The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-07-30
WILLIAM ]. BRYAN.
SKETCHOF THE DEMOCRAT
&c NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT.


&c NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT.
A Calm and Dispassionate Sketch of
The Gifted Young Orator and States
man-No Dreamer or Wild Visionist,
But a Well Poised, Conservative
Man of Affairs-One in Whom Con-
fidence May be Reposed.
CHICAGO, ILL, July 1o.-The coun-
try is about to hear vast deal of Will
liam Jennings Bryan. He stands to-
day on the threshold of national ad
vertisement. No apology is needed as
prelim mary TO telling all one knows oil
him.
My first glimpse of Bryan was dur
ing the Speakership fight, when Crisp
won over Mills, December, 1891, and
was given the House gavel in the Fifty.
second Congress. Bryan had been
elected from one of the middle dis.
tricts of Nebraska.
The Fiftysecond Congress, which
followed the overthrow of Mckinley
ism, was rife of young men. Among
those most prominent of these were
three from Observation-Disclosures
George Fred Williams and Sherman
Hoar. These were about Bryan's age
They were early in meeting the boy
f'om the Platte, and they visibly felic.
itated themselves on their-as they
took it-superiority over him. As day
drifted in the wake of day, this 'supe-
riorty" they joyed in was found to be
imaginary, not real.
Bryan is in person of middle height,
strongly, and without giving anyone a
fatty impression, stockily built. Hi:
shoulders are broad enough to excite
the approval of Morse Viking; his
chest is as deep as that Of race horse
Nor is he overabundant about the
waist, and he looks what he is-a man
of perfect health and immense physical
power.
Mounted on Bryan's square shoul
ders is square head. His hair is
black; and recalcitrant, rather than
docile; deies brush and comb, and
tumbles and tosses with a method O
its own. This wayward black hair, as
coarse as pony's, would give Bryan a
shaggy effect, were it not for the relic
he brings the situation by completely
shaving his face. No beard, no mus
tacbe, has the freedom of Bryan's Wis.
age. Every trace is carefully moved
away with the light of each new day,
and when the world meets the young
statesman he's as snug and S Tooth as
a pulpiteer.
There is nothing soft, yielding or
effeminate about Bryan; nothing of the
willow. His eye is dark, his complex
ion swarthy, with the British, not the
Spanish swarthinesss; his nose an EN-
phatic curve, his mouth we'll wideneC
and firm, and the whole face founded
on jaw, the very seat of power, an6
as square hewn and indomitable as i
cut from the living rock.
1t is mistake 10 call Bryan "Pop
ulistic blatherskite," as paper, witt
more of billingsgate than brains, re-
Gently did. Bryan's whole instinct il
conservative. He goes rot easily te
the new. Like all we'll built men
Bryan is a creature ofhis environment
He is for a low tariff; yes. He is fol
an income tax, an antioption bill, ;
free silver dollar; yes. He is for all Q
these. Why1 Because they are as nat
urally Nebraskan product of principl
as corn is a natural Nebraskan produc
of the soil.
There would be neither sense nol
jnstice in alarming an East, not much
acquainted with the man at best, BY
picturing Bryan as some Danton OF
some Robespierre; the apostle Of dlsor
der, bent to cast all into chaos an(
then cement chaos with blood. Bryan
is nothing of the sort. He is wise, h
is faithful to trust; honest, with tht
probity of the sun; morally as we'll a
physically brave, and, above all, a
muc the patriot as any who at ou
country's beginning suffered through
Valley Forge 70 rejoice at York
town.
1t skills not, aids not, yields nothing
to the comfort or glory of the gold O
any other cause to belle this man
Give him his due and tell of him tn
truth as one would have done had h.
arrived from Massachusetts instead Q
Nebraska, or in his political upcom
been able to show a railroad or BAN
in his pedigree. His honesty, his sin
cere patriotism are not to be lmpugn
ed. What he asks for nationally ma
be proper subject of debate, and per
chance refusal, but the man himself i
no more to be corroded than gold
no more to be corrupted than dia
mond.
Personally, Bryan will win all VIII
approach him. AS man, none VIII
know him will refuse him respect. Pc
litically, Jefferson would adopt him
Jackson AXE his hand and espouse h
cause.:: Young as he is, Bryan is of tn
old party, and in his nomination, tn
careful searcher will find only renal:
sance of the ancient Democracy.
1t is excellent in Bryan's favor tha
he is founded on himself. No coter
controls him; no syndicate has pal
his debts and holds in its strong be
S11S,ooo of his uncanceled notes
hand to be some sword of Damocl
suspended over him as man or Pres
dent. All there is OF Bryan is Bryan
unless one excepts his wife, who, Wi
all that's good about him, is the be
thing about him still. She is woma
tender and true, cultured and refine