The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-06-16
!sThe Passing Of Bryan"

We note in few Southern cuckoo
newspapers certain outbursts OF TAB
by iubilation over what the editors
are pleased to call 1.-The passing OF
Bryan." Some of these editors still
retain the Federal Offices to which
Mr.. Cleveland appointed them four
wears ago. Others are patiently
waiting for the Cleveland millennium
four years hence. Bryan is their
bugaboo, and his passing is the
vision which irridates their tatuous
sleep.
an?'' Does Mr.. Bryan stand lower TO-
dav in the esteem, the confidence,
the affection Of the Democratic mass
es than he did on the day before elec-
tion last November? Defeated can
didate though he be, has he lost the
smallest fraction of his influence over
those who have followed him through
the brilliant and dramatic campaign
| of 1896? We look in vain for any evil
dence to such effect. Nowhere IN the
whole political prospect do we lind
the slightest indication that his star
had waned. We see Mr.. Cleveland
retire to private life after twelve
wears of leadership, eight OF wnlch
he spent as President Of the United
States, and save the little band OF
feathered ones who roost and twltter
in the Reform Club of New York, we
detect no symptoms Of sorrow and
regret in the ranks of the Democracy.
But BRYAN, the standard-bearer of a
few months the defeated chieftaln
with no record of domination to COM
mend him, with no background OF
successful leadership and no atmo-
sphere of official power and proml-
nence-Bryan is in the mouths OF all
Democrats; his counsel is solicited IN
every State; his views and wishes are
consulted hourly; the whole scheme
of Democratic action Tor the 1uture
reyolves about him. Defeat at the
polls seems to have only endeared
and strengthened him. He arouses
enthusiasm as surely and as power
fully as he did eight months ago.
He is. in all genuine respects, more
truly the head of the Democracy
than he ever was before.
Nothing in the career of this ex-
traordinary young man IS as astound-
ING as his present relation to and in
huence over the party organization
of which, last July, he was made the
candidate and representative. Wnen
at the the Chicago Convention, ne
first sprans into prominence; when,
elevated in an instant to dazzling al
titudes and environed with the IN
eyplicable magic OF popular enthusI-
asm he seemed almost a demlgoo;
even then he was less wonderful
nroduct of political evolution than
he is to-day. The sudden fervor OF
a party gathering, the mysterious
magnetism that transforms men into
devotees, are not uncommon things
in our experience. But the man who
masses through the Disseminating
Process of campaign, who endures
the scrutiny of hundreds of thou
sands Of his fellow citizens, and who,
most trying test Of all, encounters
defeat eventually-the man VINO
emerges from all these trials with
his dignity unimpaired and his ln1lu-
ence intact-this man IS not to pe
dismissed with a quotation or ellml-
mated by an epigram.
Has there been passing OF Bry-
am Not yet, dear little cuckoos.
William J. Bryan is a larger, more
imperious and a. more forceful quan
titv in the Democratic equation OF
the present than Mr.. Cleveland and
all his personal followers put TO-
gether. We do not endeavor 10 eX-
plain it. We simply recognize the
tremendous overshadowlng TACT
Washington Post.