The Oregon daily journal., July 12, 1908, Page 28, Image 28

3
nffi OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL,. PORTLAND, SUNDAY HORNING,' JULY 12 1904
AS
0
Lj
E
Him
The Man
Fatne As
Home
of World-Wide
He Appears At
ffi fl LJ.LJ LfDi '
4
N
OW, if you were about years old
and hailed from1 Jacksonville, III.,
you'd walk right in and grab him by
. the hand and announce:
"Bill, I've come all this way to Nebraska
j Mo say we'll make a President of you."
" And William J. Bryan would grip yours
1 with a hip trained to the bone-breaking greet
I ' ings .of .horny-fisted campaigns, while he an-
swerea:
"Why, Jim, you old Illinois friend, come
- on down to dinner!" , -
And you could jo back home afterward
wondering how Bill Bryan, who' was one of
the kids way behind you older boys a: school,
Vs, ever could have come to be a "foremost A mer-
. lean" 'a rich man and a candidate for Presi-
. rdent of the United States. Why, you hadn't
more than shaken hands with him before you
. . saw he was the same old Bill, just as you are
the same old Jim, for all his foreign curios and
high-grade farm stock.
, Well, we can't all come from Jackson
.' ville, III., where Mr. Bryan went to school.
And the rest of us can't all come from Salem,
where he was born; or even from Lincoln, in
- 'Nebraska, where he is now regarded as "a
r' . leading citizen."
" And yet, wherever you came from, if you
were to go to the Bryan farm, near Lincoln,
merely to "pay your respects," the greeting
you would receive would be of the same type,
I and the impression of the simple, homely man
would be no different from that renewed in his
. old associates. He would rise up in your eyes,
as in theirs, as Bryan, the commoner.
Why not take the trip to Nebraska and
see this great commoner, fust as he is, today?
ml fern, mm
j'A'i ;"'5f"il V ' A f "' v ' IT
I ,4.154.11,4 fc-C-fcM;?: f..
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ONE comfort about this way of visiting Is that w
don't have to be o formal. No society nonseni
of ending up a card, and waiting until Mr. Bryan
- comei in from the fields and slips on a clean col
lar and a laundered shirt, with attached cuffs, before he
, pivs us welcome.
The Bryan we want to see today -Is the man who
grow up, back there In Illinois, where, for all his father's
position as circuit Judge, the son lugged his lunch basket
to school wlfh the rest of the boys, and sneaked bites out
Of his extra apple when the teacher wasn't looking.
That was the boy who worked, session after session,
' for the elocution priee, getting licked at first, but stick--
lag to it until, having captured second place with "Ber
nardo del Carpio," of grandiloquent memory, he turned
to and wrote some of the things he had thought out him
self, on "Labor," and landed the first prize.
He Vaa the same boy who grew into the ambitious
' manhood of 22 years, doing the hardest and most old
faahinneil wnrir nf all. farm me. What haa become of the
farmer Bryan used to be in the days when he rustled . rlage house
out in me cool summer mornings wun canaia gaiiuses
hiked high on uncompromising collar bone, to the urgent
oratory of rural Illinois?
"Hi, there. Bill! Don't forget the chicken before you
boo the corn."
What has become of him? Why, here he Is, a quarter
, of century later, still remembering the chickens, with
new galluses spread more broadly over shoulders that
ar padded more comfortably, but with his close-woven,
durable farmer's breeches tucked into the cowhides, as of
yore
He leans an affectionate hand upon the door of the
up-to-datv chicken run, while he gazes fondly through
tbe modern perfections of its wire mesh at the occupants
of the inclosure.
"Made that sliding door invented It myself," he re
marked, with the pride of the farmer who has been born
to regard his farm as a congregation does its church a
place to be conamntiy Improved to the limit of his re--.
sources and his skill.
As we trudge over with him for a study of the Poland
chinas, we can afford to indulge ourselves in a quiet grin
over the anomaly of a statesman absorbed in the raising
of registered pigs until we renumber that it took a
patriot of the raiiber of Cincumatus to retire to his farm
When Rome no longer needed his directing mind.
