River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-04-23
A Tribute to Bill Nye.

j. *. Hinckley, editor of the Her
ald-Adyertiser of Sparta. this state.
who conducted the Military Academy
in this city during the early seventies,
pays the following tribute to his for
mer student:
In the year 1869 as principal of the
ST. Croix Collegiate Institute at River
! Falls, Wis, afterwards known as the
st. CroiX Military Academy and re-
| located at Hudson, it became a pleas
ure to know and become a teacher of
| Edgar w. and Franklin NJ. Nye. both
of whom afterward attained to more
| than passing fame, especially the
latter. They were sturdy farm boys
who knew the value of good physique
| and who early sought TO crown the
same with "A we'll cultured mind. In
| intellect, though both were above the
| average, the latter was somewhat in
| the lead. He was the smaller of the
| two, was more firmly knit together
| and had the appearance of more physi-
cal endurance than his tall, loose
| jointed, angular brother, Edgar. Both
had, if memory serves us correctly,
been district school teachers. hence
were in the academy to take the
higher studies in mathematics, sci
ence and kindred branches. They
were hard, incesSant workers, were
great fayorites with their CO students,
and drew many encomiumS from the
different members of the corps of
teachers, especially from Prof. Martin
L. Cady, vice-principal and now pre-
siding elder in a M. 4. Conference in
Illinois, and Prof Henry S. Baker.
teacher in science and now and for
many years principal of one of st.
Paufs high schools. Both of these
were graduates of Middlebury College,
VT. With the further remark that
Franklin M. Nye served in the legis-
lature of Wisconsin creditably, after
ward left this state for Minneapolis TO
practice his profession, the law, where
as county attorney he prosecuted the
case of Harry Hayward to a convic-
ton, we leave him to take up the
train of Renaissance of "Bill Nye's"
youth and school days.
The school was under military disci-
pline with Major William Kent as the
drillmaster, but of all the sixty odd
boys in the ranks of the company we
are sure that ''Bill Nyep took the least
interest Of any in the drill. This may
have arisen from his natural awkward
ness of person and the necessity of
heading the ranks, as, if our memory
serves us correctly, he and Nils Z.
Haugen, eX-congreSSman, were the
tallest pupils in the school. He, at
least in those days, would be perenni-
ally in the awkward squad, not from
inability and dullness, however, but
through natures own handiwork. If
he was then, at that age, a striking
figure, with light blue eyes, light COM
plexion, very light hair, already prone
TO badness, how much more so must
he have become later in life. The
thought has come to us often since his
death that this great humorist has
left an imprint in his many attitudes
in the newspapers that will be Is i'm
perishable as his most facetious writ
ings. Only second is he in this regard
to the enduring caricature of Uncle
Sam. There was no irksomeness to
him about the daily regulations of
dress parade, seventeen roll calls,
forming in line for classes and to
meals, getting passes for stroll
about town, and the dozen and one
restraints in personal convenience
and liberty, but the drill was not to
his liking. He enjoyed the deploy,
the maneuvers of the others and was
in harmony in general way with the
belief in all its benefits; but as we
have already said in a dispatch to the
Times Herald Edgar w. Nye was
not student in the school for other
than the hard, abstruse studies a high
intelligence alone gives zest to-"
In those days EDGAR w. Nye may
have been called not inaptly, dream
er. His was temperament peculiar
to itself, and while not particularly
,,;uar 70 NIT nd ratxvinn I1pfn him Salf
seeking SeclusiOn, yet he would at
times seem lost to everything going
on about him, rousing and rallying
instantly. however, when spoken to.
Were these contemplative moods the
buildings of the after humor that so
characterized the man few years
later? Harmonious incongruity OF
thought and statement, IL the strange
term is allowable, is essential To such
writings as Nye has given to the
world; and, possibly, the mental pro-
ceSses of the brain are the same that
have given us the sweet words of a
Wordsworth and the pompOus nomen-
clature of GibLin. Nye was early
a philosopher, not of such as scans the
heavens or delVes in the bowels of the
earth for hidden theories, but one
ready to grapple with every circum-
stance and occurrence about him and
in lucid, humorous vein present it TO
the world as a happily garnished
truth, with a moral too apparent to
be overlooked even by the simplest
mind. This was a gift inherent in
him alone, and one which nature may
not again give to the world through
another for several generations to
come. That he had no conception at
that time of The rich and unique
heritage he bore about him is shown
by many trivial circumstances that we
can readily recall. 1t became quite a
habit of his to seek out study at odd
times and drop into conversation
about his future, and while his mind
turned most frequently TO the law, IL
was no surprise to us when we learned
later that he had signally failed in this.
His was not the mind for that pro-
fesSion, nor was he in any sense
calculated for the forensic arena.
He was as child in those converse
tions, and in fact as we view ii and
have kept him in mind since that time
In many respects he remained to his
death as child, in, perhaps, new
definition of the term. There was the
same large heartedness, the same adj
mirable simplicity of manner, and the
anu ItfC
of the public changed not his inward
being. This accounts for the great
kindness of the man within his own
household. 1t was through this same
characteristic that Nye might be
swayed from his purposes, even into
little irregularities.
The biographer who writes life of
Edgar w. Nye successfully, delving
over his richest veins of phil0sophic
humor and studying to portray them
in their innermost light, will give to
future generations most valuable
prototype of American manhood.
May we not hope that some one will
do this, and compensate somewhat
for the loss by his early death.
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