Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-03

so filled with the spirit of the speech that
 they deserted the seventeen young ladies
 who composed the female complication
 of the silver rallying cry and dashed after
 the train shouting like mad for the dem- ocratic candidate.
 Young men in coats of gold and young women in golden hued caps were scat tered through the crowd of 1,200 people at Friend. The 16 to 1 girls were there and assisted in the cheering that punctu- ated Mir. Bryan's remarks.
 Three hundred people composed the crowd at Dorchester, which also provided seventeen of it's buds for the ratio ta- bleaux.
 Crete was familiar ground for the can didate. He had held joint debate on the money question there with Col. Irish before the Chicago convention. About fifty small boys wearing ribbons of yellow ran down the track to meet him, giving shrill pronunciation to Maj. McKinley's name. A number of men and women wore the republican color, but they were in the minority. With MT. Bryan play ing center rush in the flying wedge formed by those who accompanied him, a way was made through the crowd to the ball grounds where the greater num-
 Der of his supporters were gathered. His ten minutes speech was received with every mark of favor.
 HIS LAST SPEECH.
 At o'clock the candidates train pulled
 
 coin gave it's final hearty ratification of William J. Bryan's candidacy during the brief half hour he spent there this even | ing on his passage through this place to
 Omaha from his Nebraska campaign trip. | Just before 5 o'clock when the sun was l disappearing beyond the prairie horizon | his special train reached the Burlington | station. Travelling Mems Silver club, | the Bryan Home Guards, the Mary Bryan | club, composed of women; men on hore- | hack and several n ppn1nOCnd the procession that escorted the candi- date and Mrs. Bryan to the Lincoln ho- tel. As the procession passed along, the short distance between station and hotel an artillery salute was fired from the postoffice square. Ninth street, run ming between the Lincoln hotel and the square was packed with people, and when
 MT, and Mrs. Bryan stepped on the ho- tel balcony great cheer went up. There was nothing to mar the demonstration given Lincoln's most noted citizen. It was hearty and sincere and the candi- | date showed his appreciation in his | speech. Mir Bryan needed no introduce | tion. In the course of his remarks be | reiterated the statement made just af- | ter his nomination that if elected he | would not be a candidate for a second term. It was his principal closing speech of the campaign and was delivered in a | clear, strong voice that reached every
 person in the audience. His speech was as follows:
 Ladies and Gentlemen-This is the last opportunity that I shall have to address the people of Lincoln before they sit in judgment upon the issues presented in this campaign. Tomorrow will decide the financial policy of this nation for the
 next four years at least. Three national parties placed in my hands the standard
 upon which was written Free and unlim- ited coinage of silver at sixteen to one, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." Great applause and cheering.)
 For three months 1 have done what I could to present this question to the peo- pie and have travelled from Nebraska to the Atlantic and everywhere I have preached the same doctrine and advocat- d the samep rinciples. Everywhere I have found those who believe with us and the zeal of the bimetallists who live along the eastern coast is as great as the zeal of the bimetallist of Nebraska. (Ap- plause and eheering.) They called it sectional question when we began, but they have found out that it is not sec tional question, It is great controver- sy between the money power and the common people of all this country. (Ap- plause)
 The republican party started out to make the tariff question an issue in this campaign, but if you will go among any
 group of persons where politics is dis cussed you will find what a failure they have made in getting the tariff question
 in the campaign. (Applause) The re-
 publican party attempted fraud upon
 the American people in its financial plank.
 Under the hope of international bimetal-
 lsm it started out to fasten the gold
 standard upon the American people, It
 has been aided in this work by few
 former democrats who have been advo- eating the gold standard, but in order to
 keep up the fraud they have pretended to
 favor Palmer and Buckner when they
 have worked for the republican ticket
 Applause and cheers) You can see how
 the campaign has been conduced. The republicans have not dared to advocate
 the gold standard as good thing be-
 cause their platform pledges the repub-
 lican party to get rid of it as soon as
 other nations will help. But as they are
 not able to openly advocate the gold.
 standard they help the bolting democrats who can preach what the republicans do not dare to preach and they answer
 the same purpose. Great applause and cheers)
 want you to understand the campaign which we have had to fight. They have told us that the great interests of society were against us. Yes, certain great in- terests have been. The trusts have been against us, but the trusts are no more against me than am against the trusts Uong and continued applause and cheers.) The syndicates which have been selling bonds for the government are
 against me, but they have reason to be, because 1T HI erected they VIII no long CT bleed the American people. Con tinued applause.)
 They say that the corporations are against us. Yes, many of them are and they have reason to be, because we be- lieve that the corporation is a crea ture of the law, and that the government which created it is still greater than the corporation and should compel it to obey
 the law Great applause and continued cheering) We have felt the influence of some of these corporations. We know what it is to have them say to men who are with us that if they vote our ticket they must be disparaged and lose heir bread and butter. My friends they know that if we succeed in this campaign there will be legislation which will punish the man who attempts to deprive another of the right of citizenship (Applause). They tell us that the national banks are against us. Yes some of them are, because. my friends, we believe that the
 greenback as we have it today is better than to retire the greenbacks and issue bonds and give the banks the benefit of