Robert G.

How’s the weather down below,

     Robert G.?

Is there much of ice and snow,

     Robert G.?

Is it hot or cold or – say,

Can’t you let us know some way,

We are much in doubt today,

     Robert G.

We are waiting your reply,

     Robert G.

Then perhaps you are on high,

     Robert G.

If you are then tell us right, –

Are the fires of heaven bright?

You have left us without light,

     Robert G.

July 23, ‘99

Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a lawyer, a Civil War veteran, political leader, and orator of United States during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic".

Ingersoll was most noted as an orator, the most popular of the age, when oratory was public entertainment. He spoke on every subject, from Shakespeare to Reconstruction, but his most popular subjects were agnosticism and the sanctity and refuge of the family. He committed his speeches to memory although they were sometimes more than three hours long. His audiences were said never to be restless.

Many of Ingersoll's speeches advocated freethought and humanism, and often poked fun at religious belief. For this the press often attacked him, but neither his views nor the negative press could stop his rising popularity. At the height of Ingersoll's fame, audiences would pay $1 or more to hear him speak, a giant sum for his day.

In a lecture entitled "The Great Infidels," he attacked the Christian doctrine of Hell: "All the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable, grew blossomed, and bore fruit in this one word—Hell."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll