Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1897-06-11
THE PASSING
OF BRYAN"
Cuckoo Newspapers
Bugaboo,

We note in a few Southern cuck-
90 newspapers certain outbursts of
Aabby jubilation over what the edi-
tors are pleased to call the ''passing
of Bryan" Some of these editors
still retain the Federal Offices to
which Mr.. Cleveland appointed them
-four years ago. Others are patiently
waiting the Cleveland millennium
four years hence. Bryan is their
bugaboo, and his passing is the
vision which irradiates their fatuous
sleep.
Has there been passing of Bry-
ant" Does Mr.. Bryan stand lower
today in the esteem, the confidence,
the affection of the Democratic mas
ses than he did on the day before
the election last Novemberf Defeat
ed candidate though he be, has he
lost the smallest fraction of his in
husnce over those who followed him
through the brilliant and dramatic
campaign of 1S967 We look in vain
for any evidence to such effect.
Nowhere in the whole political pros
pect do we 6nd the slightest indica-
ton that his star has waned. We
see Mr.. Cleveland retire to private
life after twelve years of leadership,
eight of which he spent as President
of the United States, and, save the
little band of feather6d oaes who roost
and twitter in the Reform Club Of
New York, we detect no symptom of
sorrow or regret In the ranks of the
Democracy. But Bryan, the Stand.
ard bearer of few months, the de
featea chieftiai with no record of
domination to commend him, with
no background of successful leader
ship and no atmosphere of official
power and prominence, Bryan is in
IuO iuOutuS VI al OSuOCtdISs Ills
council is solicited in every State;
his views and wishes are consulted
hourly; the whole scheme of Demo
cratic action for the future revolves
about him. Defeat at the polls
seems to have only endeared and
strengthened him. He arouses en-
thusiasm as surely and as powerfully
as he did eight months ago He is,
in all genuine respects, more truly
the head of the Democracy than he
was before.
Nothing in the career of this ex-
traordinary young man is as astound-
ing as his present relation to and
influence over the party organization q
of which, last July, he was made the
candidate and representative. When,
at the Chicago convention, he first
sprang into prominence; when, ele-
waited in an instant to dazzling alti-
tudes and en,ironed with the mex.
plicable magic of popular enthusiasm
he seemed almost a demigod; ever
then he was less wonderful product
Of political evolution than he is to
day. The sudden fervor of party
gathering, the mysterious magnetism
that tranforms men into devotees
are not uncommon things in our ex
perience. But the man who passes
through the disenchanting process
of campaign, who endures the scru
tiny and contact of hundreds O
thousands of his fellow citizens, ant
who, most trying test of all. encoun
ters defeat eventually-the man VIII
emerges from all these trials with hi
dignity unimpaired and his infuenc
intact-This man is not to be dis
missed with aquotation or eliminate
by an epigram.
Has there been a "passing of Bry
:ani' Not yet, dear little cuckoo'
William j. Bryan is a larger,
more imperious, and more forcef,
quantity in the Demouratic equatio
of the present than Mr.. Clevelan
and all his personal followers pr
together. We do not endeayor {
explain it. We simply recognize tI
tremendous overshadowing fact
Washington Post.