Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1897-06-17
The Passing Of Bryan
(Washington Post.)

y
Il We note in few Southern cucko
newspapers certain outbursts of habb
tjubilation over what the editors ar
Ipleased to call the passing of Bryan.
J Some of these editors still retain tn,
| Federal offices TO which Mr.. Cleyelans
tappointed them four years ago. Other
are patiently waiting for the CLEVELAND
millennium four years hence. Brya1
lis their bugaboo, and his passing" il
| the vision which irradiates their fatu
fous sleep.
Has there been passing of Bsyan?'
Does Mr.. Bryan stand lower today ir
the esteem, tbs confidence, the affee
tlen OF the deinocratic masses than ht
did on the day before election last No
vehbsr7 Defeated candidate though
he be, has he lost the smallest fraction
of his influence over those who follow.
ed him through the brilliant and dra.
matte campaign of 1882 We look in
vain for any evidence to such effects
| Nowhere in the whole political pros
fpect do we find the slightest indication
| that his tar has waned. We see Mr..
Cleveland retired 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 feathered ones who roost and
twitter in the Reform Club of New
York, we detect no symptom of sorrow
or regret in the ranks of the democra-
cy. But Bryan, the standard-b bearer
of a few months, the debated chieftain,
with no record of domination to COM
mend him, with no background of
successful leadership and no atmos-
phere of official power and prominence
Bryan is i'll the mouths of all demo-
Gratis: his counsel is solicited in every
State; his views and wishes are con-
suited hourly; the whole scheme of
democratic action for the future re-
Yolves about him. Defeat at the polls
seems to have only endeared and
strengthened him. He arouses enthu-
siam 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 be ever was
before.
Nothing in the career of this extra
ordinary young man is as astounding
as his present relation to AMI influence
over the party organization of which,
last July, he was made the candidate
and representative. Wneu. at the
Chicago convention, he first sprang
into prominence; when, elevated in an
instant to dazzling attitudes aud en-
vironed with the inexplicabla magic
OF popular enthusiasm, he seemed
almost g. demigod; even then he was a
less wonderful product of political
evolution than ne is today. The sud-
den farvor Of a party gathering, the
mysterious magnetism than transforms
men into devotr IS, are not uncommon
things in our experience. But the man
gao passes through the disenchanting
pioeess Vi 4 e&alEse s-,e who endures
The se9ltinY su,ae aellgaet saf ann-
tdreds of thouss-H Ia o2 Eje ialiow clti-
zens. and who, most trying 1855 of all,
encounters defeat eventually-the
man who e1nerges from all these trials
with his dignity unimpaired and his
influence intact-this man is not to be
dismissed with quotation or elimina-
ted by an epigraln.
Has there been a passing of Bry-
an?" Not yet, dear little cuckoos.
VIM. j. Bryan is q larger, a more i'm
perious, and more forceful quantity
in the democratic equationof the pres
ent than Mr.. Cleveland and all his
personal followers put together We
do oot endeavor to explain it. We
simply recognize the tremendous,
oyershadowing fact.