ness of the cause of his defeat is the use of money to turn the farmer vote in the pivotal Central Western States. The Eastern insurance companies, who own the mortgages on the farms in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and the neighboring States, and also who have agents in every hamlet almost, six weeks ago, fearing things were running in favor of Bryan, sent to these agents instructions to see personally every farmer and come to an understanding (written even) that if McKinley were elected they would grant five years' extension of the loan at a low rate of interest. The temptation to the tens of thousands of farmers was naturally too great for them to resist. It was a certainty, whereas relief through Bryan was comparatively remote. I have this fact from a relative in Iowa, who got the relief himself.

The loss of interest to the insurance companies will be great, but they expect to sell in London a mass of depreciated securities, with which they have been loaded up for years, on the boom which they now are looking for, and in that way to get even. They propose, that as London has benefited by the way they have squared the farmer vote, London shall pay for it, as the insurance agents out there jocosely remark.

If the gold standard continues, actual and painful experience will, in my judgment, at last convince the people that a government by banks, corporations and syndicates cannot guarantee permanent and general prosperity. The time will come when the convictions of the majority will be so deep that neither creditor nor employer can control the result of the election.

While there were a great many campaign songs, "Home, Sweet Home" seemed to be the most popular. This was rendered on many occasions, and often very beautifully.

It is impossible to approximate the number of poems written during the campaign, many of them of real merit. I recall one, of which I received the original manuscript at Pittsburg. It was written with a lead pencil upon scraps of paper and the author was a coal miner. It contained references to Biblical history, as well as classical allusions, and wove into verse the phraseology of the mine. I remember that in one stanza the necessity for two shafts in a mine was used to illustrate the advantages of two kinds of metal for money.

The total number of miles traveled, as shown by the schedules, was about 18,000. I have no way of ascertaining the exact number of speeches made, but an estimate of 600 is not far from correct. It is difficult to make an estimate of the number of persons addressed. Mr. Rose, of the Associated Press, thought about 5,000,000 the total number in attendance at my meetings, while Mr. Oulahan, of the United Associated Presses, places the number at 4,800,000. This, of course, includes men, women and children.

I

After leaving home, on September 9th, when I started on my long trip, up to November 3d, I spent every day, excepting Sunday, in campaigning. So far as my physical comfort was concerned, the greatest anxiety was expressed as to the condition of my throat. tried a cold compress, and a hot compress, and a cold gargle and a hot gargle, and cough drops and cough cures and cough killers in endless variety and profusion, and, finally abandoning all remedies, found my voice in better condition during the latter days, without treatment, than it was earlier in the campaign.

I was most fatigued while in Chicago. In fact, when on Wednesday evening, October 28th, I returned after midnight to the Auditorium Annex, where we stopped during that visit to Chicago, I was so nearly exhausted that our start for the trip through the northern part of the State the next morning was delayed a couple of hours.

In all this travel there was but little delay and no accident of any consequence to any member of the party.

As we learn by experience, my experience may be of value to those who may hereafter be engaged in a similar campaign. I soon found that it was necessary to stand upon the rear platform of the last car in order to avoid danger to those who crowded about the train. I also found that it was much easier to speak from the platform of the car than to go to a stand, no matter how close. Much valuable time was wasted by going even a short distance, because in passing through a crowd it was always necessary to do more or less of handshaking, and this occupied time. Moreover, to push one's way through a dense crowd is more fatiguing than talking. Speaking from the car also avoided the falling of platforms, a form of danger which, all through the campaign, I feared more than I feared breaking down from overwork. A platform, strong enough ordinarily, was in danger of being overtaxed when the crowd. centered at one place in an endeavor to shake hands with the candidate.

The ratio of 16 to I was scrupulously adhered to during the campaign, and illustrated with infinite variety. At one place our carriage was drawn by sixteen white horses and one yellow horse; at any number of places we were greeted by sixteen young ladies dressed in white and one dressed in yellow, or by sixteen young men. dressed in white and one dressed in yellow. But the ratio was most frequently represented in flowers, sixteen white chrysanthemums and one yellow one being the favorite combination. I was the recipient

of lucky coins, lucky stones and pocket pieces and badges and buttons. During the campaign I received gold headed canes, plain canes, leather canes, thorn canes, and even a glass cane. Some were votes at church fairs, of a variety of denominations, some were taken from famous battle-fields, and one was made from the house in which Patrick Henry made his first speech. I received a silver Waterbury watch, presented by a Connecticut bimetallist (he thought it embarrassing for me to time myself with a gold watch while making a silver speech), two rings, one with a sixteen to one set and one made of a coin in circulation at the time of the first Christian emperor. I received four handsome live eagles, two from Telluride, Colo., and two from Burke, Idaho, and one stuffed eagle which had been killed in Nebraska. One of the prettiest souvenirs of the campaign was a watch charm, emblematic of bimetallism. Beautiful specimens of wire gold and wire silver are enclosed in crystal, showing the one color on the one side and the other on the reverse.

