Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-02-02
A MODEST FUNNY MAN.
HOW A HUMORlST CLIMBED TO
AN EMINENT PLACE.

AN EMINENT PLACE.
Country Boys Who Have Become Fa
nous in OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Busi
ness Men Who First Saw Daylight il
the Rural Districts-A Long List.
Whoever reads about funny man sus
poets fun in what he is reading, but no fun
is intended when l say that Nye is modest
He is almost painfully so. He is himself the
last person he ever talks about-the las,
whom he tries to push along 1t was in the
minds of most men present ON the evening
when he was introduced to the guild he has
himself distinguished, to regard him as in.
| teresting because he is an outsider come to
New York. Not only that, because he has
leaped from Wyoming territory over the
heads of so many of us here and into salary
of 5000 year. That is the broad fact
about his life. The lesser details are known
to few. Born in New England, he went west
while young, but, like the typical American,
| was not so much either an eastern or west
ern man, but that he could strongly identify
| himself with other sections, as he did with
| Asheville, n. c. He is lawyer, but discon-
nected newspaper work was his main
reliance until one day he ceased serious
writing, discovered his own humorous
vein, founded paper in Laramie City, Wv,
T., named it The Boomerang, after mule
that he owned, and saw it fail for lack of
subscribers while every newspaper office in
the country priced it and riddled it with
shears. Then he had an offer of the position
he now occupies, and his success excites re-
mark among his co-laborers because, as they
say, 'he Is a country boy who has climbed to
eminence over the shoulders of the New
Workers.
Was there ever such nonsense unpunisheda
The very men who have made this remark
to me are countrymen born and reared. In
that room, listening to Nye, there was only
one born New Yorker-himself curiosity in
the profession on that account In the little
circle that Nye Joined on that night are the
managing editors of six daily newspapers,
and not one of them is a New Yorker. There
were leader writers, critics, city editors and
reporters, and only one a New Yorker. Was
there ever such thing heard of? New York
is instructed, entertained, advised and in
formed by countrymen manning every one
of its newspapers.
And pray tell me ia what walk of life in
Gotham would Bill Nye be any more of an
exception to the rule than he is in Journal
sims Wall street, ruled by Gould, who came
with headful of hayseed grown up the
Hudson; or S. V. White, who is as country
looking today as the obelislz in the park. and
who halls from farm; or Cyrus W. Field,
OF the little hamlet Of Stockbridge, Mass.
Would Bill Nye have broken the rule had he
come here to practice law with Roscoe Conk-
ling, OF Utica, who was rank provincial in
dress, habits and manners when he started
anew at middle age in this city few years
ago, with Joseph Il. Choate, who was coun-
try boy with Elihu Root, who halls from the
Adirondack region, or William F. Howe,
the English immigrant, or ninety-nine in a
hundred other lawyers! Would Edgar Will
son Nye be rarity if he.had come here a
clergyman with North of Ireland John Hall,
Western DR.. Collyer, and all the others,
among whom only two that l know of are
city men! Here and there you will find in
the roll Of city doctors the born New York
son of a dead and gone New Yorker, inherit
ing the fathers business but the leading doc
tors and the mass of doctors are off the farms
the same, from our country horn mayor to
the last figurante in the last line of girls in
Rlce's Burlesque companys
Our best policeman, Alex Williams, is a
Nova Scotian; our pet and pride. Chauncey
Mitchell Depewra barefooted over the rocks
of Westchester as boy; our Harry Hill was
a country pumpkin in England once; our
Morosini, whom the boys irreverently call
fha !,
boy in Italy, and Russell Sage would not get
over being country" or swapping horses OF
wearing boots if he lived a thousand yes rs.
Erastus Wiman was born in Toronto, so that
he is not a countryman, but neither is he a
New Yorker. 1t is the same in the art world.
The only New York born artist that know
of is Charles J. Taylor, of Puck. In politics
there are several New Workers, though they |
form only a drop in the bucketful of country |
men who rule this town.
But to turn the subject and view it FROM |
the other side, let US see whether any New |
Workers occur to the mind as having a fame |
sufficient to rank them in importance with |
the country boys who are forever pouring
into town and shouldering every one before |
them and out of their ways Yes, there is |
Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Bergh and |
Berry Wall, the ex-monarch of dude
lom; and William Waldorf Astor,
and, l think, Judge Hilton, the heir of A. T.
Stewart, and James Gordon Bennett, Tony
Pastor, Pierre Lorillard and Edward Harri-
gan. Of those who were born here and are
luite famous in town there are many of the
heirs of old established business houses.
.mong which Mr.. Bennett and Mr.. Lorillard |
belong, as do the Appletons and Harpers;
)ut though their establishments are famous
lbroad in the land the individuals are mainly
unknown outside the city. If yor include
he Knickerbockers and other landed fami.
les of long established residence here YOU
viii add possibly 1900 men, women and chill
ren to the list, though not all the Knicker-
'ockers (by which is meant descendants of
he Dutch are city folks. Every one OF the
Janderbilts of the first, second and third
generations, dating forward from the old
was born a countryman and
armer's son.-Julian Ralph's New York
etter.
Scheme for SwindIing Farmers.