The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1912-05-17

Bill Nye, the eminent American
humorist, once Travelled on pass
And then he decided to cease doing
SO. The reason for the act was an
interstate commerce law which forbid
it, and as a result, Mr.. Nye wrote
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad at Tope-
ka, in 1851 Mr.. White had requested
that the pass be returned. The letter
follows:
Hudson, Wis, March 90, 1887.
| w. i. White, Esq, General Passen
ger Agent. Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe Railroad. Topeka, Kan. Dear Sir:
enclose herewith annual pass No.
Q-O35 for self and family over your
1857. l also return your photograph
land the letters you have written me
during the past five years. VIII you
kindly return mine? And so this brief
and beautiful experience is ended and
each must go his own way hereafter.
Alasi
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-speckcd 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
swept plains. sadly enumerating the
ties on my way to eternity.
do not say this TO reproach you.
for ! fear that you care for another
and so we would not be happy again
together. But, oh. do you pause to
fully comprehend the pang 1t costs
me to return this pleasant faced little
pass with its conditions on the back ?
Should you see me now, as | write
these lines, turning away ever and
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 would
y soften, and YOU would say:
D Return, oh, wanderer, return?''
You do not say in your letter that l
e have been false to you, or that l have
e ever grown cold. You do not charge
! me with infidelity or failure to pro-
4 vide. You simply say that it would
be better for each to go his several
n ways, forgetting that my several ways
4 are passing away, passing away.
1t is all very well for you to talk
a about going your several ways. You
:. have every facility for doing so. but
with me Il is different. Several years
ago large northwestern cyclone and
, myself tried to pass each other on
= the same track. When the wreckins
crew found me was in the crotch OF
a butternnt tree with a broken leg
Since that time 1 have walked witt
great difficulty and to go my severa
- ways has been a very serious matter
: with me.
u But / do not want you to think thai
am murmuring. i accept my doom
: calmny, yet with slight sight of u
awaiting regret.
Some time. perhaps. in the midi,
of the dark and angry night, when thu
cold blasts wall through the telegraph
with wild and impetuous fury agains
the windows of your special car, al
you lie warmly ensconsed In You
voluptuous berth and hear the pitiles'
winds with hoarse and cnoupy moan'
chase each other around the Kansas
haystacks or shrek wildly as they
light out for their cheerless home IL
the bad lands, will you not Think Of
me as / grope blindly through the
keen and pitiless blasts. stumbling
over cattle guards. falling into cul
verts and beating out my rare young
brains against your rough right Of
way. will you not think of me? l dc
} not ask much of you. but l do ash
that we separate forever.
As you whiz by me do not treat mi
with contumely. or throw crackers al
me when l have meekly turned out &c
let your naughty old train go by.
have always spoken Of YOU In tn,
highest terms and hope you will Dc
the same by me-
Life is short at the best. and it, II
especially so for those who have to
walk. Walking has already shortened
my life a great deal, and l wouldn't
be surprised IL the exposure and bun
ions of 1887 carried me off, leaving d
gap in American literature that would
look like a collar.
Should any Of your engineers OF
trackmen find me frozen In a cut nex'
winter when the grass gets short and
the nights get long. will you kind,