Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-25
BEHIND BRYAN BUTTONS.
Types OF the Men Who Wear Them as Seen
in Travelling.

Last week I took a flying journey
lcroSS half n score or more Eastern and
southern states, writes a correspondent
If the Times Herald. 1t hurts my eyes
20 read newspapers in moving train
so | gave myself a vacation from cam
paign literature and watched. instead
The people about me. especially those
who displayed some outward and
visible sign of their political faith. 1t
soon became evident to me that while
he wearers of Mckinley buttons Were
If all sorts, defying classification. the
people with Bryan buttons could easily
De divided into four or five distinct
types. Here are a few of the ones ]
found most interesting:
He was tail AMI lank and long
bearded. like the Populist of the comic
papers, and he wore large Bryan and
Watson button and carried a fat roll of
back numbers of the New York Jour
nal. He and his wife got on about the
middle of the afternoon at a small
Virginia town. Tney were a plain,
rdfeatured old couple, dressed with
scrupulous neatness in the store clothes
Of provincial town. Besides two
travelling bags, they carried a large
box of luncheon and strap full of
shaWls and pillows. There We're plenty
of seats in the car, so they took one
apiece and settled down for the Jour
ney. AT the next station the train be-
gan to fill up. and by supper time
there We're no vacant places left. NV
TWO travellers maintained stubborn
oblivion OF this state of affairs till a
Dick young man eseorting a feeble old
lady displaced the bags and bundles of
the feminine monopolist and seated his
companion beside her. When the mat
ter-of-fact young man had left the
train the old Populist politely but firm
~ took the interloper by the arm and
deposited her in a place left tempo-
rarily free by a drummer who had gone
forward to smoke.
FURTHER Entertainments were pre-
vented by the spreading out of a
bountiful supper, which was consumed
with apprcciative deliberation. Then
the old man read silver editorials while
ms Wife packed away the remaining
fried chicken and jelly cake A fellow
traveieracross the way seeming commu-
AlcatlVe. my old friend favored us with
some quotations about Shylocks in
general and the iniquity of railroads in
particular. AT an early bedtime the
eXclusiveness of my friends became
e&plicable. as the bundle disgorged
enough shawls and cushions to make
very tolerable beds. which were skill
fully spread before the envious eyes of
the other people in the crowded car.
one can see the source of that mans
Populism," | mused It's constitu
tional. He wants everybody else to
divide. but he is no divider himself.
He believes that the election of BRYAN
Will give him more than his share of
something. He hates railroads.
Tickets" interrupted the conductor
gruffiy. pausing at my seat. He at
tended to me and passed on to the
man in front. He held the paper strip
which was handed him so close to the
light that l could see it plainly The
mater of railroads was travelling on a
pass.
The next Bryan button 1 saw was
not in the owners buttonhole. but on
his desk. The man who put il there
has voted the Democratic ticket at nine
consecutive presidential elections. He
voted for it four years ago. though he
IS manufacturer in one of the indus-
tries practically killed by the Wilson
bill. The election of Bryan would
'uin him. and he knows it.