St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-08-05
BILL NYF.


try. There were too many lawyers in
Wyoming in those days. nearly every
man being his own lawyer. A young
AND ASPIRING
attorney wouldn't much more than get
client into his office and commence
telling him all about the merits of his
case before great mob of every-man-
his-own-lawyers would come in with
masks on, take the client and the law
into their own hands, suspend the client
and the case and leave the young and
aspiring attorney feeless.
Such things made it necessary for
Nye to do something else, or to live on
air, and the air in that region is too thin
and rarefied for constant diet for a
healthy man, and Nye was healthy
then. So Nye went to work as city
editor on the Sentinel bluff at a news
paper which was printed in Laramie
those days, by a man named Hayford,
who was sometimes called "Doc," and
sometimes Deacon" Nye thinks the
boys called him Deacon because he was
so wicked. He adds, however, that
1.-The Deacon was generous to fault,
especially his own faults"
To be city editor of the Sentinel
meant to be the entire staff. with the
additional duty of working the hand
press and carrying route. All of which
Nye did at the princely salary of SIP
per week. He was also required to
look out, to some extent, for the
BOSS BABIES,
in the requirement of which class of
livestock Deacon Hayfield was a sue
cess. He was the founder of quite a
tribe.
Among these multifarious duties Nye
was getting along quite well until, ac-
n Cfafn In l.
came involved in red-hot political cam
paign just at time when the measles
broke out among the children. Being
thus forced to draw the line at measles,
he severed his connection with the
newspaper and nursery, and was elect
ed justice of the peace, and was also,
from time to time, appointed notary
public, United States commissioner,
superintendent of schools, postmaster,
member of the city council, and did
something in the way of practicing law,
meantime.
In those days there lived in Laramie
man named Bill Root, who was Nye's
bosom friend. He was natural born
humorist. but not writer, and he
coached Nye into humorous writing.
He would say to Nye: II think you
would make a big success as a funny
writer, but you are about the worst start
for lawyer that l ever saw" This
made Mrs. Nye quite angry. The young
wife was ambitious for her husband to
become great lawyer, and she had
never so much as dreamed of the brill
liant career which Nye has since had as
a humorist, and now, with an annual
income which is greater than the earn
ings of all the lawyers in Laramie, the
salaries of the judges thrown in.
The result of Roots opportunities
was that Nye organized stock COM
pany and started a daily newspaper
called the Boomerang, which eventual
ted with all that the name implies.
After working so hard at the Boom
erang for two or three years that he be-
came
UTTERLY FRUSTRATED
by cerebrO-spinal-men he left
Laramie, broken in health and purse,
and went to Greedy, Col. lesser alti-
tude, to recruit the former. During his
stay. at Greeiy he visited at Denver, this
writer, whose only claim to greatness is
being as homely as Nye. One day.
while we were discussing ways and
| means for saving the earth and kindred