And we can secretly wonder oer his enthusiasm for
His herd of handsome polled Jerseys and shorthorns, a
core et cows and a couple of duly registered bulls until
rall the scrupulously kept stock records of Mount
Vernon aad the heart-whole Interest m breeding which
eahinrton's private letters so frequently displayed
AswealanceattheMgcorn criV nick out the points
. or the horses In the stable, consider the enduring solidity of
the new cement tear posts, and let the ere range over
V ?J!P.f 'v" ?' modfl 'm to which the
Vf.'ilT'rJ' erler-rth attained, with the dty of
l wvl".hlT iince. we can even wonder
whether Hue ts the real man. f; mre!y a kid-glove geo
?;m.7.;'rir; eeBoughWey r 'r'Z-
t.o fcimaeif was n the Job, helping tn thV d,lnr or
lavr his ooyaood hail made irt of him
. rtSrtwiSJf? i Hryta bunded
" wM". . ,",ai" of rractlcal farmer unde
to toaraooo of the oil-kmngB.ture IhVtwai origV.
ally kr i kl. It was ao more than tairteo JT .
hen he pot into its first Sve aerea the first modest
oavtogo ho waa ablo to ha v. .ut of hia law aetir t
was e whea. from time te' time be added to tium' til
reJ MTMHtnuiM unfit. 1a a he wsa rayi?,u,T
te rf Une, ao s midev, iM to make hia homo
M oroertg farm ot ratrview. four miie away mam
Ho was soaking real tooney hy that time aod Wo orao
oWiwimfriirf'intffrfsissitiwft iojbjhhbBowMBBB-1' ,Mn .ss.o" .ffVIT f if ,v v g .4 1 I ff If -TT ' JiV1f V" Kff f
l in n - 1 .mmimimmmm mm rZ - 4. . ft. I Hi j 11 f A y Jl I
I rr""'' a ,J,,,ssssssssoasssssssso " , ' " V ' ' 1 ' J 1 !
l jQuxtAo L3I""
form to his tastes. Instead of the dwelling which sup
plied simply his needs.
The bouse cost him J30.000 before he got through, for.
like the farm proper and its live stock, it was designed
to have every modern convenience, from its own auto
matic water supply to its own gas plant.
And Farmer Bryan did in reality that which, to every
other farmer, has thus far been mere hyperbole: he
treated his live stock as well as his own family.
In plain and literal fact, he built the stable first, and
built it so well and so commodiously that the ambitious
among human beings could be content to live there.
Then, promptly, he and his family did live there. The
house, unilnisbed, was no more to be left to contractor
and workmen then than the cement posts were to be left
to hired labor later. The boss was bound to be on the
Job, as usual. , ,
So, in lieu of other homestead the original frame
dwelling of the place having been already torn down
Farmer Bryan and Mrs. Bryan and the. children and
the bulldog all moved into the barn.
Farmer Bryan, keeping a weather eye, morning, noon
and night, upon the progress of the fine new home,
pitched In between times on the work of the thirty acres
that mad up the farm, and he took the boss' own care
which no hired man's ever equaled of his four head of
horses, his two cows and the calf and the hundreds of
chickens that constituted the animal population.
As for the pigeons and the bulldog, they belonged to
William, Jr., and even his father couldn't have wrested
their guardianship from that son of his dad.
Many another family might have been satisfied,
like the Bryans, to live, for the time, in the barn de
signed for the cattle. Built of brick, two stories In
height, it had been reared more substantially and fit
ted more Bolidly than whole suburbs of two-story
dwellings now occupied, to their complete ambition, by
thousands of people, East and West.
Upstairs there were three sleeping rooms, used by
the family, with a fourth to spare for any guest who
Otayed overnight. Downstairs Mra. Bryan took pos
session of the harness room, with the cooking stove
and the calm efficiency that Is so peculiarly hers
which, of course, transformed the harness room into
the kitchen.
The walls dividing the rooms being solid as rock
and the fittings being in hardwood, all that was need
ed to make a tnodeat mansion out of the new barn
was a fine parlor.
Mrs. Bryan saw to that, bhe took the whole car
te house, or runway, of the barn, and aDDlled a
liberal hand in its furnishings bright rugs on the
cement floor, draped curtains at the windows, stands
of books t-and pieces of statuary here and there, and
plenty of the big, cozy chairs that make American life
really worth living.
