Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-05-20
ELI PERKINS on NYE.
ONE GREAT HUMORlST TALKS OF HIS
RELATIONS WITH ANOTHER.

How Bill Nye Started out-when He Tool
Up His Nom de Plume-English and
American Humor-Some Good storie,
About Liars and Others.
first met Edgar Wilson Nye 8 years
ago while passing through Laramie, Wy.
Mr.. Nye was then praotioing law and
making his first reputation rs humor.
ist through editorials and paragraphs in
his weekly Boomerang. These editorials
were irresistibly quaint. Every one was
reading his newspaper and every one
loved the genial writer. He never had
but one enemy, and that was the editor
Of the Democratic newspaper across the
way. This man saw nothing funny in
Nye. He wasted columns weekly call.
ing Nye, to his great amusement, AN
idiot and crack Drained rattlesnake
editor from Moosehead lake.
Bill Nye was then, as ever after
ward, delicate and retiring man.
When asked him why the rival editor
called him such names, he said:
"Well, he is Democratic editor and
has to be precise in his statements.
was born on Moosehead lake, in Maine,
and grew up among the Indians and
rattlesnakes of the west
"I see you are lawyer as we'll as an
editor" l said.
Eyes, practiced law about year,
but" he added, without changing a
muscle, nobody knew much about it
here. kept it very quiet. I have been
justice Of the peace in Laramie for six
years. "
Did you ever marry any one?'
"Oh, yes, I married my wife, and
after that used to marry others and
then try them for other offenses. -
Noticing that the humorist had very
white teeth, l remarked upon their reg
nlarity and whiteness and asked him
what kept them SO white.
"Oh, that's natural" he said. "All
teeth remain white if they are properly
taken care of. OF course I never drink
hot drinks, always brush my teeth every
morning and evening, avoid all acids,
and although am 80 years old my
teeth are as good as ever. "
"And this is all you do to keep your
teeth white?'' asked.
"Well, yes-that is, barring the fact
that I put them in glass of soft water
nights.
The attention Of the public was first
called to the humorist' s writings on ac-
count of his vigorous English. His Ian
guage was of the wild west order. For
example: The professor of rational psy-
ohology of Boulder college wrote to The
Boomerang and asked the editor the
question, "What is literature?"
"What is literature?" exclaimed Bill,
pointing half coptemptuously at the col
umns of The Boomerang. "What is
literature2 Cast your eye over these
logic imbued columns, you sun dried
savant from the remote precincts
Drink at the never failing Boomerang
springs of forgotten lore, you dropsical
wart of false and erroneous civiliza-
tion. Read our Address to Sitting
Bull' or our Ode to the Busted Snoot
of Shattered Venus de Milo, if you
want to fill up your thirsty soul with
high priced literature. Don't go around
hungering for literary pie while your
eyes are closed and your oapacious ears
are filled with bales of hay.
Years after Bret Harte's Truthful
James poem was written Edgar W. Nye
commenced signing his articles "Bill
Nye." Mr.. Nye always considered the
best joke ever perpetrated by an English
newspaper was when the London News
came out with serious editorial say
ing that "Bill Nye" was real char
acter. Then Mr.. Nye got out his scrap
book and read this serious editorial from
the London News:
II ever celebrity were attained unexpectedly,
most assuredly 1t was that thrust upon Bill
Nye by Truthful james. 1t is just possible,
however, that the innumerable readers OF Mr..
Bret Hartes "Heathen Chinee' may have i'm
agined Bill Nye and All Sin to be purely myth
ical personages. So far as the former Is con-
cerned any such conclusion now appears to
have been erroneous. Bill Nye Is no more
phantom than any other journalist, although
the name Of the organ which he runs savors
more of fiction than of fact. But there Is nc
doubt nDout tno mapter, LOT tne NtSnihb toh
correspondent of the New York Tribune tele'
graphed on tho Goth inst. that Bill Nye had ac
cepted post under tho government. He has
lately been domicilod In Laramie City, Wy,
and Is editor of The Daily Boomerang. In ref
erence to Acting Postmaster General Hatton' 1
appointment Of him as a postmaster at Lara
Inie City the opponent of All Sin writes an ex
tremely humorous letter, 'extending" his
thanks and advising his chief of his opinion
that his appointment is triumph of eterna
truth over error and wrong" Nye continues
SIT Is one of the epochs, I may say, in the ma
tion's onward march toward political purity
and perfection. don't know when have no
ticed any stride in the affairs Of state which
has SO thoroughly impressed me with its wis
DOM" In this quiet strain of banter Bill Ny'
continues to the end of his letter, which sug
gests the opinion that whatever the ofhcia
qualifications Of the new postmaster may be
the inhabitants of Laramie City must have {
very readable newspaper In The Daily Boom
erang.
On one occasion Mr.. Nye sent me the
following note, which gives true his
tory of his family:
DEAR ELI-You ask me how I came to adop
the nom de plume of Bill Nye, and can truth
fully reply that did not do so at all.
My first work was done on n territorial pa