The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-22

WHOm, with their ears, they could not
| hear? And why, in the moments of
| cl1nching with some homely iliustra-
| ton the point of popular faith, should
Bryan have looked out upon the sea
| of people before him and caught the
wave of their applause breaking back
! 70 echo and repeat the progress of
his thought?
1t is not to suggest teIepathy in this
respect between the speaker and the
audience other than exists between a
| perfect sympathy in attitude and ad-
mlratlon How the miracle was per-
formed, II is bootless to inquire. That
| 1t existed. is proof of the great fact
that 1T was the man that the people
! mad come to see; and that, in thous-
ands of instances denied even sight Of
| him, they yet in some strange fashion
| adopted and reflected his thought
Time and again Gid a ripple of indie
pendent laughter and applause run
! through the great throng. moved by
| something that the grand stand had
missed Again and again, after the
one watch the progress of
the hit" agitating the people as
the splash Of pebble circles into an
ever gentler and an evermore uni
versal influence. Whether by sort
of contact of narration the crowd tele-
graphed the message from one fringe
of it to the other, the message was
delivered. And, as with infinite pa
tience, with pathetic attention, the
thousands stood and waited and final
ly received into their hearts what was
said, the theme of the speech itself
gained a significance in the event and
preached the parable of the history
that lies back of it.
Bryan Afellower and Surer.
For Bryan has mellowed and soften
ed. The time was when his face, in
| it's craven severity limited the fanati-
cism which his ideas were damned as
indicating. Bryan was a comm otion in
politics. He stirred the waters into
violence. Passions sprang in the wake
Of his footsteps, even as they famed
| in front to bar his progress. In a time
of clash, and fever and sudden anger,
the mind Of the people affected Bryan
with it's own impetuousity. Since then,
there has been the Christening OF de-
| feat, the slow architecture of philoso-
| ply, the shining calm of faith. The
waters have become deeper and
stronger, and in keeping with them
| has the man they embrace become
surer in touch, more placid in soul,
more invincible in the simple logic of
! his creed. Bryan, who was once the
center of q revolution forced like a
sudden apparition into the public eye
| by the pressure of greed struggling
| with disaster, has become the genius
| of a progression and is the chrysaiis
| of a growth. The man who was born
i into public life in the waging of a
| fight is still fght;ng-but the fight is
| going his way. Out of the gladiator
| fighting against odds has been born
| the builder whose foundations have
| been laid; who has forgotten in ex-
pericnce the sting of disappointment;
| and who, in a sure patience. is going
gladly and with a smile about his
work.
All this shows in the person of the
man. He is larger, his face more boy
ish in it's good humor than it was a
decade ago. His smile-the famous
smile that even the bitterest moments |
could never efface-is still more con-
tagious in its pristine spontaneity. His /
voice-that can still on occasion ring |
with that clarion note that sounded |
like the trumpet to q charge-falls /
now, more like a bell. with more of
reason in it than command, with /
more of persuasion than of challenge |
And, for all the fire of his words, that !
| can yet blaze for a thrilling ten sec |
+ ons as of yore, is their import less /
crushing than soothing and less des- !!
perate because more confident
From where Bryan stands on the /
platform preaching his gospel of the /
victory and the worth of the common |
people, there CLEANS the prophetic !
light of soul that has learned seren-
ity and of a faith that has already |
seen the fruits of its vision.
The Intimacy of Confidence.
Because Bryan holds in his person
and in his work the imDrimature of |
the peoples will has he become per-
manent in the heart of the people. The !
fight, he seems to say, is still on, but |
the fight is ours. And SO, While the !
burden of his talk is now encourage /
ment and reminder is now the injunc |
ton to vigilance and faith, where /
once it was a sweeping cry to go to /
there a
man something of generousness that /
is warmer than before. His humor is \
more easily provoked, more free in eX-
preston, more sufficient for itself /
Yesterdays speech was in the nature
of a talk with friends. interspersed !
with good natured chaff of opponents |
rollicking in jokes told in the manner /
| of the street corner, with the unpre |
meditated manner of one swapping /
stories Old battles that still mean so
much in the light of future conflicts |
found in their recollection the setting |
of the narration of boyish pranks /
Identified for eleven years with ma
tional politics and on the eve of many /
other years of the same activity, Mr.. |
BRYAN speaks, as it were, ex cathedra |
and in detail, without reverence.
He is just a common man and he
seems to know it and to rate the rest
in the same class. And so. according
to his own philosophy the creature of
circumstance in leadership, he speaks [
with a fellowship that strangely con- 4
duces to intimacy without detracting /
from prestige.
1.-THE Average Man"
The speech that Mr.. Bryan del1V- /
cred was, presumably, lecture, us
subject the average Man. In con-
struction and treatment the average /
man is not the limited man. and not
the abnormal man. He is not housed
in palaces, nor living IN novels. Yet, |
filing the space between extremes, (
he is not the mediocre man. The aver
age man is the one who would seem |
to try to be in character and to want