The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-07
A STUDY OF BRYAN.
[From McClure's Magazine.l

The first impression one receives OF
the man, and the last impression to
fade, is that of youth-not the youth of
immaturity; not the youth of mad van
ity and folly; but the youth of the
| bridegroom coming forth from his
| chamber, rejoicing as a strong man;
| the hope of youth, of enthusiasm, of
! bright eyes that indicate a good liver
and reflects a brave soul All the lines
| of the tall figure that inclose over zoo
| pounds of wholesome flesh and blood
are lines of young manhood. Although
| Rf-van's hair is receding from his brow,
| no wrinkles mark it, and beneath II is a
| Welsbach smile. clear and steadrast
| and cheerful as the sunrise At home,
! in his office. or in the street, that smile
is winning. 1t is it's owners talisman
Back of the broad chin is a strong
| jaw; under the jaw neck obstinate
as a Turks slopes into pair OF as
| diplomatic shoulders as ever saved an
Irishman'S head from a blackthorn
| stick. Bryan's figure is all Irish His
loose, hanging arms are Irish His
sturdy, well-pegged legs are Irish
And there's an Irish grandsire-who
used to smoke a clay pipe probably
and he likes to come back and rest his
bones, that have been under the 'ould
sod these hundreds of years, by sit
ting on the small of his grandsons back
to view the world from across his
grandson'S elevated knees. Doubtless
if the scion would take a little some
come out of the past and give the
young man a philosophy that would
smile with the world at its weaknesses
and shortcomings But Bryan is
sober and virtuous men who neither
smokes, drinks. chewS nor Swear's. So
the old one keeps his place and listens
while his offspring signs at the misery
and Nickedness and woe of this mel
ancholy world.
CIothe a handsome figure in a black
tailcoat, and under the awning of
black SLOUGH hat put a lOw-cut vest,
with two studs fastened through the
front of a white shirt; tie black string
tie, the inevitable neckgear of the young
lawyer ten years ago, under lay-down
collar; modify the chill atmosphere of
the bar by the breezy am1ab1l1ty or a
St. Louis shoe drummer, depressed
while he sells Methodist deacon bill
of goods, and the gentle reader may
have a fair idea of how Bryan looks,
acts, moves and has his being when he
is not before an audience.
Bryan shows his greatest personal
strength in the fact that he is today, as
he has ever been, utterly without "a po-
litical machine. Other men in American
politics stand or fall for reasons outside
of their personality. Mr.. David Hill, for
instance is a geographical location Mr.
Mckinley is a kind of syndicate RooSe-
welt stands for an ideal of civic right
eOusnesS Mr.. Croker is an impudent
appetite. Quay is system of wireless
biography. But Bryan is Bryan, and
=
good or evil rests under Bryan's black
SLOUGH hat than under any other single
headpiece in America. Bryan is ma
chineleSS, not because he abhOrS the ma
chine, but because he ignores it. He
would not know what to do with cap
tains and lieutenants. If his party
should begin to turn from him, Bryan
could not call, What, no, warder, let
the portcullis fall in a score of states
and check the stampede. If oratory
would not stop the panic, the multitude
would have to leave him as it came to
him. After which he would go on lee
turing until that gave out, and running
for the senate till that gave out, and for
congress till that gave out, when he
would return to his law office, and con-
tinue as he was in the beginning, an
honest, Woodworking, ordinary country
lawyer. with an extraordinary voice and
a. forceful, direct plasible way of put
ting short Anglo-Saxon words that often
move juries but are not so thrilling in
briefs.
But If. on the other hand, Bryan's
presidential ambition should be graft
fed, the country would have a startling
spectacle. 1t would be like that of a
southern gentleman in Swallow-tails and
a choker, but one generation removed
from his periWig, suddenly Shunted
half a century ahead and damned into
the oak-bottomed chair of a railroad
president The gentleman of the old
school would try honestly to do his
duty. But he would have such difficult
things to learn and such an incapacity
for learning them that he would cut
many a fantastic caper and in the end
make a mess of it as bad as a thorough
going rascal would.
The danger of men of Bryans mold
to the country is not what they hold
true so much as it is how they hold it;
not SO much the limit of their intel
hgence as their attitude toward truth.
For Bryan's mental endowment is that
of a debater. When he faces an alleged
fact his habit is not to search it for
n q & k
ing the truth; he has 1t and is seeking
to make converts While his marvellous
mental acuteness as debater is a
shield that will always ward certain
truths from his heart. yet he has one
simple oratorical trick, and only one;
he begs the question. For instance, a
reporter recently asked Bryan if the
practice of electing senators in Montana
by the corrupt use of money is not de-
plorable His reply was: Don't you
think the spectacle of Senator Hanna
voting to unseat Clark for buying an
election is homogeneous" Now, the al
legged incOngruity of Senator Hanna'S
position in the Clark investigation has
nothing to do with the case against the
corrupt use of money in elections. But
that answer before a crowd would turn
the debate into another channel. In his
Chicago speech Bryan said: IF they
tell US that the gold standard is a. good
thing we shall point to their platform
and tell them that their platform pledge&
the party to get rid of the gold standard
anu SUBSTITUTE blIISldll1SAl IL lne SO4u
standard is good thing why try to get
rid of it2" With the crowd that passes
for argument against the gold standard.
but the fact is, the merits or dement's
of the gold standard are not touched
upon at all In no place IN that speech
was there a single logical argument Of
fered against the gold standard. Yet
the speech was a perfect piece of rhe
toric of its kind and it convinced thou
sands of the iniquity of the gold STAN
dard.
And vet it is not the kind of argu-
ment Bryan uses which gives him
strength. it is not the principles he adj
Vocates that draw men to him. At the
bottom of the magnetism which pulls
men toward Bryan is the growth in the
pOnular mind of q faith in sncia Ism nj