Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-06-24

tbe Ear West-How He Met His Wife.
 Pushed Into Poiitics-His Eleven Terms
 In Conversations Life on the Farm
 Personal Characteristics.
 .The time has come. the walrus said R no talk of many things.
 -..Alice In Wonderland
 And now it is time to talk of Bland of Missouri-Dick Bland, as he is fondly termed by all those who live in and around the little town of Lebanon, which has been his home for the last 20 years-time to talk of him because pub- & lie interest in him is just now at white heat The silver question, his beloved hobby, to which he has devoted the best years of his life, has now so far devel- oped that the tail has dropped off the interrogation point, and it is no longer q question, but determined proposi- tion-the gold men say menace-and MT Bland may be called upon to take charge of the great. untutored force which his efforts have evoked.
 In view of such contingency. it is we'll to know something more about this man, something more than the bare fact that he is and has been for a score or more of years the acknowledged na-. tional champion of free silver.
 Richard Parks Bland was born near Hartford, Ky, Aug. 19, 1885. His par ents wern peor His father died when he was a litre baby, and his mother passed away when Richard was boy of 12
 From that time the life of Dick s1J 2 | l. .E America's great men. He first secured work as hired farmland at ST month He used to rise before dawn, and after a breakfast Of plain, coarse food wait for daybreak to begin his work, which lasted through the burning summer sun until after twilight.
 The few hours he had were given to diligent study and were never idle rec aeation.
 In the Wild West.
 \ few years later the orphan moved with family of relatives to Virginia City, Nev., and it is of these years i'll the new, wild west that MT. Bland tells many amusing and interesting stories Here he rose to the dignity of school teacher, but instead of branching out, :" as the young men of today, he saved as much as possible from his small salary for the education of a younger sister. These amounts were sent by travellers in stagecoaches to faraway Missouri. In every way he endured the hardships and sacrifices which make men great.
 The youthful schoolmaster after 8 time became quite Beau Brummel in the smart set. ' He taught singing school and courted many of the fair maidens who learned from him the good old songs.
 # After a number of years Mir. Bland concluded to visit Missouri, the home of his childhood. Of course he was ex- pected to make the round of the different schools and received pressing invita- ton from one of the professors to attend the commencement at Bellevue, young girls seminary in Caledonia Mo.
 It was during the period when de- bates first became a fad, especially at young women's schools. The thrilling subject for that memorable day was, Does Hope or Memory Exert Most h. fiuence Upon the World?" Miss Virginia Mitchell. daughter of General E. Y. Mitchell and niece of Judge Thomas, now assistant attorney general, a lovely girl with brown curls, violet eyes and a Madonnalike face and gowned in sim pie white, contended that "hope" ex- cited greater influence and Mr. Bland thought so too. At least he was inspired with so much of it that he let some ex pression of it escape him ill the course sof conversation with Miss Mitchell Tho ToC111t hot bo nized as the accepted suitor for her hand and after a proper term of courtship the young pedagogue took her as his wife
 He ''settled down, as the country phrase goes, at Rolla, Phelps county, Mo, in 1865, and began the practice of law. His studious energy and indefati- gable will soon won him a place at the head of the local bar. He afterward moved to Lebanon, and 1t was not long until he was picked out as good congress sional timber and sent to Washington to help make the laws of the land. @ His untiring fight for free silver, which he continued through the successive ses- s1ons of congress held during his eleven s& terms of service as representative, is a matter of history with which all are ac quGinted
 & His Home Life.
 While 1t cannot be denied that, like an old warhorse, Mir Bland has found real enjoyment in the endless battle he has waged, his home life i'll Missouri has been his greatest joy. He is plain, s imassumlng man, even in the glare of public life but at home he is unconven- tionality itself
 His two story red brick house stands $ one mile from Lebanon. When he goes into Lebanon twice week for his mail, # he rides an ancient black pony named # Mollie, and his feet nearly touch the z ground on either side. The people of M Lebanon have laughed at Mollie for .& N Ial-