"But I will not discuss confidential matters in the presence of any newspaper man," protested Dr. Fulton.
"Then in my turn," said Tilton, "I must decline to discuss the questions between us, in the presence of any clergyman."
At that point Dr. Armitage and his companions remonstrated with Dr. Fulton, declaring his position to be unreasonable and unfair, and telling him that if he persisted in it, they would at once withdraw.
Fulton yielded, and after an hour's angry sparring on his part and placidly self-possessed sword play of intellect on Tilton's side, Dr. Fulton submitted a proposal of arbitration, to which Tilton assented, with one qualification, namely, that if the finding of the arbitrators was to be published, in print, from the pulpit, or otherwise, he, Tilton, should be privileged to publish also a verbatim report of the testimony upon which it was founded.
Dr. Fulton rejected this absolutely, on the ground that he did not want his name to figure in "a newspaper sensation."
Still cool, self-possessed, and sarcastic, Tilton asked:
"Do I correctly understand you to mean, Dr. Fulton, that you shrink from sensationalism?"
"Yes, sir, that is exactly what I mean."
"Quite a new attitude of mind to you, isn't it, Doctor? I fear it will rob your preaching of much of its 'drawing' quality."
Dr. Fulton's advisers urged him to assent to Tilton's proposal as an entirely reasonable one, but he persistently refused, and the conference ended with nothing accomplished.