The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-03-14
Eli PERKINS ON BILL NYE
The Boss Liar. Of the Century
Writes Pretty Things
About the Dead.
Nye Practiced Law But Nobody
Knew rluch About 1t as
He Kept 1t Quiet.
How He Came to Adopt the Name
of "Bili," Name He
Never Liked.

I first met Edgar Wilson Nye fifteen
years ago while passing through Laramie
! Wyo. Mr.. Nye was then practiclng Law
and making his first reputation as a hui
morisr through editorials and paragraph:
in the weekly Boomerang, says Nell
Vile D. Landon, better known as Eli Per-
kins, in the New York Sun. These edi
torials were irresistibly quaint. Ever!
one was reading his newspaper, ane
4 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 week
ly calling Nye. to his great amusement
"an idiot and a crack-brained rattlesnake
editor from Moosehead Lake.
Bill Nye was then, as ever afterward
| a delicate and retiring man. When
asked him why the rival editor called
him such names he said:
| "Well, he is a Democratic editor and
has to be precise in his statements.
was born on Moosehead Lake, in Maine
and grew up among the Indians and rat
tlesnakes of the West.''
81 see you are a lawyer as we'll as an
! editor / said
| eyes, / practiced law about year
but" he added, without changing mus
Gle, nobody knew much about it here
1 kept it very quiet. have been JUS
tice in Laramie for six years.
| "Did you ever marry any one?"
20, yes, / 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, remarked upon the regular
ity and whiteness and asked him what
kept them so white. & -
| co. that's NATURAL he said. f'All teeth
remain white=if they are properly taken
care of. OF course J. never drink hot
drinks, always brush my teeth every
morning and evening avoid all acids, and
although I am 35 years old, my teeth are
good as ever.''
| 'And this is all you do to keep your
\ teeth white?',I asked.
| 'tWell, yes-that u.s. barring the fact
| that put them in glass of soft water
| nights
ENGLIsH THAT ATTRACTED ATTEN-
TION.
! 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
Psychology of Boulder College wrote to
! to the Boomerang and asked the editor
the question, What is literature?"
:tWhat is literature!' exclaimed Bill,
pointing half contemptuously at the col
| unlns of the Boomerang. What is litera-
ture? Cast your eye over these logic
! imbued columns, you sun-dried savant
| from the remote precincts. Drink at the
never-failing Boomerang springs of for
gotten lore, you dropsical wart of false
and erroneous civilization. Read our Adj
| dress 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 capa-
cious 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 saying
| that sBill Nye' was a. real character.
Then Mr.. Nye got out his scrap book and
read this serious editorial from the Lon
don News: =,
"If ever celebrity were attained uiex-
! pectedly, most assuredly it was that
thrust upon Bill Nye by Truthful James.
1t is Just possible however, that the m
| Vulnerable readers OF Mr.. Bret Harte's S
| .Heathen Chinee' may have maaigned Bill
Nye and All Sin to be purely mythical per-
sonages. So far as the former is con-
cerred any such conclusion now appears
| to have been erroneous. Bill Nye is no
more a phantom than any other Journalist,
although the name of the organ which he
| runs savors more CT fiction than OF fact.
But there is no doubt about tine matter,
| for the Washington correspondent OF the
| New York Tribune telegraphed on the
29th inst. that !, Bill Nye had accepted a
post under the government. He has late
| ly been domiciled in Laramie City, Wyo.,
and is editor of the Daily Boomerang. IL
reference 10 AEtlLS IOStAIaoISA 4 ~SIoiAe4 ei
Hatton's appointment OF him as a post
master at Laramie City the opponent Of
Ah Sin writes an extremely humorous let
tier, extending his thanks, and advising
his chief of his opinion that his appoint
1nent is a triumph Of eternal truth oyer
error and wrong Nye continues: 1t
is one of the epochs, may say, in the
| Nations onward march toward political
purity and perfection. don t know
when have noticed any stride n the af-
fairs Of state which has SO thoroughly inl-
pressed me with its wisdom. In this
quiet strain OF banter Bill Nye continues
to the end Of his letter, which suggests
the opinion that whatever. the official
dual alifications Of the new postmaster may
be. the inha b:tants Of Laramie City must
have a very readable newspaper sin the
Daily Boomerang. US
During the preparation Of my book
ssKings of Platf and Pulp s.. s.. a1r ..sSye
lsent me a copy OF his letters, hish ap-
Ipear IN the book VII eghIy otiera lsct-
Ilres by Artemdss Ward, Eugene sFfe1d,
Mark Twain Nasby, Burdette Josh Bib IS
ings, etc .8g1 s ss 81
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