The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-10-27

rier endeavoring to get the neck grip on .
wary and determined rat. Although
given the first proposition 20 af1fm
ne occupies but little of his time IN defend
ing his own organization. and spends most
of 10 in making dashes at the other contest
ant. Not unfreguently he turns from the
audience and addresses his opponent direct
in q come-on-Maeduf manner that tlckles
the pronounced gentiles immensely, ana
causes great annoyance to the elders ana
embryo Latter-day Saints or the side
benches. Elder Hyde, the Mormon spokes-
man, is a very different kind OF debater.
He is tall and slender. not over thirty years
old. with a weak voice and a very limited
vocabulary, but he has the face OF a zealot
and the air OF q man carried away Dy MS
convictions, and when he gets his voice
keyed up to concert pitch, and chants his
long sentences, with his bony fo%retinger ex-
tended out over the audience, he holds its
attention fully as well as, the
orthodox champion. 1t would be
the argument. Each contestant has made
eight speeches. the moderators sitting be-
hind the orators. watch in hand. and call
ing the limit with the promptness of pro-
f~essional time-keepers. In these sixteen
speeches a good deal has been affirmed and
a good deal denied. with a multitude of
Scriptural texts To back up both affirma-
tive and denial. and yet neither speaker,
according to his WI account, has more
than outlined the salient points OF his case:
Sometimes these statements bring To mind
the remark of Ephraim Hall. who was put
mp by Henry A. Wise to speak against time
In the Virginia legislature. Hall spoke
five hours and a half without q break long
enough to permit an Interruption. and then
pausing slightly he said that having given
the House an opportunity Of seeing the
number of propositions he was interested
in he would immediately proceed TO discuss
each one of them separately.
The argument. as affecting the apostolic
character of the Christian Church. has been
shat of transmission by the laying On of
hands. with which most believers are ia
millar. On the other hand, the continuity
of this succession has been denied by Elder
Hyde throughout the debate. and its absO-
lutte failure affirmed, the calamity being re-
paired, according to Mormon theory, by the
appearance of the Angel Moroni with the
plates which Joe Smith sat behind q
blanket and translated for young COwdery,
who wrote them out as the Mormon Bible.
These positions have been backed mp by
references to John, Daniel aud a multitude
of Scriptural writers, but they have by no
means m~on0poliZed the discussion. The
doctrine or the Trinity has been incident
ally considered; immersion versus sprink-
ling has cut some figure; devils miracles
have been discussed, and tonight the as
senbly, with the exception of those who
came with well-defined beliefs on the sub
iect. is in the condition of obscurity
p It by the poet: who re,
and the goose winketh, little wotteth the
gosliug what the goose thinketh." The only
reference thus far made in the discussion TO
the Mormon system of ~polygamy occurred
when it was charged upon the Mormon
elders that the Edmunds law had been de-
violated by Mormons In the Ter
~rit0ries, and the only answer made was that
to obey it there meant the abandonment OF
women aud children by those who are re-
garded as their husbands and fathers.
After the speaking to-day Elder Hyde
stated to the writer that he declined to dis
cuss polygamy~ publicly. not because he did
not believe in it, but because he had no
wish to bring on a collision with existing
laws. AS to the making of proselytes and
sending them to Utah, he added that the
emigration fund of the Mormon Church
had been taken from it under the Edmunds
law, and that no direct assistance was be-
ing furnished to any convert to reach Salt
Lake City. Where conversions were made
the convert regulated his own residence.
His own work as an elder would probably
be carried ON where he and his associate
elder were now stationed, until the end of
his two years service as o missionary.
ID. J.. II.