Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-19
BRYAN AT A
 LONDON DINNER
How the Guests Were Inn pressed With the Nebraskan.
TALKED ON SERIOUS SUBJECTS.

EngIishwomam Who Met Him at the
 House of a Titled Lady Says the
 Men Interested Him and He the
 Men-Eager to Learn About British
 Politics and Institutions.
 A private letter that we are permit ted to print, says the Boston Tran script, gives an interesting account of English impressions of MT. William Jennings Bryan during his recent so- cial experiences in London:
 Late in the afternoon came a note from Lady X. asking mother and me to help her out at dinner she was ar ranging at the last Snoment for dis tinguished American. I've been asked to help out with so many distinguished Americans on the strength of my nine months in the States that took it as matter of course and after all those Alaska dinners expected nobody more distinguished than some lawyer. Moth CT, who wanted to stay at home, thought there were enough 'distin- guished Americans through the sum- mer and that it was a pity if they
 
 ter too. ..-
 "She went, though, with a good grace, and as soon as we had shaken hands Lady X. whispered to me, Of course you met MT. Bryan when you were in the States It was on my tongue to say I'd never heard of him, when my wits came back to me and I murmured that I hadn't, but that I had heard something about him; that New York, Boston and Philadelphia weren't the part of the country where MT. Bryan lived. Oh says Lady K. and looks disappointed, and put you in speaking distance. But he won't mind us. It's the men that interest him, and he the men With that she waved her fan, and I had my first glimpse of MT. Bryan, and of all places in a London drawing room.
 Lady K. was right. He was talking to the men, and the men to him, and we women hocked by ourselves on the outskirts, of no more real account than the ornaments on the chimney piece. I could hear MT. B.'s big, deep voice rumbling through over lighter ones and see his long black hair. Mamma said he sounded like Gladstone, who never could talk, but was always addressing and O., who tries to be smart about everything American because he was six months in Washington, whispered when he took me in that all statesmen in the States wore their hair that way. He'd seen lem by the dozen in Wash ington.
 tIn due time we made our courtesies to the distinguished American but he showed that we women didn't interest him much, and he certainly hasn't any small talk to help him through dinner. Every time we slipped into 1t in spite of ourselves Lady x. could see him slipping out and looked warnings down the table and turned the talk on some serious subject that Q. wanted to bet me half a sovereign that she didn't know anything about However, there were enough that did, and I haven't heard such instructive conversation in months. MT. Bryan was eager to learn all about English politics and institu- tions and how they worked. Blank and Blank were just as keen about Amer ican institutions and what they did. Some of the rest of us expected him to tell good stories. The Alaska lawyers all did, but he was too much in earnest for that. o. said he had areputation to keep up, and that that was the way to succeed in American politics, and that we took ours much too lightly and didn't understand the people. While he was thinking of another, Lady X. rxyffr oH rr% OF Inc sat in a corner and wished I had seri- ous interests and had known what MT. B. called the middle west. I'd long ago found out that was what I'd been ask ed for and that Lady x. thought New York and Nebraska weren't far away. i I suspect that MT. B. doesn't think you over in New York are real Americans l at all or that we are the real England, which latter may be true. He was evi- 1 dently studying us seriously, which isn't worth while unless he is going to write a novel about us-a thoughtful | novel,
 When the men came in we got a few impressions from the younger ones, the elders and MT. B. discoursing seri- ously at the other end of the room uOOOL GuSAASA dA1A AAICA- ican. z. said that he was the real American, and he respected him for it, and that the smart Americans that come over here in the summer were | just shams who tried to put on an out side so showy that we couldn't see through it. We did though, and it was MT. Bryan and his kind that had really made what was worth while in America, just as the provinces had made England. But z. likes to be queer. Then T., who gets the New York view from his brother, who is out there, admitted that he had ex- 1 pected to see q ranting socialist and had found only a well informed and serious man, who had a lot of sense about things and who tried to get at the truth of lem, if he did take himself l awfuIly seriously Q. said if he'd been born here he would have been chair ~S