The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-11

thing is lovely. Orchestra plays some.
thing touchful. Curtain comes down.
Keno. In hoe usufruct nux vomica est.
BILL NYE AND BOOMERANG.
AT an alleged meeting Of miners at
the New Jerusalem mine in 1880 Bill
Nye delivered speech from which the
following is taken:
located claim called the Boomer
ang. I named it after my favorite mule.
I call my mule Boomerang because he
has such an eccentric orbit, and no one
can tell just when he will clash with
some other heavenly body.
He has sigh like the long drawn
breath of fog horn. He likes to come
to my tent in the morning about day
light and sigh in my ear before am
awake. He is highly amusing little
cuss, and it tickles him good deal to
pour about 1875 gallons Of his melody
into my ear while I am dreaming,
sweetly dreaming. He enjoys my look of
pleasant surprise when I wake up.
He would cheerfully pour more than
1872 gallons of sigh into my ear but
that is all my ear will hold. There is
nothing small about Boomerang. He is
generous to fault and lavishes his low,
sad, tremulous wall on every one who
has time to listen to it.
Those who have never been Weakened
from sweet, sweet dream by the low,
sad wall OF narrow gauge mule, so close
to the ear that the warm breath of the
songster can be felt ON the cheek, do not
know what it is to be loved by pa
tient faithful dr,mb oD;,,,,1
The first time he rendered this yolun.
tary for my benefit rose ill my wrath
and some other clothes and went out
and shot him. l discharged every cham
Der Of my revolver into his carcass and
went back to bed to wait till it got
lighter. In couple of hours arose and
went out to bury Boomerang. The re-
mains were off about 30 yards eating
bunch grass. In the gloom and uncer-
tainty of night had shot six shots iu-
to an old windlass near deserted shaft
Boomerang and I get along first rate
together. When am lonesome, 1 shoot
Mt him, and when he is lonesome he
comes up and lays his head across my
shoulder and looks ut me with great
soulful eyes and sings to mo.
On our way in from the mines we
saw one of those beautiful sights so
common in this high altitude and clear
atmosphere. 1t was q mirage
In the party were lawyer, n United
States official, banker and myself. The
other three members of the quartet
aside from myself are very modest men
and do not wish to have their names
mentioned. They were very particular
about it and / have respected their
wishes. Whatever Messrs. Blake, Snow
or Ivinson ask me to do will always do
cheerfully.
But we were speaking about the mi
rage. Across to the northeast our attcn-
ton was at first attracted by rank of
gray towers growing taller and taller
till their heads were lifted into the sky
above, while at their feet there soon ap-
peared u CLASSY lake, in which was re-
hected the outlines of the massive gray
walls above. 1t was q beautiful sight
The picture was as still and lovely to
look upon as a schoolma am. We all
went into raptures. 1t looked like some
beautiful scene in Palestine. At least
Snow said so, and he has read book
about Palestine and ought to know.
There was a silence in the air which
seemed to Indicate the deserted sepulcher
of other days, and the grim ruins tow
ering above the depths of clear waters
ON whose surface was mirrored the Wis
age of the rocks and towers on their
banks. all spoke of repose and decay and
the silent, stately tread Of relentless
years.
By and by. from out the gray back
ground of the picture, there stole the
wild, tremulous, heart broken wall of
mule.
1t seemed to jar upon the surround
ings and clash harshly against our sensi-
tive natures. Some one of the party
swore little. Then another one came
to the front and took the Job off his
hands. We all joined, in gentlemanly
kind Of way, in condemning the mule
for his lack of tact, to say the least.
All at once the line of magnificent
ruins shortened and became reduced in
height They changed their positions
and moved off to the left, and our dream
had melted into the matter Of fact scene
OF 20 Immigrant wagons drawn by rat
tail mules and driven by long haired
Mormons, with the dirt and bacon rinds
of prehistoric times adhering to them
everywhere.
What vale of tears this is anyway
we are only marching toward the
tomb, after all Wo should learn q val
liable lesson from this and never tell
lie.