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The Commoner.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 24
1IE CONVENTION OF 1800
(Continued from Pago 5)
of both silver and gold at tho present
legal ratio of sixteen to one, with
out waiting for tho aid or consent of
any othor nation."
As ho paused again thore was no
general outburst, but individual calls
from all parts of tho Hall, nice tho
''Anions" in an old-fashioned rovival
meeting: "How was that?" "Qlvo
us that again!" "Head that onco
more!"
"if tho convention will bo quiot,"
rospondod Mr. Jones, "I will road it
as many times as you want to hear
it."
Every voice on tho floor was
hushed as ho repeated tho resonant
phrases, carefully enunciating word
by word. Loud cheers followed. Ho
thou pressed on to the legal-tender
clauso and tho rest, but tho ohthus
iasm of tho dologates had boon
aroused to such a fovor-hoat by tho
freo-coliiago paragraph that what
came later won but an indifferont re
ception. A divorsion was created when
"Don" Tillman, of South Carolina,
flung out a speech, in which ho frank
ly arrayed tho south and west
against tho north and oast and de
clared that 'another soctional strug
glo was at hand. Somo of his ad
versaries tried to hiss him down.
others started a band of music play
ing, but ho perslstod till ho had ex
hausted tho timo allowed him. David
B. Hill, of Now York, camo next, with
a speoch designed to furnish the
convention with a basis for a com
promise on the silver Issue. But the
convention would havo none of II;
tho silverites wore in the saddle, and
they purposod staying thore till they
had routed the foo. Hill had a sore
throat, too, which added to tho im
patience of tho crowd, and, as his
remarks wore scarcely audible at
my seat, 1 seized tho opportunity to
run out for a hurried luncheon.
When I roturned, Bryan had just
"begun tho speoch for which ho had
been priming himself in the morn
ing. Alroady he had tho whole con
vention listening with such eager
ness that no sound except what he
"was making could bo heard oven out
by the doors. It was a hot day, and
evory one who could dispense with
his coat, or his coat and waistcoat,
his collar or his tlo, had done so.
As the speech advanced, heads were
bent farther forward; men who were
hard of hearing held their hollowed
hands at their ears. Tho telegraph
boys were spellbound, like all the
others, and stood motionless, drink
ing in period after period with
mouths opon and eyes fixed. In spite
of tho heat, scarcely a fan moved in
tho galleries.
The speaker was in splendid form,
his voico perfect, his momjry true,
his tongue unhalting. Steadily, like
a skilled fisherman drawing his line
taut, ho led that audience of fifteen
thousand souls after him to the con
clusion: "We shall answer thoir demands
for a gold standard by saying to
them, You shall not press down upon
the brow of labor this crown of
thorns!"
hero his two hands, raised to tho
sides of his head, the flngors Bpread
and bont inward, moved slowly down
and close up to his temples, so that
a spectator was almost hvrmnHwnri
into seeing tho thorns piercing the
urow ana mo blood trickling from
tho wounds
"You shall not crucify mankind
upon a cross of gold!"
The hands which had been press
ing down tho crown of thorns 'had
left the head and followed tho arms
out. at right angles to tho body.
And there stood tho crucified man
before us in tho flesh!
For perhaps five seconds tho ora
tor remained immovable in this
statuesque pose. Then his arms
dropped to his sides, and ho stopped
vory slightly back.
Tho spell which had held that
great multitude in hypnotic bondage
was suddenly loosed, and tho storm
broke. Men on tho floor, men and
women in tho galleries, wore on
their feet, many of thorn on chairs,
yelling like mad. Hats, canes, fans,
handkerchiefs. neckwear, coats,
waistcoats, nowspapors anything
looso enough and light enough to be
so used were tossed into tho air.
Tho band was probably playing its
loudest, for the cheeks of the musi
cians wore puffed out and tho con
ductor was swinging his baton like
a vitalized pendulum; but so far as
tho audience were concerned it was
moro dumb show. The hubbub would
swell, and die down, and swell again
like the surf coming in on an open
beach. Scores of small American
flags blossomed out all over tho hall.
