Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-01
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| The largest political demonstration ever
| held in the city occurred last night II
| being the occasion of a monster republican
torchight parade and rally at the wigwam.
Shortly after o'clock the parade formed
at, the wigwam on Twenty-fourth street.
with Colonel A. l.. Lott as chief marshal.
Fully 700 men were in line, many of the
marchers being sound money democrats. a
large number of transparencies were car
ried, all pertinent to the questions at issue
in the campaign. Thousands of people
lined the streets over which the procession
passed, and cheers for Mckinley, Mercer
and MacColl were continually heard. The
procession marched through the business
portion of the city, and upon returning to
the wigwam disbanded
So great was the crowd at the wigwam
after the parade that the sides of the tent
had to be raised in order to allow as many
as possible to hear the speaking which
followed. 1t is estimated that at least 800
people stood in the tent and on the out
side to listen to the address of r. II.
Thorpe, the boy tramp orator." who was
the speaker of the evening.
Mr.. Thorpes style caught the crowd at
the start. and from the moment he COM
menced speaking every man in the large
audience was with him. He discussed the
money question at considerable length, and
lllGlSptlStu MS dlSulltHlS WIN alecuOteS,
which he told in an interesting manner.
The sound money doctrine was presented
in an attractive manner, and he proved to
tho satisfaction of the crowd that the only
stable circulating medium is that which
has intrinsic value. The speaker called
particular attention to the fact that free
silverites frequently allude to prosperous
Mexico" and then he described in an in
teresting manner the condition of the la
boring man in that home of free silver and
hunger Mr., Thorpe spoke of Mr.. Bryan's
love for the laboring man and the farmer
and quoted from a number OF speeches
made by Bryan to show how he had told
the farmer he would get double prices for
his product under free silver and then
turned around and told the workingman
that he would be able to purchase the
necessaries of life much cheaper II the
mints of this country were open for the
free and unlimited coinage of silver
Bryan's record in congress was taken up
and the speaker showed that he had voted
against every measure calculated to bene-
fit the workingman and the farmer and
ho had supported every measure which was
against these two great classes.
Under the operation of the Wilson tariff
law. the speaker said, this country had
lost in the neighborhood of 5000, 900 900
This amount, he asserted had been sent
out OF the country to pay for sugar, whereas
the greater part of this money might have
been kept here If the home production of
sugar had been protected. He mentioned
the fact that under President Harrison's
administration this amount of money had
been kept at home, but under the demo-
cratic free trade regime 1t had gone to for
egn countries, and many OF our laborng
men had been thrown out of work.
In concluding, Mr., Thorpe predicted re-
publican victory at the polls next Tuesday
This announcement was greeted with pro-
longed cheers for Mckinley and the whole
republican ticket