The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-11

Liverpool when l quietly went into
that town without registering my
name or letting any one know that
was there. | sat at the MONDAY meal
beside a man who aftel ward proved
to make a business of travelling that
part of the country IS a buyer of APP
pies and potatoes from the farmers
who raised them, in order to ship them
to Pittsburg for the East. Our talk
began by my praising the Ohio grapes,
which are, indeed, fine. This led to
fruit generally, and then to the cheap
ness of the apples and the prospect of
a rise of potatoes, until he began to tell
me of his business and his personal
contact with farmers in that part of
Ohio that he travelled. finally asked
him how the farmers were feeling poll
tically. He said:
SURPRISE FOR POLITICIANS.
"They are gong to surprise the poll
ticians this year, who will find them
selves wofully mistaken when election
comes off. They do not like to say
how they are going to vote, but l find
wherever 1 have business with them
that they are always anxious to ask
me what hear, and as most of those
deal with know me, / soon get to
talking"
Finally, after talking awhile in an
Indifferent manner, asked him which
way he thought the farmers of Ohio
were tending.
"Oh," he said, chat is certain 1t is
to free silver Everywhere l go / find
men who have been heretofore Republi-
cans who are going to vote for Bryan,
and thy generally tell me of lots of
others"
New, this is what hear from Demo
Gratis, from Populists, from Prohibi-
tionists and from Single Takers, who
look on this election with dispassionate
eyes, for although in this part of the
country, at least, they seem unusually
for Bryan, they do not believe that any
currency change can effect what they
look on as the real cause of hard times.
What impressed me as much more solid
ground for the confidence of the Dem
ocratic committeeman than any esti-
mate of votes was the specific instances
which they have to give of the number
of Republicans who are now ardently
for free silver. For instance,
among the letters that Chairman Tay-
Tor showed me was one from j. w. j..
Brown, of Wauseon, Fulton county,
who, until the st. Louis convention,
was chairman of the Republican State
Central committee, and in which. after
giving instances of the straight change
going on among Republicans, he said:
eff other counties will do half as well
as Fulton the State win give Bryan
$4,000 majority"
HALK OF A MONSTER MAJORITY.
/ speak of this only because of the
position of the man. Some of these
letters talk of 100000 and even of 200,-
300 majority, and the instance of we'll
known Republicans who are throwing
all their ardor into the fight for free
silver are numerous and convincing.
these Republicans are be-
ing put to the front. The committee
men say that they lack speakers whose
expenses must be paid, but they have
no lack of speakers who will go with
out pay, and have no difficulty in TAX
ing them from one nearby locality to
another, always finding men who are
ready to put their teams to the SER
vice as a labor of love.
The campaign that is going on on the
Bryan side is a campaign of school
house and other places that can be
had without charge, and its intensity
and thoroughness are shown in this
city as in the other Ohio cities that /
have visited. Here in Columbus there
was, during the fine weather, the same
sort of constant discussion in public
places that / noted in Cleveland. Now,
that rain has come, the free silver men
have opened in a large vacant store
what they call "a financial school,"
with Davenport's pictures of
Mark Hanna, where from o'clock in
the morning until long after 10 at night
speaking, reading and discussion are
always going on.
There are 5000 members in this coun-
" in the free silver organization. One
free silver club in this city, composed
exclusively of Republicans, contains |
100 members. When Bryan spoke here,
and from all accounts he made a most
effective speech, the whole city seemed
to attend and people fiocked in from
long distances around, so that from
.he State House Park he was heard by
as many human beings as it was possi-
BILE for even his powerful voice to reach,
while those who could not hear stood
around. In the debate which was held
last night between Watson, the Repub-
lican candidate, and Lentz, the Demo-
cratic candidate for Congress in this
/ found it impossible to get adj
mass of people even crowd
ing the back alley in hopes of catching
an occasional word. From all / have
seen, he stirred them as they were new
er before stirred, and the opinion on
which / think l can best rely is the
tendency in favor of Bryan.
This is the reason that it seems to
me that the Democrats are not too
in their confident expectation
of carrying this State; in fact; I ann
inclined to think that the Democratic
politicians are disposed to value too
highly the vast fund that can be used
for Mckinley and the influence of the
corporations and large en-
ployeS upon their workmen.
THE COUNTRY.