Pocahontas star herald., 1927-01-20
Evolution In No Mans Land,
AS Reported by Bill Jinkins

great zeal of this evolution will ma
tlrally drift right over to us. and as
we are already weakened from the
oVerproduction Of cotton, we are in
very poor condition TO meet this threat
ened evolution invasion.
so we had a meeting at the Simp-
klnS store to see what could be done
about It, The meeting was called to
order by Mr.. Simpkins. He runs the
store, ana as we are nearly all in debt
10 MIN, we generally let him take the
lead. 1t kind of jollies him up and
keeps him from losing faith in his fell
low men, for such loss Of faith right
now might be very inconvenient for
some of us. The object of the meeting
was stated and suggestions called for,
and a committee on resolutions APP
pointed.
Mr Bascom arose and said: 81 used
to believe in evOlution-or thot / did
I'LL l got to studying self-analysis, and
now l don't know whether or not i
believe in evolution. / find that those
fellows, such as Darwin and Spencer,
were Iretty smart and hit the nail
on the head so often that l just took
1t for granted that they were right on
evolution, too, but when it comes to
what l actually knew, of my own
knowledge, l find that don't know
blooming thing about it. So it just
SINNERS down to this-Darwin believ-
ed In evolution and | believe in Oar
win. Bryan didn't believe in evolu-
tion, and Mr.. Simpkins believes in
Bryan. AS far as Mr.. Simpkins and
are concerned, it is just a kind of
hand -me-dOwn' secondhand belief in
either case. But what | object to most
is this-Mr. Darwin and Mr.. Bryan
both had clear field and investigated
this thing to their own satisfaction,
and we did not interfere with them in
any way in arriving at their different
conclusions. Now why should those
two men be allowed to tear the leaf
out Of the book before we have had n
chance to study it for ourselves, and
just take their word for it, as though
we didn't have brains and judgement
enough to decide for ourselves? Isn't
the evidence on which they based their
conclusions still on file, or has that
been torn out, too?"
Mr. Bascomb was followed by Jed
Sparks, who said: "Mr. Chairman,
don't believe we have much cause for
uneasiness, for | don't believe the aver
age pupil will bother his head about
this thing, unless he is commanded to
let 1t alone. The only danger that
see is this-if the pupils span of life
were doubled or trebled, he still would
not have the time, the patience nor
the facilities to dig down to the hot
tom and learn the exact truth. 1t is
natural for man to speculate on things
he does not understand to form fanci-
| full theories, then throw up embank-
ments of DIRT to defend them. 1t is
upon this trait that the progress of
civilization depends. To stop this pry-
ing into the unknown, is to assume
| that we know all there is no more to
learn, and we become self-satisfied ;
progress ceases, and, as we cannot
stand still, we must go backward. We
must be forever seeking, sitting, sort
ing the true from the false the prob
able from the improbable. If the seek
er finds himself suspended halfway
in the canyon of doubt, on a fragile
rope and no toe hold, he is liable to
fall but the old law, that each must
work out his own salvation still
stands, and we have no right to forbid
his searching anywhere he likes in the
same field that has been open to u.s."
Next, to address the Chair, was
"Bat" Grimes 'Mr. Chairman, | got
mixed up in muss something like this
over in Tennessee. That is why !
moved in here. l had hoped that
among these liberal-minded people !
could pass my declining years in peace.
In Tennessee we were happy, after a
fashion. The birds sang-the roses
bloomed-cOtton came up in the spring
land went down in the fall)- had
full moon every four weeks-cOws
chewed their cuds after sundown-tad-
poles dropped their tails, absorbed
them or had them bObbed. We had
two average, normal, healthy children
Jack and Jill. None of us had ever
thought or heard much on evolution,
I'll the legislature raised such a rucous
about it, and l tried to keep out Of 1t
then, but Jack dropped his stick horse
and Jill her dolls and they took to evo-
luton like beagle pup on white
gravy. Well | didn't pay much atten-
tion to 1t till they got into this monkey
ancestor business and l wouldn't have
cared so much then, If they had just
gone back few generations to start
it; but they were entirely too modern.
They insisted on a direct and immeli-
ate descent, beginning with ancestors
now living, and some Of the evidence
they had to offer made 1t downright
embarrassing for me, especially when
we had company. Those kids have
lust about forgotten that stuff since
we came to No Mans Land, and | hope
you will not stir it up again"
The Committee on Resolutions was
now ready to report, and presented
their effort to the assemblage, as fol-
lows: "ResOlyed, that nothing be taught
i'm the public schools Of No Mans Laud
that cOntradicts our Interpretation Of
the scriptures"
Everybody seemed to go wild at once
and tried to get the floor. Uncle Ned
Joslin, who had dropped off to sleep
during Bat Grimes harangue, awoke
suddenly, and, thinking he was in the
Baltimore convention, jumped up and
began yelling for Champ Clark. Things
quieted in half an hour So that one