The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-07-28
A NEW AND TRUE VIEW OF BRYAN.
THE DEMooRATIC CANDIDATE
AS a LAWYER.

THE DEMooRATIC CANDIDATE
AS A LAWYER.
He Has Always Been q Poor Mana
Consistent Foe of M~onopolies and
an Advocate of the Right.
James Creelman in the New York World.
LINCOLN, Neb., July 18.-Wiliiam j.
Bryan has never at any time In his
life earned more than 5 $500 q year.
| When he reached this figure $4,000
consisted of his salary as a member of
the House of Representatives. His
income as q lawyer has averaged about
81, 900 a year, although he has man
aged to increase 1t to $1,000. His sal
airy as q political editor OF the Omaha
| World-Herald was $500 q year. To-
day his whole wealth hardly amounts
S8, 900, and yet he is q mature, highly
trained man, with thousands of friends
and q national reputation al an orator.
But his easy contempt for money, his
aversion to the advocacy OF corpora
tion interests, and his absorbing pas
sion for speech-making have prevent
ed him from acquiring wealth. The
truth is that while he has dabbled at
| law buu JOuThtlloh, III pOElOuo uuoA-
ness of his life has been politics. The
White House has always been his goal,
although he looked upon the United
States Senate as the proper field for
his peculiar talents.
Mr.. Bryan makes no secret of these
factf. He entered the Union Law
School at Chicago in 1881, and sat
three years by the side of Adolphus II.
Talbot, his present law partner, who
Is o a candidate for the State Sem
ate on the Republican ticket. These
social intimates for fifteen years.
While Mr.. Bryan vas studying law
he served as q clerk in the late Lyman
Trumbull's Office at S. a week. He
was easily the leader of his class and
had a weakness for buying books re-
lating to various forms of modern gov
eminent. He immersed himself in
constitutional law and shrank from the
technical side of his profession. The
first school debate which indicated the
trend of his mind turned on the ques-
tion whether q legislator should abide
by the promptings of his WI jndg-
ment or ascertain the wish of his con-
stiuents and follow that. Young Bryan
held that u legislator should take care
to ascertain the truth himself and
should then educate his constituents on
sound principles, leading rather than
following the people.
Within t~wenty-four hours, however,
Mr.. Bryan has told me that he believes
a legislator had no right to depart
from the platform on which he is
elected. II he cannot consistently
carry it cut he should resign. The
people do not hire q legislator to think
for them, but act for them.
In his college debate he argued that
statutes should not be based upon OPP
%portunisn, but that each law should
be brought into absolute harmony with
certain great fundamental ideas. This
was his constant theme. 1t accorded
with his love of ge~neraiitics, his pro-
pensity for topics, which lent them
selves to metaphor.
He was u tremendous student, but
his chosen studies lay along the lines
of least Observation-Disclosures abstrac-
tions and broad political propositions.
He had no head for dry details. His
philosophers were Jackson, Jefferson,
Lincoln, Benton, Judge Cooley.
There is always d peculiar religious
grain running through Mr.. Bryan's
Thought. It was inherited from his
Baptist father. And this tendency is
marked whom he discusses popular
government.
His favorite answer to those who
question the intervention of God in tn @
affairs of men Is the last verse of Bry-
ants lines, ITO a Waterfowl" which
L heard him repeat last night to the
newspaper correspondents who accom-
panied him from Chicago when they
met in his house. -
He who from zone to zone
Guides through the boundless sky thy
? certain flight,
In the long way that | must tread alone
Will lead my steps Alright.
After graduating from the law school
Mr. Bryan served six months more in
went to Jacksonville, ILL.,, where he
studied law for about four years in Ia.
Office Of Brown & Kirby.
1t has been said that he never In Lio
life has appeared in court as the rep
resentative of a corporation. In a
sense this is strictly true. On two or
three occasions, when the senior mem
bers OF the firm were absent, he made
minor motions for them in the jack
~sonville courts on behalf Of a railway
company which they represented. But
or indirectly, from q corporation.
When he left Congress he was Offer
ed a salary OF $4,000 a year for his
services as general attorney for a rail-
way and oil enterprise owned by the
Standard OIL Company. His answer
was that ne would not take the posi-
tion for all tho profits of the company.
A few days later he mentioned the
fact to his present partner.
You have made a great mistake,
Bryan" said Mr.. Talbot. "Tell them
you have q partner who is not so sensi-
tive"
Mr.. Bryan failed to see the point.
I'D rather take cases | am in sympa-
thy with and live az | do now than be
president Of the Standard Oil Com
pany," he replied.
When Mr.. Bryan came to Lincoln in
1887 and formed a law partnership
with Mr.. Talbot, he urged his Old
classmate to resign his position as
counsel for the Missouri Pacific Rail
way Company.
Mr.. Bryan insisted that such q con-
n~ection would prevent the firm from
taking cases against allied corpora.
tions. The partnership agreement
provided thatsth8 firm should have
nothing to dOWHh the Missouri Pacific
or any other corporation, and that that
part Of the business should be the per-
sonal affair of Mr.. Talbot. III order to
emphasize his opposition, Mr.. Bryan
twice appeared in court against the
Missouri Pacific Company.
4 When the Rock Island Raj Wnv