Elder T. J. Bennett's Protection During Assault

While conducting an open-air meeting in Belfast, Ireland, Elder T. J. Bennett was physically assaulted by a drunken man. Despite the attacker dealing him two forcible blows on the neck and shoulder, and his later release by the police, order was restored, and Elder Bennett was able to finish his discourse. He subsequently continued holding meetings in the area without further incident.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 70, No. 24 (1908), p. 379):

While conducting an open-air meeting in the city of Belfast, Ireland, on Wednesday evening, the 27th ult., an unprovoked assault was made by a drunken man upon Elder T. J. Bennett, President of the Irish conference. The meeting was held at the junction of Corn Market and High Street, and was attended by a large crowd of people, who gave respectful audience to the addresses of the brethren. Toward the close of the meeting a burly and irreverent fellow, who gave unmistakable signs of having imbibed freely in Irish whiskey, stepped forward and dealt President Bennett two forcible blows on the neck and shoulder. Friends rushed to his assistance and grabbed his assailant, and, a policeman appearing on the scene, he was turned over to the officer of the law, who, we understand, soon after released him. Order was restored and Elder Bennett finished his discourse, at the close of which between two and three hundred tracts were distributed and a large number of books sold.