The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25

early days. Upon one occasion a heartiess. observer was heard to re. mark, That man can whisper in his geration |" s-e
 Mrs. Bryan. whose maiden name was Mary Baird. became engaged to her future husband in 1880. and they were married In the early fall of 1884 The heavy gold wedding ring which she wears fs of great interest. to women who have been permitted to get a peep at the inscription on the inside, as fol- lows: N
 Won 1Ss0-One 1884"
 sIse of Bryan's Head.
 Shortly after William J. Bryan's hrst nomination for the Presidency he was on a visit to his old home at Salem, H.. and was conversing with a num- Der of newspaper correspondents on the porch of one of the taverns of the town. He had served two terms in Congress. and during his service af Washington made notable tarin speech, but was comparatively little known in the country at large until he was placed at the head of the na. was brought to one of the newspaper men. This writer was an unusually digniied individual of much avoirdu- pois. and he was anything but im- pressed with the message received from his home office. His mind was bent on penning real statesmanlike ar- ticles for his journal, and the ordinary matter then being served up to the daily newspapers he looked upon as stuff He felt compelled as duty 10 his employer to interrupt the can- didate, however. but apologized to Mir. Bryan for the nature of the dis- patch. merely asking him to read 1t and answer if he felt soi inclined.
 Mir. Bryan smiled broadly as he read the opening sentence of the inquiry, which ran as follows:
 Ascertain the size of Bryan's head. give his exact weight and height, the size of his shoes and gloves, and rush special.
 There Is some ambiguity here" Mir. Bryan said. Your editor wishes to know the size of my head. Wire back and ask him if he means before or after the Chicago convention
 Correspondents of the afternoon pa pers were by this response enabled to wire at once a humorous special
 Remarkable Memory. ks
 William J. Bryan's faculty of com hitting to memory material used by him in his speeches. and lectures is remarkable. Few men are his equals in this respect and 1t Is doubtful If he mas a BupSFioIs
 Ohio. related recently in Washington this story: t'5t'
 when was a member of the House in the Fifty-Second Congress, and in which Mr., Bryan also served. formed strong attachment for the young man, although we were opposed to each other politically.
 .'Cne day he came over to the Re- publican side of the hall and took sent next to mine. Under leave to extend nay remarks In The Record was digging some exceptionally dry matter out of an agricultural report for the edification of the farmers of my district. Bryan picked up the book and said: Mir. Doan. have been try ing for years to improve my memoris- ing powers and am somewhat gratifed at the progress I am making. Select any page in that book at random. read 1t to me slowly, and then I will see how close I can come, to repeating 1t verbatin.'
 "I read to him whole page. Never in my life have observed a man with his mind more intently fixed upon c thing than was Mir. Bryan's that day. But had not the slightest idea that he or any other man could repeat more than the mere substance of what I had read Tn spite of the technical phrases in the matter he repeated that page so nearly correct that was ilt- terly astounded. I was trifle sus- picous and said so.
 "'Then select another page any where in the report he promptly an swered, and let us see what can do with that
 'T complied and the next test was