Nebraska, as the one for whom the State would vote. "He needs no speech to recommend him," said Colonel Lewis.

The words exploded another mine of the same fiery sort which the Nebraskan had enflamed with his own oratory a few hours before. Three or four State delegations were on their chairs leading the cheer with the lungs of scattering delegates from other States abetting them. Nebraska seemed to furnish the galleries with a hero, for they were making the great chorus of the noise. The blue banner with the placard, "William J. Bryan Club, of Nebraska; 16 to 1," emblazoned in silver letters was lifted above Nebraska's seats.

The standards of Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota rallied around the blue and silver emblem, and then the standard-bearers started a march around the pit.

When order was partially restored, T. F. Klutz, of North Carolina, seconded the nomination of William J. Bryan, and in this he was followed by G. F. Williams of Massachusetts, and Thos. Kernan of Louisiana.

The work of balloting for a nominee was postponed till Friday, July 10th. The indications now all pointed to Bryan though several other candidates were to be placed in the field. It was to be as exciting a day as the previous one, though without its acerbities. A melancholy and painful part of the proceedings was the declination of so many delegates to join in them, through disgust at the platform and their treatment by the majority. New York and New Jersey delegates remained passive in their seats, and Connecticut, Wisconsin, Delaware, Michigan, and Rhode Island cast only partial or scattering votes.

The first ballot showed that the heroes in the contest were Bland and Bryan, and that a clarification of the situa

tion could hardly be other than in favor of Bryan, for the Bland strength must have its limit, while that of Bryan could have none short of a nomination. The ballots were taken in quick order and with the following results:

Mr. Bryan received the announcement of his nomination with all the composure and calmness of a man who had been used to such things during a longer life than his. His handsome black eyes were perhaps slightly more dilated than ordinarily when the bulletin carrying the nomination message was handed to him, but otherwise he manifested no change of countenance or manner. was at the time sitting chatting with two newspaper friends in his parlor at the Clifton House.

He

"If," said he, "this is true, I want to do that which I have for some time had in contemplation in this emergency." He then turned to the parlor table, and with a lead pencil wrote on a scrap of soft paper supplied by one of his newspaper visitors the following:

To the American People :-In order that I may have no ambition but to discharge faithfully the duties of the office, I desire to announce that, if elected President, I shall under no circumstances be a candidate for reëlection. W. J. BRYAN.

During the evening a public reception was arranged for him at his hotel, at which he sounded the keynote of his campaign in the following vigorous language:

"There shall be no signs of Keep off the grass' when you come around, boys," he began good-naturedly to the jostling thousands on the street. Then he asked: "Is this the Bland Club?" A yell in the affirmative answered his inquiry.

"Then I want to say to the friends of Bland that if the Convention had chosen as their nominee the man whose name is inscribed on your banners he would have no more loyal supporter than I. The fact that he was

not chosen cannot be taken as the slightest reflection upon his great ability. No man more deserves of the Convention its love, its honor and its confidence than Richard P. Bland."

Another great shout went up from the crowd and for several minutes the speaker could not proceed. When quiet was again restored he went on. "But circumstances contributed much in shaping the results of this Convention. When the campaign is over I think it can be said that no mistake has been made.

"But it depends upon you, upon the plain people. Abraham Lincoln once said that the Lord must love the plain people because he made so many of them. If we win in this great fight it will be because the plain people believe that we will bring to them exact and equal justice.

"We raise no plea against the power and the just due accorded to intelligence and to education, but we insist that when the Government comes in contact with the people there must be equal aid, exact justice to all alike, rich and poor, great and humble.

"The issue of this campaign is the money question (long continued applause), and we cannot be driven from our faith by the charge that we advocate dishonest money. The free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, independent of any nation on the face of the earth, will not give us dishonest money.

"It will not give us a dollar's worth of value to one and another to another man. It will give to the man who toils, the same as to the man who holds the mortgage. It will give us a coin that sails upon prosperity. This is to be a fight of the campaign, and you, my friends, are to do the fighting.