Its owner and its owner's wife are too busy for those
passive blisses.
Everybody gets up at 6 In the morning. Farmer
Bryan hustles down to the big desk in the basement
office and works at being Editor Bryan, or Author
tiryan, or Correspondent Bryan, or more of the Protean
Aryans which his multifarious activities thrust upon
Mrs. Bryan, meanwhile, Is ordering the affairs of
the household, laying out the work of the servants,
settling the program of the day as far as the details
the evening meal, and otherwise planning and
contriving to escape, with credit, from her House
wifely duties In order to give her husband the aid be
needs so much and depends on so greatly
Mr-5'flfio.beaut"ul. dorr"",sUc Hfe of the iate William
uiiivcisduy neia in reverent
REALIZED HIS LIFE DREAM
When Farmer Bryan came home to his barn, after
plugging at the crops in the field all day, he could
rest up In the handsomest and biggest sitting room
and parlor outside of Lincoln, Neb. and that was go
ing tome In barns, for Carnegie was trying to show
New York city what he could do In the wav of draw
ing rooms on Fifth avenue under the friendly auspices
of the steel tariff.
When, at last, the house was completed and the
happy owner could change his domicile from the stable
to. Falrvlew, with Its twenty-two rooms, he had the
homestead he had been hoping for and working for
all his life the homestead that is the alluring vision
which takes so many farm boys cityward when, like
him. they find themselves of age, and leaves them, un
like him, stranded there, pining for the rest of their
lives.
And that brings us to ou formal visit, as pre
sumably respectable tf Inquisitive strangers, to the
Mr. and Mrs. Bryan who live In Falrvlew.
They went traveling abroad, you know, some vears
back. That was the. time when the United States
learned, from the Impressive reception accorded him
In Asia and Europe, that in Mr. Bryan tt possessed a
"foremost American." The United States, which has
a habit of making hard the ways of its prophets In
their own country, has thought twice as much of him
ever since.
The tour,-crowded with honors such as might have
been thrust uoon another Grant, sent hark Mr
endowed wun strange statues- from Japan and rare
f m I.
.nK ,KWf'cl a husba?da devotion maintained In
.?! I the, lnce8satlt activities of his career, a con
stant, hourly companionship with his wife. Is dupli
cated in the Bryan family, with this difference-
AITS. MpKlnlpv'a lllnfiss m .,..,
than h k .i p;Yhy with her husband's "a ffTir.'
Sl.-MBry.an 8 healfeh and fecial training make her
PaboCrsCaIly a" aCt'Ve Partner ln aU er husband.
She studied in w that oka
intellectual level. She" studied ""t. 7rtV?.oa.i!
pple-isblt
with
i flairs
sne 111 ISht he hi.
th irtraf,,Vl . u" ln continuous touch
of the day. questions and the i
posa
dre
I- . ' one key t0 the mystery of the
ial at falrvlew of the 300.000 letters that ar.
sed to William J. Bryan every vear
dls-
are ad-
surance that tha farm help is not drop
ping off to sleep nights half dead with
the labor of keeping the blooded stock
elegantly alive, as happens on many a
so-called model farm, where the beasts are treated bet
ter than the humans. Bryan's people at Fairvlsw ap
pear to be chronically content
But he Is a real boss, a boss of the kind we read
about, over there ln Lincoln, where he publishes the
Commoner. Let us drive ta Lincoln and do that time
honored act of cruelty, interview the editor.
They're politely sorry at the Commoner office;
the editor The Editor Isn't In.
It's very unfortunate that, when we bade Mr.
Bryan good-bye in the oak-fitted library at falrvlew,
we omitted to tell him to hurry over to Lincoln, so
that we might interview him ln his capacity as ThO
Best we can do now Is to Interview his employes
and learn what they think of him. Some of us be
ing newspaper people ourselves, we know it ll be tne
same old story: the old man's getting cranky, when
he Isn't too uppish to speak to anybody; he s always
epileptic about expenses; nobody can do a thins; to
eatisfy him; and he never did know the difference
between a box of "pi" and an m-dssh. anyway.
