William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Marion county, Illinois, March 19, 1860. He got an elementary education at home from his mother until he was ten, and then attended public school until his fifteenth year, studying thereafter for two years at Whipple academy, Jacksonville, which he left in order to enter Illinois college. During his college course he was prominent in literary and debating societies and on his graduation, in 1881, delivered the valedictory of his class. For the next two years he studied law in the Union law college, and in the office of Lyman Trumbull, and upon his admission to the bar began to practice at Jacksonville. In 1884 he removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, and became a member of the law firm of Talbot & Bryan. He soon became active in politics, his first public reputation being made in the campaign of 1888. In 1890 he was sent to congress. In 1892 he was renominated and again elected. In 1896 he was a delegate from Nebraska to the national convention of the Democratic party at Chicago, where his brilliant speech in defense of free silver caused his nomination as candidate to the presidency of the United States. After a most remarkable campaign he was defeated. He was a colonel of the Third Nebraska Volunteers during the Spanish-American war, and at its termination returned to Nebraska, resuming his political activities. He edits and publishes The Commoner, a weekly periodical, in which he sets forth his political principles. Mary E. Baird, of Perry, Illinois, whom he married in 1884, has borne him three children. ARTHUR PUE GORMAN. There are very few people who begin political life as early as Arthur Pue Gorman. He was born March 11, 1839, and at thirteen years of age became a page in the United States senate. In 1866 he was appointed revenue collector in Maryland, which office he held until 1869, when U. S. Grant became president. From 1875 to 1879 he was state senator, and from 1881 to 1899 he was United States senator from Maryland. From 1869 to 1875 he was member of the Maryland House of Delegates. In spite of his limited schooling, he managed by wide and careful reading and practical experience to secure an education in general and in public matters in particular, which has procured for him the position of a notable political leader. It was largely through Mr. Gorman’s management that Grover Cleveland was elected to the presidency after an uninterrupted series of democratic defeats for a quarter of a century. Calmness of temper, courage, self-reliance and honesty are the qualities which he possesses, which, too, inspire respect and which win him triumphs. He is an able speaker and a master of parliamentary law. He has strikingly impressed himself upon national affairs, and his name has often been voiced in the press as a fit candidate for the presidency. MARCUS ALONZO HANNA.