Thoughts in a Haystack

Bryan, at Pikeville in the Sequatchie Valley, told an open-air meeting that the Scopes trial had uncovered "a gigantic conspiracy among the atheists and agnostics against the Christian religion."

From a quiescent Dayton, 20 miles away, the New York Times reported a lesser conspiracy: "it is not altogether improbable that the defense may call to the stand the chief of the prosecution, Mr. Bryan." The objective had been hinted on Friday in Darrow's comment that he was amazed that henceforth Bryan was to be "the one and only judge of what the Bible and Christianity mean."

- Ray Ginger, Six Days or Forever?

"I'm going to put a Bible expert on the stand 'bout day after tomorrow," Charles Francis Potter later recalled Darrow confiding to him on Saturday. "A greater expert than you -- greatest in the world -- he thinks." Potter understood immediately, and called it a master stroke. "Never mind the master stuff," Darrow replied, "and don't talk so loud. Too many reporters round here."

- Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods