"Here now is an able thinker of Baltimore, Professor William Carpenter, who presents the claims of the Zetetic philosophy to be considered the leading issue of our times.... One of the great proofs of the truth of the philosophy is that the regular astronomers do not dare to gainsay it.... They are well aware there is no South pole.... Prof. Carpenter, in a treatise that has reached us, furnishes 100 proofs that the earth is flat, and while we cannot say that we understand all of them we appreciate the earnestness of his appeals to the moral people of the community to rise up and overthrow the miserable system of error that is being forced upon our children in the public schools, vitiating the very foundations of knowledge. What issue can be more noble or inspiring than Truth vs. Error? Here is an issue on which there can be no trifling or compromise. In the great contest between those who hold the earth is flat and they who contend that it is round, let the flats assert themselves."--Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug., 1886. [From a long article, "The Great Zetetic Issue."] LETTERS TO PROFESSOR GILMAN, OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 71 Chew Street, Baltimore, September 10, 1886. Prof. Gilman, Johns Hopkins University--Sir: On the 21st ultimo I wrote to ask you if you received the pamphlet, which I left for you at the University twelve months ago, entitled "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe," and, if so, that you would kindly give me your opinion concerning it. I write, now, to ask you if you received my letter. I am quite sure that you will consider that the importance of the subject fully warrants the endeavor on my part to gain the views which may be entertained by you respecting it. The fifth edition will soon be called for, and anything you may urge--for or against--I shall be happy to insert in the "appendix." I send, herewith, a copy of the fourth edition of the pamphlet. Yours sincerely, William Carpenter. 71 Chew Street, Baltimore, October 7, 1886. Professor Gilman--Dear Sir: I am now preparing the appendix for the fifth edition of my "One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe," and I should be glad to receive your opinion of this work to insert in the said appendix. I can offer you from a few lines to a page, or two if necessary. Of course, if this work as a whole be a fraud, it must be fraudulent in all its parts; and each one of the "hundred proofs" must contain a fallacy of some kind or other, and the thing would justify your disapprobation--expressed in few words or many. If, on the other hand, the work is what it professes to be, it will certainly claim your approval. Yours sincerely, W. Carpenter. 71 Chew Street, Baltimore, October 14, 1886.