Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-06-14
Mighty Have Fallen.
How are the mighty fallen.

Here are two men, each firmly be-
lieving. as he scrutinizes his own in
nermost soul, that he is intellectually
honest, sane. right; yet whose convic-
tons are as antipodai as zenith and
nadir.
The nation has known them both.
and both have been rejected.
Each has been in his way great; but
in what widely different ways! Each
has failed, and to each the bitterness
of the dregs of defeat has been admin
istered as~rhe hemlock cup. Neither
has been able to understand.
/ saw Barnes several times at Chi
cago He was a sick man. Much Of the
time he confined himself to his rooms
at the Congress. Many . callers who
came to pay their respects-they didn't
come 10 get orders as Of yore-were
sent away. Mr.. Barnes was not well
enough to see them, or was otherwise
occupied. The last time | saw him
he was walking slowly, stodgily, rather
painfully, along Michigan avenue IN
front Of the Congress Hotel. He was
looking neither TO the right nor to the
left; straight ahead, after the manner
of man broken and weak, who pre-
ferred to keep his eye on the path ano
his mind on his business Of getting
along, lest his processes might fail to
CO. ordinate, and he should lose the
way or stumble into an obstacle. III
short, he looked precisely the part ne
was playing. He had been defeated for
reelection as national committeeman
from the Empire state; he must have
been sure that our institutions, by that
sign, had gone rrevocably on the rocks.
Mr.. Barnes, let :, il be recalled, is one
OF our foremost keepers Of the ark OF
the constitutional covenant.
How different was Bryan! Age can
not wither nor custom stale the CHEEKY,
confident, optimistic mien of the man
that destiny had marked him for her
own; that he was to be the Moses or
this Israel in the Wilderness; who took
defeat, only to rise and fight anew, ever
finding new conglomerate of para
mounts with which to amaze and-lose.
He smiled that broad, bland, mirthless
smile that has been one of his chief
stocks in trade for quarter of cen
fury. There was, ! thought, just a lit
tie more of the suggestion of the fana-
tic that we used to see in his face when
we travelled with him on his stumpins
specials back in SO, again in 90, and
once more in '0S. That suggestion was
always there; the man believed himself
inspired; designated to a great work;
destined at last to its achievement;
and that work could eliminate only
IN the master accomplishments that he
would effect when he should come into
his own, in the White House.
Bryan Still Dreaming.
Is the dream yet entirely dissipated?
One must doubt it, who sees the as
surance with which he sticks to his
post. From the forum to the farm.
from the Commoner office to the chau-
tauqua stage, from the political stump
to the seats Of the mighty as secretary
of state in a time Of world travail that
he could not understand-what ca
reer has been his! Yet thru it all he
has steadily, surely, inevitably lost in
the confidence Of the public. His hon
esty is recognized; the privilege Of his
resentments and revenges Is accorded
as to one whose uisappointments must
have earned much compensation, but
the possibility of trusting him with the
great office-that is every year farther
from the national mind.
Mr.. Bryan came to Chicago as a
newspaper syndicate writer, setting
down his impressions of the passing
show. He wrote some very good
Organic editorials; to tell the simple
news of daily doings as other and
lesser newspaper men are expected to
do was of course not his stint. And
Mr. Bryan in print has never been
deeply impressive. He needs the plat
form, the inspiration Of an audience,
the cnance to play with that marvellous
voice upon the sympathies of his hear
ers. A man who had heard Gladstone
and Disraeli, who knew Blaine, who
had studied the oratory of the Pitts
and Fox and Burke, who even advo-
Gated a confident theory as to the
source of Demosthenes' power, once
assured me that the eloquence of
Bryan would have overturned any 9TH