The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-06
ice. He is in what is exclusively his

monplace. He is in what is exclusively his
own domain. IL he ventured bevoHd its
boundaries he would PROT ably lose himself
IL Is plain sailing for Bill Nye, but full of
pitfalls for everybody else. 1t is a
pleasant to be with him on his journeys az
1t Is TO have any guide who not only
thoroughly knows his way but revels in all
ITS charms. The springs of his fancy flow
smoothly with only ripple here and there
till they break into sparkling
| cascade. They neither roar like
waterspout nor surge like a falling
waters; cool, sparkling and refreshing
Those who look carefully for undercur-
| rents can detect them. The humorist's name
is usually identified with nothing but hu-
NOR, almost invariably broad and grotesque
and sometimes a trlfie coarse. This con-
ception of Nye, however. is far from de-
lining and determining his real limits Tho
| measure must be stretched a little; it is too
circumscribed for the man. Batween the lines
are touches Of the subtleSt satire; touches
that are neither heavy, clumsy nor acci-
dental In his own inimitabe sario-comic
fashion he described the preparati n he had
| made for lnsurl e himself IA serenade On his
return from Europe. He had, he goes on
to say, hired a tug, a band and glee club,
and prepared what he calls a neat little adj
dress. lie hoped the proposed ovation
captain of the steamer in the matter of
landing. OF course the ovation falls
through. The tug is carting garbage out to
sea when he arrives and the climax comes
in fer this description:
when got home from Staten island.
feeling that l had been away Q hundred
years and thinking that | would hardly be
remembered even by my own family,
found that nobody knew had been away.
| ft-St hnx
world squeeSes along so well when great
man Dies
In the article from which this IL taken
there is not a sentence which is remarka bic
for beauty OF construction, but pompous
orations with infinitely less philosophy In
them are delivered by the score. There is
such thing as being beguiled by the art
less simplicity which frolics on the surface
OF the story. The wary will find in it,
however, whole culver full OF arrows for
fuss and feathers and bombast, and the
discriminating will discover texts for half a
dozsn moralizers The arrows might be
tipped with poison but for the fact that
Nye selects no outside victims. He is his
own target. 1t is the triumph of his art
that he directs every shaft against himself.
No matter how destructive the
shot shot may be-, it buries itself in
Bill Nye This completely dis
arms the reader. No one can be suspicious
of man whose purpose seems to be to take
up arms against his own idiosyncrasies;
whose crusade is always against himself, and
who makes his own devoted head the OBJ
jective point of ridicule. 1t is pleasant
enough to float quietly down stream with
Mr.. Nye; to suspect the existence of no
under currents and to take him at purely
superfc al estimate. Those who have time
to read only as they run will find them
selves amused if they are content with that.
Universal popularity, howevef, has deeper
foundations. Grimaces, laugnable though
they be, do not command it. They become
tiresonle when they stand alone. To say
that there is nothing more in Nye than the
ability to provoke a smile is to try and
touch the ten-fathom bottom Of pond with
two-fathom line. He trains his guns at a
hundred follies and rarely do his targets
get out of range. The atmosphere he
breathes is always clear and healthy-no
noxious vapors agree with him. He is
rendered all the more natural by his very
affectations They are so effectively
disclosed as never to be deceptive, and
they give him latitude that would
be possible under no other cloak. It is not
necessary to be fulsome about such man.
General terms were coined to fit general
cases. Where this is no specific quality we
may be pardoned for resorting 60 compli
| mentary generalities. They mean little as
a rule, and as rule, they apply to Just as
| little. Mr.. Nye would thank me not at all
for shower of fowery adjectives They
fall trippingly from the lips when nothing
tangible will serve the purpose. l know
Mr.. Nye fairly well. He came to the sur
| face through the intervention of no acct
dent If an accident had thrust him for
ward he would have dropped out Of sight
as hurriedly as he was released by obscurity.
He has such qualities of head and mind and
heart as are admired by men and women
of healthy instincts, and his influence is for
| tine right. Not many writers WELD so for
midable a weapon but it leaves no ugly
scars behind, and the wound it
makes, If it makes one at
all, taps nothing but impurities. There is
some consolation in the thought that in this
case at least signal success has not out
stripped deserts. GEORGE F. DoBsoN.