The banners and standards of several
states were caught up by the dele
gates nearest them, borne to the
seats of tho NnhniRkn. dolocation.
w-- . ---..- .. -- -tj"- r
and grouped around the Nebraska
standard. In the whole multitude
tho'only calm person was Bryan him
solf, who had retired to his old chair,
and sat with his hands in his lap, re
sponding pleasantly to tho remarks
his friends shouted into his ear, but
with a detached air, as if the ova
tion were a tribute to some strancer
and not to himself.
Thore is no authentic record of the
length of time this extraordinary
demonstration lasted. It had broken
out so suddenly, and differed so in
spontaneity from tho customary up
roar raised by the boomers of a can
didate, that few persons had thought
to draw their watches on it. It is
safe to say, however, that a half
hour elapsed before order could be
quite restored. Then Senator Hill,
as the representative of the minority
of tho committee on resolutions,
realizing the hopelessness of buffet
ing against such a tide as. had risen
for free silver coinage, but still re
solved to give the convention one
last chance to conciliate the eastern
wing of the party, offered amend
ments to the financial plank making
tho legal-tender quality of the silver
dollar inapplicable to contracts al
ready existing, and pledging tho sus
pension of free coinage if, after a
year's experiment, it could not effect
a parity between gold and silver at
tho existing ratio. Both failed
ignominiously. Then he tried a
resolution commending "the honesty,
economy, courage, and fidelity of the
present democratic administration."
It was met with laughter and hisses.
ine party had cut loose from Presi
dent Cleveland and purposed staying
loose, and that was all there was of
it. So, after the adoption of the
platform as it had come from tho
hands of the committee, there was
nothing left but to adjourn until
evening. Bryan's friends realized
the opportunity this brnntiifiif.cmaii
would offer for active work in his
behalf, while the. well-advertlsod
candidates saw that thoir only hope
of staying the movement which obvi
ously had set in toward him was to
lot the delegates be shaken up by a
few hours' contact with the outside
world.
The evening session was devoted
to nominating speeches. Tho roll of
states was called; Alabama waived
its privileges, and Arkansas yielded
to Missouri so that Georgo G. Vest
could present the name of the man
who for twenty-odd years had led
every fight in congress in favor of
free silver coinago, Richard P
Bland. Up to that time Bland had
been looked upon by the public at
largo as the most promising candi
date in tho silver faction of the
democratic party. He had como into
the convention with four states at
his back and pledges from a number
of others as their second choice
Othor speakers in hiB behalf came
from Illinois and Kansas, Arkansas
to which Missouri yielded in her
turn Texas, and Utah. Matthews
of Indiana, Blackburn of Kentucky,
and McLean of Ohio each found pro
posers and seconders a-plenty; and
Bryan was put forward by several
delegates as their preference, almost
invariably with some phrase like
"tho silver-tongued orator," "elo
nuent as Clay." "a new Cicero,"
eulogistic of his gift of oral expres
sion, and harking back to the effect
produced by his speech of the after
noon. The one sensational feature of the
evening occurred when the name of
Horace Boles, of Iowa, was sprung
upon the assemblage. Boies, with
his extreme views on both green
backs and silver, had so far out
Bryaned Bryan that many of his
friends believed he might yet capture
tho nomination. Mr. White, of his
delegation, had presented his claims
in a very clever speech which had
drawn forth many plaudits, when a
young woman seated in a gallery at
the east end of the hall rose and
threw herself forward with shrill
cries of "Boies! Boies! Boies! Hur
rah for Boies! Horace Boies! Horace
Boies!" Her girlish figure, clad in
white, stood out sharply against its
darker background, and she swung
her hat as she shouted, letting her
hair go as it would.
