am afraid that they love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. I call attention to this item because you can see by it what an unsubstantial foundation is laid for the fears which they attempt to excite in the breasts of American citizens.

Let me give you another evidence of the lack of candor and directness which characterizes our opponents. Ex-Secretary Fairchild is quoted in the same paper as saying:

"I do not see how we can do anything else than put a third ticket in the Presidential arena. We have practically committed ourselves to such a course. We want to see the defeat of the Democratic ticket, and we shall try to draw away as many votes as we can from it. We feel that this defeat may best be accomplished by a third ticket. Of course, we shall find no fault with those of our friends who cast a straight vote for McKinley."

Now there, my friends, is a man who claims to be in favor of honest money, advocating the putting up of a ticket, not for the purpose of electing it, but for the purpose of electing another ticket which the bolting Democrats are not willing to endorse in convention. I simply call your attention to the methods which we have to meet in this campaign and ask you whether you think these methods characterize a political party which is so accustomed to honesty that it wants money honest and dollars sound?

From Hornellsville we proceeded with but few stops to Jamestown. At Celeron, a suburb of Jamestown, more than 12,000 people were crowded into an immense auditorium. This was probably the most densely packed hall in which I spoke, it being necessary to suspend proceedings until a sufficient number went out to make existence bearable to those who remained.

The next morning we attended the First Presbyterian Church and listened to a sermon by the pastor, Rev. G. M. Covell. He discussed several religious characters of prominence in the world's history and contrasted the enthusiasm of the reformer with the cool and calculating disposition of the man of business. We spent a pleasant afternoon at Lakewood with Mr. Mack, of Buffalo, and Hon. Henry W. Cornell, of New York City, and Monday morning left by boat for Chautauqua.

The visit to the Chautauqua grounds was very enjoyable, the officials taking great pains to show us the points of interest. The Assembly was not in session, but the presence of a little crowd in the park gave me an opportunity, of which I gladly availed myself, to express my high appreciation of the educational work inaugurated at this place. I noted here the evenness among the houses, in contrast with the display sometimes found at fashionable summer resorts. Here there seemed to be a democratic equality among those who gathered to join intellectual development with needed recreation.

A call upon Mr. Coleman E. Bishop, then an invalid, is pleasantly remembered.

We left the lake a few miles further north, at Maysville. This being the home of Judge Tourgee, I borrowed an illustration from his works, and suggested that the gold standard was a device by which the producers of wealth were compelled to make "bricks without straw," and that to seek relief from the gold standard at the hands of the financiers was like going upon "a fool's errand."

The ride by carriage from Maysville to Ripley was a beautiful one. The view from the water shed between Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua was especially enjoyed. Mr. Leroy M. Stringham, of Ripley, is recalled as one of the most persistent men whom I met during my entire trip. He was so urgent in his efforts to arrange a meeting at his town that I at last succumbed with much the feeling of the man in the Bible who arose in the night and gave to his neighbor because the neighbor would not allow him to sleep. The meeting, however, abundantly repaid me for the effort expended. The papers reported that one of the Ripley banks was robbed while the cashier was watching the parade. I have been at a loss to know whether this misfortune is properly chargeable to the silver agitation, or whether it should be construed as a warning to banks not to become too much interested in politics.

This being the last meeting in New York, I took occasion to say a word to those who were to take part in the State convention. As the advice here given was subjected to criticism in some quarters, I quote it:

Ripley Speech.

As this is my farewell meeting in the State for the present, I desire to submit just a word to the Democrats of New York. I have been gratified to find that so few-few relatively-of the members of the Democratic party are going to oppose the platform and ticket nominated at Chicago.

I desire to say a word to the Democrats of this State who believe that the State convention ought to indorse not only the candidates of the Chicago convention, but the platform on which the candidates stand. If there is any person here who thinks that the Democratic party of the State ought not to indorse the candidates and platform, what I shall say is not addressed to such person, but to those who believe that the convention to be held in this State in about two weeks should indorse both platform and candidates I desire to offer one suggestion. We have had a great fight in the Democratic party, one of the most memorable contests ever waged in the United States, and those who advocate the free coinage of silver have won by carrying their cause, not to conventions, but to the people themselves, the source of all political power. If we had waited until the convention assembled at Chicago and then made our appeal to delegates who had been sent there uninstructed and without regard

to the money question we would have been defeated, but we saw that the strength of bimetallism was in the rank and file of the party.

Recognizing the Democratic idea that power comes up to the machinery of the party from the people themselves and not down from the machinery to the people, we commenced with the sovereigns, and instructed the delegates from the primaries to the precincts, and from the precincts to the county, and from the counties to the States, and from the States to the national convention.

That is the way this contest has been fought, and it is the only hope of those who are trying to secure justice for the masses of people.

