Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-10
ON SCRAP BOOKS.
Bill Nye Relates His Experience for a
 Readers Benefit.

Bill Nye Relates His Experience for a |
 Readers Benefit.
 A correspondent writes from Pensacola, l Fla, asking what is perfection or the nearest | perfection in a scrap book, also desiring to | know my own experience in scrap books, if ever had any. A scrap book generally is like a diary: you begin to keep it with extreme exuberance, and you gradually flag and flicker out and fummix, one might say. began simply by ordering from my con- gressman an edition de luxe of the report of the commissioner of education, bound in plain muslin and boards. Taking a volume of this kind to my airy suit of hall bedroom and woodbox, with the keen blade of a butcher knife I cut out two leaves and left third all the way through without marring the general plot of the book. This gave room for pasting excerpts and other literary gems, most of which referred to myself, and pre- vented that general fullness which would have resulted had not done so. Whenever a paper referred to me bought some copies, and, having sent one to my dear one I carefully cut out the excerpt from an- other copy and pasted it, by means of some ! loud and extremely offensive paste, on the page Thus filled at last whole volume | of the reports of the commissioner of educa- tion with paragraphs in which it was stated 1 with more or less typographical inaccuracy | that l was lin town and quartered at Ri1ey's ] hotel," or that was Ion our streets" or that l "shook hands with friends here yesterday" or that I was "attending the quarterly con- ference in town" and many other state ments which would be invaluable as refer ences in future years. I also had much larger book in which kept the adverse crit icisms of the press, paragraphs in which I was alluded to as "the intellectual al of Sassafras Commonwealth" and ''the flea bitten fugitive from justice who edits the porous plaster across the street." Whenever my feelings were wounded l put the item ill the large book and kept it where my children could see it when should rest from my labors forever. I thought it would teach them humility and really do them good. The other book used to keep on the center table for the use of visitors, If had visitor who had the habit of putting in a day or two at a time conversing with me about himself generally asked him to glance over this scrap book, and while he was doing so 1 would slip out and take train for some other point. It is good plan.
 Just keep an egotistical scrap book, using the soureSt paste you can procure, and when a man insists on giving you large bales and mowsful of information about himself when you would rather converse about yourself,
 
 and then you can gently ooze out the side door and go to the remotest parts of the earth.
 Finally heard of a new patent scrap book with ready gummed pages, and bought one. The price was big enough for set of Dickens, but had heard that it was good thing, and so got it. Then period of hu- midity came along and that book closed for ever. It wouldn't open any moro than marble slab.
 waited till autumn and then got another one My wife filled it full of autumn leaves. They were not fully dry. She then put a heavy weight on the top. We still have the scrap book and the leaves, but the book opens with a time lock, and the time set for it to open is a profound secret between Gabriel and his wife.
 Lately have adopted the plan of purchas- ing several thousand manila envelopes, put ting each newspaper clipping into one of these envelopes, and then writing the title on the outside I then hire a house and, by us ing the gummed flaps of the envelopes, fasten them in rows tastefulIy on tho inner walls of the house, marking a general heading over t each row by means of red chalk. This gives the room a cheery appearance, adds to tho acoustics of the house and is certainly very ] convenient By means of a step ladder l am enabled to select anything desire readily, 0 and the space usually fooled away and GOV Q cred by expensive but non-remuneratiVe pie e lures is made highly useful.
 Sometimes I have to hire an amanuensis to do this work, and it is not done the same way I would do 1t myself. Last year I went $ away for a few months to give some readings n in aid of a few poor children for whom t feel myself responsible, and while absent, I had a young man named Pulaski Murkley attend to this. He was very methodical and 2 wrote a good hand, as I afterwards learned by comparing some of my own signatures at l. the bank with some studies which he had made of the same subject. They were better, if anything, than my own, l must admit, Il and the cashier at the bank agreed with me e about it.
 But he was very methodical, indeed, and kept my scrap book carefully, according to his own ideas He came from summer re ,+ sort called Chisel 'em- their-eye-teeth hurst-by -the-sea. His father resided at Up six-fights- f-stairs- n-the-Hudson, and usu Ia ally spent his summers at About-two-miles behind Burdick's- lath- lumber-and sh1ngle # mill cash paid for hides -undertaking-em - balming- -ice-cream-by-the-sea.
 People who ceme from there always think they know all about everything, and so allowed him to run my scrap book.
 Last fall had occasion to look for: an arti = cle on the English colliery. For week ol two could not find it and probably would never have run across it if hadn't happened to look one day under the heading of epi demics
 How few people, even if we'll paid, can d. thing just exactly as we would do it our selves.-Bill Nye in New York World.
 Will Try It Later.