Evening star., 1899-04-17
His LEADERSHIP UNQUESfIONED
He Now Wants Platform on Which
He Can Win.
OF HIS REMARKS
Special From Staff Correspondent.

| cents gratuty to the colored walters Tor
crowding somebody else out of line and
! enabling me to get the coat slowed away
| before the banquet was concluded. Proba-
| bly, the dinner, considered solely as meal
| of victuals, would not have commended
| itself to jefferson. He kept good cook
| and liked canvas-back duck and some other
choice edibles that even in his time, when
the purchasing power of money was great
er, could not have been served for dollar.
But it was not bad banquet and those
who had taken the Drecaution to dine be-
fore attending it need not have complained
of being hungry. What was of more ac-
count was that it seemed to be a genuine
mental feast and the banqueters digested
everything in the way of political doctrine
that was put before them.
New York had been a little doubtful
about Mr.. Bryans standing. said the
editor of one OF the great New York dailies.
Bryan seems to be q stronger man than
we thought three years ago DO you think
anything will happen to keep him from
getting the nomination next year, Being
curious on that subject myself | had come
over to see how he was looked upon now in
the enemy's country and did not care to
give an opinion in advance.
Two Dinners Contrnsted.
The dollar dinner and Mr.. Bryans OK
perience during his stay here the best
means OF forming an opinion. Before he
had spoken word at the banquet it was
apparent that the popular interest was CEN
tered in the Bryan dinner rather than in
the Croker dinner. The Tammany leader
had done his best to encourage an organized
opposition to the free silver champion. At
mis- so banquet at the democratic club the
speeches had been as defiant as they We're
dull. All of them had advertised for
leader, but the men who might become
leaders the CnupSitio0 had taken to
stay away. That was bad enough. What
was worse was that the local New Ork
public had not taken the Croker SO banquet
seriously. II may be unfair, but the news
paper writer's cannot get TO the point of
putting the tiger in a dress suit without
giving play to their humorous faculties. SO
they wrote of the Tammany warriors as in
spiketails and TuSset shoes and other things
of that sort. The public enjoyed the joke,
and so far as / can see the only impression
made by Mr.. Croker's tribute to Thomas
Jefferson has been that of a humorous
episode.
In the beginning the Bryan tribute to JEFF
ferSon was taken interrogatiyeiy There was
a squabble over the management, and some
ambitious schemer got control of the affair.
But the partisanS of the NebraSkan did not
appear to care for that provided they We're
given the chance to show their fealty.
Twenty five hundred of them sat down at
the banquet board. and there We're 200 or
3lD spectators in the gallery, mostly Wo-
men. Desiring to know just what the plain
people We're thinking, l had gotten a seat in
the midst of them. 1t was at table No. "a.
Two middle-aged men at my left We're JEFF
ferSOnians. They bought Bryan and JEFF
fersOn badges and talked of the identity of
principles Three or four intellectual
looking young fellows in dress suits were
law students who thought the only hope of
the country lay in returning to the prin-
ciples of jefferson. The other banQueters
were gOod-natuTed young fellows not in
dress suits, who settled an argument with
-.lyir
precedence of coffee by seizing the coffee
pot and expelling the walters.
Not Tammany Man.
Are you a Tammany MANI l asked one
Of them NO, a Chicago platform man."
he replied and his companions assented.
They were all of the class who furnish the
ward workers to Tammany. If being Chi
cagO platform men should keep them and
| their associates from joining the organiza-
tiOn, il TWO or three years ii would feel the
| lack of recruits. The Chicago platform
phase has become a catching one. Though
they were not Tammany men, these young
| fellows seemed TO have animOsity to-
ward the society. They discussed Croker S
testimony before the legislative lnyesugat-
| ing committee dispassiOnately and impair
| italy. They were not interested in the
| speechmaktng except what was said by
Geo. Fred Williams and Bryan. They
couldn't hear what Williams said, but they
\ liked his looks. While the dull addresses
We're being delivered they talked about a
| gentleman named Spike Sullivan, who is in
| the habit OF playing with whatever other
gentleman may be pitted against him for
| i've or six rounds, and then putting the
| other gentleman to sleep by an undercut
| While Spike Sullivan interested me more
| than what most of the speakers on the
platform said, am bound to state that this
| was not true of the majority of the ban
queters. They We're earnest and We're at
tenJiYe
The big police sergeant at one of the
| doors was impatient over the speeches.
| They neein talk about this being a JEFF
| ferson banquet he told me. These peo-
PIE have paid their dollar to hear Bryan
| Why don't those other fellows give him a
| chance
| The other fellows got through in reason
| able time, though Il Kentucky orator who
| was furnishing his hearers with platitudes
| had to be pulled by the coat tails TO get
| him TO quit
Bryan in Good Form,
| Bryan himself was in excellent form. His
| al pearance on the platform is now less
| that of an eXhorter and more that of a
| bishop than formerly He has new ilIustra-
| tionS for some of his old arguments, and
| he varies his modes of expression. The
| popular applause is as grateful as ever to
| his ears When the wave is rising he
| stretches forth his right hand with the
/ palm downward. It is a GESTURE which
| says very plainly, Now, boys, enough of
| that, but if you won't stop, why of course
| yon won't, and 1 can't make you stop.
| That he would be received tumultuously by
| sympathizers and admirers was certain /
| was more concerned TO see if he had a
| new program, and if so, what its effect
| would be on his hearers
1t is an individual impression, which may
| be changed later but | left the dollar ban
| quet with the feeling that Mr. Bryan
| Is cropping in the dark for his main presi-
| dtntial issue. The Croker Jeffersonian BAN
| quet had proclaimed that it wanted the
| man and not the issue. Knowing that the
| majority of the party was satisfied with
| the man Mr.. Bryan appeared to be looking
| foi the issue. The trend of the speeches
| was all on this line. The effort to conceal
it was found in the emphasis laid on the