The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-28
Written in 1887 When His Pass
Was Called In.
BEAT HIS WAY.
Nys Wrote a SerrOwfuI Tale OF
His Future Life.
Told g. 2. A. of Experience With
cut Free Transportation.

esting letter from the late Bill Nye, the
humorist, written in 1887 to w. +.
White, then general passenger agent OF
the Santa Fe. Nye held an annual
pass over the Santa Fe, but early IN |
1887 the company recalled it under |
provisions of the interstate commerce
law enacted at that time Nye return
ed the pass, with the letter lately 1ound |
by Mr.. Hayes, as follows;
The Bill Nye Letter.
Hudson, Wis, March 80, 1887.
W. F. White, Esq, General Passenger
Agent Atchison, Topeka & Santa Zee
Railroad, Topeka, Kan.
Dear Sir: 1 enclose herewith annual
pass No. Q-O35 for self and family over
your Justly celebrated road, during the
year 1887 I also return your photo
graph and the letters you have written
me during the past five years. WIN
you kindly return mlneE ana SO inns
brief and beautiful experience is to end
and each must go his own way here
after.
Alas!
To you this may be easy. but it
brings a pang to my heart which your
gentle letter of the list inst cannot
wholly alleviate.
Whenever hereafter you look upon
this tear-speckled pass will you not
think of me? Remember that you
have cast me from you, and that L am
wandering across the bleak and wind
ties of my way to eternity
do not say this to reproach you,
for I fear that you care for another,
and so we could not be happy again
fully comprehend the pang it costs me
| to return this pleasant faced little pass
with its conditions on the back?
Should you see me now, as 1 write
| these lines, turning away ever ana 40
anon, laying aside my trembling pen to
go and sit by the CRATE and shudder
and weep, and put out the fire with
my bitter tears. your heart Wou-d
soften, and you would say: Return,
oh vanderer. return!" You do not say
1 in your letter that I have been false to
you, or that I have ever grown colo.
You do not charge me with infidelity,
or failure to provide. You simply say
that it would be better for each to go
his several ways. forgetting that my
several ways are passing away, pass
ing away.
It is all very well for you to talk
! about going your several ways gu
| have every facility for doing so, but
with me it is different. Several years
ago a large northwestern cyclone and
myself tried to pass each other on the
same track When the wrecking crew
found me I was in the crotch OF but
| ternut tree with a broken leg. Since
that time have walked with 81 lat diff
fculty, and to go my several ways has
been a very serious matter with me.
| Accepts His Doom.
| But I do not want you to think that
| I am murmuring. 1 accept my doom
calmly, yet with a slight tinge of I'M
availing regret
| Some time perhaps, in the middle of
the dark and angry night, when the
cold blasts wall through the telegraph
| wires and the crashing sleet rushes
| with wild and impetuous fury against
the windows of your special car, as you
tys.- in n
trous berth and hear the pitiless winds
! with hoarse and crOupy means chase
each other around the Kansas hay
stacks or shrek wildly away as they
light out for their cherries home IN
the bad lands, will you not think OF me
as 1 grope on bIindly through the keen
and pitiless blasts, stumbling over cat
tie guards, falling into culverts, ana
beating out my rare young brains
against your rough right of way, Will
you not think Of me? / do not ask
much of you, but 1 do ask that we
separate forever.
AS you whiz by me do not treat me
with contumely, or throw crackers at
me when have meekly turned Out 70
ilet your naughty old train go by l
lhave always spoken of you in the high
est terms and hope you will do the
same by me.
! Life is short at the best, and it is es-
pecially so for those who have to walk
life a great deal, and 1 wouldn't be
surprised if the exposure and bunions
of 1887 carried me off, leaving gap in
American literature that will look like
a cellar.
Should any of your engineers or
trackmen find me frozen in a cut next
winter when the grass gets short and
the nights get long will you kindly ask
them to report the brand to your au-
ditor and instruct him to allow my
L.. -I,a4 11,o he
| I hate to write to you in this detected
manner, but you cannot understand
thow heavy my heart is today as 1 pen
these lines.
wish you and your beautiful road
unmitigated success. 1t is good road
for I have passed over it and enjoyed
it, How different the country will look
to me as I go bounding from tie to
tie slowly repeating to myself the trlte
| remark once made by the governor OF
North Carolina to the executive OF
South Carolina.
| I hope you may never know what II
is to pull into the quaint little city OF
La Junta with the dust of many mile
iupon you and the thirst of long, I'M
| eventful journey in your throat
| hone congress will not pass law nexl
year which will make it felony for g
railroad man to say gosh without 3
permit. I hope that your life will be
chuck full of hurrah and halleluJah
even if mine should always be black
and joyless.
can do the road any good, either
at home or abroad? Can be of any
service to you over your right of way
by collecting nuts, bolts, old iron, G;
| other brfc-a -brac? I would be glad Il
/ influence immigration or pull weed:
between the tracks if you would only
be willing to regard me as an EN-
ployee.
Takes a Last Look
] viii now take a last look at tbs