S H 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 

EUGENE FIELD 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 A STUDY IN HEREDITY AND 
 CONTRADICTIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 SLASON THOMPSON 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS, VIEWS AND 
 FAG-SIMILE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 NEW YORK :: :: :: :: :: :: :: 1901 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, December, 1901 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
 MEW YORK 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 Not as other memoirs are written would Eugene 
 Field, were he alive, have this study of his life. 
 He would think more of making it reflect the odd 
 personality of the man than rehearse the birth, de 
 velopment, daily life, and works of the author. If 
 he had undertaken to write his own life, as was 
 once his intention, it would probably have been the 
 most remarkable work of fiction by an American 
 author that ever masqueraded in the quaker gar 
 ments of fact. From title-page to colophon on 
 which he would have insisted the book would have 
 been one studied effort to quiz and queer (a favorite 
 word of his) the innocent and willing-to-be-deluded 
 reader. " Tell your sister for me," I recall his say 
 ing, " what a kind, good, and deserving man I am. 
 How I love little children and [with a dry chuckle] 
 elderly spinsters. Relate how I was born of rich 
 yet honest parents, was reared in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord/ and, according to the bent 
 of a froward youth, have stumbled along to become 
 the cynosure of a ribald age." 
 
 225405 
 
vi BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 Field s idea of a perfect memoir was that it 
 should contain no facts that might interfere with 
 its being novel and interesting reading both to the 
 public and its subject. He set little store by 
 genius, as he tells us in one of his letters, and less 
 by " that nonsense called useful knowledge." His 
 peculiar notions as to the field of biography were 
 once illustrated in one he furnished to a New York 
 firm, which proposed a series of biographies of well- 
 known newspaper writers. It was arranged that 
 Field and William E. Curtis, the noted Washing 
 ton correspondent, should write each the other s 
 biography for the series. Mr. Curtis executed his 
 sketch of Field in good faith; Field s sketch of 
 Mr. Curtis was a marvel of waggish invention. 
 Through an actor of the same name who some 
 years before made quite a reputation as Samuel of 
 Posen, he traced Mr. Curtis s birth back to Bo 
 hemia, and carried him at an early age to Jerusa 
 lem, where Curtis was said to have laid the founda 
 tions of his fame and fortune peddling suspenders. 
 Later he sold newspapers on the streets, and, by 
 practicing the shrewd and self-denying habits of 
 his race, quickly became the owner of the paper 
 for which he worked, which was called the New 
 Jerusalem Messenger, the recognized organ of the 
 New Jerusalem Church. 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 Mr. Curtis s progressive tendencies, according to 
 Field, quickly involved him in trouble with the 
 government; his paper was suppressed, and he was 
 banished from Jerusalem. When the special fir- 
 min of the Sultan expelling Mr. Curtis from Turk 
 ish dominions was published, it caused a great 
 sensation in Chicago, where the Church of the New 
 Jerusalem was very strong, and created an im 
 mediate rivalry between William Penn Nixon, edi 
 tor of the Inter Ocean, and Melville E. Stone, editor 
 of the Morning News, to secure his services. Mr. 
 Nixon sent him a cablegram in Hebrew which was 
 written by a Hebrew gentleman to whom Nixon 
 sold old clothes, while Mr. Stone s cablegram was 
 prepared by his father, the Rev. Mr. Stone, and 
 was expressed in scriptural phraseology which was 
 not understood in Jerusalem as well as it was at 
 Galesburg, where Mr. Stone was then professor of 
 the Hebrew language and literature. Curtis ac 
 cepted the offer couched in the language of the He 
 brew vender of old clothes and became a member 
 of the editorial staff of the Inter Ocean. His first 
 effective work on that newspaper was to convert 
 Jonathan Young Scammon, then its owner, to the 
 New Jerusalem faith (Mr. Scammon, whose real 
 name was John, was the most prominent Sweden- 
 borgian in Chicago). Mr. Scammon was so grate- 
 
viii BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 ful for his conversion from infidelity that in a mo 
 ment of religious exaltation he raised Mr. Curtis s 
 salary from $18 to $20. 
 
 And thus the biography of Mr. Curtis proceeded 
 along lines that gave the truth a wide berth, for 
 Field held, with the old English jurists, that the 
 greater the truth the greater the libel. 
 
 At one time in our association Field, as seriously 
 as he could, entertained the thought of furnishing 
 me with materials for an extended sketch of his life, 
 and I still have several envelopes on which the in 
 scription " For My Memoirs " bears witness to that 
 purpose. But after serving as a source of eccentric 
 and roguish humor for several months, the idea was 
 suffered to lapse, only to be revived in suggestive 
 references as he consigned some bit of manuscript 
 to my care or criticism. Any study of Field s life 
 and character based on such materials as he thus 
 furnished would have been absolutely misleading. 
 It would have eliminated fact entirely and substi 
 tuted the most fantastic fiction in its stead. It 
 would have built up a grotesque caricature of a staid, 
 church-going, circumspect citizen and author instead 
 of the ever-fascinating bundle of contradictions and 
 irresponsibility Field was to his legion of associates 
 and friends. 
 
 There were two Fields the author and the man 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 and it is the purpose of this study to reproduce 
 the latter as he appeared to those who knew and 
 loved him for what he was personally for the benefit 
 of those who have only known him through the 
 medium of his writings. In doing this it is far from 
 my intention and farther from my friendship to dis 
 turb any of the preconceptions that have been 
 formed from the perusal of his works. These are 
 the creations of something entirely apart from the 
 man whose genius produced them. His fame as an 
 author rests on his printed books, and will endure as 
 surely as the basis of his art was true, his methods 
 severely simple, and his spirit gentle and pure. In 
 his daily work the dominant note was that of fun 
 and conviviality. It was free from the acrimony 
 of controversy. He abominated speech-makers and 
 lampooned political oracles. He was the unsparing 
 satirist of contemporary pretense, which in itself 
 was sufficient to account for the failure of the pass 
 ing generation of literary critics to accord to him 
 the recognition which he finally won in their despite 
 from the reading public. Neither a sinner nor a 
 saint was the man who went into an old book-store 
 in Chicago and bewildered the matter-of-fact dealer 
 in old editions with the inquiry, " Have you an un- 
 expurgated copy of Hannah More s Letters to a 
 Village Maiden ?" 
 
x BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 Everything Field wrote in prose or verse reflects 
 his contempt for earth s mighty and his sympathy 
 for earth s million mites. His art, like that of his 
 favorite author and prototype, Father Prout, was 
 " to magnify what is little and fling a dash of the 
 sublime into a two-penny post communication." 
 Sense of earthly grandeur he had little or none. 
 Sense of the minor sympathies of life those minor 
 sympathies that are common to all and finally swell 
 into the major song of life of this sense he was 
 compact. It was the meat and marrow of his life 
 and mind, of his song and story. With unerring 
 instinct Field, in his study of humanity, went to the 
 one school where the emotions, wishes, and passions 
 of mankind are to be seen unobscured by the veil 
 of consciousness. He was forever scanning what 
 ever lies hidden within the folds of the heart of 
 childhood. He knew children through and through 
 because he studied them from themselves and not 
 from books. He associated with them on terms of 
 the most intimate comradeship and wormed his way 
 into their confidence with assiduous sympathy. 
 Thus he became possessed of the inmost secrets of 
 their childish joys and griefs and so became a lit 
 erary philosopher of childhood. 
 
 " In wit a man, in simplicity a child," nothing 
 gloomy, narrow, or pharisaical entered into the com- 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 position of Eugene Field. Like Jack Montesquieu 
 Bellew, the editor of the Cork Chronicle, " his 
 finances, alas! were always miserably low." This 
 followed from his learning how to spend money 
 freely before he was forced to earn it laboriously. 
 He scattered his patrimony gaily and then when the 
 last inherited cent was gone, turned with equal gay- 
 ety to earning, not only enough to support himself, 
 but the wife and family that, with the royal and 
 reckless prodigality of genius, he provided himself 
 with at the very outset of his career. 
 
 If he set " no store by genius," he at least had 
 that faith in his own ability which " compels the 
 elements and wrings a human music from the in 
 different air." From the time he applied himself 
 to the ill-requited work of journalism he never 
 wavered or turned aside in his purpose to make it 
 the ladder to literary recognition. He was over 
 thirty before he realized that in three universities he 
 had slighted the opportunity to acquire a thorough 
 equipment for literary work. But he was undis 
 mayed, for did he not read in his beloved " Eeliques 
 of Father Prout " how " Loyola, the founder of the 
 most learned and by far the most distinguished lit 
 erary corporation that ever arose in the world, was 
 an old soldier who took tip his Latin Grammar 
 when past the age of thirty " ? 
 
xii BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is the contrast and apparent contradiction be 
 tween the individual and the author that makes the 
 character of Eugene Field interesting to the student. 
 If the man were simply any prosaic person pos 
 sessed of the gift of telling tales, writing stories, and 
 singing lullabies, this study of his life would have 
 been left unwritten. Many authors have I known 
 who put all there was of them into their work, who 
 were personally a disappointment to the intellect 
 and a trial to the flesh. With Eugene Field the 
 man was always a bundle of delightful surprises, an 
 ever unconventional personality of which only the 
 merest suggestion is given in his works. 
 
 In the study I have made of the life of Eugene 
 Field in the following pages I have received assist 
 ance from many sources, but none has been of so 
 great value as that from his father s friend, Melvin 
 L. Gray, in whose home Field found the counsel of 
 a father and the loving sympathy of a mother. The 
 letters Mr. Gray placed at my disposal, whether 
 quoted herein or not, have been invaluable in filling 
 in the portrait of his beloved ward. 
 
 To Edward D. Cowen, whose intimate friendship 
 with Field covered a period of nearly fifteen years 
 in three cities and under varying circumstances, 
 these pages owe very much. From his brother, 
 Koswell Field, I have had the best sort of sympa- 
 
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 thetic aid and counsel in filling out biographical de 
 tail without in any way committing himself to the 
 views or statements of this study. 
 
 Dr. Frank W. Reilly, to whom Field not only 
 owed his vitalized familiarity with Horace, "Front," 
 and " Kit North," but that superficial knowledge 
 of medical terms of which he made such constant 
 and effective use throughout his writings, has also 
 placed me under many obligations for data and 
 advice. 
 
 To these and the others whose names are freely 
 sprinkled through this study I wish to make fitting 
 acknowledgment of my many obligations, and I 
 trust the reader will share my grateful sentiments 
 wherever the faithful quotation marks remind him 
 that such is their due. 
 
 SLASON THOMPSON. 
 
 CHICAGO, September 30th, 1901. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. PEDIGREE .1 
 
 II. His FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR . . 13 
 
 III. THE DRED SCOTT CASE .... 36 
 
 IV. BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH . . . .49 
 V. EDUCATION 73 
 
 VI. CHOICE OF A PROFESSION . . . .91 
 
 VII. MARRIAGE AND EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE . 103 
 
 VIII. EARLY EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM . 126 
 
 IX. IN DENVER, 1881-1883 143 
 
 X. ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER . . 158 
 
 XI. COMING TO CHICAGO . . . . .183 
 
 XII. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS . . . 206 
 
 XIII. RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK . . . 224 
 
 XIV. BEGINNING OF His LITERARY EDUCATION 271 
 XV. METHOD OF WORK ." . . . . 294 
 
 XVI. NATURE OF His DAILY WORK . 314 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PORTRAIT OF EUGENE FIELD IN 1885 . Frontispiece 
 
 Photogravure. 
 
 DRAWINGS AND FAC-SIMILES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "THE PEAR" IN FIELD S GREEK TEXT . . 140 
 DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL COUNCIL OF WAR . .213 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
 COMMODORE CRANE 236 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
 FIELD WITNESSING MODJESKA AS CAMILLE . . 244 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
 Two PROFILES OF EUGENE FIELD . . . 247 
 
 The upper one drawn in pencil by Field himself; the 
 loiver one drawn by Modjeska. Reproduced from a fly 
 leaf of Mrs. Thompson s volume of autograph verse. 
 
 A BAR OF Music 295 
 
 Written by Eugene Field. 
 
 Two GOOD KNIGHTS AT FEAST . . . .297 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 xvii 
 
xviii ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 HALF-TONE PLATES FACING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GENERAL MARTIN FIELD 6 
 
 Eugene Field s Grandfather. 
 
 ESTHER S. FIELD 10 
 
 Eugene Field s Grandmother. 
 
 ROSWELL MARTIN FIELD 18 
 
 Eugene Field s Father. 
 
 CHARLES KELLOGG FIELD 46 
 
 EUGENE FIELD S MOTHER 50 
 
 From a Daguerreotype taken a, year or two before his 
 birth. 
 
 EUGENE FIELD S COUSINS, MARY FIELD FRENCH 
 AND HER YOUNGER HALF-SISTER, AUGUSTA 
 JONES 54 
 
 From a Daguerreotype taken before Eugene and Roswell 
 became members of Miss French s family in Amherst, 
 on the death of their mother. 
 
 THE FIELD HOMESTEAD AT NEWFANE, VT. . . 56 
 THE HOMESTEAD AT AMHERST, MASS. ... 60 
 
 Now owned by Mr. Hiram Eaton, of New York. 
 
 A BIRD S-EYE VIEW OF MONSON, MASS. . . 74 
 THE REV. JAMES TUFTS 78 
 
 WILLIAMS COLLEGE BUILDINGS, WILLIAMSTOWN, 
 MASS 82 
 
 THE OLD KNOX COLLEGE BUILDINGS, GALESBURG, 
 ILL 86 
 
 STATE UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS AT COLUMBIA, Mo. 88 
 
ILLUSTBATIONS xix 
 
 PACING 
 PAGE 
 
 EARLY PORTRAITS OF EUGENE FIELD ... 92 
 
 MELVIN L. GRAY 96 
 
 MRS. MELVIN L. GRAY 100 
 
 MRS. EUGENE FIELD 110 
 
 ROBSON AND CRANE IN SHARPS AND FLATS . 204 
 FIELD AT WORK 218 
 
 The caricature from a drawing by Sclanders. 
 
 FRANCIS WILSON 228 
 
 WILLIAM J. FLORENCE ...... 234 
 
 MODJESKA 242 
 
 JESSIE BARTLETT DAVIS 256 
 
 SOL SMITH RUSSELL 266 
 
 DR. FRANK W. REILLY 280 
 
 "FATHER PROUT" 288 
 
 Francis Hahony. 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 CHAPTEK I 
 
 PEDIGREE 
 
 " Sir John Maundeville, Kt," was his prototype, 
 and Father Prout was his patron saint. The one 
 introduced him to the study of British balladry, 
 the other led him to the classic groves of Horace. 
 
 " I am a Yankee by pedigree and education," 
 wrote Eugene Field to Alice Morse Earle, the 
 author of " The Sabbath in Puritan New Eng 
 land," and other books of the same flavor, " but I 
 was born in that ineffably uninteresting city, St. 
 Louis." 
 
 How so devoted a child of all that is queer and 
 contradictory in New England character came to be 
 born in " Poor old Mizzoorah," as he so often wrote 
 it, is in itself a rare romance, which I propose to tell 
 as the key to the life and works of Eugene Field. 
 Part of it is told in the reports of the Supreme 
 Court of Vermont, part in the most remarkable 
 
 special pleas ever permitted in a chancery suit in 
 VOL. I. 1 1 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 America, and the best part still lingers in the mem 
 ory of the good people of Newfane and Brattleboro, 
 Vt, where " them Field boys " are still referred to 
 as unaccountable creatures, full of odd conceits, 
 " an dredful sot when once they took a notion." 
 
 " Them Field boys " were not Eugene and his 
 brother Eos well Martin Field, the joint authors of 
 translations from Horace, known as " Echoes from 
 the Sabine Farm," but their father, Eoswell 
 Martin, and their uncle, Charles Kellogg, Field of 
 Newfane aforesaid. 
 
 These two Fields were the sons of General Mar 
 tin Field, who was born in Leverett, Mass., Feb 
 ruary 12th, 1773, and of his wife, Esther Smith 
 Kellogg, who was the grandmother celebrated in 
 more than one of Eugene Field s stories and poems. 
 Through both sides of the houses of Field and Kel 
 logg the pedigree of Eugene can be traced back to 
 the first settlers of New England. But there is no 
 need to go back of the second generation to find 
 and identify the seed whence sprang the strangely 
 interesting subject of this study. 
 
 At the opening of the nineteenth century, as 
 now, Newfane, then Fayetteville, was a typical 
 county seat. This pretty New England village, 
 which celebrated the centennial of its organization 
 as a town in 1874, is situated on the West River, 
 
PEDIGREE 
 
 some twelve miles from Brattleboro, at which point 
 that noisy stream joins the more sedate Connecti 
 cut River. It nestles under the hills upon which, 
 at a distance of two miles, was the site of the origi 
 nal town of Newfane not a vestige of which re 
 mains to remind the traveller that up to 1825 the 
 shire town of Windham County overlooked as grand 
 a panorama as ever opened up before the eye of 
 man. The reason for abandoning the exposed loca 
 tion on the hills for the sheltered nook by the river 
 may be inferred from the descriptive adjectives. 
 The present town of Newfane clusters about a 
 village square, that would have delighted the heart 
 of Oliver Goldsmith. The county highway bisects 
 it. The Windham County Hotel, with the windows 
 of its northern end grated to prevent the escape of 
 inmates signifying that its keeper is half boni- 
 face and half county jailer bounds it on the east, 
 the Court House and Town Hall, separate build 
 ings, flank it on the west. The Xewfane Hotel 
 rambles along half of its northern side, and the 
 Field mansion, with its front garden stretching to 
 the road, does the same for the southern half. In 
 the rear, and facing the opening between the Court 
 House and the Town Hall, stands the Congrega 
 tional Church, where Eugene Field crunched cara 
 way-seed biscuits when on a visit to his grand- 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 mother, and back of this stands another church, 
 spotless in the white paint of Puritan New 
 England meeting-houses, but deserted by its congre 
 gation of Baptists, which had dwindled to the 
 vanishing point. In the centre of the village green 
 is a grove of noble elms under whose grateful shade, 
 on the day of my visit to Newfane, I saw a 
 quartette of gray-headed attorneys, playing quoits 
 with horse-shoes. They had come up from Brattle- 
 boro to try a case, which had suffered the usual 
 " law s delay " of a continuance, and were whiling 
 away the hours in the bucolic sport of their ances 
 tors, while the idle villagers enjoyed their unprac 
 tised awkwardness. They all boasted how they 
 could ring the peg when they were boys. 
 
 Hither General Martin Field brought the young, 
 and, as surviving portraits testify, beautiful Mis 
 tress Kellogg to be his wife. Here to them were 
 born " them Field boys," Charles K. (April 24th, 
 1803) and Eoswell M. (February 22d, 1807), 
 destined to be thorns in their father s flesh through 
 out their school-days, his opponents in every justice s 
 court where they could volunteer to match their 
 wits against his, and, in the person of Koswell 
 Martin, to be the distraction and despair of the 
 courts of Windsor County and Vermont, until a 
 decision of the Supreme Court so outraged that 
 
PEDIGREE 
 
 son s sense of the sacredness of the marriage vow, 
 that he shook the granite dust of Vermont from his 
 feet, and turned his face to the west, where he be 
 came the original counsel in the Dred Scott case, 
 married and had sons of his own. 
 
 But before taking up the thread of Roswell Mar 
 tin Field s strange and unique story, let me give a 
 letter written by his father to his sister, Miss Mary 
 Field, then at the school of Miss Emma Willard 
 in Troy, !N". Y., as exhibit number one, that Eugene 
 Field came by his peculiarities, literary and other 
 wise, by direct lineal descent. Roswell was a 
 phenomenal scholar, as his own eldest son was not. 
 At the age of eleven he was ready for college, and 
 entered Middlebury with his brother Charles, his 
 senior by four years. How they conducted them 
 selves there may be judged from this letter to their 
 sister: 
 
 NEWFANE, March 31st, 1822. 
 
