Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-10-06
THEEcUMENIcAL METHoDlsTs.
What is Being Accomplished bv thu
Methodist Ecumenical Councii S;t.

What is Being Accomplished bv IN.
Methodist Ecumenical Council Sit.
! ting in London. w
Special Cable to Chicago Times, Sept IS.
Whatever the Methodist ecumenica,
council may do in the way of pivino
the different branches of the graai
Wesleyan family better opinion Of
each other, it is doubtful if it will ac.
complish anything of that kind for the
members of the family who are sena.
rated by the Atlantic ocean. 1t NAV
bring closer together those who are SEN.
arated by questions of church policv
but it is not likely to do anything to
remove geographical barriers. The
differences between the English and
the American types of character were
never brought out more strikingly than
in this council. The courcil is vet in
session, but the interest in the proceed
ings is beginning to drag, and at the
same time good deal of friction is
being developed in the working ma
chinery, although at the beginning
the London papers were compliment
ing the MethOdistS on the absence of
that friction between individuals and
groups that has marred many such
gatherings. The American delegates
are getting very thoroughly tired of
the English delegates, and Uice oersa.
The former are too rapid to suit the
latter. The English conservative and
obstinate delegates think the Ameri-
cans are not sufficiently humble and
defferential to the old country repre-
sentatives. When American delegates
give statistics as to what is occurring
in the United States, it is invariably
thought by the English delegates that
they are eXaggerating or actually living.
On Thursday G. X. Marshall, of Vicks-
burg, representative of the southern
church, read an essay on newspapers
and the use to be made of them by the
church. In the course of his remarks
he alluded twice to the Times, of Chi
cago, saying that it has just issued sep
tuple editions, consisting of over twen-
ty-three tons of paper; that it had the
revised version of the Testament tele-
graphed, and put in type almost with
out fault, scattering its edition like
countless snow-flakes of winters day
all over the American continent before
the the church papers had read the
sermon on the mount. All was the
work of single night, and thousands
would not have seen that version for
months had it not been for this mas
terly stroke of enterprise. The Lon
don Times reports his words, and fol-
lows them by pointing out that, by en-
dowing newspaper interests, Metho-
dists could repeat miracles of modern
journalism, such as lightning edition
of the revised New Testament which
the Chicago Times had telegraphed one
night. The statement of Mr.. Marshall
was received by the English portion of
the delegates with murmurs of disap-
probation, indicating that they did not
believe any such thing was done, or
that there is any such paper as the
Chicago Times. In the estimate of
the English delegates, the colored men,
bers occupy first place; the southern
delegates come next, and the northern
ers, third and last. The negroes are
humble, and stand in proper awe of
the venerable old fogies of Methodism
on this side, which makes them all
right in the esteem of the Britishers.
The negroes did very well at first, but
do not seem to have staying qualities.
They do very fairly on matters on
which they are prepared, but 60 to
pieces on all cases demanding instant
action.
In the feeling of the English dele
gates toward those from the United
States there appears the same bias
that has colored a great deal of English
criticism of American literature and
other things. The fact is, that the
mass of Englishmen will not judge an
American thing on its merits. If it
be peculiar, they will be amused or in
terested in it.; otherwise, they turn up
their noses at it,-their fat noses, Lord
Beaconsfeld would have sale, ''a
pretty echo of alien Europe" Just as
they pretend to admire Walt Whitman
and the Pike county variety of litera-
ture, while Lowell, and Longfellow,
and even Hawthorne and Irving, whom
Americans have been in the habit of
regarding as peculiarly American,
are spoken of as mere imitators of
English literature, so they prefer the
negro to the white delegates from the
United States,-not because of any su-
periority, for it would be absurd to
pretend that the negroes had any, but
because they are different from any
thing that the Englishmen see at home.
The Englishmen whose thought is ex-
pressed by Lord Roehampton, in "En-
dymion," who said that Americans
borrowed their language, their laws,
and their religion from England, un-
doubtedly feel that the Americans al.
so borrow their white skins from the
same source. In black American
they see something original; not ar
imitation of an Englishman. The
characteristics that they dislike il
white Americans, even if they fount
them in the black variety, they wOul(
not dislike-they would only be amused
or interested in the discovery. Thei
preference for the southern over tn
northern white delegates seems to b
simply a survival of the old Britisl
sympathy with the confederacy; tn
sympathy with shareholders of mel
who pretended to abhor slavery, AM
who never lost chance to denounc
the republic because it recognized an
maintained slavery.
A good deal of row has occurre
over the temperance question. /
their great hospitality the Englis
hosts have arranged for vinous refresi
ment for the delegates in side-roor
chapel. This has been horrible scar
} dal to the strait-laced members froI
the United States, who are also shocke
at finding wine on tables wherever the
are invited to dinner. The result Z
the council is likely to be that the cas-
ern and western sections will part
Its close having very poor opinions
| each other. The Yankees know To
much to suit the English, while tn
English know too little to suit tk
Uo-,l-ooc Tho EuOliah nreSa Say I'll