Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-21
AN OLD RELIABLE FARMER.
Political CostumInE of the Plough
man of FairvIew.
A.. VII. Go

man of FairvIew.
New York Sun.
MIR. Bryan has been photographed as
copiously as such an old stage favorite
deserves to be. We don't find in the
ordinary portfolios Of his opulent form
and face any OF those military pictures
which startled the world in 1898. The Col
onel has paramounted and unparamounted
Imperialism, but surely the world is poorer,
the universal sense of beauty Is defrauded,
II the cameras brilliant and once frequent
memories OF his colonelcy are now grown
rare, a treasure Of collectors. Here he is
In evening dress. He is bland, plausible,
with the look OF the artist who is about to
MARBLE, but evening clothes smack of
aristocracy and are therefore republican.
In the better days of the republic and Joe
Bailey-but behold this true effigy of the
ploughman OF Fairview. He wears a flan-
mel shirt, pants" Of presumable jean cor
rugated into wrinkles of infinite old age
and tucked into boots singularly Ill fitting
indeed, why shouldn't they be? They
come, we arc informed by the "Old Home
stead out Of Blue jeans They are plain
property" They must hurt damnably the
stout yeoman's legs; but in the cause OF
the producer he doesn't mind a little suf-
tering.
Those "galluses," too. We have seen
them on the stage. The left cable behind
is nearly parted. You can almost smell the
old Rialto as you see them. Did the Hon.
Augustus Thomas pose Mr.. Bryan for this
picture in costume? The hat is the only
weakness in it. 1t is palpably new, not
ragged, as full of holes as q seive and all
bound round with a wooden string. We
believe It comes from a Fifth avenue or
Broadway halter. 1t is a shame to play
upon the sympathies of the wool hat"
boys in this way. Mr.. Bryan, be It said to
his credit, turns his back on the spectators.
Ostensibly he is looking at a wire meshed
hen house, Really he is grinning and has
to hide his latitudinous smile.
Let us see the worlds peerless plough
man on his broad acres technical express
sion for 1881. But first shudder at and ad-
mire the bold biographer who tells us:
Every acre of this farm OF Bryan's has
been builded up with the OF
of the soil loving nature that was originally
born in him.
That is cool and welcome in these can't
culsr heats. Mr.. Bryan, as everybody
knows, never loves to wonder from his own
farmside, and even when chautauquaing or
dollardining finds time to direct personally
by telegraph all his buccolics and georges
at Fairview. When actually in residence
he gets up at 5 a. m. Then you have the
happiness of seeing Bryan the farmer,
with an eye alert for every hint of nature
from the languoT OF a hen to the feel OF
wind on mis- own cheeks" As soon as he
has put on his rural suit, he performs con-
scientlously and in order these labors:
Airs the alfalfa, brushes the bulls, calls
the cows and counts the chickens before
they are hatched; teaches the ducks to
swim, excavates the ensilage, feeds and
folders, goes to grass, harrows, har-
nesses the horses, investigates the insects
in the Indian corn, Judges the Jerseys, etc.
In short. he plugs at the crops all day"
and registers his pigs on rainy days. He
receives 10000 letters a year. Fairview is
the capital of language, written and spoken.
Let us leave him among his hen houses and
his platform, the same eager. happy tiller
as of old:
still remembering the chickens, with new
galluses spread more broadly over should
ers that are padded more comfortably, but
with his close woven, durable farmers
breeches tucked into the cowhides as of
yore."