River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-06-20

night the four speakers should con-
sumo three-quarters of an hour apiece
in opening, and the leaders a half
hour each in closing. The plan was
/ the same for both evenings, except
that the two sides were to alternate
in opening and closing; the teachers
had to close; the preachers began
and ended the discussion on the sec
! ond night. Each side was to choose
a Judge, and the two were to choose q
third who were TO render a decision
at the close of the second evening.
The discussion took place in the log
schoohouse. There was a fire in the
huge fireplace, and there were candles
and little smoking chimneyless brass
lamps that had been brought by diff
| ferent families, and these cast their
Pickering and uncertain light. The
! programme as scheduled was four
hours in length, but the debate be-
gan early, and the October evenings
were long, and the mountains of Ken
| lucky do not demand short sermons
or speeches.
| opened the discussion by stating
the arguments given in the geogra-
| plies | told of the masts of the
ships which appear before the hull;
of the round shadow which the earth
casts on the moon; of the fact that
| certain men, some of whom | had
seen, had actually sailed around the
earth. and so on.
But my opponent secuted the mast
and-hull argument, and declared that
it might be true and yet prove Moth
| ing. Moreover, it was evident that
to people living among the hills an
argument based on unobstructed
vision was Ineffective; they had no
experience which helped to inter
pref it.
As to the eclipse, the preacher de-
clared the eclipses varied. He had
seen one of the sun, and the 81 lcw
came off on the same side it wert en-;
how could that be if my revo i'm
theory was correct? Eclipses ,teet
freaky things, and nobody knew how
| they would act As TO the story Of
mems sailing around the world, who
|
were notorious liars? They came
back knowing it was impossible to
disproye their large stories, and peo-
pie expected them to lie, and they did
lie. Or, if the man who told this story
did not lie, ne might have been mis-
! taken. Like as not he sailed round
! pretty nigh the ridge of il, and so
came back all right, but he kept on
the top side all the time" said the
minister. He added with gestures
| that 'the world may be round this
away" ii. E., round on top, cor even
round this-a-way" ii. e., cylindricaD,
but hit amt round this-a-way" ii. e,
sphericaD.
Then came the positive part of his
argument. He appealed to reason and
observation; he had sat up one night
to see whether the mill pond ceased
at any time to run over the dam, as
with the slightest inclination of the
earth this one level stretch of water
should have done. He had been some
thing of a traveller himself and had
been twice to Virginia and once well
! down in Tennessee, nor had he found
| any place where the earth appeared
to curve. He ridiculed the theory
which would compel us to hold on to
the trees at night to keep from fall
ing off, and squarely denied that
there could be any people on the I'M
der side of the earth walking with
heads down, and foolish enough to
think their heads were up.
Then came my colleague, who re-
minded them of the fly on the apple.
and illustrated by shadows on the
wall the theory of eclipse and the
procession of the seasons.
Then came the other minister He
had come far-"cl'ar over the aidge
of the yirth in LAUREL" as he iron
ically told us in his introduction. He
was not bound by any false notion of
courtesy; he did not live here he said,
and he proposed to hew to the line
and let the chips fly where they
would. This was an age of new ideas,
and most of them false ones; it was
a time when people were likely to be-
lieve lie and be damned; it was a
time for the friends of the truth TO
stand by the truth, and not let any
false ideas of friendship or hospital
ity keep them from exposing error
and branding it as such.
Having so spoken, he moved around
TO where he could confront me and
began his argument. He was a stall
wart man, giant in stature, and
looked taller in his jeans coat, which
he wore without vest over his hick-
DRY shirt, and his gray jeans trou-
sers. His name was the same as that
Of Tennessee general in the civil
war; and he was related to him. Ger
tainly he showed no fear that night
as he faced this new and dangerous
error.
lie began with the declaration that
the Bible declares that God laid the
corner stone of earth and stretched
the line upon it. He asked how a
straight line could conform to a
curved surface, or round earth have
a corner stone. He went on to af-