River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1897-06-03
AN EMPHATIC VICTORY.
Non by the Normal Debaters at
platteville last Thursday.

/ IT
Jared much better than in its first en-
counter, winning the contest with
Platteville by unanimous vote of the
| judges. The debate took place in the
city hall of Platteville on the evening
of May %, in the presence of a con-
siderable audience. The contest had
been widely advertised and lively
and somewhat jealous interest was
manifested in its outcome. Platte
Vile, with tenacious and wholly com
mendable loyalty, looked for a
gratuitous victory. Her debaters
were young men of fluent and rather
polished speech, and had frequently
appeared in public; they had looked
into the question, moreover. with an
eye to getting victory out Of it, and
had taken pains to do up their argu-
ment ia neat and finished packages.
But our own debaters had not entered
the contest withan idea of giving it
away; and the outline of their
forensic campaign, as we'll as a bit OF
preliminary diplomacy on their part,
show conclusively that a certain red
and white banner with a silken pen
nant above it bearing the legend
Victory" was neither altogether I'M
expected nor undeseryed.
The question debated was, Re
solved, That modern civilization owes
| more to Hebraic than TO Greek and
Roman influences The exact word
| ing of the question is worthy OF atten-
| tion in view of some of the final and
rather dramatic developments in the
debate. The Hon. James G.. Monahan
of Darlington presided, and in intro
ducing the debaters took what seems
TO us the unwarranted liberty of out
lining the history OF the Hebrew,
Greek and Roman nations, and trac-
ing their influence on modern thought
and government. The speakers were
called upon in the following order:
Affirmative, John Cook of Platteyille;
negative, G.. A. Rogers, River Falls;
affirmative. J. J, Fielder, Platteville:
negative, J j. Enright, River Falls;
affirmative, Oryille Hornbeck, Platte
vile; negative, q. w. Swartz, River
| Falls.
The treatment. of the question by
| the River Falls trio was distinctly
ingenious. and some of its salient
points deserve attention. The key
note of all that was said by the first
two speakers Ton the negative) may be
given in the epigram, 1.-THE soil is as
essential as the seed" In other
words, Christianity could not have
| become universal except through
| the Greek language and influence.
Moreover the church, as distinct from
| Christianity, was not gift from
| Jerusalem but from Rome. Given
this much for philosophical ground
| work, the arguments along the line
of government, art, language, induc-
| tive reasoning and so on, were simply
additional blows from fresh mallets
| to drive the main points home.
Against these points, rather shar p
and forbidding, to be sure, the affirma-
| tive made no attack. Sailing under
| stiff canvass, so to speak, with every
thing braced and dead-locked by set
speeches, they still hoped to land the
| Hebraic influence high and dry in the
hallat. how il only the wind held ont.
/ When Mr.. SwatN came on Tor Tile
| closing argument, however, he still
4 IL
of the summary on a chart. He de
| clared that he granted TO the affirma-
tive, without reservation, all they had
attributed to the teachings of Christ,
but he emphatically maintained that
Christ's teaching was distinctly un'
| Hebraic. This was a turn of the
| theme altogether unexpected and
| startling, and quite took the wind out
of the opponents sails.
1t had been stipulated at the start
that the judges should not consult to-
| gether and that argument alone
should determine their decision. Ac
cordingly when the separate envel
opes enclosing their respective deci
sions were opened on the platform, in
the presence of the presiding Officer
and the presidents of the two Norm
ais, the ballots were found to be unan
imous in favor of River Falls.
After the contest the ladies of the
senior class gave the debaters a recep
tion in the gymnasium. On arriving
home Saturdaynoon the boys were en-
Enthusiastically welcomed by gaily be
ribboned crowd, and escorted in state
to the Normal chapel where they were
Toasted and toasted for hours together
Pres. Parker, Prof. Clark. Prof. Briel
and Messrs. Bodman and SwartZ made
speeches in keeping with the occasion
and the school has not yet ceased Il
rejoice.
TRlMBELLE.
J. B. Halliday and Vet Gordon nav;
returned from an overland trip II
Shell Lake. Wis.
Henry Stephens and family drove L
Pine City, Mimi, on a visit last week
|, Halliday Bros. have sold the JOIN
Booth house and lot to Wilson War
rem.
John Carr went to Minneapolis las
Tuesday, combining business will
! pleasure.
Rev. G. A. Smith delivered an en-
PERTAINING and interesting address oil
Memorial Day.
MI. and Mrs. Aaron Cornelison hav'
returned from their three weeks visi
to relatives in Shell Lake and Mime
apolis.
: Fred Route is making extensive
preparations for repairing his dam.
PRESCOTT.
Died. in this city Thursday morn
ing. MAY 9th, after short illness
Miss Louisa Childs, aged 80 years
Miss Childs was an old resident o
this city and has been successful
, teacher of music for thirty years
The funeral was held Saturday after
noon at her late residence. Rev. Eos
broke conducted the services.
CT. Eckstein is dangerously sick
Memorial services were observed il
the usual way last Saturday. TIL
procession consisted of veterans
school children and citizens, escorte
nv the brass band. Afterwards no