strike out from this bill the paragraph under consideration,
thus leaving the duty as it exists under the present law.

The amendment was agreed to.

A FAITHFUL WORKER.

The Congressional Record shows that while Mr. McShane gave special attention to the subject of lands, the Committees of Indian Affairs and Public Buildings were those to which he was specially assigned, and which were of vital importance to the new state. From the Committee of Public Buildings it was his good fortune to have reported in favor of United States buildings at Omaha, Beatrice and Hastings; and from Indian Affairs, in behalf of the interests of the Flatheads, Omahas, Umatillas and Winnebagoes.

The list of pension applications presented by him, and argued before the committee, was, as usual, voluminous; while Western Territories appealed to the kindly offices of one who had far exceeded many of their citizens in a residence west of the Missouri.

As a man of active business habits, he was known as a worker, more than a mere talker; and before the end of a single term was longing for the interchangeable recreation of life upon the range with that of the board of trade, the counting house and railroad construction.

HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN.

March 4th, 1891-March 4th, 1895.

Hon. W. J. Bryan was born in Salem, Marion County, Illinois, March 19, 1860; attended public school until fifteen years of age, spending his vacations on the farm; in the fall of 1875 entered Whipple Academy at Jacksonville, Illinois; entered Illinois College, Jacksonville, in 1877; completed a classical course and was graduated with the highest honors in 1881; attended Union College of Law, Chicago, Illinois, for two years, during which time he was connected with the office of ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull; began the practice of his profession at Jacksonville; removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1, 1887, and became a member of the firm of Talbot & Bryan; never held an elective office prior to his election to Congress; was elected to the Fiftysecond congress as a Democrat, receiving 32,376 votes, against 25,663 votes for William J. Connell, Republican; 13,066 votes for Allen Root, Independent; 1,670 votes for E. H. Chapin, Prohibitionist, and 8 votes scattering.

He was renominated by acclamation in 1892, met his opponent in joint debate and was elected by 140 plurality, in a district giving the Republican State ticket 6,000 plurality. To defeat him Governor Foraker and McKinley, of Ohio, entered the canvass. He was again placed on the Ways and Means Committee and took an active part in preparing the tariff bill of 1894. Three years from his arrival in Nebraska he was nominated and first elected to congress. During joint discussions with Hon. W. J. Connell, in a campaign memorable for honorable competition and manly decorum, the culmination came in the following

CLASSICAL EPISODE.

MR. BRYAN to MR. CONNELL: We now bring to a close this series of debates, which was arranged by our committees. I am glad that we have been able to conduct these discussions in a courteous and friendly manner. If I have in anyway offended in word or deed, I offer apology and regret,

and as freely forgive. I desire to present to you in remembrance of these pleasant meetings, this little volume, because it contains "Gray's Elegy," in the perusal of which I trust you will find as much pleasure and profit as I have. It is one of the most beautiful and touching tributes to humble life that literature contains. Grand in its sentiment and sublime in its simplicity, we can both find in it a solace in victory or defeat. If success should crown your efforts in this campaign and it should be your lot

"The applause of listening senates to command,"

And I am left

"A youth to fortune and to fame unknown,"

Forget not us, who in the common walks of life perform our part, but in the hour of your triumph recall the verse: "Let not ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys and destinies obscure,
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor."

If, on the other hand, by the verdict of my countrymen I should be made your successor, let it not be said of you"And melancholy marked him for her own,"

But find sweet consolation in the thought

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

But whether the palm of victory is given to you or to me, let us remember those of whom the poet says:

“Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

Along the cool, sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

These are the ones most likely to be forgotten by government. When they cry out for relief they too often hear no answer but the "echo of their cry," while the rich, the strong, the powerful are given an attentive ear.

For this reason is class legislation dangerous and deadly; it takes from the least able to give and gives to those who are least in need. The safety of our farmers and our laborers is not in special legislation, but in equal and just laws, that bear alike on every man. The great mass of our people are interested, not in getting their hands into other people's pockets, but in keeping the hands of other people out of their pockets.

Let me in parting express the hope that you and I may

be instrumental in bringing our government back to better
laws, which will treat every man in all our land alike
without regard to creed or condition. I bid you a friendly
farewell.

RENOMINATION DECLINED.

As the end of his second congressional term approached, in the fall of 1894, Mr. Bryan declined to be a candidate for re-election, and was announced as a candidate, for United States Senator, according to a provision of the constitution of Nebraska. Having been endorsed by a Free-Silver Democratic State Convention, which also adopted the Populist candidate for Governor, he entered upon the campaign with all his accustomed zeal and power. Had the Populists and Democrats elected a majority of the legis lature his election to the Senate was generally conceded.

Of joint debates, with the Hon. John M. Thurston, who was elected to the Senate by a Republican legislature, it is safe to say, that no such wild enthusiasm ever before possessed Nebraska audiences; and no greater display of forensic eloquence ever repaid their devoted attention.

HONORABLE PROMOTION.

On his first election, as the second Democrat from the State, and predicated on his splendid canvass, party papers at once demanded for him unusual recognition upon the committees of the House. In addition to this, his Illinois friend, Mr. Springer, was made chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and knowing of the ability and acquirements of the young member from the West desired him as a colleague. But to the members, generally, he was only a legislative novice from a purely agricultural state. On the 16th of March, 1892, he delivered a tariff speech of which a correspondent said:

When William Jennings Bryan arose in his seat in the House last week to address that body on the tariff question those who knew him best did not doubt that he would do himself and his party credit, but even his most sanguine friends were unprepared for the sensation that his speech created. It is no stretch of the imagination to say that this speech was a sensation, for rarely before in the history of