8
W. J. BRYAN.
Human nature has made it necessary
aud perhaps best that all over this
land two opinions exist about the leader
of the minority party in this govern
ment. One opinion that held by his
partisans is this , that William Jen
nings Bryan had god-like courage and
indomitable energy directed by divine
wisdom ; that he is saintly in self-efface
ment and heroic in achievement for the
poor and oppressed. Another opinion
that held by those who differ with Mr.
Bryan about the coinage of silver is
this , that he is an arrant demagogue ,
vacillating by nature , consciously
dishonest , the malicious soul of error ,
and the fountain head of treasonable
doctrines which invite anarchy by the
attempt to establish socalism.
Of course , both estimates of Mr. Bry
an's character are incorrect the esti
mate of his friends as surely as that of his
enemies. Nature never made a human
being entirely good or entirely bad. Yet ,
ordinarily , in Presidential years intelli
gent Americans forget that the habitat
of heroes and of villains is in books and
plays. Maybe citizens take this unrea
sonable view of candidates for office
because to the popular mind an election
is an act in a drama aud all the men and
women merely players. So it is easy to
consider one of the foremost characters
in contemporary history , not as a hero
or as a villain , but as "a prosperous
gentleman , " without cherubic wings
chafed by his suspenders , and without
cloven hoofs under his respectable shoes.
Perhaps the direct way to this object is
to introduce as "Exhibit A" a few lines
descriptive of Mr. Bryan as he appears
to the naked eye.
The first impression one receives of
the man , and the last impression to
fade , is that of youth ; not the youth of
immaturity ; not the youth of mad van
ity and folly ; but the youth of the
bridegroom coming forth from his
chamber , rejoicing as a strong man ; the
youth of hope , of enthusiasm , of bright
eyes that indicate a good liver and
reflect a brave soul. All the lines of the
tall figure that inclose over 200 pounds
of wholesome flesh and blood are lines
of young manhood. The crescent of his
slowly growing vest is the orescent of a
young moon , and although Bryan's hair
is receding from his brow no wrinkles
mark it , and beneath it is a Welsbach
smile , clear and steadfast and oheerfnl
as the sunrise. At home , in his office ,
or in the street , that smile is winning.
It is its owner's talisman. But in pub
lic life and Bryan is more natural there
than in private life ( indeed he has little
private life ) in public life that smile is
the pyrotechnic obligate for a saxophone
voice. Back of the broad chin is a
strong jaw ; under the jaw a neck , ob
stinate as a Turk's , slopes into a pair of
as diplomatic shoulders as ever saved an
The Conservative *
Irishman's head from a blackthorn
stick.
Clothe a handsome figure in a blaok
kail coat , and under the awning of a
black slouch hat put a low out vest , with
two studs fastened through the front of
a white shirt ; tie a blaok string tie , the
inevitable neokgear of the young law
yer ten years ago , under a laydown col
lar ; modify the chill atmosphere of the
bar by the breezy amiability of a St.
Louis shoe drummer , repressed while
tie sells a Methodist deacon a bill of
goods , and the gentle reader may have a
fair idea of how Bryan looks , acts ,
moves , and has his being when he is not
before an audience.
In Bryan's book , "The First Battle , "
iris wife has written a short biography
of her husband. In this she tells of his
boy life ; how he did the chores on his
father's town farm ; how he hunted rab
bits ; how he "joined church , " and de
cided , as many boys do at some stage of
their lives , to become a preacher , and
compromised on the bar ; how he went
to school , and how this is the first key
to his character "he developed an in
terest in the work of the literary soci
eties. " This debating society busi
ness was the youth's stronghold. His
wife puts it hapily thus : "a prize al
ways fired William's ambition. During
his first year in the academy ( the pre
paratory department of Illinois College )
he declaimed Patrick Henry's master
piece , and ranked well down the list.
Nothing daunted , the next year found
him with the 'Palmetto and the Pine' as
his subject. The next year , a freshman
in college , he tried for a prize in Latin
prose and won half the second prize.
Later in the year he declaimed 'Bernar
do del Oarpio , ' and gained second prize.
In his second year he entered another
contest , with an essay on 'Labor. ' This
time the first prize rewarded his work.
An oration on 'Individual Powers' gave
him a place in the intercollegiate con
test held at Galesburg , where he ranked
second. "
Now , if the republicans fancy that
they can talk Mr. Bryan down , they
may see their mistake in this record.
Ho is only up to "The Palmetto and the
Pine" contest this year , with three more
contests yet before him. After gradua
tion Bryan went into law , and glided
from law to politics with "that mild and
healing sympathy" that stole away his
practice e'er he was aware. He moved
from Jacksonville , 111. , to Lincoln , Neb. ,
and in 1888 he stumped the First Con
gressional District for J. Sterling Mor
ton. Two years later , he canvassed the
district for himself and won. After two
terms in Congress , one of which was
served on the Ways and Means com
mittee , Bryan came home to find moth
and rust corrupting his law books , so he
closed them and turned to his true love
"the people. " He ran for the Unitec
States Senate in ' 94. When he failed of
election he packed his grip aud went
forth preaching the silver gospel. Ho
ectured for pay when he could get it ,
'or nothing when he could do no better ;
nit he never stopped talking , and ho
paid his own way. In the two years
preceding ' 90 , Bryan went into nearly
every state in the Mississippi valley , and
ho spoke but one message the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1.
Thus it happened that , when dele
gates to the National Democratic convention -
vention began to rise in the various
states , a hundred of them knew Bryan
and scores of them had written to him
urging him to run for the Presidential
nomination.
In the Chicago convention the theo
rists prevailed. It was clearly the sense
of the meeting that man is a creature of
the state , rather than that the state is a
creation of man. It was preeminently
an emotional occasion. The orator who
could arouse some one , challenge some
one , defy some one else , and plead for
something that orator could best voice
the sentiments of his auditors. That
orator was Bryan. His magnificent
earnestness was hypnotic. Because he
Lost no force of his eloquence convincing
himself , the weight of all his rhetoric ,
of his splendid magnetic presence , of
his resonant voice , fell upon the dele
gates and filled them with the frenzy
that has made every reckless mob of
history. Bryan's supremacy in the Chicago
cage convention was as inevitable as
Robespierre's in the Assembly. And he
did even more than hypnotize the dele
gates. Through the nerves of the tele
graph that speech thrilled a continent ,
and for a day a nation was in a state of
mental and moral catalepsy.
Bryan is deadly serious. From the
caverns of his inexperience comes no
cackle of mirth at his own presumption ,
such as invariably comes to a man of
ripe philosophy. Bryan sees in his
creed the truth , the whole truth , and
nothing but the truth. With him an
expeditious compromise would be a dis
honorable surrender. The easy circum
stances of his early life , his present en
vironment in the primrose path , his
felicitous career following the beckon-
ings of a mastering ambition these
things conspire to persuade him that he
is a statesman of destiny. Men who
fight their way up from the bottom to
the top of fortune's hill are apt to take ,
personal credit for their victories and 0
believe little in the influence of the
state. But Bryan's early rise has so
confused him that it is natural for him
to hold that the state can make or break
men. His career makes it proper that
he should teach that the state , by
proclamation and enactment , can coax
the coy millennium out of the roseate
dawn and put salt on her tail. For him
to hold another view would argue in him
a vanity that is foreign to him.
Bryan is distinctly of the old school.
