Reflections occasioned by the annual Scopes Trial re-enactment in Dayton TN, July 21, 2018

1. Scopes Festival and Trial re-
enactment, July 21, 2018, 1 pm
ET
Finally, after intending to attend this event for years but never doing it-’til last
Saturday… closing the circle with “my first landlord” (see slides #21-27)
The drive from Murfreesboro to Dayton (via McMinnville) was gorgeous.
The atmosphere in Dayton was indeed festive, but wasn’t quite the madcap carnival of
1925. We saw no live monkeys or fire-and-brimstone evangelists or other “cranks and
freaks”...

8. The Darrow statue was
added just last year,
finally joining Bryan.
He also said
“I have never
killed a man, but
I have read
many obituaries
with a lot of
pleasure.”
Clarence Darrow
presumably was not
referencing Wm Jennings
Bryan’s failed candidacies
when he said
“When I was a
boy I was told that
anybody could
become
President. Now
I'm beginning to
believe it.”

9. More seriously:
● “You can only protect your liberties in this world by
protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I
am free.”
● “I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom,
and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.”
● “I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be
called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many
ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.”
● “When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys
and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all
men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the
consciousness of it should make us more kindly and
considerate of each other. This feeling should make men
and women use their best efforts to help their fellow
travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier
as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better
understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers
who must live a common life and die a common death.”

10. Surely this commandment wouldn’t have prejudiced any jurors…
any more than opening each court session with a prayer, at
least.
John Thomas
Scopes, 1900-
1970.

11. “...after all the arguments were heard, the
court ruled that evolution was not on trial
but… did John Scopes teach evolution in
the public schools?”
==
“Darrow led the attack in quizzing the
Great Commoner… it will be admitted by
most that Bryan was at a
disadvantage…”
-Dayton Daily Herald, July 23, 1925

12. We enjoyed a bit of the festival before the trial… I tried to enjoy my
loaded hotdog just as I imagine WJB would have, short of dying for it.

13. Don, Sarah, Pidge, Bryan,
Chase & family (not in this pic)

14. Man’s place in nature. “…Evidently,
too, he is a mammal… there is an
immense mental gap between monkey
and man… Monkeys certainly seem to
have many of the mental attributes of
man…”
George Hunter, A Civic Biology (1914)

15. Same courthouse & courtroom, same hard seats,
thankfully not the same climate control.
Contemporary Daytonians are wrestling thoughtfully with
their heritage, recognizing the fallibility and historicity of
all good books.

16. They’re understandably
concerned with their legacy
and place in history, in
Rhea County - here’s a
time-capsule outside the
courthouse, with precise
instructions to be opened at
noon on Dec.3 in 2106.

17. I love these old rolltops, seemingly so ubiquitous in the ‘20s. We found one at our airb&B in Montreal last month, with
“1918” etched into the drawer to mark a previous owner’s date of acquisition.

18. Mine is older, according to family legend.

19. “How did Cain get his wife?” was not
asked in Dayton in 2018.

20. Just a bit of constructively-
intended feedback: Laudably,
the play’s producers seek to
stimulate the audience to think
for themsevles and make up
their own minds. But the
speeches should be heard as
delivered-Mr. Malone’s should
come prior to Darrow's
interrogation of Bryan, for
instance, and should include
his eloquent lines about not
withholding scientific facts
from children (along with the
thunderous applause that line
provoked). The play should not
omit Bryan’s forced
concession that he lacked
understanding of what he
professed to believe.
And: don’t portray attorney
Neal quite so histrionically next
time.
Community theater, such a good thing for any community - but especially for one with baggage.

