The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-31
WYE AND FIELD.
Gallixnnni'a Moaacnrcr.

humorist does not seem to be Accu- rately defined, Mir, E. D. Cowen, the European correspondent of the Chicago Daily NescS, whom rumor has accredited the finder of the Wyo- ming fNn-maker, was interviewed on the subject, yesterday, at tho Conti- mental, by GohsHdnf reporter,
 "I am entirely innocent of the charge" he said, 70. II. Rothacker was tho first journalist, l think, to whom Nye brought his Laramie wares. Rothacker was editor of the Denver Tribsme at the time. Nye wrotahim an exerimental letter on tho og-sapling plan,--tor Denver had as yet developed no taste for par agraphic hutloonery- and 1t acted so pleasantly that Rothaoker paid him five dollars for 1t, My impression is that that sum was the first money paid Nyc for newspaper work, His letters improved from week to week, and so his compensation, until at the close or his engagement with the T'FTbwne he was receiving fifteen dol lars week. These letters were the materials of his original book. Mean while he founded at Laramie City, the BoomesUMg, A scrawny frontier sheet, which, despite his talents and an auxiliary government position, he found less golden in reality than promise. From Laramie he went to Wisconsin, partly repaired A shattered constitution, took to lccturing in tho western town circuits, writing IT, regularly for syndicatcs,--- and hn- ally settled down again in active journalism In New York. So far as his discovery Is concerned, Nyc should bo granted credit for having discovered himself, but Rotacker Is entitled to whatever praise or distinction there may attach to the first professional encouragement of his talents"
 "ls 1t true that Nye antedates Eugene Fieldp"
 "No. Field was famed throughout the Missouri valley region as hu- he will live In literature aflcr Nyo Is dead and forgotten. Field Is not mere newspaper or rostrum phrase turner. He has been, without con scious effort, a humorist since boy hood. He Is the only one of the so- called American newspaper humor- ists whose early life Is traceahlc ns n sneccssion of unpublished humors. The Mississippi and Missouri valley towns arc filtered with his youthful productions, trick poems, humorous poems, stories, letters and satircs, every one of which k held by the possessor as a treasure. He had done Europe and established his reputation in St. Louis before Nye bobbcd up In Wyoming. After having risen to the managing editorship of the Kansas City Times, Field moved on with the westward star to Denver 10 accept n similar position on the Tribune. There he cclipsed Nyc completely. A banquet meeting of the two cclcbri- ties WAS at last arranged. The board was entirely tringed with newspaper men, all there to observe and compare notes. Nye was assigned the post of honor. For n while 1t looked ns though the affair would fzzle to miserable end. Whether from diiii- dencc, fright or incapacity, know not, Nye was painfully unequal to the occasion. At length Field shook of his defcrcnce, however, and revived the waning life of the party; not alone that, Field remained the genius of pleasure till sunrise. If Nye's bumor is native, it has but n single form of expression"
 "You don't consider him an all round humorist them"
 "I don't think in the right sense Nye Is a humorist at all. He is funny, yes. So Is Billy Swcatnam or Charley Thatcher. Nyc is Journalistic end man. There is no spontancity about him. An air of cold preparation per vades all his writing. never read after him that don't think of corked faces, rolling eyes, and ham, -fatting interrogatories. These make you laugh, true, but the reflection comes later that you have been applaudiDR nonsense. Take this for sample of Yves rcactive style in recent Wash ipgton letter: Mrs. Cleveland sat on my right. It WAS nothing more than right that she should Shade of Artemus Ward
 "Nye again depends largely on phrase juggling, by making the com monplace ridiculous with the cxtrav. agant misapplicatioD of words He writes, for example, he could congre- gate himself around light coDlati0D of mush and milk;''a large bluc- mass of regrets; get my plug hat groomed and jacked up ; and of Mrs. Cleveland 'she smiled audibIy in lace haDdker- chief that must have cost at least eighty nine cents. Perhaps these ex- pressions are funny to many people, but they don't identify their author