San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-02

partment-a letter signed by the sec
rotary of state that might be trans
lated into Russian, and provide a key
for opening foreign doors to the war
reporter.
ENACTED A PROMISE
MY boy" said MIR. Bryan, "you
are going into q dangerous country.
You will have to keep your head.
When you and Travelled together in
campaigns you hurt me at times by
drinking whiskey. Not that you were
the only ono. Now / am going to
give you, the letter, but in return for
you'll not take a drink while you're
in Russia"
The newspaperman made the prom
Use and kept it. The writer knows this
to be true because he is the one who
had this experience. While Mr.
Bryan was exacting this promise, he
leaned forward with his hand on my
shoulder and looked sQuarely into my
face. 1t was an old trick of his. He
was testing my breath to ascertain
whether / had been recently daily
ing with demon rum. He used to
do that with the men on his car,
when he was campaigning for the
presidency. He would gather the
suspect into his arms and smell him.
Never would he verbally rcprimand
delinquent. He'd just look hurt.
And the investigated correspondent
would, like as not, 60 on the water
wagon then and there for a day or
two, at least.
LIKED "HIS BOYS"
Bryan took fatherly interest in
his "boys," as he called those who
made the campaign trips with him.
Most of them were older than
Bryan and none was less worldly.
One patriarch who represented an
Eastern newspaper, man gray OF
goatee, dallied too long with a mid
western brew on one occasion and
was incapacitated for more than a
week. The other correspondents took
care Of his daily story and, incidental
". of him. But in Buffalo he got
away from his self-appointed keepers
and the train went off without him.
Bryan asked daily, almost hourly,
about him and when he found that
the erring one had been left behind.
he insisted on me sages being sent
back to locate him and actually had
the train held for over an hour the
next day so that the missing man
could catch up and Join the party.
RUBBED WITH GIN.
But if Mr.. Bryan was opposed
to liquor for internal consumption
he harborcd a strange, belief in the
potency of gin as an external aid
He always kept a bottle of gin fol
use as a rub. After a speech during
the delivery of which he perspired CO
piously, he would retire to his state
room OH his car. divest himself Of
sweat-saturatcd garments, which hi
would hang on line stretched across
the room, and then rug gin over his
chest. Then he, would lie down and
sleep for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes
till the next station Che had the
happy faculty Of being able to sleep at
will) and then would arise, don dry
underShirt and outer shirt and come
out on the platform smelling like a
wrecked distillery.
CHEF COZ THE GIN.
On one occasion, the colored chef
found the gin bottle unguarded. The
result was a dearth of food for the
famishcd party that night; a perspir-
ing orators chest had to go ginless
and the grCSt CommOner wore a
sad look for days 1fterward whenever
he gazed upon the ebony ampleness
of the rcmOrseful cook.
During his first presidential cam
paign Bryan was, in a measure,
green" There was boyish awkward
ness about him. But always a kind
illness that manifested itself in his
sometimes too often obvious efforts
to be agreeable. In the campaign Of
1900 he was at ais public best. lie
was more sure of himself then. He
did handsome things noiselessly,
easily.
REMEMBERED THE LADIES.
For instance. he directed Rob Rose,
his secretary, 10 get all the facts
about each of the newspaper men on
the presidential trip-where each
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