. All right. Please tell me O, I mean for you 
 to tell me about mansions, and the holy City, and 
 the bible in general. Can you tell me anything 
 about it? Yes: Will you? No. Good-bye son, 
 be a good boy, I will help you over the river when 
 the time comes for you to say good-bye to earth. 
 Pshaw, she left just as I was getting interested. 
 
TAMING MAN 125 
 
 I had a thousand questions that I wanted to ask. 
 I guess it must have been mother, but, but, but, 
 there is something wrong about it, something that 
 I can't understand. I think I was just about to find 
 out something when she left. Well I'll be dog-gone 
 if I wouldn't like to know more about this business, 
 it's mighty strange, and it sounded like her voice 
 but, but, well I'll be dog'gone! 
 
 MORAL : man needs refining. 
 
 WHAT I KNOW ABOUT MRS. ELIZABETH 
 
 BLAKE. 
 
 A nobler soul, a sweeter spirit we have never found 
 than Elizabeth Blake, the Noted Medium of 
 Proctorville, Ohio. 
 
 It was through this sweet dispositioned motherly 
 character, that I first learned of my phenomenon 
 powers, and conversed with departed friends whom 
 I believed to be dead. What a wonderful revelation, 
 that was for me. Had she gone to New York or to 
 some large city, instead of the small village on the 
 banks of the Ohio, she would have spent her days in 
 luxury in a mansion in a suburban section of the 
 residential district with the wealthy, and the world 
 would have been wiser. Had there been any 
 evidence of dishonesty, this splendid woman would 
 have been bound and gagged, and the voices of 
 our loved ones would have been strangled through 
 the agencies of prejudice and superstition. That 
 
126 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 red eyed monster ignorance would have had more 
 weapons with which to tomahawk and scalp the 
 children of science. 
 
 Those who are first to grasp the truth are the free 
 thinkers, whose minds are not bound by discipline, 
 who are qualified and have the stamany, grit and 
 strength of character to face the world in defense 
 of this persecuted old mother and proclaim the glad 
 tidings that the lost are not lost, — the dead are 
 not dead, — and to champion the cause, that 
 this our mother sacrificed her life. We are in 
 possession of a mighty weapon. And though fewer 
 in number, our army is not small, and we are proud 
 of its strength for it spells might. 
 
 MY GODS ARE THOSE WHO CAN HELP ME 
 FIGHT THE BATTLES OF LIFE. 
 
 SAYINGS OF MRS. ELIZABETH BLAKE. 
 
 Mr. R., of Wheeling, W. Va., wrote me that he 
 would pay me one thousand dollars, if I would come 
 to Wheeling and hold a few seances. 
 
 My reply was, the distance from Wheeling here 
 is the same as it is from Proctorville to Wheeling. 
 I. am not peddling spiritualism, and you can visit 
 me with a small outlay, and your sittings will be 
 free. 
 
 Mr. Abbott, of Omaha, Neb., one of the in- 
 vestigating committee who accompanied Dr. Hys- 
 lop, of New York, who was with me several days 
 
TAMING MAN 127 
 
 made me an offer of one thousand dollars and ex- 
 penses, in order to induce me to come to his home, 
 but the proposition didn't interest me. 
 
 I have had a number of attractive propositions 
 made me to travel; I could see no need of that. 
 I can't accommodate one-tenth of the people who 
 call to see me. It is not a matter of commercialism 
 with me. 
 
 As bad as I need money, I would rather lose one 
 thousand dollars, than lose two gentlemen, referring 
 to D. E. McQuain and myself. I want you to come 
 often and when I am able we will hold night circles, 
 it strengthens you and you must have experience. 
 Because of your medium powers, the seances are 
 strengthened and it makes it easier on me. 
 
 What a sad situation that more people don't 
 know and appreciate the wonderful and beautiful 
 truth. But it is so well established that ignorance 
 can no longer sway an influence. 
 
 A Mrs. B. from Huntington, came over one morn- 
 ing and told me that she came over on very impor- 
 tant business — that she wanted to find out some- 
 thing of great importance and that she knew I 
 could tell her. But she would'nt have her pastor 
 know about her visit for anything. I told her 
 that she had better go to her pastor and ask HIM 
 to give her the information, that she could not get 
 any information through me and for her to never 
 come to me for information again. There were 
 two others with her, and they undertook to apologize 
 for her, and they begged for the sitting, but they 
 never got it. 
 
WAR ECONOMICS. 
 
 It is the spirit of true patriotism to end war — 
 because of its devastation, its hell and its spirit of 
 degradation. Honest, manly manhood would instill 
 in the breast of the ignorant brute-like creature, 
 the spirit of love and principle. 
 
 The true patriarch, sees the folly of the policy of 
 destruction, — the inconsistency of the -competition 
 of nations in war preparation. 
 
 America competing with England, England trying 
 to compete with Germany. When a nation adds 
 strength to her navy, other nations must do likewise. 
 
 So long as that foolhardiness and blind stumbling 
 exists we will always be preparing for war. What 
 does the war devil and the manufacture of muni- 
 tions care or know about Government economics? 
 With them it is mean, sneaking, cussed, shrewd 
 false patriotism. 
 
 It is a mean dog that will chew up another dog 
 half its size. A mean dispositioned man who will 
 stand by and allow a bull-dog strangle a fist, — or a 
 strong man tear the flesh from a small man's bones, 
 if he is in a position to interfere and not endanger 
 himself. 
 
 But it is not bravery to rush recklessly into danger 
 where the chances are against you, and to set your- 
 self up for a target to be shot at, — displays the 
 weakness of a fool. Why permit a few well fed 
 bull-dogs to lap up the blood of inefficient innocents ? 
 Like dumb animals we are being loaded on trains 
 
TAMING MAN 129 
 
 and driven in to slaughter pens where we bang out 
 each other's brains, cut each other's throats with 
 the instruments of death manufactured by men who 
 make a profit on the guns that the soldiers use to 
 shoot down men of their own class. 
 
 As well as a profit on all the munitions of war. 
 The faster men fall in battle, the more destructive 
 the machinery the greater the profits. If we fail to 
 see the position of the manufacturers of war mu- 
 nitions, we would not think strange if you would 
 shoulder a rifle, stick a butcher knife in your belt 
 and go where killing is legal. 
 
 I am not the most sensitive man in the world, I 
 know the art of handling guns, and can catch the 
 sight on the barrel as quick as any man, — and a fool 
 can pull the trigger as quick as the wise. To be a 
 good marksman is nothing to be proud of; I would 
 dislike to earn my bread by slaughtering animals, 
 and while I would have no hesitancy in defending 
 myself against the brutality of men ; — there is 
 nothing that I would dislike so much as to make it 
 a business of killing men. 
 
 Since war is a game of profit considering the 
 enormous expense of propagating and the executing 
 of wars : — carefully noting the trend of our drift 
 and the applauds of the world because of our keen- 
 ness in devising modern machinery in war-fare. 
 It seems to me that we have drifted about the right 
 depths into barbarism, — and I respectfully submit 
 a proposition for consideration. The item of food 
 is likely to become a serious problem for the soldiers. 
 Some of them are eating horse flesh because of its 
 cheapness, the custom is to dig trenches and dump 
 the dead carcasses in these ditches : — sometimes 
 
;30 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR. 
 
 there are such a great number of dead, the fighting 
 is so fierce, that many are left on the battlefield to 
 rot, their flesh torn by animals and devoured by 
 vultures. 
 
 In hot weather these decaying bodies pollute 
 the air with a sickening stench. 
 
 Proposition. 
 
 Let each army carry with them a large corps of 
 expert inspectors and meat dressers. The govern- 
 ments may sell the healthy carcasses to war specu- 
 lators, the flesh can be pickled, cured and preserved 
 like pork and other meats — say at about four 
 dollars ($4.00) a carcass. Other meats are high, 
 human carcasses are cheap, dead or alive. 
 
 Let the Government then buy the meat from the 
 speculators and pay a reasonable profit to these 
 gentlemen. 
 
 This would be a saving of millions of dollars 
 annually to the Governments, and the soldiers would 
 not know the nationality of the meats they are 
 eating. Nor need we have any feeling of horror at 
 eating the flesh of dead men. "Dead men can't 
 feel!" — "Dead men can't talk;" — it is only the 
 SPIRIT that continues to live and think. 
 
 If the proposition is shocking to the nerves of 
 society, let the fathers and mothers teach the sons 
 the crime of killing. 
 
 Was it not for the fact that we are trained in the 
 killing business, having been at it so long, that we 
 have become hardened, — war agitators could more 
 easily grasp the moral. 
 
 But under existing circumstances taking into con- 
 
TAMING MAN 131 
 
 sideration, conditions as we see them all over the 
 world, — taking for my basis established customs 
 and the universally acknowledged civilization, — I 
 cannot conceive where, in my views, I have errored. 
 
 I at least hope my nature is no less civil than 
 those who are responsible for universal savagery. 
 
 If this suggestion is a little in advance of the time 
 — I owe the public an apology for misconstruing the 
 speed of our drift. And the object of this illustra- 
 tion is to hang a red light of warning in time to 
 check the onward march of slaughter: hoping to 
 soften the savage yell for blood. 
 
 Three or four dollars for a hundred pounds of 
 flesh and bones, is not an extravagant price. Fer- 
 tilizer is selling as high as forty dollars a ton. Ma- 
 chinery for grinding dead carcasses and making them 
 into fertilizer can be installed at small expense. The 
 inspecting corps could be dismissed, the bodies 
 could be loaded and carted away immediately after 
 the close of battle. The only loss to the speculators 
 would be the blood that would drain from the 
 wounds and soak into the earth. 
 
 In the estimation of the general public, — the 
 suggestion to make the dead men into fertilizer, — 
 is considerably modified, from the first proposition to 
 salt them down in barrels. 
 
 I see no difference in the moral. I see only the 
 crime of the first act. The shedding of blood and 
 the destruction of life. In the game of war, I only 
 see the crime, destruction and hell. 
 
THE GOOD OLD MAN. 
 
 (The text of what he had to say after leaving this 
 
 world.) 
 
 This good old man, whom I thought dead, 
 Made answer familiar and quick, 
 To my unasked question, gently said: 
 "The Spirit wasn't sick." 
 
 He talked about the old homestead, 
 Of things only he and I knew; 
 His friends and mine, and then he said: 
 "til see what I can do 
 
 To help you see what does concern 
 You people down below — 
 Turn on the light that you may learn, 
 And help the world to know. 
 
 The primitive writers did not know, 
 Neither were they inspired — 
 No more than you, or E. P. Roe — 
 But some should be admired. 
 
 And one thing we know full well, 
 That the Church has naught to do 
 With fitting souls for heaven or hell — 
 This truth I'll prove to you. 
 
 With bombs of truth you must try — 
 Hurl them with all your might, 
 On a structure of darkness built on a lie, 
 And its only fear— the LIGHT. 
 
 
TAMING MAN 133 
 
 Heaven is free from kingly rule, 
 
 Has no judge that you need fear, 
 
 Tis false impression — you're just a tool, 
 
 You make and know your sphere. 
 
 Some are wating till end of time, 
 To stand before a throne, 
 Theology's creed, preached by divine, 
 Of a richly furnished home. 
 
 Of New Jerusalem they love to sing, 
 
 Of the shining streets of gold, 
 
 To this mythical thread they fondly cling, 
 
 As the ignorant did of old, 
 
 Heaven's a place of pure delight, 
 Where Nature is supreme: 
 There is no death, no pain, no night,* 
 There all is sweet, serene. 
 
 Here there is no god, no jealous king, 
 To spue out his hateful wrath — 
 It is just an idol to whom they cling — 
 They tread a phantom path! 
 
 This is the text of a good old man, 
 Whom the ignorant terms "A ghost;" 
 Grin at his truth — mock if you can, 
 In the face of Heaven's sweet truth. 
 
 ♦Explanation — The word night is not used in its literal meaning, as 
 our departed friends claim that over there no such condition as we call 
 night exists, that there are fifty hours of day and five hours resembling 
 twilight. And I have no disposition to contradict this claim; for my part 
 I have tested out the revelations of the departed to my own satisfaction 
 and find them interesting and instructive, reasonable and helpfull, and I 
 am less inclined to dispute with these messemgers than with the people of 
 this sphere. I firmly believe that they are better qualified to furnish in- 
 formation on this subject, having had a deeper and broader experience 
 than any of us — just as I think I am better qualified to speak of the 
 environs of my office than those who have no personal knowledge concern- 
 ing it. But usually if you desire information along this line it will be fur- 
 nished copiously and gratiously by those of your friends who have steered 
 clear of the dangerous subject and who therefore believe themselves well 
 qualified to speak with authority on it. 
 