A few Iowans recognized their
opportunity, and, running up to the
gallery, escorted her down to the
floor. By this time the contagion
of her excitement had spread, and
when she snatched the Iowa banner
from the hand of a man who had
brought it forward and started with
it on a march through the hall, fol
lowed by the male supporters of her
candidate and several standard
bearers from other states, a big pro
cession soon formed. As up and
down the aisles it marched, shouting
the name of Boies, and fairly drown
ing out the quickstep the musicians
were struggling to play for its bene
fit, there flashed into a thousand
minds at once a suggestion of the
Maid of Orleans, and every one was
on the qui vive to learn the identity
of this modern Jeanne. She proved
to be Miss Minnie Murray, of Nashua,
Iowa, an enthusiast for tho nomina
tion of the only governor the demo
crats of her state had been able to
elect since the civil war.
It was a scene which nobody who
witnessed it will ever forget, and the
oniy one m tno course of the conven
tion which rivaled the demonstra
tion over the cross-of-gold speech.
But, like all the other outbursts, it
spent itself presently; and the regu
lar proceedings, rendered pitifully
tame by contrast, were resumed.
The most notable feature of the
evening, aside from tho Boies inci
dent, was the withdrawal of the
names of several men whose candi
dacy had been previously announced
in the press, because they did not
care to be nominated on such a plat
form as tho convention had adopted
Shortly before midnight the meeting
broke up, and the discussion of men
and measures was transferred from
the convention hall to the hotel
lobbies.
Next morning, when the fourth
day's session opened, some of the
states offered belated nominating
speeches, and the balloting for a
presidential candidate began
There were five ballots, or, more
accurately, four ballots and a riot
Bland led through the first three'
with Bryan following close. On the
fourth, Bryan, who had been steadily
gaining, shot ahead of Bland. Under
the two-thirds rule, 512 votes wore
necessary to a .choice, and Bryan had
corraled 280 to Bland's 241. There
upon the combined opposition to
Bryan began to go down like a row
of bricks Btood on end. Kentucky
led off T)y changing her twenty-six
votes from Blackburn to Bryan;
Ohio followed with tho transfer of
forty-six from McLean to Bryan;
next camo Iowa, withdrawing Boies
and throwing twenty-six for Bryan;
and into lino fell promptly Arkansas,
Montana, Indiana, Texas, and all ex
cept six of the other states and ter
ritories with full or split delega
tions, utterly regardless of alpha
betical order. Amid a deafening
tumult, tho tally clerks managed to
foot 652 votes to Bryan's credit, and
a motion was mad that his nomi
nation be declared unanimous The
chair announced that it was carried,
wholly ignoring the protests of the
few conservatives who had con
sented to vote at all since the adop
tion of the platform.
July 11 was the fifth and last day
of the convention. What struck
every observer most at the .outset
was the thinness of the attendance.
More than two hundred and fifty
delegates had started for home, or
asked to be excused from voting. I
had borrowed the badge of an ab
sentee and went into the body of
the hall, where I strolled quietly
from delegation to delegation, con
versing in a casual way with any
body I found sociably inclined. It
was a worried-looking group of men.
The life seemed suddenly to have
gone out of the whole gathering. All
I could think of was the reaction I
had occasionally witnessed in a band
of convivial spirits on the morning
after a "grand good time."
I would remark to a man: "Well,
we did a big day's work yesterday!"
And he would answer, after a sig
nificant little pause: "Yes, I reckon
Mr. Bryan will get a right smart
vote;" or, "They tell me Bryan will
carry the west;" or, "Bryan's a
speakerif they'll only let him
stump the country;" or, "I'd rather
have had Bland, but I guess Bryan
will put up a good enough fight." In
nearly every response there was that
indescribable note of reserve which
you are fairly sure of drawing from
a man who is not quite steady after
a shock, but is bound to make the
best of things. Here and there I
would find a delegate who had been .
friendly to Bryan from the hour ho
This Dainty Lingerie Hat
Sent Without Cost
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in?endGdeUtvlUl des.Iffn Illustrated I
Tr.iai, t i urul . nat stamped, on White
Irish Linen, size 18x36 Inches Includ-
ver WUSnniUr 8upDrly will noflSt
very long. Order as No. C7. Address,
THE AMERICAN IIOMESTEAD,
Lincoln, Neb,
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