The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-03-07
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: William j. Bryan. :
e The Secret of His Power; by J. Hugh =
. Reese in the 4
kissimmee Valley Gazette.
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William ]. Bryan, who delivered a
lecture in kissimmee Friday and spoke
al the Baptist church again Sunday, has
been verbally weighed, dissolved, anal
yzed and assayed by the newspaper and
magazine alchemiStS of the whole world.
II is not, therefore, for The purpose OF
doing the job over that have set out 10
write about him. But with a character
as vivid as his, with a personality as
compelling, with life as active-there
is something new in him every day. He
said so himself, though he didn't say
that in talking about himself; he made
the statement abStractly in the course of
his lecture; he repeated a principal
which we all recognize as true-that
every day we live there is progress or
retrOgresSion-the world doesn't stand
still, and the world is made up OF the
people in the world. There was moth.
ing new in anything that Mr.. Bryan said,
yet il is possible that no person in the
crowd that heard him will assert that he
ever heard those old things so effective.
ly stated. Again: Put Mr.. Bryan's
words into the mouth of the most elo.
quent orator, the most impressive
self, and let him expound the same
words, and still you will find that they
have lost much of their weight Why?
Ponder al this, for herein lies the power
OF Bryan. This is not the efluSion OF
youthful enthusiast. | first heard Bry-
an fifteen years ago, Two years after he
was first nominated for President, and
have heard him several times since.
have heard him twice in the open air
when he spoke 10 great throngS against
the noise OF rafting street cars and The
rumbling OF vehicles over paved streets;
Nv heard him in large auditorium with
five thousand people in the audience,
and I've heard him in a small auditori-
um with only few hundred present
Yet he never spoke with any greater
effort apparent than he employed in his
Sunday school talk at the auditorium
Friday afternoon, and be never failed 10
hold his audience TO the man. have
never known any speaker with the same
Composure, the same poiSe, the same
power. Others who have had a much
broader experience bring the same teS-
timony. know that there were sever.
al men in the audience Friday afternoon
who were moved TO tears by his talk
yet Bryan was not emotional; he was
not passionate, and he said nothing TO
arouse the kind of emotions that lie
nearest the surface. He struck deep.
have often wondered why the news
papers and the people allude to him as
an orator. An orator is a speaker, but
the popular conception of the word is
different. An orator is conceived TO be
a speaker who mounts the Olympian
heights and sails the filmy nebuae upon
a structure of beautiful smile and flow.
cry language. Bryan doesn't do that,
He talked Friday in the most common
place language. He began by telling OF
his ShorthornS and Jerseys on his Ne
br SKA farm his illusions were ordinary.
What could be more simple than his |
illustrations 10 sustain his argument that |
man should believe in God. "You
don't understand Cod" he surmiSed,
then holding up glass OF water, he
said, do you understand waler?' Then
further, what do you understand; do |
you understand anything? | don't"
Ponder over this. How is ii that a red |
COW can eat green grass and give white
milk with yellow butter in ii? Do you
that"
He may not understand the art OF |
making people listen, but he's got it.
He may not understand how il is that he
influences men, but he does. He re.
ferred TO The Great Teacher, who spoke |
in the simplest words, yet The testimony
OF the high brow critics then was that
never man spakc as this man." What |
could be more impressive than his reel |
tai of the Twcnty-ihird Psalm, in the |
course of his speech, when he said that
the Bible was the only book that
brought comfort to any man when he |
stood on the brink of the Dark River?
"Whcn ! am dying" he said, Don't
bring me Darwin'S Descent of Man, nor
any other book of science or philoSo-
ply; there is only one book in that
hour which can give me any strength or
cOmfort-bring me the Bible.
Thus calmly and simply did he talk,
and there were those who said they
wouldn't trade the privilege of having
heard him for any amount of money;
there we're others who said they would
give large sums of money if every young
man in the town had heard it, They
spoke earnestly, with tears in their eyes
What other man is there who has that
power; what other thing is there 10 be
with such a gift? Surely not
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