 VOICES FROM HEAVEN. 
 Barron Accountis. 
 
 Sometimes I blush and wonder, 
 
 About this uncertain life 
 And on the past I ponder, 
 
 How in this world of strife 
 
 I blindly stumbled from day to day, 
 
 To pull my heavy load 
 With obstacles strewn along the way 
 
 And ditches in the road. 
 
 A voice from heaven, natural and clear 
 
 Spoke in the silent night, 
 Says, "Papa, I'm Ray, you need not fear, 
 
 I'll teach you the road that's right!" 
 
 Then there came a dear old man, 
 Says, "Son who's this you see? 
 
 I'll teach you I'm sure I can, 
 How the slaves of earth to free!" 
 
 I called for mother, she came at last, 
 With a vision sad and strange: 
 
 In a panorama of the past, 
 And things with me arrange. 
 
 A stranger came and sang a song 
 
 In a voice so soft and low, 
 That told of millions going wrong: 
 
 And then he asked to know 
 
TAMING MAN 135 
 
 If I would teach a blessed truth 
 
 And help the people see 
 Why thus we gamble away our youth, 
 
 Arid how the world should be. 
 
 I closed my eyes and thought in vain 
 
 Of how such things could be, 
 And heard voices speak again, 
 
 But did not seem strange to me. 
 
 Then I seen a soft pale light, 
 
 When I was all alone, 
 Long in the stillness of the night, 
 
 When in the center shone 
 
 A face so sweet, bright and fair, 
 
 And eyes so soft and blue, 
 With crimson roses in her hair, 
 
 Such beauty I never knew. 
 
 I could not move; my heart stood still: 
 
 My tongue refused to talk: 
 And to my soul there came a thrill, 
 
 My face was white as chalk. 
 
 Then she left — just faded away, 
 
 To my wonder and surprise, 
 Then came again early next day, 
 
 Like an angel in disguise. 
 
 Then at night when I retire, 
 
 And at the break of day, 
 She comes and sets my soul afire, 
 
 And haunts me through the day. 
 
136 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 She talks of things down here, 
 
 And of our friends above: 
 Of conditions in her heavenly sphere 
 
 And of the power of love. 
 
 Of beautiful singing birds, 
 And of the fruits and flowers, 
 
 On subjects we have never heard, 
 And calls me every hour. 
 
 I love that girl, and you would too, 
 If you could know her well, 
 
 No one of earth I ever knew, 
 Such interesting things can tell. 
 
 And if you think that heavenly dove, 
 Don't watch o'er a wretch like me, 
 
 Talk of something that hints of love, 
 And she's most sure to see. 
 
 Now when my work is at an end, ' 
 I'll raise my head and call, 
 
 A mental current to her I'll send, 
 Then watch the curtain fall. 
 
 Then my soul will take its flight, 
 She'll be my chieftain guide, 
 
 I will trust her to the right, 
 My mischief she will hide. 
 
 And when death's hard and icy hand, 
 Drives in his thorn of hate, 
 
 When I hear the cruel command, 
 
 She will turn the key to heaven's gate. 
 
SOME MYSTERIES IN NATURE. 
 
 There are some things in nature, 
 That's hard to understand; 
 And every living creature 
 That walks upon the land 
 
 Are trying to learn just how it came 
 That things are just so, so 
 And for the mystery who is to blame 
 For how they come and go. 
 
 Coming in and passing out, 
 The gate is open wide, 
 Know not of what its all about 
 Just instinct for our guide. 
 
 In the East we see a sun 
 
 Set in a frame of blue: 
 
 The mystic problem is just begun; 
 
 We hope to see it through. 
 
 We turn around and face the West 
 And see it sinking low, 
 And for my brain there is no rest: 
 It throbs and burns to know. 
 
 Then I watch all through the night 
 The meteors in disguise, 
 For in the East to come a light, 
 The same old sun to rise. 
 
138 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Now here comes the nice old moon 
 That lovers sing about: 
 For in its rays we court and spoon 
 When all the lights are out. 
 
 We gaze and ponder for awhile, 
 And wonder if its true 
 That this dear moon does really smile 
 When looking down on you. 
 
 Sometimes it seems to try to talk: 
 And join you in the swirl — 
 Out in your boat: or in your walk, 
 And steal away your girl. 
 
 I'm sure he loves you pretty, belle, 
 For always in his round 
 Suggests the story for you to tell, 
 And always looking down. 
 
 And when you row out in the deep 
 And drop your anchor down, 
 He's always trying to get a peep, 
 You'll think he's coming down. 
 
 Then you see the stars at night, 
 And watch them dance and play. 
 Your soul suggests the world is right 
 And then I'm sure to say: 
 
 O, God so great: the god in me: 
 The passion of peace and love: 
 Lead thou me on; help me to see, 
 The mystery of things above. 
 
MY GOOD OLD DEVIL. 
 
 Said my Devil to me one day, 
 In a voice that made me sad, 
 I have something to you to say 
 That's sure to make you glad. 
 
 'Tis about the world's terrible war 
 And the waste of human blood 
 That we devils sure abhor 
 Let's have it understood, 
 
 That you and I will now agree 
 And make a solid stand, 
 To have the people all to see 
 And lend a helping hand. 
 
 To those who feel death's wicked sting 
 And hear its awful groan; 
 To this mad world sweet peace to bring 
 To build and cheer your home. 
 
 I listened to my sly old devil, 
 To me his plans were sane; 
 And when I found his head level 
 I joined him in his game. 
 
 I took up my pen to write one day 
 
 When a Deacon came along; 
 
 Says he, "I don't think your scheme will pay; 
 
 I'm sure your plans are wrong. 
 
140 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 For all we Deacons, with one accord, 
 Believe that you're unfair 
 And we will trust our God and Lord; 
 Then bowed their heads in prayer: 
 
 O, Lord, our God, the prince of peace, 
 Now help us to decide 
 How our strength in war to increase,- 
 Be Thou our secret guide." 
 
 And their prayers were not in vain, 
 For war they did decide, 
 Then rose and sang a sweet refrain, 
 That told how Satan lied; 
 
 Of how Devils like an angel of light 
 Would steal into the flock 
 And whisper mischief in the black of night, 
 And on God's church would knock. 
 
 Again my devil came to me still sad; 
 Says, "Dear sir, I cannot see 
 How we'll deal with a world that's mad, 
 That crowd is too tough for me. 
 
 MY OLD CORN COB PIPE. 
 
 I expect you'll think I'm thinking wrong; 
 
 When I think I'm thinking right; 
 To think 'twill help the think along, 
 
 To think some things in sight. 
 
TAMING MAN 141 
 
 To fill my pipe with this foul stuff, 
 
 And hoist my feet in air, 
 And if you think it's all a bluff, 
 
 I'm sure your think is fair. 
 
 And if you'll watch real close you'll see 
 
 The smoke a whirling round, 
 And then you'll think, it seems to me, 
 
 The smoke is coming down. 
 
 And if you think the thing won't work, 
 
 And think I'm thinking wrong 
 Try some thinking, think can't shirk 
 
 And help this think along. 
 
 But, don't you think this pipe of mine 
 
 Helps out the thinking game? 
 I'm thinking mischief most all the time: 
 
 I believe this pipe's to blame. 
 
 Now, when I light this old black briar 
 
 That Murray gave to me 
 And hang my feet above the fire, 
 
 It smokes so sweet and free. 
 
 When old black briar begins to shirk 
 
 And harden on the side, 
 I'll put old corncob again to work 
 
 And let old Murray slide. 
 
 One day I had a thinking job, 
 
 My thinking wasn't right: 
 Meerschaum, briar, nor old corncob, 
 
 Not a darn pipe in sight. 
 
142 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 But it wasn't so very far 
 
 To a restaurant across the way 
 
 Where was kept high grade cigars 
 And open night and day. 
 
 A good Havana I began to smoke 
 The smoke commenced to swirl, 
 
 And why I think it's not a joke, 
 The problem did unfurl. 
 
 Now, when I go out for a stroll, 
 My pipes are in their place; 
 
 I can't help it to save my soul, 
 It's a habit of my race. 
 
 That's a thing that's sure to grow: 
 
 A habit in our youth, 
 So firmly fixed we think it's so, 
 
 And write it down for truth. 
 
 An innocent habit we must agree, 
 Don't do but little harm; 
 
 Hidden secrets that we can't see, 
 That we should raise alarm. 
 
 They call this thing a "Cigarette," 
 It's harmful to the brain; 
 
 Look up its record and don't forget 
 That thousands it has slain. 
 
 Now if you knew who gave to me 
 This meerschaum and this case, 
 
 When at my best if you could see 
 The pleasure on her face, 
 
TAMING MAN 143 
 
 When I say, "Please take my arm 
 
 My mind is in need of rest; 
 Then we'll stroll about the farm, 
 
 When nature is at its best. 
 
 And she knows, as well as you: 
 
 It's the girl that helps it out 
 And if you think this thing through, 
 
 You'll know what I'm about. 
 
 PROSPERITY'S ENGINE. 
 
 These strenous days things are high, 
 Except some things that's cheap, 
 
 Still soaring upward toward the sky 
 Just take a glancing peep. 
 
 'Twas said by those who knew the game, 
 When the engine changed its crew, 
 
 There would be no reason for complain, 
 Our troubles would be so few. 
 
 The old engine had been abused, 
 
 By a gang of sinful men, 
 For its adjustment they had choosed 
 
 The chaps we could depend. 
 
 This rusty old remote bunch, 
 
 With steady heavy tread, 
 Abused the engine with awkward punch 
 
 Until it was most dead. 
 
144 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 They monkeyed with the tariff's screw, 
 And stripped it clean of thread, 
 
 Such foolish work would never do, 
 Is what reformers said. 
 
 Things were in a horrible muss, 
 
 And most infernal high, 
 "Prosperity," cried the Jingo cuss, ' 
 
 With mischief in his eye. 
 
 Then this wise and virtuous crew, 
 
 With promises galore, 
 Knew precisely which bolt to screw, 
 
 Had turned the screw before. 
 
 They turned the nuts down good and tight, 
 
 And lunged her too, and fro, 
 Oiled and patched her up just right, 
 
 But the damn thing refused to go. 
 
 The smoke stack stood so high in air, 
 
 They cut her down real short, 
 Then shoved her from the mud and mire 
 
 And the engine begin to snort. 
 
 They helped her out on solid ground, 
 
 Painted her up like new, 
 Her cluck was heard for miles around; 
 
 That pleased the Jingo crew. 
 
 Then we waited and watched in vain, 
 For good times to come around: 
 
 We're catchin' on to the Jingo game, 
 There is nothin' comin' down. 
 
TAMING MAN 145 
 
 The old engine is plugging alond, 
 
 And don't you never fret, 
 Shrieking loud her Jingo song 
 
 And heaping up the debt. 
 
 They blind your sight with the blood of men, 
 
 Then laugh at our defeat: 
 Shrewd as the devil, cunning as sin, 
 
 They guard your bread and meat. 
 
 We watch the engine limp along, 
 
 And reel around the curve, 
 It shrieks so fierce the Jingo song 
 
 That it grates upon the nerve. 
 
 The workers toil both night and day, 
 
 To supply the thing with fuel: 
 Their sweat is oil, in the Jingo play, 
 
 It has always been the rule. 
 
 It's disgusting to watch the Jingo crew, 
 
 And to hear the engine knock, 
 Watch them adjust the tariff screw, 
 
 Then see the damn thing balk. 
 
 Now it's a fact you can't well deny, 
 
 The engine is on the bum: 
 We think the people had better try, 
 
 To check its reckless hum. 
 
 They've been tellin' us for quite awhile, 
 
 As though we didn't know: 
 We've had enough of Jingo smile, 
 
 And thought we'd let you know. 
 
146 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 We've decided that you chaps don't know, 
 
 That the engine is out of date: 
 It screaks and rattles and runs too slow, 
 
 And its schedule is too late. 
 
 They want us chaps to gine the crew, 
 
 Pledge ourselves to fight; 
 "Ringin' in on us something new, 
 
 To make us think it's right. 
 
 I'm thinkin' boys, they've had their day; 
 
 It's time that we should find, 
 Some civil decent honest way, 
 
 Except the bloody grind. 
 
 They're burnin' up the country's fuel, 
 
 And killin' off the men; 
 We're sick and tired of savage rule, 
 
 There's nothing on the mend. 
 
 They drove that engine in Moses' time; 
 
 And David he took a whack: 
 It's still pulling on down the line, 
 
 Without a change of track. 
 
