Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1896 — DEATH OF “BILL” NYE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH OF “BILL” NYE.

The Popular Humorist Passes Away at His Carolina Home. Edgar \V. Xye died at his home at Rueksboals. X. C. All the members of his family and most of his immediate relatives were with him as he breathed his

last. His death was peaceful. He lay pale and wan in the bed, beside which sat his faithful wife and loving children. He breathed calmly, but ever slower and slower until his heart ceased to beat. ’Teti days before he had a stroke of paralysis, and since then his friends had expected death.

Edgar Wilson Xye, or “Bill” Xye, as hr was much better known to his friends amthe public, was born in Shirley, PAscata quis County, Maine, Aug. 25, 1850, but at the age of 2 years, according to his own story, he took his parents by the hand and led them to the West. They went to Wisconsin, and there on the banks of the St. Croix river young Xye was brought up on a farm. He received an academical education at River Falls, Wis., and in 1876 went to Wyoming territory, where he studied law, and was admitted to the 'bar. There, as lie says, he practiced law in a quiet way, “although frequently warned by the authorities not to do so.” He had plenty of leisure time on his hands, 'which he used in writing a Sunday letter for the Cheyenne Sun at the rate of $1 a column. In one of his humorous qu'tobiograpedcal sketches Mr. Xye says that that sum, which amounted to nearly SOO a year, so dwarfed his returns from his law practice that he decided to take up newspaper writing as a profession, and accordingly moved to Denver, where lie obtained a position on the staff of the Denver Tribune. He corresponded from Denver for the Salt Lake Tribune. Then he returned to Laramie and started a newspaper called the Boomerang. The Boomerang was quoted all over the country; and Xye began to get liis reputation as a humorist of note at that time. The paper was not a financial success, but it was the foundation for tin* fortune which Xye afterward made as a humorist. Xye made the New York World Apropdsition. The upshot of the negotiations was that he was engaged by the paper at, it is said, a salary of $5,000 a year, and in the course of a year or so he had doubled his earnings by syndicating liiis letters.

“BILL" NYE.