If you want the State convention to support the Chicago platform and ticket there is only one way to be sure of it, and that is to let no man go to any convention, small or great, until you know where he stands on this question and that he stands by you. No man who wants to do what is right will refuse to let the people know what he will do when he gets to the convention. And when you find a man who refuses to tell you what he is going to do, when you find a man who will not take you into his confidence, tell him that you will not take him into your confidence.

The men who attend conventions do not go there as individuals; they go as representatives. They do not go to act for themselves; they go to act for those who send them. You not only have a right to know what a man is going to do when he gets there, but you have a right to tell him what to do.

From Ripley we went to Cleveland. Crowds were gathered at a number of places, notably at Ashtabula, O., where a number of silver Republicans came aboard and assured me that they were vying with the Democrats and Populists in their efforts to carry the county for silver.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A

FROM CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO

RRIVING in Cleveland about 6 o'clock, we were escorted to the hotel by an impromptu procession, which seemed determined to show that in his efforts to elect a Republican president, the chairman of the Republican National Committee did not have the unanimous support of his neighbors.

Mr. Charles P. Salen, chairman of the County Committee, and Hon. L. E. Holden, of the Plain Dealer, deserve special credit for the success of the Cleveland meeting. Speaking was arranged for in two halls, and an overflow meeting was held in front of the Hollenden Hotel. I here met Hon. George A. Groot, who afterward visited Nebraska as chairman of the Notification Committee of the National Silver party. He entered into the campaign with great earnestness and spoke in several States.

Leaving Cleveland early in the morning we proceeded to Columbus, making several stops along the route and arriving early in the afternoon. The Columbus meeting was one of the largest held during the campaign, in fact, I am not sure that it was surpassed. Hon. Allen W. Thurman, who presided, has for several years been identified with the silver fight. My acquaintance with him dates from the silver conference held in Chicago in August, 1893, he being the presiding officer on that occasion. My speech at Columbus was somewhat broken up by the fact that I was compelled to speak from the four sides of the stand. I was followed on this occasion by Hon. John L. Lentz, the candidate for Congress in that district, whom I first met and listened to at Madalin, N. Y.

We went to Springfield early the next morning and there experienced the most trying crush of the campaign. The crowd was large, and being massed in the hallway through which we passed, made our entrance almost impossible. This is the home of Hon. John W. Bookwalter and Hon. D. McConville, and I thought I saw in the enthusiasm of the people evidences of the effort which these gentle

Below will be found an

men have put forth in behalf of bimetallism. extract from the speech delivered at that place:

Springfield (Ohio) Speech.

For a few moments only I shall occupy your attention, because a large portion of my voice has been left along the line of travel, where it is still calling sinners to repentance. I am told that in this city you manufacture more agricultural implements than are manufactured in any other city in the country. I am glad to talk to people who recognize their dependence upon the farmers. I have had occasion to talk to some who seem to imagine that the harder they could make the condition of the farmers the better would be their own. I am glad to talk to you who recognize that the dollars which you receive are earned first by those who convert the natural resources of this country into money, who till the soil and from its fertility bring forth this nation's primary wealth. As a matter of fact the farmers and the laboring men are the foundation of society. Upon this foundation the commercial classes rest, and the financier acts as a sort of a roof over the structure. You can take off the roof and put on another, but you cannot destroy the foundation without destroying the whole building. Goldsmith well expressed it when he said: Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,

A breath can make them, as a breath has made.
But a bold peasantry, a nation's pride,

When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

The Democratic party, in its platform at Chicago, is pleading the cause of a nation's peasantry that must not be destroyed. Upon the prosperity of the great producers of wealth, whom we call the masses, as distinguished from the classes, depends all the prosperity of this city. If you have a gold standard you legislate the value of property down. Do you remember how, when we were young, we used to play on the teeter board? When one end of the board was up the other was down. It has remained for modern financiers to declare that you can keep both ends of the teeter board up at once. They seem to think that money can be dear and prices good at the same time. The legislation that increases the purchasing power of the dollar simply enables that dollar to buy more of other things. How can a dollar be made to buy more of other things? By making more wheat sell for a dollar, more corn sell for a dollar, more oats sell for a dollar, more potatoes sell for a dollarmore of the products of toil exchangeable for a given amount of money. It is a good thing for the man who owns money and buys property, but it is a bad thing for the man who has to buy money with property.

How does the gold standard affect you? You make your implements and sell them to the farmer. Suppose the farmer finds that his taxes do not go down, that his interest does not go down, that his debts do not go down, but that the price of all that he sells goes down. What does it mean? It means that he has a less and less amount to expend on agricultural implements. He promises to pay you, and legislation destroys his ability to pay, then you find fault because you have to take your implements back and sell them second hand to somebody else. That is the effect of legislation. Our opponents are trying to throw upon Providence the blame for our conditions. If a farmer