 This gamble game is sure to tell, 
 
 The steam is bursting through: 
 It hoots and shreaks for the gate of hell: 
 PLEASE LET THE DAMN THING THROUGH. 
 
NOAH'S ARK AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF 
 
 REASON. 
 
 I want to tell you of Noah's boat 
 
 That you may plainly see, 
 How it was that it did float, 
 
 And rode the stormy sea. 
 
 It came around about this way: 
 When Jehovah was feeling blue, 
 
 Says, "I'll look up Noah without delay, 
 And see what we can do." 
 
 Then in Noah he did confide, 
 
 And told him of his plan, 
 To do some scheming on the side, 
 
 And show his powerful hand. 
 
 He said the people, and everything, 
 
 Were wicked as could be, 
 And he proposed a flood to bring, 
 
 If good old Noah would agree, 
 
 To build an ark of gopher wood; 
 
 And make it big and strong — 
 Make it tight and pitch it good — 
 
 For the world was going wrong. 
 
 So Noah went to work, 'tis said, 
 
 With tools that would make you swear; 
 
 And the work went plowing right ahead 
 And Noah was doing his share. 
 
148 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 So the Boss came and wanted to know, 
 
 After a lapse of thirty days, 
 Just why the work was going so slow, 
 
 Then Noah began to pray: 
 
 "Lord, I can't see how it's to be done. 
 
 We don't know what you're about: 
 You see, our tools are on the bum, 
 
 And our food is almost out. 
 
 There's not an axe in all this land, 
 No saws, nor squares nor plane, 
 
 No nails, nor augur, you understand — 
 And you know I'm not to blame." 
 
 The Boss was mad; he smote his breast, 
 Saying, "Noah, canst not thou hear? 
 
 I've a notion to drown you with' the rest!" 
 And poor Noah shook with fear. 
 
 So Moses says, as we all agree, 
 
 The ark was built of gopher wood; 
 
 How Noah managed to fell the tree, 
 Is not to be understood. 
 
 But when this boat was complete, 
 It was about the average size; 
 
 But far too frail for a battle fleet, 
 And for style it took the prize. 
 
 Then Noah and help went out to find, 
 The animals that seemed so few — 
 
 In groups of seven, two of a kind, 
 Many of which he never knew. 
 
TAMING MAN 149 
 
 They searched the woods for miles around, 
 
 For species of certain kind, 
 That nowhere could be found, 
 
 The strain was telling on Noah's mind. 
 
 Then Ham came a riding in, 
 
 On something so very tall, 
 Out of proportion — ugly as sin — 
 
 And Noah could not recall 
 
 Seeing an animal in all his life, 
 
 That resembled a brute like that, 
 Neither had his sons nor his wife, 
 
 Which made it hard to combat. 
 
 And when it came up to the door, 
 
 They tried to shove it through, 
 It reached above the second floor, 
 
 Noah said: "God, this won't do!" 
 
 They drove this brute back to the hill, 
 
 For its mate could not be found: 
 And when the ark began to fill, 
 
 Hundreds were left aground. 
 
 U G J 
 
 The ark was crowded to overflow, 
 
 And thousands of different kind, 
 Were in a clime where alone they grow, 
 
 And it were folly to attempt to find. 
 
 So the windows of heaven were opened wide, 
 
 To let the waters down — 
 And that top-heavy ark, 'tis said, did ride, 
 
 And floated round and round. 
 
150 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 When the food supply was getting low, 
 And the animals began to die, 
 
 Noah kept hopping to and fro, 
 
 And thinking: "This joke's a lie." 
 
 And when the ark commenced to reel, 
 
 And totter on its side, 
 All the crew began to squeal — 
 
 And seek a place to hide. 
 
 Of course, those animals understood, 
 That they must do their best, 
 
 And the faithful crew did all they could 
 To keep the ark abreast. 
 
 But in spite of faith, the ark was lost, 
 
 So reason does declare: 
 And we have believed at an awful cost, 
 
 This thing was on the square. 
 
 In the sixth chapter of Genesis some unknown 
 writer has placed upon Moses the responsibility 
 of giving out the story of the Deluge. This writer 
 says that Moses said, that God said, that after a 
 thorough test of co-mingling man, nature and the 
 beasts, that the mind of man and the mind of 
 beast were continually evil, and that He intended, 
 and it is said executed, the plan to kill everything 
 that breathed the breath of life: that he would 
 destroy all seed and start things over again. 
 In other words, do over again the work that he had 
 evidently done so badly the first time. 
 
TAMING MAN 151 
 
 With these intentions in mind God decided to 
 take Noah in as a partner on the deal, and the 
 latter' s duties would be to see to it that at least 
 a pair of each living thing was saved in order that 
 the stock which was to be destroyed would not 
 utterly perish from the earth. Noah's task was 
 anything but light when we consider that he had 
 to find a pair of every animal, every fowl, and to 
 keep them safely in an unsanitary closed boat for 
 almost a year. Now of course this thing would be 
 unbelievable were it not for one thing, and that was 
 easily supplied by the superstitious ancient his- 
 torians; when anything was beyond the bounds of 
 reason and inexplainable they simply termed it 
 a "Miracle" and let it go at that. Taking into con- 
 sideration the transportation facilities of that age, 
 and that most animals were too wild to be taken 
 alive, that most of the animals, such as the lion, 
 the bear, tiger, etc., were vicious, and that Noah 
 had a very small crew to undertake such a task, 
 we see that a miracle is an absolute necessity in 
 this case. 
 
 At one time I was guilty of teaching that absurd 
 myth as truth. I tried to believe it because my 
 father and mother believe it, and nearly all other 
 people said they believed it, and of course they 
 wanted me to believe as they did. Gradually I 
 began to suspect that some of the boys of my class 
 did not swallow that ark story; in fact I had direct 
 evidence that one of the most mischievous of all, 
 openly scouted the legend. That boy showed even 
 at that early age evidence of possessing a mind of 
 his own, and I have watched his rise through life 
 until he now occupies a most responsible place in 
 
152 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 society and is a power in the financial world. He 
 deserved it, for he could out-reason the old heads 
 before he shed knee pants. 
 
 I at one time believed that when I was in Rome I 
 should do as Rome does; but I now know that I 
 was mistaken in that: I shouldn't do anything of 
 the kind: I now believe nothing without the strong- 
 est reasons and proof that it is true. I take this 
 opportunity to confess my earlier ignorance, and 
 I sincerely regret that I was ever instrumental in 
 imposing this and other mythical stories upon the 
 impressionable minds of tender youths. I promise 
 never again to promulgate any story that is not 
 reasonable and founded upon TRUTH. It is 
 unfair to take advantage of children in that manner, 
 and hammer into their minds falsehood and super- 
 stition — it is more than unfair, it is criminal. It 
 matters not what was the faith and belief of our 
 fathers, their time has passed, and the young should 
 be encouraged to free and independent thinking 
 and to believe only what their reason teaches 
 them is TRUTH. No church, officer, nor parent, 
 should have authority to place a limit upon the 
 reasoning power of the human brain. Give the 
 youth of today reign, give them perfect mental 
 freedom, and if they undermine the foundation 
 upon which our forefathers stood, do not become 
 excited, this is an age of progress. If they attack 
 the foundation upon which rests your political and 
 religious belief, if you feel it jar and tremble, 
 move on — place no barrier in their way — and when 
 it tumbles to ruin no doubt you will find that they 
 have erected in its stead something that has life, 
 that is as solid as Gibralter — that goes down to 
 the bed rock of everlasting Truth. 
 
TAMING MAN 153 
 
 Here is a sample of what you believe and what 
 you want to enforce on the youth of our country. 
 That the universe was made in six days, out of 
 nothing, by a god that resembles in every way a 
 man; a being that is Omnipotent, mighty enough 
 to make the heavens, the sun, moon, gleaming 
 stars and flashing meteors, the planets, the universe, 
 the solar systems: create all the beautiful and 
 wonderful phenomena in nature, and then feel tired 
 and exhausted and had to rest on the seventh day. 
 Then after his rest, he begun work again, and with 
 a little of the dust of the earth he produces his 
 most wonderful creation — a man. As a habitation 
 for the man he plants a beautiful garden of fruits 
 and flowers, and for his helpmate creates a woman 
 from part of the man's body. He places these 
 two perfect creatures within the garden and gives 
 them a set of rigid dietary rules; he then creates 
 a slimy snake and permits it to wind its hideous 
 length into the paradise and set at naught his 
 instructions as to diet — a reptile that could out- 
 reason the highest creature he had made, in other 
 words, endowed with more intelligence than the 
 prize creation of the diety. That this same God 
 then pronounced the curse of slavery, disease and 
 death on the entire human family. Now, my dear 
 Christian friend, is that not an accurate photo- 
 graph of your idea of the beginning of things? 
 
 Can you blame the children from asking such 
 shocking questions as these? Why did not God 
 make the man and the woman with more intelli- 
 gence than the snake? Why leave them so in- 
 efficient that they would become easy prey to the 
 first beast that happened along? It would have 
 
154 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 been as easy for God to make man strong as to make 
 him weak. Why did not God say, "Now, children, 
 I am going to leave you for awhile, as I have other 
 business that I must oversee : if you see a long, slick 
 thing with spots on it, a forked tongue and a dan- 
 gerous looking eye, and traveling on its belly, that's 
 a snake: take a club and strike it on the head and 
 kill it, for it is very wise and if you listen to wisdom 
 you are likely to get into trouble with me. Beware, 
 beware!" Oh, you say, that was to test man's 
 strength and his will power, and besides it was 
 God's way and should not be questioned any way. 
 In other words, you will admit that the Omnipotant 
 did not know whether he had succeeded in his 
 experiment of making man out of dust and woman 
 out of a bone, that he was inexperienced in this 
 line of manufacture and must test out the samples, 
 and that upon the test they proved a failure, the 
 job had been botched. 
 
 How much better it would have been to have 
 this story follow a human baby through the natural 
 channels of evolution, to see it grow in strength 
 and wisdom and profit by the experiences of life, 
 to see it smash the head of any poisonous reptile 
 that crossed its path, to see it too true to itself, 
 too strong, to attempt to accuse its weaker mate, 
 the flower of his love, tempting him to wrong doing. 
 At any rate the old process proved a failure and we 
 have more confidence in the natural way of pro- 
 ducing men and women than we have in the mud 
 and bone method . 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN GOD: They make him 
 all-powerful, the omnipotent, the all in all, and 
 give him the mysterious birth and death of a Christ, 
 
TAMING MAN 155 
 
 making this god his own father, giving him two 
 heads, and then by ringing in another mystery, 
 giving him a total of three heads — the father, the 
 son and the holy ghost — a great god-head that can 
 do no wrong, endowed with the power to save or 
 damn the whole human race — making him respon- 
 sible for the bloody commercial and religious wars 
 and the butchery of millions of human beings. 
 Then term him the Prince of Peace and cloth him 
 with the power to bring the dead to life, restore 
 sight to the blind, and claiming for him such won- 
 derful Love that he submits to debasing crucifixion 
 that the world might be saved from a hell of his 
 own manufacture. Then give him a nature that 
 is jealous, vengeful, dangerous, portraying him at 
 one and the same time as the merciful — loving 
 father and a monster to be blindly obeyed and 
 adored under penalty of death, hell and vengeance. 
 All this in a volume, the most contradictory and 
 vague the world has ever known, and claiming for 
 it perfection, regardless of the fact that it is entirely 
 out of tune with all natural law and reason — a 
 book so worthless and irrational that to all who 
 dare think rational, it is considered a literary joke! 
 But we are rapidly outgrowing the "man-made- 
 out-of-dust" story and the other imagery and dreams 
 of primative man; we are speaking with less awe 
 of the windows of heaven, the corn-stalk ark — 
 the streets of gold and gates of pearl. Our secret 
 convistions are that these tales are not true: our 
 God is a natural creator and a force that is far 
 above the petty emotions that sway man. Our 
 scholars will admit that at times most of the earth's 
 flat surface has been flooded by water, the deluge 
 
156 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 resulting from great natural unheavals and dis- 
 turbances and that but little water fell from the 
 4 'open windows of heaven," and that only those 
 creatures who happen to be in the path of shifting 
 seas and flooded rivers suffered a cutting off from 
 their kind. 
 
 THE OLD HILL FARM. 
 
