, 1907-02-05
ST|MATE
OF BRYAN
AUDITOR PLACES VALUE UPON
LECTURE DELIVERED LAST
EVENING BY NEBRAS-
kA STATESMAN.
. Good Speaker but Not Great One,
Magnetic Though Not Overpower-
insIy So; and Lacking In Some Of
the Attributes That Have Made
Roosevelt One of the Marked Char
acters of This Age and Time.

There was a good audience at the
Opera House last night to hear Hon.
William Jennings Bryan of Lincoln on
THE Old World and Its Ways" The
lecture was an enjoyable one, Mr.. Bry-
an having a certain amount of mag.
netism. He is a pleasant gentleman
a good speaker and calculated to keep
himself before the public. The follow.
ing estimate of the lecture was pre-
pared for The Republican by one OF
his auditors. a gentleman whose edu
cation is broad, whose knowledge of
conditions in both continents is ex
tensive, and who, while he loves a
good speaker, was not enthused to the
supernatural point by the great COM
moner":
An Estimate Of Mr.. Bryan.
A man who at the instance of a
great party has twice been a candidate
for the Office of president of the United
States, who has for the completion Of
his education and the rounding off of
his knowledge spent upwards of a year
in touring the world, and who will
again, in all human probability, contest
the presidency on behalf of his party,
is a subject of more than common in
terest, and it is fair to inquire what we
md In him.
The writer has no personal knowl-
edge Of Mr.. Bryan, no knowledge Of
him other than that accessible to ev-
eryone in the public press, and, there
fore. will treat only of Mr.. Bryan's pre-
sentation of himself in the lecture of
Monday night.
Good but Not Great.
A good speaker, he is not apparently
a very great one; the voice is pleas
ant and powerful, but not remarkably
varied; the gestures are the usual
ones; the words, while suitable are
not notable for the happiness of their
choice. Magnetism, though present, is
not overpowering; it is quite possible
to disagree with Mr.. Bryan while he
is speaking, both as to his facts n as
to his conclusions. With the few
great orators of the world the hearers
are carried away, and the mind re-
fuses to criticise till after the e
ton. The gift of speech, while val
liable to Mr.. Bryan as enabling him
freely and pleasantly to make exposi-
ton of his thoughts before his hearers,
cannot be counted as the main secret
of his power.
Impressions Of the Orient.
How does the world strike him? Not
very favorably, it is to be feared. In
the Orient, what impresses him is the
heathenism; what he singles out for
praise is the missionary work. He de-
plores the want of liberty. And this
from a man of peace. 1t does not ap-
parently occur to him, though with a
very little conversation with Euro
peans resident in the east he could
have learned, that Orientals have lit
tie or no interest in political liberty,
but are fierce defenders of their re-
ligion and their customs; and that on
these characteristics must be based all
dealings with them. The intensity of
the religion, moulding every act of
daily life, mistaken though it be, he
does not see.
Beautiful as Architecture.
The Tai Mahal, he admits without
enthusiasm, is beautiful; but how
much better to have spent the money
In building girls schools. Apart from
the artistic b%lasphemy of such a sug-
gestion, has ne passed through the
east so wrapped in his W precencep'
tions as not to know that it Is only
British bayonets that have forced some
slight measure of enlightenment on
the Hindoo, and that the fate of a ma
tive prince who had even thought of
educating the women would not have
been far t. seek?
Russian AristocTacy.
In the few words he spoke upon
Russia he mentioned the decay of
aristocratic rule. There is probably
no monarchy in which the aristrocracy
have counted for so little as in Russia.
The powers have been the grand
dukes-royalists, very different from
aristocrats-and the bureaucracy. The
bureaucracy in Russia has been open
to all who have had the necessary
qualifications, INSCRIPTIONS fidelity to
the Romanoffs and administrative
ability; and, though given titles In
many cases, very few are or noble
birth. The Russian ~aristocracy is
waaltk and has privilege, but not