Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-09-07
WASHINGTON LETTER.
SPECIAL oosaEsPo sosScR OF rHE x%osIros.l
Washington, august 81, 1886.

IS Or Cne nSnLln9 DrdnO. AccoTulHS
to democratic gossip, "Silver Dick''
Bland, who started to accompany the
boy talker On his swing around the
Eastern circle, was SO numerically
snubbed by Bryan that he refuses to
remain with the party under any cir
cumstances, although in leaving it
he sacrificed a remunerative contract
to swap almighty bad English ac-
counts Of the Jour for one
hundred-cent dollars from the strong
box of a newspaper publisher. The
exact cause Of the snubbing is not
given, but the foundation appears to
have been Bryan's belief that ssSilver
Dick' didn't know enough to make
real-platform speeches. I will not
vouch for the snubbing part, but it is
certain hat ssSilver Dickn left the
Bryan party ten days or o ago and
that he has since then been staying
with a friend in the suburbs of Wash
ington. This, coupled with the rough
shod ann in which Bryan has
walked over every democrat who has
opposed his slightest whim since the
Chicago convention, gives the u
bling story an air of probability.
The confidence with which the
prominent silver democrats started in
to rush Bryan into the White House
had all disappeared, and they are
now SO timid hat they are allowing
themselves to be bossed by the radical
populists of the Tom Watson stripe,
and they are running hither and
thither, seeking some evidence that
Bryan has ever a fighting chance to
win. Chairman Faulkner, of the Con-
gressional committee, went TO Chica-
go last week to see whether Chair
man Jones, of the National Commit
tee, was able to cheer him up, and
since his return he has found it lard
er than ever to keep up a bold front.
Secretary Mercer, of the Republican
Congressional Committee, thinks the
vote cast in November will be phen-
omenally large. Speaking on the sub
ject he said: "There never was such
wide spread interest in a campaign. l
know that in my own district in Ne
braska, the votes polled at the prima-
ries reached almost the the total of a
general election. Men who were sick
braved relapses, INF order to get to
the polls, and I know of one instance
where a man was rolled to his voting
place in an invalid's chair. With such
interest in a primary, what will be
the vote when election comes
around?n
Nobody in Washington took pitch
fork Tillman's absurd challenge Of ex-
President Harrison for a joint debate
seriously, any more than Mr.. Harri-
sol did. 1t was merely an effort of
Tillman to keep himself before the
public. When joint debates occur,
they are usually between men Of the
same standing. Nothing but amuse-
ment was caused by Tillman's mistak-
ing the curiosity which brought out
big crowds to hear him speak in the
mining.section Of Pennsylvania, for
enthusiasm for free silver. Pennsyl-
vania republicans are unanimously of
the opinion that the size of the ma
jority for Mckinley will break the re-
cord, and some oflthem express the
opinion that the Indianapolis ticket
will poll more votes in the state than
Bryan will.
According to- Hon. R. @. Kerens,
who knows a thing or two about Mis-
souri, politics, that state is going re-
publican to a dead certainty. Mr..
Kerens-"Dick'' is what everybody
around republican headquarters calls
him-made a flying trip to Washing
ton to consult with Chairman Bah
cock, of the Congressional committee
and while in the city he said: "The
democrats are hopelessly split and
with three parties in the field we are
going to succeed and we ought to sue
coed. The democrats have held the
administration of Missouri for thirty
years, nearly a third Of century, and
lit is time for a change
While the democrats have been
making their Eastern bluffs the re-
publicans have been sending con-
vincing literature broadcast through
the West. The result is now becom-
ing apparent even to the most rabid
Bryanite. Reports from nearly all
the Western states show that the sill
yer wave which followed the Chicago
convention is rapidly receding, and if
things continue to go as they are now
going, well informed republicans will
not be surprised if Mckinley and Ho-
bart carry not only all the great agri-
cultural states of the middle West,