|WE are indebted to Fred J. Prouting, correspondent of the foreign and
British newspaper press, for a copy of the London _Daily_ of the 9th
inst., containing the following editorial notice:
"If ever celebrity were attained unexpectedly, most assuredly it was
that thrust upon Bill Nye by Truthful James. It is just possible,
however, that the innumerable readers of Mr. Bret Harte's 'Heathen
Chinee' may have imagined Bill Nye and Ah Sin to be purely mythical
personages. So far as the former is concerned, any such conclusion now
appears to have been erroneous. Bill Nye is no more a phantom than any
other journalist, although the name of the organ which he 'runs' savors
more of fiction than of fact. But there is no doubt about the matter,
for the Washington correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ telegraphed
on the 29th instant, that Bill Nye had accepted a post under the
government. He has lately been domiciled in Laramie City, Wyoming
territory, and is editor of The Daily Boomerang. In reference to
Acting-Postmaster-Gen. Hatton's appointment of him as postmaster at
Laramie City, the opponent of Ah Sin writes an extremely humorous
letter, 'extending' his thanks, and advising his chief of his opinion
that his 'appointment is a triumph of eternal truth over error and
wrong.' Nye continues: 'It is one of the epochs, I may say, in the
nation's onward march toward political purity and perfection. I don't
know when I have noticed any stride in the affairs of state which has
so thoroughly impressed me with its wisdom.' In this quiet strain of
banter, Bill Nye continues to the end of his letter, which suggests the
opinion that whatever the official qualifications of the new postmaster
may be, the inhabitants of Laramie City must have a very readable
newspaper in The Daily Boomerang."
While thanking our London contemporary for its gentle and harmless
remarks, we desire to correct an erroneous impression that the seems to
have as to our general style: The British press has in some way arrived
at the conclusion that the editor of this fashion-guide and mental
lighthouse on the rocky shores of time (terms cash), is a party with
wild tangled hair, and an like a tongue of flame.
That is not the case, and therefore our English co-worker in the
great field of journalism is, no doubt, laboring under a popular
misapprehension. Could the editor of the _News_ look in upon us as we
pull down tome after tome of forgotten lore in our study; or, with a
glad smile, glance hurriedly over the postal card in transit through our
postoffice, he would see, not as he supposes, a wild and cruel slayer
of his fellow men, but a thoughtful, scholarly and choice fragment of
modern architecture, with lines of care about the firmly chiseled mouth,
and with the subdued and chastened air of a man who has run for the
legislature and failed to get there, Eli.
The London _News_ is an older paper than ours, and we therefore
recognize the value of its kind notice. _The Boomerang_ is a young paper,
and has therefore only begun fairly to do much damage as a national
misfortune, but the time is not far distant, when, from Greenland's icy
mountains to India's coral strand, we propose to search out suffering
humanity and make death easier and more desirable, by introducing this
choice malady.
Regarding the postoffice, we wish to state that we shall aim to make
it a great financial success, and furnish mail at all times to all who
desire it, whether they have any or not. We shall be pretty busy, of
course, attending to the office during the day, and writing scathing
editorials during the night, but we will try to snatch a moment now and
then to write a few letters for those who have been inquiring sadly and
hopelessly for letters during the past ten years. It is, indeed, a
dark and dreary world to the man who has looked in at the same general
delivery window nine times a day for ten years, and yet never received
a letter, nor even a confidential postal card from a commercial man,
stating that on the 5th of the following month he would strike the town
with a new and attractive line of samples.
We should early learn to find put such suffering as that, and if we are
in the postoffice department we may be the means of much good by
putting new envelopes on our own dunning letters and mailing them to the
suffering and distressed. Let us, in our abundance, remember those who
have not been dunned for many a weary year. It will do them good, and we
will not feel the loss.