Bill Nye and Boomerang: Or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary GemsNye, Bill
General
Bill Nye and Boomerang: Or, The Tale of a Meek-Eyed Mule, and Some Other Literary Gems
Nye, Bill
American wit and humor
"We also sent Edward Frodsham to Leadville. We intimated to him that
life was very brief and that if he wanted to gather a little stake
to leave his family perhaps he could do so faster in Leadville than
anywhere else. So he went. He is there now. He at once won the notice
of the public there and soon became the recipient of the most flattering
attentions. A little band of American citizens one evening took him out
on the plaza, or something of that kind, and hung him last fall.
"The maple turned to crimson and the sassafras to gold, and when the
morning woke the song of the bunko-steerer and the robin, Mr. Frodsham
was on his branch all right, but he couldn't seem to get in his work
as a songster. There seemed to be a stricture in the glottis, and the
diaphragm wouldn't buzz. The gorgeous dyes of the autumn sunrise
seemed strangely at variance with the gen d'arm blue of Mr. Frodsham's
countenance.
"His death calls to mind one sunny day in the midsummer of '78. It was
one of those days when there is a lull in the struggle for existence,
and the dreamy silence and hush of nature seem to be concurred in by a
committee of the whole.
"It was one of those days when, in the language of the average magazine
poet--=
```The flowers bloomed, the air was mild,
````The little birds poured forth their lay,
```And everything in nature smiled.=
"But soon from out the silence, bursting upon the quiet air, came the
sharp report of a pistol. Then another and another in rapid succession.
People who were going to trade in that locality suddenly thought of
other places of business where the same articles could be obtained
cheaper. Men who were not afraid of danger in any form, went away
because they didn't want to be called as witnesses on the inquest.
"The shooting went on for some time. It sounded like the battle'of the
Wilderness. After a while it ceased. A large party of men went out to
gather up the dead and arrange for a grand funeral. But the remains were
not so dead as they ought to be. There were bullet holes to be sure,
penetrating various parts of the combatants, but the funeral had to be
postponed. The sidewalks were plowed up, signs were riddled and windows
shattered, but Edward Frodsham got off with a bullet hole through the
side. The doctor pronounced it a very close call, but not necessarily
fatal. It was a terrible disappointment to every one. As a shooting
match it was a depressing failure, and as a double funeral it was not
deserving of mention.
"The city council told Frodsham that if he couldn't shoot better than
that he might select some young growing town outside of Wyoming and grow
up with it. He did so. He favored Colorado with his stirring, energetic
presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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