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2 < HBLIJE GRASS BLADE
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Ernestine Louise Rose < II
Not every star that dots the firmament can shine with the sarno
brilliancy and lustre Each has its mission to fulfill and doubtle
does well Its part but hero and there like rare and radiant jewels
some few of them outshine the rest So It Is with humanity Men
have not equal capacity and opportunity If we apply the same rille
to women as to men we find the contrasts more marked for with tho
Innumerable restrictions and limitations with which the women of the
world have been behedged It Is no wonder that so few uf them have
been able to break the chains and struggle to the front
Each generation has been able to boast Its prorata of free men nnel
free women Each century has produced some more bold more cour
ageous than the rest and once recognition has been given tfley stand
boldly forth In the sombre grandeur of right and truth
The nineteenth century was rich In the splendor of Intellectual tholllht
and development Its proud position towering far above Its predecei
sors were due to the heroic efforts qf a few men and women who dared
to confront the orthodox shibboleths of their day and age As an aid
to this persecution worked Its share Once let a persecuted people
come to understand the full meaning of the word Freedom and tho
rule of the tyrant starts out toward the end
heroic delvers Into
the thinkers
Among the giants of Intellect deep
truth fearless advocates of liberty for all that were born worked lived
and died during the last century there were none grander braver or
greater thun Ernestine Louise Rose Born under the yoke of religious
and political servitude and rebelling against the authority of tyrann
liberty the
daring advocates ofllbrrty
she developed Into one of the most
nineteenth century could boast The Freethinkers of both America
love her for the fearlessness of her
and England came to know her and
advocacy and the rich eloquence of her tongue
Concerning her Infancy but little Is known and for that matter win
We do know however that
In America know little of her parents
1811
born In Pcterkov Poland on the 13th day of January
she was
Jewish Rabbi and from him she acquire
eminent
an
Her father was
vastly superior to that accorde
extensive education which was
a fairly she develope
and age In early life
other Polish children of her day
recorded that she plied numerou
bold and Inquiring nature and It Is
a concern
her tutors especially
thought and power to
questions of great
of faith At the age of seventee
and declarations
Ing orthodox tenets In Berlin where her
Germany and spent a few years
years she went to enhanced and crossing the line she next went to
education was further revolution of 183C
that city during the famous
Paris being present In and In the course of her
liberal propaganda
She was now active In a reaching London
Dover
channel for
labors she crossed the English
LETTERS OF SHELLEY
G W Foote editor of the London Freethinker and
President of the National Secular Society is now
publishing a series of articles on hitherto unpublished
letters of Shelley the poet These articles are exceed
ingly interesting and are used to portray the tender
and delicate character of this intellectual hero Mr
Foote is taking up some of the objections which tIle
prurient minded have urged against Shelley and
shows by solid argument that Byron was right in esti
mate of his contemporary when he said I never
knew another man who was not a beast in comparison
with him
Send in a club of five new subscribers at one dollar
each and get a copy of the Rome Book or DQT ennel
free i fe
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where she met tho liberal leaders She soon made tho personal acquain
tanceof Robert Owenthat sturdy English reformer and advocate of the
cooperative movement She readily Imbibed his views of social economy
and In the course of a few years she bcame as ardent an advocate there
of as Robert Owen himself A few years later she was married to
William E Rose and with him came to America in 1836
On the fruitful soil of the new Republic she found abundant opportun
ities for promulgating her social political and religious views She
labored throughout all the New England States and In New York Her I
principal battle ground was in Boston where she found ready and will
ing compatriots In J P Mendum Horace Seaver and Abner Kneeland
Ever ready to break a lance In the arena of Intellect she took the field
against the doctrine of slavery and her superb courage brought her into
the South where she lectured and debated In tho slave owning states
against that political expediency which brought on the fearful strife
between the contending states
Mrs Rose was one of the originators of the womans rights movement
which ultimately boasted such an enormous contingent of liberal men
and women Always an extreme radical In her religious views who
ultimately wrote and published a work In defense of Atheism In which
she avowed her disbelief In all the gods of orthodoxy of whatever kind
character or description The liberal platform was her battb ground
When the Paine Memorial Building was erected in Boston she wis among
the active workers that occupied the platform In the large lecture hall
Tier words were rich and eloquent She was recwnlzod us ono of the
most brilliant and accomplished rhetoricians in the country Gifted
with an unusual vocabulary sho won the hearts of all who heard herI
and was admittedly one of the most successful advocate of FreeI
thought in America in her time
As the shadows of her timet
day finally came that she had to cease active labor in behalf of libertyI
she with her husband returned to England where she found a restingJ
place In her eternal sleep of death To the very last moment she never
wavered and there Is no record anywhere of any aspersion from pulpit
or pew where she Is even believed to have recanted in her views This
is not to permit any
is a tribute in itself for the custom of orthodoxy
Freethinker to die without asserting some such change
Ernestine Louise Rose lived and died a Freethinker Her passage
marked with a brilliancy seldom
across the stage of human life was
equalled by man or woman and the Freethinkers of this day and age
find therein
and
this sublime character
can well afford oto ponder upon
an inspiration for greater and more serious efforts themselves yf
Every new subscription to the Blade practically
means another member of the Freethought party
The responses made to the Blades appeal for
means to contest any effort to exclude it from mailing 1
privileges shows that the Freethinkers of America
ore very much alive and active when called on
By destroying the prevailing belief in a divinely
inspired Bible the church loses a supporter and Mrs
Henrys articles on Bible Revision are well calculated
to do the work
The Blade is making preparations for a strenuous
fall campaign and urges its friends to give all possi
ble encouragement in spreading the beneficent light
of Freethought over the land
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