80 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
81 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
Chapter V.
Innocent Girlhood at the Confessional Box.
Blight girlhood and you destroy the usefulness of womankind. Tarnish the sacredness of girlhood and you sear the purity of womanhood. Deface the beautiful countenance of chastity, which is found in the bosom of girlhood, and you not only mar the happiness of girlhood, but you deface and obliterate the families of the future, for without that priceless treasure, virtue, the eternal principles of conjugal love becomes a barren waste without a single oasis.
Oh, if I could but call about me in one vast throng the girls of this land, and all other lands, who have had the first thought of carnality planted in their bosom by the scheming Priestcraft, I would have a throng of tear-faced mortals
82 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
that would rend the heart of stone and stigmatize the cunning of Catholicism with a stigma blacker than the lowering clouds of despair.
When you force childhood to believe in the infallibility of the priestcraft you educate the mind of that child to implicitly believe in the officials of the Catholic Church, and when you gain the implicit confidence you have established a belief that cannot be easily eradicated, as this belief has become a part of that child, and as it grows older, this erroneous belief grows in proportion to the body, and by the time this child has arrived at the age of maturity, she is as densely ignorant of the cunning of this doctrine as she was when she first learned to repeat the Catechism with a childish lisp.
We desire to preface this chapter with common-sense arguments, so that the reader may thoroughly understand how completely the female element of the Catholic Church is under the control of the priesthood of this institution.
Priests are, as a rule, men of more than average intellect, and, as they have no other calling nor no
83 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
other avocation in life than to make good impressions upon their members, they of course become cunning in their art, especially with the female members of their congregations, and more especially with their young and handsome members.
Imagine the power that a Catholic priest has over a young girl in her teens--yea, over any female member of their congregation, when you take into consideration the fact that from infancy these girls and women have been taught that it is almost an absolute impossibility for a priest to commit a sin.
When you dwell upon the doctrines taught these girls and women it will not be a matter of surprise that the priestcraft wields such a powerful influence over them, as any one with this doctrine funneled into them from childhood is open and ready to believe what the priestcraft may tell them, and the individual is not to blame for believing this, as they have been taught it by their parents from infancy, and the officials of the Catholic Church have taught it; then why should
84 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
we be surprised at the dense ignorance upon the part of these girls and women?
Priests always try to impress their members with the idea that they are infallible and that it is impossible for them to sin. They do this for many reasons. First, in order that they may have their congregations in humble submission to any of the demands of the church, and, secondly, it enables them to accomplish any devilish deed they may wish to accomplish under the guise of priestly sanctity.
It is no pleasant task to dwell upon this most distasteful and most, repulsive of all of the fallacies of Rome and the abominable rottenness of the priesthood, but without giving a vivid description of the cunning of the priestcraft in regard to the "Confessional" would be treating the subject in a manner that would not do justice to the abominations of her hideous doctrines; and to fail to touch upon this subject would leave the greatest and most deadly weapon in the hands of this band of devils.
The Confessional Box is an emblem of paganism,
85 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
as innumerable trustworthy authorities prove that Roman Catholicism has pre-empted this custom. as well as many other of her practices from the dark ages of paganism.
Oricular confession was practiced centuries ago by the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Mexicans, Peruvians and the Japanese--in fact, it is not only an ancient custom, but one which belongs to the darkest of the ancient ages, which should have been relegated to the haunts of hell centuries ago.
A priest once said: "Nobody should be surprised when we priests, bishops and popes sink into the bottomless abyss of immorality, for the celibacy of the priestcraft is only a cudgel in the hands of Catholic officials to drive us to the haunts of immorality."
A priest once said "that the Confessional is one of the most damnable institutions that was ever permitted to exist, as these Confessionals are only traps to lead the piously and morally-inclined priest to the plains of immorality, for a priest is naught but man, and when he is forced to compel women penitents to pour into his ears their every
86 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
thought, feeling, desire, emotion and act, it kindles the fires of unholy thought upon the altars of his better ambitions and before he knows it he has committed adultery and not only ruined his own soul, but has been the implement in the hands of the devil to destroy the virtue of innocent womanhood.
