to which may be brought any little dead body which the parents care not to bury themselves.
(1601)
INFIDELITY ANSWERED
While Ingersoll was still living, in answer to an inquiry by some of his students as to whether the arguments of Ingersoll are unanswerable, a college president answered them in the Andover Review as follows:
An infidel is an abnormal growth, and
nature feels funny once in a while and
creates a freak, e.g., the living skeleton; the
fat woman, the two-headed girl. So there
is about one infidel to a million sane men.
The most of these noisy fellows are amateur
infidels. They talk Ingersoll in fair weather
and pray themselves hoarse every time it
thunders. A well-developed case of cholera
morbus will knock their infidelity out of
them, and leave them in a cold sweat like a
china dog in an ice-house. I know them.
The most of them are like the boy who runs
away from home, and comes back to stay
with his father nights. Then, again, boys,
take a look around you when you invest
another fifty cents to hear Ingersoll talk on
"liberty," and compare the crowd with the
kind of people you find in almost any church.
Is it the odor of sanctity you smell? Hardly,
boys, hardly. But you can eat peanuts there,
and choke on the shells, while you applaud
the funny jokes about heaven where you
know in your hearts your dear mother is; or
hear the humble Nazarene ridiculed, who,
you think, and always will think, gave a
home to your weary old father when he
left the earth.
(1602)
INFIDELITY REPULSIVE
The nurse who waited upon Voltaire, the
French infidel, during his last hours, was
requested a few months later to attend
another infidel in the same city. Her answer
was, "I would not wait upon another infidel
for all the gold of Paris." All infidelity is
repulsive. (Text.)
(1603)
Infinitesimal, The—See Little Things.
Infirmity, Blind to—See Considerateness.
INFLUENCE
A little clock in a jeweler's window in a
certain Western town stopt one day for
half an hour, at fifteen minutes of nine.
School-children, noticing the time, stopt to
play; people hurrying to the train, looking
at the clock, began to walk leisurely; professional
men, after a look at the clock,
stopt to chat a minute with one another;
working men and women noted the time and
lingered a little longer in the sunshine, and
all were half an hour late because one small
clock stopt. Never had these people known
how much they had depended upon that
clock till it had led them astray.
Many are thus unconsciously depending upon the influence of Christians; you may think you have no influence, but you can not go wrong in one little act without leading others astray.—Seattle Churchman.
(1604)
See Individual Influence; Mother's Influence.
INFLUENCE, BAD
As these wild cattle mentioned below soon demoralize the domestic herds, so one or two wild youths may draw away many others from safe paths.
Much has been written lately about wild
horses infesting certain mountain ranges of
the West and menacing the interest of stockmen.
A report from a district in the Shasta
National Forest of California states that wild
cattle have become a nuisance.
These animals are the descendants of domestic cattle, but having run without restraint for several generations, have become as wild as deer. Stockmen will not apply for ranges infested by these cattle, since tame cattle soon adopt the habits of their wild relatives and become equally as unmanageable. It is impossible to gather young stock in the fall, which have run with these animals even for a season.
The majority of the stockmen desire to shoot them, but certain mountain-dwellers claim them, and shoot an occasional one for winter beef. The forest officers will, in conjunction with the stockmen interested, investigate the matter, and decide upon some plan of ridding the forests of this pest.
(1605)
INFLUENCE, CORRUPT
An American traction-owner, visiting St.
Petersburg, was imprest with the inadequacy
of the horse-car service and employed
engineers to work out a modern system.
Failing to make an impression on the local
officials, he had abandoned the plan when
he fell in with a clever Russian who assured
