The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-07-25
NO pOPULIsT.

II. L. W, the very bright special cor
respondent of the Washington Post, tele-
graphs that paper from st. Louis the
following graphic picture Of the average
Populist delegate to the St. Louis Con-
vention:
Very much Of the same character al
| thougn perhaps not ali 50 radical, were
the ponulists who met IN convention To-
day. Senator Daniel, it will DO renem-
hered srske Of the delegates 10 the
| Chicago convention as "a wlnnoWeu
crowd" This was winnoWtd crown
to-day. Out of every county III inc
South and every township in the west
there seemed TO have been slted out
every crank. every man of wild ideas ana
| sim wilder appearance. They were all
men OF low degrees, with ll-httlhs
clothes and countenances marked with
the scars of many battles with the
| world.
one thing about the personnel Of the
convention was remarkable. Nearly all
| of the delegates were old men-men with
long. gray,straggling boards and long, gray
hair. The convention seemed TO be, III
fact. one enormous aggregation Of life
failures. This was the pitiful part OF II.
| IL was plain to see that these men are
the Micawbers and the Jingles of actual
life. all going down (ne hin Of life, with
nothing gained in tl1e past and nothing
to hope for IN the future. All OF them'
or nearly all of them, were drowning men
grasping at straws.
Some OF them, Ike old Jesse Harper,
whose chief boast in life is that he nomi-
mated Lincoln for the presidency, are
born agitators. They boast, as lgnatius
Donnelly did to-day, that they were pres
| eut AT the birth of the Old Greenback
party. They saw that craze die. and
now they are agitating the free coinage of
silver. Because they think they see the
possible success of that movement, they
| 10 a step further. Scratch the skin of
any POpulist I'm tho convention to-day
and YOU would have found a man who
believes in the free coinage of silver
only because he thinks IL is a step IN the
direction OF the unlimited issue OF ire
deemable currency, based upon nothing
hut the fiat of the Government, and
without a foundation of even the poorest
metal. If. by some strange chance. ire
! deemable paper currency should become
possible. these very men would fly off at
tangent TO the free transportation of
everybody on Government railroads or
something else equally absurd.
y composite photograph OF the Populist
countenanccs would show a head with
sloping brow, a chin which. when visible.
would taper TO a point. eyes dark. deep
set and furtiVe, and cheek bones promi-
nent. The lower portion Of the face,
however. would rarely be uncovered
such an abundance of whiskers has never
been seen In any gathering OF human
beings before.
Senator PETER. sitting on the stage and
nutteI'ing his whiskers with palm-leaf
fan. was but one of several hundred.
There were men who out-Peffered PETER.
one man in the Mississippi delegation
wore bushy appendage upon his chin
which would in itself hava filed a pillow
Of ordinary size. There were whiskers
10 burn.
While this correspondent has admirably
portrayed the kind OF man that turns TO
Populism. he has not described the APP
pearance of the Populists we send from
Virginia. The Pages. the Hobsons the
Cookies. the Bcverlys. and others Of our
Virginia Populistic perverts present a
very different appearance and they
must feel fcarfully out Of place with that
crowd in ST. Louis. composed of men of
whons II would be too strong 20 say that
their minds are disordercd, but they are
happily described by tho modern slang
word crank" They look at life from
perverted standpoint. They are never
satisfied with what IS. whatever that may
be, but must always have change 10
some new project that they have devised.
IL. L. w. describes them exactly when