The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-07
At THE STATEHOUSE.
The Biggest Crowd of All There
What He Said.

As soon as Mr. Bryan retired to his room
at the Grand Hotel the crowd dispersed,
and more than half the people went i'm
mediately to the Statehouse yard, where
he was billed to speak at O'Clock in the
afternoon. A stand had been erected at
the northeast corner. and here the people
began to gather and take up their long
wait for his appearance. The ground was
soft from the rain of the night before, and
it was soon trampled into sea of mud,
with scarcely a vestige of grass left The
people packed themselves in around the
stand and spread out in fanshape in
solid mass, reaching from within a few
feet of the building TO the other side of
Capitol avenue, from the Market-street
entrance to the diagonal walk leading from
Ohio street The crowd was estimated all
the way from 10000 to $4,000. 1t was
fairly quiet and orderly crowd considering
the discomforts it had to undergo There
was much good-natured chatting. and while
there was some Impotence at the nonap-
pearance of Mr.. Bryan at the appointed
time, yet this Impotence took no more
serious form than od-humored guying of
Councilman Clark, who was guarding the
stand from intruders. The stand itself was
excellent but the sort of annex put up
for the accommodation of the newspaper
men was a miserable failure. However, it
was occupied by everybody but reporters,
so that it did not make much difference.
At 3:25 the window of the north corridor,
leading to the stand was raised, and Tim
Griffin was seen struggling frantically to
get the blind up. The crowd understood
that BRYAN was about to make his appear
ance and a cheer went up. moment
later Governor MATHEWS appeared at the
window leading Mr.. Bryan, and a cheer
went up while few hats and umbrellas
were waved. Mr.. Bryan and the Governor
were followed by Chairman Martin and
others entitled to seats upon the stand.
AS soon as quiet was restored the Cover
nor introduced Mr.. Bryan with single
sentence declaring that he knew the
crowd was impatient to see and hear Mr..
Bryan and he would introduce him at
once. While he was saying this Mr. Bry-
an, who had DOTTED his overcoat and
donned his skull cap, stepped forward
Another cheer went up and more hats
were waved The demonstration did not
suit Green Smith, who sprang forward, and
with four or five vigorous waves of his
hat brought from the crowd another
cheer Mr.. Bryan waited with perfect
calmness and seff-possession a minute or
two and then put up both his hands with
a quick gesture to silence the crowd. He
w
pie listened to him attentively throughout.
The only point of his speech that aroused
much enthusiasm was when he made
slap at the sound-money Democrats. Then
there were loud cheers, cries of "Bynum
and invitations to hit him again." Mr..
Bryan said:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
1t gives me great pleasure to come 10 IN
dianapolis. and when | come l recall my
first visit to this city. The first great
Democratic leader whom | ever saw was
one of the citizens of this State at that
time and candidate for the vice preslden-
cy Thomas A. Hendricks tapplause) and
such was my admiration for his ll i,r ana
character that my first political pilgrim
age was made to Indianapolis to attend
his funeral Therefore. / think of him when
come to this city thi hero OF 5he Prom non
tended. | come to-day to defend principles
which are Democratic in the broadest sense
of that term. because when you come TO
the fundamental principles of Democracy
they are loved and accepted and applied
by all irrespective of party name; who be
lieve in q government of the people, by the
people and for the people. Great applause)
JABS GOLD DEMOCRATS.
This city enjoys the unique distinction
of being the birthplace and the death
bed of a so-called party. applause. cheer
ing and laughter) My friends. 1 know
that 1 am not obeying the Bible injunc-
ton. Let the dead bury their dead when
l.
L speak of it as / would not speak of any
bona fide organization of men. Qaughter.)
But this party occupies a peculiar place
in history. 1t calls itself the National
Democratic party when it doesn't expect
to carry single county in the whole Ma
ton. 1t called itself Democratic party
when it organized for the express
purpose of electing Republican candidate
for President. Continued applause and
cheering and cries of Give it to them. }
If it big enough TO justify the name
/ would call it stupendous fraud great
laughter). but it is too small to be called
stupendous. l will call il a transparent
fraud. applause and laughter)
1T was the first political convention ever
held in this country where the members
of the convention nominated a ticket that
they did not expect to vote for and the
first place where men have received a NOM
nation and don't want to be voted for.
THE minority plank in the Chicago plat
form opposed free coinage on the ground
that it would interfere with international
bimetallism. toward which. according to
that minority plank. the efforts of this
government should be steadily directed. and
then when they failed to secure the adop-
ton of that plank they assembled in con-
yention here and forgot all about interna-
tonal bimetallism. There could be no
clearer evidence of intended deception than
is found in the fact that the minority 1T