Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-07-16

Friday thus wrote of Bryan: Bryan
the hero of the day, is only Sc years
of age, and has not Cutgrown the
sobriquet of the boy orator of the
Platte" Until lately his candidacy for
the presidency was considered by poll
ticians generally as a joke. But,
strangely enough, among those who
have believed that he was the coming
man was G. G. Dawes of Evanston, the
manager of the Mckinley campaign in
| Illinois, who is about to be made the
| Illinois member of the republican ma
tiOnal executive committee. Mr.. Dawes
and Mr.. Bryan, when youngsters, were
members of the same debating society
in Lincoln, Neb., and were nearly al
ways pitted against each other in poIit-
ical debates, Dawes taking the repub-
| lican and Bryan the democratic side
They are wider than ever apart in
politics, but Dawes has believed for
some time that Bryan was the coming
man IN the democratic party, and so
expressed himself to Major Mckinley.
/ The latter, by the way. has never had
any particular choice as between the
several aspirants for the democratic
nomination, believing them all equally
easy to defeat on a campaign void Of
personalities and confined to the tariff
and currency questions. Truth must
be told. The great speech of the day
and the greatest speech so far in either
of the national conventions of 1896
was that of William J. Bryan of Ne
braska. | have rarely heard a speech
more perfectly adapted to the occasion.
more impressive in delivery or more
Immediately influential in executing its
purpose Mr.. Bryan has a comma nd
ing presence, but it is the command
which proceeds from intellectual rather
than physical endowments. His face is
winsOme his voice pleasing, his diction
good, and his delivery captivating in
tone and gesture. His first sentences
put the discussion on a new and higher
plane than had been reached by the
preceding speakers, and that level was
maintained except for a moment until
he finished. Other men had been
cheered on tie platform of this con-
ventiOn, but Bryan fairly carried the
convention off its feet, and with it
very large proportion of the audience
which thronged the galleries. Every
ear was strained lest a word be lost.
No sentence fell undecided. The six
hundred and more silver delegates were
wild with appreciative delight Here
was the man who put their thoughts
and vague aspirations into language
which stirred their very souls. The
idea ran from man to man and from
delegation to delegation that here was
the apostle for whom they longed, the
ideal leader for their cause
Says Morat Halslead: GA young
man from the west, not unknown to
fame, but unsupported except by the
few of being potent factor in ma
tiOnal affairs, Thursday afternoon
July 8, 1896, in the city of Chicago in
speech of an hour, wrought a change
so transforming that it seems magical
The name of the young man is Bryan,
his home Nebraska and he stands re-
vealed as one of the foremost orators
of his time. His splendid success does
not seem to have been in any sense
accidental. 1t wasn't the first time
he had made a brilliant speech. The
glory of an orator is found in taking
advantage of a great occasion. Until
Mr.. Bryan took the platform the de-
bate had gone against the silver men.
They had been weighed down with the
rasping personalities and irritations
and the temerity of Senator Tillman
who had declared the issue to be one
of SectiOnalism in terms so gross that
the judicious Jones of Arkansas had
occasion to apologize for the senator
from South Carolina, and to state, as
if there was peculiar merit in the fact,
that as far as for himself he loved
every part of this great country The
speeches of Senator Hill, Senator Villas
and eX-GOv. Russell of Massachusetts
had plainly overmntched the Opposi-
ton, majority though it was.
Mr. Bryan admitted to a reporter for
The Times-Herald after his Thursday
speech that he had kept a close eye on
the nomination ever since his arrival
and that when the silver delegation
from his state was finally seated In the
! convention he decided to make an eff
! fort to secure the prize. This, he said,
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