The times., 1899-10-13

Whether it is due 10 former connection
with the Cleveland regime or to inherent
ignorance of the ordinary conventions and
decencies of civilized life, the course re-
Gently adopted by ]. Sterling Morton, once
a well-known character around Washing
ton, to revenge himself upon political
opponent, can only be regarded with disgust
and contempt
Away back in the year 1889, when Mr..
William J. Bryan was a poor and strug-
Cling young attorney in Lincoln, Neb.,
with family to support, and few briefs
with which to maintain the balance of
trade and the equities between himself
and the butcher and baker, he committed
an error of judgment which must ever be
a stain upon an otherwise bright escutch-
con. He was witless enough to look upon
one ]. Sterling Morton as his friend-a
thing that Individual was never known to
be to any living being-himself, in the
way of selishness and animal cunning,
alone excepted But the youthful barrister
did not know this. Being in straitened
circumstances and thinking he saw d
chance for pot boiler, In the shape Of a
position as Secretary of the State Board of
Transportation, he sought to enlist the good
offices of the person Morton, and addressed
to him a letter in which he explained that
he was not actuated by political ambition,
which Mr.. Bryan even then seems to have
suspected would be resented as a danger
Gus thing for young man to have in
that neighborhood, but by desire to earn
the salary attached to the office. In the
did not stop to guard the words in which
he described his. situation and needs, be-
cause he assumed that he was writing to
gentlemen, and hence a man incapable of
putting a false construction upon them, or
any construction other than that Morton
knew from previous oral conversations
wit. the writer, to belong to them. Mr..
Bryan no doubt wrote what he is now,
with much attempt at sensation charged
with writing. Here is the letter
A. R. TALBOT. W. J. BRYAN.
Office Of
TALBOT BRYAN,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW,
Rooms 49, 46, and AZ Burrs Block,
Cor. and 18th Streets.
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. II, 1889.
Hon. J. Sterling Norton Nebraska City, Neb.:
Dear Friend-Your kind letter to Mr.. Lease was
received and delivered. l think it well
ceived. The p. S. was judcious, ] think. ! am
grateful 10 you for your endorsement
Had hesitated TO write you because | dislike
soliciting aid. / assure you that it is the money
that is in the Office and not the honor that at
tracts me. II successful in getting it, it will
tide my beginning here. With regards
: - W. j. BRYAN.
This impresses us as being perfectly le-
gitimate. frank and manly. The young
man was thinking of his wife and baby,
and Of his rent and grocery bills. His
political ambitions at the time were con-
fined to placing himself in a situation to
take care of the first and pay the second.
Morton understood this thoroughly. Now
after many years he resurrects this old
letter and hurls it at Mr.. Bryan, who in
the interval, has incurred his displeasure
by achieving a position before the Ameri
can people, to which he never could as
pire, the brilliant idea being that 1t will
cover the latter with shame and dismay-
Those who know J. Sterling Morton in
timately will not be in the least surprised
at his action in this matter. The only
wonder is that, having such a fire cracker
in his pocket, he did not explode it in
1896. But that is small matter Mr..
Bryan's friends could easily submit the
document in question to committee OF
gentlemen, of undoubted standing as
such, anywhere, and ask them to decide
whether the circumstances surrounding
the letter did not exonerate the writer
from any violation of moral or ethical
sentiment; and whether the action Of the
receiver, In his hostile publication of
communication received and accepted in
justly bar him from the society of gentle
men?