turned the corner of a hall and saw a crowd of people ahead of them blocking the passage.

66 Make way for Mr. Sewall, gentlemen," cried the proud Alabama citizen, Tomlinson. The crowd fell back. It had been talking to the "Boy Orator of the Platte" and pressing petitions into his ear. Tomlinson stepped forward.

"Mr. Bryan, I want to introduce you to Mr. Sewall," he said.

"Mr. President," said Mr. Tomlinson, "Mr. Vice-President." The two struck hands. They shook heartily.

"It is a great pleasure," said Mr. Sewall. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

"I'm mighty glad to see you," said Mr. Bryan. The loiterers in the hall started at the next remark. "I took no part in the nomination," said Mr. Bryan. Then the young Nebraskan asked his mate on the ticket to step into the former's private room.

Mr. Harrity and a few others were in the room. They chatted for five minutes, and then both Bryan and Sewall came out and went to the parlor on the same floor.

The two candidates stood side by side and held an informal reception. The contrast between them was as marked as had been that between the rooms. Bryan is well known. His characteristics and his mannerisms have been described. Mr. Sewall wore a light suit and no jewelry. His

face is ruddy. His hair is worn away a little on the forehead, and it is tinged with gray. His mustache is thick, and it, too, is gray. Sewall is sixty-one years of age, but he doesn't look it. He has the appearance of a well-groomed club man, one not used to hurrying through life. He had a cordial hand-clasp, but it lacked the cordiality of Bryan's.

The reception was brief, and then Sewall bade Bryan good-bye, and the candidate for VicePresident walked out of the room and down the stairs and into the street, where he narrowly escaped being run down by a reckless cab driver. Sewall shunned the elevator in the Palmer House.

CHAPTER XXII.

SPEECH OF HON. CLAUDE A. SWANSON

RETIREMENT OF THE TREASURY NOTES AND THE

FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.

"Mr. Chairman: There are two propositions pending before us for acceptance or rejection. The first proposition is the one passed by this Republican House last December, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to sell $500,000,000 of three per cent. bonds, with which to redeem all the outstanding Treasury notes, impound them in the Treasury, and thus contract the currency of this country to that extent.

"When this proposal was first before the House I earnestly opposed it in a speech, and did my utmost to defeat it. I then pointed out that if this bill should ever become law, and the currency should be contracted to the extent designed, the actual money in circulation among the people would be less than half the annual taxes collected from them, less than half the annual interest paid, and would not be one-fortieth of the aggregate indebtedness of this country; yet this House, with its immense Republican majority, by a large

majority vote passed this bill to destroy this vast amount of money that had been preserved to the people by a Democratic House of Representatives.

"This bill went to the Senate and there the Democratic Senators, led by Senator Jones, of Arkansas, aided by a few Republican and Populist Senators, defeated that iniquitous measure and substituted in its place a free-coinage bill, which that sterling Democrat from Georgia, Judge Crisp, now proposes that this House shall adopt instead of the bill it formerly passed.

"Thus these two measures embody clearly and distinctly the two ideas struggling for supremacy in our financial system.

"The proposal to sell bonds and to retire the Treasury notes, or greenbacks, is the only relief offered by the gold monometallist to remedy the present distressed situation. I am unalterably opposed to this. In the last Democratic House, when the friends of the present Administration sought to have a bill similar to this passed and the vast amount of paper money destroyed, I earnestly spoke and voted against it. I am glad to say that the bill practically similar to this was defeated in the Democratic House by a large majority.

"This bill, indorsed nearly unanimously by the tremendous Republican majority in this House, commits this party in the future, without doubt

and without question, to the maintenance of the gold standard in this country.

"The Republican majority in this House exceeds 100, and the proposal for free coinage will be defeated by a vote equal to that majority.

"The Republican party during the last canvass denounced the present Administration for selling bonds, and yet its first advent to power is marked by passing in this House, and insisting upon its enactment into law, a proposition to sell $500,000,000 of bonds and the retirement from circulation of that amount of money. The Republican policy, as here disclosed, shows a complete alliance with the gold monometallists of this country. It shows that the Republican party still adheres to the financial teachings of Senator John Sherman, who, in 1873, demonetized silver without cause, without excuse, and when it was at a premium over gold of three per cent. It shows that this party's policy is a contraction and not an expansion of the currency. It It proves to the country what I have always known, that the party that wantonly destroyed silver will never consent to its rehabilitation.

"In the future no one need be deceived. If he believes in and desires the remonetization of silver, he must vote for and form alliances with a party different from the Republican party.

"I shall not go over the ground that I did in my former speeches and point out the great dis