The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-08-19
BRYAN'S WONDERFUL POWER

1t is estimated that five million
people heard Mr. Bryan's speeches
during the campaign of 1896. He
almost duplicated the feat in 1900.
A writer in Golfers Weekly says
that Mr.. Bryan has continued close
to the heart of the people by lectur-
ing on the lyceum and speaking in
the chautauquas of the middle west.
There are six hundred of these scat
tered throughout the west. Mr..
Bryan is the chautauqua star. His
voice is strong and his personality is
well suited to these crowds. He
talked personally to three hundred
thousand people during the chautau-
qua season of 1907. He has been
delivering from one hundred to
hundred and fifty addresses for a
dozen years. Comparatively few
people know anything about the ex-
tent of this movement. The farmers
go into town on Bryan day He
makes about $4,000 in a single sum-
mer. One day last year his receipts
were $1,000.
The official reporter who accompa-
MED Mr.. Bryan through his cam
I paigns of 1896 and 1900 gives his
recollections of the contest. He says
that Mr.. Bryan never touches intoxi-
cants in any way, and never uses
! tobacco. He made about thirty
speeches of ten minutes to two hours
each day He did not break down.
/ He rarely repeated himself. He was
very quick to answer questions and
! to meet arguments. He now travels
| in a private car and after each
speech seeks the seclusiOn of his
stateroom and lies down to sleep I'M
til the next stop. After each elab-
crate effort he is rubbed down with
alcohol like an athlete and fresh
! clothes given him. He is a physical
giant and would have made a great
wrestler He had twenty-eight plat
/ forms to fall with him during the last
campaign, and sometimes the voters
would squeeze his hands until they
were twice their normal size. One
night in Michigan he made six
speeches and said he felt fit to make
six more His friends now watch
] him very closely and take good care
of him on these campaigns. He
makes most of his speeches without
preparation. Only when he address,
es the people on some important Oc-
casiOn and desires his speech to be
sent out in advance does he prepare
them. His spontaneous speeches are
always best. He read his notifica-
ton speech, and his delivery suffered
when he used manuscript. In 1900
at Indianapolis he memOrized the
peroratiOn, and aroused great en-
thusiasm. Sometimes an editorial in
morning paper will bring out a re-
ply; perhaps someone in the audi
ence would liven up things by shoot
ing some question at him. When
the correspondents who go with him
find him getting weary or mechani-
cal they will send someone out in
the audience and ask him a question.
These never fail to fire him up. In
the two campaigns when he was the
nominee for president he made four
teen hundred speeches, no two alike
certainly a tax on the resources
of any speaker.
The article in Golfers Weekly CON
cludes:
'I have seen five thousand people
at Fredericksburg, Va, the home of
Mary, the mother of Washington,
cry like children while listening to
his eloquent eulogy OF the word
mother, and three minutes later
while the tears were not yet dry on
their cheeks, laugh heartily. In Bos-
ton, at the banquet of the New Eng
land Bimetallic League, when the
immense crowds gave Mr.. Bryan
hopes for his election, I have heard
him conclude a speech with a prayer
that, in case he was elected, God
would so direct his efforts as to make
him of the greatest benefit to his
fellow-men which caused everyone
in the room to pay tribute to his