 If my parents ever committed what, in the light 
 of reason, could be termed a sinful act, I have never 
 heard of it. I stood by my mother's death bed 
 when the fever germs were gnawing at the seat of 
 her life. In her fight with the grim monster she 
 had dwindled away until she was little more than 
 a living skeleton. She did not want to die, yet there 
 was nothing in life, that I could see, that was 
 of interest to her, except the ties of earthly friend- 
 ship, and they were few, and her life was burdened 
 with care and hardship. For days before the end 
 came the curtain would fall until life was almost 
 extinct, then by some mysterious turn in nature 
 would rise a little and we would again feel hope 
 and encouragement, and superstitiously say, "I 
 believe God will let her live." Then the end came, 
 the curtain descended with a rush, her feeble struggles 
 ceased and we knew that the grim reaper had con- 
 quered. 
 
 I was sad, yet relieved, because the struggle 
 between her and that monster was unequal, and 
 
TAMING MAN 157 
 
 my heart bled for her. At no time was there a 
 sign from the power against which she struggled 
 that in any way resembled an emotion of pity, 
 love or mercy. I called "Mother," but she did 
 not speak; I called louder but she did not hear. 
 Then superstition and darkness whispered, "God 
 has taken her away, she was too good a woman to 
 longer remain down here." I did not believe it 
 then, and now I know it was not true. I kissed 
 that cold brow and consigned her to the way that 
 all life must go. 
 
 Then my father, bent with toil and the burdens 
 of a long and useful life, in his struggles became 
 exhausted and succumbed. Both these aged people 
 had been devoted Christians and were slaves to 
 the Christian system and the Christian faith. How 
 often have I heard them say, "God has been mer- 
 ciful to me." But I cannot recall to mind where 
 the God they worshipped ever performed one kind 
 act for either — not one thing to lighten the burdens 
 under which they labored. In reality he never 
 spoke a word of cheer or comfort — never gave a 
 bite of meat or a loaf of bread. 
 
 When my father's struggles ended I begged his 
 cold corpse to speak to me; in my ingorance my 
 appeal to that dead body was akin to madness. 
 When my reason returned I discovered that the 
 life blood had left his face, his heart had ceased to 
 beat, and nothing remained but the husks of death — 
 the shell of what had once contained a man. 
 
 My friends, when a body answers not when I 
 speak to it, when I learn that it lacks intelligence, 
 that it has no power to express emotions, to move 
 objects or exibit life, I lose interest in it then and 
 
158 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 there. The part of life that I am interested in is 
 that which displays intelligence — that which thinks 
 and feels, knows and acts; which has the power to 
 reason — is sympathetic, knowing right from wrong; 
 that which tears away the cloak of ignorance and 
 superstition, clears the debris from blind ditches, 
 drives away the black clouds, turns night into day, 
 lights up my road on the journey through life and 
 holds the key to the gates of heaven. 
 
 This is the part that can't die. That cannot be 
 buried in a grave. There could be no heaven with- 
 out this part. 
 
 It is this part that has snatched the wings from 
 the angels, refused the monotony of a gold paved 
 New Jerusalem, defies kings, laughs and pities 
 when we sing of a day of judgment. 
 
 Is it Intelligence that sings of a "Great Day 
 Coming?" What is it that says the graves shall 
 give up their dead, and my father, your father, our 
 brothers, sisters and children will stand before a 
 King to be judged for deeds done in the body? 
 This that I am interested in, and that you should 
 be interested in, asks What? Ignorance grins in 
 the face of Intelligence, and parrots, "We will see 
 what is written about that!" 
 
 Intelligence, with an intelligent smile, mingled 
 with pity and disgust, thunders on the foundations 
 of darkness with such force that it trembles like 
 a frail structure that stands near an earthquake 
 scene. Dead bodies cannot enter heaven's sphere; 
 we each have a body that is not subject to disease 
 nor ills of the flesh, NOR TO DEATH. Super- 
 stition says, "Take the Bible for a guide." In- 
 telligence says the Bible is a man-made book and 
 
TAMING MAN 159 
 
 no God had anything to do with it/" Then you 
 cry, "God," has establish a church. The part that 
 I am interested in says churches are established by 
 man and no God has anything to do with them. 
 Superstition says, "Teach a dangerous doctrine." 
 Intelligence says, "It is that falsehood that has 
 kept the people ignorant of beautiful truths, and 
 made a hell on earth for the masses. 
 
 Ah, thou hideous monster, who art thou, who will 
 hide from the face of truth and worship in the abyss 
 of darkness? 
 
 THE OLD HILL FARM. 
 
 I had pictured in my mind 
 
 Things as they used to be: 
 But nothing did I find, 
 
 And no face did I see. 
 
 No one I knew when I was there, 
 For things had changed around: 
 
 Nothing to home I could compare 
 Except the lay of ground. 
 
 The old rail fence was torn away, 
 The roads and streams were changed, 
 
 Where I wondered in childhood day, 
 Out on the mountain range. 
 
 The little orchard on the hill, 
 Had grown to mammoth size: 
 
 When I entered the trees stood still 
 As though they were surprised. 
 
160 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 And when I shook the maidenblush, 
 Where the maiden blushed at me, 
 
 The fruit came tumbling with a rush, 
 I felt so good and free. 
 
 That fair one so sweet and proud, 
 Had watched me on that day, 
 
 And in a voice soft though loud, 
 So gently to me did say, 
 
 ''Did you think I didn't know, 
 
 About your visit here? 
 Since heaven has arranged it so, 
 
 I'll enter now your sphere." 
 
 We talked of days gone by, 
 
 Of times that is to be, 
 I fought against it but had to cry 
 
 As I am doing now you see. 
 
 She talked of heaven and heavenly things, 
 She walked right by my side: 
 
 She was an angel; just lacked the wings, 
 She them from me did hide. 
 
 And when she said, "I'm growing weak," 
 
 I pleaded with her to stay 
 And when she could no longer speak, 
 
 She rose and flew away. 
 
 I stood by the old walled well: 
 Talked with a dear old friend, 
 
 A suggestion did me compel, 
 A message to heaven send. 
 
TAMING MAN 161 
 
 And one by one, there came to me, 
 
 A host of friends that day : 
 And those dear friends watched to see 
 
 What the voice of the dead would say. 
 
 Mother spoke in a voice so low, 
 That many there did recognize 
 
 In language they knew was so, 
 
 They said, "an angel in disguise." 
 
 They were proud of the old hill farm, 
 
 But, in somewhat of a stew: 
 Voices of the dead fell with alarm: 
 
 On this group of curious few. 
 
 The old log house where I was born, 
 
 With its chimney built of clay, 
 Where mother toiled from early morn, 
 
 Had all been torn away. 
 
 The grand old hills and the lay of land, 
 
 The builders in the cliff, 
 Were about as nature had planned, 
 
 When glacier made her shift. 
 
 Then I roamed about and tried to find, 
 Those beautiful plumaged birds: 
 
 That we had left so far behind, 
 That used to fly in herds. 
 
 But it's man's delight to shoot and kill, 
 
 What er'e comes in his way, 
 To satisfy a devilish will, 
 
 And hound them night and day. 
 
162 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 And those earthly friends so kind to me, 
 May heaven help them to find, 
 
 A way that they can with me agree, 
 That their God is deaf and blind. 
 
 Seeing and hearing by faith don't go with me. 
 I know as much about this God theory as Billy 
 Sunday, or any other man knows. The GODS 
 that write and talk to me, that gives evidence of 
 life and intelligence, are GODS in deed and in 
 truth. 
 
 THE ABUSED SON OF JOSEPH. 
 
 To that dearest man whom Mary gave birth 
 
 Two thousand years ago, 
 Who walked and taught upon this earth, 
 
 Of whom we long to know. 
 
 The example whether false or true, 
 
 On this mundane sphere of life 
 We act as though we never knew: 
 
 In this hard world of strife. 
 
 Those things he did command, 
 
 That we should not partake 
 Has richly flourished on every hand, 
 
 While watching at his wake. 
 
 There was a Christ we can't deny, 
 Whose life was sore with thorn; 
 
 Respect the example for him we cry 
 And all the world should mourn. 
 
TAMING MAN 163 
 
 Long have we prayed and watched in vain 
 
 For a message or a sign, 
 And hoped that he would come again, 
 
 To prove his omnipotence divine. 
 
 T'was said Christ would return soon, 
 
 But since this good man died, 
 Has been as silent as the tomb: 
 
 And heaven's secrets hide. 
 
 When he does his message send, 
 
 T'will clear away the cloud: 
 For Jesus will the truth defend, 
 
 The rebuke is strong and loud. 
 
 For those things that we've been taught 
 
 Are fiction good and strong: 
 That the world so dearly bought 
 
 Worked a cruel and awful wrong. 
 
 His influence in the world was lost: 
 
 Since that sad and fatal day — 
 Christ was forsaken on the cross, 
 
 No word of cheer to us could say. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE DEAD. 
 
 Because of my interest in the psychology of the 
 soul, and desirous of having the people understand 
 the phenomenon; I am giving here extracts by the 
 consent of the Author! "The Voice Of The Dead, or 
 Elizabeth Blakes Phenomenon." Hoping to attract 
 attention to the book. 
 
164 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When you kneel beside the death bed, you con- 
 sciously appeal to some unknown power which you 
 feel sure exists somewhere; you know not where, 
 nor what it is. The most common expression at 
 such a time is, "Oh, God, have mercy." This 
 appealing term has been handed down from time 
 immemmorial. 
 
 When the loved one is laid in the coffin you will 
 stand by the bier and look down on the pinched, 
 pitiful face, so pale, silent and cold. 
 
 It is then that we break into weeping and are 
 overcome with despair, and the darkness of night 
 seems to encircle the soul, for we realize that never, 
 never again, will the rigid waxen figure answer to 
 one's voice. The desire to again meet the loved 
 one may be a sentiment, to which nature may answer 
 through the voice of science. 
 
 Is the meaning of " Spiritualism' ' to be trans- 
 formed meaning nothing but deception and illusion ? 
 Are we to stand by and watch the great army of 
 Charlatans march by reaping a harvest of wealth 
 and disgracing Spiritualism with fraud and trickery ? 
 
 Are we to remain in this Chaotic state and make 
 no effort to clear away the fraud and deception? 
 We have been riding down the stream of life on a 
 craft of indolence. Now that we are awakening 
 and the fog is clearing away, let us one and all 
 unite our efforts with that of the Society for Psychi- 
 cal Research, and try to make some distinction be- 
 tween deceit and reality. 
 
 1* v ^F n* 
 
 A challenge has been offered through the voice of 
 
TAMING MAN 165 
 
 telepathy beckoning us to the field of science to 
 combat with the many mysterious phenomena of 
 which we are now surrounded. 
 
 Reader, could there be a grander victory than to 
 compel nature to surrender to us the secrets of our 
 future destiny, that we may know beyond' a doubt 
 what becomes of us after death? Can you imagine 
 what a transformation there could be among 
 humanity if the proofs of immortal intelligence were 
 established. Many of our present religions would 
 meet their downfall — but then religion, like every- 
 thing else was born to die. Many religions have 
 been born, lived their lives of thrift, performed their 
 sacred duties, only to become infested with the 
 germ of advanced wisdom — to die and be laid to 
 rest among the files of ancient creeds to be sprinkled 
 with the dust of time. 
 
 Our present ideas of nature could be turned from 
 top to bottom. 
 
 We would learn that we had been living in a world 
 of complicated errors, while all the time existed 
 these natural laws hidden so well that but few 
 people have had the courage and ambition to enter 
 what would at first seem to be a field of fables, 
 which would prove nothing but the loss of time 
 and the humiliation of the investigators. Scientific 
 men have in the past been letting the subject slip 
 past them. 
 
 They have been skeptical on account of their 
 inherited prejudice, also on account of their al- 
 legiance to opposing theories and because they 
 have been connected with institutions which could 
 not approve of such investigation. 
 
 The people who believe in Spiritualism are the 
 
166 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 most intelligent class of people. We find among 
 them people of every profession, and these are the 
 best thinking people. For this reason alone it would 
 seem that there must be some truth behind it all. 
 
 There are hundreds of thousands of people who 
 attend seances and honestly believe what they hear 
 and see to be above our intelligence. 
 
 There are so many people who believe in Spiritual- 
 ism, and at the same time will not acknowledge the 
 fact, not even to their best friends. 
 . This is due to fear of ridicule from those who have 
 never attended a seance. Ask anyone who has 
 attended his first seance what he thinks of the 
 manifestations. The answer is most likely to be, 
 "I don't know, there is something strange about it, 
 something I do not understand." Invariably every 
 personwho attends a seance becomes fascinated with 
 what they witness and each following experience in- 
 creases the fascination. The result is they eventually 
 become earnest believers. 
 
