One can not help but remember the marvelous campaign Bryan made four years ago. A terrible campaign for mind and body; no one who traveled with him will ever forget it. As for Bryan himself—though, needless to say, he worked harder, thought more, and shouldered an infinitely heavier responsibility than all the newspaper reporters who kept constantly in his wake—he was least fatigued of all. Hoarse and husky he certainly did become toward the end—speaking from the rear end of a train to open air crowds of thousands, a dozen times a day, and at the top of his voice. But Bryan, upon a physique of the most vigorous and massive kind, inspired by a stupendous vitality, which should keep him in good condition for sixty years to come, had superimposed a brain of the healthiest, keenest, and most capable sort. In addition he had a colossal firmness, and an unmitigable will; he had thorough belief in the goodness of his cause, and in himself as its champion; and finally he understood the people, loved them, was in touch with them, and won their confidence to an extent and to a degree of enthusiasm that can not be paralleled in modern times. Had some of the qualities above named been less in him, or more, he might have been a broader statesman; but he would not have been so mighty and formidable a leader of men. Other men are admired or feared, or can spend money, or swing a machine; but Bryan is personally trusted as no other man is, and as he deserves to be. “Bryan is a man standing plumb on his own feet, other candidates have been propped on their feet by other persons. Which will last the longer? No man can count on the ultimate triumph of his cause, or even know how strong or how weak it is, unless he comes out flat-footed and tells the people exactly what it contemplates and requires. He must show the seamy side as well as the smooth one; else, when the seamy side shows itself (as it is certain to do) the people will leap to the conclusion that the fabric is seamy on both sides, and the reaction will sweep it out of existence. McKinley, in laboring to make the people believe that his policy is all sweetness, honor, and virtue, is preventing himself from discovering how abhorrent it really is to the desires and wishes of the people.” Bryan’s method is just the opposite of President McKinley’s. The only criticism to be passed on him is that he is too uncompromisingly outspoken and sincere. He says things that make his own party friends and managers shudder. He never strives for popularity except in so far as it may be consistent with truth and right. He does not want to please any one who can not be pleased with facts and realities. Bryan, in short, from the standpoint of mere policy, always puts his ugly foot forward, always turns his seamy side, always says “If you don’t have me this way, I am not to be had at all.” HOME LIFE