New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-12

such an expectation. But that is the
whole history Of Mr.. Bryans speech on
this Saturday night at the Waldorf.
The only report of the speech to which
at this moment l have access is The
Tribunes, and that, alas. Is not COM
plete. | cannot understand why The
Tribune should abridge so great a man
as Mr.. Bryan, but IL does. The sum-
mary il gives is accurate: a fine piece
of condensation, but ii is only sum-
mary. When, therefore, I scan it for
some sign of what I missed i'm hearing
the speech itself, | scan il in vain. In .
deed, / begin reluctantly to believe it
was never there.
The plain truth is that, from the be-
ginning TO the end Of his harangue Mr.
Bryan was lever for one moment in
touch with his audience. 1t may have
been the fault of the audience. 1t may
have been the fault Of Mr.. Bryan. 1t
may have been the fault of both. 1t
may have been the fault of neither.
Bryan above most other speakers has
been supposed 10 possess there was not
touch nor trace. He found his
audience cold He left il cold. / have
similar difficulty at the beginning.
have known Mr.. Bright rise to a hostile
House of Commons and win II over to
himself, IL not TO his opinions, by the
ers; for Incompatible they were.
have known a lesser but still great
orator. Mr.. Gladstone. lift a reluctant
assembly to his own level of thought
BETA first silence and then charm a
Chamber of Deputies half of whom
were bent on driving him from the
tribune. I do not for a moment sug-
gest that Mr. Bryan stands in the same
class with these three or with any one
of them. But / certainly did expect to
see in him fire enough, and enough Of
personal force to make him master Of
an audience all o. his own party. I
thought him a speaker to cajole, to CO.
cree, even TO convince. He was none OF
all these things. He had neither indi-
vidual nor intellectual ascendancy.
Docs a speech read well?" asked
Fox. Then 1t was not good speech"
Even in your abridgment. Mr.. Bryans
speech reads well. | am surprised to
find how well. Some of 1t you give
verbatim. His sentences are those OF
man who understands the relation be-
tween a substantive and its verb. They
are much more than that. He has the
structural sense. His sentences. like
his voice, carry beyond the footlights.
They have the essential dramatic form.
They are sentences TO be spoken, not
read. well as they read. They go like
bullets 10 the bull's-eye. There is In
them the accent OF sincerity. | never
doubted that Mr.. Bryan believed In
something-perhaps in too many things
wrong things. But believe he does;
at least while he speaks. He has cour-
age OF a rare kind. Sincere as he Is.
he did not shrink from ANNOUNCING 10
that company Of wrangling politicians.
who had been and still were at each
others threats. that Governor Wilson
has back of him a united Democratic
party. Then, with a pretty turn. he
Of ha.
entire Republican party also:
"One-half Of them are happy because
he beat Mr.. Taft. and the other half
are happy because he beat Mr.. Roose-
welt"
Surely. here was the material OF a
successful speech. and yet 1t was not
successful. 1t convinced nobody, I
think, who was not convinced before.
II conclliated nobody. II is not less i'm
portant. said Pascal In his discourse on
Eloquence, to be agreeable than TO
convince Mr.. Bryan was not agree
able In he sense the Frenchman had
in mind. He did not persuade. He
was not sympathetic. III he appealed
10 the sympathies Of those before him,
he appealed in vain. Nothing came
from the heart. Nothing went TO the
hearts of others. There was no pas
sion, and no great speech ever sue
ceeded without it. Read Webster In
reply TO Hayne. 1t was the greatest
legal and constitutional argument ever
heard in the Senate, and it burns with
passion at the end. and there Is In It
that imaginative power which is a
constituent, indispensable element Of
great oratory. Where in Mr.. Bryan do
you find that?
am paying Mr.. Bryan a tremendous
compliment in mentioning these great
names; as If between his and theirs
any comparison were possible. None
is. But the compliment, If there be
one. is TO the Bryan whose fame once
flooded the West; the legendary per-
haps mythical, Bryan. not the Bryan
of to-day, or at any rate OF last Sat
urday, out Of whom the sacred fire has
passed. IL ever 1t were In him. He may
be, and probably Is, stronger man
in some ways now than then. He has
renowned, or II not renowned, relin-
ouished. some OF his most pestilent
heresies. | cannot, as l look at that
self-centred figure and ironclad face,
forget that he is the man who once
brought us within twenty-foug hours Of
national bankruptcy. / cannot forget