 Ask a person who has never attended a seance 
 what he thinks about Spiritualism. Such a person 
 will say there is nothing in it. 
 
 Ask him to show a proof of his assertion and he 
 will find that he is at sea. Ask him why he is a dis- 
 believer and you will find, that he is a prejudiced 
 person, and in fact know snothing about the mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Some people who have witnessed the phenomena 
 and acknowledged it to be some outside power, say, 
 "It is the devil's work." This is the most foolish 
 expression that can be uttered — yet it has a mean- 
 ing. It reveals the fact that such a person is a 
 fanatic. Therefore, any idea which would oppose 
 
TAMING MAN 167 
 
 such a person's theory, would in the fanatic's 
 mind be a falsehood or the devil's work. Of course, 
 it is not the devil's work, but if the devil can make 
 people so happy by helping them to converse with 
 the departed it would be just to say, "God bless the 
 dear old devil." This expression expresses a law 
 which is right. Bless everything, the evil spirits 
 included. 
 
 They are all in the universe of God. Ask any 
 scientist of the occult for his decision and he will 
 tell you that the strange and marvelous actions are 
 caused by forces and governed by intelligence out- 
 side, beyond and independent of the control of the 
 persons at the seance. The demonstrations are not 
 the result of actions on the part of the living beings 
 in our present form. They are not under the con- 
 trol of known powers of our present life or of our 
 thought as distinguished from bodily existence. 
 Scientists are careful to go no further than their 
 own observations go. 
 
 The majority of mediums are women. This can 
 be attributed to the fact that women give more 
 time and thought to religion than men, and religion 
 is always a question of the destiny of the soul. 
 
 While there are many genuine mediums, many are 
 fraudulent, lacking either the faculty or faking it 
 at times when the conditions are not favorable and 
 sitters demand something. 
 
 We have more reason to believe in Spiritualism 
 than we have to doubt it, although the greatest 
 number of people do doubt it. The world may 
 doubt a thing and yet it be true. The whole world 
 may believe a thing and yet it be untrue. This 
 proves nothing. 
 
168 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Since numbers are no vindication. Over a hun- 
 dred million people have kissed the big toe of the 
 statue of St. Peter in Rome, and surely the Roman 
 Catholic Church contains a vast number of highly- 
 educated people. 
 
 The statement was made by Mr. Kellog, of New 
 York, that the "Fox Sisters" acknowledged that 
 they were fakes. 
 
 Proof that this statement is incorrect, we quote 
 here a paragraph from the "Voice of the Dead, Or 
 Elizabeth Blake's Phenomenon." Those wishing to 
 know the correct history of the "Fox Sisters," we 
 advise that they purchase a copy of the above 
 named book, from the Author and publisher, 
 Ernest G. Williams, Huntington, W. Va., the 
 price of which is One Dollar. 
 
 Extracts from the Voice Of the Dead : 
 
 The attention of the family had been attracted 
 by mysterious noises sounding like raps and some- 
 times like the footsteps of an unseen person. 
 
 Chairs, tables and other household articles, 
 moved without the aid of human power. The dis- 
 turbance increased to such an extent as to break 
 the nightly repose of the entire family. They 
 hoped and prayed that the strange noises which 
 were harassing them would soon be cleared away. 
 
 Their wishes and desires were of no avail. On 
 Friday night, March 31st, 1848, they gave up hope 
 and accepted their doom of disappointment. 
 
 The following narrative is the words of Mrs. Owen, 
 and is of special interest, if the reader wishes to 
 know the origin, or being, of such tantalizing, yet 
 interesting phenomena: 
 
 The parents had moved the children's beds into 
 
TAMING MAN 169 
 
 their bedrooms, and strictly enjoined them not 
 to talk of noises even if they heard them. But 
 scarcely had the mother seen them safely in bed, 
 and was retiring when the children cried out, "Here 
 they are again." The mother chided them and lay 
 down, thereupon the voices became louder and more 
 startling. The children sat up in bed. Mrs. Fox 
 called her husband. 
 
 The night being windy, it was suggested to him 
 that it might be the rattling of the sashes. 
 
 He tried several times to see if they were loose. 
 Kate, the younger girl, happened to remark that as 
 often as her father shook a window sash, the noise 
 seemed to reply. 
 
 Being a lively child, and in a measure accustomed 
 to what was going on, she turned to where the noise 
 was, snapped her finger, and called out, "Here, 
 Old Splitfoot, do as I do." The knocking instantly 
 responded. 
 
 That was the commencement. Who can tell 
 
 where the end will be ? 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Thereupon she asked her husband to call her 
 neighbor, Mrs. Radfield, who came in laughing. 
 But her cheer was soon changed. The answer to 
 her inquiries were as prompt and pertinent as they 
 had been to Mrs. Fox. She was struck with awe; 
 and when in reply to a question about the number 
 of her children, by rapping four instead of three, 
 as she expected, it reminded her of a little daughter, 
 Mary, whom she had recently lost; the mother 
 
 burst into tears. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 In Corinthian Hall, of Rochester, public meetings 
 
170 
 
 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 were held, under the direction of a Committee of 
 prominent men, and the Fox Children were sub- 
 mitted to the most severe tests. 
 
 They were compelled to appear nude before a 
 committee of ladies, and every test was reported 
 in favor of the Fox Children. 
 
 MORRIS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 War: 
 
 Battle : 
 
 Battleground 
 
 Battleship: 
 
 An unnatural state of affairs in 
 the human family. 
 
 Generally referring to conflicts 
 between men; as a battle with 
 swords, guns, knives, clubs, bombs 
 suffocating and poisonous gases, 
 explosives or with any weapon 
 or instrument that will disable, 
 mangle, cripple or cause death. 
 
 Referring to that part of the 
 country where battles are fought, 
 where men are pitched against 
 the other for the purpose of over- 
 powering and mangling the other. 
 
 Known as a man of war: a vessel 
 equipped with heavy guns: 
 capable of throwing projectiles 
 and bombs and explosives a 
 
TAMING MAN 
 
 171 
 
 Duel: 
 
 Fighting : 
 
 Soldier: 
 Bayonet 
 
 great distance with mighty force: 
 used to disable and destroy ships 
 of the enemy that trespass on the 
 water that belong to nations of 
 foreign flags, and for bombarding 
 cities and strongholds, and for the 
 destruction of property and life. 
 
 A fight between two or more men, 
 arbitrarily, for the settlement of 
 disputes. A duel is supposed to 
 be a fight to death: it is the cus- 
 tom in a duel to fight with rifle, 
 pistol, revolver, sword or knife. 
 Whatever the fate of men who 
 fight a duel he is supposed to 
 lie quiet, and lay in no com- 
 plaint until the day of judgment. 
 
 Men fighting, bulls fighting, dogs 
 fighting, wolves fighting, snakes 
 fighting, cocks fighting, hogs 
 fighting. 
 
 A man trained in the art of 
 fighting and killing men. 
 
 A sharp instrument fitted on the 
 end of a gun barrel used to com- 
 pel obedience and to stab and 
 kill. 
 
 Dreadnaught : 
 
 A man-of-war : fitted with modern 
 fighting equipment, a ship used 
 
172 
 
 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 Torpedo : 
 
 Submarine 
 
 Zeppelin: 
 
 Battle Plane 
 
 Tame 
 
 for the destruction of property 
 and to compel respect of a foreign 
 nation or faction. 
 
 A high projectile, that when 
 released from a submarine, or 
 torpedo boat, is automatically 
 propelled through the water at 
 high speed toward its prey, and 
 is capable of blowing up and 
 sinking the largest vessel afloat. 
 
 An undersea fighting craft used 
 for blowing up and sinking ships 
 and fighting squadrons with tor- 
 pedoes. 
 
 An air craft propelled by engines, 
 used by civilized nations in war 
 for the destruction of wealth, 
 by dropping dangerous explo- 
 sives in cities and on public 
 institutions. 
 
 Flying machines used by civilized 
 nations for the destruction of 
 property and life, and the tor- 
 menting of the enemy by dropping 
 explosives, and darts, on the 
 enemy: also small cannon is used 
 by fighting machines that fight 
 in the air. 
 
 To drive out the savage and 
 render docile. The modern ap- 
 
TAMING MAN 
 
 173 
 
 Infidel: 
 
 Christian 
 
 plication means to teach the 
 nations of earth that it is a crime 
 to shed human blood. That War 
 is a crime — to teach that it is 
 ignorant and barbarous and 
 criminal to destroy life. 
 
 Any one who is qualified and has 
 the courage to undermine the 
 foundation of the church faiths, 
 and Christian doctrine. One who 
 refuses to compromise with the 
 errors of religions. 
 
 One who believes in the reverse of 
 infidelism; one who can not be- 
 lieve in rationalism. 
 
 Faith : To believe a thing to be true. It is generally 
 supposed that to have the faith 
 to believe in a doctrine, — whether 
 that doctrine is true or not, is a 
 matter of little concern Faith 
 is the redeeming and saving 
 foundation. 
 
 Modern Explanation: One can have the faith 
 
 to believe in another's hon- 
 esty, and that person be 
 dishonest : one can have the 
 faith to believe that a cer- 
 tain mode of baptism or 
 doctrine is essential unto 
 salvation, and yet there be 
 
174 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 no truth or virtue in that 
 faith or belief. 
 Sword: An emblem of honor: resembling 
 
 a butcher knife. A sword is a 
 
 butcher knife. 
 
 Spiritualism: 
 
 Spirit Return: 
 
 Anarchy: 
 
 Pertaining to spirits; meaning the 
 return of the spirit. Spiritualism 
 does not convey an inteligent 
 meaning. 
 
 The return of the spirit. Super- 
 sedes spiritualism. 
 
 A man who believes that men 
 should be good enough to live 
 peaceable, with one another and 
 treat each other brotherly, with- 
 out any law: the theory is in- 
 correct — and contrary to human 
 nature. 
 
 EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 The following message is an explanation in answer 
 to a question of Mr. McQuain, as to the theory of 
 the supposed evil spirits that investigators are 
 endeavoring to solve. 
 
 Message Given to 
 
 R. 0. Morris, at 
 
 Huntington, W. Va. 
 
 May 22, 1916. 
 
 There is no such thing as evil spirits as many 
 
TAMING MAN 175 
 
 believe ; but there are spirits that are not intelligent 
 or sane. 
 
 It is accounted for in this way! it depends on 
 several conditions. In the spirit life it is different! 
 an intelligent person with you might be insane 
 here, that depends on the sphere in which they are 
 in. No one can determine your spheres. 
 
 You at least can reason out these things in this 
 light. It pays to live right and do all the good in 
 the world that you can and the better you know 
 natural law, the less you know of the myths and the 
 superstition of the world, the more active the man 
 or woman, the better off they will be here. 
 
 Usually people of a dilatory, lazy disposition will 
 be sluggish when they pass into these spheres. Now 
 suppose you, through your medium powers, are 
 connected with a spirit that had not taken on the 
 spirit body in full strength or is too weak physically 
 — as well as in mind to understand conditions here. 
 Could you expect the information that they impart 
 to you to be reliable? NO. The spirit or the 
 person must grow under the evolution law which is 
 "Nature's God" and through effort we grow strong. 
 The law that the people of earth should learn about 
 is evolution; for on this is founded the intelligence 
 of all that there is and all that there ever was and all 
 that there ever can be. The world was not made 
 in a few days and your world is only a tiny speck 
 in the great realm of the universe and there are 
 worlds that are revolving in space unfinished — and 
 this law in nature will never end. 
 
 The whirling planets, — many of them are 
 gathering substance and have been for thousands 
 If years, and will continue to whirl in space all 
 through eternity. 
 
176 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 How foolish of you to think that puny man will 
 ever solve this great unexplored mystery in nature 
 and how childish to believe that the bible god 
 inspired men to write a book — that only confuses 
 the people and keeps the world on its knees and in 
 darkness. The bible teaches nothing at all — about 
 the foundation of natural law, It has something to 
 say about evil spirits — and that is where men like 
 Russell, and many others get their superstitious ideas. 
 The bible and its interpreters, will never solve any- 
 thing that pertain to natural law, and the mysteries 
 of the natural creator. 
 
 The writer that made the statement that there 
 are evil spirits and that the spirits acknowleged 
 it — was either in touch with hell or insane spirits, or 
 a low intelligence, otherwise he lied. I doubt if 
 men of that frame of mind, who are insane on the 
 bible, could communicate with the high spiritual 
 intelligence. 
 
 As your manuscript is finished, we will have 
 nothing more to say on the subject — but will 
 continue to give information from this side through 
 you and as the people want it you can give it to the 
 world. 
 