He further states " that not only do the thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc., have to be related, in all of their details, to the priest, and perhaps a bad priest, but all circumstances leading to and the results growing out of these thoughts, must be given in detail."
The immorally inclined and. licentious priest is not satisfied with the female penitent enumerating only her mortal sins, but he insists and forces the penitent to give circumstances, minutely describing her thoughts and feelings of every-day life, which leads both the penitent and the confessor to the lowlands of immorality.
The priestcraft is instructed 'by the Romish Church not to allow the penitent to conceal anything from them, and the priestcraft is given
87 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
instructions to probe the penitent to the heart's core.
In this chapter we propose to give you a little insight to the character of one or two priests that I have personally known, and if I dared and if it was possible to print the nasty history of a number of priests that I have been acquainted with, I could fill this volume with their depravity; but should I do so this book would not be permitted to circulate through the mails of the United States. But I will endeavor to clothe my recital of a few instances of priestly immorality in language of chastity, but will make my recital plain enough that any one who can read may understand.
Rev. Chas. Kuhlman, who was pastor of a Catholic Church in Edwardsville, Ill., was suspicioned of having become too intimate with a sister of his own school, and this sister soon left the sisterhood, and it was rumored that she went to St. Louis to evade the birth of a child.
This very same priest was caught in the act of adultery with a married woman in his office in East St. Louis. He was at that time, besides being
88 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
pastor, the editor and publisher of a very important Catholic paper called "The Catholic Progress." This immorality of Priest Kuhlman became public property and formed such a nasty mess that the Catholic bishop had to take some notice of it and the case was tried before the Bishop of Alton, Ill., and Kuhlman was excommunicated for life.
This married woman gave testimony that was very damaging to the Rev. Kuhlman and gave her evidence before a notary public, which cannot he disputed, and it matters not how hard the Catholic Church may try to villify these statements, they cannot overcome the truthfulness of the same, as there are too many living witnesses at this time who know that what I am relating is absolutely true.
Rev. Kuhlman was not satisfied with the verdict of the bishop of Alton, Ill., and appealed his case to Rome, and the bishop was indeed glad to get rid of this dirty case and did not appear in Rome to prosecute the case, and the Rev. Kuhlman won the ease in Rome by default, and this same Rev.
89 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
Kuhlman became a Catholic priest in good standing again and was permitted to officiate as a minister of the gospel, with all of this abominable slime of immorality clinging to his priestly garments.
Now, bear in mind that Rev. Kuhlman, after having all of this immorality laid at his door, was permitted by the Pope of Rome to go right ahead with his priestly duties, but a short time after he won his case at Rome there was an affidavit sworn out against Kuhlman by a man in East St. Louis, averring that he had been again caught in the act of adultery with another woman. This time the ease was reported to Bishop Janssen, of Belleville, Ill, and also to Cardinal Martinelli, of Washington, D. C., but there was no attention paid to it, and this Rev. Kuhlman was permitted to go right ahead in his pastoral duties and is at the present time the pastor of a church in East St. Louis and is also the spiritual director of a convent, which contains many sisters and many pupils.
Now, if what I have related is false, Rev. Chas. Kuhlman has redress at law; and if I have libeled
90 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
him he can make me suffer for the crime, and he will not have to spend any money to locate my whereabouts, as he is aware of my location at the present time and can find me at any time that he desires to bring suit against me for blackmail or any other crime that he sees fit to instigate against me.
It is no pleasant task to relate these very nauseating things, but it is my aim and intention to so plainly and powerfully set forth the deceit, cunning and dastardly deeds of Catholicism that I may be able to open the eyes of not only the Protestant world but of Catholicism at large, for there are thousands of the followers of the Pope who are very weak in their faith, and if I can by the righteousness of my cause, convince them that they are following the blind leaders of paganism, I am absolutely certain that the Protestant ranks will have an in-gathering of the hosts of Catholicism that will cause the angels in heaven to shout hallelujahs of thanksgiving.
