DEATHWATCH 



1722 



DEBATE 



Panamint mountain range encloses it on the 

 west and shuts out the Pacific winds. The 

 Amargosa and Funeral mountains, suggesting 

 its tragic story, constitute its eastern boundary, 

 and volcanic ranges of a brown, yellow, black 

 and red color make up the surrounding country. 



These ranges furnish most of the borax used 

 for commercial purposes (see BORAX). Summer 

 heat rises frequently to 137 F., and on the 

 mountain summits in the winter the ther- 

 mometer often falls to 30 below zero. There 

 is little animal life except the crow, buzzard, 

 horned-toad, jackrabbit and rattlesnake. The 

 wealth of the valley is purely mineral, quartz 

 rich in gold having been found along the trail 

 taken by the old emigrant parties, the "49-ers" 

 referred to above. Silver, copper and lead have 

 been found in paying quantities; and coleman- 

 ite, taking its name from its discoverer, W. T. 

 Coleman, has been found rich in borax. Hu- 

 man society in this valley consists principally 

 of roving bands of Piute Indians and a few 

 miners. Tourists should not attempt to cross 

 this valley earlier than October nor later than 

 April. 



DEATHWATCH, a hard-bodied, red-brown 

 beetle about a quarter of an inch long, which 

 lives in the furniture and woodwork of houses. 

 There, knocking its hard head on the wood to 

 call to its mate, it produces the peculiar tick- 

 ing sound which has caused superstitious people 

 to believe that it is a sign of death. The 

 larva (young) of a species of this beetle is the 

 familiar, destructive bookworm (which see). A 

 species of book-lice is also called deathwatch. 



DEBATE. Chaucer, Spenser and other early 

 English writers used the word debate in the 

 sense of fight or quarrel, and Shakespeare in 

 one passage speaks of men "debating with the 

 sword"; but the term has now an entirely dif- 

 ferent meaning. While two speakers or sets 

 of speakers who are formally discussing a ques- 

 tion battle with words to prove their points 

 and disprove those of their opponents, they 

 are not disputing or quarreling; they are sys- 

 tematically arguing, and are making an appeal 

 to reason, not to prejudice, sentiment or the 

 emotions. They are debating. 



Debate differs from the informal and form- 

 less discussion of public questions that is often 

 heard around the dinner table or in places 

 where people of leisure congregate, in that it is 

 organized argument. The speakers are armed 

 with facts on both sides of the question ; they 

 present their points in logical order; they are 

 prepared beforehand to shatter the arguments 



brought up by the opposite side. The main 

 purpose of a debate is to bring out the truth. 

 A favorable decision won by trickery and not 

 by strength of argument is a hollow victory. 



Why Debating Is Beneficial. Participation 

 in debates gives excellent training in self- 

 control. The good debater must school himself 

 to keep his temper and to overcome diffi- 

 dence before an audience; he must forget him- 

 self and keep his mind on the points at issue. 

 Debating trains one to meet emergencies 

 promptly and to think quickly, and this in 

 turn demands preparation. To meet an op- 

 ponent's arguments a debater must have his 

 knowledge systematized and his facts ready 

 to be presented at a moment's notice. Those 

 who become practiced in debate learn to ex- 

 press their ideas in clear and exact language; 

 their judgment is 'trained, and their faculty for 

 constructive thinking is developed. Not the 

 least valuable of the results obtained from 

 practice in debating is the ability it gives one 

 to detect false and inconsistent reasoning. The 

 mind schooled to think clearly and logically 

 will not be misled by false arguments and mis- 

 applied facts. 



What to Debate. Appropriate subjects for 

 debate are to be found in every branch of 

 human knowledge, but not all questions are 

 debatable. A subject for debate must admit 

 both of affirmation and denial ; that is, it must 

 not be all one-sided, nor so neutral that no 

 decision can fairly be reached for one side or 

 the other. The following is 'an example of a 

 one-sided subject: Resolved, That Shake- 

 speare was a greater poet than Longfellow. 

 Shakespeare's supremacy is so obvious a fact 

 that the negative side of this question could 

 not well be sustained. Suppose the subject 

 should read, Resolved, That Shakespeare was 

 a greater poet than Dante. Here the opposite 

 sides are too evenly balanced, for it is gen- 

 erally admitted that these two poets are practi- 

 cally equal in greatness. A subject should be 

 stated so that the limits of the question will be 

 exactly and clearly defined. If the subject for 

 debate be the restriction of immigration, it 

 should be definitely stated what immigrants 

 are referred to. It is evident that a law which 

 applies to the Chinese, for instance, could not 

 fairly be applied to immigrants from Europe. 



Proper Topics for Debate. Any topic for 

 debate may be stated as a fact, as in the 

 examples given above, or as a question. The 

 following list contains subjects drawn from 

 various fields, all of which are suitable: 



