Some Facts and More Facts About the Self-Styled “Pastor” Charles T. Russell (of Millennial Dawn Fame), “Pamphlet, sub-titled ‘The history of the Libel Case: “Pastor” Russell before the Courts’”
““Do you know the Greek”? Asked the Attorney. “Oh, yes,” was Russell’s reply. Here he was handed a copy of the New Testament in Greek, by Westcott & Hort, and asked to read the letters of the alphabet as they appear on the top of page 447. He did not know the alphabet. “Now,” asked Mr. Staunton, “Are you familiar with the Greek language?” “No,” said Mr. Russell, without a blush.”
Ross, a Baptist minister in Hamilton, Ontario, was prosecuted by Russell for defamatory libel over a leaflet Ross had published in June 1912. This pamphlet is Ross’s own account of the proceedings, published after they ended, and the passage above is his narrative of the examination of 17 March 1913 with snatches of dialogue quoted inside it — not a transcript. Elsewhere in the same pamphlet Ross does print question-and-answer material, which he says he holds as certified transcripts.
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Provenance and verification note for Some Facts and More Facts About the Self-Styled “Pastor” Charles T. Russell (of Millennial Dawn Fame), Pamphlet, sub-titled ‘The history of the Libel Case: “Pastor” Russell before the Courts’
Confidence note. Both separately digitised printings were opened and the passage read; the wording is the same in each, so it is not an artefact of one scan. In both printings this is the only place in the pamphlet where the words “alphabet” or “447” occur, and the tidy question-and-answer version that circulates online appears in neither. What cannot be confirmed is the content: this is the defendant in Russell’s own prosecution writing about his own case, and no court record, official transcript or contemporary newspaper report of the Hamilton examination was located. It is not the court record, and it is not evidence of what was said in court.
Scan provenance. Two separately digitised printings were opened: the “Forty-sixth Thousand” (Philadelphia School of the Bible) at archive.org/details/SomeFactsAndMoreFactsAboutCharlesTazeRussell, and the “Thirteenth Thousand” (North-West Bible and Tract Depot, Winnipeg) filmed by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions at archive.org/details/cihm_87677.
Notes. The same pamphlet reproduces, in question-and-answer form, passages of Maria Russell’s sworn direct examination in the Pennsylvania Common Pleas trial, which Ross says he holds as a transcript certified by the official court reporter Alexander Callow. Ross also records that “the jury found absolutely no ground for libel and handed down the verdict ‘no bill’” (page 15), and, writing on 26 May 1913, that this was “on the 1st ult.”, that is 1 April 1913. The pamphlet’s reliability is limited on its face: the leaflet of June 1912 that it reprints states that Russell’s wife “divorced him a few years ago on the ground of cruelty and of having wrong relations with other women” and that “In court, she proved improprieties between her husband and one Rose Ball” — both of which the record in this ledger contradicts.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-ross-1913-some-facts-more-facts