The daily sentinel., 1908-03-19
'C0MM0NER'S
BIRTHDAY
From Country Over Congratulations Pour in on Mr. Bryan
on His 4Sth Birthday---A Description Of His Farm
and Home Near LincoIn--Many Interesting
Personal Views Of Famous Nebraskan
He is now Getting Gray

Mrs. Bryan and jefferson There is
| Washington, done in split straw by
an Italian admirer.
The books on the shelves run the
whole gamut of literature. ancient
and modern, with the emphasis on
! essays and economic subjects, and
the flat-top desk, massive affair, is
| lightly burdened with writing ma
terial, since the Bimetalist-he is
still that-does nearly all his writ
ing in his office in the basement.
| In the library, as in every other
| room, there are curious and beauti-
full trinkets, some of them rare and
valuable, which were given to the
Bryans in foreign countries.
In the billiard-room upstairs are
hosts of queer-looking contraptions
given him by missionaries here and
| there in heather lands. Among these
are many samples of the hats worn
by various peoples, and in these the
Nebraskan takes peculiar delight.
He dons one after another, even to
the weird headgear of the Parsee
widow, and each time he smiles
funny smile, as if seeking some sort
of expression to fit the top-piece.
Bryan. when at home gets up at
every morning, SO as to write a
while before breakfast, and from
that time until 10 at night, is about
as busy as any man in the country.
And the biggest Bryan is the CO.
worker with Mrs. Bryan, who is his
constant companion in everything he
does. She studied law just after
they were married and was admitted
to the bar-not because she wanted
to practice, but because she wanted
to be real help to her husband in
his work. And that she was and
still is.
Now that his work has resolved
itself so largely into writing-writ-
ing editorials, lectures, letters, books
and articles for magazines-she has
learned to use a typewriter. and, be-
side his big desk in the Office, in
the basement of Fairview, is little
stand. at which she sits whenever
he is there, taking dictation on the
machine or answering some of the
hundred or more letters that are
sent out to him from the Commoner
office every day.
All his mail is delivered to the
office of his weekly paper, which is
Just off the main street in Lincoln
and is supervised by his brother,
Charles w. Bryan. And last year
100000 letters addressed to William
Jennings Bryan, with variations,
were received there.
He sell--i goes to the office of his
paper, ths ugh he writes the leading
editorial for / each week and keeps
close eye Oh the proofs.
His home Ii 5 { 5 simple as that
of the average MeI-to-do farmer,
though it dih2is rom the latter in
most ways. III cozy little frame
house not far from Fairview lives
his superintendent, who looks after
! the stock and the crops, for Farm
err Bryan seldom has time from his
desk to look after the actual running
of things. He keeps close track of
how matters are comm on" how
ever, and he knows good corn and
wheat and fine COW almost as well
as he knows political economy, which
is very well indeed.
His exemplary life which, in its
moral aspects might well be accept
ed as standard by any young man,
has repaid him many fold for the
few socalled pleasures of which it
may have deprived him. At As he
is as freshly strong as a man of half
his age and while As is by no means
old, most men of that age who had
done all Bryan has done in the way
of hard work would be far less fit
than he. Yet his side hair-he has
none on tops iron gray.