 Barron Accountis. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM CONVERSATIONS. 
 
 Teasing our spirit friends proves their wit and 
 humor, and gives us food for thought. Among the 
 
TAMING MAN 177 
 
 thousands of extracts from conversations that have 
 
 taken place between myself and spirit frisnds, 
 
 people who are supposed to be dead, are a few listed 
 
 Won't you allow me to stroke my hand over your 
 
 hair, little angel? 
 
 Answer: You need not be bashful, you won't offend 
 
 me. 
 
 The little angel knew the joke was on me. 
 
 Won't you give me a bright plumaged feather out 
 of your wing Crape Murtle? 
 
 Answer: I am not a chicken, a goose nor a spirit. 
 I am a person as much so as you or any of your 
 earthly associates. 
 
 Barron Accountas: Do you look just as I saw you 
 last night? Were those real roses that I saw in your 
 hair? Do you have eyes and complexion like that? 
 Are people in the spirit world so beautiful and fair? 
 Answer: Do you look just as I see you? Do you 
 favor your self? I would like to see some of the 
 imaginary paintings of Heaven. Do you think I 
 brought those roses from earth? Take all of the 
 artificial out of the world, earth would compare more 
 favorable with our home. It was me that you see. 
 We have asked you to correct the misguided idea, 
 spirit world. Suppose that we were just spirits, — as 
 many earthly friends believe, — there would be but 
 little of the real here. You are a teacher — you 
 must know before you can teach. 
 Question: Why is it that you open and close Seances 
 with prayer? 
 
 Answer: That is governed by conditions and en- 
 viron. At your seances we have perfect liberty — 
 
178 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 and understand that you are a seeker of truth. 
 We need not open and close your seances with 
 prayer, yet under certain conditions it might be 
 well to do so; but people should pray to something 
 that has the power of speech. It will be more 
 interesting, when Jesus, the son of Joseph gets in 
 communication with the people of earth through 
 psychic power. 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 After all this thrashing and wrestling and ex- 
 posure of what we believe to be false religions — 
 inefficiency of governments, to cope with the great 
 problems that confront us — should I fail to offer 
 a sane remedy for the correcting of the lame, de- 
 fective and imperfection in governments — and the 
 healing of the body politic — I have only disturbed 
 the already restless minds of the people and helped 
 them to see the danger-pits that we have fallen into. 
 
 The remedy can be given in a short paragraph. 
 When the people have enough of tariff revision, — 
 of duties that should or should not be, money 
 standards, banking systems, labor strikes, and 
 riots — adjustments of wage scales — Ludlow massa- 
 cres and Paint-Creek wars — Wars at home and 
 abroad — gamble, confusion, debating and mis-un 
 derstanding — class hatred, the hounding of one 
 another, the robbing and keeping in poverty, 
 heaping hardships on one class and grinding out 
 
TAMING MAN 179 
 
 millionaires — and enthroning the other — in other 
 words when you have enough of hell on earth. 
 
 You will learn that there is only one sane, sound, 
 logical and sure remedy. 
 
 THAT IS, TO BUILD ON A BASIS OF TRUTH, 
 AND LET THE PEOPLE IN THESE UNITED 
 STATES, COME TOGETHER, IN THE SPIRIT 
 OF INTELLIGENCE AND BROTHERHOOD, 
 AND ERASE FROM THEIR MEMPRY THE 
 PAST POLITICAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS 
 AND PARTY DIVISIONS, AND ENDORSE A 
 POLITICAL FOUNDATION BASED ON AN 
 UNDIVIDED PEOPLE AND BIND TOGETHER 
 IN UNISON THE NATIONS OF EARTH. 
 
 ARISTOTLE MESSAGES. 
 
 Message No. 1 
 
 Huntington, W. Va., May 11, 1916. 
 
 8 o'clock, A. M. 
 
 We are going to tell you some more in regard to 
 the work, you are to do, and you must obey us 
 in all things we tell you to do. 
 
 You are getting along very fast now, with the 
 work and we want you to get along much faster 
 than you have been. We have now arranged to 
 talk to you soon and if you keep at the work, 
 right ahead, we can do much better and it will 
 
180 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 be such help to you in developing for the trumpet- 
 work, as we are expecting to establish the phe- 
 nomenon of the spirits return soon, and in this way 
 we can help you out on the sale of the book. 
 
 For when people hear us talk • in circles, they 
 become more anxious to learn of the truth. And 
 a few who get to hear us frcm this side will be 
 a big advertisement for the book, and we under- 
 stand that is going to be your means of support, 
 as you go from place to place spreading the truth. 
 
 We are all so much interested in both you and 
 Mr. Morris that we are going to establish the truth 
 as it has never been before; as some people are 
 doubting about the work you are doing and we 
 want to prove without a doubt that it is us on this 
 side of life that can make man famous, as the world 
 counts fame and we are going to prove that. As 
 so many of your friends who have known you so 
 long and to be honorable in all things, it is in that 
 way that we are much interested about your devel- 
 oping so fast and quick, as this is an almost unusual 
 thing for one to develope in so short a time, and for 
 this reason we are going to prove to the world, 
 that when people get rid of their superstition, 
 they then can pray to the living God and he will 
 answer their prayers, and that we are the ones that 
 they should ask for the favors they need in this 
 life and not some mythical God as do the heathen, 
 and we have now found in you men the kind of 
 material to give out some things, that we have 
 long hoped for the world to know. 
 
 And we are so happy, that we can hardly control 
 you for joy, that we have at last found some 
 one with courage of their convictions, to stand 
 
TAMING MAN 181 
 
 up and show to the world that the spirit friends are 
 able to deliver to those who will ask them and obey 
 what they tell them, as the old time people did in 
 the old bible times. 
 
 But people now days think their preachers are 
 the only medium they need and as long as they send 
 their children to Sunday School and hear a sermon 
 once in a while that everything is O. K. for heaven. 
 We want you to get them in the lost trail, and help 
 them to see the folly of their ways and their faith, 
 as they deny even what Jesus taught when with 
 them, and have adopted creeds and doctrines to 
 teach the people and they are all like sheep without 
 a shepherd. You now have made a beginning to 
 show to the insane world the folly of their ways, 
 and we want to see the work go right ahead without 
 a stop and save or bring to the truth a few of those 
 who will soon pass to our side of life. 
 
 We are giving you the keys to unlock the store- 
 house of knowledge and let your knowledge so shine 
 that the world will be amazed at the things you 
 may do — and don't forget we are all arranging 
 to give the you knowledge as fast as you can 
 understand it. 
 
 All knowledge from the beginning of man is at 
 our hand to deliver to you, as you get able to re- 
 ceive it, and the world will be changed from the 
 work you are starting to do — and your names will 
 go down in history as the great reformers of the 
 world. 
 
 A monument of knowledge is now being con- 
 structed to enlighten you — do not be surprised at 
 this — the olden prophets wrote, the Lord God had 
 chosen^the weak things to confound the so called 
 wise. 
 
182 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 When the world knows what you have done to 
 reform the superstition of the people, then will 
 be such an other time as when the continent of 
 America was discovered. 
 
 This time it is a continent of knowledge long 
 buried in the sands of time. And we are going 
 to rend the veil of ignorance that has long hidden 
 the people from the truth, so much essential to 
 their welfare here on the earth as a people. 
 
 And we want this thing of blood and murder of 
 men driven from the earth forever, — Oh! that the 
 time is ripe and we have found in you men of the 
 hills a great treasure house of the spiritual structure 
 on which we can build this truth. 
 
 It is so, Oh! so rejoicing to us we hardly know 
 what to tell you first. 
 
 We will now close on account of your strength — 
 until this evening at three o'clock after you take 
 a short sleep in which you may see some things of 
 interest to you, as now you must put yourselves 
 in our care and we will advise you as to what to do. 
 
 We have not till now thought best, to take entire 
 control of you, but from now on you must expect 
 to begin to do the things that we have been telling 
 you about. 
 
 And the reason we have not heretofore done this, 
 you perhaps would not have neither understood, 
 or even been able to have stood the strain. 
 
 But now as Mr. Morris is here, and all is in har- 
 mony as to your belief and knowledge, we are 
 going to take complete control of you. 
 
 Nora, you must be as kind to him for awhile as 
 you can as he will be some weak and not subject 
 to much excitement for awhile. But never fear, 
 
TAMING MAN 183 
 
 he is alright and we are going to take care of him 
 from now on. And you may soon be surprised at 
 the things that happen at this place and Huntington 
 will think some of the old prophets, have come back 
 or ones with authority, and now as to the many 
 things we have written show only to Mrs. Blake, 
 Sunday, when you go over and this will give her 
 great encouragement in her failing years, as she 
 has been so abused by the people in the past. 
 
 This will be a bouquet of thanks to her, for her 
 work so near done, — she was the vessel we have 
 long found worthy to keep the truth boiling in, 
 — and now we are placing this on more able shoul- 
 ders to establish for the whole world. 
 
 A great many mediums are sincere but they lack 
 courage, and some lack even strength, and have 
 been delicate in handling the subject and writing 
 truth, — too much in sympathy with the established 
 customs of earth and not stroking the scales from 
 the eyes of the people — and now that the time is 
 ripe for more truth on these ancient subjects the 
 people are in ignorance of and are beginning to 
 even see the folly of a great deal of it in every day 
 lfie. 
 
 The world is hungering for a lasting peace and 
 a brotherhood of the human race. 
 
 We understand all these things over here and we 
 know what we are specking of. May Omnipotent 
 power be added to all of you servants in this great 
 fight for deliverance of humanity, from superstition, 
 ignorance, and folly, that has soaked continents 
 with blood and tears for many centuries, — and the 
 world will never have history to tell one millioneth 
 part of the great afflction this old mundane sphere 
 
184 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 has endured through the greed and lust of sinful 
 men in authority, who resisted the spread of truth 
 and knowledge in the world. 
 
 We must close, but there is so much to teach you 
 that we regret to leave off now for even a short 
 time. 
 
 God Almighty for ever and ever the same bless 
 this message to you all, now, — and the whole 
 world later. 
 
 Good-Bye; — from one who is from the spheres of 
 the higher knowledge, that you can't yet understand. 
 
 This message was written by Aristotle of old. 
 
 George M. Weese and others controlling the 
 medium. 
 
 Good-Bye. 
 
 Message No. 2. 
 
 May 11, 1916. 3 p. m. 
 
 We are ready to again give you a little more of 
 the news from this side of life, — and will say that 
 this is the greatest day in your life's history as we 
 are now developing the latent powers in you that 
 has long been dormant, — and might have remained 
 so through life, — had not you found out that you 
 had access to a fountain of knowledge that never 
 has been fathomed by man's mortal mind. 
 
 And it is only through us on this side of life that 
 these things can be learned. 
 
 Go right on, — when people begin to pray in deed 
 and in truth then and then only, can they expect 
 to have their prayers answered. And prayer is 
 
TAMING MAN 185 
 
 this: simply ask the great realm of intelligence that 
 surrounds the whole universe. 
 
 That is prayer, — and prayer indeed. 
 
 Reason it this way; Was it a mythical prayer 
 that brought you into being in this universe? No, 
 it was the association of thoughts, that were in 
 unison with each other, together with animal 
 conditions that produces the man and soul that 
 never dies. 
 
 And this is only a feeble thought in regard to this 
 so-called difficult problems of the scientists of earth, 
 — and as you grow in strength so it is that you grow 
 in knowledge here in life. And when growth stops, 
 then we begin to grow feeble in body. Then later 
 the body becomes unfit to retain the accumulated 
 knowledge and reason and as the old body becomes 
 too much of a care to them this same thought, 
 or soul, leaves the body in the change called death, 
 and puts on its immortality on our side of life and 
 continues to grow in a knowledge of real wisdom 
 that is as abundant as the elements in which you 
 live, — and when people realize some of these truths, 
 then they will not make so many terrible blunders 
 in producing their offspring, in foolish error, and 
 waste their most sacred blessings of life in foolish 
 play and foolhardy so-called pleasure. 
 
 This thought, or the beginning of man should be 
 to each man and woman the greatest and most 
 sacred thought of their life, and then there would 
 soon die out of life the germs of disease that is 
 troubling this world with so much early death, 
 and causing so much ignorance that we have to 
 contend with, on this side of life. 
 
 We now hope that we can make this strong enough 
 
186 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 through you, that this one terrible monster may be 
 hounded away from the people, — and when this 
 is better understood and society of earth learn 
 how to handle these great evils, then will the an- 
 swer to the prayers of the saints be given, — and 
 the kingdoms of earth will be more in harmony with 
 the kingdom of heaven. "AND AMEN! AND 
 AMEN!" For as long as the people continue to 
 bring their offsprings in the world diseased, deformed, 
 weak and half nourished, — just so long will ignorance 
 abound and they will not be sound in body enough 
 to ever learn very much in this life. 
 
