It is truly said, custom governs practice, fashion rules the day. This is almost invariably true. It is so common for those who write books to open their pages with a preface that the author's work would be considered very incomplete should he fail to write one also. The preface is intended, as a rule, to give the reasons for the book's appearance and an introduction to the line of thought contained in the book.
We had no idea of writing a book in order to expose Mormonism till after the debate we held with them at Fayette City, Pa. We had been challenged for such debate many times but never could succeed in getting them to discuss such propositions as we were willing to debate. For years we had been satisfied that those who had debated with Mormons had given them unnecessary advantage in the way of propositions. They invariably sought propositions that gave them opportunity to play upon side issues and give simply a rehash of matter that they had delivered in lectures and preached in sermons till they had it by heart. We determined that they should not have this opportunity in the Fayette City debate. Besides we felt that if they were taken from their stereotyped course of presenting their doctrines, they would be utterly at a loss, and manifest clearly their inability to sustain their system. Our conjecture proved to be true. The proposition as we affirmed was: Joseph Smith, the reputed prophet and the author of the Book of Mormon, was as imposter and the Book of Mormon is a fraud. It took some time to get them to agree to discuss the difference as stated in our affirmative. They wanted to divide the burden of proof. Finally we notified them that we would be at Fayette City the first of March, 1900, prepared to meet any Mormon cham-
