, 1907-05-02

and Independent journalism which l
still retain. l can write up things
which never occurred with a mastery
and graphic hand. Then, IL they oc-
cur, l am grateful; il not, l bow to the
inevitable and smother my chagrin."
Becomes officeholder.
During the fall of 1876, while still
assistant editor Of the Sentinel, Nys
was elected one of the justices of the
peace for the city, by a majority of
.2S7 votes, and took office January 1,
1877, combining the administration OF
Justice with the duties of a newspaper
man. The office of justice was not Q
salaried one. but solely dependent upon
fees. OF this time Nye writes: ut
was really pathetic to e the poor lit
tie miserable booth where l sat and
waited with numb fingers for business.
l did not see the pathos which chung
to every cobweb and darkened the
rafting easement. So while l
was called Judge Nye and frequently
mentioned in the papers with consid-
GRAFTON, l was out OF coal half OF the
time, and once could not mail my let
ters for three weeks because l did not
have the necessary postage"
Big Heart Causes %Pecuniary Loss.
A time Of struggle for the neces
stiles Of life though it was for himself,
it did not harden the heart of Bill
Nye to the rest Of the world. Larry
Fee and "Scottie" Sterling, both con-
stables at that time. still tell stories
of the pleas put up by the tough char
acters they hauled before the seat OF
justice whereon sat Nye, pleas which,
preposterous though they often We're,
never failed to touch the heart of the
court, who would let the offender off,
though in doing so he would lose mon
ey which rightfully would have gone
into his own pocket.
The business of the court was not
conducted with the attention to detail
which it demanded, and there were fire.
quent complications, especially relat-
ing to one days work where of fifteen
sets of papers served by 'Scotty' only
two cases were eve docketed.
owed Stories to Bill Root.
The time was, however, one Of great
use to Nye in another way. His clos
est friends, Colonel "BilP' Root, Judge
Blair, "Scotty' Sterling and N. X. Bos-
well, were all capital story %tellers, and
to them, especially to Colonel Root,
Nye owed many of the themes which
he converted into stories in his own
inmitable way and which, pub
lished in the Sentinel, the Cheyenne
Sun and the Denver Tribune, slowly
but surely won a way for him into rec
ognition and fame. The material for
one particularly good story was furn-
ished by a practical joke played by the
justice and his constables. 1t appears
that an unsophisticated Swede, who
was set to open up a broken water pipe
on one of the principal streets Of the
town by the city authorities, and who
complained Of the hardness Of the
frozen ground, was persuaded by the
court and %constables to try an unus'
ually large amount of dynamite as a
means of relieving his toll. The result
did relieve the toll of the Swede. but
the ire aroused in the breasts Of many
citizens by broken windows and Jared
feelings could scarcely be assauged by
even the eloquence of Judge Nye or the
charm of "Scottie's" smile.
Wrote on Dry Farming.
In Laramie itself, the article from
Nye's per which attracted the most
attention al this period was n con
corning dry farming, which topic, as
now, was attracting much attention. In
an evil hour, and during the temporary
absence of Judge Hayford in the east
N. X. Boswell took Nye out to the west
of the city, where Dan Nottage. ther
sheriff, had planted forty acres OF
ground in various grains and vegeta
bles as a demonstration Of the capabili
ties of the soil and climate. Nothing
was known at that time Of the scien'
tifc cultivation for the retention OF
moisture in the soil and little of dry
climate husbandry. The season, too
had been unusually dry and windy
with the result that the demonstration
was a distinct failure. Nye and other
farming experts sat upon the pole
fence and saw peas scarcely showing
above the ground, grains that only dis
played a withered stalk here and there
and potato tops wilted and stunted
There and then Nye evolved his own
peculiar ideas Of dry farming which
lHhRpF FRI