Iditarod pioneer., 1916-12-02
"REMINISCENCES OF BILL ME

Boomerang, the paper which Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye made famous, and which made many thousands laugh in the days when Nye was the favorite humorous writer oi the country, has brought to light from among private collections of the authors letters number which are typical ot hls amusing style of correspondence. One oi these letters was written in November, 1885, shortly after Nye and his wife had been picked up by a tornado while driving near their home at Hudson, Wis. Mrs. Wye escaped with bad bruises but Nye was rather badly damaged by the experience and was unconscious when found by hls wife Just before this Nye, while returning from Minneapolis to his home, had travelled on a train which had killed man Tn the railroad yards. In reply to letter ot sympathy on his encounter with the tor nado, Nye wrote:
 Hudson, Wis, Nov 21, 1885.
 Dear Boy: 1 am slightly dsfigured, but still in the o. Mrs. Nye IS o. K. and I hope to be on my pins again in day or two.
 'I knew that Bohemian was run over the night we got off our train. We all tried to hurry him, but he said there was plenty of time That was the last remark he made He swapped his large stock of time for a still bigger chunk of eternity.
 "Just as 1 am on my North American back people want me to lecture awful bad. That shows the inborn cussedness of the American public. l hope that no perma- ment injury may result from my bump, but the doctor thinks there IS fair chance for striking and eccentric curvature of the spine or some other attractive spe- cialty.
 Tt was big streak of luck, however, If anything had happened to my wife the American people would have done their laughing hereafter on some other mans ac- count. She bumped her knees and her elbows some, but was up in time to weep over my bleeding clay.
 Il hope that you will mention to anyone who wants to make experiments with the surface of the earth with view to finding out how much of shock the old crust will stand that I am now better prepared than ever before to make such tests at reasonable figures.
 Owners of nine-story brick buildings who desire to know how long it will take an adult to fall from the upper floor to the basement and how much the basement will oe mussed up by the experiment are cor iially invited to call or communicate with me. 1 have made this life study, and l defy all who attempt to compete, but who are simply measly imitators of my style. 1 laim to fall with more ease and abandon and to stop falling with more abruptness and with a more distinct style of thud ,.- ho by. ME"
 In the summer of 1886 Nye and Riley were engaged to give an entertainment un- der the auspices of the Prss Club of Min neapolis, Minn., and invited to stop at the house of friend during their stay in the city Mrs Nye also was invited. To this Nye replied:
 Mrs Nye will accept your wife's kind in vitation in a neatly written note which she is now constructing with the aid of ready letter writer.
 Riley and I had better not go up to your house on the evening of the show, because Riley begins to dress at about 3 in the afternoon and l have to be near him to sponge him down, put violet powder on him and lace up his corsets for him. l think we will do you favor of great mag nitude to stay down at the hotel til next morning If you could see the large vel low grips Riley and I carry, containing clothes and scenery-grlps as large as a two-year-cld steer-you would not insist on our going up with them and snorting around your house for three hours with our suspenders down and our Gothic shoulder blades covered with nothing but an un- dershirt of the peppermint candy design. When we dress the hook and ladder com pany generally gets out and people come on excursion trains for hundreds of miles.
 Let us have good audience-large, l meanI know it will be intellectual !-and we will try to avoid disgracing you. Mir. Riley is immense When am as old as he is perhaps l also will be great We will stop at the West. Tell the proprietor. how ever, that we will permit other guests who are not in arrears to remain in the house if they are not rude to US, 1 wish you would secure good room for myself and maid Mir. Riley will also want room with denuncator in it. He likes to play on this instrument very much"
 Soon after Nye left Hudson to make his home in New York, in 1887, he wrote 8 friend as follows:
 New York, Aug 7, 1887.
 Dear Friend: I've been here week, but have had no time to write and thank you for your kindness while at your home. Accept the same now in large oval wad.
 q spent an hour or two with 'Th. Mast the other day. Do not tell anybody, but I do not consider him a great man. He has not yet stated what he thought of me.
 Remember me to Mir. Edgar, who claims that l have debauched his name; also to your wife and your gazelle-eyed daughter Yours as of yore BILL"
 In a letter headed with caricature of himself dressed in a bathing suit on the beach, with steamer in the distance and gulls flying over him, Nye later wrote to the same friend some impressions of Coney island:
 Dear George: Your note came due last week and I acknowledge receipt of the same herewith. It found me we'll and content with my lot, or as near as people are generally. Every man would like to have his lot face more on the main street if possible, but we ought not to murmur or repine.
 q just came back from Mir Coney's cele- bratad iSIopd uhoro 1,o,,th onI rle acllre