The Washington herald., 1913-12-21
BRYAN CUT COST
FORFAIR Speech
Charge to people Of Lees
burg, Va, Reduced Be-
cause Of Hospitality.
INCIDENT Is STILL FRESH
Entertained by Leading Citizens Of
the Town, Who Later Are
Presented with Bill.

Considerable astonishment was created
some months ago by the report that Sec
retary Bryan had charged the good peo-
pie of Leesburg, Va, the sum of $500 for
a speech he had made at the county fair
there last September In some localities,
in fact, the astonishment assumed more
serious proportions and subsequently Mr..
BRYAN became the target of nationwide
criticism.
On October 30. The Washington Herald
printed a story on its first page, giving
an account of what happened after the
Secretary of State had returned to Wash
ington. The story stated that Mr.. Bryan
was the first man to put value upon
Virginia hospitaIity-theretofore regarded
as priceless-bp knocking the sum of $50
OF his original bill; that he had written
his Virginia hosts a letter stating that
while he generally got $500 for his
speeches. he would make this rebate"
in consideration of the exquisite dinner
he had enjoyed. The elders of that COM
munity who had been in charge or the
affair, so The Herald story related, SUD
sequently sent Mr.. Bryan q check ior
$50. Two other localities in Virginia
took the story as referring to their cities
and had quite an extended correspondence
with The Herald on the subject
The Washington Herald's story on Oc-
tober so was as follows:
virginia hospitality has generally been
regarded as priceless, but Secretary OF
State Bryan has put value on 1t.
"A very generous value II was. he es
timated the value of dinner in tnat
State at $50, and he saw to II that his
hosts. whose guest he recently was, that
ne might deliver an address at county
fair. got the value.
Mr., Bryan was invited to make
speech at the fair. The Secretary sc-
cepted and later informed those who IN
vited him that he was generally pald
for making speeches and that the price
was $500. There's nothing yellow within
at least twenty miles of the place where
the fair was held, so the $500 was pro-
vided. ~
The Secretary went there. made his
speech and ate dinner-a big, luscious
dinner. made up of the best things that
the best cooks in the county could get
together. The impression made oy the
Secretary and the dinner was mutual.
Mr.. Bryan remembered that dinner, nov
dvspepfically, but with the soulful satis-
faction that well-fed health enjoys when
II waits on good digestion and appetite.
SO deliciously memorable was the oc-
casion that Mr. Bryan wrote back to his
hosts that he had had such good din
ner that he would knock $50 on his
regular price. Well, there's nothing
green about those Virginia parties
either. SO they sent Mr.. Bryan check
for $50 and began to talk about estao-
fishing 4 hotel exclusively for Chautau-
qua takers
Yesterday the New York Sun printed
the following story from its Washington
correspondent
Entertained by Citizens.
After more than three months the
story has just crept back to Washington
from Leesburg. Va, less than fifty miles
away. how Secretary of State William
Jennings Bryan was invited to the oeau-
tiful little county seat OF fair Loudoun'
Toasted, entertained, given the freedom
of the city with a golden replica of the
City Hall key as a symbol OF this dona-
tion, listened to with interest for more
than an hour and then, after he had
been shipped back to Washington by
special train. he sent his entertainers a
bill for $500 for the speech.
Back in September the citizens oil
Loudoun County decided that they must
have an opportunity to entertain the Sec
retary of State. They chose for the oc-
casiou OF this entertainment the time of
the annual Heavy Draft Show sea
son of reunion for the farmers of the
countryside, when fine stock, monster
vegetables, the wealth of the fruit ORCH
ards. and the youth and beauty of the
neighborhood are exhibited for one day
only in picturesque Leesburg. The eX-
cursion of the Secretary of State was en-
gineered by the officials Of the Heavy
Draft Show Association OF which
Elijah B. White is president, and which
numbers in its contributing membership
all the wealthy men of the county. Rep
resentative Charles c. Carlfn of Virginia
whose Congressional district includes
Loudoun County. volunteered to secure
the attendance OF the Secretary of State.
Despite the fact that one of the semi
weekly Mexican crises was in brightest
bloom, the Secretary of State found it
entirely possible to absent himself from
Washington for just that one day. He
accepted the invitation, and a special
electric train over the Old Dominion
Railway carried him to Leesburg.
When the Secretary of State arrived