Do not understand me to say, or to intimate, that there are no sincere priests, as there are; but
91 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
their sincerity is founded upon superstitious beliefs and erroneous doctrines, consequently their sincerity and devoutness only helps to fasten the abominations of Catholicism more completely upon humanity, as those who are candidly sincere are held up to the Protestant world as models of Catholicism, when, in fact, they are but exceptions to the general herd of Catholic officials.
To more plainly illustrate to the reader how fascinating and powerful the teachings of Catholicism is upon the minds of man, I would illustrate this by the power that parents have over a child. You teach a child some doctrine, it matters not whether it is right or wrong, and you will impress it with the truthfulness of this doctrine in its childhood, and let it understand as it grows into manhood and womanhood that this doctrine is absolutely true, and hedge it about with superstitions confirming this doctrine, and the hosts of hell can hardly convince it that its early teachings were wrong; so you can easily see what a powerful influence Catholicism has over the minds of its followers, as you must bear in mind that Catholicism
92 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
takes up the child when it is only a few days old and continually hedges it about with emblems of ignorance and superstition and never allows it to gaze above the horizon of this mass of erroneous doctrine; therefore the child is not to blame for its implicit confidence, but the cunning of those who practice this deception upon this child is to blame, and the doctrine of Catholicism is what I am assailing in this volume, for if I can be instrumental in opening the eyes of those who have arrived at the years of accountability, I feel sure that I can be instrumental in having those so reached declare to their offspring that their first lessons have been altogether erroneous, and if the Catholic parents will begin to teach their children before they leave the parental roof that their first lessons were erroneous it will not be so hard for the Protestant world to finish the job and turn these hosts of darkness into the highways of intellectuality.
The reason that we have so many disgraceful happenings and immoral incidents in the lives of the priestcraft is because of the absolute confidence that their followers have in them, as it is a well-known fact that the female world has a greater confidence
93 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
in humanity than the male population, so it is an easy matter for any sane man or woman to understand why an immoral priest, and one who has no regard for honor, has such an easy task in accomplishing the ruin of those whom he seeks to destroy.
The paradise of the priestcraft is inky darkness, as they prefer darkness to light, and by their actions, their every-day lives take on the hue of midnight. If we can read God Almighty's handwriting in a legible manner, we believe that any intelligent man or woman can discern in the countenance of a majority of the priestcraft a look which is almost equal to a condemnation of their actions, as a large majority are lacking of that manly frankness of countenance which is found in the countenances of godly men.
In conclusion of this chapter, I beg to state that the Confessional Box of the Romish Church is one of the darkest ages of the dark history of Catholicism, and if this hideous chapter was removed
94 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
from Romanism, three-fourths of her diabolical deeds would be eradicated; but when you remove the "Confessional" you remove the charm for that part of the priestcraft which exists upon the carrion of the human family, and whenever you remove the "Confessional," the celibacy of the church will be abandoned and the priestcraft will be allowed to marry, as Protestant ministers are permitted to do, and when this is done, instead of having a Roman Catholic Church, we will have a Protestant denomination in its stead, and my prayer is that a just God will hasten the day when this "virtue trap" will be relegated to the dark recesses of paganism, from whence it came.
96 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
97 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
Chapter VI.
The Nations Completely Dominated by the Power of the Pope Are, Nations of Illegitimacy.
In this chapter, we have before us the vision of two countries; one is Protestant America and the other Catholic Ecquador.
Protestant America stands upon a plane of morality and chastity, which is pleasing to contemplate, and for which she can thank only the principles of Protestantism, for Protestantism teaches, by both precept and example, as she looks to the only true standard of morality that ever existed, which is the Holy Bible. But Catholicism looks only to a standard which the Pope of Rome sees fit to establish, and a standard of morals which is set by mortal man, can only be, at its best, a very inferior standard, as the licentiousness and
98 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
lust of unholy man can never compare with that great and infinitely good being, the Lord of Hosts.
