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 o.
fabby jubilation over what the edi
tors are pleased to call the "passine
of Bryan" Some of these editors
still retain the Federal offices tc
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,a 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 Novembers Defeat.
ed candidate though he be, has he
lost the smallest fraction of his in
fuence over those who followed him
through the brilliant and dramatic
campaign of 1861 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 MIR. 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 feathered oues 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 q few months, the do
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
the mouths of all democrats; his
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
of which, last July, he was made the
candidate and representative. When,
at the Chicago convention, he first
sprang into prominence; when, ele-
vated in an instant to dazzling alti-
tudes and en,ironed with the mex
plicable magic of popular enthusiasm,
he seemed almost denigod; even
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 disseminating process
of a campaign, who endures the scru-
tiny and contact of hundreds of
thousands of his fellow citizens, and
who, most trying test OF all. encoun.
ters defeat eventually-the man who
energies from all these trials with his
dignity unimpaired and his influence
intact-This man is not to be dis.
missed with quotation or eliminated
by an epigram.
Has there been q "passing of Bry-
sani' Not yet, dear little cuckoos.
William j. Bryan is larger, q
more imperious, and more forceful
quantity in the Demouratic equation
of the present than Mr.. Cleveland
and all his personal followers put
together. We do not endeayur to
explain it. We simply recognize the
tremendous overshadowing -fact-
WASHINGTON Post