The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1904-07-29

ing in action, as every one knew i
would but through it all was the
fortune of Bryan. the human interest
that bound the whole nation, politica
friends and foes alike, as an audier CO
watching stage scene.
The Convention Hall.
The stage was set in the big room
where Mckinley was nominated eight
years ago. 1t is an oblong room where
ten thousand people may look down
upon platform projecting into the
PIT, kind of peninsula from one long
wall of seats.
Into this hopper people came pouring
Wednesday noon, July the sixth, and
while they waited for the mobiles and
lords and courtly dramatis peIsonae to
appear, the band, in box high above
the crowd, played tunes grave and
gay, and the crowd murmured it's faint
! applause, until the band played
Dixie, . when cry of joy swept over
the audience and back and over again.
1t was noisy crowd, and given to
rudeness. 1t would not be quiet and
listen to Williams temporary Chair
man, speaking. The crowd thought
he had weak voice. and said so, when
the truth is that the crowd merely had
poor manners. 1t was all very like
the first act in a play, wherein the
people keep coming in and drown out
the story of the situation which the
housemaid is telling to the butler,
upon which the whole of the action
hinges. The people in the theatre
know what to expect, and have heard
most of the plot in advance; so the
people in the big hall, and in the
country at large for that matter, knew
what the play was to be and merely
showed John Sharp Williams the dis
courtesy of inattention to his story,
though it was the keynote of every
thing that followed.
The First Guns of the Battle.
But the next day, Thursday. July
the seventh, the real action OF the play
began. Off the stage, during intervals
between the acts, the Committees on
Credentials and on Resolutions had
been holding an all-night session. In
the matter before the Credentials Com
mittee Bryan had this intarest-he
believed that there was fraud in the
election of the Illinois delegates, and,
perhaps because his friends would be
losers by reason of the fraud, he had
several days before the
Convention assembled, that he would
fight the seating of the Hopkins dele
CATION. Also in Chairman Williams
speech the theory was promulgated
that Providence, by increasing the gold
supply OF the country. had solved the
money question and had taken it out of I
politics. For eight years Bryan has ,
been figure in politics because he has
believed and has constantly contended '
hat Providence has not settled the
money question by making plenty OF
yold any more than Providence has {
ettled the question Of the inequalities of 6
God in the land by giving the country I
ZIG crops. Bryan. therefore, was known t
O be fighting the adoption of the Will t
Jams idea in the platform; and it was a
Known by all the crowd in the galleries a
hat If the Williams idea was introduced I
g part of the platform, as every one i
erlly believed it would be introduced, Q
Bryan would appear in the Convention a
nd fight for his lie. Also every one s.
new that there was an overwhelming
majority against him.
This merely whetted the appetite of
be people for the show. The fact that d
he lions would kill the gladiator never fl
Unfinished the size of the crowd 10 the W
Coliseum. The great hall at st Louis y
'as jammed full an hour before the +
ime set for the assembling of the 81
convention Thursday morning. The CT
and played ahd played, and the Il
eople cheered at Dixie again and 81
gain. Fans quiveIed over the dark IL
ers of people like leaves on the aspen. a.
here was a long delay. The Com 7
,ittee. men said was not ready to ID
,port. This meant that q battle had q
cen going on outside. off the stage, &c
bicb intensifies the dramatic situa I'll
on in every action. The people did b
u know which Committee was I'M m
adv, they did not know which battle tn
as still fighting. but they knew that
,ere was combat in the air. m
Ten thousand people in one room it
slting TO hear from conflict outside TN
Iat rom and expecting to hear every CT
mute will generate tremendous WI
,scbi, force. The band and the tn
roaming at the familiar tunes. the re
mt and Ire tanning. only made the
'on,s nervrus. and the flood of sup &C
essed excitnmement kept rising. The AZ
no was not there. The Nebraska to
',eyation was assembled, but Bryan WI
ny absent. men, therefore. knew w
,tainly that he was In the hight: 10
40 snhiim,nal attertion Of the vast en-