 DEAR MARY: 
 
 I sit down to write you my last letter while you 
 remain at Troy. Yours by Mr. Eead was received, 
 in which I find you allude to the " severe and satyri- 
 cal language " of mine in a former letter. That let 
 ter was written upon the conduct of my children,, 
 which is an important subject to me. If children are 
 disobedient, a parent has a right to be severe with 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 them. If I recollect right I expressed to you that 
 your two oldest brothers conduct was very reprehen 
 sible, and I there predicted their ruin. But I then 
 little thought that I should soon witness the sad con 
 sequences of their ill-conduct. I received a letter 
 from President Bates about two weeks since and an 
 other from Charles the same day, that Charles had 
 been turned away and forever dismissed from the col 
 lege for his misconduct ; Eoswell must suffer a public 
 admonition and perhaps more punishment for his evil 
 deeds. Charles was turned out of college the 7th of 
 March, and I wrote on the week after to have him 
 come directly home, but we have heard nothing from 
 him since. Where he is we can form no conjecture. 
 But probably he is five hundred miles distant without 
 money and without friends. I leave you to con 
 jecture the rest. Roswell is left alone at the age of 
 fifteen to get along, if he is permitted to stay through 
 college. 
 
 These, Mary, are the consequences of dissipation 
 and bad conduct. And seeing as I do the temper 
 and disposition of my children, that they "are in 
 clined to evil and that continually," can you wonder 
 that I write with severity to them? Our hopes are 
 blasted as relates to Charles and Roswell, and you 
 cannot conceive the trouble which they have given us. 
 Your mother is almost crazy about them; nor are 
 we without fears as to you. I say now, as I said 
 in my former letter, that I wish my children were all 
 
GENERAL MARTIN FIELD. 
 
 Eugene Field s Grandfather. 
 
PEDIGREE 
 
 at home at work. I am convinced that an education 
 will only prove injurious to them. If I had as many 
 sons as had the patriarch Jacob not one should ever 
 again go nigh a college. It is not a good calculation 
 to educate children for destruction. The boys con 
 duct has already brought a disgrace upon our family 
 which we can never outgrow. They undoubtedly 
 possess respectable talents and genius, but what are 
 talents worth when wholly employed in mischief ? 
 
 I have expended almost two thousand dollars in 
 educating the boys, and now just at the close they are 
 sent off in disgrace and infamy. The money is noth 
 ing in comparison to the disgrace and ruin that must 
 succeed. Mary, think of these things often, and es 
 pecially when you feel inclined to be gay and airy. 
 Let your brother s fate be a striking lesson to you. 
 For you may well suppose that you possess something 
 of the same disposition that he does, but I hope that 
 you will exercise more prudence than he has. You 
 must now return home with a fixed resolution to be 
 come a steady, sober, and industrious girl. Give up 
 literary pursuits and quietly and patiently follow that 
 calling which I am convinced is most proper for my 
 children. 
 
 It does appear to me that if children would con 
 sider how much anxiety their parents have for them 
 they would conduct themselves properly, if it was only 
 to gratify their parents. But it is not so. Many of 
 them seem determined not only to wound the feelings 
 
8 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 of the parents in the most cruel manner but also to 
 ruin themselves. 
 
 Kemember us respectfully to Dr. and Mrs. Willard, 
 and I am your affectionate father 
 
 MARTIN* FIELD. 
 
 That Mary did return home to be the mediator 
 between her incensed and stern father and his way 
 ward and mischievous, but not incorrigible sons, is 
 part of the sequel to this letter. What her daugh 
 ter, Mary Field French, afterwards became to the 
 sons of the younger of the reprehensible pair of 
 youthful collegians will appear later on in this 
 narrative. It is beautifully acknowledged in the 
 dedication of Eugene Field s " Little Book of 
 Western Verse," which I had the honor of publish 
 ing for the subscribers in 1889, more than three 
 score years after the date of the foregoing letter. 
 In that dedication, with the characteristic license of 
 a true artist, Field credited the choice of Miss 
 French for the care of his youthful years to his 
 mother: 
 
 A dying mother gave to you 
 
 Her child a many years ago; 
 How in your gracious love he grew, 
 
 You know dear, patient heart, you know. 
 
PEDIGEEE 
 
 To you I dedicate this book, 
 And> as you read it line by line, 
 
 Upon its faults as kindly look 
 As you have always looked on mine. 
 
 In truth, however, it was the living bereaved 
 father who turned in the bewilderment of his grief 
 to the " dear patient heart " of his sister, to find a 
 second mother for his two motherless boys. To 
 Martin Field, Mary was a guardian daughter, to 
 Charles K. and Eoswell M. 1st, she was a loyal and 
 mediating sister, and to Eugene and Roswell M. 
 2d, she was a loving aunt, as her daughter Mary 
 was an indulgent mother and unfailing friend. The 
 last name survived " the love and gratitude " of 
 Eugene s dedication ten years. 
 
 As may have been surmised the parental fore 
 bodings of the grieved and satirical General Field 
 were not realized in the eternal perdition of his two 
 sons. Education did not prove their destruction. 
 With more than respectable talents Charles was 
 reinstated at Middlebury, and four months later 
 graduated with high honors, while Roswell took his 
 degree when only fifteen years old, the plague and 
 admiration of his preceptors, and, we may well 
 suppose, the pride and joy of the agonized parents, 
 who welcomed the graduates to Newfane with all 
 the profusion of a prodigal father and the love of a 
 
10 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 distracted but doting mother. They never had any 
 reason to doubt the nature of sister Mary s re 
 ception. 
 
 Charles and Koswell studied law with their 
 father in the quaint little office detached from the 
 Field homestead at Newfane. The word edifice 
 might fittingly be applied to this building which, 
 though only one room square and one story high, 
 has a front on the public square, with miniature 
 Greek columns to distinguish it from the ordinary 
 outbuildings that are such characteristic appendages 
 of New England houses. The troubles of General 
 Field with his two sons were not to end when he got 
 them away from the temptations of college life, for 
 they were prone to mischief, " and that contin 
 ually," even under his severe and watchful eye. 
 This took one particular form which is the talk of 
 Windham County even yet. By reason of their 
 presence in General Field s office they were early 
 apprised of actions at law which he was retained to 
 institute; whereupon they sought out the defend 
 ant and offered their services to represent him gratis. 
 Thus the elder counsellor frequently found himself 
 pitted in the justice s courts against his keen-witted 
 and graceless sons, who availed themselves of every 
 obsolete technicality, quirk, and precedent of the 
 law to obstruct justice and worry their dignified 
 
ESTHER S. FIELD. 
 Eugene Field s Grandmother. 
 
PEDIGREE 11 
 
 parent, whom they addressed as " our learned but 
 erring brother in the law." Not infrequently these 
 youthful practitioners triumphed in these legal tilts, 
 to the mortification of their father, who, in his in 
 dignation, could not conceal his admiration for the 
 ingenuity of their misdirected professional zeal. 
 
 Two years after his graduation, and when only 
 seventeen years of age, Eugene Field s father was 
 sufficiently learned in the law to be admitted to the 
 bar of Yermont. They wasted no time in those 
 good old days. Before he was thirty, Roswell M. 
 Field had represented his native town in the General 
 Assembly, had been elected several times State s At 
 torney, and in every way seemed destined to play 
 a notable part in the affairs of Vermont, if not on 
 a broader field. He was not only a lawyer of full 
 and exact learning, an ingenious pleader, and a 
 powerful advocate, but an exceptionally accom 
 plished scholar. His knowledge of Greek, Latin, 
 French, and German rendered their literature a 
 perennial source upon which to draw for the illu 
 mination and embellishment of the pure and virile 
 English of which he was master. It was from him 
 that Eugene inherited his delight in queer and rare 
 objects of vertu and that " rich, strong, musical and 
 sympathetic voice " which would have been invalu 
 able on the stage, and of which he made such capti- 
 
12 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 vating use among his friends. Would that he had 
 also inherited that " strong and athletic " frame 
 which, according to his aged preceptor, enabled 
 Roswell M. Field to graduate at the age of fifteen. 
 It is not, however, for his learning and accom 
 plishments of mind and person that we are interested 
 in Roswell Martin Field, but for the strange inci 
 dent in his life that uprooted him from the con 
 genial environments of New England and the career 
 opening so temptingly before him, to transplant him 
 to Missouri, there to become the father of a youth, 
 who, by all laws of heredity and by the peculiar 
 tang of his genius, should have been born and 
 nurtured amid the stern scenes and fixed customs 
 of Puritan New England. That story must be told 
 in another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 
 
 Many a time and oft in our walks and talks has 
 Eugene Field told me the story I am about to re 
 late, but never with the particularity of detail and 
 the authority of absolute data with which I have 
 " comprehended it," as he would say, in the follow 
 ing pages. It was his wish that it should be told, 
 and I follow his injunction the more readily, as in 
 its relation I am able to demonstrate how clearly 
 the son inherited his peculiar literary mode from the 
 father. 
 
 It may be said further that, had the remarkable 
 situation which grew out of Roswell M. Field s first 
 marriage occurred one hundred years earlier, or 
 had it occurred in our own day in a state like Ken 
 tucky, it would have provoked a feud that could 
 only have been settled by blood, while it might 
 readily have imbrued whole counties. Even in 
 Vermont it stirred up animosities which occupied 
 the attention of the courts for years, and which 
 the lapse of nearly two generations has not wholly 
 
 13 
 
14 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 eradicated from the memory of old inhabitants. 
 In the opening remarks of the opinion of the Su 
 preme Court, in one of several cases growing out 
 of it, I find the following statement: "It would 
 be inexpedient to recapitulate the testimony in a 
 transaction which was calculated to call up exas 
 perated feelings, which has apparently taxed in 
 genuity and genius to criminate and recriminate, 
 where a deep sense of injury is evidently felt and 
 expressed by the parties to the controversy, and 
 where this state of feeling has extended, as it was 
 to be expected, to all the immediate friends of the 
 parties, who from their situation were necessarily 
 compelled to become witnesses and to testify in the 
 case." 
 
 In the relation of this story I shall substitute 
 Christian names for the surnames of the parties out 
 side of the Field family, although all have become 
 public property and the principals are dead. The 
 scene is laid in the adjoining counties of Windham 
 and Windsor in the Green Mountain State, and 
 this is how it happened: 
 
 There lived at Windsor, in the county of the same 
 name, a widow named Susanna, and she was well- 
 to-do according to the modest standard of the times. 
 She was blest with a goodly family of sons and 
 daughters, among whom was Mary Almira, a 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 15 
 
 maiden fair to look upon and impressionable withal. 
 Now it befell that Mary Almira, while still very 
 young, was sent to school at the Academy in 
 Leicester, Mass., where she met, and, in the lan 
 guage of the law, formed " a natural and virtuous 
 attachment " with a student named Jeremiah, sent 
 thither by his guardian from Oxbridge in the state 
 last before mentioned. They met, vowed eternal 
 devotion and parted, as many school-children have 
 done before and will do again. 
 
 After her return to Windsor, Jeremiah seemingly 
 faded from the thoughts of Mary Almira, so that 
 when she subsequently accompanied her mother on 
 a visit to Montreal, she felt free to experience " a 
 sincere and lively affection " for a Canadian youth 
 named Elder. So lively was this affection that 
 when Jeremiah next saw Mary Almira it had com 
 pletely effaced him from her memory. Nothing 
 daunted, however, being then of the mature age of 
 eighteen years and eight months, and two years 
 Mary s senior, he resumed the siege of her heart, 
 and in short order their engagement was duly 
 " promulgated and eyen notorious." 
 
 Before Mary succumbed to the second suit of 
 Jeremiah, she waited for a pledge of affection from 
 young Mister Elder in the shape of an album in 
 which he was to have forwarded a communication, 
 
16 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 and it was " in the bitterness of her disappointment 
 at not receiving a letter, message, or remembrance 
 from Mister Elder that she formed the engagement 
 with Jeremiah, in order that she might gratify her 
 resentment by sending the news of the same to 
 Mister Elder." This she did with a peremptory re 
 quest for the return of her album without the leaves 
 on which he had written. What was her chagrin 
 and unavailing remorse on receiving the album to 
 find that every leaf was cut out but one, a mute 
 witness to her " infidelity to her early lover." 
 Small wonder that " her tenderness revived," and 
 " she cursed the hour in which she had formed the 
 precipitate engagement with Jeremiah, and often 
 times she shed over that album tears of heartfelt 
 sorrow and regret." At least so we are told in the 
 pleadings, from which authentic source I draw my 
 quotations. 
 
 Now Mary was nothing if not precipitate, for all 
 this came to pass in the spring or summer of 1831, 
 when she was not quite sweet seventeen. It also 
 happened without the knowledge or concern of Ros- 
 well Martin Field, who was a young and handsome 
 bachelor of quick wit and engaging manners, living 
 at Fayetteville in the neighboring county, " know 
 ing nothing at that time of the said Mary Almira, 
 her lovers, suitors, promises, engagements, inti- 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 17 
 
 macies, visits or movements whatsoever." He was 
 soon to know. 
 
 In the summer of 1832 it happened that Mary 
 Almira was on a visit to Mrs. Jonathan, her cousin 
 german, the wife of Justice Jonathan of Brattle- 
 boro, Yt. And now fate began to take a swift 
 and inexplicable interest in the affairs of Mary and 
 Roswell. On August 30th, 1832, in company with 
 Mrs. Jonathan and Mrs. French (the Mary Field of 
 the first chapter of this book), Miss Mary Almira 
 visited Fayetteville, and, we are told, " when the 
 chaise containing the said ladies arrived Roswell 
 advanced to hand them out, and then for the first 
 time saw and was introduced to said Mary Almira, 
 who received him with a nod and a broad good- 
 humored laugh." She remained over night, the 
 guest of Mrs. French, and Roswell saw her only for 
 a few moments in his sister s sitting-room. What 
 occurred is naively told under oath in the following 
 extract from the pleadings: 
 
 " Some conversation of a general nature passed 
 between them, and as the said Mary Almira was a 
 young lady of very pleasing face and form and 
 agreeable manners, it is by no means improbable 
 that he (Roswell) manifested to said Mary Almira 
 that in those matters he was not wholly devoid of 
 sensibility and discernment." The next morning 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
18 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Mary returned to Brattleboro with Mrs. Jonathan, 
 and Roswell " did not then expect ever to see her 
 more." 
 
 But it was otherwise decreed, for after the lapse 
 of eleven days Justice Jonathan had professional 
 business in Fayetteville, and, lo! Mary Almira at 
 tended him. It was Tuesday, September llth, 
 when for a second time she dawned on the discern 
 ing view of Roswell. For eight days she lingered 
 as a guest of Mrs. French, whose brother began to 
 show signs of awakening sensibility, although at 
 this time informed of the unbroken pact between 
 Mary Almira and Jeremiah. How young love took 
 its natural course is told in the pleadings by Ros 
 well with protests " against the manifest breach of 
 delicacy and decorum of calling him into this Hon 
 orable Court to render an account of his attentions 
 to a lady," and " more especially when that lady is 
 his lawful wedded wife." 
 
 "When Mary had been in Fayetteville four days 
 it happened that Justice Jonathan was called to 
 "Westminster. When asked if she was inclined to 
 accompany him, Mary turned to Roswell and " in 
 quired with a smile if it was not likely to 
 rain?" and Roswell confesses "that he told her 
 that it would be very imprudent for her to set 
 out." 
 
ROSWELL MARTIN FIELD. 
 
 Eugene Field s Father, 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 19 
 
 Still protesting against the manifest indelicacy 
 of the revelation, Roswell has told for us the story 
 of his first advances upon the citadel of Mary s 
 affections in words as cunningly chosen as were 
 ever the best passages in the writings of his son 
 Eugene. It was on the evening of September 13th 
 that these advances first passed the outworks of 
 formal civility. " When bidding the said Mary 
 Almira good-night in the sitting-room of Mrs. 
 French, as he was about to retire into his lodg 
 ings, Roswell plucked a leaf from the rosebush in 
 the room, kissed it, and presented it to her; on 
 the next day when he saw the said Mary Almira 
 she took from her bosom a paper, unfolded it, and 
 showed Roswell a leaf (the same, he supposes, that 
 was presented the evening before), neatly stitched 
 on the paper, and which she again carefully folded 
 and replaced in her bosom." 
 
 Another evening they played at chess, and with 
 her permission Roswell named the queen Miss Al 
 mira, and he bent all his energies to the capture 
 of that particular piece. He sacrificed every point 
 of the game to that object, and when it was trium 
 phantly achieved, " took note of the pleasure and 
 delight manifested by said Mary Almira at the 
 ardor with which he pursued his object and kissed 
 his prize." On still another occasion " Jeremiah 
 
20 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 was introduced into the game as a black bishop, 
 but very soon was exchanged for a pawn." 
 
 On the day when Roswell advised Mary that it 
 would be imprudent for her to accompany Justice 
 Jonathan to Westminster, she was " graciously 
 pleased to make, with her own fair hand, a pocket 
 pin-cushion of blue silk and to put the same into 
 Roswell s hands, at the same time remarking that 
 blue was the emblem of love and constancy," and 
 Roswell " confesses that he received the same with 
 a profound bow." 
 
 They were now in the rapids, with Jeremiah 
 forgotten on the bank. 
 
 Roswell complimented " the beauty of said Al- 
 mira s hair, whereupon she graciously consented to 
 present him with a lock of the same, and he humbly 
 confesses that he accepted, kissed, and pressed it 
 to his heart." 
 
 Next morning, as they stood side by side, with 
 Roswell holding her hand " and carelessly turning 
 over the leaves of a Bible," his eye accidentally 
 rested on this passage of the book of Jeremiah: 
 " As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with 
 me as seemeth good and meet unto you." And 
 " thereupon he pointed out such text to said Mary 
 Almira, and she responded to the same with a blush 
 and a smile." Roswell further confessed, " that 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 21 
 
 with the kind permission of said Mary Almira he 
 did at various times press the hand of said Mary 
 Almira, and with her like gracious permission did 
 kiss her hand, her cheek, and her lips." Who, with 
 such kind and gracious permission, would have 
 confined himself to remarks about the weather? 
 
 Such were the only " artifices and persuasions, 
 ways and means " by which Roswell came between 
 Mary Almira and the promise she had made to the 
 absent Jeremiah the same ways and means that 
 have been employed from the days of Adam, and 
 which will be successful while woman is fair and 
 man is bold. It was RoswelFs belief that " his 
 attentions and addresses were from the first agree 
 able to Mary s feelings and welcome to her heart," 
 and he swore " that they were always permitted 
 and received with great kindness and sweetness of 
 manner." 
 
 When Mary left Fayetteville, on Wednesday, 
 September 19th, it was " appointed " that he 
 should call on her at Brattleboro on the following 
 Wednesday, and like a true knight he kept his 
 tryst. That his reception was not frigid may be 
 inferred from the record of the calls that followed 
 in rapid succession, to-wit: Thursday afternoon; 
 Monday, October 2d, evening; Tuesday afternoon 
 and evening; Wednesday afternoon and evening; 
 
22 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Wednesday (October 9th) afternoon and evening; 
 Friday evening; Saturday evening, and Sunday 
 forenoon and evening. 
 
 ~No wonder the report of the bombardment 
 reached the ears of widow Susanna at Windsor, 
 fifty miles away, and Justice and Mrs. Jonathan 
 " expostulated with Mary Almira upon the impro 
 priety, as they called it, of her receiving the 
 attentions of Roswell without informing her 
 mother." 
 
 Space forbids the recital of the uninterrupted, 
 undisturbed, and agreeable conversations between 
 the young twain that are to be found in the plead 
 ings in this case. They were brought to a sharp 
 conclusion by the receipt of a letter from Susanna 
 ordering her daughter to return to Windsor forth 
 with. Justice Jonathan remarked that Mrs. Susan 
 na was " undoubtedly right, for this young lady 
 ought not to be receiving the gallantries from one 
 young gentleman when she was under engagement 
 to another." 
 
