, 1907-05-02

First Editor-Born In Maine,
Taught School In Wisconsin and
Became Resident of Laramie Later
The following paper, bill Nye and
Laramie was read by W. s. Ingham
at the recent meeting Of the Laramie
Liteurary club, Mr.. Ingham leaving the
editorial rooms of the Boomerang to
accept the position of librarian a few
years ago
How He Landed Here.
Sometime during the year 1876, Ed
gar Wilson Nye dropped off the west
bound Union Pacific train at Laramie
and in a tentative name asked of
a bystander If there was Anything
that a young man could get to do l n
this town" The bystander was N. X,
Boswell, then deputy United States
marshal, and the reply he gave caused
the stranger to go back into the car for
a delapidated valise and to become a
citizen of Laramie.
The arrival of 'Bill' Nye in Laramie
was not blazoned with trumpets, In
fact, when he left the city nine years
later, at a time when his name was be-
ginning to be almost a household word
to the rest of America, there were few
who considered him in the least re-
markable, which furnishes evidence In
support of the scriptural saying, THAT
a prophet is not without honor save in
his own country and in his own house"
Looked at Nye n Smiled.
The city at that time was a railroad
town, in the process Of development
from the frontier village which had
sprung into being a few years before
as an accompaniment to the building
of the Union Pacific; a place peopled
by some of the berry best, as well as
some of the very worst, Of those types
which 60 to make up a new community
in a new country. The man, Bill" Nye,
as described by those who remember
him, was a tall, thin, somewhat re-
markable looking man, prematurely
bald, looking almost any age, and with
little to say for himself, but that little
said in such a manner that the listen
err invariably took a second look at
him and smiled.
A Native Of Maine.
OF the life Of Nye before he blew inJo
Laramie there is little to be found. He
was born August 25th, 1850. at Shirley,
Piscataquis county, Maine. His fam
ily was not blessed with any great
amount of the goods of this world and
moved to st. Croix valley, Wisconsin,
when he was a lad, in the hopes of find
ing the conditions of life less exacting
than in Maine. After receiving but a
meager schooling, Nye entered a law
yer's Office, where most OF his work
consisted of sweeping out the office
and running errands. The lawyer, how.
ever, owned a somewhat pretentious
library, mostly law books, and there
undoubtedly the boy acquired that am
bition to become a great lawyer, which
never left him all of his life, a peculiar
inclination, as he made himself famous
by the writing of material which is far
from adhering closely to facts, and
Numerically opposite to that ~veracity
and truth of which great lawyers spend
their lives in the search.
How He Read Books.
OF his reading at this time, Nye says
himself, II could read the same passage
today as 1 did yesterday and it would
seem as fresh on the second reading
at it did on the first. On the follow
ing day l would read it again and it
would seem as new and as mysterious
as 1t did not the preceding day" If
Nye referred to passages couched in
the verbiage adopted by u legal lumi-
naries, there are many who have had
a similar experience.
Wisconsin, Schoolmaster.
At twenty-five years of age Nye was
teaching a district school in Polk coun-
ty, Wis, at a salary of thirty dollars
per month. He did not remain at this
for any great length Of time but started
west. The first work he secured In
Laramie was as assistant editor of the
Laramie Sentinel, then a morning daily
owned by Hayford and Gates, Judge
Hayford being editor. OF Judge Hay
ford Nye many years later wrote, and
here is perhaps the nearest approach
to malice Nye eve INDUCED in. Il
don't know whether he got into the
peDitentiary or the greenback party.
At any rate he was the wickedest man
in wyoming. Still he was warm-heaft-
ed and generous to a fault. He was
more generous to a fault than anything
else-more especially his own faults.
He gave me twelve dollars q week to
edit the paper-local, telegraph. relig-
ious. sporting. political, fashions and
obituary. He said twelve dollars was
too much, but II I would jerk the press