It is impossible to chronicle all the evidences of kindly feeling given during the campaign; in fact the good will manifested and the intense feeling shown impressed me more than any other feature of the campaign. When the result was announced my composure was more endangered by the sorrow exhibited by friends than it was during all the excitement of the struggle. Men broke down and cried as they expressed their regret, and there rises before me now the face of a laboring man of Lincoln, who, after he dried his tears, held out his hand from which three fingers were missing, and said: "I did not shed a tear when those were taken off." People have often lightly said that they would die for a cause, but it may be asserted in all truthfulness that during the campaign just closed there were thousands of bimetallists who would have given their lives, had their lives. been demanded, in order to secure success to the principles which they advocated. Surely greater love hath no man than this.

CHAPTER LII.

T

EXPLANATIONS.

HIS chapter will be devoted to an explanation of the plan followed in the preparation of this volume. The platforms of the three parties, Democratic, National Silver and Populist, which united in the demand for free and unlimited coinage at sixteen to one, and in my nomination, are given in full. In reporting the Democratic, National Silver party and Populist conventions, I have followed the order in which the nominations were made. While the National Silver party and Populist party conventions assembled on the same day, the former finished its work first. The national platforms adopted by the Republican party and bolting Democrats are given in so far as they relate to the money question.

The letters of acceptance of Mr. McKinley and Mr. Hobart, in so far as they discuss the money plank, are given in order that the reader may understand the position taken upon this question by the Republican party.

The notification speech delivered by Gov. Stone, and the letter of notification delivered by the Democratic committee, the letter of notification delivered by the Populist committee, and Mr. Groot's verbal presentation of the Silver party nomination, are given, together with my letters accepting the Democratic and Populist nomination, and my speech accepting the Silver party nomination. Following this will be found the speech delivered by Mr. Sewall at the notification meeting and his letter of acceptance. I have also included a biographical sketch of Mr. Sewall.

In addition to these documents, I have given the speeches of the temporary and permanent chairmen of the three friendly conventions, together with the nominating speeches presenting the names of the successful candidates at the three conventions, namely, the speeches of Mr. Lewis, Mr. Little and Mr. Weaver, presenting my name; the speech of Mr. Burk, placing Mr. Sewall's name before the Democratic convention (no speech was made in presenting his name at the Silver convention), and the speech of Mr. Howard in the Populist convention, presenting the name of Mr. Watson. I have also given.

an extract from the speeches delivered by Mr. Flower and Mr. Caffery, as temporary and permanent chairmen of the Indianapolis convention, together with the messages of regret of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle, read at the Louisville notification meeting.

Senator Teller's speech in the Republican convention is given, and also the address issued by the silver Republicans, the first just after the adjournment of the Republican convention, and the second after the adjournment of the Chicago convention, because the speech and addresses set forth the reasons given by the silver Republicans for leaving the Republican party. The appeal for funds issued by the Democratic committee is reproduced, as it shows the source to which the committee looked for financial support, and the address issued by the Populist committee is given because it presents the arguments which induced the Populists to join the Democrats in the selection of electors. All of these documents are, in a certain sense, of an official

nature.

To have gone beyond these would have compelled me to make selections between the speeches of individuals, which would be neither pleasant to myself nor kind to those who have supported the cause of bimetallism with equal zeal and fidelity. I realize that I have not been able to enter into detail in describing the journeys made during the campaign, the space at my disposal making anything like an elaborate review impossible. In selecting speeches for reproduction, I have tried to present as much variety as possible in the treatment of the various phases of the money question, and also to select those which contained quotations from the speeches and writings of others. It has been necessary to cut down some speeches which I would have been glad to give in full, and many speeches have been omitted altogether.

In the matter of illustration, so far as the pictures of public men are concerned, I have followed substantially the same plan as in the selection of printed matter.

No words are necessary to justify the prominence given to Mr. Bland, Mr. Weaver and Mr. Teller, to whom the book is dedicated. Their services in their respective parties have placed them in a position where all must concede the propriety of the partiality which I have shown them.

The pictures of Messrs. McKinley and Hobart, the successful candidates in the first battle, have been given, together with the picture of Mr. Sewall, the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Democratic and silver parties. I had intended to present the picture of Mr. Watson, the