 The mother s letter was received Saturday even 
 ing, October 12th, and produced consternation in 
 the breasts of the young lovers, Mary clinging 
 around Roswell s neck " with all the ardor of 
 youthful, passionate love." They resolved to wed 
 without the knowledge, consent, or blessing of Mrs. 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 23 
 
 Susanna or Jeremiah, and on the morning of Oc 
 tober 15th, 1832, Koswell went to the house of 
 Justice Jonathan by appointment " to be joined in 
 marriage unto said Mary Almira according to law." 
 Justice and Mrs. Jonathan expostulated against 
 such a marriage without Mrs. Susanna being first 
 consulted, and after a long conference Justice 
 Jonathan flatly declined to tie the civil knot. It 
 was finally decided that the marriage should take 
 place at Putney, a small town of Windham County, 
 some twelve miles on the Post-road to Windsor. 
 Justice Jonathan proceeded with the young lady 
 in his carriage, and in due course arrived at Put 
 ney. There he was surprised to find the ardent 
 and impatient Roswell, who, although behind at 
 the start, had passed him on the way, and had al 
 ready made the necessary preparations with Justice 
 of the Peace Asa to perform the statutory cere 
 mony. This followed " in a solemn, serious, and 
 impressive manner in the front room of the public 
 house, the said Jonathan alone being present be 
 sides the parties and the magistrate." 
 
 The relations of Roswell and Mary Almira as 
 man and wife began and ended before Justice Asa 
 in that public house in Putney. In the language 
 of the pleadings: "Immediately, within a few 
 minutes after said marriage ceremony, said Mary 
 
24 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Almira went with Justice Jonathan toward Wind 
 sor, and Roswell in a short time returned to his 
 residence at Fayetteville." 
 
 There were deeper consequences involved in that 
 simple parting than could have been imagined by 
 any of the parties or than are concealed in the 
 musty and voluminous court records of Windsor 
 County and the state of Vermont. 
 
 Eugene Field had an entirely different concep 
 tion of the nature of this marriage from that re 
 vealed by the record. According to his version, 
 there was an old blue law in Vermont which ren 
 dered it necessary, in order to exonerate the groom 
 in a runaway match from any other motive than 
 love and affection, that the bride should be divested 
 of all her earthly goods. So when Mary Almira 
 arrived at Putney he thought that she retired to 
 a closet, removed her clothing, and, thrusting her 
 arm through a hole in the door, was joined in holy 
 wedlock to Eoswell, who, with the Justice and the 
 witnesses, remained in the outer room. 
 
 Eugene Field undoubtedly derived this version 
 of his father s marriage from the tradition of one 
 that actually took place in the Field mansion on 
 Newfane Hill in 1789. That was the marriage 
 of Major Moses Joy of Putney to Mrs. Hannah 
 Wood of Newfane, and the unique nature of the 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 25 
 
 proceedings followed legal advice in order to avoid 
 any responsibility for the debts of Mrs. Ward s 
 former husband, who had died insolvent. The 
 story which I find in the Centennial history of 
 Newfane is as follows: 
 
 " Mrs. Ward placed herself in a closet with a 
 tire-woman, who stripped her of all clothing, and 
 while in a perfectly nude state she thrust her fair 
 round arm through a diamond hole in the door of 
 the closet, and the gallant Major clasped the hand 
 of the nude and buxom widow, and was married in 
 due form by the j oiliest parson in Vermont. At 
 the close of the ceremony the tire-woman dressed 
 the bride in a complete wardrobe which the Major 
 had provided and caused to be deposited in the 
 closet at the commencement of the ceremony. She 
 came out elegantly dressed in silk, satin, and lace, 
 and there was kissing all around." 
 
 To resume our story. On leaving Putney, ac 
 companied by Justice Jonathan, Mary Almira re 
 turned to her mother s residence at Windsor. 
 Nothing was communicated to Mrs. Susanna or 
 to the relatives of the young bride in regard to the 
 ceremony at Putney. But they, being aware of 
 the engagement to Jeremiah, and having heard 
 rumors of the attentions of Roswell, thought pro 
 priety demanded an early fulfilment of the prior 
 
 v/ 
 
 <v 
 
 c 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 engagement. On the day of her arrival home, and 
 on October 21st and 31st, Mary wrote to Roswell 
 letters, from which we have the assurance of the 
 Supreme Court of Vermont: " It would appear 
 that she entertained a strong affection for him and 
 prohably viewed him as the husband with whom 
 she should thereafter live, although the last letter 
 does not breathe the same affection as the former 
 ones." 
 
 But the plot was thickening. On the day after 
 her return home Mary also wrote to Jeremiah 
 in Boston, and a fortnight had not elapsed before 
 she wrote again, " a very pressing letter, urging 
 him to come immediately to Windsor." Roswell 
 learned from Mary s letters that her friends were 
 opposed to her forming any connection, except with 
 Jeremiah, and he made the mistake of replying 
 by letter instead of appearing in person, urging his 
 claims and carrying off his bride. 
 
 Some time before the 1st of November the 
 family of Mary had heard of the ceremony at Put 
 ney, for on Jeremiah s arrival, in lover-like com 
 pliance with her urgent message, he was informed 
 of the situation. After a hurried council of war, 
 and under legal advice, the following letter was 
 drafted and forwarded to Roswell by the hands of 
 Judge Bikens, the family lawyer: 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 27 
 
 To MR. ROSWELL FIELD: 
 
 Sir: Moments of deep consideration and much re 
 flection have at length caused me to see in its proper 
 light the whole of my late visit to Brattleboro. That 
 I have been led by you and others to a course of con 
 duct which my own feelings, reason, and sense entire 
 ly disapprove, is now very clear to me. I therefore 
 write this to inform you that I am not willing on 
 any account to see you again. Neither will I by any 
 course you can adopt be prevailed upon to view the 
 matter in a different light from what I now do. I 
 leave you the alternative of forever preventing the 
 public avowal of a disgraceful transaction, of which 
 
 you yourself said you were ashamed. 
 
 MARY A. 
 
 This veiled repudiation of the marriage at Put 
 ney was placed in Roswell s hands by Judge 
 Bikens and was instantly " pronounced an impu 
 dent forgery." Being in the dark as to how far 
 Mary s family had been informed of their mar 
 riage, Koswell avoided any expression that might 
 reveal it to Judge Bikens, and refused to accept the 
 letter as a true expression of his wife s feelings 
 and wishes. He at once wrote to her, urging that 
 their marriage should be made public and that thus 
 an end should be put to the suit of Jeremiah. To 
 this Mary made reply that the above letter " con 
 tained her real sentiments." Before this note 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 reached Fayetteville Roswell had started for Wind 
 sor. On the way he halted his horse at Putney, 
 where he learned that Mary s family was fully in 
 formed of the marriage as performed by Justice 
 Asa. 
 
 A very embarrassing interview followed between 
 Roswell and the family of his recalcitrant bride. 
 On entering the room he advanced to Mary, and, 
 extending his hand, " asked her how she did." But 
 she looked at her mother and rejected his hand. A 
 similar advance to Mrs. Susanna met with a like 
 rebuff. Being considerately left alone in the room 
 with Mary Almira by her mother and brother, 
 who, with a sister, stood at the door listening, Ros 
 well had what he was not disposed to regard as a 
 private audience with his legal wife. In answer 
 to his natural inquiry as to what it all meant, Mary 
 said that since she had come home and thought it 
 all over she found that she did love Jeremiah ; that 
 Jeremiah had been very kind to her, and she 
 thought she ought to marry Jeremiah. 
 
 Roswell inquired how she could do that, as she 
 was already married. 
 
 " Why," said the fickle Mary, " you can give 
 up the certificate; let it all go and nobody will 
 know anything about it." After some natural 
 remonstrances, Mary continued: "Come, now, 
 
HIS FATHERS FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 29 
 
 you ve got the certificate in your pocket, and you 
 can give it up just as well as not and let me marry 
 Jeremiah/ at the same time holding out her hand 
 as if for the document. 
 
 The startling effrontery of the proposal provoked 
 Roswell, and he told her that so far as a separation 
 from himself was concerned she should be gratified 
 to her heart s content, and that while she remained 
 as she was he would not divulge the marriage, but 
 he warned her that if she should attempt marriage 
 with another he would publish the marriage at 
 Putney in every parish church and newspaper in 
 New England. 
 
 At this point the private interview was inter 
 rupted by the hasty entrance of Mistress Susanna, 
 who advanced in great agitation, as the pleadings 
 inform us, and said to Roswell: 
 
 " Mister Field, why can t you give up that stif- 
 fiket " (meaning, as he supposed, certificate) " and 
 let things be as if they had never been? " 
 
 Thereupon " Mister Field " proceeded to point 
 out to the entire family of Mary Almira, which 
 had assembled from the doors and keyholes where 
 they had been eavesdropping, " the wickedness and 
 folly of Mistress Susanna s request." One of 
 Mary s brothers admitted that RoswelPs refusal 
 " to connive to the dishonor of his wife " was cor- 
 
30 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 rect and honorable, and that he should not be asked 
 to make any such arrangement. 
 
 Roswell was greatly shocked and disgusted at 
 the appearance, language, and manner of Mary 
 Almira, and he was borne out in his impression of 
 her character by the admission of one brother that 
 she was " a giddy, inconsistent, unprincipled girl," 
 and by that of another that " she was a volatile 
 coquette, who did not know her own mind from 
 day to day." 
 
 Roswell remained in Windsor three days, but did 
 not again see Mary Almira; whereupon, feeling 
 that nothing was to be gained by exposing " him 
 self to renewed insults, he returned home for a few 
 days." 
 
 It appears that all this time Jeremiah was lurk 
 ing in the vicinity, holding secret interviews with 
 Mary and her family, and " devising ways and 
 means " for the bigamous marriage which, accord 
 ing to the belief of Roswell, was performed between 
 Jeremiah and Mary Almira somewhere in New 
 Hampshire between the 14th and 27th of No 
 vember. Roswell M. Field never recognized the 
 legality of any such ceremony or that Mary and 
 Jeremiah had the lawful right to intermarry while 
 the marriage at Putney remained in full force and 
 effect. He had reason to be thankful for his escape 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 31 
 
 from a union for life with a woman of such frivo 
 lous nature and easy indifference to the most sacred 
 obligations of human and divine law. But he 
 would not permit himself to become a silent co 
 partner in what, to his strict notion of the inviola 
 bility of the marriage contract, was one of the most 
 heinous crimes against society and morals. He, 
 therefore, took every means in his power to bring 
 obloquy and punishment upon the guilty parties. 
 He instituted various proceedings at law to test the 
 validity of the marriage at Putney. He, among 
 other measures, filed a petition in the Probate 
 Court to secure an accounting from Mistress Su 
 sanna as guardian of the estate of his wife Mary 
 Almira. But Susanna avoided the issue by a 
 technical plea. 
 
 He brought an action of ejectment in the name 
 of himself and Mary Almira to recover possession 
 of a tenement in Windsor of which she was the 
 owner, and secured judgment without any defence 
 being offered. 
 
 He secured the indictment of one of her brothers 
 in the United States District Court for having 
 opened one of his letters to his wife. 
 
 He presented a statement of the facts of the ab 
 duction and bigamous marriage of Mary Almira to 
 the Grand Jury of Windsor County, and procured 
 
32 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 an indictment against her two brothers and Mary 
 Almira and Jeremiah " for conspiracy to carry her 
 without the state of \ 7 "ermont " to become the 
 bigamous wife of Jeremiah. 
 
 He followed Jeremiah and Mary to Boston in 
 July, 1833, and laid the matter before the Grand 
 Jury there, but before any action could be taken 
 Jeremiah and Mary Almira " withdrew from the 
 city of Boston, left New England, took passage 
 at the city of New York in an outward bound ves 
 sel, and retired to the other side of the Atlantic." 
 
 Out of one of the actions instituted in the name 
 of Roswell Field and Mary Almira, his wife, grew 
 a libel suit, brought by Mistress Susanna against 
 him, in which the special pleas drawn and filed by 
 Roswell Field were pronounced by Justice Story 
 " to be masterpieces of special pleading." Through 
 all these proceedings Mr. Field disclaimed all in 
 tention or wish " to visit legal pains and penalties " 
 upon his wife, whom he regarded " as the victim 
 and scapegoat of a wicked conspiracy." 
 
 Finally, and after the birth of a child, Jeremiah 
 and Mary Almira were forced to bring a suit for 
 the nullification of the Putney marriage. Field 
 met the complaint with a plea that set out all the 
 facts. He contended that, as the Putney mar 
 riage was between persons of legal discretion and 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 33 
 
 consent, there could be no condition that would 
 render it voidable at the election of either. Every 
 law and precedent was in favor of the inviolability 
 of the Putney marriage, and yet so powerful were 
 the family influences and so distressing would have 
 been the results of a finding in his favor, that the 
 lower court preferred to disregard precedents and 
 law rather than illegitimatize the innocent chil 
 dren of Jeremiah and Mary. The same view was 
 taken by the higher court, which absolved Mary 
 of " being fully acquainted with the legal conse 
 quences of a solemnization of marriage." The 
 court itself was forced to regard the ceremony as 
 " a promise or engagement to marry," rather than 
 a completed and sacred contract. The opinion as 
 rendered is one long apology for declaring the 
 Putney marriage invalid, in order to save Mary 
 Almira from the crime of bigamy and her children 
 from being the offspring of an illicit union. 
 
 The conclusion of the opinion reflects the spirit 
 in which it was rendered. " It may be proper to 
 add," said the court, " that we are not disposed to 
 animadvert on the conduct of the parties or of 
 their respective friends and connections, nor to pro 
 nounce any opinion further than is required to 
 show the grounds of our determination. The im 
 mediate parties may find some excuse or palliation 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
34 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 in the thoughtlessness of youth, the strength of 
 affection, the pangs of disappointment and blighted 
 hopes, in versatility of feeling to which all are sub 
 ject, and in constitutional temperament. The con 
 duct of the friends of either is not to be judged of 
 nor censured in consequence of the unfortunate 
 results which have attended this truly unfortunate 
 case. In judging of the past transactions of others, 
 which have terminated either favorably or unfavor 
 ably, we are apt to say that a different course was 
 required and would have produced a different effect. 
 But who can say what would have been the inev 
 itable consequences of a different line of conduct 
 by the friends of either party? The infatuation 
 and the determination of the parties to pursue that 
 course which was most agreeable to their own feel 
 ings and views, placed their friends and acquaint 
 ances in a very unpleasant situation, and it would 
 be wrong for us now to say that they were not 
 actuated by good motives, and did not pursue that 
 line of conduct which they thought at the time 
 duty dictated. We inquire not as to the conduct 
 of others, we censure them not, nor do we say any 
 thing as to the parties before us, except what has 
 been thought necessary in deciding the case." 
 
 The decree of nullification was affirmed in July, 
 1839, and before the close of the year Roswell M. 
 
HIS FATHER S FIRST LOVE-AFFAIR 35 
 
 Field had shaken the dust of Vermont from his 
 feet and taken up his residence in St. Louis. Thus 
 Vermont lost the most brilliant young advocate of 
 his day, and Missouri gained the lawyer who was 
 to adorn its bar and institute the proceedings for 
 the manumission of Dred Scott, the slave, whose 
 case defined the issues of our Civil AVar. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DRED SCOTT CASE 
 
 Vermont s loss was Missouri s gain. The young 
 lawyer, who had been admitted to the bar of his 
 native state at the age of eighteen, was fully 
 equipped to match his learning, wit, and persua 
 sive manners against such men as Benton, Gamble, 
 an<l Bates, who were the leaders of the Missouri 
 l>jtr when, in 1839, Roswell Field took up his resi 
 dence in St. Louis. Now it was that his familiarity 
 and facility with French, German, and Spanish 
 stood him in good stead and, combined with his 
 solid legal attainments, speedily won for him the 
 rank f the ablest lawyer in his adopted state. 
 
 15i it Roswell Field brought from Vermont some 
 thing more than an exceptional legal equipment 
 and the familiarity with the languages that is 
 ary t<> a mastery of the intricate old Spanish 
 and French claims which were plastered over 
 Missouri in those early days. He had inherited 
 through his mother, from her grim old Puritan 
 ancestors, the positive opinions and unquenchable 
 
 36 
 
TIIK DRED SCOTT CASK 37 
 
 sense of duty that constitute the far famed N ew 
 England conscience. He was born with a repug 
 nance to slavery, whet her of the will or of the body, 
 and grew to manhood in the days when the ques 
 tion of the extension of negro slavery to the states 
 and territories was the subject of fierce debate 
 throughout the union. He had fixed convict ions 
 on the subject when he left New fane, and he car 
 ried them with him to the farther bank of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 It is to the uncompromising New England con 
 science of Roswell Field that his countrymen owe 
 the institution of the proceedings that finally de 
 veloped into the Dred Scott case, in which tho 
 question of the legal status of a negro was passed 
 upon by the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 This is very properly regarded as the most cele 
 brated of the many important cases adjudicated 
 by our highest tribunal, for not only did it settle 
 the status of Dred Scott temporarily, but the de 
 cision handed down by Chief Justice Taney is the 
 great classic of a great bench. It denied the legal 
 existence of the African race as persons in Amer 
 ican society and in constitutional law, and also 
 denied the supremacy of Congress over the terri 
 tories and the constitutionality of the " Missouri 
 Compromise." Eour years of civil war were nee- 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 essary to overrule this sweeping opinion of Chief 
 Justice Taney s, which is still referred to with awe 
 and veneration by a large minority, if not by a 
 majority, of the legal profession. 
 
 To Roswell Field belongs the honor of institut 
 ing the original action for Dred Scott, without fee 
 or expectation of compensation. The details of 
 this celebrated case, after it got into the United 
 States courts, are a part of the history of our coun 
 try. What I am about to relate is scarcely known 
 outside of the old Court House and Hall of Rec 
 ords in St. Louis. 
 
 Dred Scott was a negro slave of Dr. Emerson, 
 a surgeon in the United States Army, then sta 
 tioned in Missouri. Dr. Emerson took Scott with 
 him when, in 1834, he moved to Illinois, a free 
 state, and subsequently to Fort Snelling, Wis. 
 This territory, being north of 36 degrees and 30 
 minutes, was free soil under the Missouri Com 
 promise of 1820. At Fort Snelling, Scott mar 
 ried a colored woman who had also been taken as 
 a slave from Missouri. When Dr. Emerson re 
 turned to Missouri he brought Dred Scott, his 
 wife, and child with him. The case came to the 
 attention of Roswell Field, and at once enlisted all 
 his human sympathy and great legal ability. His 
 first petition to the Circuit Court for the County 
 
THE DEED SCOTT CASE 39 
 
 of St. Louis is too important and unique a human 
 document not to be preserved in full. It reads: 
 
 Your petitioner, a man of color, respectfully repre 
 sents that sometime in the year 1835 your petitioner 
 was purchased as a slave by one John Emerson, since 
 deceased, who afterwards, to wit, about the year 1836 
 or 1839, conveyed your petitioner from the State of 
 Missouri to Fort Snelling, a fort then occupied by 
 the troops of the United States, and under the juris 
 diction of the United States, situated in the territory 
 ceded by France to the United States under the name 
 of Louisiana, lying North of 36 degrees and 30 
 minutes North latitude, not included within the lim 
 its of the State of Missouri; and resided and con 
 tinued to reside at said Fort Snelling for upwards of 
 one year, and holding your petitioner in slavery at 
 said Fort during all that time; in violation of the 
 act of Congress of March 6th, 1820, entitled " An 
 act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory to 
 form a constitution and State government and for 
 the admission of such state into the Union on an 
 equal footing with the original states and to prohibit 
 slavery in certain territories." 
 
 Your petitioner avers that said Emerson has since 
 departed this life, leaving a widow, Irene Emerson, 
 and an infant child whose name is unknown to your 
 petitioner, and that one Alexander Sandford has ad 
 ministered upon the estate of said Emerson and that 
 
40 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 your petitioner is now unlawfully held by said Sand- 
 ford as said Administrator and said Irene Emerson 
 who claims your petitioner as part of the estate of 
 said Emerson and by one said Samuel Eussell. 
 
 Your petitioner therefore prays your Honorable 
 Court to grant him leave to sue as a free person in 
 order to establish his right to freedom and that the 
 necessary orders may be made in the premises. 
 
 (Signed) DRED SCOTT. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed \ his 
 
 before me this 1st day > DRED X SCOTT 
 
 July, 1847, ) mark 
 
 PETER W. JOHNSTONE, J. P. 
 
