The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-09-29

$3.50
Tered to go out. The people came to
see Bryan, but he was not q more in
teresting spectacle to them than thew
were to US.
The mass OF them were people men
IN dirty shirts and bad hats. hairy
armed, rough handed farmers, small
sEorekeepers, day laborers, clerks and
their wives, sisters and children. Bare
headed and b~8refooted many of them;
mothers and fathers, with babies m
their arms. These folks had stayed up
all night to see the silver candidate
pass by, to hear the sound of his voice.
perhaps by good luck to touch his hand,
and at sunrise at Fort Wayne they
were mastering by hundreds, their
breakfast still Uneaten.
The numbers grew as we passed on.
and the Sitting night was succeed bv
the sweltering day. They dds not as
semble thus for their health, not for
fun, nor from curiosity. You could
not look in their multitudinous homeIy
faces, pinched and hardened by labo-
rious days and marrow circumstances,
without feeling that they we're in ear
nest, in desperate earnest. They did
not know to express their feelings
gracefully and becomingly. They had
never heard of D~elsarte. All they could
do was to grin and laugh excitedly and
to utter yer and anon, singly or in
concert, that shrill Hi, hi, hi !" which
passes in country districts for q cheer.
But you saw the motive power of
these abortive demonstrations in their
eyes, in the strained, tense look con-
centrated with painful unanimity on
that single figure in the black alpaca
sack coat and the gray felt hat who
stood on the step of the car bowling and
giving both his hands to all who could
fight their way through the wedged
mass to grasp them. 1t was a look
such as drowning men bend on ap-
preaching succor, a pathetic, you
might say terrible look. He was their
new Messiah, their Avatar, the Moses
who was to show them the way from
bondage to the promised land.
Their minds, Embroidered by culture,
but by all the more vehement in COZ
viction, believed that in Bryan thu
had a man who could Tighten then
load and make hard times easy and
bring them free silver for their needs,
and Bryan, be it added, accepts this
awful responsibility with a cheerful
courage and constancy. He, too, is
one Of the poor people, and no one has
deeper faith in the truth and righteous
ness of the cause than he.
The proportion of women in these
wayside gatherings is surprising. There
are the young unmarried girls, who
hope that better times will bring them
good husbands, and older women, who
have long known the pinch and strain
Of domestic poverty, and nov Look for
ward with tremulous anticipation to
some measure of relief and relaxation.
They stand and grez9 with their fingers
on their lips. They have prayers in
their hearts. May the Day of cpprcs-
sion pass and lstiCe BE- done!
The eagerness of all just to see, if
they may not hear and touch, is ire
mendous. They mob the moving train
at risk of life and limb. Old men pain
fully hoist themselves up by the joist
of a railway shed to get one momen-
tary glimpse, which they will remem-
Der always. Younger and more active
persons Chamber up on perilous roofs,
whence they look down upon the scene
triumphant. The man in the new
summer suit, with his best girl, who is
afraid to venture into that tumultuous
throng, stands on tiptoe until nature
can endure no more. Oh, for an x ray
to give power Of sight through a thou
sand backs or a faculty of astral pro.
lection to send ones person where his
heart IS!
I call this a touching as we'll as an
impressive spectacle. Nowhere about
it is the trail of the professional poll
tician. With every vote given for
Bryan in this election will go the heart
of the giver. AS 1 said yesterday, the
force behind the man is 80 vast as to
be incalculable. You can estimate it
no than you can the strength of
the buffet dealt by a Western tornado.
It is elemental. No man, be he ever 80
great, can be more than the instrument
Of such a power.
The people lcok at Bryan because
they see in him the embodiment of all
their hope of better things. Were he