Colonel Ingersoll what Mr. Lansing had said and to interrogate
him with the following result.]

_Question_. Did you favor the sending of obscene matter through
the mails as alleged by the Rev. Mr. Lansing?

_Answer_. Of course not, and no honest man ever thought that I
did. This charge is too malicious and silly to be answered. Mr.
Lansing knows better. He has made this charge many times and he
will make it again.

_Question_. Is it a fact that there are thousands of clergymen in
the country whom you would fear to meet in fair debate?

_Answer_. No; the fact is I would like to meet them all in one.
The pulpit is not burdened with genius. There a few great men
engaged in preaching, but they are not orthodox. I cannot conceive
that a Freethinker has anything to fear from the pulpit, except
misrepresentation. Of course, there are thousands of ministers
too small to discuss with--ministers who stand for nothing in the
church--and with such clergymen I cannot afford to discuss anything.
If the Presbyterians, or the Congregationalists, or the Methodists
would select some man, and endorse him as their champion, I would
like to meet him in debate. Such a man I will pay to discuss with
me. I will give him most excellent wages, and pay all the expenses
at the discussion besides. There is but one safe course for the
ministers--they must assert. They must declare. They must swear
to it and stick to it, but they must not try to reason.

_Question_. You have never seen Rev. Mr. Lansing. To the people
of Meriden and thereabouts he is well-known. Judging from what
has been told you of his utterances and actions, what kind of a
man would you take him to be?

_Answer_. I would take him to be a Christian. He talks like one,
and he acts like one. If Christianity is right, Lansing is right.
If salvation depends upon belief, and if unbelievers are to be
eternally damned, then an Infidel has no right to speak. He should
not be allowed to murder the souls of his fellow-men. Lansing does
the best he knows how. He thinks that God hates an unbeliever,
and he tries to act like God. Lansing knows that he must have the
right to slander a man whom God is to eternally damn.

_Question_. Mr. Lansing speaks of you as a wolf coming with fangs
sharpened by three hundred dollars a night to tear the lambs of
his flock. What do you say to that?

_Answer_. All I have to say is, that I often get three times that
amount,