The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-28
DICK BLAND.
I'M the New York Journal.

In dress Bland is not particular. His
tailor is a failure and his clothes crime
They make one think they are put on
him with a pitchfork. and he seems har-
messed rather than dressed. AS he goes
about in the land he mounts a soft black
hat of the Southwestern kind.
There is naught of portent in Bland's
looks. His appearance is that of thou
sand other badly-dressed, middle-aged
men of middle size and fortune. Not
thing about him would excite second
look. The only thought the sight of HIM
would send athwart ones mind would be
that he needed currying.
Bland has no humor, never laughs. tells
no stories, listens 10 none. He
wouldn't know joke from monkey
wrench. His speeches are the mere re-
cital of a lesson, the lesson of free sill
yer. There are no original thoughts, no
new arguments. 1t is all a simple ar
rangement of what he has read and
heard. He talks as he thinks, in a groove
of silver. He is impressed by what favors
silver. And by nothing else. He Is in truth
a fanatic, a sort of unreasoning Saracen
of silver.
AS a leader Bland is a failure. He was
as bad a house general as ever took COM
nand of forces on the floor. He resented,
too, in a vague but complete fashion, any
attempts by other silverites to act in con-
junction with him. In the midst of sill
yer fight in the house I've seen Can't
netti come to Bland and ask a question.
Bland wouldn't turn his head or make
reply. Washington of Tennessee has APP
preached with a suggestion. Bland
would not so much as look in his direc-
ton. He utterly declined to be talked to.
He was as jealous of silver as Othello of
his Desdemona. 1t was his-all his. and
none other should have art, part or lot
therein. And so congress after congress
Bland and Silver would fail.
Yet Bland is honest and sincere. Els
honesty is all that saves MIN from teing
a bore. His English is crude, his fancy
backward, his tones as harsh ana str'dent
as an osprey's. His sincerity-the rock
ribbed honesty of the man is all that
holds to him a single auditor.
Withal Bland is proud in his way, an
not at all inclined to deem small of him
self. At one time, long ago, he and Al
lison-one a democrat the other of the
Black party-were partners OF politics.
The twain wanted the same sort OF dol
lar. They formulated the Bland-Allison
act Later Allison grew faint and disposed
of his interest in the firm. as II were,
for a senatorship, and Bland has since
conducted the silver dollar business by
himself.
In congress Bland never spoke, save
for silver. Through a storm of tarin
Bland would sit unmoved. He would cling
to his house limb without word or mo-
| tion except as now and then the breeze
| of debate might fiutter his pers onal fur.
The taxes of the country might be
doubled: not a word would rise in protest
| TO the tongue of Bland. The treasury
might be looted of millions; Bland would
| turn neither hand nor head in Its de-
| Tense. 1t was only when silver was the
| subject that one heard from Bland. This
| silence on other questions was not indif-
| ference: ii was ignorance. Silver has oeen
| his only study, his first and single les
| son.
In debate Bland has courage. He fears
| no man, mounted on his hobby. In a
| day. when Bourke Cochran was kind
/ of house bully and men feared him.
| Bland rode him down for silver with no
| more hesitation than IL he were tus-
sock of straw. Cochran gave the oil sill
| yer tip a wide berth, too. following that
| days clawing.
In person Bland is a homely nan OF
homespun ways. He would be a popular
nominee with the common folk. for he II
| eminently of them, and feels and look
| the part He has no wealth; talking
money all his life, Bland has none him
self.
This proves nothing. however. to thu
favor or unfavor of Bland. Many wis
men have no money, while many have
l
Socratic intelligence. II is done by instinc
rather than design. and the size OF tn
brain is not shown by the size OF Tn
bank account This is a comfortably
| truth to many of US.
1t is but a red-squirrel trick. this mone'
making. A red squirrel, injudicious. con
sidered generally. light even to frivolity
| will never go into a winter without sue
| store of acorns as might suffice scor
| of red squirrels. gray squirrel viii saw
none. hoard nothing. and plunges Int
, DEFENDERS snow. a scampering pauper o
. the oaks Yet the gray is as broadly sa
| Racious as the red squirrel save In tni
one matter of acorn-heaping. Which a
brings one swoopingly to the suggesuo
that BANDS poverty is not to impugn nj
philosophy or create theory that he
a fool
should an utter silver sentiment rid
| the winds at the Chicago convention
| BLAND will be chosen as the democrau
/ nominee. There will then be goidou
{ bolt and two democracies viii take IN
e field.