The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-09-09
BILL NYE'S LETTER.
Nye Writes of the Relief Expedition
The Story Told by the Rear Guard
Tute1Uizer Would Haze Been Relieved If
He Hadn't Taken the 4 O'clock
Boat for H0me-THe Er
plorer8 Set Right Be-
fore the Public.

So many conflicting stories are now
ahoat regarding the conduct OF the rear
guard of the expedition which started out
last July for the relief of Emin Tutewller,
who was supposed to be somewhere IN
the jungles of interior Coney Island or
Far Rockaway, thatI make bold to write
this defense of myself and our party IN
order that history may, IS Emerson says,
give us a fair sh1w.
Early in June we received permission
from Mr.. Joseph Cook, of Boston, to ex-
plore the interior of COney Island If we
would give it back again and | began to
look about me for a suitable company of
men to assist me. My first selection con-
sisted of Mr. Owen. S.. Kinney, whose
middle initial sometimes adheres to his
| behindest name, but who is a loyal gen
| tleman whose clothes fit me. l w him
much which | cannot ever repay, but he
| agrees to let me off if | speak kindly of
him in my writings.
| was also so fortunate as to secure the
services of Eli H. Jaggs, professor of
horsemanship at the Central Park acad-
envy of Equestrianism; also the author
of Chow to Overcome the Riding
Habit cloth fifty cents, paper two bits.
He was secured partially because of his
political influence, and also because he is
a thorough connoisseur of spoopju.
He said he would 60 cheerfully. Be-
side these two / a'so invited MI. SawdOrf
Astor-PIaice, of Lennox. He is not
large, physically, but he has a brain which
is what might be called a teeming brain.
When he is thinking real earnestly, if
you go quite close to his brain you can
hear it purr. I never saw such a brainy
cuss as he is. His thou gifts sometimes
rumble ike a tell graph pole, he thinks so
hard. | selected him because I wanted a
bunch of picked men, and any one could
see that he was a picked man to just look
at him. He seemel somehow to have
been picked too soon. He took a banjo
with him
That also was picked. Before we had
fairly started he got everything about him
to harmonic by having his pockets
picked.
Ny next thought was to procure the
needful food supply for our long journey,
and obtain permission of my paper to
draw on it whenever | needed any money.
I also wrote an editorial regarding my
sagacity and things, leaving it to be
printed on the day of my departure.
now began to look about me for food
and whangwhang, jjnsang and colored
beads to be used for purposes of traffic.
My first purchase consisted of a small
hamper of Rockford cheese, which is an
anti-scorbutic and also insures absolute
isolation to the happy possessor. l fully
believe that the Rockford chesse-giving
it the Anglicized spelling, for | am always
kind to the Rockford and Limburger
cheeses, never laying a hand on eyether
of them otherwise than in kindness-I
say that the Rockford cheese, aside from
the Excelsior stencil works east of New
ark, has no living rival. Ard I would
also add that its dead rivals would do we'll
to look carefully after their ~laurels. So |
got a hamper Of this cheese with a little
damper in the top, which | could open
whenever I wanted a little solitude.
| ais procured some biltOng and a small
Mill to use in grinding mealie, against the
time when we should be beyond the
reach of Acker, Neral & Condit's deliv-
cry wagons. | took with me in my in
side pocket a small autograph album
which I purposed getting Emin Tutewiler
to write into as soon as we had relieved
him. | said little to my chief, who has
preceded me via Ocean Grove and Cape
May; but it was my idea while he was
thus leisurely scouting through the game
country and tracing the sources Of the
Passaic to quietly slip in ard relieve Emin
Tutewiler myself, thus compelling my
chief to play the rear guard act and give
me an opportunity by means of a stere-
opticon and lecture to a good business
with the Young Mems Christian Associe-
ton on my return.
Mr.. Aston Plaice said that he would
wise me to procure two OF three gu ! bear
ers who were familiar with the interior,
and who had become acclimated. I there
fore secured two gun bearers for my own
use named Sahib Williams and Congo
Briggs. | got them of Sir George Pull
man, who said he did not want them anv
more. One of them had lost a cake of
soap somewhere between Fort WAYNE
and Chicago, and although he had looked
very diligently over every inch of the
ground he could not find it so Sir George
had to bounce him for the example and
i n order to preserve the discipline. Congo
Briggs had thoughtlesSly shut up one of
the directors children In an upper berth
and forgotten about it till he got into
Forty-second street, where the parents
discovered that they were short one child.
Our start was suspicious. I had armed
myself with an elephant gun and an <
press rife, which, with my hat and oil
stove, were in the hands of my gun bear
ers. We carried with us a few macad-
amized biscuit and some impervious pie
ina shawl strap, in case we should not, find
any pie trees in bearing on our arrival in
the interior. We sailed on the 10th and
stopped at He'll Gate on the same day,
making this way out in order to head off
Emin Tutewiler, who I.had some fears
might, via Newport and the steamer PI-
grim, get home before the relief expe-
dition got to him.
The head of the expedition has stated
IN one of his magazine articles that we
fooled away too much time at Far Rock
away. and also took two-thirds of the