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ter say I'm with him heart an' soul. I want you justices to hear what he is goin' to ast you to do an' you do it. It'll be a blessin' to you an' yore childern the longest day you'll live. Honourable Judge an' justices of the court, lemme interduce Brother Blackman."
The evangelist stepped forward as the pedagogue retired.
"Gentlemen of the court," began the minister in his profound voice, "Brother Overall says it will be a blessin' to you as long as you live. I say it will be a blessin' to you through etarnity. I tell you the angels are leanin' this minute over the battlements of Heaven, waitin' with hushed breaths an' beatin' hearts to see what the justices of Lane County air goin' to do here at this hour an' this minute!"
The minister paused with a certain effect of embodying the supernatural world, of solidifying it in the air somewhere above their heads. He proceeded in his ponderous voice, and inquired slowly and solemnly, "My frien's, do you b'lieve yore great gran'daddy was a monkey?"
He paused, then with the revivalist's trick, shouted the same question with a different stress at the top of his lungs, "Do you b'lieve yore great gran'daddy was a monkey?"
This jarred the nerves of his audience. The preacher brought down his fist on the chancel rail with a sounding blow, "Is there a man in the sound of my voice that b'lieves his great gran'daddy was a monkey?
"Oh, brethren, don't you know the Bible says man was made in the image of God! Then how can he be made in the image of a monkey?
"Brothers, judges," gasped the divine, pausing to mop his dripping face, "you know that our school books air full of this damnable doctrine. What air ye goin' to do about it? Air ye goin' to let the deceivin' agnostic, hell-bound college perfessers send our children to hell? Air they goin' to cry fer bread an' you give 'em a stone! It's a sin unto God an' a cryin' out of unrighteousness from the earth! What air ye goin' to do—what you goin' to do? I'm talkin' to you justices now; what you goin' to do?"