Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-23

pneumatic Individual who was writing
for the L.arimer Times, afterwards the
Boomerang. under the name of Bill Nye."
An acquaintance formed largely by play
ing practical jokes on each other. ripened
into an intimacy that was seriously in
terrupted only by death. One of these
pleasantries occurred just after the Utes'
outbreak, and had it's origin in some lines
sent to the Georgetown Miner by Nye
with the query whether it had better be
set to music or preserved in alcohol for
future generations. One verse read as
follows:
will you love mi when I'm old.
And my hair no longer curls?
Will l be your ownest own?
More SO thar the hired girls:"
Mr.. De We're published the doggerel. but
not until he had sent copies to their mu-
tual friends. and there appeared stimuli
t%aneously in all their papers not only
Nye's effusion but replies by each Of
them. One verse of Mr.. DE Vere's was
very r~eassuring:
will we love you when you're old?
You a bet your. new kid boots:
Why, we love you better now
Than Rose Meeker loves the Utes.''
1t should be explained for the informa-
ton of eastern readers that Rose Meeker
was known in the west as the personitica-
ton of hatred and hostility to the In
dams. who had massacred her father dur
ing the uprising. Nye retorted by VOW
ing vengeance, which he said he was able
to execute If they ever appeared in l.ari-
mer, as he was judge, jury and execu-
toner in that interesting town. A cold
ness subsequently grew up between Nye
and Vischer. all on account of the for
mer's propensity for joking. The two men
Travelled together as lecturers and made
a great success of it. But one day when
a young man wrote to Nye. asking his
advice about going west, he could not
resist the impulse to treat the matter hui
morously, SO he replied: Go west by all
means, but attend strictly to business
when you get there. l have a friend. who
is my partner. who has been there with
most unfortunate results. He has a large
nasal p~rotuberance. and he actually
made it red sticking 1t into other peoples
business, and thus got himself disliked."
or course this letter foun it's way into
the papers. and was seen by Vischer,
| and a rupture followed, resulting in a dis
| solution Of the partnership.
Nye wrote an apology, in which he
| made an alleged retfactiOn as follows:
| "In a letter of advice to a young man
about going west, | irreverently spoke of
the nose of my late partner, Colonel Wis.,
cher, as being red. The colonel being
sensitive, l don't like to say much about
it, but my statement was not just right.
, His nose is not red, but the color of an
Italian sunset
MRS. CASEY'S PUDDIN'.
MIR. De We're and Mr.. Field went to
Leadville together, where they took their
! meals in q "~restaurant' kept in a tent
by one Casey. Their unique experiences
have been chronicled in Tramp Poems
of the West" under the title of "Casey's
Table d'Hote.' Mrs. Casey was a strik-
ing character, who did the cooking for
! the establishment and her masterpiece In
! the culinary art was an alleged custard
pudding. which she would set in the mid
die OF the table, with a centerpiece OF
green sugar, which she called a floating
island, and which was her manner of
daily announcing her nationality.
Those We're the days when Field. as
Mr.. De We're expressed 1t, was down on
| his luck but his sunny spirit and merry
! good nature never deserted him. When
| leaving San Jose, as the result of spend
ing SIS a week on an income OF $12, he
/ found himself indebted to the landlord
OF the Long Ranch hotel $136 for board,
which he had no means of paying. This
! evidently did no trouble the landlord any
more than it did his guest, for he handed
Mr.. Field a receipted bill for the amount
as a parting gift. Without betraying the
slightest establishment, the latter casual
ly remarked that he was accustomed
to being treated when he paid a bill in
full. The hint was taken and the drinks
followed.
Another characteristic story told by
Mr.. De We're about Field relates to a
swell dinner he attended shortly before
his death. 1t was midwinter and the
host had set before each guest a large
plate of strawberries, a great luxury at
that season of the year. Field pushed
his plate aside, much to the establishment
| of his host, who asked, Are you not fond
of strawberries, Mr.. Field?'
~"Passionately," was the reply; "but
they destroy my appetite for stewed
prunes."
He knew what he had. got to come TO
the next morning." explains Mr.. De We're.
FIELDS LITTLE CHERRY.
A pretty story illustrative of Fields
love of children and their fondness for
him, is told by Mr.. De We're, and it has
] the additional interest that it relates to
the family of a Boston physician, DIR. C..
F. Nichols of the Hotel Pelham. His lit
tie daughter, whom he fOndly calls
Cherry" had become greatly attached
to Mr.. Field through reading his poems.
| While Mr.. De We're was calling upon her
father about three years ago the little
miss was expressing her admiration for
the poet and saying how h would love