“How can I help you?” he inquired.
“I am trying,” I replied, “to raise money to supply the destitute of this county with the Bible, and as I have applied to all of these gentlemen for help, perhaps you would give me something.”
“No, indeed,” said he, with emphasis, “I would rather give my money to have all the Bibles in the county burned up.”
“You don’t believe much in the Bible, then?”
“Not a bit of it,” he replied. “It has deceived the people long enough already. If the people would only read my books on physiology and hygiene, and learn something of the nature and laws of their own physical organization, and what will promote the health, growth and action of all its parts, and let that ‘old fable’ alone, they would be healthier, happier and better off every way.”
He said this with an air of assurance and authority which he evidently thought and desired would settle the matter with me, at least for the present, as he rose and walked the room nervously.
But I had seen too many men in the West to be bluffed off after that style, and my interest in him was too intense.
“Well, my friend,” I said, after he subsided a little, “If you do not believe the Bible, what do you believe?”
“I am a free-thinker, sir.”
“And what is a free-thinker?”