 Upon reading the above petition this day, it being 
 the opinion of the Judge of the Circuit Court that 
 the said petition contains sufficient matter to author 
 ize the commencement of a suit for his freedom, it is 
 hereby ordered that the said petitioner, Dred Scott, 
 be allowed to sue, on giving security satisfactory to 
 the Clerk of the Circuit Court for all costs that may 
 be adjudged against him, and that he have reasonable 
 liberty to attend his counsel and the Court as occa 
 sion may require, and that he be not subjected to any 
 severity on account of this application for his free 
 dom and that he be not removed out of the jurisdic 
 tion of the Court. 
 
 A. HAMILTON, 
 
 Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, 
 
 8th Judicial Circuit, Mo. 
 July 2d, 1847. 
 
THE DEED SCOTT CASE 41 
 
 Having obtained the desired leave to sue from 
 Judge Alexander Hamilton, Eoswell Field pro 
 cured Joseph Charless, one of the leading citizens 
 of St. Louis, to execute the necessary bond for 
 costs. Then he lost no time in filing the follow 
 ing complaint, which I have no doubt Eugene 
 Field would have mortgaged many weeks salary to 
 number among his most precious possessions. He 
 would have cherished it above the Gladstone axe, 
 for, while that felled mighty oaks, this brief docu 
 ment laid the axe at the root of a deadly upas-tree 
 which threatened the destruction of a free republic. 
 I offer no apology for its insertion here: 
 
 STATE OF MISSOURI, ) 
 
 > QQ 
 
 COUNTY OF ST. Louis \ 
 
 CIRCUIT COURT OF ST. Louis, 
 ST. Louis COUNTY. November Term, 1847. 
 Dred Scott, a man of color, by his attorneys, plain 
 tiff in this suit, complains of Alexander Sandford as 
 administrator of the estate of John Emerson deceased, 
 Irene Emerson and Samuel Russell, defendants of a 
 plea of trespass. For that the said defendants here 
 tofore, to wit on the 1st day of July in the year 1846 
 at to wit the County of St. Louis aforesaid with force 
 and arms assaulted the said plaintiff and then and 
 there, beat, bruised, and ill-treated him and then and 
 there imprisoned and kept and detained him in prison 
 there without any reasonable or probable cause what- 
 
42 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 soever, for a long time, to wit for the space of one 
 year, then next following, contrary to law and against 
 the will of the said plaintiff; and the said plaintiff 
 avers that before and at the time of the committing 
 of the grievances aforesaid, he the said plaintiff was 
 then and there and still is a free person, and that 
 the said defendants held and still hold him in slavery, 
 and other wrongs to the said plaintiff then and there 
 did against the peace of the State of Missouri to the 
 damage of the said plaintiff in the sum of ($300) 
 Three Hundred Dollars, and therefore he sues. 
 
 FIELD & HALL, 
 Attys. for Plff. 
 
 With this brief and bald complaint for trespass 
 to the person and false imprisonment was begun a 
 long and stubbornly fought litigation, extending 
 over ten years, and which was destined to end in 
 Chief Justice Taney declaring: 
 
 They [negroes] had for more than a century be 
 fore [the Declaration of Independence] been regard 
 ed as beings of an inferior order, and altogether 
 unfit to associate with the white race, either in social 
 or political relations; and so far inferior that they 
 had no rights which the white man was bound to re 
 spect ; and that the negro might justly and lawfully 
 be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought 
 and sold and treated as an ordinary article of mer- 
 
THE DEED SCOTT CASE 43 
 
 chandise and traffic whenever a profit could be made 
 by it. 
 
 From the beginning of his connection with this 
 case Roswell Field contended for the broad prin 
 ciple enunciated by Lord Mansfield that " Slavery 
 is so odious that nothing can be suffered to sup 
 port it but positive law." He consented to a dis 
 continuance of the original action because of the 
 variance of the complaint from the subsequently 
 discovered facts. In the second suit Dred Scott 
 and his family were declared free by the local 
 court, but the judgment was reversed on appeal to 
 the Supreme Court of the state. Judge Gamble, 
 in dissenting from the opinion of the majority of 
 the Court, held that " In Missouri it has been recog 
 nized from the beginning of the Government as a 
 correct position in law that a master who takes his 
 slave to reside in a state or territory where slavery 
 is prohibited thereby emancipates his slave." 
 
 The subsequent sale of Dred Scott to a citizen 
 of ISTew York named Sandford afforded Roswell 
 Field the opportunity to renew the fight for Scott s 
 freedom in the United States Circuit Court at St. 
 Louis. The case was tried in May, 1854, and it 
 was again declared that Scott and his family " were 
 negro slaves, the lawful property of Sandford." 
 Roswell Field immediately appealed by writ of 
 
44 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 error to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 where the appeal was first argued early in 1856, 
 and a second time in December of the same year. 
 Mr. Field s connection with the case ended when 
 he prepared the papers on appeal and sent his brief 
 to Montgomery Blair, with whom was associated 
 for Scott on the second hearing George Ticknor 
 Curtis. Both of these eminent lawyers emulated 
 the example of Eugene Field s father, who for 
 nearly nine years had devoted a large share of his 
 time and energy to the fight of a penniless negro 
 slave for liberty. 
 
 Looking back now it is almost impossible to 
 realize how the issue in this case stirred the nation 
 to its depth. It was first argued while the country 
 was in the throes of the fierce Fremont-Buchanan 
 campaign, and it was believed that the second 
 hearing was ordered by a pro-slavery court after 
 Buchanan s election, to permit more time in which 
 to formulate the extraordinary decision at which 
 the majority of the court arrived. The decision 
 was political rather than judicial, and challenged 
 the attention of the people beyond any act of the 
 Supreme Court before or since. 
 
 The Civil War was virtually an appeal from the 
 judgment of Chief Justice Taney and his associates 
 to the God of Battles. 
 
THE DRED SCOTT CASE 45 
 
 It must not be thought that a single case, al 
 though the most celebrated in the annals of Amer 
 ican jurisprudence, was Roswell Field s sole claim 
 to the title of leader of the Missouri bar during 
 his lifetime. The records of the Superior Court 
 of that state bear interesting and convincing testi 
 mony to the exceptional brilliancy of Eugene 
 Field s father, while the tributes to his memory, 
 by his brothers at the bar and the judges before 
 whom he appeared, prove that in all the relations 
 of life he fulfilled the promise of ability and genius 
 given in his graduation from college at an age 
 when most boys are entering a preparatory school. 
 
 Before dismissing Koswell Field to take up the 
 story of his son s career, I wish to quote a few 
 passages from a brief memoir which is preserved 
 in the history of Kewfane, as throwing direct 
 hereditary light on the peculiar character, fascinat 
 ing personality, and entertaining genius of his son. 
 
 As I may hereafter have occasion to refer to 
 Eugene Field s political convictions, let us begin 
 these quotations with one as to his father s politics: 
 
 " In the dark days of the Kebellion, during the 
 years 1861 and 1862, when the friends of the 
 Union in St. Louis and Missouri felt that they 
 were in imminent danger of being drawn from 
 their homes and of having their estates confiscated 
 
46 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 by rebels and traitors, General Lyon, General Blair, 
 and R. M. Field were among the calm, loyal, and 
 patriotic men who influenced public action and 
 saved the city and state." 
 
 Those of my readers who knew the son will 
 recognize much that captivated them in this de 
 scription of the father: 
 
 " In his social relations he was a genial and 
 entertaining companion, unsurpassed in conversa 
 tional powers, delighting in witty and sarcastic 
 observations and epigrammatic sentences. He was 
 elegant in his manners and bland and refined in 
 his deportment. He was a skilful musician and 
 passionately fond of children, and it was his wont 
 in early life to gather them in groups about him 
 and beguile them by the hour with the music of 
 the flute or violin. He was actually devoid of all 
 ambition for power and place, and uniformly de 
 clined all offers of advancement to the highest 
 judicial honors of the state." 
 
 From the lips of Samuel Knox, of the St. Louis 
 bar, we have this testimony as to the remarkable 
 extent and versatility of Roswell M. Field s talents : 
 
 " Uniting great industry and acquirements with 
 the most brilliant wit and genius, well and accu 
 rately informed on all subjects, both in science and 
 art; endowed with a memory that retained what- 
 
CHARLES KELLOGG FIELD. 
 
THE DEED SCOTT CASE 47 
 
 ever it received, with quick and clear perceptions, 
 the choicest, most felicitous, and forcible language 
 in which to clothe his thoughts, no one could doubt 
 his meaning or withhold the tribute of wonder at 
 his power." 
 
 To clinch the evidence as to the source from 
 which Eugene Field derived pretty nearly every 
 thing that won for him such meed of fame as fell 
 to his lot, let me quote from an interview with 
 Melvin L. Gray, his guardian and foster-father, 
 printed in the Helena Independent, September 6th, 
 1895, shortly before his idol s death: 
 
 " If I had never believed in the influence of 
 heredity before, I would now, after having known 
 Eugene Field and his father before him. The 
 father was a lawyer of wonderful ability, but he 
 was particularly distinguished by his keen wit, his 
 intense appreciation of the humorous side of life, 
 and his fondness for rare first editions of literary 
 works. He was a profound student, and found 
 much time to cultivate the fairer qualities that 
 some lawyers neglect in the busy round of their 
 profession. Eugene is not a lawyer, but he has 
 his father s tastes, his father s keen wit, and much 
 of the same fineness of character and literary 
 ability. 
 
 " Another point of similarity is found in Eu- 
 
THE DEED SCOTT CASE 47 
 
 ever it received, with quick and clear perceptions, 
 the choicest, most felicitous, and forcible language 
 in which to clothe his thoughts, no one could doubt 
 his meaning or withhold the tribute of wonder at 
 his power." 
 
 To clinch the evidence as to the source from 
 which Eugene Field derived pretty nearly every 
 thing that won for him such meed of fame as fell 
 to his lot, let me quote from an interview with 
 Melvin L. Gray, his guardian and foster-father, 
 printed in the Helena Independent, September 6th, 
 1895, shortly before his idol s death: 
 
 " If I had never believed in the influence of 
 heredity before, I would now, after having known 
 Eugene Field and his father before him. The 
 father was a lawyer of wonderful ability, but he 
 was particularly distinguished by his keen wit, his 
 intense appreciation of the humorous side of life, 
 and his fondness for rare first editions of literary 
 works. He was a profound student, and found 
 much time to cultivate the fairer qualities that 
 some lawyers neglect in the busy round of their 
 profession. Eugene is not a lawyer, but he has 
 his father s tastes, his father s keen wit, and much 
 of the same fineness of character and literary 
 ability. 
 
 " Another point of similarity is found in Eu- 
 
48 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 gene s neglect of financial matters. In his youth 
 the father was equally negligent, although he did 
 subsequently grow more thrifty, and when he died 
 left the boys a little patrimony. As executor I 
 apportioned the money as directed. Both the boys 
 spent it freely while it lasted." 
 
 I find no trace in the father of what, all 
 through life, was the pre-eminent characteristic of 
 Eugene, the inveterate painstaking, mirth-compell 
 ing practical-joker. But in Brattleboro, ]STewfane, 
 and throughout Vermont everybody says, " That s 
 jest like his uncle Charles Kellogg. There was 
 never such another for jest foolin . He d rather 
 play a hoax on the parson that would embarrass 
 him in the face of his congregation than eat." 
 When they were boys, it was Charles that led Ros- 
 well into all kinds of mischief. " Uncle Charles 
 Kellogg " they always give him the benefit of 
 the second name in Brattleboro had a reputation 
 for wit and never-ending badinage throughout the 
 neighborhood that still survives and leaves no room 
 to question whence Eugene inherited his unquench 
 able passion " for jest foolin ." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 
 
 For nine years after moving to St. Louis Ms 
 profession was the sole mistress of Roswell Field s 
 " laborious days " and bachelor nights. Almost 
 coincident with his becoming interested in the case 
 of the slave, Dred Scott, he met, and more to the 
 purpose of this narrative, became interested in Miss 
 Frances Reed, then of St. Louis, but whose parents 
 hailed from Windham County, Vermont. Wheth 
 er their common nativity, or the fact that her father 
 was a professional musician, first brought them to 
 gether, the memory of St. Louis does not disclose. 
 Miss Reed was a young woman of unusual personal 
 charm. All accounts agree that she was quiet and 
 refined in her ways and yet possessed that firmness 
 of mind that is the salt of a quiet nature. They 
 were married in May, 1848, and in the love and 
 domestic happiness of his mature manhood, Ros- 
 well Field found the sweet balm for the bitterness 
 that followed from his youthful romance and the 
 nullification of the Putney marriage. 
 
 Of this union six children were born in the eight 
 49 
 
50 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 years of Mrs. Field s wedded life, only two of whom, 
 Eugene, the second, and Roswell, survived baby 
 hood. There is some uncertainty as to the exact 
 date and location of Eugene s birth. When his 
 father was married he took his bride home to a 
 house on Collins Street, which, under Time s trans 
 muting and ironical fingers, has since become a 
 noisy boiler-shop. There their first child was born. 
 Subsequently they moved to the house, No. 634 
 South Fifth Street (now Broadway), which is one 
 in the middle of a block of houses pointed out in St. 
 Louis as the birthplace of Eugene Field. Although 
 Eugene himself went with the photographer and 
 pointed out the house, his brother Roswell strenu 
 ously maintains that Eugene was born before the 
 family moved to the Walsh row, so-called, and that 
 to the boiler-shop belongs the honor of having heard 
 the first lullabies that greeted the ears of their great 
 est master. 
 
 Roswell s view receives negative corroboration 
 from the testimony of Mrs. Temperance Moon, of 
 Farmington, Utah, who for a time lived in their 
 father s family. Under date of February 25th, 
 1901, Mrs. Moon wrote to me: 
 
 I can give you very little information in regard 
 to Mr. Field s place of birth. It was on Third Street. 
 I do not remember the names of the cross streets, I 
 
EUGENE FIELD S MOTHER. 
 
 From a daguerreotype taken a year or two before his birth 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 51 
 
 think Cherry was one. Eugene was four months old 
 when I went to live with them. I stayed until the 
 family went east for the summer. Mrs. Field s sister 
 was living with them. Her name was Miss Arabella 
 Reed. When they came back Roswell was a few 
 months old. They went to live on Fifth Street in a 
 three-story house. Mrs. Field sent word for me to 
 come and take care of Eugene. I was twelve years 
 old. She gave me full charge of him. I was very 
 proud of the charge. He was a noble child. I loved 
 him as a dear brother. He took great delight in hear 
 ing me read any kind of children s stories and fairy 
 tales. His mother was a lovely woman. I have a 
 book and a picture Eugene sent to me. The pict 
 ure is of him and his mother when he was only six 
 months old. 
 
 Equal and illusive doubt hangs over the date of 
 Eugene Field s birth. Was it September 2d or 3d, 
 1850? In his " Auto- Analysis," of which we shall 
 hear more further along, Field himself gives prefer 
 ence to the latter figure. But as his preference 
 more than half the time went by the rule of con 
 traries, that would be prima-facie evidence that he 
 was born on the earlier date. There again the 
 testimony of the younger brother is to the effect 
 that in their youth the anniversary of Eugene s 
 birth was held to be September 2d. Their father 
 said he could not reconcile his mind to the thought 
 
52 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 that one of his children was born on so memorable 
 an anniversary as September 3d, the day of Crom 
 well s death. I have little doubt that Field him 
 self fostered the irrepressible conflict of dates, on 
 the theory that two birthdays a year afforded a 
 double opportunity to playfully remind his friends 
 of the pleasing duty of an interchange of tokens on 
 such anniversaries. If they forgot September 2d, 
 he could jog their memories that Cromwell s death 
 on September 3d, two centuries before, was no 
 excuse for ignoring his birth on September 3d, 
 1850. 
 
 Whether born on the anniversary of Cromwell s 
 death or in the boiler-shop, no stories of the youth 
 ful precocity of Eugene Field survive to entertain 
 us or to suggest that he gave early indication of the 
 possession either of unusual talent or of that unique 
 personality that were to distinguish him from the 
 thousands born every day. 
 
 But Eugene and Koswell, Jr., were not long to 
 know the watchful tenderness and ambitious solici 
 tude of that " mother love " of which the elder 
 has so sweetly sung. In November, 1856, when 
 Eugene was six years old, their mother died and 
 their father s thoughts instinctively turned to his 
 sister, hoping to find with her, amid scenes familiar 
 to his own youth, a home and affectionate care for 
 
BIRTH AND EAELY YOUTH 53 
 
 his motherless boys. How the early loss of his 
 mother affected the life of Eugene Field it is im 
 possible to tell. Not until the boy of six whom 
 she left had become a man of forty did he attempt 
 to pay a tribute of filial love to her memory. The 
 following lines, under the simple title, " To My 
 Mother/ 7 first appeared in his " Sharps and Flats " 
 column, October 25th, 1890. It was reprinted in 
 his " Second Book of Verse." The opening lines 
 summon up a tender picture of a " grace that is 
 dead": 
 
 How fair you are, my mother! 
 
 Ah, though tis many a year 
 
 Since you were here, 
 
 Still do I see your beauteous face 
 
 And with the glow 
 
 Of your dark eyes cometh a grace 
 
 Of long ago. 
 
 The Mistress French of our earlier acquaintance, 
 who was a widow when we last knew her in New- 
 fane, had married again and, as Mistress Thomas 
 Jones, had moved with her daughter, Mary Field 
 French, to Amherst, Mass. To the home of Mrs. 
 Jones and the loving care of Miss French, Eugene 
 and Roswell, Jr., were entrusted. Miss French 
 was at this time a young woman, a spinster Eu- 
 
54 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 gene delighted to call her of about thirty years. 
 His old Munson tutor thus describes her: 
 
 " Mary Field French, a daughter of Mrs. Jones 
 by her first husband, was a lady of strong mind, and 
 much culture, with a sound judgment and decision 
 of character and very gracious manners. She was 
 always sociable and agreeable and so admirably 
 adapted to the charge of the two brothers." They 
 retained through manhood the warmest affection 
 for this cousin-mother, and never wearied in show 
 ing toward her the grateful devotion of loyal sons. 
 
 " Here," continues Dr. Tufts, " in this charm 
 ing home, under the best of New England influ 
 ences and religious instruction, with nothing harsh 
 or repulsive, the boys could not have found a more 
 congenial home. Indeed, few mothers are able or 
 even capable of doing so much for their own chil 
 dren as Miss French did for these two brothers, 
 watching over them incessantly, yet not spoiling 
 them by weak indulgence or repelling them by 
 harsh discipline." 
 
 Here it was that Eugene was brought up in the 
 " nurture and admonition of the Lord," as he would 
 often declare with a mock severity of tone, that left 
 a mixed impression as to the beneficence of the 
 nurture and the abiding quality of the admonition. 
 Here he spent his school days, not in acquiring a 
 
EUGENE FIELD S COUSINS, MARY FIELD FRENCH AND HER 
 YOUNGER HALF SISTER, AUGUSTA JONES. 
 
 From a daguerreotype taken before Eugene and Roswell became members of Miss 
 French s family in Ainherst, on the death of their mother. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 55 
 
 broad or deep basis for future scholarship, but in 
 studying the ways and whims of womankind, in 
 practising the subtile arts whereby the boy of from 
 six to fifteen attains a tyrannous mastery over the 
 hearts of a feminine household^ and in securing 
 the leadership among the daring spirits of his own 
 age and sex, for whom he was early able to furnish 
 a continuous programme of entertainment, advent 
 ure, and mischief. 
 
 Of this period of Eugene Field s life we get the 
 truest glimpse through the eyes of his brother, who 
 has written appreciatively of their boyhood spent 
 in Amherst. " His boyhood," writes Roswell, 
 " was similar to that of other boys brought up with 
 the best surroundings in a Massachusetts village, 
 where the college atmosphere prevailed. He had 
 his boyish pleasures and his trials, his share of that 
 queer mixture of nineteenth century worldliness 
 and almost austere Puritanism, which is yet char 
 acteristic of many New England families." 
 
