Political history furnishes no precedent for the day's proceedings in the Coliseum either as a great spectacular show or as the result of deliberations of the convention of a great political party.
Bryan is
but 36 years old, younger by 10 years than any man ever nominated for the chief
magistracy of the republic. He came like a young Lochinvar out of the West, which has never before nominated a presidential
candidate, to woo the bride for whose hand the country's greatest chieftains
have been suitors. His name was barely mentioned in the preliminary skirmishes.
Four days ago when the convention met, he was included in the list. But
Thursday be made an impassioned speech and stirred the convention to frenzy by
his eloquence. That speech overthrew the diligently organized work of weeks and
months for other aspirants for the honor.
The cause
of silver was uppermost in the minds of the delegates when they assembled here.
For the cause they deliberately placed the Eastern wing of the party on the
altar. Now, when the convention is analyzed, it is seen that the support of Bland
and Boies as candidates was never solidly founded. It was only as the representatives
of the issue that they rallied delegates to their standards, and even after
many of them had attached themselves to the fortunes of one or the other of the
candidates, they appeared restless and in a way for a new measure. Farseeing,
staid and seasoned leaders of the silver men, realizing that their new creed
would alienate the Eastern Democracy, believed in alliance with the silver
Republicans beyond the Missouri through Teller's nomination, but the rank and
file would have none of it.
Thursday
when Bryan made his speech the delegates suddenly saw in him the great advocate
of their cause, and they turned to him with an impetuosity that nothing could
balk. They wanted a tribune of the people. They felt that they had found him in
the eloquent young Nebraskan, who set their imaginations on fire.
If he had been placed in nomination then the
convention would have been stampeded as it was yesterday. Some of the gray-haired
loaders saw and feared it. Thursday night when he was placed in nomination
those who thought they had found their candidate were confirmed in their
opinion. The idea which George Fred Williams of Massachusetts conveyed in his
seconding speech, that it needed the strength of youth to endure the hardships
of a new cause, that a young arm should wield the scimitar of an indignant
people here, as Williams said, was the new Cicero to meet the new Catalines of
to-day.
 |
| William J. Bryan. |
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
Bryan for President.
William
J. Bryan, the "boy orator of the Platte," is the outcome of the
Chicago wrangle for the free silver nomination. He fits the platform "as
well as could be expected." He is a brilliant, somewhat flashy orator of no
experience in public life beyond his short service in congress which would fit
him for the presidency, and of barely the constitutional age prescribed for a candidate
for that office, he is no better calculated to command public confidence than
is the platform he stands on. In fact, his mere acceptance of a nomination on a
platform which all that deserves respect in the Democratic party repudiates and
bolts, fixes alike his mental, moral and political character. Insubstantial,
untrained, and absolutely dominated by the various crazes which ruled the
convention he is perhaps as little feared as a Democratic nominee as any of the
candidates voted for in the convention.
Newspaper
after newspaper, leader after leader and thousands of the rank and file of the
Democratic party are already repudiating both platform and candidate. No
presidential nominee since Horace Greely has been buried under such a popular
avalanche as William J. Bryan will be found under when the votes come to be
counted next November.
DOOMED TO DEFEAT.
World
Says the Democratic Party is in Peril of Being Made Ridiculous.
NEW YORK, July 11.—The World says: The expected
happened in the Chicago platform. The unexpected has happened in the nomination
for president. Lunacy having dictated the platform, it was perhaps natural that
hysteria should evolve the candidate. Mr. Bryan was not seriously considered
for the first place until his speech in favor of the free silver platform threw
the convention and the galleries into a state of hysterical frenzy. This effect
was a tribute to Mr. Bryan's eloquence, but it was not favorable to the calm
judgment required for the wise selection of a presidential candidate. As the
party is doomed to defeat by its platform the ticket is of minor consequence
except as it bears upon the future of the party.
