| Abstract: | Darrow began by asking his world-famous expert witness, "You have given considerable study to the Bible, haven't you, Mr. Bryan?" "Yes, sir, I have tried to," came the cautious reply. "Well, we all know you have, we are not going to dispute that at all," Darrow continued. "But you have written and published articles almost weekly, and sometimes have made interpretations of various things?" Bryan apparently saw the trap. If he assented to having interpreted some biblical passages, then he could scarcely object to others giving an evolutionary interpretation to the Genesis account of human creation. "I would not say interpretations, Mr. Darrow, but comments on the lesson." The lawyerly game of cat and mouse had begun, but one in which the cat sought to kill his prey and the mouse had nowhere to hide. At 68, Clarence Darrow stood at the height of his powers, America's greatest criminal defense lawyer and champion of anticlericahsm. Three years his junior, the former Boy Orator of the Platte once the nation's youngest major-party presidential nominee and now leader of a fundamentalist crusade against teaching evolution in public schools William Jennings Bryan remained a formidable stump speaker, although he lacked die quick wit to best Darrow in debate. This was no debate, however; it was a courtroom interrogation in which Darrow enjoyed all the advantages of an attorney questioning a hostile witness. |
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