People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1896 — OUR LEADER, OUR HERO. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR LEADER, OUR HERO.

James Creelman, the chief traveling oorrespondent of the New York World, telegraphed to that newspaper on the first day of Bryan’s final tour through Indiana as follows: Great multitudes roared about him everywhere, but the Republican managers distributed yellow badges and urged the McKinley men to mass themselves at all points. The result was bewildering. Mr. Bryan’s way lay through the strong Republican district, and it was not until he reached Fort Wayne tonight, the Democratic stronghold of the state, that he swept all before him. It is quite evident that Mr. Hanna’s plan is to have counter demonstrations wherever Mr. Bryan appears until election day. Never has Mr. Bryan shown his strong qualities to better advantage than today. All through the savage tumult he has been serene and undismayed. At times he has been for ten minutes continuously surrounded by yellow ribbons and Republicans shrieking McKinley’s name in his face. Whatever else Mr. Bryan may be, he is a man of steel nerves. The mob seems to inspire him, and the more brutally hostile a crowd is the calmer and bolder he grows. I have known him- for years, but he revealed himself in a new light today. Mrs. Bryan, too, faced l.nt howling Republicans smilingly in her husband’s side, flinging a r*>se here and there to a rapturous fiv< silver man. At the end of Bryan’s second day r Indiana Mr. Creelman telegraphe d The World from Terre Haute as follows News reached him (Bryan) on thtrain today that Mr.’ Hanna’s money is already moving like a tide through . Indiana, and that the Republican leaders are trying to get Democrats to move out of their districts so that they may lose their votes.

Mr. Bryan’s soul seems filled with Che passion of the conflict. He is revolution incarnate. Today he spoke to more than 150,000 persons, and tonight Terre Haute is mob glorious. Whatever may be the result of this terrific campaign, Mr. Bryan has proved here, in the very heart of Indiana, that the free silver idea has taken hold of the common people. All day he has declared that the war of money standards which has rent the Democratic party will not end on election day. Again and again he said that Democrats who desert now can never come back except after long penitence and mortification. From sunset until early morning bonfires danced on the night landscape. He attacked Benjamin Harrison in his own state, accusing him of trying to advocate a gold standard under the cover of bimetallism. He lashed his audience into madness by appealing to them not to consent to foreign domination in American finance. Bryan’s Marvelous Endurance. The fierceness of the conflict in this state was apparent everywhere as the special train fled from district to district Great meetings, processions and barbecues were in progress, and hundred of orators were at work, and in the midst of all this thunderous confusion Mr. Bryan towers up a born leader of men. He may be defeated, but if he lives he will play a great part in the immediate future. I have watched him day after day, and he seems to grow stronger and more self reliant every hour. Nothing depresses or daunts him. His voice seems indestructible, and his brain is tireless. Mr. Bryan seems to understand* that the result of this best trial of strength in Indiana and Illinois depends upon himself, and he has concentrated all fiis powers in this one supreme effort to overcome the almost irresistible forces in the field against him. This has been a day of color and strife. From the train windows the pictures of Bryan and McKinley could be seen in alternate farmhouse windows. Great crowds of men and women swept into the towns and cities where the multitudes roared about Mr. Bryan’s carriage, and the rough roads sprawling

through the farms were crowded with wagon loads of Democrats. Hundreds of young girls, with silver spangled blue skirts, sat astride of white horses at every stopping place. Every white horse in Indiana seemed to be in view today. Crowds Were Democratic. As the train neared the western section of the state the crowds grew larger and more purely Democratic. Mr. Bryan and his wife threw bushels of flowers from the end of the train. At times the demonstrations of the crowd reached the point of adoration. Men who could not reach his hand touched his coat, legs and feet Some of them yelled till tears ran down their cheeks. Many were hysterical. Mark the political crusader as he moves along in the wild procession—a tall man in a well worn coat, with a dusty soft felt hat pulled down over his travel stained face, his eyes burning like coals of fire and his head and his powerful, priestlike face radiant with hope and courage. Around him swells the defiant shriek of his followers that “Wall street shall not prevail against the people.” So it was today at Decatur, Rochester, Huntington, Peru, Delphia, Frankfort, Lafayette, Crawfordsville, Greencastle, Brazil and Terre Haute. And so it will be in Illinois tomorrow. It is an irreconciliable conflict.