San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-22

/ MI. BlNa0,SIlll lulTSlluS LUZ ulSlTlOulC
glory, wrote to Mr.. Block a second let
ter, renewing his application for job
as press agent.
This second letter was written and
mailed in June. At that very time
Mr.. Bryan was at the head of a con-
testing free silver delegation to the
| Chicago convention. That conven-
ton was only two weeks away. Did
Mr. Bryan, when he wrote his second
application for a press agents job,
| imagine that in two weeks he would
be an applicant before the nation for
its highest gift? Did he guess that
| he would be given a chance to aspire
to a place which has salary of $780,
600 a, year and all expenses paid in
that old colonial mansion called the
White House, overlooking the flowing
waters of the Potomac? Did he
guess that he would be placed before
the people of forty-five states of this
union as an aspirant to write, not
press notices of actors and actresses,
but messages to congress and the COM
missions of ambassadors, ministers
plenipotentiary, consuls, cabinet Off
GERS, collector of customs duties and
of internal revenue, postmasters and
all the administrators of the foreign
and domestic machinery of one of the
great governments of the world? Did
he dream that, instead of begging for
the privilege of exploiting the pi-
rOuetting and the costumes of some
dancer. within two weeks he was to
figure in the arena of national poll
tics. stripped and painting in the race
for presidency, with all the honor and
trust and enormous responsibility that
that position implies?
Be that as it may, Mr.. Bryan care
fully prepared, not only his letter to
Manager Block, but his speech to the
Chicago convention, which resulted
in a whirlwind of deluded enthusiasm,
in his nomination for the presidency.
When he wrote his application to be
a theatrical press agent, and when he
prepared his speech to the Chicago
convention, Mr.. Bryan did not know
what might be the result of either.
The United States mail in due time
carried his application to be press
agent to New York and elivered it in
to the hands of Mr.. Block at the Her
aid Square theatre. Also. in due
time, the Popocratic national cOnven-
ton met at Chicago. Being con-
trolled by free silver, free riot and
Populism, it admitted the contesting
delegation, headed by Mr.. Bryan from
Nebraska. Thus was Mr.. Bryan en-
abled to tread the boards, not be-
hind the footlights of a theatre, but
before the staring eyes of the Chicago
convention. Thus was Mr.. Bryan's
application to be press agent trans
muted into a request of the American
people to elect him their president.
Within two weeks, instead of very
humble histronic aspiration, he had
become a bold applicant to direct the
foreign and domestic policies of a
great people!
Now this extraordinary tale was
told by mr.. block.
blurted forth by Manager Block him
self one recent evening between the
acts to the members of a box party
at the Herald Square theatre. His
auditors thought Mr.. Blocks nara
tive most entertaining. They laugh
ed and waxed merry over it. One of
them afterward repeated the tale to
me. l was naturally interested. In
writing about the contemporaneous
events of national politics for some
years, 1 had never heard of any citi-
zen whose ambition was so divided
between the stage of the footlights
and the stage of public life, whose
alteration famed so equally before
the affairs of Thespis and the diety Of
the forum.
OF course there was nothing in this
story to shed discredit upon Mr..
Brayn. But after making a long
railway journey in the same car with
the Popocratic candidate, after hav-
ing observed his bearing and attitude
on the rear platform, after seeing his
eye CLEAN at the tumult of curious
throngs, it seemed to me that this
narrative of Mr. Blocks was not only
interesting, but that it was peculiarly
appropriate to the personal character
istics and individuality of the man
himself
1 spent some time in verifying the
story. l learned that Mr.. Ziegfeldt
and Mr.. Charles Evans both knew
from Mr.. Block that Mr.. Bryan had
written these letters. Finally jour
neyed over to Philadelphia to see Mr..
Block himself. Mr. Block is the man.
ager of the Heart of Maryland" COM
pany, now playing at the Broad Street
theatre in that city. As I watched
the emotional contortions of the III
tian-haired Mrs. Leslie Carter could
not but wonder what kind of a report
Mr.. Bryan, as a press agent, would
have written about Belasco's suit to
recover the price Of his athletic train
ing of that 1.-THE and lissome artistic.
At the close of the second act 1 found
Manager Block. Feeling that diplo-
macy would be thrown away, 1 went
straight at the heart of the matter.
In reply to a direct question Mr.
Block admitted that Mr.. Bryan had
written the letters asking for the priv
ilnOa of dnino thaafriaal nracc xvnrly