Broad education of the mind means a subduing of the passions, and broad education is something that the Catholic Church fights against, as she knows full welt that to educate her masses would be equivalent to losing her grasp upon their actions, for no man or woman of a broad education and an individual intellectuality will permit these hosts of darkness to dictate to them.
Ignorance is the greatest breeder of crime known to the intelligence of man, and it is an established fact that crime breeds immorality, and immorality of course is the equivalent of illegitimacy, and historical facts will bear me out in the assertion that the countries which are absolutely under the power of the Pope are countries which are densely ignorant, and again, as above stated, ignorance leads to crime, and crime to immorality, and now we are back to the first proposition and have proven without going further that "The nations completely dominated by the power of the Pope are nations of illegitimacy," but we
99 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
propose to use historical records to convince without the shadow of a doubt that our statements are true. However, I do not need these historical facts, as I have traveled extensively through Europe and many other countries, and I know whereof I speak, by personal observation and by coming into personal contact with both Catholic and Protestant nations. However, we are not going to be satisfied with this alone, as 'we do not want the reader to rely implicitly upon our individual statements, but we propose to bring facts to bear upon your mind which cannot be over-thrown, as statistics are stubborn and unyielding facts, which none but fool's dispute.
We propose to take statistics from the Peabody Reporter, which you can corroborate with the official report of the United States Commissioner of Education. The statistics that we above refer to follow:
"To every ten thousand inhabitants under the Roman Catholic school system, there are 1,400 illiterates, 410 paupers and 160 criminals, while in the public school system we only find to every ten
100 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
thousand inhabitants 350 illiterates, making a difference of 1,050 to every ten thousand. Thus you see that what we have said in previous chapters of this book in regard to Romanism being founded upon the mountains of ignorance is true.
Education in its literal meaning, means an infusion of intelligence that lifts up the minds of man, and it is generally so accepted by the world at large, but education, as far as Catholicism goes, means only a rehearsal of abominations, which have been practiced upon the followers of this creed for centuries in the past and does not in the least bear upon the principles of true education.
The public school system is established on the principle that the intelligence and virtue of the people constitutes the foundation of free government.
Our public schools therefore form one of the chief cornerstones of our American republic; they are the sheet anchor of our hopes. The growth and prosperity which have characterized the first century of our schools fulfills their mission.
Education is the watchword of the hour among
101 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
Protestants, but never among Catholics. We must educate if we would elevate, and unless we elevate the minds of men we will have humanity running riot with vice and immorality, and this is why the Catholic nations of the earth are found with their morals trailing in the slime of degeneracy.
Our public schools are to-day the great assimilating power in this country. We find in them children of all nationalities, and whether they be English, Irish, Scotch, Danish, Norwegians, French, Italians, or some other nationality, when they enter these institutions they pass out of the school houses, scattered all over this land, Americans, one and all, as it is absolutely impossible to make anything but a true American out of a pupil who has been turned out of the public schools of this country, and one who has been permitted to assimilate the doctrines of broad education taught in these schools.
The influence of the public schools works rapidly upon childhood and is felt through all of their after lives. A child who has been educated in the public schools of this country is always an
102 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
unrelenting foe of caste. but the child who is educated in the parochial schools is taught to look up to innumerable superiors, and such an education dwarfs the minds of childhood and teaches them to continually look to others for their individual happiness, but the teachings of the public schools broaden the individual mind and gives courage, which enables the child to swing out from the influence of others and become a mighty power in the mechanism of the universe.
We touch upon the public schools in this chapter, only in connection with the dominating influence of the Pope over nations which lie completely rules, in order that the reader may thoroughly understand that ignorance begets crime and crime begets illegitimacy, as we expect to dwell more fully upon 'the education of nations in the future, but we want the reader to begin at the "Alpha" of reason, so that when he or she is through with this chapter that 'there will be no doubt in their minds as to why the power of the Pope breeds illegitimacy among his followers.
