LIFE OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION.

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, popularly known as the "Boy Orator of the Platte," was born in the town of Salem, Marion County, Illinois, March 19, 1860. His lineage is thoroughly Democratic. His father was Silas L. Bryan, who was born in Culpepper County, Va., at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He came to Illinois when eighteen years of age, and settled finally at Salem. He was a graduate at McKendrie College, Lebanon, Ill., and began the practice of law. In 1852 he was elected State Senator, and served eight years. He was elected, in 1860, Circuit Judge, and served until 1872. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1870, and there introduced a resolution that all officers created by the constitution, should be elected by the people. In 1870 he was Democratic candidate for Congress, and was defeated by 240 votes, by James S. Martin. He was a strong man intellectually, and was a good public speaker. He died in 1880. He was married to Maria Elizabeth Jennings, at Salem, in 1852. They had nine children, of whom five are living. W. J. is the fourth. Mrs. Bryan died in Salem, in 1896.

The family residence was on a farm just outside of the town limits, and it was there that the son William passed his early youth, amid rural scenes and the arts of husbandry. His education began in the common schools of

the town, and to facilitate this, he came to spend much of his time within the reach of the schools, the rest being spent on the farm.

By the time he reached the age of fifteen years, he had completed his common school education, and, in the fall of 1875, he entered Whipple Academy, at Jacksonville, Illinois. After an academic course, extending over two years, he was prepared to enter Illinois College, at Jacksonville, which he did in 1877, matriculating in the Freshman Class. As a collegian, he proved to be an apt and earnest and assiduous student, and, early in his course, gave promise of those forensic powers which were to bring him speedy National distinction. In 1880, while a Senior, he won second prize as the representative of his college in the State collegiate oratorical contest at Galesburg.

He graduated from his college in 1881, with the highest honors of his class, and, by virtue of this rank, he became the class valedictorian. After leaving college, young Bryan went to Chicago, where he entered the Union Law College of that city. At the same time he entered the law office of Senator Lyman Trumbull, for the double purpose of assisting in his own education, and acquiring a knowledge of the practice of law along with its theories.

This course imposed upon him a double duty, but he had physical strength, mental ability and energy of purpose equal to even a harder task, and he ended his two years of law study with honors. He was now thoroughly equipped for his profession, and he entered upon it at Jacksonville, Ill., soon after his admission to the bar, in 1883.

IN PUBLIC LIFE.

The young attorney prospered in his profession from the start, for he added to careful preparation all the energies and ambitions of youth, a cordial disposition, pleasing manners, and a most persuasive eloquence. He found at Jacksonville an attraction in the person of Miss Mary E. Baird, a young lady who had been a student in the seminary there while he was attending college. He made her his wife, and the two lived happily at Jacksonville till the year 1887. Even before this date, Mr. Bryan had begun to indulge his rhetorical powers in the political discussions of his vicinity, and every one recognized in him a disputant of pre-eminent ability, considering his youth.

In the autumn of 1887, he went on a business trip to the State of Nebraska, and, while there, he became impressed with the greater opportunities, the newer and more rapidly developing West offered to a young man of his aspirations and qualifications. So, in the same year, he moved to the State, and settled at Lincoln, the Capital, where he opened a law office with Mr. Talbot, the firm name being Talbot & Bryan.

This move proved to be auspicious. It brought him a profitable clientage, and, at the same time, opened for him, almost as if by magic, a political career which, for speed and splendor, stands without parallel. In less than half a year after his advent in Lincoln, he entered on his first political effort as delegate to the Democratic State Convention, which met at Omaha, in May, 1888, to choose delegates to the National Convention at St. Louis. During an interlude in the proceedings, when something was needed to break monotony, some of his friends called on

him for a speech, by way of divertisement. The call was sudden, and the opportunity was by no means a favorable one for forensic display, but the young orator made the most of the occasion. He soon awakened the tired and sleepy audience to a realizing sense of his magnetic powers, and, ere long, had it completely in his grasp. Devoting himself exclusively to the tariff, then, an allabsorbing issue with the Nebraska people, he brought the vast audience to its feet with responsive cheer after cheer. The strength of his logic and arguments, combined with his brilliancy and eloquence, was irresistible, and he, there and then, laid a firm foundation for a State reputation.

So commanding, indeed, were the talents of this remarkable young man, that the very next year he was offered the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant-Governor. This he declined, but he took an active part in the campaign, making in all more than fifty speeches.

Meantime J. Sterling Morton, at the election of 1888, had been defeated for Congress by his Republican opponent, W. J. Connell, by more than 3,000 majority, although the district, two years before, had given a Democratic majority of nearly 7,000. There was need of a new Moses, and the younger Democrats of the district. decided that Bryan was the man to lead them.

When he was offered the Congressional nomination, in 1890, Connell being a candidate for re-election, Bryan said:

"Of course there is no show for an election, but I will make the race and do my best."

Only thirty years old at the time, he put all his might into the fight.