Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-01-08
BARBER COUNTY INDEX.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8, 1890.
Bill Tells the Story Of His Life In HI
Own InimItable Way.


Bill Tells the Story Of His Life In His
Own Inimitable Way.
Bill Nye was recently approached for
. sketch of his career. Unwilling to
trust to the tender mercies of a bio
grapher for faithful presentation Of
his noble deeds, the king Of humorists
issues the following autobiography:
Edgar Wilson Nye was born in Maine
in 1850, August 25, but at two years of
age he took his parents by the hand and,
telling them that Piscataquis County
was no place for them, he boldly struck
out for St. Croix County, Wis, where the
hardy young pioneer soon made home
for his parents. The first year he drove
the Indians out of the st. Croix valley,
and suggested to the Northwestern rail-
road that it would be a good idea to
build to St Paul as soon as the COM
pany could get grant which would pay
them two or three times the cost Of con-
struction. The following year he
adopted trousers, and made S175 from
the sale OF wolf scalps. He also cleared
twenty-seven acres of land and raised
some watermelons. In 1854 he estab-
lished and endowed district school in
Pleasant Valley. 1t was at this time
that he began to turn his attention to
the abolition of slavery in the South and
to write articles for the press signed
'Veritas,' in which he advocated the
war of 1850 or as soon as the Govern
ment could get around to 1t.
''In 1855 he graduated from the farm
and began the study of the law. He
did not advance very rapidly in this
profession, failing several times in his
examination and giving bonds for his
appearance at the next term Of court
He was, however, a close student of
political economy, and studied personal
economy at the same time till he found
he could live on ten cents a day and his
relatives easily.
"Mr. Nye now began to look for new
country to build up and foster, and, as
Wisconsin had grown to be so thickly
settled in the northwestern part Of the
State, that neighbors were frequently
found as near as five miles apart,
he broke loose from all restraint and
took emigrant rates for Cheyenne, Wy.
7. Here he engaged board at the Inter-
ocean Hotel, and began to look about
him for a position in a bank. Not sue
ceeding in this, he tried the law and
journalism. He did not succeed in get
ting a job for some time, but finally
hired as associate editor and janitor of
the Laramie Sentinel. The salary was
small, but his latitude great, and he
was permitted to write any thing that
he thought would please people,
whether it was news or not
"By and by he had won every heart
by his gentle, patient poverty and his
delightful parsimony with regard to
facts. With hectic imagination and
an order on a restaurant, which ad-
vertised in the paper, he scarcely cared
through the livelong day whether
school kept or not.
THUS he rose to Justice of the peace,
and finally to an income which is re-
ported very large to every body but the
assessor.
"He is the father OF several very beau
tiful children by his first wife, who is
still living. She is a Chicago girl, and
loves her husband far more than he de-
serves. He is pleasant to the outside
world, but q perfect brute in his home.
He early learned that in order to win
the love of his wife he should be cratic
and kick the stove over on the children
when he came home. He therefore as
serts himself in this way, and the fam
lily love and respect him, being awed by
his greatness and gentle barbarism.
"He eats plain food with both hands,
conversing all the time pleasantly with
any one who may be visiting at the
house. II his children do not behave
he kicks them from beneath the table
till they roar with pain, as he chats on
with the guests with bright and ever
flowing stream of bon mots which please
and delight those who visit him to that
degree that they almost forget that they
have had hardly any thing to eat.
SIN conclusion, Mr.. Nye is in every
respect lovely character. He feared
that injustice might be done him, how
ever, in this biographical sketch, and 80
he has written it himself"