We have contrasted the difference in morals of
103 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
the inhabitants, which are completely dominated by Roman Catholicism, to that of the inhabitants of Protestant America, but we have made this comparison in a general way; but we now want to select a country which for its absoluteism of Catholic monarchy has no comparison, and that country is Ecuador.
In Ecuador the Catholic Church has such a complete hold upon the inhabitants that they will not allow Protestantism taught, and the consequence of her tyranny is that out of every 100 children born in that country, seventy-five are bastards or illegitimate and have no idea of their father, and the immorality of the priestcraft is so vile that their actions are absolutely passed over without notice, as there is scarcely a single priest to be found in that country but who is the father of from ten to twenty-five and thirty children; but still the Roman Church continues to forbid her priests to wed, when they know full well that celibacy in the Catholic Church is the cause of all of this degeneracy.
This state of affairs is not confined to Ecuador
104 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
alone, but the same state of affairs exists throughout the length and breadth of all Catholic nations which are completely under the power of the Pope.
Italy, for instance, which is the home of the Pope and which has been the home of the Catholic Church since the existence of her abominations, is one of the most immoral countries that ever besmirched the face of the earth.
The first lesson that a Catholic child is taught is "hate," and that lesson is directed at Protestantism; therefore, is it any wonder that the. education of Catholicism only reaches out far enough to hoodwink the student and does not elevate him or her above the festering mess which surrounds it?
We want to repeat the statement that the Roman Catholic Church does not want to educate anybody, nor will it do so, where it is not under the pressure of Protestant influence. However, the American people demand figures and facts before they will be convinced; so as further evidence of the truthfulness of what we are telling you, we propose to quote from a report of the minister of education in Italy, made some few years ago. This
105 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
report is true in every particular, and bear in mind that this minister of education was a Catholic himself. The report follows:
"Of every 1,000 males in the province of Lombardy, 539 only were able to read, and 461 did not even know their letters. Of every 1,000 females, only 426 could read and 574 could not read, neither did they know their letters.
"In Naples and Sicily, out of every 1,000 males, only 165 were able to read and 835 could not, and out of every 1,000 females, only 62 could read and 938 could not read and did not know their alphabet. Taking this report, you will find that out of every 100, only about 10 were able to read.
"In 1864, out of 21,000,000 people, only 3,500,000 could read and write, and the rest did not know their alphabet, and to-day Spain, another country' which is completely dominated by the power of Rome, has a population of ignorant dupes, as SO per cent of the population of Spain cannot read and write.
"In Ireland, where the Romish Church is dominant, this same record is repeated, as in other
106 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
Catholic nations. In European countries where Protestantism is taught there is but one out of every ten that cannot read and write, but in the same countries, where Catholicism has absolute sway, there is but one out of every 125 that can read and write.
"In six leading Protestant countries of Europe there are 315 inhabitants to every newspaper or magazine, while in six Roman Catholic countries in Europe there is but one newspaper to every 2,715 people.
"It is estimated that at least seven-eighths of the twenty million inhabitants in Spanish-America, which consists of the countries of Mexico, Cuba, Central America and the north and west parts of South America, are unable to read, and in Mexico alone 90 per cent of the inhabitants cannot read nor write, neither do they know their alphabet;" thus you can see what Roman Catholicism does for the countries which she controls.
We are writing this book, believing that an intelligent class of people will read it, and if such is true, we believe that it is useless for us to try to
107 THIRTY YEARS IN HELL
demonstrate further why the countries which are completely controlled by Catholicism are countries of illegitimacy, for an intelligent reader knows full well that ignorance is the greatest breeder of immorality known to man, and, of course, immorality means illegitimacy, and we believe that we have thoroughly demonstrated to the mind of the reader that Catholicism spreads a cloak of ignorance and superstition wherever she is allowed to rule supreme, and if this is the case, then the natural consequences of such a state of affairs is illegitimacy.
