The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-31
FABLE WRITER.
Jennings Bryan's' Cousin
 Knows Thing or Two.

From the New York Sun.
 A tall, thin, handsome. elderly gentle
 man who sat on a sofa of the Victoria
 hotel yesterday is second cousin of Will
 liam Jennings Bryan. He Is John Bryan,
 rich farmer. of Yellow Springs, Green
 county, Ohio. He is the man whose career
 in politics was ruined by a brass bed
 stead, and he is one of the Ameracin au- thors who will be remembered after death.
 He says so himself. passing the hope on
 his volume of Fables and Essays" pub
 lished ten years ago and smoldering ever
 since, ready to set the world afire when
 the world gets seasoned enough to catch.
 You have written a book of essays
 have you not, sir?" asked the Sun re-
 porter-for it was he.
 Perhaps you did not catch my name?'
 responded MT. Bryan. "I am John Bryan, known as the American Aesop. There have been only four fable writers in the world. I am one of them-the only one who ever
 wrote in English"
 "Aesop, Lafontaine-" the Sun reporter began to enumerate.
 NO, sir, Not Lafontaine," said MT.
 Bryan. He merely took Aesop and rem
 dered him in French doggerel. just as 1
 will be rendered some day in the doggerel
 of a language yet unborn. The other two were orientals.
 q published my own work. I would not let it be sold for gain. I found 1t hard to circulate under those conditions Book sellers and distributing agencies demand | gain. So have given many copies away, and still retain several.
 "Elbert Hubbard loves my book He told me that at an editorial dinner in | Buffalo one of the editors said: Damn it! He's beaten us. He has written the only thing there is left to write! He hit the nail on the head They all agreed to that. One said that he could write better poetry, another that he could 1 write a better essay. But none dared to l say that he could write such fables. Of course, they couldn't. A fable writer isn't 1 born every generation. And fable writing is the only writing there isn't enough of. ''Now, I've written poetry pronounced l perfect in meter and thought by the most | competent judges. Some of it's in my 1 book. would have written more, but I what's the use when all the poetic ideas
 are used up? Fable ideas aren't all used up or wern't until I began to write. l Tt takes special brain to write fables and special vocabulary. You can't build l 'em up. You couldn't write fable young man. You might write something about | animals which had moral, but 1t would not be a fable any more than lots of verse is poetry My fables come to me as poems come to poets. If I wait-they are gone. I had a fable come to me to- day when I was shaving I waited to | f1nish-and I lost it. The idea was still l there but the diction had gone. "I am preparing another book of fables. 1 It deals unsparingly with social problems. l It Is stronger than the first, but less ten der. Into that first book every one could
 dip and find something for his needs | school masters, statesmen, workmen, will bo a for strong men.
 Then you might say something about
 my barn." went on MT. Bryan. MT. Bryan's barn is the biggest in the world, just as his farm is the biggest in l the country. He was architect and build
 CT himself. When he laid the corner stono he invited the whole country, and 1000
 people saw the dedicatory ceremonies
 Architects said the barn would fall in,
 but it stands after six years, monument to Mir Bryan's talent as an architect.
 And not cent of insurance" he said
 "I have never believed in insurance Do you know, I think I must have been
 pretty long-headed boy? For in my twen- ties I thought about getting insured and
 I looked this insurance proposition over
 I found that the companies were making lots of money, paying big salaries and
 putting up big buildings. And I said to ! myself:
 "'Why not be my own insurance com
 pany and keep the money?' That's been
 my plan ever since. And look how 1t came
 out! Oh, I tell you. fable writer has
 got to be a sage That's what they call me at home-'the Sage of Riverside
 Farm"
 Once Mir Bryan thought of turning his sageness to statesmanship. But for a brass bed the country might have been blessed with two Bryans In politics. | On one of his trips to New York four or five years ago MT. Bryan bought a brass bed and took 1t to his Ohio home- stead Just after that he started his political career modestly by running for the school board. And just after tha'