 And it will be AGES before they can reach the 
 higher spheres over here, — and in their terrible 
 effort to help their friends left on earth at death, 
 they will still be of little use in correcting the evil 
 here. 
 
 So now you see one thing in the light of know- 
 ledge that have for so long hindered the spirits 
 prestige with the earth friends. The spirit friends 
 nearest earth of course are always called for, instead 
 of those who have reached the higher spheres, 
 as they are dearest to them by the ties of nature. 
 
 And it is this that leads to much confusion with 
 the people at seances, — no matter who the medium 
 or how well qualified as the medium is not respon- 
 sible for the message. 
 
 The medium can only allow the spirit called for 
 to talk and say what they will ; and if they even would 
 suggest to only give room for those spirits who 
 know, — the most people would say, "Just as I 
 expected, — that medium is a fake." None of my 
 people talked, and the medium may have read all 
 that I heard in some lost volumn; — instead they 
 
TAMING MAN 187 
 
 are content to talk for all time to their insane 
 friends who have just left an insane world, who 
 are so much in fear of the judgment or the wrath 
 of God, that they are almost afraid to even try 
 for a higher sphere, until they are here a long time. 
 
 0, that the world would search for wisdom from 
 its original source instead of denying it. 
 
 Then we could occasionally send a message that 
 would amount to something in the world. 
 
 But as long as man in his few years tries to fathom 
 out the mysteries of nature, in his surroundings, 
 and get his education from some other man in his 
 or worse condition, just so long will the wisest 
 trample under foot the weaker. 
 
 If they would search all their short lives on earth 
 and read all there ever was, or ever will be printed, 
 still there would be an aching void to know what 
 had happened. 
 
 On this side those who have been here long 
 enough to learn a few of nature's laws, by observing 
 them for several years and not having to consult 
 the papers, for the information are some better 
 qualified to teach the fast dying world, these things. 
 
 So we are going to reveal to you a few truths that 
 will start the world to think along lines of light and 
 reason. 
 
 From whence comes the thoughts that you have? 
 Are they not independent? If you think they 
 are not, just stop them for a while and we will 
 take a rest. They are not in control of the body 
 at all; but they are subject to the best and stronger 
 mind and will. So train your thoughts as you would 
 your hand to write. And the way to train them 
 is to consult your friends on the thought side for 
 
188 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 how you should train them for their best fitted use : 
 and then there will be less groping in darkness 
 through life on earth. 
 
 Well we will close for tonight, — have the dark 
 circle at eight to nine o'clock tonight, and we will 
 try and give you the best we can from this side. 
 
 We are glad to get the work started out even at 
 this late date in the world's history. Good-Bye. 
 This is from Aristotle of the olden times, and your 
 control, Mr. Weese. 
 
 In the morning at eight o'clock be ready to write 
 again. This is all now. 
 
 Message No. 3. 
 
 May 12, 1916. 8 a. m. 
 
 Good Morning to all. 
 
 We are here to give you a little more of the 
 spirit world's news. And we hope that we can 
 hold the connection favorable for our purpose. 
 We will say this morning that we are glad to have 
 you both at our command, — and we hope to give 
 you some more truth and wisdom in an unpre- 
 judiced manner, as you men, we are glad to say, 
 are searching for the real truth, and are opening 
 up your minds to reason. And are looking to the 
 right side of reason to be taught these things, 
 and are not trying to twist the truths we give you 
 from time to time, with what things you already 
 think you know. 
 
 For as long as a medium or anyone else closes 
 their mind to anv further reason or instruction, 
 
TAMING MAN 189 
 
 or is surprised at new thought; — then that hinders 
 our work on this side, and as we have to do our 
 work with or by such tools as is at our command, 
 you see what a great thing it is for us to find an 
 open mind for to reveal these things through. 
 For when the most of people hear anything new, 
 that their school teacher or the priest or pastor, 
 had not mentioned about was soon going to happen, 
 they say at once, this is against God's will. 
 
 O, my! O, my! How terrible, — and yet on 
 Sunday morning when called on to pray at church 
 they seem to want to impress the world that they 
 are seeking for truth with all the earnestness of 
 Soloman, as they ask out very loud for more knowl- 
 edge and wisdom. 
 
 Please try and count up the things or events that 
 have happened in the world's history of real worth 
 to man. And please answer us over here, or else 
 say manly and frankly, that this is truth and we 
 do know. 
 
 Our question is this: "Has the pope or the priest 
 or any country preacher, given out these things?" 
 We beg to tell you no. No, they never made 
 mention that these things were going to happen, 
 but instead have tried to hinder then from coming 
 to the people, as the criticism of their pride is 
 usually cutting to them, for they as teachers had not 
 only failed to warn the people, but had in many 
 cases, taught that such would be contrary to the 
 living God. And yet they argue that they are 
 caring for them each day and will not withold 
 anything from them. 
 
 We are truly astonished at the teaching of millions 
 and millions of people. That they after seeing 
 
190 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 these things for generation and generation, — that 
 they now have so many of the once so-called fanatical 
 inventions which are all over the world in use and 
 now can get the news all over the earth the same 
 day they happen. 
 
 Oh, how long will the people grope in darkness 
 when even reading these things in the very light 
 of truth. 
 
 There are now almost enough established evi- 
 dence among the people that we return, - have our 
 worthy ones of earth, who are willing to be taught 
 the things of worth, for the people of earth. And 
 who are not afraid of losing a few of their old time 
 associates, who still think that the earth is still 
 as flat as their poor heads. 
 
 As long as the people continue to hire this kind 
 of reasoning teachers, there will not be much pro- 
 gress of knowledge on the earth. For the man acting 
 for his hire we are very sorry to say is more in- 
 terested in the price of his hire, than he is in the 
 people. It is so much easier to read than study. 
 
 And the conditions of earth's society as it is at 
 this date is making this the more true. 
 
 The ways of time and advancement are con- 
 tinually going on, — and as now days the people are 
 contented to read of the happened events rather 
 than to inquire of what is going to happen. And 
 not studying the trend of events, they are then 
 much surprised when the inevitable happens. 
 
 So it is today, in all the countries of earth. And 
 the old time students who were free from the many 
 diseases of the body and with sound mind and who 
 made a study of these things in harmony with 
 nature, that we on this side might guide them into 
 
TAMING MAN 191 
 
 the true light of reason. And in this way it is that 
 the world holds so sacred the history and statues of 
 these men of sound reason and intelligence who 
 were open to learn more of nature's divine law. 
 
 So then is it any wonder that these men are 
 counted on earth the reformers, — and as the be- 
 ginners of literature that we are so sorry has not 
 been equalled and so few are competent to read: 
 even at this so-called advanced period of earth's 
 history. 
 
 "Search and You Shall Find." This truth is 
 a motto for all. That this world would do well to 
 frame and illuminate on every mountain and shore 
 of this old time world. 
 
 For if you don't Seek after knowledge, wealth or 
 any other of the attainments trusted man, you 
 will just so long fail to find them. 
 
 And if you stand in the light of your reason in 
 whatever way, it may be opened to you, just so 
 long will you learn the truths due you. Reason it 
 this way. If you had but one limb, — could you 
 expect to win in a race? So in this awful race for 
 life and maintanence, here on earth as it is now, the 
 best and only true way is to accept the truth as we 
 your guardians give it to you. 
 
 For to some we can only reach them by others, — 
 while some, we can give these things direct. The 
 time is now at hand when no one need be walking 
 in darkness. 
 
 Take yourselves as the example for this truth, and 
 you see that we can reveal these things to you in 
 this way at present. But if you throw away the 
 board, and don't try to get these things, then we 
 could not give them to you till later. So improve 
 
192 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 your time as fast as you can; and at a convenient 
 season we can also give you more, and in a better 
 way. 
 
 But had both said after your first seances, — 
 "Oh, I heard something, but I seen no one and I 
 hardly know what to think, although it did tell 
 me some things that I know no one ever knew but 
 the friend who claimed they was doing the talking. 
 But it is so strange to me, it is too deep for my 
 mind." If you had made this common remark 
 and had not gone after the then mysterious things, 
 — there would never be this thing of your talking 
 and writing that you are now doing, have been done. 
 
 You see it is only through man that we can work 
 that he can understand us. Suppose the teacher 
 that taught you to spell in print, the first words 
 that you ever learned, had taken the print and 
 whipped you for not being able to read the script 
 you would have thought that unfair, — and perhaps 
 left the school never to return. But by learning 
 to read the writing it soon became as easy as the 
 print. So in this work you must begin where you 
 can understand, and then as you do, we are ever 
 willing to give the knowledge to you as fast as we 
 can. And it is our greatest pleasure to give it to 
 you. But we have much to mind, we don't want 
 to hinder you or whip you because you can't un- 
 derstand the script of this work. 
 
 And, or rather that we keep you interested, we 
 will not offend you at any time, — even though you 
 could never learn so much, because of something, 
 you did not see the way to do. 
 
 So it was in your cases, you was living at what 
 you were doing, but were not learning, much of 
 
TAMING MAN 193 
 
 value to yourselves or the world. And when we 
 told you to make changes in your life and living 
 you at once did as we ask you to. 
 
 And now as you are only beginning to see the 
 work is starting out, — and the world will soon begin 
 to look up the family history to see who you are, — 
 and to wonder where you came from. 
 
 It is then they will say, "What college are they 
 graduates from ? As they seem to even know man, 
 and all law both civil and moral." And the people 
 will be surprised at this, and will say "how can it 
 be, they have no record of these things." This 
 is the answer and shall forever solve the question 
 in their minds. 
 
 YOU ASKED AND RECEIVED. YOU 
 SEARCHED AND FOUND. This is the only 
 way that the mind can grow, or gain a true know- 
 ledge of the truth — and all about is sufficient 
 knowledge for all the things as you try to find it 
 out and put yourselves in the way to receive it. 
 Now as there are some things for you to attend to 
 essential to the body, as well as the work, we will 
 close for the present, — and tonight at eight to nine 
 o'clock, hold your circle as usual and please make 
 the room as dark as you can, as we want to go on 
 as fast with the work as possible. 
 
 Good-Bye. From the same. 
 
 Message Received. 
 
 June 5th, p. m. 
 
 Well Gentlemen, 'you have had this night, the 
 honor to receive a message from one of the most 
 
194 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 high spheres for human immortality to reach. 
 And from here in this sphere is the heavens searched 
 and the buds of the ever living flowers of knowledge 
 looked into: and here in these spheres is the never 
 changing and forever unwritten laws of the foun- 
 dations of life and truth and wisdom: in such a 
 degree of might and power is this, that those even 
 in the middle spheres can not comprehend the mag- 
 nitude — of the greatest of the greatest of powers. 
 
 And we can never expect to reveal to living 
 'mortals the great and the greatest of this wondrous 
 of all knowledge and source of life and powers that 
 control the universe. 
 
 So as we can only give you a few things to think 
 on at this time — it is this we want to impress on 
 your minds: that you are now getting a few of the 
 wonderful things that has been promised to you, 
 and this is not yet a beginning. 
 
 But as you get stronger, we can get more truth 
 into the world — by you as you can now see, by this 
 message just received, from one who has for cen- 
 turies been exploring these mighty of mightiest 
 truths and powers of all wisdom: and who has been 
 prayed to millions and millions of millions of times. 
 
 But the prayers could not be delivered as they 
 were not in accord with the laws of the friends on 
 this side. And while great will be the awful shock 
 to those of earth, who follow their other ancestors 
 on into this life and not find Jesus The Christ. 
 For he was on and on so far from them, in his natural 
 work and search of knowledge that it will take them 
 ages — to again undo the learning and training of 
 the flesh. 
 
 And to reach spheres to him, where he is so familiar 
 
TAMING MAN 195 
 
 with all about him, they will have to learn and 
 learn — to get this knowledge of wisdom, that those 
 in these spheres have only begun to learn about. 
 So there is no end to the gulf or diameter of wisdom : 
 all is upward, onward throughout eternities of 
 eternities. 
 
 So you men can rejoice with a great rejoicing — 
 that you have been the chosen among the millions 
 of earth's peoples, to get in touch with the masters 
 of knowledge — far in excess, of what you can com- 
 prehend or understand. Go on and on asking and 
 searching and you will be abundantly blessed, 
 above that you may understand what blessings 
 of blessings means. Amen and Amen. 
 