 If the reader wishes to know more of the New 
 England atmosphere, in which Eugene Field was 
 permitted to have pretty much his own sweet way 
 by his cousin and aunt, let him have recourse to 
 Mrs. Earle s " The Sabbath in Puritan New Eng 
 land," which I find in my library commended to 
 my perusal, " with Eugene Field s love, December 
 
56 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 25th, 1891 " and to other books by the same 
 author. In a letter to Mrs. Earle, from which I 
 quoted in the opening paragraph of this narrative, 
 I find the following reference to the period of his 
 life which we are now considering: 
 
 " Fourteen years of my life were spent in New- 
 fane, Vt, and Amherst, Mass. My lovely old 
 grandmother was one of the very elect. How many 
 times have I carried her footstove for her and filled 
 it in the vestry-room. I have frozen in the old pew 
 while grandma kept nice and warm and nibbled 
 lozenges and cassia cakes during meeting. I re 
 member the old sounding-board. There was no 
 melodeon in that meeting-house; and the leader of 
 the choir pitched the tune with a tuning-fork. As 
 a boy I used to play hi-spy in the horse-shed. But 
 I am not so very old no, a man is still a boy at 
 forty, isn t he? 7 
 
 Eugene Field would have been a boy at fifty and 
 at eighty had he lived, and he was very much of a 
 boy at the period of which he wrote to Mrs. Earle. 
 I have no doubt that he was a very circumspect lad 
 while under the loving yet stern glance of that dear 
 old grandmother, in whose kindly yet dignified 
 presence three generations of Fields moved with 
 varying emotions of love and circumspection. 
 " Her husband " (General Martin Field of our ac- 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 57 
 
 quaintance), wrote " Uncle Charles Kellogg/ 
 " was genial and social, full of humor and mirth, 
 oftentimes filling the house with his jocund laugh." 
 She, however, " true to her refined womanly in 
 stinct, her sense of propriety, rarely disturbed by 
 his merry and harmless jests, with great discretion 
 pursued the even tenor of her way. Patiently and 
 with unfaltering devotion to the higher and nobler 
 purposes of life, she always maintained her self- 
 possession, strenuously avoided all levity and fri 
 volity, rarely relaxed the gravity of her deport 
 ment, and never failed in the end of controlling 
 both husband and household." 
 
 Eugene s own picture of his grandmother is con 
 tained in the following passage in an article con 
 tributed by him to the Ladies Home Journal: 
 
 " Grandma was a pillar in the Congregational 
 Church. At the decline and disintegration of the 
 Universalist society, she rejoiced cordially as if a 
 temple of Baal or an idol of Ashtaroth had been 
 overturned. Yes, grandma was Puritanical not 
 to the extent of persecution, but a Puritan in the 
 severity of her faith and in the exacting nicety of 
 her interpretation of her duties to God and man 
 kind. Grandma s Sunday began at six o clock Sat 
 urday evening; by that hotir her house was swept 
 and garnished, and her lamps trimmed, every prep- 
 
58 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 aration made for a quiet, reverential observance of 
 the Sabbath Day. There was no cooking on Sun 
 day. At noon Mrs. Deacon Ranney and other old 
 ladies used to come from church with grandma to 
 eat luncheon and discuss the sermon and suggest 
 deeds of piety for the ensuing week. I remember 
 Mrs. Deacon Ranney and her frigid companions 
 very distinctly. They never smiled and they wore 
 austere bombazines that rustled and squeaked dolor 
 ously. Mrs. Deacon Ranney seldom noticed me 
 further than to regard me with a look that seemed 
 to stigmatize me as an incipient vessel of wrath that 
 was not to be approved of, and I never liked Mrs. 
 Deacon Ranney after I heard her reminding grand 
 ma one day that Solomon had truly said, spare 
 the rod and spoil the child. I still think ill of 
 Mrs. Deacon Ranney for having sought to corrupt 
 dear old grandma s gentle nature with any such in 
 cendiary suggestions. The meeting-house was cold 
 and draughty, and the seats, with their straight 
 backs, were oh, so hard. Grandma s pew was near 
 the pulpit. I remember now how ashamed I used 
 to be to carry her footstove all the way up that 
 long aisle for her I was such a foolish little boy 
 then and now, ah me, how ready and glad 
 and proud I should be to do that service for dear 
 old grandma ! 
 
BIRTH AND EAELY YOUTH 59 
 
 " When grandma went to meeting she carried a 
 lovely big black velvet bag; it had a bouquet 
 wrought in beads of subdued color upon it, and it 
 hung by two sombre silk puckering ribbons over 
 grandma s arm. In the bag grandma carried a 
 supply of crackers and peppermint lozenges, and 
 upon these she would nibble in meeting whenever 
 she felt that feeling of goneness in the pit of her 
 stomach, which I was told old ladies sometimes 
 suffer with. It was proper enough, I was assured, 
 for old ladies to nibble at crackers and peppermint 
 lozenges in meeting, but that such a proceeding 
 would be very wicked for a little boy." 
 
 From which it might appear that the atmosphere 
 of Newfane, under the grave and serious deport 
 ment of his grandmother, must have been a change 
 from the freedom Eugene and his brother enjoyed 
 under the fond rule of Miss French at Amherst. 
 But when I was in Newfane in 1899 I was in 
 formed by a dear old lady in bombazine, who re 
 membered their visits distinctly, that " Eugene 
 and Roswell were wild boys. Not bad, but just 
 tew full of old Nick for anything." 
 
 It was in Amherst, however, and not in New- 
 fane, from Cousin Mary, and not from his dear 
 Grandmother Esther, that Eugene got the New 
 England " bent " in his Missouri mind. It is hard 
 
60 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 to separate the fact from the fancy in his story of 
 "My Grandmother." His youth from 1856 to 
 1865 was lived in Amherst. His only visit to the 
 Field homestead in Newfane was when he was nine 
 years old. And of this he has written, " we stayed 
 there seven months and the old lady got all the 
 grandsons she wanted. She did not invite us to 
 repeat the visit." He also confessed that all his 
 love for nature dated from that visit. As a boy 
 he would never have been permitted to indulge the 
 fondness for animal pets under " the dark penetrat 
 ing eyes " of his grandmother, that was tolerated 
 and became a life-habit by the " gracious love " of 
 Mary Field French. Of this fondness for pets, 
 Koswell has written that it amounted to a passion. 
 " But unlike other boys he seemed to carry his pets 
 into a higher sphere and to give them personality. 
 For each pet, whether dog, cat, bird, goat, or squir 
 rel he had the family distrust of a horse he not 
 only had a name, but it was his delight to fancy that 
 each possessed a peculiar dialect of human speech, 
 and each he addressed in the humorous manner con 
 ceived. When in childhood he was conducting a 
 poultry annex to the homestead, each chicken was 
 properly instructed to respond to a peculiar call, 
 and Finniken, Minniken, Winniken, Dump, Poog, 
 Boog seemed to recognize immediately the queer in- 
 
-< ^ 
 
 E- S 
 
 li 
 
 a ~ 
 
 EH S 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 61 
 
 tonations of their master with an intelligence that is 
 not usually accorded to chickens." 
 
 I cannot forbear to introduce here a characteristic 
 bit of evidence from Eugene Field s own pen of the 
 survival of the passion for pets to which his brother 
 testifies: 
 
 " It is only under stress/ said he in his allotted 
 column in the Chicago Record of January 9th, 
 1892, " nay, under distress, that the mysterious veil 
 of the editorial-room may properly be thrown aside 
 and the secret thereof disclosed. It is under a cer 
 tain grievous distress that we make this statement 
 now: 
 
 " For a number of months the silent partner in 
 the construction of this sporadic column of Sharps 
 and Flats has been a little fox terrier given to the 
 writer hereof by his friend, Mr. Will J. Davis. 
 We named our little companion Jessie, and our at 
 tachment to her was wholly reciprocated by Jessie 
 herself, although (and we make this confession very 
 shamefacedly) our enthusiasm for Jessie was by no 
 means shared by the prudent housewife in charge 
 of the writer s domestic affairs. Jessie contributed 
 to and participated in our work in this wise: She 
 would sit and admiringly watch the writer at his 
 work, wagging her abridged tail cordially whenever 
 he bestowed a casual glance upon her, threatening 
 
62 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 violence to every intruder, warning her master of 
 the approach of every garrulous visitor, and often 
 times, when she felt lonely, insisted on climbing up 
 into her master s lap and slumbering there while he 
 wrote and wrote away. We have tried our poems 
 on Jessie, and she always liked them; leastwise she 
 always wagged her tail approvingly and smiled her 
 flatteries as only a very intelligent little dog can. 
 Some folk think that our poetry drove Jessie away 
 from home, but we know better; Jessie herself 
 would deny that malicious imputation were she 
 here now and could she speak. 
 
 " To this little companion we became strongly, 
 perhaps foolishly, attached. She walked with us 
 by day, hunting rats and playing famously every 
 variety of intelligent antics. Whither we went she 
 went, and at night she shared our couch with us. 
 Though only nine months old Jessie stole into this 
 life of ours so very far that years seemed hardly to 
 compass the period and honesty of our friendship. 
 
 " Well, last Tuesday night Jessie disappeared 
 vanished as mysteriously as if the earth had opened 
 up and swallowed her. She had been playing with 
 a discreet dog friend in Fullerton Avenue, and that 
 was the last seen of her ! Where can she have gone ? 
 It is very lonesome without Jessie. Moreover there 
 are poems to be read for her approval before they 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 63 
 
 can be printed; the great cause of literature waits 
 upon Jessie. She must be found and restored to 
 her proper sphere. 
 
 " Jessie perhaps was not beautiful, yet she was 
 fair to her master s eyes. She was white with yel 
 low ears and a brownish blaze over her left eye and 
 warty cheek. She weighed perhaps twenty pounds 
 (for Jessie never had dyspepsia), and one mark you 
 surely could tell her by was the absence of a nail 
 from her left forepaw, the honorable penalty of an 
 encounter with an enraged setting hen in our barn 
 last month. 
 
 " Jessie s master is not rich, for the poetry that 
 fox terriers approve is not remunerative; but that 
 master has accumulated (by means of industrious 
 application to his work and his friends) the sum of 
 $20, which he will cheerfully pay to the man, 
 woman, or child who will bring Jessie back again. 
 For he is a weak human creature, is Jessie s master, 
 in his loneliness, without his faithful, admiring 
 little dumb friend." 
 
 Two days later Field printed the following letter 
 and his answer thereto, both written by the same 
 hand in his column: 
 
 CHICAGO, January 10th. 
 
 To the Editor: I am very sorry for the gentleman 
 who writes your Sharps and Flats, for I know what 
 
64 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 it is to lose a little dog. I had one once and some 
 boy I guess took it off and never brought it back 
 again. I have got a maltese cat and four beautiful 
 kittens, and should like to send the gentleman one of 
 the kittens if he wants one. Maybe he would get to 
 like the kitten as much as he did the little dog. Re 
 spectfully, your little friend, 
 
 EDITH LONG. 
 
 " Many thanks to our charming little correspond 
 ent; she has a gentle heart, we know. "What havoc 
 one of those mischievous creatures would make ! In 
 the first place it would accomplish the destruction 
 of these little canaries of ours which now flit about 
 this lovely disordered room, perching confidently 
 upon folios and bric-a-brac and hopping blithely 
 over the manuscripts and papers on the table. In 
 the basement against the furnace, three beautiful 
 fleecy little chickens have just hatched out. How 
 long do you suppose it would be before that wicked 
 little kitten discovered and compassed the demolition 
 of those innocent baby fowls? Then again there 
 are rabbits in the stable and very tame pigeons and 
 the tiniest of bantams. It would be very dreadful 
 to introduce a truculent kitten (and all felines are 
 naturally truculent) into such society. And our 
 blood fairly congeals when we think that perhaps 
 (oh, fearful possibility) that kitten might nose out 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 65 
 
 and wantonly destroy the too lovely butterflies 
 stored away in yonder closet, which we have ap 
 propriately named the cage of gloom. 
 
 " Miss Edith must keep her kitten and may she 
 have the pleasure of its pretty antics. However, 
 she must bear this in mind, that sooner or later our 
 pets come to grief. 
 
 " Very, very many years ago, we read and cried 
 over a little book written by Grace Greenwood and 
 entitled The History of My Pets. 7 Even as a 
 child we wondered why it was that evil invariably 
 befell the pets of youth. 
 
 " We all know that most little folks are tender 
 hearted, yet there are some who seem indifferent to 
 pets, to have little sympathy with the pathos of 
 dumb animals. And we have so often wondered 
 whether after all these latter did not get more of 
 pleasure or should we say less of pain out of life 
 than the others. The tender heart seldom hardens ; 
 in maturer years its comprehensions and sympathies 
 broaden, and this of course involves pain. Are the 
 delights of sympathy a fair offset to the pains there 
 of? " 
 
 The boy at Amherst was the father of the man at 
 forty-two. It was to the prototype of " The Bench- 
 Legged Fyce," known in Miss French s household 
 
66 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 as " Dooley," that the boy Eugene attributed his 
 first verse, a parody on the well-known lines, " Oh, 
 had I the wings of a dove! " Dooley s song ran: 
 
 Oh, had I wings like a dove I would fly 
 Away from this world of fleas; 
 
 I d fly all round Miss Emerson s yard 
 And light on Miss Emerson s trees. 
 
 It was rank disloyalty to the memory of " Doo- 
 ley " to rename the bench-legged fyce " Sooner " 
 and locate the scene of his " chronic repose " in 
 St. Jo rather than under the flea-proof tree of Mrs. 
 Emerson in Amherst. But who regrets the poetic 
 license as he reads: 
 
 We all hev our choice, an you like the rest, 
 
 Allow that dorg which you ve got is the best; 
 
 I wouldn t give much for the boy at grows up 
 
 With no friendship subsistin tween him and a pup; 
 
 When a fellow gits old I tell you it s nice 
 
 To think of his youth and his bench-legged fyce! 
 
 Although Eugene Field never forgot or forgave 
 the terrors of the New England Sabbath, its strict 
 observance, its bad singing, doleful prayers and in 
 terminable sermons, the impress of those all-day 
 sessions in church and Sunday-school was never 
 eradicated from his life and writings. Nothing 
 else influenced his work or affected his style as much 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 67 
 
 as the morals and the literature of the Bible and the 
 sacred songs that were lined out week after week 
 from the pulpit under which he literally and figura 
 tively sat when a youth. " If," he has said, " I 
 could be grateful to New England for nothing 
 else, I should bless her forevermore for pounding 
 me with the Bible and the Spelling-Book." 
 
 There is in the possession of the family the 
 " Notes of a Sermon by E. P. Field," said to have 
 been written by Eugene at the age of nine, when 
 he affected the middle initial of P in honor of Wen 
 dell Phillips. It was more probably written when 
 he was twelve or fourteen, as he showed at nine none 
 of the signs of precocity which such a composition 
 indicates. The youthful Channing took for his text 
 the fifteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of 
 Proverbs: " Good understanding giveth favor: but 
 the way of transgressors is hard." Upon this he 
 expounded as follows: 
 
 " The life of a Christian is often compared to a 
 race that is hard and to a battle in which a man 
 must fight hard to win, these comparisons have pre 
 vented many from becoming Christians. 
 
 " But the Bible does not compare the Christian s 
 path as one of hard labor. But Solomon says wis 
 dom s ways are ways of pleasantness and her paths 
 are peace. Under the word transgressor are in- 
 
68 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 eluded all those that disobey their maker, or, in 
 shorter words, the ungodly. Every person look 
 ing around him will see many who are transgres 
 sors and whose lot is very hard. 
 
 "I remark secondly that conscience makes the way 
 of transgressors hard; for every act of pleasure, 
 every act of guilt his conscience smites him. The 
 last of his stay on earth will appear horrible to the 
 beholder. Sometimes, however, he will be stayed 
 in his guilt. A death in a family of some favorite 
 object, or be attacked by some disease himself, is 
 brought to the portals of the grave. Then for a 
 little time, perhaps, he is stayed in his wickedness, 
 but before long he returns to his worldly lusts. Oh, 
 it is indeed hard for a sinner to go down into per 
 haps perdition over all the obstacles which God 
 has placed in his path. But many, I am afraid, do 
 go down into perdition, for wide is the gate and 
 broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and 
 many there be that go in after it. 
 
 " Suppose now there was a fearful precipice and 
 to allure you there your enemies should scatter 
 flowers on its dreadful edge, would you if you knew 
 that while you were strolling about on that awful 
 rock that night would settle down on you and that 
 yon would fall from that giddy, giddy height, would 
 you, I say, go near that dreadful rock? Just so 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 69 
 
 with the transgressor, he falls from that height just 
 because he wishes to appear good in the sight of the 
 world. But what will a man gain if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul." 
 
 Whenever this was written it shows on its face 
 that it is more an effort of memory or the effect of 
 one of the fearful sermons of fifty years ago on the 
 impressionable mind of youth, than the original 
 production of a precocious boy struggling with the 
 insoluble problem of life and judgment to come. 
 Mark how the stock words of the pulpiteer, " trans 
 gressor," " worldly lusts," "dreadful," "awful," 
 " perdition " stalk fiercely through the sermon of 
 the youthful saint or sinner! 
 
 Roswell Field says that his brother without in 
 struction early acquired the habit of drawing amus 
 ing pictures of his playmates and his pets, and that 
 later in life he gave it as his honest opinion that he 
 would have been much more successful as a carica 
 turist than as a writer. But Eugene s drawings at 
 all periods were never more than grotesque or fanci 
 ful illustrations of the whimsical ideas he harbored 
 respecting everything that came to his attention. 
 
 In after life Eugene Field gave frequent proof 
 that he cherished contradictory sentiments toward 
 Vermont and New England. One view was tinged, 
 I think, with the recollection of the wrong his father 
 
70 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 suffered at the hands of the Green Mountain courts, 
 and reflects the general tenor of his comment when 
 ever Vermont men or affairs came under discussion 
 in the public press. It is illustrated in the follow 
 ing paragraph: 
 
 The Vermont papers agreed that Colonel Aldace 
 Walker is the very best man in Vermont for the Inter- 
 State Commerce Commission. This may be true. 
 At the same time, however, we fail to see what inter 
 est Vermont can possibly take in inter-state com 
 merce. She has no commerce of her own, and she 
 probably never will have. There is a bobbin factory 
 at Williamsville, and a melodeon factory at Brattle- 
 boro, but the commerce resulting from them is not 
 worthy of mention. There is talk about the maple- 
 sugar that Vermont exports, but we have noticed that 
 all the " genuine Vermont maple-sugar " in the West 
 ern market comes from the South, and is about as 
 succulent as the heel of a gum-boot. In all the State 
 of Vermont there is but one railroad, the Vermont 
 Central ; it begins at Grout s Corner, Mass., and runs 
 in a bee-line north until it reaches the southern end 
 of the Montreal bridge. This remarkable road has a 
 so-called branch operating once per week between 
 White Eiver Junction and Montpelier, and a tri 
 weekly branch extending to Burlington. Montpelier 
 is the home of Hiram Atkins, the famous " Nestor uv 
 Checkerberry Journalism," and White River Junction 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH 71 
 
 is the whistling station and water-tank from which 
 our country gets its election returns every four years. 
 Burlington is located on Lake Champlain, and con 
 tains the summer residence of that grand old survivor 
 of the glacial period, George F. Edmunds. Thus in 
 a brief paragraph have we compressed all that can be 
 said of the commerce and the railways of Vermont. 
 
