The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-29
Bureau OF The Tribune,
bO1 14th street. N. W.,

Washington, Aug. 2S.
Everybody. even the free silver DEM
ocrats, agree that Mr.. Bryan Is talking
too much for a presidential candidate.
To say the least, it Is below the dignity
Of the office to which he aspires to stump
the country in his own behalf. If his
speeches measured up to those deliv-
cred by ex-President Harrison from
| the rear platform of the train which
carried him across the continent five
years ago, there might be some eX-
cuse for Mr.. Bryan's course. But they
fall far short of the utterances Of a
statesman. They are common place to
begin with, and are too long and windy
to be read with any degree of interest
or intelligence. Nobody appreciates
these short -comings of Mr.. Bryan more
fully than the Democratic leaders. They
are helpless, however, for talk Is the
long suit" Of their candidate. If he
| was not permitted to "shoot of his
mouth" at every place his train stops
Mr.. Bryan would, indeed, be very mis-
| erable and unhappy man. His man.
ayers, therefore, are glad that he Is
leaving 1.-The enemy's country" as Mr..
Bryan Is wont to call the east, where
he has made no converts to free silver
during his two weeks sojourn.
Mr. Bryan will, therefore, confine
| most of his speech making to the south
and west during the remainder of the
campaign. He has certainly failed to
| "electrify" the east. Before he left his
| far-off western home, Mr.. Bryan be-
came imbued with the idea that he
| would take the east by Storm" and
| that the voters in that section would
| simply stampede to him and his free
silver fallacy. But they failed to stam-
pede; hence Mr.. Bryan's determination
| to confine his future speech making and
"electrifying" to other sections OF the
country.
The other evening q party of gentle
| men at an uptown hotel were contrast
| ing Bryan's speeches with those de-
livered by ex-President Harrison on his
| western trip five years ago. A support
er of the boy Orator" attempted to
apologize for his weakness In that d.
rection by saying that Mr.. Harrison
| was twenty-five or thirty years older
than Mr.. Bryan. To this a Mckinley
man replied:
"Then, he (Bryan) ought>to wait un-
| til he Is old enough to have good sense
| before he aspires to the presidency
The laugh as well as the drinks were
on the boy Orators" champion.
Bryan's managers and friends here
| say that the half-hearted hospitality
of Senator Hill to the boy orator was In
the nature of an insult to their candi-
| date. He fed the Populistic couple as
any Roniface of wayside Inn would
have done. The cut lay in the fact that
after feeding them Hill refused to par
| ticipate in the reception or attend the
meeting to hear Bryan speak. Bryan
expected no such treatment, his friends
say; that If he had known of such a
programme he would have refused to
dine with the New Yorker One
| friend pictures Bryan as saying with
Ophelia Just before she entered into
her demented state wherein she de-
clares:
ITO a noble mind
"Rich gifts wax poor when givers
prove unkind."
There has been a decided slump dis
| cernible in the Bryan movement. Even
his sanguine and enthusiastic manag-
ers admit as much. But they explain
it away as a necessary reaction after
the Bryan demonstrations. Represen-
tative Richardson. in charge of the
campaign headquarters. says that If
there has been a set back to the Bryan
| movement, that before the close of the
campaign another tidal wave will set
| in again, and he prognosticates, just
in time to sweep him into the White
house. Mr.. Richardson is making all
sorts of claims for the next house. He
even improves on Faulkner's figures.
But Richardson's judgment in the mat
ter is not sound, for ne is an Interested
party. Already certain enthusiastic
Democratic nominees in their belief in
their own election are pledging them
selves to the Tall Wire grass of the
Cumberland for speaker in case the
next house Is Bryanited. Richardson
is doing some able work and as far as
can be discovered he and Jones are
the whole Of the campaign commit
tee. w. II. B.