Is It the same old thing? Not according to the
working force of Editor Bryan's Commoner. One be
gins to find exceptions to the rule of newspaper
kickers" when the circulation has climbed up be
yond the 160,000 mark without the aid of worn af
fidavits, and when the annual profits are In the neigh
borhood1 of 150,000. A force like that Is usually hus
tling so hard that It hasn't time to spare for either
kicks or panegyrics.
tv. ... h.ir i unAreil neonle on the Com
moner force, far fewer than would be needed for such
organised on a basis which, while It is far from beln
the altruism hoped for by seliish Incompetence lu
some far millennium, gives the laborer all, and more,
of tha hire which Is his due, than he ordinarily re
ceives under current conditions.
The wages paid are higher, by 26 per cent, than
those of any other publishing house in the city.
The regular Lincoln rates for untrained girls Is $3 a
week; the Bryan rate Is 4. That relatively high
wage scale Is maintained right up to the managing
editor.
Nobody works more than eight hours a day. with
seven hours as the limit for Saturday. There are
busy seasons for the Commoiw-r's force, as there are
for all other forces; but no employe feels it incum
bent to stay for extra time under pain of disfavor.
Additional service is supplied by the volunteers,
of whom there are always plenty, perhaps because
of a spontaneous loyalty, perhaps because extra time
earns a SO per cent. Increase In wage!. The regular
holidays are all allowed, and two more per year are
thrown in for luck and good fellowship.
Ordinary mortals ought to he fairlv well satisfied
with such a "boss"; and Lincoln, Neb., Is composed of
ordinary mortals nae the rest or us. ,
A thoroughly conscientious criticaster might find
a trace of paternalism about those two extra holi
days. One of them comes In the summer, when Mr.
Bryan Invites everybody who works r him to a
picnic at Fairview. The other comes In winter, when
a special entertainment is provided for them at his
home or at that of his brother. Thus far. however,
nobody in Lincoln has discovered In these two hos
pitalities anything more objectionable than a good
:.""'' irom ijuna ana one places ot ortc-o-fe-reo from -wagon a Tarmer or the f.rm.r. . .
Kurope; but it could not . send back any other man KtrrVT,!nn. .. ?'."'.
vr.nn ine one who started from Nebraska , od with the silver hirm . ih.i k..
,.J.Hhi; A " ? cheerful. 'paternal Mr? farmer i r '.'..".'h
nPM. tne eneraetic nramn nnti man wHa.
fc . living ntru i ana minutes v..
aay can suddIv their hint, rj tt.. v,"v
nas;brought to bear upon the handllni VVVh.Vu"' V''T.r"n,V(w'..ti ,, "m,V
sands or letters that are sent tn V, "' nis own compuiini aiiu - no cnarirs m special trouey car ror tne trip to
the ways and means ihl tZZU tt J.,ZlTu??Uyj "Pon ot the type and tfio ctual printing of the paper are rlrVew and plays the host as he plays the "boss."
up the local Sorosla ? branch for b 1 sh. ft,ld bulld mechanical details which he has done by contract frankly a companion and as frankl? a friend,
varied avenue? of d lit H but ion ThTJ "i.i?,nd u?on th th m Lincoln firms so that the number atrectly there Is any game or contest during the picnic,
tithe, of on " ten th annuaJlv from h. , la" charrs ln his employ Is limited to tho restricted dltorfal h , UUty to be , . th ,t nerf..tfc kM'
come annuaily from her husband s ln- staff and the business and circulation departments. among the boys, and. If during the winter "islt half
Tbe truest most lntlmat. mn.t , . It true that they see little ofhlm. Polltlos. lee- . nour threatened to drag heavily, helo-ready with
lOBshls "of -whir "the fondst cn'i pleU 5on,Dn- turlng. farming-tbe countless avpcationi i of his .life .torles about the Jap bronses at the front door or
is that of the Brians nu.h.nS J I ,ver Srmed -leave him more nearly the editor In fho abstract ,00ut the things be saw In Europe that hav, all tho
In olay as in wo?k Vh!v JV. .I.Tk'' than the majorltr of men who have made s, success vtvii chrm ot description which the most graphlo
Is rldina-and therJ , i". ,Z1 .,r.Kt,t.beJ- Her P'ure of Journalism by tho sheer force of their think nr cinematograph lews must lack. - P
lowing love ofVood horV.T ?5 iSi .bJLth,,r CmpacUr lh ""tlon ???. Jt"?. h
'- "it " " inuuia in
withdrawal
reoulrerae
1 L "'Krn' as wnoie-souiea as it is ge
, n was Bryan the farmer, with an
al from tho law has broadened htm Into tha
t of other liberal vocations, tho hearty
e welcome Is as whole-souled as It is rental.