 The other view is softened with the haze that 
 hangs over the scenes of childhood in the minds of 
 all men of feeling when interpreted by an artist in 
 expressing the thought " that unbidden rises and 
 passes in a tear." It is from Field s little-known 
 memorial to Mrs. Melvin L. Gray, written while 
 he was in Southern California: 
 
 The quiet beauty of these scenes recalls a time 
 which, in my life, is so long ago that I feel strangely 
 reverential when I speak of it. I find myself think 
 ing of my boyhood, and of the hills and valleys and 
 trees and flowers and birds I knew when the morning 
 of my life was fresh and full of exuberance. Those 
 years were spent among the Pelham hills, very, very 
 far from here; but memory o erleaps the mountain 
 ranges, the leagues upon leagues of prairie, the 
 mighty rivers, the forest, the farming lands, overleaps 
 them all; and to-day, by that same sweet magic that 
 instantaneously undoes the years and space, I seem 
 to be among the Pelham hills again. The yonder 
 
72 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 glimpse of the Pacific becomes the silver thread of the 
 Connecticut, seen, not over miles of orange-groves, 
 but over broad acres of Indian corn; and instead of 
 the pepper and eucalyptus, the lemon and the palm, 
 I see (or I seem to see) the maple once more, and the 
 elm and the chestnut trees, the shagbark walnut, the 
 hickory, and the birch. In those days, these rugged 
 mountains of this south land were unknown to me; 
 and the Pelham hills were full of marvel and delight, 
 with their tangled pathways and hidden stores of win- 
 tergreen and wild strawberries. Furtive brooks led 
 the little boy hither and thither in his quest for trout 
 and dace, while to the gentler-minded the modest 
 flowers of the wild-wood appealed with singular di 
 rectness. A partridge rose now and then from the 
 thicket and whirred away, and with startled eyes the 
 brown thrush peered out from the bushes. I see these 
 pleasant scenes again, and I hear again the beloved 
 sounds of old; and so with reverence and with wel 
 coming I take up my task, for it was among these 
 same Pelham hills that the dear lady of whom I am 
 to speak was born and spent her childhood. 
 
CHAPTEK. V 
 EDUCATION 
 
 There was more truth than epigrammatic nov 
 elty in Eugene Field s declaration that his edu 
 cation began when he fancied he had left it off 
 for the serious business of life. Throughout his 
 boyhood he was far from a hardy youth. He 
 always gave the impression of having overgrown 
 his strength, so that delicate health, and not indis 
 position to study, has been assigned as the excuse 
 for his backwardness in " book larnin " when it 
 was decided to send him away from the congenial 
 distractions of Amherst to the care of the Kev. 
 James Tufts of Monson. 
 
 Monson is a very prettily situated Massachusetts 
 town, about fifteen miles, as the crow flies, east of 
 Springfield, and not more than twenty-five miles 
 south by east of Amherst. It boasted then and 
 still boasts one of the best equipped boys acad 
 emies in New England. It was not to the tender 
 mercies of this academy, however, that Eugene 
 was entrusted, but to the private tutorship of Mr. 
 
 73 
 
74 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Tufts, whose life and character justify the tribute 
 of Roswell Field that he is " one of those noble in 
 structors of the blessed old school who are passing 
 away from the arena of education in America." 
 He is now, in 1901, in his ninetieth year, and is 
 always spoken of among his neighbors as the 
 " grand old man of Monson." From his own lips, 
 accompanied by the lively comments of Mrs. Tufts, 
 and from a loving communication written by him 
 to the Springfield Republican shortly after Eugene 
 Field s death I have gleaned the general facts of 
 Eugene Field s school-days at Monson. 
 
 It was in the Fall of 1865 that Eugene became 
 one of a class of six boys in the private school of 
 Mr. Tufts. This school was chosen because Mr. 
 Tufts had known the boy s parents and grand 
 parents and felt a real interest in the lad. He 
 would not have received the proper care at a large 
 school, where a he would be likely to get into 
 trouble with his love of fun and mischief." The 
 house in which Eugene became as one of the fam 
 ily is situated about a mile from the village and 
 faces the post road, on the farther side of which 
 is a mill-pond, where both Eugene and Roswell 
 came near making the writing of this memoir un 
 necessary by going over the dam in a rude boat 
 of their own construction. Happily the experience 
 
EDUCATION 75 
 
 resulted in nothing more serious than a thorough 
 fright and a still more thorough ducking. 
 
 Back of the Tufts homestead rise some beauti 
 fully wooded hills, where Field and his schoolmates 
 sought refuge from the gentle wrath of Mr. Tufts 
 over their not infrequent delinquencies. The story 
 is told in Monson that the boys, under the leader 
 ship of Field, built a " moated castle " of tree- 
 trunks and brushwood in a well-nigh inaccessible 
 part of these woods. Thence they sallied forth on 
 their imaginary forays and thither they retired 
 when in disgrace with Mr. Tufts. Around this 
 retreat they dug a deep trench, which they cov 
 ered artfully with boughs and dead leaves. Then 
 they beguiled their reverend preceptor into chas 
 ing them to their " mountain fastness." Lightly 
 they skipped across the concealed moat on the only 
 firm ground they had purposely left, leaving him 
 in the moment of exultant success to plunge neck 
 deep into a tangled mass of brushwood and mud. 
 In such playful ways as these Field endeared him 
 self to the frequent forgiveness of Mr. Tufts. " It 
 was impossible," said Mr. Tufts to me, " to cherish 
 anger against a pupil whose contrition was as pro 
 fuse and whimsical as his transgressions were fre 
 quent. The boys were boys." 
 
 Of Eugene s education when he came to Mon- 
 
76 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 son Mr. Tufts testifies: " In his studies he was 
 about fitted for an ordinary high school, except in 
 arithmetic. He had read a little Latin enough 
 to commence Caesar. I found him about an aver 
 age boy in his lessons, not dull, but not a quick 
 and ready scholar like his father, who graduated 
 from Middlebury College at the age of fifteen, 
 strong and athletic. He did not seem to care much 
 for his books or his lessons anyway, but was in 
 clined to get along as easily as he could, partly on 
 account of his delicate health, which made close 
 study irksome, and partly because his mind was 
 very juvenile and undeveloped. His health im 
 proved gradually, while his interest in his studies 
 increased slowly but steadily. Judge Forbes, of 
 Westboro, for a time his room-mate and a remark 
 able scholar, remarked on reading his journal that 
 his chum occasionally took up his book for study 
 when his teacher came around, though he was not 
 always particular which side up his book was. And 
 so it was through life." 
 
 But Eugene did improve in his scholarship, and 
 during the last six months before leaving to enter 
 Williams College, in 1868, Mr. Tufts says he did 
 seem " to catch something of the spirit of Cicero 
 and Virgil and Homer [where was Horace?], and 
 to catch a little ambition for an education." His 
 
EDUCATION 77 
 
 gentle preceptor thus summed up the characteris 
 tics of the youth he was trying to fit for college : 
 
 " Eugene gave little if any indications of becom 
 ing a poet, or such a poet as he was, or even a 
 superior writer, in his youth. He was always, how 
 ever, bright and lively in conversation, abounding 
 in wit, self-possessed, and never laughing at his 
 own jokes, showing, too, some of that exhaustless 
 fountain of humor in which he afterward excelled. 
 But he did not like confinement or close applica 
 tion, nor did he have patience to correct and im 
 prove what he wrote, as he afterward did when his 
 taste was more cultivated. In declamation Eugene 
 always excelled, reciting with marked effect Spar- 
 tacus, The Soldier of the Legion, and The 
 Dream of Clarence from Shakespeare. He in 
 herited from his father a rich, strong, musical, and 
 sympathetic voice, which made him a pleasant 
 speaker and afterward a successful public reader. 
 He very naturally excelled in conversation at table 
 and in getting up little comic almanacs, satirizing 
 the boys, but always in good-humor, never descend 
 ing to anything bitter or vulgar. Indeed, in all 
 his fun, he showed ever a certain purity and no 
 bility of character." 
 
 On one occasion, Eugene wearied of the per 
 sistent efforts of Mr. Tufts to place his feet on the 
 
78 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 first rung of the ladder to learning, and started off 
 afoot for his home in Amherst. He followed the 
 railway track, counting the ties for twenty-five 
 miles, and arrived, thoroughly exhausted, full of 
 contrition, and ready to take the first train back 
 to school. This was probably the most severe 
 physical effort of Eugene Field s life. 
 
 Mr. Tufts says that Field was " by nature and 
 by his training, too, respectful toward religion and 
 religious people, being at one time here [Monson] 
 considerably moved and interested personally in a 
 religious awakening, and speaking earnestly in 
 meeting and urging the young to a religious life. 
 Great credit for the remarkable success of Eugene 
 is due to his Aunt Jones, Miss Mary French, and 
 his guardian, Professor John Burgess, who were 
 a continual and living influence about him until 
 he arrived at maturity." 
 
 In 1868, at the age when his father was admitted 
 to the bar of Vermont, Eugene Field, according 
 to Mr. Tufts, was barely able to pass the examina 
 tion for entrance at Williams " with some condi 
 tions." The only evidence preserved in the books 
 of the college that he passed at all is the following 
 entry: 
 
 Eugene Field, aged 18, September 5, 1868, son of 
 K. M. Field, St. Louis. 
 
THE KEY. JAMES TUFTS. 
 
EDUCATION" 79 
 
 Among the professors and residents of Williams- 
 town there is scarcely a tradition or trace of his 
 presence. He did not fit into the treadmill of daily 
 lessons and lectures. He was impatient of routine 
 and discipline. There is a story extant, which is 
 a self-evident fabrication, that President Mark 
 Hopkins, meeting him on the street one day, asked 
 him how he was getting along with his studies. 
 Field replied that he was doing very well. There 
 upon President Hopkins, in kindly humor, re 
 marked: "I am glad to hear it, for, remember, 
 you have the reputation of three universities to 
 maintain." This apocryphal story is greatly rel 
 ished in Williamstown, where, among the pro 
 fessors, there seems to linger a strange feeling of 
 resentment that Field was not recognized as pos 
 sessing the budding promise that is better worth 
 cultivating than the mediocrity of the ninety-and- 
 nine orderly youths who pursue the uneventful 
 tenor of college life to a diploma and are never 
 heard of afterward. There is a bare possibility, 
 however, that President Hopkins might have re 
 ferred to the fact that Eugene s grandfather held 
 an A.B. from Williams and the honorary degree 
 of A.M. from Dartmouth, while his father was an 
 alumnus of Middlebury. It is more probably an 
 after and a merry thought built upon Field s 
 
80 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 own unfinished career at AVilliains, Knox, and the 
 University of Missouri. 
 
 From personal inquiry at Williamstown I find 
 that none of the professors at Williams saw an 
 encouraging gleam of aptitude for anything in the 
 big-eyed, shambling youth whom Mr. Tufts had 
 assiduously coached to meet the requirements of 
 matriculation. There is a shadowy tradition that 
 he did fairly well in his Latin themes when the 
 subject suited his fancy, but his fancy more often 
 led him to a sporting resort, kept by an ex-pugilist 
 named Pettit, where he took a hand in billiards 
 and made awkward essays with the boxing-gloves. 
 Of course there is the inevitable yarn of a college 
 town that he became so conceited over his skill in 
 the manly art that he ventured to " stand up " 
 before Pettit, to the bloody disfigurement of his 
 countenance and the humiliation of his pride. If 
 this is true, the lesson lasted him all his life, for 
 a less combative adult than Eugene Field never 
 graduated from an American college. He had 
 a physical as well as a moral antipathy to personal 
 participation in anything involving bodily dan 
 ger or violence. 
 
 Even then Field possessed the wit and the plen 
 tiful lack of reverence for the conventionalities of 
 life that must have rendered him both intolerable 
 
EDUCATION 81 
 
 and incomprehensible to a body of serious-minded 
 and necessarily conventional professors. The very 
 traits that subsequently made him the most en 
 tertaining comrade in the world provoked only 
 consternation and uneasiness at Williams. This 
 eventually led President Hopkins to inform Mr. 
 Tufts privately that it might be well for his pupil, 
 as certainly it would conduce to the orderly life of 
 Williamstown, if he would run up from Monson 
 and persuade Eugene to return home with him. 
 There was no dismissal, rustication, or official rep 
 rimand of Eugene Field by the ever-honored 
 President Hopkins. Field simply faded out of 
 the annals and class of 1872, as if he had never 
 been entered at Williams. 
 
 Memories of Eugene Field are not as thick at 
 Williamstown as blackberries on the Pelham hills. 
 President Carter does not cherish them kindly be 
 cause, perhaps, on the occasion of his appointment, 
 Field gravely discussed his qualifications for the 
 chair once occupied by Mark Hopkins as resting 
 upon his contribution of " a small but active pel 
 let " to the pharmaceutical equipment of his coun 
 trymen, famed for its efficacy to cure all disorders 
 of mind and body " while you sleep." 
 
 " Hy." Walden, much in demand as an express 
 man, remembers Field as a somewhat reckless fellow 
 VOL. I. 6 
 
82 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 and " dare-devil/ 7 and is authority for the story of 
 Field s discomfiture in the boxing bout with the 
 redoubtable Pettit. 
 
 Old Tom McMahon, who has been a familiar 
 character to the students of Williams for nearly 
 two generations, has a hazy recollection of the 
 eccentric Eugene who flitted across the college 
 campus a third of a century ago. He says that, 
 if he " remembers right, Mr. Field was not one of 
 the gentlemen who cared much for his clothes," 
 but he " guessed he was made careless like, and 
 in some ways he was a fine young man." 
 
 The most valuable glimpse of Field at Williams 
 is contained in the following letter written by 
 Solomon B. Griffin, the managing editor of the 
 Springfield Republican for many years, with whom 
 I have had some correspondence in respect to the 
 matter referred to therein. He not only knew 
 Field at Williamstown, but was one of his life-long 
 friends and warmest admirers. After a few intro 
 ductory words, under date of Springfield, February 
 4th, 1901, Mr. Griffin wrote: 
 
 Yes, I was of the class of 1872, but Field flitted 
 before I became connected with it. But Williams- 
 town was my birthplace and home and I struck up 
 an acquaintance with him at Smith s college book 
 store and the post-office. Field was raw and not a 
 
EDUCATION 83 
 
 bit deferential to established customs, and so the 
 secret-society men were not attracted to him. The 
 " trotting " or preliminary attentions to freshmen 
 constitute a great and revered feature of college life. 
 When I saw Field " trotting " a lank and gawky 
 freshman for the " Mills Theological Society," the 
 humor of it appealed to one soaked in the traditions 
 of a college town, and we " became acquainted." 
 Field left the class about as I came in. 
 
 It is not remarkable that Tom McMahon has no 
 clear recollection of Field, who was in college only 
 about six months and was not a fraternity man. 
 There are so many coming and going ! Nor that the 
 faculty should be mindful of the lawless, irresponsible 
 boy, and not of the genius that developed on its own 
 lines and was never conventionalized but always re 
 mained a sinner however brilliant, and a flayer of 
 good men unblessed with a saving sense of humor. 
 If there is any kind thought for me in my old home 
 it is because I did what Field couldn t do, paid out 
 ward respect to the environment. It was possible for 
 me to see his point of view and theirs to them ir 
 reconcilable, and to him also. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 S. B. GRIFFIN. 
 
 Mr. Tufts s memorandum-book shows that Eu 
 gene returned to Monson April 27th, 1889, so his 
 experience, if not his education, at "Williams cov- 
 
84 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ered almost eight months of an impressionable 
 period of his life. It is interesting to record the 
 comment of Mrs. Tufts on the return of the wan 
 derer to her indulgent care. " He was too smart 
 for the professors at Williams/ 7 said she; " be 
 cause they did not understand him, they could not 
 pardon his eccentricities." That she did under 
 stand her husband s favorite pupil is evidenced in 
 the following brief description, given off-hand to 
 the writer : " Eugene was not much of a student, 
 but very much of an irrepressible boy. There was 
 no malice in his pranks, only the inherited dispo 
 sition to tease somebody and everybody." 
 
 On July 5th, 1869, Eugene was summoned to 
 St. Louis by the serious illness of his father, who 
 died July 12th. 
 
 Thus ended his education, so far as it was to be 
 affected by the environments and instructors of 
 New England. Thenceforth he was destined to 
 be a western man, with an ineradicable tang of 
 Puritan prejudices and convictions cropping out 
 unexpectedly and incongruously in all he thought 
 and wrote. 
 
 In the autumn of 1869 Eugene entered the 
 sophomore class at Knox College, Galesburg, 111., 
 where Professor John William Burgess, who had 
 been chosen as his guardian, held the chair of logic, 
 
EDUCATION 85 
 
 rhetoric, English literature, and political science. 
 But his career at Knox was practically a repeti 
 tion of that at Williams. He chafed under the 
 restraint of set rules and the requirement of at 
 tention to studies in which he took no interest. 
 If he had been allowed to choose, he would have 
 devoted his time to reading the Latin classics and 
 declaiming that is, as much time as he could 
 spare from plaguing the professors and interrupt 
 ing the studies of his companions by every device 
 of a festive and fertile imagination. 
 
 One year of this was enough for the faculty of 
 Knox and for the restless scholar, so in the autumn 
 of 1870 Eugene joined his brother Koswell in the 
 junior class at the University of Missouri. Here 
 Eugene Eield ended, without graduating, such 
 education as the school and the university was 
 ever to give him, for in the spring of 1871 he 
 left Columbia for St. Louis, never to return a 
 student at three universities and a graduate from 
 none. 
 
 Of Eugene Field s life in Columbia many stories 
 abound there and throughout Missouri. From the 
 aged and honored historian of the university I 
 have the following testimony as to the relations 
 of the two brothers with that institution, premis 
 ing it with the fact that all the official records of 
 
86 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 students were consumed in the fire that visited the 
 university in 1892: 
 
 Koswell M. Field attended the university as a 
 freshman in 1868-69, as a sophomore in 1869-70, and 
 as a junior in 1870-71. He was a student of the in 
 stitution these three sessions only. His brother 
 Eugene Field was a student of the junior class, ses 
 sion 1870-71, and never before or since. 
 
 I knew both of them well. Eugene was an inat 
 tentive, indifferent student, making poor progress in 
 the studies of the course a genial, sportive, song- 
 singing, fun-making companion. Nevertheless he 
 was bright, sparkling, entertaining and a leader 
 among "the boys." In truth he was in intellect 
 above his fellows and a genius along his favorite lines. 
 He was prolific of harmless pranks and his school life 
 was a big joke. 
 
 There has been preserved the following speci 
 men of the " rigs " Eugene was in the habit of 
 grinding out at the expense of the faculty this 
 being aimed at President Daniel Eeed (1868-77). 
 The poem is entitled: 
 
 BUCEPHALUS: A TAIL. 
 
 Twelve by the clock and all is well 
 That is, I think so, but who can tell? 
 So quiet and still the city seems 
 That even old Luna s brightest learns 
 
EDUCATION 87 
 
 Cannot a single soul discover 
 
 Upon the streets the whole town over. 
 
 The Marshal smiles a genial smile 
 
 And retires to snooze for a little while, 
 
 To dream of billies and dirlcs and slings, 
 
 The calaboose and such pleasant things. 
 
 The college dig now digs for bed 
 
 With bunged-up eyes and aching head, 
 
 Conning his lesson o er and o er, 
 
 Till an audible melodious snore 
 
 Tells that he s going the kingdom through 
 
 Where Greek s at a discount and Latin, too. 
 
 The Doctor, robed in his snowy white, 
 Gazes out from his window height, 
 And he bends to the breezes his noble form, 
 Like a stately oak in a thunderstorm, 
 And watches his sleek and well-fed cows 
 At the expense of the college browse. 
 His prayers are said; out goes the light; 
 Good-night; learned pres, good-night. 
 
 Half-past five by Ficklin s time 
 When I again renew my rhyme; 
 Old Sol is up and the college dig 
 Resumes his musty, classic gig, 
 " Ccesar venit celere jam." 
 
 With here and there an auxiliary 
 
 The Marshal awakes and stalks around 
 With an air importantly profound, 
 
88 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 And seizing on a luckless wight 
 Who quietly stayed at home all night 
 On a charge of not preserving order, 
 Drags him before the just Recorder. 
 
 In vain the hapless youth denies it; 
 
 A barroom loafer testifies it. 
 
 "Fine him/ the court-house rabble shout 
 
 (This is the latest jury out). 
 
 So when his poclcetbooh is eased 
 
 Most righteous justice is appeased. 
 
 The Doctor lay in his little bed, 
 
 His night-cap round his God-like head, 
 
 With a blanket thick and snowy sheet 
 
 Enveloped his I pshaw ! and classical feet, 
 
 And he cleared his throat and began: " My dear, 
 As well in Indiana as here 
 I always took a morning ride, 
 With you, my helpmeet, by my side. 
 
