Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-09-18
FEW WERE THERE.
SMALL ATTENDANCE OF BoLTERs
AT THEIR DIG MEETING.
PROP. BLACKWELL TALKS ON SILVER.
His Audience Is Cold and Dwin-
dies Away RapidIy-sIr. Parr Hiss
ed When He Expected Applause
Cheers for Bryan.

| at the Academy of Music last night, and
all went well. except the mass failed to
materialize. Tho 400. OF which so much
has been written. must have deserted
their leaders. Certainly, they did not
attend the meeting at the Academy OF
Music The leaders we're there-Mr. Jo-
seph Bryan. Hon. w. w. Henry. Mr.
John II. West. Mr.. +. Il. Glasgow, hr.
James Lyons. and some others-but the
/ zoo were somewhere else. Some OF them
were there, tits true, as were also many
staunch Republicans; but, altogether
there weren't 200 people in the house at
any time. and at least half OF these
were good free-sllver Democrats who
have not bolted the party. These latter
did not remain very long, though, as the
platitudes OF the speakers soon wore
them out and they took their departure,
one by one, until when the meeting was
half over, the Academy wore d deserted
aspect.
THE SPEAKERS COLBY RECEIVED.
Professor r. i. Blackwell, of Ran
dolph-Macon College was the speaker Of
| the evening, and he was followed by Mr..
| ID. Preston Parr of Bedford. Mr.. Black
well was advertised 20 speak In reply 10
| Commissioner Bell who advocated free
silver here last Saturday night and he
| essayed to fulfil the promises Of the cir
| culars which were distributed all over
the city. He failed ingloriously, how
ever I'm his effort TO answer Mr. Bell,
and simply toyed with the subject He
made several surface arguments, but at
no time did he probe down into the sub
ject.
| MI Parr made n rather humorous
! speech but he advanced no real argu-
/ ments TO show any of his auditors why
| they should follow him out Of the Demo-
cratic fold. lie attempted to ridicule
| Bryan and the Democratic party leaders,
but his words had an effect just the re-
verse of what he expected; for. instead
| of applause, he received only Kisses.
| Every mention OF Hon. W. j. Bryan 5
name brought forth vociferous cheers,
and any derogatory remarks concerning
| him were Kissed.
CROWD SLOW IN MATERIALIzING.
The meeting was advertised to begin
at o'clock, but at that time there was
not q handful Of people I'm the building,
and. though all the speakers and leaders
were on hand. they remained huddled to-
gether in a box, waiting for the crowd
10 swell to at least respectable proper
| lions At 835 o'clock the scattering
crowd appeared to fairly well fill the PIT
of the building. and the band struck up
tune and the fun-ar, rather. folly
| commenced.
Mr.. Frank r. Glasgow called the as
semblage to order and introduced Hon.
l william Writ Henry, who presided over
| the gathering. Mr.. Henry, In semi
| apologetic tone. explained that though
fn,e haan "A IlQmOrTHt
ne had been forced to leave the fold be-
cause. according to his ideas. his former
associates had gone back upon the ira
| ditions os the party. He heaped male
! dictions on the Chicago platform. ana
turned his walls of feeling on Mr.. Bryan.
| He eulogized Palmer and Buckner, and
! spoke encomiastically Of the indianapolis
platform.
PROF. BLACKWELL PRESENTED.
Mr.. Henry, in closing, introduced Pro-
| lessor Blackwell, who, he said, was
no .plutocrat but n friend of the people.
Mr.. Blackwell Is no orator, and he ad-
mitted that in the outset. Neither Is he
a politician He admitted that also, but
he claimed TO be a Democrat. He said
that for four generations his family
had been boilers. His great-grandfather
bolted in 1776, his grandfather In 1878
| DOltCd the northern MtlHOllSl thuANh'
his father IN 1861 bolted the Union, and
he was but emulating them. He was
doing all he could to defeat w. j.
BRYAN. Mr.. Blackwell does not affect
oratory, and speaks more like a man
in his classroom, explaining technical
questions, than like one discussing great
political questions before the people. His
audience was cold throughout. and the
occasional applause was rather faint.
The speaker plunged into the silver
question without much preface, and con-
fined his remarks almost entirely TO THIS
subject. He asserted that gold was more
universally acceptable than silver, and
said so far as he knew the only reason
Tor this was that gold was yellow.
''They tell us" he continued, that with
free silver we will have plenty OF
prosperity. Can they cite any time when
we had prosperity with free silver? They
cannot" The speaker did not under
take to go further into this particular
branch of the question; but went on on
a tangent and discussed the question OF
ratio. He was just as willing for the
two metals TO be coined l to /, he
said. as to be coined at l6 to l. AS q
matter of fact, he continued, no matter
what ratio was agreed upon. tho two
metals would not circulate concurrtntly.
T.
that gold had been forced out of circula-
ton by silver in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and tried TO prove
fallacious the argument Of Commissioner
Bell, who on last Saturday night
stated that gold would continue to cir
culate, even though bimetallic legislation
be enacted. He went back to 1884 and
endeayored to show that when we
operated under a double standard we
didn't succeed and as a result. had to
return to the single standard TO save
| ourselves. He characterized the free
silver movement as an experiment, ana
expressed the hope that his hearers
would tell Mr.. Bryan that they did not
propose TO try any such experiments.
CALAMITY SHRIEKER.
Mr.. Blackwell predicted all kinds Of
calanities. which he said would befall
the country in event of Bryan's election,
and said he didn't believe Bryan would
be elected. He said, however, that he
admired Bryan, and ere the words had
fairly left his mouth deafening out
burst of applause drowned them, showing
that there were a large majority OF free
silver Democrats present.
The speaker thought Mr.. Bryan was
taking up too much time in speech-making
and not enough in obtaining facts. HIS
feet were, ne said, not being guided by
the lamp OF reason, but by his imagina-
ton.
You're off" came from one side of
| the house. and this remark was the sig
| nal for another outburst OF free silver
| applause Not noticing this. the
speaker continued, and admitted that
| there was something wrong in our sys-
| tenn of financiering. and that we are in