The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-20


 But meanwhile the committee on
 Eplscopacy had held several sessions
 with closed doors, They were called
 executive sessions" Dr. Lanahan
 charged, because of the executions"
 they were to order. Really, though,
 such sessions were necessary as pro- lection to the bishops themselves. for how extremely embarrassing it would
 have been to men like Bishops Bowman and Foster to be examined and cross-
 examined in public regarding their own views of the physical and mental in tirmities under which they were said 10
 be laboring. The men immediately l concerned were no doubt thankful for
 the delicacy of this proceeding. Bish-
 op Foster was extremely gracious, both in the committee and before the confer ence He should be quite satisfied, he said, whatever was the decision, and he evidently is both satisfied and happy, for l never saw man in better spirits. The day after his so-called retirement, l observed him in the private box of some relatives, where he had often gone before. He was in full view of
 nearly all the delegates, though he
 
 while the opening hymn was being sung, noticed not only a movement of the lips, but continuous rythmic mo-
 tion of hands and arms. Evidently
 there was music that morning both In
 his soul and body.
 After cogitating upon it for nearly a week, with several executive sessions and one which extended far into the night, the committee finally presented it's report. It was a three- -barreled .af- fair, and to fire this ecclesiastical Cat ling and get it out of the way again, with proper note and comment upon the execution done, required whole session. Happily Dr. Bnckley was in command; otherwise the decks might not have been cleared yet; certainly in that case the firing would have been less effective Dr. Buckley speaks quite as often as he has done in six pre- vious conferences, but he speaks now with greater deliberation. As deba- ter he has had to my knowledge, no rival in these proceedings for sixteen years, and he is to-day more lonely in his superb ability than ever before. Some of those who formerly locked nOT1lS WllI lulS SloiIl'Apii have passed from the uproar of the general conference into the silence of their last sleep. Great indeed must the change be, for this is a noisy body, though not in parliamentary sense disorderly body. Horace Benton, in in- troducing ex-Governor Mckinley, hit off the proceedings exactly. He thought it proper to take that public occasion to thank the civil authorities for allowing the conference to meet in the new armory. It was built, he ob- served, as school for military drill, 'and if,'' he said, those who controlled it had sat in it for two weeks, as he had done, they would be quite convinced, by the valiant crossing of swords to which its walls had resounded, that it
 was being put strictly to it's proper use"
 And the most distinguished of the knights thus engaged, the one whose lance is most frequently in use, who parties every thrust of his adversaries, and who seldom or never fails to get home in his own thrusts and plunges, Is the man who on Thursday carried to triumph report which cleared the are 1 na for the election; first, by letting the conference to vote that two of the bish- ops were non-effective; secondly, by convincing the brethren that the time had come when it might be wise and safe to elect a colored bishop, if a man of that complexion could get votes enough, and thirdly by proving sue cessfully that the present force should
 be increased, as the bishops themselves had advised, by two and no more The vote as between two and three
 was close. PAT to 222, but 1t is by such close slaves that the true knight often gains his greatest glory. This was a personal triumph for Dr. Buckley ] against the report of his own commit | tee, which recommended three, and l also In my judgment, against the pre- | conceived convictions of the majority | of the conference. Dr. Buckley is It, 1 tie man, with bald head and snapping black eyes He is more admired than l loved. Even his enemies concede his l transcendent ability, and enemies or no 1 enemies, he nearly always carries his point, and is, beyond question, the
 most influential Methodist living
 On Friday morning the voting began, | and tedious process it has been. Up | to eight years ago it required only a l majority to elect bishops. Sixteen years ago at Cincinnati three of the | four chosen, Warren, Foss and Hurst, l wentin on the first ballot, and the oth- | CT, K. O. Haven, was not long In Joining I them. Four years later at Philadelphia | Bishop Ninde was elected on the first l ballot. Then, very quickly, Bishops l Walden and Mallalieu went in, seri- l ous contest arising only upon the 1 fourth man, when the popularity of Dr. | Vincent kept Bishop Fowler's election | so long in suspense. Up to that time l protraoted struggles were the excep- | tion; now under the two-thirds rule, adopted eight years ago at New York, such contests are the rule. At that 1 time three ballots were taken before l any one was elected, and then only | Vincent and FitzGerald went in The
 next to be favored was Bishop Joyce, l who was elected by the largest vote ever cast for any bishop. Then came such a tug of war as we are having now. For fourth and fifth places the contestants were Newman and Good sell, and they finally got there in the order given. But nine fruitless ballots t,, o c,ir dou nd