The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-08
NIGHT IN BOHEMIA WITH
 GENE FIELD AND OTHERS

By Milton Nobles in the Baltimore Her IN DENVER. in the early eighties, passed memorable evening There was then but one theatre in Denver. the Tabor opera house.
 Big Bill Devere was dealing at one Of the principal gambling houses. He had stranded in the town with a company playing a capital drama with the fatal title California, Through Death Valley" The late Sheridan Corbyn was the man. ager, and dear. gifted old John Wood ward was the author and principal actor.
 Devere. being known to every sporting man from the Missouri river to Puget Sound. and regarded as a sort of mascot by all of them, could always deal the old thing" when he wasn't acting, and often when he was. With Bills BIO night and the fine spread made in those days by all the gambling houses, the stranded actors were not suffering
 There was a big beer saloon on Lari- mer street popular with all classes, and in the extreme rear end large, round table. half hidden by a screen and this little corner was known as
 That mys cal land, Bohemia what other
 Land furnishes friendships so dear,
 Where every man Is brother
 And every brother a peer.
 On the night of which l speak l was one of the group about this big. round table. The others were Eugene Field, Bill De- were, Col. Will Visscher and Bill Nye. Colonel Field was a reporter on the Denver republican, and his exquisite verses were just beginning to attract at tention. Nye was editing the Laramie Boomerang The infection of his quaint humor was taking root, and New York publication had just made him an offer. visscher. who could never remain any where longer than three months, had been playing a negro character in Cali fornia Through Death Valley" When the finish came he went to work on Brick Pomeroy's Democrat. He had just drawn his first wad, and was blowing it in in great shape.
 An. mel If one could just recall the bright things and the beautiful things that flowed with the foaming stelns and the straight corn juice that night!
 Dear Gene Field was as happy as a child, and fairly bubbled over with mirth. Visscher told old negro dialect stories as no other man has ever told them. Nye, never much of a thinker, broke away just a little. We were all urging him to &C., cept the New York offer. The figures seemed tremendous. Wye had never dreamed of earning so much money But with that modesty and lack of confidence characteristic of many men of exception- al gifts. he was simply frightened.
 "Oh. shucks, boys he said, q can rattle off this stuff when the fit takes me, sort O between drinks like when I've got nothing important to do and just feel in the humor, but if I was to go to New York and accept this salary and feel that I had to grind out something funny every day. whether I felt like it or not, l would last about month 1T was lucky"
 But he went some months later. and the result demonstrated how little he knew or his own resources.
 Devere, round and amiable beamed upon all. slipped his corn straight and rarely spoke. Occasionally some eye would wander to the big clock on the wall. This action would be resented and another round ordered. Field had ham sand wich. visscher was dissecting a pigs foot discoursing learnedly of it's complex qualifications in the matter of joints. Devere and Nye nibbled cheese and crackers.
 At a. m. we concluded with more or less unanmity. to adjourn. Then we sat down and had another, and just one more. Then Field tried to sing "Auld Lang Syner visscher improvised a bass