FullReads

[1] Brann’s reply to Slattery appears in Vol. XII.

. . .

Scarce had Baylor’s applause of Slattery and his woman died away, scarce had it ceased to gloat over the “iniquities” of convent schools and priestly harems, scarce had it ceased chuckling over the crimes of “the Scarlet Woman,” ere the police discovered that the duly ordained “ward of the Baptist church,” who was being educated at Baylor University for missionary work among the heathen Catholics of Brazil, was in a dreadfully “delicate condition.” She was brought from Brazil at the tender age of 11 years by a returning missionary, she was formally adopted by the Baptist church, she was consecrated to the salvation of souls and placed at Baylor to be educated. She was under the special supervision of the president and was a member of his household–yet at 14 years of age she became enciente. Did Baylor pity and protect her? Did it strive to secure the punishment of her seducer? Not exactly. It fired her out and made no complaint to the police. When the latter discovered her and she was required by the court to account for her condition, she stated that she had been forcibly despoiled by a young man about town on the premises of Baylor’s president. It chanced that this young man was brother to the president’s son-in-law, and the whole influence of Baylor was brought to bear to clear the accused! The son-in-law, who is a Baptist preacher and editor (as well as other things not necessary to mention) strove to make her confess that her guilty paramour was a pickaninny–wanted the world to believe that orphan girls committed to the care of that great Baptist college might become enciente by coons! Yet the Baylor students didn’t mob him–none of its trustees laid in wait for him and slammed him over the head with a six-shooter. The girl soon put a white babe in evidence–a pretty little 2-pound Baylorian diploma. The doctors declared that she had been raped and the case looked ugly for the accused. The child died. The ignorant little mother wanted money to go to Memphis–and first thing we knew she had signed a “retraction” and had a ticket to Mike Conolly’s town. Who bought it–and why! Damfino. The defendant was acquitted of the charge of rape–the age of consent in Texas being 12 years at that time; but whether she was raped or seduced, the infamy occurred at Baylor University. That’s ONE of the “deplorable accidents”; but it is not the only one you will please not forget to remember. Reads like a fairy story, doesn’t it? But the law doesn’t permit Texas editors to tell fairy tales of that type. No doubt the man who has the audacity to breathe a hope that no more girls will be debauched at Baylor deserves to die. Dr. Burleson, in the fullness of his Baptist charity, branded the unfortunate girl as a natural bawd. I don’t know about that; but I do know that after she got beyond Baylorian influences she married and began leading a respectable life.

. . .

Defamer of womanhood? Get the sawlogs out of your own eyes, brethren, before howling over the micrococci in the optics of others. For three years past Baptist preachers all over the land of Christ have been telling their congregations that the ICONOCLAST is read only by depraved people,–chiefly criminals and courtesans–and that despite the fact that the names of thousands of the noblest men and women of America are on its subscription books. During the past three years the ICONOCLAST has had upon its books the names of more than a thousand ministers, representing every denomination. Are these men criminals and their wives courtesans? Has any busy little Baptist parson been rounded up with a rope for proclaiming them as such from the pulpit? When a deserted babe was found in the street and carried by the Sisters into the convent, was Jehovah Boanerges Cranfill–organ-grinder for the Baylor bosses–mobbed by the Catholics for saying that it probably came OUT of the convent? Now, you people keep down the narrative of your nether garment and apply a hot mush poultice to your impudence. The ICONOCLAST is only tickling you with snipe-shot now; but don’t forget for one moment that it has buck a-plenty in its belt.