John A. McShane, of Omaha, was born in New Lexington, Perry County, Ohio, August 25th, 1850, and worked upon a farm until twenty-one years of age, receiving only such education as could be obtained in the common schools; in 1871 went to Wyoming Territory and was employed on a cattle ranch; in 1873 became a cattle owner; in 1874 he removed to Omaha, but retained his interest in Wyoming until 1883, when he merged his individual cattle interest in the Bay State Live Stock Company, of which he is a director; he was one of the promoters of the Union Stock Yards at South Omaha, and is president of the company; he was also a promoter of and a director in the South Omaha Land Company; is a director in the First National Bank in Omaha and helped to organize, and is president of, the Union Stock Yards Bank at South Omaha; in 1880 he was elected to the lower house of the State Legislature from Omaha for two years; in 1882 he was elected for another term; in 1884 he was chosen to the State Senate, and was elected to the 50th Congress as a Democrat, receiving 23,396 votes against 16,373 for Church Howe, Republican.
   Being an intelligent Democrat, and in all things a practical worker, it is not to be considered a matter of astonishment that the modes of purchasing army supplies arrested his attention, and evoked from the first elected Democrat from Nebraska adverse criticism.

   Two important objects were to be obtained by the amendment proposed, the one to purchase in the cheapest market and the other to prevent favoritism.
   Western men could see no objection to supplies being purchased at Leavenworth, Kansas, and Omaha, Nebraska, if thereby money could be saved to the Government.
   But the red tape processes and veneration for the old and familiar held almost absolute sway among army officers and old members of Congress, to the utter disgust of "pioneers" who formed precedents and created destinies.

   The land system was also an object of very special interest, indeed, paramount to all others, on account of the agricultural interests of the State, and the fact that a majority of the settlers were yet awaiting the maturity of their titles. The administration of President Cleveland had found the land laws evaded and violated by all the adroitness of land shark syndicates and individual frauds. Large cattle ranges had been fenced and guarded, pre-emption claims fraudulently located and sold. To restore these claims to market required the services of soldiers and special agents. That mistakes were sometimes made by the special detectives cannot be doubted, but as their acts were not

final, there was always a chance for the interposition of experienced officials and the correction of errors.
   On this subject Mr. McShane uttered his sentiments as follows:

   Understanding that clerks and notaries public were in the habit of charging exorbitant prices for the taking of testimony in certain proof cases, he advocated an amendment, not to exceed $3 per case.

   His hostility to the swindling system by which syndicates got

possession of 450,000 acres of land under the "desert-land act," while each citizen was limited to an entry of only 640 acres, was manifest on a bill, to prevent monopoly in the public lands.

   On an occasion when the question was upon fees received from homestead proofs covered into the treasury, and not thereafter expended, in full, for clerical services, in cases where land officers had to bear part of the outlay from their own salaries, Mr. McShane, as usual, remembered the toiling settler.

   When a tariff bill was under discussion, with a provision that "iron and steel hoops for cotton ties and baling purposes" should come in free, and a clamor was raised that such legislation would be a special favor to the South, Mr. McShane offered an amendment, and said:

   The amendment was agreed to.

   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. 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, 1.887, 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 Fifty-second 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

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:

   If, on the other hand, by the verdict of my countrymen I should be made your successor, let it not be said of you

But find sweet consolation in the thought

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

   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

   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 legislature 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.

   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:

W. J. BRYAN.

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