William Jennings Bryan: A Concise But Complete Story of His Life and ServicesNewbranch, Harvey Ellsworth
History
William Jennings Bryan: A Concise But Complete Story of His Life and Services
Newbranch, Harvey Ellsworth
Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925
But it takes more than good English to make a great public man, though
good language is one of the most essential features of the part. An
instance that is told will illustrate one of his other qualifications.
On his arrival in a large city in the East, he had been taken for a
drive, and a number of people were waiting for him when he alighted on
his return. All the American people seem to consider it a duty to shake
hands with a public man, and these were there for that purpose. Among
them was a faded woman, apparently having worked out her hopes and
ambitions; while her face showed refinement and intellectuality, her
hands were gnarled by years of labor. As the candidate stepped from the
gay carriage, he was at once encircled by a throng of local dignitaries,
who successfully monopolized his attention, to the hopeless exclusion of
the woman, who was thoughtlessly jostled aside.
Mr. Bryan, glancing quickly about, saw her turning away, her
disappointment shown in her worn face, and, maneuvering about, he
delicately managed to bring himself in front of her, and, as he saw her
face light with pleasure, he extended his hands and murmured a few words
of pleasant meaning to her and passed on.
It is extremely doubtful if, among the public men of all time, there has
lived one more abounding in a superb vitality, or possessing so
magnificent a physique as Mr. Bryan. In his case, as in that of most men
of profound mentality, the powerful mind is found with powerful muscles
and a strong constitution to back it in its contests. His massively
moulded frame, capable of enduring the severest hardships and
nerve-racking strains, is the result of a clean, strong ancestry and
pure and temperate living in the life-giving atmosphere of the great
West.
Altogether Mr. Bryan is a good specimen of an American. He is, for
example, neat in his dress, but his apparel is the least obtrusive part
of him. He is frank, companionable, courteous without subserviency,
aggressive without boorish insistence, well poised, witty and yet
cleanly minded, learned without conceit. And he loves his family above
all else on earth. At one place a hasty departure from a hotel had to be
made to catch a train, and one of the party took Mr. Bryan’s coat by
mistake. The discovery was made as soon as the garment was put on, and
to ascertain to whom it belonged the wearer put his hands in the pocket
to see if any article might be found that would serve for
identification. There were only two things found, and those were
photographs of Mr. Bryan’s family. He had evidently put them where he
could find them most readily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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