Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
3 I l. l. n 7 Z
By
Marshall p Wilder

IN one respect entertainers closely re-
semble preachers: they greatly enjoy
listening to the greater members of their
own profession.
Consequently | never lost chance to
listen to Bill Nye, and l worship the
memory of him as he was: gentle yet
sturdy and persistent humorist of so
good a sort that he never could help
being humorous, no matter how uncon-
genial the surroundings Although he
saw hundreds and thousands of chances
of hitting other men so hard that the
hurt would last forever, he dropped
everyone of them and trampled them SO
hard that they never dared show their
faces again. He was an apostle of the
Golden Rule, which he exempliled in
himself, SO there never was sting in
his Jokes Gentle raillery was the sweet
est thing he ever attempted, and even
this he did with so genial smile and so
merry an eye that word of his friendly
chatting was worth more than a CARLOAD
of formal praise.
| speak of what l know, for he and l
were close friends for many years before
his untimely death, and he was SO solicit
tous for my welfare and comfort that,
as often he had played father and mother
to me successfully, he couldn't help
going on till he had become my grand
father and grandmother, as well as a
number of sisters and cousins and aunts
| don't believe he ever had an enemy
but himself, and he injured himself only
by his peculiarities of self-description
Anyone reading his humorous articles
would imagine him an understood,
scrawny, backwoods invalid, with an
irritable disposition and an unquenchable
thirst for something stronger than water.
In reality he was a tall, broad shou1dered
deep-chested, healthy, genial chap, SO in
love with the mere fact of living that he
took scrupulous care of himself in every
way. He was as abstemious as any
clergyman who is not a total abstainer
and he never lost his temper except
when some deliberate scoundrelism was
inflicted upon him. He would go out of
his way-a whole days journey out of
the way, with all the railway fares and
discomforts-to help a friend out of
sick-bed or other trouble, and he en-
QulGd dill IlIc IOlIllcllIo Vi d DuSN elllGI-
tainers season on the road as cheerfully
as if he was the perpetual holder of the
record for patience.
People often wondered how he could
go on year after year digging the same
kind of fun out of the same old vein; but
the secret was that he lived right in the
center of that vein and merely was dig
ging his way out of it. He had a full
assortment of polite commonplace, and
carried them as gracefully as he did his
full-dress clothes; but as soon as he got
well acquainted with a man-and it
didn't take him long to get inside of any
decent fellows waistcoat-he would talk
in his characteristic droll manner all day
and seven days a week and as much
longer as they two travelled together
As seriously as if he was talking of
audiences or hotel tables or railway
nuisances, he told me story of dog
he had owned. 1t was a dachshund,
and Nye described him as two and half
dogs long by one dog high He had named
the animal Entomologist, because it
was collector of insects. In fact the
dog lived up to his name so strenuously
that something had to be done. A friend