The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-05

means OF DFlnSlnS tne house 10 It's Ieet.
of physical ability to I'LL large hall with
his voice and he strained every nerve to
meet it. Any extraordinary commotion
In the hall discomposed him and he would
wait until 1t subsided. 1t was not
pleasant thing for him to hear a voice
from the back of the hall calling loud
err Upon such occasions he mad habit
by elevating his voice, looking puzzled
| and asking what that remark was he had
| just heard. ! remember one occasion in
particular when We had ,remarkabiy
| large hall. crowded to the walls. The en-
| trance was at the further end of the hall,
opposite the platform. Mr.. Nye. as usual,
opened the evening, very fearful OF his
ability to reach the whole throng. He
| opened and great fellow about six feet
and two inches tall entered with two Ia
dies and Immediately fell into an alterca-
| ton with an usher about his seats. Nye
paused and the alteration could be heard
! all over the house, with this fellow ar
| raigning the usher in n very loud voice.
Finally II died down bit ana Nyc re-
| sumed. but he was interrupted by the
| man. who held uD his hand and cried.
| Hold ON, there, | have paid for seats for
this lecture and propose to hear all of
it. Nye replied with great composure:
In view of the great size of the hall
said he, i was about to congratulate the
audience upon the foresight of the man
ayers In securing speaker for each end
| The house howled with delight and the
applause beat back upon the Obstreperous
interrupter with such force that II drove
him from the hall After this episode Nye
| was always Il great favorite in that city
| and was recalled there many times.
"Mr. Nye was a fatalist-nOt q COM
| planning one, but fatalist no less, and
with considerable occasion. He was pur-
sued by a spirit of the perverse. uneN-
| pected, trying things Were always hap
pening that seemed especially i'm line to
I test his patience. Indeed. was sometimes
| jealous of him, for these things seemed to
| occur with greater force and persistence
to him than to me. | had frequently re-
| marked upon the persistent recurrence of
| the number thirteen with me during one of
our trips in the South. but this was one
| superstition at which Nye scoffed. He
told me that at the next hotel we struck
| If objeced to being 'incarcerated' in No.
| IL he would risk it once. And not long
afterward ! found myself registered for
Informed Mr.. Nye that should hold him
| to his promise. | remembered | had n
| handful of mail ! was very anxious to
see, but l would not open It until | had
ed to first size up the room he had been
| assigned to. and went on down the hall
with the landlord. He soon returned
with the remark that he could not lose
| much and walked into the thirteen room
and set his grip down, returning to where
| | waited in the hall outside. He had not
| more than got out of the door when the
heavy transom fell with crash. He was
convinced that that transOm had been
waiting for him for years.
| 'Mr. Nye was an invalid. but again,
| as it would seem, it was the perversity
of'fate that made the public unwilling to
| believe that hnmorst could ever be vi
| or have any reasonable excuse for break
| ing an engagement. He never got the
| benefit of the excuses made for others
when they failed to appear or to write
| according to expectation. One awful win
| ter he was compelled to quit work In the
| middle of the season here and go South for
I his health and to escape the rigors of
this climate. That was the winter that
quit right in the middle of its business
| here and struck for the South, where they
| had the coolest weather they had ever
| known prior to Mr.. Nyes advent. And
| there. though he was nearly dead, his syn
| dicate letters had to go on just the same
and In fancy can see that heroic, almost
dying man on the fiat of his back. writing
| laboriously upon a scratch-pad with the
wind blowing the rag carpet on the floor
up in billows. He suffered all the hard
| ship of rigorous winter In summer quar-
ters. And while he was III word reached
him of the sudden death of his father in
| Wisconsin. so far away that even 1t he
| had been able to make the journey it
would have been physical impossibility
| for him to have reached his fathers
house before the burial. 1t was a PEE
culiarly hard blow to him. for they had
been friends and chiims. as we'll as
| father and son. Yet by the time the news
reached him his father had been buried.
'To the last this DerverSe fate denied
| to him and his wife that one pleasure
that married couples usually enjoy If they
| have nothing else-a wedding journey He
was very poor to begin with. but of a
| sanguine temperame and at the time
of his marriage gOod-naturedly informed
| his bride fully of his circumstances. She.
| a brave woman and worthy partner. prob
ably fOresaw the force of the man and his
coming recognition in time: at any rate
she had great faith In him, and very
cheerfully accepted the situation. Their
| wedding journey. denied them in the be-
ginning by their poverty, was deferred
from one cause and another for years, so
long that they came to refer to it as to he
child when the two couples could take
the journey together. But Nye was yet
an invalid. and one year when Calitornia
had been prescribed for him, we had made
line of engagements toward the Pacific
slope after the regular season. 1T had
been arranged that Mrs Nye was to meet
us in Kansas City and the trip from there
to the coast to be the long-deferreu we'd
ding journey. He had built great hopes
upon this prospect. and IN the pleasure
of anticipation had devised dozen little
schemes for the surprise and entertain-
ment of his wife. who had already left
their home, on Staten island. TO join us.
She had left their four children in care OF
her niece, a very worthy young woman.
and was somewhere on her way to Kan
sas City when we arrived there Nye had
expected to find her there. but instead he
was confronted with telegram from his