an error. They
were making no disturbance when I finished speaking. I did not even
mean to criticize the band, because I was sure that the interruption
was not intentional, but my voice being hoarse and the crowd large, it
was difficult to make myself heard even when there was perfect quiet.

The incident gave rise to a good deal of public discussion.

A few papers criticised my language on that occasion and declared that
my words provoked the hostile demonstration. As a matter of fact, the
hostility was manifested before I began to speak, and it was some
minutes before I could obtain a hearing. This is the only speech in
which I have inserted the applause, and it is only done here because
the interruptions are also quoted. The report is reproduced exactly as
it appeared at the time in order that the reader may form his own
opinion upon the subject.

The following press dispatch appeared in the morning papers of
September 3:

YALE STUDENTS CRITICISED.

Muskogee, I.T., Sept. 29.--At a mass meeting of the Cherokees,
Creeks, Choctaws and Seminoles, held here yesterday, the following
resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, that we contemplate with deep regret the recent insulting
treatment of William J. Bryan by students of a college in the land
of the boasted white man's civilization, and we admonish all
Indians who think of sending their sons to Yale that association
with such students could but prove hurtful alike to their morals
and their progress toward the higher standard of civilization.

THE "SUN" DEFENDS THE YALE STUDENTS.

The New York Sun came to the defense of the boys in an editorial, from
which the following is an extract:

What did these students really do? On the day that Yale University
opened its new college year, Bryan came to New Haven and prepared
to address a great crowd at the green adjacent to which are the
college buildings of the center of university life, in a town of
which the university is the great and distinguishing feature. The
students gathered in strong force, as was natural. Practically they
were on their own ground. They expressed their feelings against
repudiation with the vigor and vociferousness of youth; and they
had a right to do it.

They ought to have done it; and the sentiment to which they gave
utterance was honorable to them. The boys made a great noise,
cheering for Mc