Daily inter mountain., 1900-02-14
JUMPING SiDEWiSE.

American history is freckled with the
records of public men who have lost the
COURAGE of their convictions under fire.
Colonel Bryan is not the first man who
has permitted his ambition to attain
great Office to defect him from course
of procedure once conspicuous for per-
soma, courage and devotion to duty. In
1896 the hero of the silver movement was
a man Of undoubted courage, who never
lost an opportunity to nail his co!ors to
the masthead in fearless challenge of at
tack He permitted 'the ponp and cir
cumstance of war; to follow in his wake,
like foam bubbles behind speeding ship
at sea.
But in 1900. oblivious to the advice
which the broken cardinal gave to his
secretary-"I charge thee, fling away
ambition''-Colonel Bryan finds himself
lodging hither and thither to abate the
fate which his cowardice invites. For
the past year he has labored hard to
bring the gold and silver wings of his
party into raptuous reunion, by fore
ing the free coinage issue into the back
ground and making anti-imperialism-a
grotesaue figment of political fiction-the
paramount issue of a presidential cam
paign. In this work he has succeeded in
a manner. that must have made the am
bilious cookies of his heart grow warm
with pride. BY refusing to stand by the
silver question in Boston, when chal-
lenged by the democracy of that city to
defend the doctrine of free coinage, he
laid an olive branch ON the altar of the
goldites. Like the arbiters of human
destiny in the gladiatorial contests of the
olden time, they turned their thumbs up
wards to indicate that the presidential
aspirations of Colonel Bryan may live.
In trying to ride two horses going in
opposite directions, however even his
equine experiences in shoulder straps at
Chckamauga fail to serve him we'll. No
sooner has he succeeded in tanning the
fiery goldite bourbon, and been crowned
with laurels plucked from the gardens of
the golden gods of Boston-no sooner has
the soft answer of a studied silence
turned to applause the wrath of his party
enemies-than he finds himself confront
ed by another problem that must be
solved. Populism has tied the grass
across the pathway he must tread!
Realizing that their party is entitled to
precedence, by reason Of the issues that
made democracy prominent in 1896, the
leaders of populism have announced their
intention of calling their convention in
advance of the democrats and placing
Bryan in nomination for the presidency.
This movement has in view the forcing
of Bryan to stand upon platform that
declares in no unmistakable terms in
favor of the free coinage of silver and
gold, at a ratio of Is to /, by the inde-
of the likes or dislikes of the large and
influential gold element in the demo-
cratic party.
We're Bryan to accept the nomina ton
e'e t1AC A<AIiuS VI lAe pOQulISLS, ne realizes
that his recently placated Boston friends.
and democrats of that stamp, would
withdraw their support and put another
candidate into the field. In 1896 the pop
ulists endorsed the presidential nominee
cf the democrats, and it would be only
fair play for the democrats to endorse
the nominee Of the popuhsts in 1900, espe-
cially when the candidate is the same in.
dividual, and is, in fact, the favored sor
of bourbondsm. Undoubtedly, the scheme
of the populists to hold an early conyen.
tion and nominate Bryan would be ac.
ceded to--for the democrats are figurine
on the support of the populists again thi:
year-were it not for the fact that Bryar
would have to stand upon a platform
that emphasizes the utterances of 1896
and would thereby antagonize eastern
democrats and destroy the harmon,
which the practical retirement of fre,
coinage has brought about within hi
party.
The racing and chasing on Cannobi,
Lea, SO graphically pictured by the poet
when Lochinvar came out Of the ives