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Show BRYAN'S ABSENCE. Previous engagements prevented William Wil-liam J. Bryan from attending the notification meeting, at which President Wilson accepted a renomination which the platform of 1912 sought to provide against. The plank was framed under the urging of Mr. Bryan for a reason that seems sufficiently obvious. He had been a candidate three times and hoped to bo honored once more with a presidential presi-dential nomination, we are justified in believing. He sincerely desired but one term for Mr. Wilson; mayhap he sincerely sin-cerely desires it still. In a sense there is poetic justice in the setting aside of Bryan and the elevation of Mr. Wilson, in ISflG "Silver "Sil-ver Dick" Bland, who had been the protagonist of the silver cause for many years, was the logical candidate, but the "boy orator of the Platte" swept into the Chicago convention and in a carefully-prepared speech that seemed utterly extemporaneous and to the moment tuned, fired the convention with enthusiasm and wrested the nomination from the veteran champion. Through the succeeding campaign Bland cut a pathetic figure. Loyal to the party and tho issue he tried to be loyal to the candidate. He even accompanied Bryan on the eastern trip. When the party arrived in New York only one man was hailed by the populace. That man was Bryan. A few westerners recognized Bland and whisperingly pointed him out to one another. At Madison Square garden the candidate was notified, and very likely Bland was there, but he was lost to view. Perhaps Bryan remembered Bland "s plight. He knew that he would cut a ridiculous, if not a pathetic figure, at the Wilson notification. He could not have escaped notice. The circumstances would have made him painfully conspicuous. con-spicuous. And how could he consistently join in the festivities at the renomination renomina-tion of a man whom he pledged by the platform not to be renominated? |