There is peril in making it ridiculous. The
nomination of a "boy orator" for the While House at this juncture of
the Nation's affairs, domestic and foreign, when the ripest experience, the
best tested wisdom, the broadest patriotism and the greatest executive ability
are required, comes perilously near taking this one fatal step from the
sublime. There is no doubt as to the result of the election, except as to the
size of McKinley's popular and electrical majorities. To question this is to
doubt the intelligence, the underlying honestly and the public morality of the
people.
Turned a
Somersault.
A lady who declined to give her name gave an
exhibition of gymnastics on Main-st., Cortland, in front of the residence of
Samuel Keator this afternoon at about 3 o'clock, which greatly surprised the
onlookers and which strangely enough did not seem to injure her. Alone in a
buggy she was driving a horse north at a rapid rate and seemed so engrossed in
looking at a passing [trolley] car that she paid no attention to where her
horse was going. The horse was not at all frightened at the car, but obeyed the
rein and turned out till the front wheel ran straight into an electric light
pole.
The carriage stopped instantly, but the
horse went on and so did the lady. The horse left the tugs and collar of the
harness and tore out the crossbar of the shafts. The lady turned a complete somersault
without touching the dashboard and landed in a sitting posture between the
shafts. She seemed not at all injured and started off for another carriage.
The horse ran up to Argyle Place and was
stopped. The animal seemed not in the least frightened.
Case
Discontinued.
Officer E. D. Parker was in Syracuse yesterday
and arrested John O'Hearn of Cortland on a warrant sworn out before Police
Justice Mellon by his wife charging him with being a disorderly person and
abandoning his family. Last evening he promised to do better, Mrs. O'Hearn
withdrew the charge, the costs were paid and the case discontinued.
LOCAL
PERSONAL.
Mr. J. L. KELLOGG of Lincoln, Neb., is the
guest of his brother, Mr. J. B.
Kellogg.
Mr. Kellogg is a near neighbor of Hon. William J. Bryan, Democratic candidate
for president, with whom he is personally acquainted and who, he says, is a
prominent resident of his home city.
PROF. D. L. BARDWELL leaves Monday for the
Thousand Island park where for several weeks he is to act as one of the instructors
in a summer school. Mrs. Bardwell and the two children expect to follow in
about two weeks.
MR. AND MRS. CLARK OLDS of Erie, Pa., who
have been visiting Mrs. Olds' mother, Mrs. Chauncey Keator, sailed this morning
on the steamer Massachusetts from New York for a two months' stay in Europe.
ATTORNEY THOMAS E. COURTNEY was in
Syracuse to-day.
 |
| Cortland Park. |
A CLASS
PICNIC.
Dr.
Nash's Class in the First M. E. Sunday-school.
Dr. E. B. Nash's Sunday-school class to the
number of forty or more held a picnic at Cortland park yesterday afternoon from
3 o'clock until the shades of night were falling fast. The day was perfect and
each one seemed to vie with the others to have all the enjoyment possible. Some
strolled leisurely about the lovely park, being entertained by the doctor in the
study of botany. Others gathered in small groups and gave interesting
reminiscences of by-gone days.
Supper was served at 6:30 and the menu was a
very elaborate one served by willing and deft hands to those whose appetite had
been sharpened by the healthful breezes of the park. The doctor never seemed
happier, than when surrounded as he was by so many members of his class.
Those present were Dr. and Mrs. E. B. Nash,
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Jayne, Miss A. Kingman,
Mrs. F. H. Mudge, H. L. Hayes, Mr. and Mrs. H. Relyea, Mr. and Mrs. C. H.
Ross, J. B. Kellogg, Mrs. E. J. Colgrove, Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Withey, Mr. and
Mrs. E. L. Smith, Mrs. Delia Wright, Mr. and Mrs. M. S. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. S.
K. Jones. Mrs. J. J. Robbins, Miss Sarah M. Haskins, Miss Sarah Hare, Mr. and
Mrs. C. R. Doolittle, Mrs. E. J. Jones, Mrs. Van Vleek, Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Porter,
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Powers, J. D. F. Woolston, Mrs. Spaulding.
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