The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-13
BAYAN |SSTRONGER
WHILE IN DEFEAT
So Says John Temple
Graves.
HIS HOLD ON PEOPLE
Is Wonderful. StiIIed Turbulent
Convention at the Lifting OF
a Finger. His Magnificent
Fight During Closing
Scenes.

Mr.. John Temple Graves, of At
lanta, famous lecturer, editor anoi
politician, arrived in Raleigh yester-
day to fill an evenings engagement
at the y. and NJ. College. He has only
just returned from the convention al
St Louis. Mr.. Graves is an earnest
believer in William j. Bryan as a man
of conviction and force. When l saw
him yesterday at the Marlborough h-
readily consented to speak of the
great ex-chieftain of the Democracy.
Bryan, he said, had received his vim
dications at the convention. His views
had not been sustained but he had
preserved to himself the confidence
of the party and of the people. He
had stood the final test of being great
and magnanimous in defeat.
After speaking of various men anG
events of the convention Mr.. Graves
said of Bryan:
But all tributes and all ovations in
that great historic assembly of dele
gates and people pale into insignifi-
canoe beside the continuing popular
idolatry that followed William j.
Bryan. 1t was not only one time, but
many times; not upon special occa-
sion, but upon all occasions, and upon
the slightest provocation any sugges-
ton of him swept the vast assembly
into a storm Every mention of his
name was magical. THE sight of his
impressive figure was the signal for
the widest enthusiasm, and he alone
was potential to still the storm which
his lightest word let loose. Time and
again when the Democratic chairman
and the sergeant-at-arms, and the Of
ficers, and the police, We're simply as
leaves in the tempest OF popular eX-
element, one lifted finger of the great
Nebraskan could bring almost instant
stiffness to the turbulent enthusiasm
which all the organized forces of the
Democratic convention could not con-
troll.
No man has ever seen Bryan-the
real Bryan-unleSS he saw him at st.
Louis. Those who have seen him else
where have seen the great but tram
Gull teacher, preaching in patience
and bidipg his time. Those awhes saw
him at st. Louis saw Bryan at his best
and greatest with all the lion aroused
by opposition and offense, and all his
marvellous eloquence winged to its
loftiest flights by the occasion and the
emergency. And to have seen Bryan
at his best was to have seen the
worlds best at his best.
For no man living and few men
dead have ever looked upon so peer
less an orator, so Incompatible
master of assemblies, as Bryan, at st.
Louis. The delegates before him were
iron, pledged, predetermined, inacces-
sible and immovable. But if any one
thousand men could have been select
ed from that vast assemblage, or
brought into that vast assemblage,
with open minds and uninstructed
wills, and given for an hour to this
matchless leader of men, he could
have swayed and led them as Damos
tl1eues moved the AthenianS to march
against Philip, to conquer or die"
when the student of oratOry in
art, or the student of popular leader
ship in expression, seeks in the future
an illustration to make immortal on
canvas or in description, he will find
the ideal in the great Nebraskan, who
was the unchallenged and unequalled
hero of the Democratic convention OF
1904"
Bryan said Mr.. Graves, was at his
best, if anything. at the time when,
sick and worn, he stood in the grey
light of morning and delivered amid
the wreck of the principles for which
he had battled so undauntedly, and
gave to the party the pledge of his
fidelity. Even then his voice rang
through the great hall like a trumpet
call and stilled the tumult of excited
and fatigued men into quiet attention.
After saying that he had stepped
down from the high place to which he
had been elevated by the party. he
made these ringing statements which
show the conviction and the absolute
loyalty of the man.
Some of you may say l fought a
losing fight; that | have not run a
good race; but there is one thing that
no man can say, and that is tnat L
have not kept the faith