Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-08-26
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BRYAN AS HE Is.
James Creelman Visits the Famous Demo-
crat at Home.

James Creelman Visits the Famous Demo-
crat at Home.
James Creelman, the wellknown
correspondent of the New York
Journal, has been visiting Hon. VIM.
J. Bryan, at his home in Lincoln, Neb.,
and, under date of August 81, he sends
his paper the following:
A little more than a week ago I was
walking the deck of the steamship
St. Paul with Richard Croker, listen
ing to the tribute to Mr.. Bryan's pow
er and intregity which has stirred the
country. Aud here am today, with
Mr.. Bryan himself, the most stubborn
ly sincere and convincingly convinced
political leader / have met in the
whole world.
l have known Mr.. Bryan for many
years, and during the campaign of
1896 I travelled nearly $4,000 miles
with him, although I did not support
him with my vote. He is today the
same sober, deliberate, intense Ameri-
can he was in those blistering days Of
roaring multitudes and political up
heaval. There is not shadow of
turning or evasion in his conversation.
Unlike Mr.. Mckinley, be, does not
shift his ground to suit the OCCASION.
came to Lincoln to see Mr.. Bryan
because Mr.. Croker said that many of
the Democratic leaders in the eastern
states believed it to be desirable that
the ratio should be omitted from the
financial plank of the national plat
form next year, and that the question
of the relationship of silver to gold in
our currency should be left to congress.
The interview with Mr.. Croker was
the result of statement made to me
by him nearly year ago in London.
He said then that he believed Mr..
Bryan to be the greatest statesman in
America, if not in the world.
Mr.. Bryan looks older. In few
months he will he 40 years old. He is
stouter and weighs 2O3 pounds. Since
the last campaign he has bought farm
of 25 acres just outside of Lincoln,
and every two or three days the black
charger which bore him as soldier
carries him to his scented fields of
clover, green corn, ripe melons, fruit
trees, potatoes and tomatoes, over
which broods of white and brown
chickens 60 clucking contentedly.
The Democratic leader is a good car
penter and makes his own chicken
houses. I saw him today carry an
armful of melons from the field to his
buggy while his wife and children
strolled about the scene of plenty and
beauty.
have taken the trouble to investi-
gate the story that Mr.. Bryan is the
richest man in Lincoln. 1t is prepos-
ferrous. Mr.. Bryan's wealth does not
exceed 100000, and half of that is in
real estate. His first profits from his
book amounted to S34, 900. Of this he
gave $4,000 to various free silver
clubs. He also gave $4,000 to found
prizes for essays on the science of gov
ernment in eighteen colleges. His
house in Lincoln cost him $4,000. He
could not probably sell it for more
than $4,000. His farm near Lincoln
cost him about $4,000. He also owns
farm of 80 acres near his birthplace,
Salem, ILL.,, and small house which
his mother occupied in her last years.
The story that Mr.. Bryan is rich
spfang from the fact that he is one of
the few citizens of Lincoln who have
honestly declared their personal prop
erty for the purpose Of taxation.
AT this moment Mr.. Bryan stands at
the very centre and heart of the Dem
ocracy, in daily, almost hourly, con-
tact with the people and the leaders
in all parts of the country. He rose
from obscurity to this commanding
position by sticking to principle, re-
gardless of consequences. AS he stood
on the lawn in front of his simple
home this morning, the incarnation of
manly strength and courage, proud of
his Americanism and glorying in the
rough righteousness of the masses, I
could not help contrasting him with
another figure saw in the yellow gas
light of London night only a few
weeks ago-William Waldorf Astor-
thrilling in the presence of an English
duke. These two men represent the
two extremes of present tendencies on
this continent.