DOWN MEMORY LANE
They 'debated' the moon¹s substance

By Marilyn Burwell
Bend, Oregon

I am related to the Hancock family that first settled in Georgetown in 1875. My great grandparents, Elizabeth and William Hancock, came to Georgetown via New Zealand and Cornwall. William, Sr., was a hard-rock Cornish miner. The couple had eight children; four were born in New Zealand and four were born in Georgetown. Esther Hancock Ireland Zimmer (my grandmother) was born in New Zealand in 1870. Esther's two older brothers, William and James Hancock, owned a grocery/sundries store in Georgetown (where they even sold dynamite!) from September 1888 to 1911.

Esther's youngest brother, Charles John Hancock, whose "debate" follows below, was born in Georgetown on December 8, 1878. Charles later became the superintendent of the public power company in Clear Creek County. He and his wife, Mary McCluskey Hancock, raised two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, in Georgetown and Idaho Springs. Charles died in January 1934, and his family then moved to Denver. Elizabeth "Betty" Hancock, born in 1912, still lives in Denver.

The debate below was given at the December, 1897, Palladian. A Palladian was a gathering of young people in front of an audience where the youngsters performed vocals, piano pieces, recitations, or readings of original essays. Another popular item for a Palladian was a debate. In this one, Rob Adams gave the affirmative argument and Charles Hancock gave the negative argument. Rob and Charles were both in the class of 1898 at the Georgetown School.

From the Georgetown Courier
(12/25/1897):
Resolved: That the Moon is made of green cheese. Affirmative by Rob Adams
and the Negative by Charles Hancock.

Affirmative Points - Rob Adams:

  1. Tradition asserts that the moon is made of green cheese. We should not slather mud on the sacred robe of tradition.
  2. The Man in the Moon gets full of something every month. There is nothing else for him to eat. Therefore, he must eat green cheese.
  3. Jules Verne went to the moon and has since died. The plain inference is that he died of eating too much green cheese.

 

 

Charles John Hancock, Smile - and say 'cheese.'
Photo courtesy of Marilyn Burwell, Charles Hancock's grandniece.

 

Negative points - Charles Hancock:

  1. No one can support the affirmative unless he is so verdant that everything reflects his green color.
  2. It would take 100 billion women forty quadrillion years milking 60 trillion cows to get milk enough to make a piece of cheese as big as the moon.
  3. Everyone knows that the moon has no atmosphere. If it were made of green cheese, it would have an atmosphere.

The judge said that Rob won the debate because he quoted poetry and used bigger words in his closing speech. Rob also manufactured and produced documents. The Georgetown Courier said, "Each young man distinguished himself by the number, grace and originality of his gestures, particularly the number of them."

 



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