his regular fm.
occasion calls But
"i "earn equip
been aspfred to
. .,, me
And his happiest hours are astride General, the
if.VJL":? -"PV. fl?"?!" m ?r United
. ... M , piuuc v mi l mu u n ruim
ovr
n (kan t. t-Kwaa" does mim to tho office, tho
sobriquet of "cbmmoner," whfch has atuched Itself
to him, becomes apparent In Its full significance.
There Is no trace of the boss Id his attitude: there
Is even no trace of that paternal air which Is tho last
remnant of authority usually preserved by tho typo
of boss who remains moot popular.
Tha relations between Editor Bryan and tho
Commoner's werk people ore tboee of complete and
AJry oi taora is ire is accost
paternalism Is-reserved for the walls of the Falrvlew
norat, -wnarw ni uiurii -uaugnier, Mra rtutn Bryan
Leavltt, was allowed to marry her artist when she In
sisted on having him; where his second daughter.
Grace, new IT, is Indulged In .her studious bent by
being given tbe advantages of a well selected school
to Virginia, and where William. Jr. was assigned
to the upbuilding regimen and discipline of an In
diana military school
Tho summer brings tho family most closely to-
y? rt fT VJT hint of nature, from tho lanaruor of- !HTKr. d. m ,V '"'. . . unaffected equaUty. Ao of thorn , is tree u accost
a nn to too rei of the wind on hn cheeks .ti tw. ia k. vVT - .C. .L' ,la anowmg mm. socially or on a easiness topic, ana jiw ins getner. as ho hm tppmicnn nis nan century in all
, Now ho is tM scholar "the mdiy conversation- i? thr0e.mo.a-J?-"bollt lb PrtTu character that follows might be one between a couple of friend- the strength, health and kindly dignity of manhood
alist. or tho man of affairs chatUnVat hi? eall or ?i, VLVa-T !t,li .1 lSn w1om mS .,r '-covertng ly foremen or clerks. matured "nto Its prime, the homestead In thlsTaew.
when neon lo, , T usuauJ ls-workln2 Uko bTaver Ind .01 Vol.a. "5u?fiii of T,olBt panegyrlo That subtle nodertono of condescension, or of western world, for U lu i modern externala. strangely
In his ofBco In the basoment oeaver and equally violent dutrlbo. patronage, or of eenoctous aatheritr, common to oil reproduces tbe eldest and moat perfect Ideal over at-
There aro three porches rirdlln Fairview hut it i. , i . At 'Ik . . . -1 . PV? mrmr- before the business enterprises oloowhero. to notlceablr absent talaed by mantho ideal of tho patriarchal life, in tho
rarely that they fulfil te nrl tfil I'.JL'nTJV' fcW!H-p'ta"iJ"1,a' V tn,r Thr u " " affocUtlon. losg-headed fun splendor of tbo harVest of Us years, lived In tho
te g a place for the refresh ng ro?t and thl iaCfl'iPPi!l; ?i-ii!-iu,wv d.g ,,athtl ho wore oao- poUcy. nor even stay intentional abdication of tho ealm fcarolnese of tho aooieot, WWleal oimplleltyi
Wliiiiu fsast m llriu,, uTli slL yii?..i Crwl Sl0iir!: .Y?.1 or5,w.rOM B7' . forms of oothorfty. . . without fear and. Mforo worl at last reversal
isnusj u sis Mti. falrvlew and Ve can leave the farm with the cemfortabie as- Tho simple. lUamlnatlnc tact U that Us huslaess U wlthoat reproach.