The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-06-02
EVANGELIST Who
IS COMING HERE,
FLAYS TEACHERS
FOrsythe Calls Them "Old
Maids" and Asks Pupils
to Ignore Them.
WIFE WANTED TO
SPEAK ABOUT SEX
Iowa School Board Refused to Let
Sawdust Orators Wife
Talk to Girls.

Rev. E. j. Forsythe, the evangelis
who is billed to have charge of tn,
meeting which opens in thu
Cape on June 4, turned his Burlington
Iowa, sawdust camp into a rumpu!
when he denounced the public schoo
teachers of that city. In his criticism
of the teachers he said: "The scholar.
should pay no attention to a lot of OLE
maid school teachers"
The Burlington Hawk-Eye, the lead
ing newspaper in that city, turned it
batteries upon Forsythe, who is ratec
as an abbreviated edition of Billy
Sunday, for what the evangelist ha,
said of the Burlington teachers. For
sythe splashed back at the Hawk Eye
editor, denouncing him from the tab
ernacle pulpit.
The evangelist's ire was stirred VI
because The school board of that cit!
refused to permit the evangelist:
wife to deliver an address to the higl
school girls on the ject of Sex"
The Burlington Hawll-Eye, in dis
cussing the attack of Forsythe, says:
AS for Mr.. Forsythe's attack
upon the school board and the
high school, The Hawll-Eye has
nothing but regret. They are
neither based on facts nor justice.
In his address of Friday evening,
in speaking of the refusal of the
school board to permit Mrs. For
sythe to give talk to the girls Of
the nigh school on the subject of
"Sex," the evangelist dealt in half
truths. He failed to tell his audi
ence that the school authorities
had offered the high school chapel
for prayer meetings under his
supervision; and he did not tell
that Mrs. Fcrsythe's talk was
prohibited by the board because
Of well-fOunded inforH:atiOn that
it was not a talk suitable for the
ears of immature and impression
able girls. There were numerous
and emphatic protests from par
ents against the proposition. The
parents Of the pupils have rights
which the school directors and
teachers felt bound to respect.
The continuation of his attack
upon the Y. w. c. A. in his ser
mon Of Friday night in which he
sought to convey the impression
that the institution was closed to
the girls of this city who earn
their own living, was both i'll
advised and ill-iudged, and will
fail Of its purpose, if purpose it
had.
As for his attack upon the pas
tor of the Congregational church,
it was but the sequence of other
attacks made upon that gentleman
and clergyman, who is too we'll
established in the affection and
esteem of the community to suffer
in any way from a strangers
hostility.
That Evangelist ForSythe's feel
ings have been hurt by The Hawk
Eye is too bad. That he feels that
he has been ill-treated in Burling-
ton is to be regretted. This city
and its people have a well-earned
reputation for courteous treat
ment of visitors. 1t, in turn, ex-
poets courteous and fair treat
ment from its visitors, and it
resents attacks upon its people
and its institutions.
Burlington has a splendid corps
of teachers, large nurnber of
them church members and all in
sympathy with recognized moral
standards of conduct and the spir-
itual welfare of their pupils. The
high character and caDability of
the Burlington teachers is evil
denced by the large number who
have been drafted from time to
time to serve in higher positions
in the schools of other cities and
states, and by the success they
have attained elsewhere as we'll as
at home. The normal school
training and the requirements as
to conduct and right influence
with pupils accounts for the
enviablc reputation of teachers
trained in our public schools for
their noble profession.
For a stranger to come to our
city and publicly denounce the
teachers and the school manage
ment and to advise the scholars
who attend the revival meetings
to pay no attention tc a lot of
old-aid school teachers" but to GO
ahead and dc what the evangelist