Lincoln County Leader

MAD WITH EXCITEMENT
Wild Scenes Enacted in the Chicago Coliseum.

BRYAN'S PASSIONATE ORATORY
Delegates and Spectators Alike Carried Away by His Speech-Stampede for the Nebraskan.

Chicago.—On the third day's session of the national Democratic convention, ten acres of people on the sloping sides of the Coliseum saw the silver-helmeted gladiator in the arena overpower the gold phalanx and plant the banner of silver upon the ramparts of Democracy. They saw what may prove the disruption or the success of a great political party, amid scenes of enthusiasm such as, perhaps, never before occurred in a national convention. They saw 20,000 people, with imaginations inflamed by the burning words of passionate oratory, swayed like wind-swept fields; they heard the awful roar of 20,000 voices burst like a volcano against the reverberating dome overhead; they saw a man (Bryan of Nebraska) carried upon the shoulders of others intoxicated with enthusiasm. Amidst the tumult and turbulence, they listened to appeals, to threats, to cries for mercy (from Hill of New York), and finally, they watched the jubilant majority seat its delegates and the vanquished stalk sullenly forth into the daylight. The battle for supremacy of Democratic principles was fought in a session that lasted from 11 o'clock in the morning until shortly before 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Each side sent its champions to the forum. Senator Tillman, of South Carolina; Senator Jones, of Arkansas; ex-Congressman Bryan, of Nebraska, crossed swords with Senator Hill, of New York; Senator Vilas, of Wisconsin, and ex-Governor Russell, of Massachusetts. The sinister-looking senator from the state of Calhoun (Tillman), with his eye blazing defiance which manifested its unfriendliness by a storm of hisses, opened the debate with a wildly passionate speech, in which he affirmed that the battle for the restoration of silver was a war for the emancipation of the white slaves, as the war of 1860 had been for the emancipation of the black slaves. Disruption of the Democracy had brought one, and he invited another disruption if it would result in this other emancipation. He went to the extreme of glorying in the suggestion presented, that the issue was a sectional one, a declaration which aroused the resentment of Senator Jones, and he repudiated it in a brief speech which aroused the first demonstration of the day. Even the gold delegates joined heartily in this demonstration against sectionalism. Senator Vilas bitterly denounced what he termed an attempt to launch the party in a career so wild that the world stood aghast. With a wave of his arm, that was full of impressive portent, he sounded his warning. Ex-Governor Russell, the keen Massachusetts statesman, who has thrice carried the standard of Democracy to victory in the Old Bay state, pleaded for a word of concession, of conciliation, and concluded with a solemn warning that the country, if not the convention, would listen. Demonstrations followed at frequent intervals throughout the speeches, but it was Senator Hill who aroused the gold forces to their wildest enthusiasm, and Bryan, the 'boy orator of the Platte,' who set the silver men aflame. The demonstration for Hill, who with close logic and trenchant blade sought the very heart of the convention as he bitterly assailed as undemocratic the new creed which the majority was to proclaim, lasted about 18 minutes. Although more protracted than that which greeted Bryan, it was of a different nature. The latter was the spontaneous outburst of an enthusiasm kindled by the touch of magnetic eloquence. The star of the brilliant young orator from the plains of Nebraska has burned brightly on the horizon of the convention for two days. There were several demonstrations in his behalf the day before, but this was the first opportunity he had to show himself. The audience had been warmed up, and was full of pent-up enthusiasm. The powder magazine needed but the spark, and Bryan applied it with the skill of genius. His very appearance captured the audience. Dressed like a plain Westerner, in a black suit of alpaca, he stood with a smile playing over his handsome, mobile, clear-cut face, while with uplifted hand he invited the waiting thousands. He has a face whose lines might have been chiseled from alabaster by some master sculptor. His mouth is firm, his eyes bright, his nose Roman, his raven hair is brushed back from his forehead and falls to his collar. With well-modulated voice, which gradually rose in pitch until it penetrated the furthermost limits of the hall, he wove the spell upon his audience. His speech was a masterpiece of fervent oratory. With consummate eloquence he stated the case of silver and parried the arguments of the gold men. Marc Antony never applied the match more effectively. His closing remarks were: 'Having behind us the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for the gold standard by saying to them: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."' The convention took fire with enthusiasm. It crackled as with the war of flames. Hill was forgotten; all else was forgotten for the moment. Cheers swelled to yells, yells became screams. Every chair in the valley of the Coliseum and every chair in the vast wilderness on the hillsides became a rostrum on which frantic men and women were wildly waving handkerchiefs, canes, hats and umbrellas—anything movable. Some, like men demented, divested themselves of their coats and flung them high in the air. For almost ten minutes this maddened tumult continued, while the delegates with the state standards paraded the inclosure. Old political generals were stupefied. If the ballot for the nomination had been taken, it would have been a stampede. A Texas delegate uprooted the purple standard of his state and bore it frantically to the place where rose the standard of Nebraska. In a twinkling others followed the example. When it was all over the votes were taken first on the minority substitute for the platform offered by Senator Hill, which was defeated 626 to 350. Then, on the resolution to indorse the administration, which was beaten, 357 to 564, and lastly on the adoption of the platform, which was carried, 628 to 301. Senator Tillman, after the rejection of the resolution to indorse the administration, withdrew his resolution to censure the administration.