tion. In a grandiloquent speech clearly 
directed to his constituents (witnesses 
remarked that he stood with his back to 
the judge), Bryan virtually denied that 
humans were mammals and argued that 
the case of Messrs. Leopold and Loeb 
amply demonstrated that too much 
learning is a dangerous thing. The 
defense’s rebuttal provided Bryan’s first 
humiliation; for in this rural land, before 
the advent of television, no art com- 
manded more respect than pure speech- 
ifying. And Bryan was just plain out- 
spoken, outgestured, and outshouted — 
not by Darrow — but by another defense 
attorney. Dudley Field Malone, a promi- 
nent New York divorce lawyer and 
former subordinate to Bryan in the 
State Department (where Bryan had 
been secretary under Woodrow Wilson). 
H.L. Mencken wrote: 
I doubt that any louder speech has ever 
been heard in a court of law since the days 
of Gog and Magog. It roared out of the 
open windows like the sound of artillery 
practice, and alarmed the moonshiners and 
catamounts on distant peaks. ... In brief. 
Malone was in good voice. It was a great 
day for Ireland. And for the defense. For 
Malone not only out-yelled Bryan, he also 
plainly out-generaled and out-argued him. 
. . . It conquered even the fundamentalists. 
At its end they gave it a tremendous cheer 
— a cheer at least four times as hearty as 
that given to Bryan. For these rustics de- 
light in speechifying, and know when it is 
good. The devil's logic cannot fetch them, 
but they are not above taking a voluptuous 
pleasure in his lascivious phrases. 
Nonetheless. Judge Raulston ruled 
against the defense and excluded expert 
testimony the next morning. It was Fri- 
day and all seemed over, including the 
shouting. Scopes would be convicted 
summarily on Monday morning; he had 
violated the law and Raulston’s narrow 
construction of the case had excluded 
all other issues. Virtually all the journal- 
ists, including H.L. Mencken, left town 
to avoid both the lull of a weekend 
recess and the expected anticlimax to 
follow. Thus, when Darrow induced 
Bryan to take the stand as an expert 
witness on the Bible, he spoke to a 
depleted local crowd and a skeleton 
crew of journalists. The reconstruction 
of Inherit the Wind and other accounts 
dramatize what was only an after- 
thought. 
It is not even clear why Raulston 
allowed Bryan to appear (since he had 
excluded experts of opposite persua- 
sion). The other prosecuting attorneys 
tried to dissuade Bryan, and Raulston 
finally expunged the entire exchange 
from the record. Bryan viewed the occa- 
sion as a desperate attempt to recover 
from Malone’s drubbing, but Darrow 
exposed him as a pompous fool. Still, the 
most famous moment of the exchange 
— when Bryan deserted strict funda- 
mentalist tenets by admitting that the 
days of Genesis might have lasted far 
longer than twenty-four hours — was not, 
as legend has it. a reluctant admission 
drawn forth by Darrow’s ruthless logic. 
Bryan offered this statement freely, as 
an initial response to a series of ques- 
tions. He did not seem to appreciate that 
local fundamentalists would regard it as 
a betrayal, and the surrounding world as 
a fatal inconsistency. 
Scopes’s conviction was eventually 
quashed on a technicality. Judge Raul- 
ston had set the fine of S 1 00 himself, but 
Tennessee law stated that all fines 
greater than S50 had to be recom- 
mended by the jury. With Bryan humil- 
iated and the conviction quashed, the 
legend of victory for the defense arose, 
thus completing the heroic version. But 
the Scopes trial was a defeat (or a 
victory so Pyrrhic that it scarcely de- 
serves the name) for several reasons. 
First, Bryan recouped by involuntarily 
taking the only option left for an imme- 
"HE PERCHED MOTIONLESS. 
I HELD MY BREATH AND REACHED 
FORMYNIKONS... 
...And suddenly it was as though I was 
next to him. I could make out every detail 
with incredible clarity and brilliance; the 
moist eyes, each feather stood out in 
startling detail. It was a moment I would 
never forget. I was glad I chose Nikons." 
It's moments like these that make you 
glad you didn't settle for anything less 
than Nikon Binoculars. Their superb 
■ ■< - 
Nikon 
g 1981 \ KON \C 
optics and uncompromising prism-lock 
construction are designed to give years 
of flawless performance even under the 
toughest conditions. 
There are more than 20 Nikon Bi- 
noculars to choose from. See them at 
your Nikon dealer or write Nikon Inc., 
Dept. 26, 623 Stewart Ave., Garden City, 
N.Y. 11530. 
15 
