Show JUST A POOR MANS CRUST Not very many years ago Mr Bryan when tendered a banquet Insisted that he was one of the plain people th the t-he would not accept more than a 1 per plate dinner About the same time President McKinley Mc-Kinley dined with some New York gentlemen gen-tlemen and the contrast between the President eating a dinner with rich men and the 1 dinner chosen by the representative Of the plain people was elaborated upon with pathos and many tears But things seem to have changed Mr Bryan has been to New York and had a dinner But it was not among gentlemen But was It not superb 7 Think of it I was held lii the Salon Louis Quinsse of the Hoffman house Then came one of thc most striking 0 features which all plain antiImperial Democrats should make a special note of I Is said that when royalty dines only one two or half a dozen special guests are permitted at the royal table while the less favored guests are given outside tables but in hearing of royalty Evidently Mr Croker heard of that In ono of his horseracing tours to England audit isa hard thing for loyal to down Crokor In anything from a royal flush to an Irish stew We are told that fifty guests wore present at this dinner of Just plain Democrats but only fifteen were permitted per-mitted to dine at the table of the especial espe-cial guest The others took potluck at outside tables There was n profusion oC flowers possibly fromthat afflicted Porto Rico for flowers grow hero even under the iniquitous tariff I Then for the table service only tho most exquisite china and cut glass were permitted and the linen was fine enough for t queens handkerchief The seating then took place and Mayor Van Wyck acted aa host Mr Bryan and Mr Stevenson as yoke fellows with Hearst and Croker as traccmates thus bringing Mr Bryan between Van Wyck and Croker frozen I there so to speak In the tentacles of I the ice trust What did Col Charles Crane say when ho read that yesterday i yester-day Look at that array of pooj plain I peoplcl Van Wyck Croker and Hearst Look athch horny hands Croker I the cxrprizcfiglifer and corrupt stoclc sharnVwHo nol only never i in honest days work but never nursed an honest thought And Van Wyck of the ice trust and Hearst tho inheritor of Uncle Georges millions No wonder there were separate tables for Just the coarse Tammany thieves Then the souvenir programme bound In heavy dark paper with each guests name embossed in gold on the covering I And the bill wan 12 per plate exclusive ex-clusive of the wine What could be more plain simple or Democratic Those hardworked men got leave togo i to-go on shift for once that In their own simple guileless way they might honor the little great commoner who really I does not relish a dinner that costs to l exceed a dollar But what the table lacked In dainties I was made up In character From it we can estimate the character of statesmen states-men who will surround Mr Bryan when ho shall be elected Think of a Cabinet with Croker and Hearst from New York Altgeld from Illinois Webster Web-ster Davis from the Transvaal Mr Pettlgrcw from Dakota Mr Lentz from Ohio and all lii full accord with Mr i Bryan Think what a Secretary of 1 State Croker would make what a Secretary Sec-retary of the Treasury Altgeld would be l plain people Not one proud of Ills ancestry i not one but what is too modest to explain through what hard knocks he secured L competency And Mr Bryan after a nights rest declared he never saw anything half so satisfactory satisfac-tory He the plain peoples champion cham-pion ho the lover of simplicity he tho Christian gontjeman surrounded by thieves of high and low degrees and he liked it I What are we coming to I |