 " This morning is so clear and cool, 
 We ll ride before it s time for school. 
 Holloa, there John! you lazy cuss! 
 Bring forth my horse, Bucephalus ! " 
 So spake the man of letters. Straight 
 Black John went through the stable gate, 
 But soon returned with hair on end, 
 While terror wings his speed did lend, 
 And out he sent his piteous wail: 
 " boss! Old Bucky s lost his tail! " 
 
EDUCATION 89 
 
 Down went the night-cap on the ground, 
 Hats, boots and clothing flying round; 
 In vain his helpmeet cried " Hold on! " 
 He went right through that sable John. 
 Sing, sing, Muse, what deeds were done 
 This morn by God-like Peleus son; 
 Descend, -fickle Goddess, urge 
 My lyre to his bombastic splurge. 
 
 Boots and the man I sing, who first 
 Those Argive machinations cursed; 
 His swimming eyes did Daniel raise 
 To that sad tail of other days, 
 And cried "Alas! what ornery cuss 
 Has shaved you, my Bucephalus ? " 
 Then turning round lie gently sighed, 
 " We will postpone our morning ride." 
 
 In wrath I smite my quivering lyre, 
 Come once again, fair Muse, inspire 
 My song to more heroic acts 
 Than these poor simple, truthful facts. 
 Cursed be the man who hatched the plot! 
 Let dire misfortune be his lot! 
 Palsied the hand that struck the blow! 
 Blind be the eyes that saw the show! 
 Hated the wretch who ruthless bled 
 This innocent old quadruped. 
 
 Subpreps, a word of caution, please; 
 Better prepare your A, B, C s 
 
90 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Than prowl around at dead of night. 
 Don t rouse the beast in Daniel s breast; 
 Perhaps you ll come out second best. 
 
 Dear, gentle reader, pardon, pray, 
 I m thinking now I hear you say, 
 " Oh, nonsense! what a foolish fuss 
 About a horse, Bucephalus/ 
 
 This is no better verse, and possibly no worse, 
 than much of the adolescent doggerel that is so 
 often preserved by fond parents to prove that their 
 child early gave signs of poetic and literary genius. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 
 
 Eugene Field was in his twenty-first year when 
 he turned his back upon the colleges and faced 
 life. Roswell M. Field, Sr., had been dead two 
 years, and the moderate fortune which he had left, 
 consisting mostly of realty valued at about $60,000, 
 had not yet been distributed among the legatees, 
 Eugene and Roswell M. Field and Mary French 
 Field. To the last named one-fifth had been willed 
 in recognition of the loving care she had bestowed 
 upon the testator s two motherless sons, each of 
 whom was to receive two-fifths of the father s es 
 tate. Eugene therefore looked forward to the pos 
 session of property worth something like $25,000. 
 In St. Louis, in 1871, this was regarded as quite 
 a large fortune. It would have been ample to 
 start any young man, with prudence, regular hab 
 its, and a small modicum of business sense, well 
 along in any profession or occupation he might 
 adopt. But it was and would have been a baga 
 telle to Eugene though ten times the amount, un 
 less surrounded with conditions as impenetrable as 
 
 91 
 
92 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 chilled steel to a pewter chisel to resist the seduc 
 tive ingenuity of his spendthrift nature. 
 
 On first going to St. Louis to live, Eugene Field 
 was peculiarly fortunate in being taken into the 
 home and enduring friendship of Melvin L. Gray, 
 the executor of his father s estate, and of Mrs. 
 Gray. To the memory of the latter, on her death 
 several years since, Eugene contributed a memorial 
 from which I have already quoted and which in 
 some respects is the most sincerely beautiful piece 
 of prose he ever wrote. In that he refers to his 
 first coming to St. Louis in the following terms: 
 
 My acquaintance with Mrs. Gray began in 1871. 
 I was at that time just coming of age, and there were 
 many reasons why I was attracted to the home over 
 which this admirable lady presided. In the first 
 place Mrs. Gray s household was a counterpart of the 
 households to which my boyhood life in New England 
 had attracted me. Again both Mr. and Mrs. Gray 
 were old friends of my parents ; and upon Mr. Gray s 
 accepting the executorship of my father s estate, Mrs. 
 Gray felt, I am pleased to believe, somewhat more 
 than a friendly interest in the two boys, who, coming 
 from rural New England life into the great, strange, 
 fascinating city, stood in need of disinterested friend 
 ship and prudent counsel. I speak for my brother 
 and myself when I say that for the period of twenty 
 years we found in Mrs. Gray a friend as indulgent. 
 
At Twelve. 
 
 At Eighteen. 
 
 At Nineteen. 
 
 At Twenty-nine. 
 
 EARLY PORTRAITS OP EUGENE FIELD. 
 
CHOICE OF A PKOFESSION 93 
 
 as forbearing, as sympathetic, as kindly suggestive 
 and as disinterested as a mother, and in her home 
 a refuge from temptation, care and vexation. 
 
 In the subscription edition of " A Little Book 
 of Western Verse/ of which I had all the labor 
 and none of the fleeting fame of publisher, Field 
 dedicated his paraphrase of the Twenty-third Psalm 
 to Mr. Gray, and it was to this constant friend of 
 his youth and manhood, who still survives (1901), 
 that Field indited the beautiful dedication of " The 
 Sabine Farm " : 
 
 Come dear old friend! and with us twain 
 To calm Digentian groves repair; 
 
 The turtle coos his sweet refrain 
 And posies are a-blooming there, 
 
 And there the romping Sabine girls 
 
 With myrtle braid their lustrous curls. 
 
 I have followed the original copy Field sent to 
 Mr. Gray, which has several variations in punc 
 tuation from the version as printed in " The Sabine 
 Farm," where the eighth line reads: 
 
 Bind myrtle in their lustrous curls, 
 
 which the reader can compare with the original as 
 printed above. In that same dedication Field re 
 ferred to Mr. Gray as one 
 
 Who lov st us for our father s sake. 
 
94 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 In announcing to Mr. Gray by letter, June 
 28th, 1891, his intention to make this dedication^ 
 Field wrote: 
 
 It will interest, and we [Roswell was a joint con 
 tributor to " The Sabine Farm "] are hoping that it 
 will please you to know that we shall dedicate this 
 volume to you, as a slight, though none the less sin 
 cere, token of our regard and affection to you, as the 
 friend of our father and as the friend to us. Were 
 our father living, it would please him, we think, to 
 see his sons collaborating as versifiers of the pagan 
 lyrist whose songs he admired; it would please him, 
 too, we are equally certain, to see us dedicating a re 
 sult of our enthusiastic toil to so good a man and to 
 so good a friend as you. 
 
 These quotations are interesting as indicating the 
 character of the surroundings of Eugene Field s 
 early life in St. Louis. 
 
 It was the hope of their father that one, if not 
 both, of his sons would adopt the profession of the 
 law, in which he and his brother Charles and their 
 father before them had attained both distinction 
 and something more than a competence. But 
 neither Eugene nor his brother Roswell had the 
 slightest predilection for the law. By nature and 
 by a certain inconsequence of fancy they were 
 peculiarly unfitted for the practice of a profession 
 
CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 95 
 
 which requires drudgery to attain a mastery of its 
 subtle requirements and a preternatural gravity in 
 the application of its stilted jargon to the simplest 
 forms of justice. 
 
 The stage, on the other hand, possessed a fas 
 cination for Eugene. He was a mimic by inheri 
 tance, a comedian by instinct and unrestrained 
 habit. Everything appealed to his sense of the 
 queer, the fanciful, and the utterly ridiculous. He 
 was a student of the whimsicalities of character 
 and nature, and delighted in their portrayal by 
 voice or pen. Strange to relate, however, his first 
 thought of adopting the histrionic profession con 
 templated tragedy as his forte. He had inherited 
 a wondrous voice, deep, sweet, and resonant, from 
 his father, and had a face so plastic that it could 
 be moulded at will to all the expressions of terror, 
 malignity, and devotion, or anon into the most 
 grotesque and mirth-provoking lines of comedy. 
 His early love for reciting passages from " Sparta- 
 cus," referred to by the Rev. Mr. Tufts, showed 
 the bent of his mind, and when he became master 
 of his own affairs he sought out Edwin Forrest and 
 confided to him his ambition to go on the boards. 
 Would that I could reproduce Field s version of 
 that interview ! He approached the great tragedian 
 with a sinking heart, for Forrest had a reputation 
 
96 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 for brusque roughness never exceeded on or off the 
 stage. But Eugene managed to prefer his request 
 for advice and an opening in Forrest s company. 
 The dark-browed Othello looked his visitor over 
 from head to foot, and, in a voice that rolled 
 through the flies of the stage where this little scene 
 was enacted, exclaimed: 
 
 " Boy, return to your friends and bid them ap 
 prentice you to a wood-sawyer, rather than waste 
 your life on a precarious profession whose successes 
 are few and whose rewards are bankruptcy and in 
 gratitude. Go! study and learn of Coriolanus." 
 
 This I repeat from memory, preserving the sense 
 and the three words " boy," " wood-sawyer/ and 
 " Coriolanus," which always recurred in Field s 
 various versions of " "Why I did not go on the 
 stage." Eugene returned to St. Louis and quietly 
 disposed of the costumes he had prepared for such 
 characters as Hamlet, Lear, and Spartacus. 
 
 Francis Wilson, in his "The Eugene Field I 
 Knew," preserves the following story of Eugene s 
 further venture in search of a profession: 
 
 He organized a company of his own in conjunction 
 with his friend, Marvin Eddy, who tells of a comedy 
 Field wrote in which the heroines were impersonated 
 by Field himself to the heroes of the only other acting 
 member of the cast Mr. Eddy. A Madame Saun- 
 

 MELVIN L. GRAY. 
 
CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 9? 
 
 dors was the orchestra, or rather the pianist, and 
 Monsieur Saunders painted the posters which an 
 nounced the coming of the " great and only " enter 
 tainment. Rehearsals were held in the hotel dining- 
 rooms. While a darky carried a placard of announce 
 ment, the result of Saunders s artistic handiwork, the 
 local band, specially engaged, played in front of the 
 principal places in town. Mr. Eddy recalls that 
 Field had a sweet bass voice which he used with much 
 effect both in songs and recitations. 
 
 The season, confined to such towns in Missouri as 
 Carrollton, Eichmond, etc., lasted about two weeks 
 and was what the papers would call a succes d estime. 
 
 Which, being interpreted into the vernacular of 
 the author of " Sharps and Flats/ spelled a popu 
 lar " frost " and a financial failure. And thus 
 Missouri closed the door of comedy against Field, 
 as Forrest had shut the gates of tragedy in his pale 
 and intellectual face. 
 
 There was still one profession open to him in 
 which he had made a few halting and tentative 
 steps that of journalism, with its broad entrance 
 and narrowing perspective into the fair field of 
 letters. While a sophomore at Knox he had exer 
 cised his irrepressible inclination " to shoot folly 
 as it flies " by contributions to the local paper of 
 Galesburg, which had the piquant flavor of per- 
 VOL. I. 7 
 
98 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 sonal comment. His youthful dash at the door of 
 the stage had brought him into the comradeship of 
 Stanley Waterloo and several other young journal 
 ists in St. Louis, and he was easily persuaded to try 
 his prentice hand as a reporter, under the tute 
 lage of Stanley Huntley, of the " Spoopendyke 
 Papers " fame. 
 
 But Eugene Field was yet without the stern in 
 centive of necessity that is the seed of journalism. 
 Circumstances, however, were ripening that would 
 soon leave him no excuse on that score for not 
 buckling down to " sawing wood," as for twenty- 
 three years he was wont to consider his daily work. 
 When he reached his majority he was entitled to 
 his share in the first distribution of his father s 
 estate. Before this could be made, Mr. Gray had 
 to dispose of a part of the land which he held as 
 executor of Roswell M. Field. It was accordingly 
 offered for sale at auction, and enough to realize 
 $20,000 was sold. Under the will, Eugene s share 
 of this was $8,000, and he immediately placed 
 himself in the way of investing it where it would 
 be the least incumbrance to him. While at Co 
 lumbia he had met Edgar V. Comstock, the brother 
 of his future wife, through whom it was that he 
 made her acquaintance. Upon the first touch of the 
 cash payment on his share of the executor s sale, Eu- 
 
CHOICE OF A PBOFESSION 99 
 
 gene at once proposed to young Comstock that they 
 visit Europe in company, he bearing the expenses of 
 the expedition. His friend did not need much per 
 suasion to embark on what promised to be such a 
 lark. And so, in the fall of 1872, the two, against 
 the prudent counsels of Mr. Gray, set out to see 
 the world, and they saw it just as far as Eugene s 
 cash and the balance of that $8,000 would go. 
 
 In his " Auto- Analysis," Field says: " In 1872 
 I visited Europe, spending six months and my 
 patrimony in France, Italy, Ireland, and Eng 
 land." This is as near the sober truth as anything 
 Field ever wrote about himself. The youthful 
 spendthrift and his companion landed in Ireland, 
 and by slow, but extravagant, stages reached Italy, 
 taking the principal cities and sights of England 
 and France en route. About the only letters that 
 reached America from Field during this European 
 trip (always excepting those that went by every 
 mail-steamer to a young lady in St. Jo) were those 
 addressed with business-like brevity to Mr. Gray, 
 calling for more and still more funds to carry the 
 travellers onward. Before they had reached Italy 
 the mails were too slow to convey Field s impor 
 tunity, and he had recourse to the cable to impress 
 Mr. Gray with the dire immediateness of his im- 
 pecuniosity. In order to relieve this Mr. Gray was 
 
100 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 forced to discount the notes for the deferred pay 
 ments on the sale of the Field land, and when 
 Eugene and his brother-in-law-to-be reached Naples 
 their soulful appeals for more currency with which 
 to continue their golden girdle of the earth were 
 met with the chilling notice " No funds available." 
 Happily, in their meteoric transit across Europe, 
 they had invested in many articles of vertu and 
 convertible souvenirs of the places they had visited. 
 By the sale, or sometimes by the pledge, of these 
 accumulated impedimenta of travel, Eugene made 
 good his retreat to America, where he landed with 
 empty pockets and an inexhaustible fund of mirth 
 ful stories and invaluable experience. 
 
 On arriving in New York, Field had to seek 
 the Western Union Telegraph office to secure 
 funds for the necessary transportation to St. Louis. 
 These Mr. Gray furnished so liberally that Eugene 
 promptly invested the surplus in a French poodle, 
 which he carried in triumph back to Missouri as 
 a memento of his sojourn in Paris. This costly 
 pet, the sole exhibit of his foreign travel, he named 
 McSweeny, in memory, I suppose, of the pleasant 
 days he had spent in Ireland. 
 
 Years afterward I remember to have been with 
 Field when he opened a package containing a 
 watch, which for more than a decade had been an 
 
MRS. MELVIN L. GRAY. 
 
CHOICE OF A PKOFESSION 101 
 
 unredeemed witness to his triumphant entry into 
 and impecunious exit from Naples or Florence 
 I forget which. 
 
 Mrs. Below, Field s sister-in-law, in her little 
 brochure, " Eugene Field in His Home," preserves 
 a letter written by him from Rome to a friend in 
 Ireland, in which may be traced the bent of his 
 mind to take a whimsical view of all things com 
 ing within the range of his observation. In this 
 he bids farewell to political discussion: 
 
 For since the collapse of the Greeley and Brown 
 movement I have given over all hope of rescuing my 
 torn and bleeding country from Grant and his min 
 ions, and have resolved to have nothing more to do 
 with politics. Methinks, my country will groan to 
 hear this declaration ! 
 
 And there is the following description of how 
 he was enjoying himself in Italy, with the last re 
 mittances of his patrimony growing fewer and 
 painfully less: 
 
 We have been two months in Nice and a month or 
 so travelling in Italy. Two weeks we passed in 
 Naples, and a most delightful place we found it. Its 
 natural situation is simply charming, though the cli 
 mate is said to be very unhealthy. I climbed Vesu 
 vius and peered cautiously into the crater. It was a 
 
102 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 glorious sight nothing else like it in the world ! 
 Such a glorious smell of brimstone ! Such enliven 
 ing whiffs of hot steam and sulphuric fumes ! Then 
 too the grand veil of impenetrable white smoke that 
 hung over the yawning abyss! No wonder people 
 rave about this crater and no wonder poor Pliny lost 
 his life coming too near the fascinating monster. 
 The ascent of Vesuvius is no mean undertaking, and 
 I advise all American parents to train their children 
 especially for it by drilling them daily upon their 
 backyard ash-heaps. 
 
 His descent of Vesuvius was made " upon a dead 
 run," and he " astonished the natives by my [his] 
 celerity and recklessness." 
 
 This letter was written on Washington s birth 
 day, 1873, and in later years the omission of any 
 reference to the anniversary would have thrown 
 suspicion on its genuineness; but Field had not 
 yet begun to reckon life by anniversaries. Neither 
 is there in it a shadow of the impending crisis in 
 his finances nor a suggestion of another reason that 
 robbed his return voyage of all distressing thoughts 
 of retreat. 
 
CHArTEK VII 
 MARRIAGE AND EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 
 
 And now I come to that event in the life of Eu 
 gene Field which has naturally attracted the widest 
 interest among all who have delighted in his writ 
 ten tributes to womankind and mother love. In his 
 memorial to Mrs. Gray, Field has given expression 
 to his special reverence for the love between parent 
 and child. "For my dear mother," he wrote, "went 
 from me so many years ago that when I come to 
 speak of the blessedness of a mother s love, I hardly 
 know whereof I speak, it is all so far, so very far 
 away, and withal so precious, so sacred a thing." 
 This note recurs constantly through his writings, 
 and it is not to be wondered at that the love of a 
 man for a woman should have come early to a youth 
 whose heart had always felt the yearning for some 
 thing more tender and personal than the utmost 
 kindness of those upon whose affections others had 
 equal or greater claims. 
 
 Through his boyhood and school days, Field s af 
 fection for the petticoated sex had been tempered 
 by an irresistible impulse to tease all the daughters 
 103 
 
104 EUGEXE FIELD 
 
 of Eve. It is doubtful if his affections were ever 
 more seriously engaged by the girls of Amherst 
 or the young ladies of Williams and Knox than 
 was his attention by the regular studies of school 
 or college. He came to both in his own way and 
 time; with the difference that when he once felt 
 the touch of the inevitable maiden s hand in his, he 
 responded with an immediate ardor far different 
 from the slow and eccentric manner in which he 
 wooed the love of scholarship and letters. 
 
 It was while a junior at the University of Mis 
 souri that Eugene Field made the acquaintance of 
 Edgar V. Comstock, the sharer of the European trip 
 and experiences. Now Edgar s parents lived at St. 
 Joseph, and with them five sisters, the Misses Ida, 
 Carrie, Georgia, Julia Sutherland, and Gussie Com 
 stock, and the fairest of them all was Julia, albeit, 
 at the time her brother was in college, she was still 
 in short dresses. What more natural than that 
 Edgar s elder sisters should visit him during his 
 college term and there meet and be attracted by the 
 gaunt, yet already unique and striking, figure of 
 Eugene Field, the most unscholarly student and 
 most incorrigible wag in Columbia? Julia was too 
 young at this time, in the estimation of her sisters, 
 to travel so far from St. Jo. Besides, what in 
 terest would a little girl in short skirts take in the 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 105 
 
 grave and intellectual life of the brother and his 
 undergraduate friends? 
 
 Out of the friendship of Eugene and Edgar and 
 the visit of Edgar s sisters to Columbia, fate was 
 weaving a web for the unsuspecting subject of this 
 narrative which was not to be denied or altered by 
 leaving little Julia to rusticate at home like another 
 pretty little Cinderella. But this is not a fairy 
 tale. It has no prince or glass slippers or pumpkin 
 coaches, with which Field s fancy could have in 
 vested it. When the two friends separated on 
 Commencement Day, after Field had delivered an 
 oration that impressed Miss Ida (Mrs. Below), be 
 cause of " his pale face and deep voice," a promise 
 had been extorted that he would visit the Corn- 
 stocks in their home in St. Joseph. 
 
