The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
BRYAN'Ss Personal TRAITS.
His Belief i'm His D~estiny-Hi Value
as a Watering-Place Star.

Letter IN New YORK POST.
The newspaper writer's who make a spe-
candidates have been on a long hunt
throughout that part of the West in which
Bryan passed his youth for some bad
boy stories of his early career. They
have had no success thus fer. His boy
hood seems to have been uneventful- But
they have d~iscoyered plenty OF evidence
w future as a child of destiny" What
Mrs. Diggs, the Populist, said after his
nomination, that he had been raised up by
God TO head a great popular revolution re-
fleets a megrim which has possessed his
own brain for many years. He seems TO
have begun his education in public affairs
by reading all the books Dromotive of So
cial and political ~vagaries. and to have
adapted their contents to his own uses as
his speeches. and treating them as some of
the false prophets in Oriental history have
taken the sacred writings as inspired for
their special benefit, indicative of the
mission to which they had been ordained
by the hand Of Deity and guides TO their
conduct as leaders and rulers of men.
humans n9g nature mpe To nFT make it fe pERain to the pra CO
teal mind that fatalism, or a blind conceit
as to his own status as a divine agent. is
a dangerous element in the moral outfit
of a man who aspires to direct the admins
tration of the affairs of siXty-five millions
of free people. Several persons who have
met Bryan for the first time since his NOM
ination have been struck by the peculiar
CLINT in his. eye, and have wondered
whether his head had not been suddenly
turned by his elevation. Inquiry has con-
WINGED them that he comes by some of his
peculiarities through. heredity. His father
Judge Silas Bryan. was considered the most
where in the West. He used to open the
sessions of his court with prayer, and, In
the midst of O. case which seemed to him
particularly knotty, old lawyers say that
he would kneel In open court and invoke
divine guidance. Whether he got IL or not
will probably always be an open question.
he assumed that he did, and believed-or
professeG TO believe-that his decisions.
after such an invocation. were inspired.
What aroused in some other minds a sus-
picion that his inspiration came from a
less exalted source was the fact that so
many of his decisions were overruled by
the higher court on appeal: but 1t is told
circumstance, he complacently answered.:
We'll, the Supreme Cour.-s wrong. and
Gods right" Nevertheless. the Supreme
Courts Interpretation of the law is the
one which is now accepted as the ruling
precedent, and not Judge Bryan's inspira-
ton.
Whether candidate Brvan's faith in him
self rests on just the same foundation as
his fathers il would be hard TO say: but
that he is absurdly credulous as 10 the
support he is to receive is too obvious to
be ignored. A paragraph which has ap-
peared in some OF the Western newspapers
lately announcing that he would address,
by invitation. a large assemblage of guests
at a populous summer resort in New York
State offers an Illustration in point. Such
invitations are taken by him and by the
little coterie of admirers who surround
him as a proof that he is going to capture
~strOngholds in the East which AVE here
tofore been considered i~npregnabie in their
Republicanism Is a matter of fact. those
who are ION the inside know that. the
sunmer-Tesort proprietors are on the look
out for curiosities for the entertainment of
their visitors and the advertisement of
their property. A few davs ago a deputa-
ton from an interior town in Iowa. little
known TO the world outside. called upon
Bryan with an invitation to address them
and their fellow-citizens on his way to or
from New York. Re turned them over 10
his campaign managers for an answer,
but his evident pleasure at their invitation
TO invade a strong Republican field con-
WINGED them that If he we're consulted in
the matter he would gladly accept. They
left him. therefore. full of encouragement.
But. happening to dile at the same hotel
with the deDutation on their return jour-
ney, the writer took occasion to question
them and discovered that the invitation
proceeded from citizens who were going to
vote for Mckinney quite as much as from
those on the other side of the political
fence. Indeed. the chief member of the
deputation was a Mckinley man. who took
care. of course. not to fly his colors in
the presence of the PoDocratic candidate.
The object of the townsoeoDle was. not
10 have their ideas on the money question
or any other public issue clarified. but
merely to boom" their town and its In
with the publication Of IT, candidates
speech. This instance is cited merely TO
show where some or the news or the
great popular uprising has its origin.
Bryan's journalistic instinct is highly de-
veloped. No man in public life knows bet
ter. or appreciates more. the skilful use of
printers ink in working up a boom"
Those newspaper men now I'm this neigh
borhood who stood closest TO him in Wash
ington described with much JUNCTION the
way he used 10 supply them with material
for adulatory paragraphs about his
speeches delivered in Congress-. They re-
call also apropos of the religious sentiment
which his managers are now striving TO
stir up In his favor. the fact that on one
occasion, when the House was compelled 10
remain In session over Sunday I'm order 10
complete its business before adjournment
he carefully notified the correspondent
who had newspapers in the n~eighborhood
OF his orne 10 send out the statement that
although Congress was doing business on
sunday. Mr. Bryan. of Nebraska, was not
present, but was attending a religious SER
vice at such-and-such d church. where he
was 70 deliver an address on the divinity
Of Christ" ~,