Conservative *
OPEN LETTISH TO Mil. BKYAN.
It is often a thankless and sometimes
considered an ungracious task to write
a public letter to a public man. Be
lieving , however , that my thirst for
knowledge justifies the course , I shall
take the chance of both contingencies.
In case that you may feel disposed to
combat my right to question you in this
manner let mo point out to you that you
are asking of me and my fellow citizens
the greatest gift that it is in our power to
bestow. You want us to make you presi
dent of the United States that is , you
want to become the most trusted and
highest salaried employe of the greatest
concern on earth.
Well , I am a plain business man , and
I choose to look at this matter in what I
consider a common-sense that is a busi
ness way. Rest assured that I am not
going to call you "liar" or "coward" or
to use any other terms of a similar
character that have already been era
ployed , this early in the campaign , by
the blatant person you have selected to
operate your press bureau.
I choose to consider you honest in
your convictions till you are proved
otherwise. But I want some informa
tion , and it is every man's privilege to
obtain that if we can , is it not ?
You are a young man , Mr. Bryan , as
presidential candidates go , though in
this distinctively yonug men's age that
is nothing to your discredit. In order
that you may not misunderstand my
motives or cavil at my sincerity I wish
to place a parallel before you. If any
person comes to me and asks mo for a
position , particularly one of great trust
and I have such a vacancy , I naturally
try to find out something of his capacity
his honesty and his reliability.
Now , in this case I do want a presi
dent no denying that. And I rnak
bold to say that I want to see a good one
occupying that honored place just as
much probably as you do , and certainlj
without any of the personal ambition
you possess with regard to the position
Indeed , I feel that I may be less pre
judiced than you are. Do not misunder
stand me when I talk of your "ambition. '
I use the word in its best sense. It i J an
honorable striving that you need not to
ashamed of.
So , holding that ambition , you com <
and ask me , and many millions of my
fellows , for this exalted post. Our gen
era ! office is the blue arch of the sky ,
and here you stand before us with your
bright face and your magnetic and
pleasing personality no mean asset for
an applicant ready to be examined con
cerning your qualifications.
Stand up , please , Mr. Bryan. Let us
reason together.
A man at the head of a great institu
tion must necessarily have a keen in
sight into the future. So first lot us see
how you stand that test. In your speech
before the democratic national conven
tion delivered on July 9 , 1800 , you made
this statement , as reported in the official
volume of the national committee by
the official stenographer of the conven
tion :
"Mr. McKiuley was the most popular
man among the republicans and every
body in the republican party three
months ago prophesied his election. How
is it to'ay ? Why , that man who used
to boast that he looked like Napoleon ,
that man shudders today when he thinks
that he was nominated on the anniver
sary of the battle of Waterloo. Not
only that , but , as ho listens , he can hear
with ever-increasing distinctness the
sound of the waves as they beat upon
the lonely shores of St. Helena. "
Now , really , doesn't that sound a
little , just a little , foolish ? I have
searched diligently through every pub
lished speech of your opponent made in
that campaign , and I can find nothing
to equal the wonderful accuracy of its
prophecy , its manly treatment of an
honorable foe or its utter absence of
bombast.
Some misguided persons seem to have
got the impression that you are a
"quack. " That is a very great error.
A quack is a man who has one medicine
that is warranted to cure all the ills that
exist in the world. His remedy is just
as efficacious for consumption as for
falling hair. But you reverse that
theory. You secure a new and entirely
different remedy for the same disease
every four years.
In another part of your address before
the convention of 1896 you made this
emphatic declaration :
"Now , my friends , let us come to the
great paramount issue. If they ask us
here why it is we say more on the money
question than wo say on the tariff ques
tion I reply that if protection has slain
its thousands the gold standard has slain
its tens of thousands. If they ask us
why we did not embody all these things
in our platform which we believe , we
reply to them that when wo have re
stored the money of the constitution all
other necessary reforms will be possible ,
and that , until that is done , there is no
reform that can be accomplished. "
But what you choose to term "the
money of the constitution" has not been
"restored , " and the country still lives ,
and worries along fairly well. More
wonderful still , though the things that
were facts four years ago are facts to
day , you have already changed the med
icine.
Let us take a case in point. Suppose
that four years ago members of your
family were taken down with a serious
illness. You called in a physician and
he prescribed a remedy that he praised
till he was blue in the face not only as a
certain , speedy and wonderful cure , but
as the only cure under heaven that
would do the afflicted ones any good.
You did not like his ways and sent for
another doctor , who restored the family
; o perfect health in a very little while ,
and by treatment radically opposed to
the whole theory of the other man.
Throe years later , with your family
still in perfect health , the first doctor
comes round again and tries to convince
you that the folks are very sick.
"But , " you protest , "they are not
sick. "
"Oh , yes they are , " he says. "You
may not know it , but they are. "
"I'm perfectly satisfied with our present -
sent physician , " you reply. "Besides ,
the nostrum you offered four years ago
would have killed them. If they were
really sick now , which they are not , I
suppose you would want to try your old
infallible remedy on them ? "
And , to your amazement ho replies :
"Oh , no , indeed ! I've a now cure
that beats that all to smash. "
What would you say to that doctor ,
Mr. Bryan ?
Postponing the further investigation
of your qualifications for a little while ,
believe mo , yours very respectfully ,
A CHICAGO BUSINESS MAN.
Chicago Times-Herald.
Nature and nur
FOLLOWED. ture work together
in the scion of the
peerless and matchless Bryan. His son ,
whom Gen. Joe Wheeler saved from
headlong death recently , was only emu
lating and imitating his illustrious sire
when he hung'out of an upper window
and , with a string and sounding cymbal ,
attempted to attract the attention of
those in the basement while those above
ground could not fail to wonder at him.
The old man has given the boy , by
heredity , an over-weaning taste for the
stage and transmitted a keen ambition ,
while living upon a comfortable com
petence acquired in the show business ,
to circulate and scintillate among the
upper strata of society and still hold the
love and acclaim of the basements "tho
poor man" and "the plain people. "
Blood will tell. Example will influence.
Hanging out of upper-story windows
and assuming the grand and spectacular
is a family characteristic.
The Nebraska
NEW GOODS.
City Canning
Manufactory is the largest and most
successful establishment of the kind in
the state of Nebraska.
It cans corn which is tantamount to
all other canned goods. But it is like
the Kansas City convention because ,
after its tantamount corn , it packs a
paramount tomato. A packery that
cannot , in these competitive days , put
up tantamount and paramount goods ,
can't amount to as much as a catamount
in a lion's den. Call for canned tanta
mount corn or canned paramount toma
toes and you will uphold goods of mir
aculous perfection.