Birmingham state herald., 1896-10-30
BACK IN CHICAGO.
At Freeport Sweet-Faced Old Lady Kissed Mrs. Bryan.

At Freeport a Sweet-Faced Old Lady f Kissed Mrs. Bryan. , Freeport, H., Oct. 29.-As at Belvidere, many gold badges were displayed at Rockford, and number of young men who wore the orange followed MT. Bry- ans carriage shouting for Mckinley, but the republican colors disappeared when the candidate reached the fair grounds, where an audience of fully 10000 people made him forget in their enthusiasm those whom he had encountered on the way.
 During the half hour spent at Freeport MT Bryan made two speeches. It was raining hard when he arrived, and the meetings were held in doors Both halls were crowded, and despite the ram large numbers of people were at the station when the candidate and his wife return ed, and very pretty incident happened A gray-haired, sweet-voiced old lady, on whom the burden of years had fallen, managed to reach the platform, and look ing Mrs. Bryan in the eyes said in trem- bling tones: Madame, have ridden twenty-three miles to see you" Then she put her arm around Mrs. Bryan and kiss ed her.
 A brief stop was made at Forreston to enable MT. Bryan to address about 500 people. Ten minutes was the time allow ed him at Polo, which was reached at 5 o'clock He talked to thousand or more from the rear end of the car, and from there went on to Dixon. An artillery com pany in uniform fired off a loud sounding cannon close to the train as MT. and Mrs. Bryan alighted to take carriage for the speaking place, and more than l0,O0o peo- ple were there to hear him. Some of them wore the orange, but they did not at- tempt any counter demonstration.
 Running down to Rochelle, the next stop, the train slowed down in passing Ashton to enable the crowd there to hear and see MT. Bryan and his wife.
 MT. Bryan was rushed through the back door of store at Rochelle to platform facing the open street, where 5000 people awaited his coming
 The sun had gone down as MT. Bryan stepped from the 'Idler' at Dekalb, where about 2500 persons gathered about a stand erected on a street corner With his hat damned down on his head and his overcoat collar buttoned close to the throat he talked about the arguments ad- vanced by his opponents.
 Pickering oil lamps cast sallow gleams on the candidates face as he stood on a stand erected near the station at Geneva and talked to couple of thousand men and women.
 Wheaton came next, and crowd as large if not larger than that at Geneva gathered in the darkness there and heard him make the most interesting speech of the day.
 4 Maywood was the last stop. Cheers for Mckinley followed the shouts of the Bry- an men among the assemblage of 5000 who heard Mr. Bryan speak from the bal cony of a hotel within sight of his train. Notwithstanding the opposition senti- ment, the audience showed considerable enthusiasm. The rain had begun again when the special pulled into the North western station at Chicago. About 100 people gathered about the "Idler" and cheered the candidate as he alighted. MT. and Mrs. Bryan entered carriage and were taken to the Auditorium annex, where the nominee had chance to rest before starting out no his last tour of speech h-making in Chicago.