 Oh! that the peoples of earth could understand 
 these mysteries of mysteries as we over here — 
 thousands and thousands of years, have been 
 seeking for — and to come back to this earth of 
 soot and slime and the poluted waters — it is to us 
 so great a change that we can't describe it to you, 
 here on its sides of great revolving powers. But it 
 is that we want to see the races of men — in all 
 her lands brought to the knowldege of the truth of 
 wisdom power and strength. 
 
 You now have the jist of what we want to teach 
 you and you must ask and search till we can find 
 time and language to express it to you, that you 
 may understand: as the conditions are now lost on 
 account of your young powers, we will leave you 
 tonight and at a convienent season we will call 
 again. 
 
 Now we will explain this message: your Grand- 
 father McQuain and your son Ray, had arraigned 
 to have Plato — of olden times to give you this. 
 
196 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 And was it so he could fully express his sentiments 
 and knowledge — you would then be astounded and 
 astonished at the many, many explanations he 
 might give you: this great man is of a Holy and 
 Most Righteous Sphere: and to control you in this 
 way to write messages from these highest spheres 
 is alnost to much to put a medium in your stage 
 of developement and knowledge of these things. 
 But we want to teach you the might of high power 
 #nd knowledge that is at your command, through 
 our efforts to bring these masters to you. Now 
 may this and all messages, you have received be 
 blessed to your knowledge and the powers of the 
 most high, be on you both, now and forever — 
 Amen and Amen. 
 
 June 10th, 1916. 
 
 Well Good Morning to you Brother Rob, — we 
 are here to again tell you a few more things that is 
 of interest to the work and world. 
 
 And now if we can control the medium for our 
 purpose — we will give you this information as speed- 
 ily as possible: so that you can attend to the many 
 things that you have been instructed to do today. 
 And as you are ever ready to do what you are told 
 by us on this side, we wish to praise the Omnipotent 
 God of all things present and past and all things 
 to come — that we have found in the world those 
 who are eager to do for the fast dying people — the 
 things that have so long been left undone. 
 
 And now we the dwellers of the kingdom that you 
 speak of as HEAVEN — are more and more rejoicing 
 that it is possible to find among men those who will 
 
TAMING MAN 197 
 
 sacrifice — time, money and earthly association with 
 loved earthly friends and thus get in position so 
 that we can reveal these truths of knolwedge to 
 the fast moving world — as it revolves in the great 
 realm of space and on and on it goes — never tiring, 
 never resting and can never stop. 
 
 So is life, it cannot stop: even the shortest part 
 of time that man could ever measure — so as it has 
 been going on this way from all time back; and 
 will go on this way throughout eternities of eternities ; 
 how great a thought to all living mortals on earth. 
 
 Oh! How Great A Thought, that can neither 
 commence at the beginning or think to its end; 
 this one truth you will not deny, our dear dying 
 people in the flesh — we can see you on this great 
 dark old care-worn earth going on and on, in the 
 great struggle to keep alive, for so short a time; 
 and what a struggle it is, all must make this struggle 
 whether rich or poor great or small — it is the one 
 law that no man can change. 
 
 So now dear loved ones of earth, let us come to 
 the sense of our duty and think for a little while 
 in the light of just these few truths and let us see 
 who you are any way: Now who, or where did you 
 start from? Don't try to answer this, for it is as 
 yet clear to no one: Who was doing your part 
 in life before you took up your burden to carry; 
 you might say, there was no one needed to do them, 
 this is true; you have at your starting of your jour- 
 ney of life took up the responsibilities of no one; 
 the responsibility closes in life's duties — when you 
 see a man put in the cold and cruel graves of earth — 
 that is the last responsibility to earth friends left 
 here, as far as the duties of his or her physical life 
 
198 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 is concerned; and no law, no court, no justice or 
 no plans yet devised by mortal man — can change 
 this one unwritten law. No dear ones you can't 
 change this and you never will ; all things come their 
 way and go their way, as was arraigned by the 
 allwise wisdom that shaped the great plan of the 
 universe. 
 
 And another point we wish to mention here is 
 this : let us have the distance please — of the universe ; 
 now dear ones please make your figures very, very 
 plain; as most of the folks on earth think we can't 
 see well anyway; so let us have them as plainly as 
 possible — dear loved ones, and in order to grant us 
 this one request dear friends — all earth and all 
 languages, can't set them down in a single row — 
 as you folks set down figures in one century. 
 
 No, No, Dear ones you can't set figures to make 
 plain this one little question, so we will not wait 
 for them. 
 
 But let us see who you are now — and about how 
 tall and great are you in this small unmeasured 
 universe. Well, Well, Well, — it is a big man indeed 
 that can't be found. 
 
 Now dear ones you see that you do well to even 
 know for a certainty — that you are really here — 
 and you hardly are you stop so short a time — we 
 will compare your life to a fly on a wedding dinner 
 table — you see it on the cake another on the jam 
 and one on your plate ; you shew your hand and they 
 all buzz away in the air, and you will have to look 
 real close to tell the difference in the one on the cake 
 or jam to see which it was that was on the plate. 
 
 So it is in your short journey here my dear dying 
 pitiful and weak creatures that you call the children 
 
TAMING MAN 199 
 
 of this man that made you and Oh! when did You 
 ever look like this man that made all these things; 
 We over here will call it a real circus day and all 
 come to the parade, Dear friend if you will first 
 paint this picture and then paint you the son in 
 his arms; you see this will be better suited to the 
 common art — when you take into consideration 
 that he — we mean the first picture is in control of 
 this grand and the greatest of all universe. So 
 you see by being in his arms makes it so much 
 more real like life — as you would hardly be old 
 enough to walk, in the comparison. So now dear 
 ones of earth, please, Oh! please do not think you 
 look like God. No, No, No, you are not quite so 
 pretty and you dear dying people hear us in these 
 awful warnings, that you are nothing of nothing. 
 So who are you then — we will wait a little on the 
 answer — as we have plenty of time now. Waiting, 
 Oh! well you can decide this at your leisure some 
 rainy evening — you may be feeling a little blue 
 anyway. 
 
 We want to add one more thought to this; and 
 dear friends it is this you be very, very careful 
 from this time on in life to take care, what you say 
 to these little children of men, mothers nature's 
 suckling babes. 
 
 They are getting in touch with Moses of old and 
 Matheuselah older than he was. And if these 
 grandest and noblest men that the earth has ever 
 known of — when they blew their noses in life, the 
 dust of which when dry has strangled the whole 
 world with this awful coughing spell of death, 
 destruction — fire and hell on earth. 
 
 If you have been so attentive all the time to put 
 up with such a fight to prove their great intelligence 
 
200 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 — now we ask you for to excuse their earthly mis- 
 takes and learn from them now when they have had 
 a few experiences — such as death and time for 
 consideration on these things, and so on and so on, 
 on, and on, and on. Well dear friends we will 
 stop saying on — but it goes right on. But you 
 must remember that to give you these few thoughts 
 it takes the life and mind of a man among you to 
 do it; and now dear ones we ask that you take a 
 good square look at these boys and see if you can 
 tell where they got this message. And if you 
 answer this you are just the kind of men and women 
 we have been waiting for to do more of it; as you 
 certainly can see it is needed all about you. If 
 you have not noticed it yet, we wish to call your 
 attention to a few things; you can look it up at 
 once — first, how many are starving in the world — 
 yet you have no famine; and look how many of the 
 dear sons and daughters, that are pale, sick and 
 languid — with the commonest diseases to the lowest 
 type of humanity. 
 
 Look at the photo of the great and terrible battles 
 and the floating bodies on the great waters that 
 cover the earth ; then look at the many fine and grand 
 churches, temples and the cathedrals in the world — 
 if you dicide that it is all O. K. and that the world 
 will soon be half gone in the millennium — why we 
 will not wear out a few of our dear ones on earth 
 to give you these warnings. 
 
 So this is all that we can say at this time on ac- 
 count of the physical condition of the ones we have 
 chosen to reveal a few truths in the light of reason. 
 So will say, Good-Bye. From one who has had 
 both the earth and Heavenly experience. 
 
 James Morris, God Bless You Both. 
 
THE ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 Robert G. Ingersoll was classed as an infidel and 
 a dangerous man by the church people. They 
 assigned this great man to the hottest corner in 
 hell. They overlooked all of his good qualities, 
 turned a deaf ear to reason, joined hands with the 
 bible propagators, and denounced him a fool. 
 
 Why? Because of his superior mind he soared 
 above the little things, and refused to accept the 
 views of the ordinary minds, he was brave, cultured, 
 polite, reasonable, and his great soul went out to 
 sympathize with the people in their misdirected 
 views, confusion and misunderstanding. 
 
 This great man says to me, "I was in error or had 
 no way of knowing what awaited us beyond the 
 grave, but I am not in hell, and have been perfectly 
 satisfied with my lot on this side. MY GOD HAS 
 BEEN GOOD TO ME." The church people don't 
 like this. But the rationalist will. The church 
 people founded their reason on Jewish history, 
 accepted it with all of its confusion and error, as 
 a holy book. THIS IS WHY: And this is why 
 they think men who reject the Christian belief 
 will be lost, and those who do believe the bible to 
 be the word of God, and follow the bible doctrine 
 will be saved. And this is why they believe the 
 men who learn to do things independent of the 
 church faith, is off; as they put it. I know of a 
 preacher in this city who preaches that all of the 
 prayers of all of the Christian people combined 
 could not reverse the course of the Ohio River, 
 nor prevent a flood from sweeping over the streets, 
 of the cities in the lower valleys. And this is why 
 
202 AWFUL THOUGHTS OR 
 
 the other preachers say he is off. I wonder how 
 long he can hold this job. 
 
 I am now flinging in the face of the people — in- 
 formation that will cause great excitement among 
 the church people, but not much among the free 
 thinkers. If there was a greater interest and a 
 hungering for scientific knowledge and less super- 
 stition, I would nothave held back for a few months, 
 this the most interesting and most needed infor- 
 rnation that the world has ever heard.- 
 
 In my book Awful Facts, Or Taming Man, I 
 lead the reader to this, hoping to prepare him for 
 the shock. And because of the above announce- 
 ment, I think best to hold back the information 
 and give it to the world's press, about the time the 
 book is ready for distribution. The world is not 
 ready for the shock. And it will cry loud and fierce, 
 fool, insane, as it has always done. 
 
 IGNORING THE FACT THAT THERE ARE 
 A HUNDRED INSANE IN THE ASYLUMS 
 TODAY FROM READING AND WRESTLING 
 WITH THE PROBLEMS OF THE BIBLE, 
 TO ONE FROM THE STUDY OF THE PSY- 
 CHOLOGY OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Closed: The Author. 
 
 Not the end of taming man. I have discovered 
 that the majority of the world, have grasped my 
 hand and is fighting for the cause that I advocate. 
 And when superstition chokes the voice and the 
 avenues that puts me in communication with the 
 Lincolns, and Washington, Arastotle, McKinleys, the 
 Shakespeares, and the hosts of great and good men 
 who have passed to the realms of higher knowledge, 
 
TAMING MAN 203 
 
 and laid my earthly body in the tomb, will I give 
 up the fight, to break the shackles, that swivels 
 the mind and soul, and keeps the human family 
 in darkness, and associates the higher intelligence 
 with demons and devils. 
 
 Ray Morris is an active spirit, on the other side 
 of life. His wonderful medium powers, gives 
 him access to all the higher spheres. Through his 
 powers he can travel alone and read the minds of 
 the people in every nook and corner of earth. 
 
 His spheres is where ever business calls him. His 
 bed is where ever natures repose kisses the soul. 
 Those in the celestial spheres, can not visit earth, 
 only when accompained by a spirit friend with 
 strong medium power. He promised to lay the 
 foundation, and give to me the keys that would un- 
 lock the storehouse of knowledge, that would reveal 
 the secrets, that mankind so badly needs. 
 
 The curtain that has abstructed mans view from 
 natures paradise, is being removed. The germ of 
 superstition, injected its poison — it has bred con- 
 fusion, misunderstanding, disease and death every- 
 where. The black clouds are clearing away. 
 
 He is the General Superintendent and the Presi- 
 dent. Through this venturesome lad, the world will 
 soon hear, from the Apostals, Mary, Mary Magdelin, 
 Martha, Joseph the husband and father. Pauls 
 proposition is quite interesting: so isi — s, well the 
 manuscript is complete. Without question: it 
 contains the most interesting information that the 
 world has ever had. 
 
 Are you ready?, ?, ?,. To busy with war news 
 and fiction. It all comes through RAY. Thats the 
 secret. 
 
 R. MORRIS 
 
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