21. And: consider adding a scene depicting the porch conversation between Darrow and Winterton Curtis?
"One night after dinner, zoologist W. C. Curtis adjourned with Darrow to the mansion porch, where they continued a conversation begun at
the table about mortality. Curtis had been diagnosed with cancer and told he had no more than a year to live. He was living with 'the expectation
of death,' he recalled..." D-Days at Dayton: Fundamentalism vs Evolution at Dayton, Tennessee by Winterton C. Curtis (1956)

22. There’s my first landlord, Dr. Winterton C.
Curtis (lower left).
"In our talk around the table after dinner that first night at Dayton, I must have said
something that interested Mr. Darrow for as we left the table, he and I continued the
conversation and sitting down alone on the veranda of The Mansion continued our
talk until almost midnight. When we parted he remarked, 'There aren't many who
think about these things as you and I do. It's too bad we can't see each other
often.'" Winterton C. Curtis in D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes
Trial,ed. by Jerry R. Tompkins [excerpt here - A Defense Expert's Impressions of
the Scopes Trial
==
"'Do you need any money?'' he asked W. C. Curtis, after hearing the news that the
zoologist's son had contracted polio... Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned

23. Dr. Winterton C. Curtis of the University of
Missouri was in Dayton in the summer of '25
(though not allowed to testify, like all the
other scientific witnesses on hand), I was in
his home in the late '50's, he was in my
home pulling dollar bills "from my ear" in the
mid-'60s... My late father Dr. James C.
Oliver (MU, DVM '60), in other respects the
opposite of a mystic, was convinced that Dr.
C. somehow implanted in me my lifelong
fascination with evolution. I don't know
about that, but I do know that Dr. C.'s
neglected classic Science and Human
Affairs From the Viewpoint of Biology (1922)
is a real gem.

24. "The humanistic philosophy of life,
which flowered in Greece and
which has blossomed again, is
not the crude materialistic desire
to eat, drink, and be merry. It is a
spiritual joy in living & a
confidence in the future, which
makes this life a thing
worthwhile." Winterton Curtis,
Science and Human Affairs From
the Viewpoint of Biology (1922)
Constructed by the PWA in 1939. Curtis Hall is on the main campus of the
University of Missouri in Columbia. It was named after Winterton Curtis,
Professor of Zoology who was one of the expert...

25. A 6-page holiday letter dated
December 25, 1962 from “Winterton C.
Curtis, Inc. (Established, 1875) Annual
Report to Stockholders As of
December 1, 1962”...
The marginal personal note to “Jim &
Phyll & Philip” looks forward to the
next visit

26. My first rental. My mother sent
me this clipping from the Columbia
Tribune in the ‘80s along with a
note that it was ”interesting to have
lived there”... The article says “It
was a very avante-garde home for
the time, [with] beams and lumber
[salvaged] from a wrecking crew
dismantling the 1904 St. Louis
World’s Fair… Curtis lived in the
house for 60 years.” My parents
and I lived there with him for about
3, from 1957-1960. Rent
$45/month.

27. My Dad, James C. Oliver, shared
his memories of our life with
Winterton Curtis a few years
before his death in 2008. “It was a
grand old house built in 1906 using
stones from nearby Hinkson Creek
and lumber from the 1904 World’s
Fair… I have no clue if an elderly
stranger can affect a small child,
but I swear, you possess many of
the intellectual attributes of this
grand old man. Do you remember
him “pulling $ out of your ears”? I
do, fondly.

28. Darrow on Bryan
"As to science, [WJB's] mind was an utter blank. He was willing
to believe with Genesis that the earth was less than six
thousand years old.
Mr. Bryan did not know that the monuments of Egypt... ran
back more than seven thousand years... neither did he know of
the millions of ages when the earth sped in its path around the
sun before it was fitted for any life, animal or vegetable. About
all of this his mind was void... he was frightened out of his
wits lest, after all, the illusions of his life might be only
dreams.
On the other hand, I had been reared by my father on books of
science. Huxley's books had been household guests with us for
years, and we had all of Darwin's as fast as they were
published... For a lawyer, I was a fairly grounded scientist... All
in all, that was a summer for the gods... fundamentalism,
which was the State religion of Tennessee…
Tennessee cannot much longer be led by the ignorant country
preachers, the Holy Rollers, and the other weiurd sects that
flourish... I prophesy tnat it will be only a few years before the
senseless statute will be wiped from her books."
The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow

29. Before leaving town we stopped by
Monkey Town Brewing - I can recommend
the Evolution IPA & Fish-&-Chips! - then
drove through the deserted grounds of
Bryan College.

30. We’ve learned a lot from Matthew
Chapman and Edward Larson this
summer, in MALA 6040, Evolution in America…
but there’s nothing like being there.
I hope to be there again.