Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-22
Population of Los Angeles 100000
VALE HUMoR1sTs

WVtIE professional humorists VIII
have been visiting in this city 70
= the past week start for thei
homes today leaving Los Angelo
richer and happier for their presenc
and good cheer leavening powers.
The professional humorous writer
like the professional clown in the cir
Gus, wears a mask in public that Otter
covers face distraught with suffer
ing. and when the reader is convulset
with rollicking laughter he canno
know that the mind which conceived
the mirth before him was stepped IL
the manifold miseries common to hu.
man experience. The real object OF
the visit of these men makes the good
they have done manifest.
A few years since the English read
ing and speaking world awoke to find
a genius in Edgar Nye, or "Bill' Nye
of the Laramie Boomerang, and from
the day, of his discovery by the people
to the day of his death he was a tonic
for burdened humanity and genuine
blessing to millions, for he forced men
to laugh who were bent on weeping,
and lightened the burdens of men by
lifting care from their hearts. The
struggling rancher, wrestling with
drought and poor crops, ready to give
up and go back, read Nye's description
OF Wyoming farm land, ut was so poor
you couldn't raise even decent dis
turbance on it," laughed at the conceit
and took heart again.
When bitterness was like to split the
city government of New York and
Mayor Abe Hewitt was doomed to de-
feat and all the power of ward bosses
and heelers could not save him, Nye,
under the similitude of visit to a
prison to inspect food there, told of
tasting the soup, and added: when
l tasted that stuff l remembered that
someone said Abe Hewitt was in the
soup, but did not believe it till then!'
The whole world of New York politics
laughed and warmed to Hewitt and h,
was elected.
While Nye was writing such things
and men were happier because of then
there was shadow over him such a:
falls on few He was in the grip ol
fatal malady and courageously
fought it, the while he made others
r happy, and the morning papers thai
brought smiles and laughter to millions
were the custodians of his life blood
Such man compels friends, and by
the score they sought to aid him in
his fight with death, but "he trod the
wine press alone" and suffered, per-
sonally and vicariously, more than
falls to most men in this life. Death
took him when he should have reveled
in the pride of manhood, and there
was genuine sorrow in the writer's
world in particular and the readers
world in general.
The men who knew him and worked
beside him were made better for his
life and example, and now, at a time
removed from his decease, when most
mems memories are sighted, so true
were the friendships then formed, thai
they conceive a lasting monument OF
stone to bear witness of the worth oi
the man, when themselves shall have
gone the way of all flesh.
Colonel Richard Realf, with a sui.
cide's pistol in one hand and a per
in the other, wrote:
HE loved his fellows and their love wa!
sweet.
Plant daisies at his head and at his feet"
and the San Francisco Bohemian club
dutifully gathered at his grave ant
lovingly obeyed his request. A travel.
ing minstrel organization band went
out of it's path many miles and gath.
cred around the grave of Stephen Col
Inns Foster and played "Suwanet
River and all the English world fell
a thrill of tender remembrance wheI
it was known. Busy newspapermen
ennobled by contact with the unselfsf
and heroic life of Edgar w. Nye, plan
ming to build lasting monument tt
his memory, not only honor the mar
who made the world better for hi
presence in it, but honor the profession
they adorn and the human heart in tn,
concrete.
Some burdened soul, writhing in tn,
grasp of killing sense of ingratitude
that blackest of all sins, wrote th
line:
"only remembered by what have DONE"
and by that tragic gauge the life o
Edgar w. Nye will be held in verna
remembrance while warm hearts an,
loving hands exist to make a votiv
offering to true worth.
Pullman cars in Pennsylvania mus
make the bed sheets two feet longe
than usual by order of court Thi