The herald., 1896-03-01

younger among his admirers. The
humorist was born in 1850 at Shirley,
Me-, passing his youth and early man.
hood there, and imbibing from the
stern-principled New Englsnders a
measure of their character. The fam
lily moved to Wisconsin, and in that
state Nye studied diligently the law he
never practiced after he left the bench
Of justice Of the peace-an experience
in wild westernism that he merrily EN-.
balmed among his first writings. He
did not possess judicial mind. It re-
quired three attempts before he even
succeeded in gaining admission to the
bar. It was through the same judge
who finally admitted him that Nye was
induced to give up feeless existence
as attorney and undertake newspaper
work at salary of $50 per month. It
was during this period that Nye mar
ried Miss Fannie Smith, who ever
after, till the day Of his death, was his
comrade and counselor.
1t was when Nye became editor of
the Laramie, Wyo., Boomerang that his
fame began to spread. He represented
something new in journalism. His
matter was reprinted fully in the east
as characteristic of the wild west, but
it was not characteristic of anything
but the writer. He constituted 8
school in the art Of combining keen
and sparkling wit with a story 80 ut
terly ludicrous that nobody cared
whether there was anything more than
laughter in it; of that there was plenty.
Soon Wyoming was too contracted q
field, and Nye went east, and from
there has written the hundreds of Sun
day letters which are 80 familiar and
which will be sadly missed.
Nye also went on lecture tours, but
not with overwhelming gratifying re-
suits. He was q better writer than
talker. Many went to see him, rather
than to hear what he had to say. They
wanted to gaze upon the original of the
caricatures that had beamed from the
printed page with 80 many different
expressions. They wanted to know if
the genial Nye was as tall and thin as
he proclaimed himself, and If his head
cleaned as bare and shiny as the artist
had given them to understand. They
found Nye a soft-spoken man with
keen, good-humored eyes. They saw
his face, not handsome, but marked by
intelligence and benevolence, and they
! went away liking Nye the man as we'll
as they liked Nye the writer.
Those who gained his personal
friendship gained much, and there are
today in every state of the union, men
and women who feel an impulse to give
to Nye the tribute of a tear and say:
"He was my friend"
Such was this quiet man, Who, while
he lay on bed of pain, wrote that
which made others laugh with happi.
| ness; who gibed merrily at misfortune
and, grasping a pen, made jests while
adversely was knocking at the door
Nye was honest to the core. He wrote
| play that was a failure. He did moi
try to disguise the truth. He said il
was failure and laughed at its veal
points as heartily as any one. So vel
known is his work that there hardly
seems necessity for quoting any of it
/ Here and there his philosophy hal
crystallized into a sentence that viii
| live. "Life is q very serious thing ts
an ass" he said once. That will not b,
| forgotten. When he resigned the post
mastership at Laramie be wrote to tn,
department letter that is preserved
in the archives as the solitary classic
there. He told the postmaster tha
everything was in good order, the Ike,
to the front door to be found undel
the mat, and the unsold stamps in tn,
soap dish.
Somewhat similar in tone was his &C
count of his experiences as justice o
the peace. Much of his fugitive worl
has been collected snd published il
book form. His most pretentious vol
ume is q "History of the United
States" work in which patriotism il
apparent, although it CLEANS through
such an array of exaggeration of fanc,
as would smother it were it's qualit,
less strong. This history Nye regarded
as the most worthy product Of hi
years of application.
This genius among merry-makers /
dead. His deft touch upon affairs vii
long be missed. His death will be fel