 In the usual course of human events nothing 
 further of concern to us would have come from the 
 exchange of these common civilities of student life. 
 Edgar would have returned to his home and for 
 gotten Eugene, and Eugene would have gone his 
 way and never known that Edgar had a younger 
 sister Julia sitting at the gate awaiting the coming 
 of her prince. But shortly after returning to St. 
 Louis, Field was inspired by his natural roving rest 
 lessness the French call it Fate to run clear 
 across the state of Missouri, some three hundred 
 
106 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 miles, to see what kind of a town St. Joseph was 
 and incidentally to visit his college friend. Nearly 
 twenty years later, in the gathering gloom of a 
 rented apartment in London, the still-constant lover 
 wrote of what happenned when he first saw " Saint 
 Jo, Buchanan County," in the early seventies. 
 There he first met " the brown-eyed maiden " of his 
 song, the Julia of numberless valentines that ran 
 the gamut of grave and gay through the interven 
 ing years, the heroine of frequent drives which they 
 " snailed along," as their proper horse went slow, 
 
 In those leafy aisles, where Cupid smiles 
 In Lover s Lane, Saint Jo. 
 
 Ah! sweet the hours of springtime 
 
 When the heart inclines to woo, 
 And it s deemed all right for the callow wight 
 
 To do what he wants to do. 
 
 In his " Auto- Analysis " Field says, " I favor 
 early marriage." Even if Edgar Comstock s elder 
 sisters had known this, it is doubtful whether the 
 thought would have crossed their minds that their 
 brother s chum of twenty-one would overlook their 
 more mature charms (they were all fair to look 
 upon), to be more than gracious to their fourteen- 
 year-old sister. Time out of mind sophisticated 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIEE 107 
 
 sisters of sixteen and eighteen have regarded 
 younger sisters as altogether out of the sphere of 
 those attentions which find their echo in wedding 
 bells, only to awake some bright morning to find 
 the child a woman and the attentive friend an ac 
 cepted lover. 
 
 So it happened in this case. While her sisters 
 were thinking how good it was of Field to take so 
 much interest in a mere child, their long afternoon 
 drives together down " Lovers Lane, Saint Jo," 
 had come to that happy turn that ignores all imma 
 turities of age and lays the life of a man at the feet 
 of the maid albeit, the feet are still strangers to 
 the French heels and have not yet known the witch 
 ery that goes with long dresses. Once sure of him 
 self, Field lost no time in making his wishes known 
 not only to Mistress Julia, but to her astonished 
 family. She listened and was lost and won. Her 
 parents expostulated that she was but a child. 
 Field had no difficulty in convincing them that she 
 would outgrow that. He pleaded for an imme 
 diate marriage, but her father firmly insisted that 
 though Julia might not be too young to love and 
 be loved, she was " o er young to marry yet." 
 Field was forced to accept the sensible decree 
 against the early realization of his hopes and re 
 turned to St. Louis with the understanding that 
 
108 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 he should establish himself in business and wait 
 until Miss Comstock was eighteen. 
 
 Whether this had anything to do with Field s 
 going to Europe or not I cannot say. It had noth 
 ing to do with his return, for his term of waiting 
 for his modern Rachel had still two years to run 
 when he got back from Europe. There is a pretty 
 story told that after all arrangements were made 
 for his European trip and he and Edgar Comstock, 
 accompanied by Miss Ida, had reached New York, 
 she and her brother were amazed to receive a note 
 by mail saying, " Important business has called me 
 back to St. Joseph; I hope you will pardon my 
 sudden leave-taking." They knew the nature of 
 his important business and had to wait with what 
 patience they could command while he posted fif 
 teen hundred miles and returned with barely 
 time, if all connections served, to catch the 
 steamer. 
 
 Field never dreamed of fulfilling that condition 
 of his probation which required him to become es 
 tablished in business. If he had done so the date of 
 his marriage would have been indefinitely post 
 poned. He returned from Europe, as we have seen, 
 sans the better part of his patrimony, in the spring 
 of 1873, and instead of attempting to establish him 
 self in business, immediately set himself to secure 
 
EAELY DOMESTIC LIFE 109 
 
 an abridgment of his term of waiting. The years 
 between fourteen and eighteen run slow. To every 
 true lover Time moves with leaden feet. As 
 Rosalind tells us, " Marry, he trots hard with a 
 young maid between the contract of her marriage 
 and the day it is solemnized : if the interim be but a 
 se nnight, Time s pace is so hard that it seems the 
 length of seven year." What wonder then if the 
 four years they were pledged to wait seemed an 
 eternity, and that both set themselves to abridge 
 it by all the arts and persuasion of young lovers. 
 They pleaded and contrived so cunningly and suc 
 cessfully that the obdurate parents finally acceded 
 to their wishes, and Eugene Field and Julia Suther 
 land Comstock were married at St. Joseph on Octo 
 ber 16th, 1873. The bride " at that time was a 
 girl of sixteen," is the laconic and only comment 
 of the " Auto- Analysis." This he supplemented 
 with the further information, " we have had eight 
 children three daughters and five sons." 
 
 But this is jumping from Saint Jo into the future 
 more than a score of years in advance of our story. 
 The young couple spent their honeymoon in the 
 East. Field took especial delight in showing his 
 bride of sixteen the wonders of New York and in 
 playing practical jokes upon her unsophisticated 
 nature, thereby keeping her in a perpetual state of 
 
110 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 amazement or of terror as to what he would do next. 
 He sought to make her at home at Delmonico s by 
 ordering " boiled pig s feet a la Saint Jo, 7 with a 
 gravity of countenance that tested the solemnity of 
 the waiters and provoked the protest, " Oh, Eu 
 gene ! " that was to be the feminine accompaniment 
 to his boyish humor throughout their married life. 
 No matter how often Field played his antics before 
 or on his wife, they always seemed to take her by 
 surprise and evoked a remonstrance in which pride 
 over his mirthfulness mollified all displeasure. 
 
 By the time Field returned to St. Louis his ready 
 funds were exhausted and he had to appeal to Mr. 
 Gray to raise more by mortgaging the balance of 
 his interest in his father s property. This is as good 
 a place as any to take leave of the patrimony that 
 came to Field at the death of his father, for he was 
 never to see any more dividends from that source. 
 When the loans fell due there were no funds to pay 
 them, nor equity in the land to justify their renewal. 
 So the land was sold and bid in by Mr. Gray, who 
 holds it yet and would gladly dispose of it for what 
 he paid out of his pocket and the goodness of his 
 heart. 
 
 Roswell Field tells an interesting story of how 
 their father s land speculation went out of sight in 
 the queer mutations that befall real estate. In the 
 
* 
 
 
 
 MRS. EUGENE FIELD. 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 111 
 
 year before Roswell the elder died, he took his 
 younger son for a drive in the country south of St. 
 Louis, where the property lies unimproved to this 
 day. " Rosy," said the father, " hold on to your 
 Carondelet property. In fifteen years it will be 
 worth half a million dollars, and, very likely, a 
 million and a half." That was thirty-three years 
 ago when the Carondelet iron furnaces were in full 
 blast and the city seemed stretching southward. In 
 1869 the property was appraised at $125,000. The 
 panic came on and St. Louis changed its mind and 
 headed toward the west, where the best part of the 
 city now rears its mansions and wonders how it ever 
 dreamed of going south. There Carondelet still 
 bakes in the sun, on the far side of a slough which 
 has diverted a fortune from the sons of the sanguine 
 Roswell M. Field, the elder. 
 
 More provident than his brother, Roswell lived 
 comfortably on his share for nearly seven years, 
 only in the end to envy the superior shrewdness of 
 Eugene, who, putting his portion into cash, realized 
 more from it, and spent it like a lord while it lasted. 
 I must confess that I share Roswell s views, for the 
 investment which Eugene Field made in the two 
 years after coming of age in spending $20,000 on 
 experience, returned to him many fold in the pro 
 fession he was finally driven to adopt, not as a 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 pastime, but to earn a livelihood for himself and 
 his growing family. 
 
 Having shot his bolt, Field went to work as a 
 reporter on the St. Louis Evening Journal. He 
 was not much of a success as a reporter for the 
 simple reason that his fancy was more active than 
 his legs and he was irresistibly disposed to save 
 the latter at the expense of the former. 
 
 The best pen picture I have been able to secure 
 of Field at this period of his career is from his 
 life-long friend, William C. Buskett, the hero 
 of " Penn Yan Bill," to whom Field dedicated 
 " Casey s Table d Hote," the first poem in " A 
 Little Book of Western Verse." 
 " My association with Eugene Field," says Mr. 
 Buskett, " began in St. Louis, Mo., in 1872. We 
 had a little circle of friends that was surely to be 
 envied in that we were fond of each other and our 
 enjoyment was pure and genuine. In 1875 we 
 formed what was known as the Arion Quartette, 
 composed of Thomas L. Crawford, now clerk in 
 the United States Circuit Court in St. Louis, 
 Thomas C. Baker (deceased), Roswell Martin 
 Field, a brother of Eugene, and myself. Gene 
 (as he was always called by his intimates) did not 
 sing in the quartette, though he had a good voice. 
 We frequently gave entertainments, at which 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 113 
 
 Eugene was always the centre of attraction. The 
 Old Sexton was his favorite song. He was a 
 great mimic and tease, and was always bubbling 
 over with fun. At that time he was living on 
 Adams Street, and many of these entertainments 
 were given at his house. His household then con 
 sisted of himself, wife, and baby Trotty/ the pet 
 name given his eldest daughter, Mary French 
 Field, and with them Mrs. Comstock, mother of 
 Mrs. Field, Edgar V. and Misses Carrie, Georgia, 
 and Gussie Comstock, a delightful family. 
 
 " There was a genuine bond of friendship 
 among us all then, for we were comparatively 
 oblivious to care and trouble. "We were all poor, 
 you may say, earning reasonable salaries, but that 
 never seemed to worry us much. If one had a 
 dollar we would always divide and the crowd was 
 never $ a cent ahead, but we defied misfortune. 
 
 " Among the pranks that Eugene used to play 
 upon his wife in those days was that of appearing 
 at some of our rehearsals on a warm evening in a 
 costume that never failed to tease her. He would 
 walk into the parlor and say : Well, boys, let us 
 take off our coats and take it easy; it s too hot. 
 We would all proceed to do so. When Eugene 
 would remove his coat he would display a red 
 flannel undershirt, having pinned his cuffs to his 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
114 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 coat sleeves and his necktie and collar to his shirt. 
 He placed no limit on his humor." 
 
 Who of those at all intimate with Field will for 
 get the enjoyment he took in trolling forth, in a 
 quaint, quavering, cracked, but tuneful recitative, 
 
 one stanza of " Ossian s Serenade " : 
 
 
 I ll chase the antelope over the plain 
 The tiger s cub I ll bind with a chain, 
 The wild gazelle with its silvery feet 
 I ll give to thee as a playmate sweet. 
 Then come with me in my light canoe, 
 While the sea is calm and the sky is blue, 
 For I ll not linger another day 
 For storms may rise and love decay. 
 
 "Well, this was a snatch that lingered in his 
 memory from the old days in Adams Street, St. 
 Louis, where he first caught it from the lips of Mr. 
 Buskett, in whose family it was an heirloom. 
 Field finally traced it to its source through per 
 sistent letters written to himself in his " Sharps 
 and Flats " column in the Chicago Eecord. 
 
 The glad wild days of which Mr. Buskett testi 
 fies were passed in St. Louis after Field s return 
 from a brief experience as city editor of the St. 
 Joseph Gazette in 1875-76. The time is fixed by 
 the presence of " Trotty " in the gypsy circle, who 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 115 
 
 was the best bit of news he " managed to acquire " 
 in the days whereof he wrote : 
 
 Oh, many a peck of apples and of peaches did I get 
 When I helped em run the local on the " St. Jo 
 Gazette/ 
 
 Judge Henry W. Burke, of St. Joseph, is au 
 thority for this story of the time when he was 
 associated with Field on the Gazette: Burke had 
 been sent out to report a " swell society event " 
 in the eastern part of the city. Kearly all the 
 prominent people of St. Joseph were present and 
 the names of all were published. Burke s story 
 of the affair was a column long, and after it was 
 written Field got hold of the copy and at the end 
 of the list of those present added, " and last but 
 not least the handsome and talented society editor 
 of the Gazette, H. W. Burke." The feelings of 
 the young reporter and embryo judge may be 
 imagined. 
 
 But a few months of " whooping up locals on 
 the St. Jo Gazette " were enough for Eugene, who 
 pined for the broader field and more congenial 
 associations of St. Louis. Thither he returned in 
 the spring of 1876, and the Evening Journal, being 
 by this time consolidated with the Times, he be 
 came an editorial writer and paragrapher on the 
 
116 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 hyphenated publication. He also resumed the 
 eccentric semi-bohemian life which Mr. Buskett 
 has rather suggested than described. He had 
 little or no business ability, had no use for money 
 except to spend it, and therefore early adopted 
 the plan of leaving to Mrs. Field the management 
 of their household expenditures. To her, then, as 
 throughout his life, was paid his weekly stipend 
 often depleted by the drafts for the " usual V " or 
 the " necessary X " which he was wont to draw in 
 advance from the cashier almost every week. 
 
 Before the newspaper cashier had risen as a 
 life-saving station on the horizon of Eugene Field s 
 constant impecuniosity, his father s executor, Mr. 
 Gray, had been the object of his intermittent ap 
 peals for funds to meet pressing needs. The 
 means he invented to wheedle the generous, but 
 methodical, executor out of these appropriations 
 afforded Field more genuine pleasure than the suc 
 cess that attended them. The coin they yielded 
 passed through his fingers like water through a 
 sieve, but the enjoyment of his happy schemes 
 abided in his memory and also in that of his con 
 stant friend always. One of Field s most effective 
 methods of securing an advance from Mr. Gray 
 was the threat of going on the stage under the 
 assumed name of Melvin L. Gray. On one occa- 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 117 
 
 sion Field approached him for money for living 
 expenses, and being met with what appeared to 
 be an unrelenting negative, coolly said: "Very 
 well, if you cannot advance it to me out of the 
 estate I shall be compelled to go on the stage. But 
 as I cannot keep my own name I have decided to 
 assume yours, and shall have lithographs struck 
 off at once. They will read, To-night, M. L. 
 Gray, Banjo and Specialty Artist. It is need 
 less to say that the much-needed funds were found. 
 But whether they went to the payment of living 
 expenses, to the importunity of some threatening 
 creditor, or were divided between the joys of the 
 bibliomaniac and the bon vivant, Field in his most 
 confiding humor never disclosed to me. 
 
 But this I know, that one of these always re 
 spectful, if apparently threatening, appeals to Mr. 
 Gray, was the basis for one of the few newspaper 
 attacks on Eugene Field that he resented deeply. 
 Some time after he had left St. Louis and was en 
 gaged on the Denver Tribune, the Spectator, a 
 weekly paper of the former city, contained the 
 following gossip regarding him which was written 
 in a thoughtless rather than an intentionally inimi 
 cal spirit: 
 
 One of the cleverest young journalists of this city, 
 a few years ago, was Mr. Eugene Field, whose charm- 
 
118 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ing short poems and witty paragraphs still occasion 
 ally find their way into our paper from Denver, 
 where he is now located. Mr. Field was the happy 
 possessor of one of those sunny dispositions which is 
 thoroughly antagonistic to trouble of every descrip 
 tion; he absolutely refused to entertain the black 
 demon under any pretext whatever, and after spend 
 ing a small fortune with the easy grace of a prince, 
 he settled down to doing without one with equal grace 
 and nonchalance, in a manner more creditable to 
 himself than satisfying to his creditors. Did his hat 
 ter or tailor present an untimely bill, the gay debon- 
 naire Eugene would scribble on the back thereof an 
 impromptu rhyme expressive of his deep regret at not 
 being able to offer the cash instead, and return the 
 same with an airy grace that the renowned orator, J. 
 Wilkins Micawber, himself might have envied. 
 
 While the intellectual prominences upon the 
 cranium of our friend and fellow-citizen had been 
 well looked to, Dame Nature totally neglected to de 
 velop his bump of veneration ; age possessed no quali 
 ties, wealth and position no prerogatives, which this 
 singularly constituted young man felt bound to re 
 spect. When his father s executor, an able and ex 
 ceedingly dignified member of the St. Louis bar, 
 would refuse to respond to his frequent demands for 
 moneyed advances, the young reprobate would coolly 
 elevate his heels to a point in dangerous proximity 
 to the old gentleman s nose, and threaten to go upon 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 119 
 
 the stage, taking his guardian s honored name as a 
 stage pseudonym and representing himself to be his 
 son. This threat generally sufficed to bring the elder 
 gentleman to terms, as he knew his charge s ability 
 to execute as well as to threaten. 
 
 He was an inveterate joker, and his tendency to 
 break out without regard to fitness of time or place 
 into some mad prank made him almost a terror to 
 his friends. On one occasion he informed a young 
 lady friend that he did not think he would be able to 
 come to her wedding because he had such a terrible 
 toothache. " Then why not have your tooth pulled 
 out?" said the young lady. "I never thought of 
 that," quoth Eugene gravely ; " I guess I will." 
 When the wedding day arrived, among the other 
 bridal gifts came a small box bearing Mr. Field s 
 card, and reposing on a velvet cushion inside was the 
 identical tooth which the bride had advised him to 
 have extracted, and in the cavity where had once 
 throbbed the agonizing nerve was neatly stuffed a 
 fifty-dollar bill. 
 
 The recollection of the many amusing traits and 
 freaks of this versatile genius affords amusement to 
 the innumerable friends of his to this day. But time 
 which sobers us all has doubtless taken some of the 
 foam and sparkle from this rare spirit, although it 
 would be hard to convince his friends that he will 
 ever be anything but the gay and debonnaire Eu 
 gene. 
 
120 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Mr. Gray, who vouches for the general accuracy 
 of the story of the strange wedding present, with 
 its costly filling, preserves among his most cher 
 ished mementoes of his foster son-in-law, if I may 
 be allowed the expression, Field s prompt repudia 
 tion of that paragraph in the above which charged 
 him with lack of respect for one from whom he 
 had received every evidence of affection: 
 
 DENVER, June 25, 1883. 
 
 DEAR MR. GRAY, 
 
 A copy of last Saturday s St. Louis Spectator has 
 just arrived and I am equally surprised, pained and 
 indignant to find in it a personal article about myself 
 which represents me in the untruthful light of hav 
 ing been disrespectful and impudent to you. I be 
 lieve you will bear me out when I say that my conduct 
 towards you has upon all occasions been respectful 
 and gentlemanly. I may not have been able to repay 
 you the many obligations you have placed me under, 
 but I have always regarded you with feelings of af 
 fectionate gratitude and I am deeply distressed lest 
 the article referred to may create a widely different 
 impression. Of course it makes no difference to you, 
 but as gratitude is about all I have in this world to 
 bestow on those who are good and kind to me, it is 
 not right that I should be advertised even in a jok 
 ing way as an ingrate. Yours sincerely, 
 
 EUGENE FIELD. 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 121 
 
 This letter is valuable in more ways than the 
 one which it was so unnecessarily written to serve. 
 It is a negative admission of the general faithful 
 ness of the impression left by Field upon those 
 familiar with his life in St. Louis, and the refer 
 ence to gratitude as all he had to bestow upon his 
 true friends will be recognized as genuine by all 
 who ever came near enough to his inner life to 
 appreciate its sweetness as well as its lightness. 
 As for his airy method of disposing of insistent 
 creditors I have no doubt that the rhymes on the 
 backs of their bills more often than not were more 
 to them than the dollars and cents on their faces. 
 
 During the second period of his life in St. Louis 
 two sons were born to Field and his wife, Melvin 
 G., named after the " Dear Mr. Gray," of the fore 
 going letter, and Eugene, Jr., who, being born 
 when the Pinafore craze was at its height, received 
 the nickname of " Pinny," which has adhered to 
 him to the present time. The fact that Melvin 
 of all the children of Eugene Field was never 
 called by any other name by a father prone to 
 giving pet names, more or less fanciful, to every 
 person and thing with which he came in contact, 
 is, I take it, an even more sincere tribute to the 
 high respect and love, if not reverence, in which 
 he held Melvin s godfather. 
 
122 EUGEXE FIELD 
 
 The third son and last child born to Field dur 
 ing the time of which I am now writing appeared 
 upon the scene, with his two eyes of wondrous 
 blue, very like his father s, at Kansas City, whither 
 the family had moved in the year 1880. Al 
 though he was duly christened Frederick, this new 
 comer was promptly nicknamed " Daisy," because, 
 forsooth, Field one day happened to fancy that his 
 two eyes looked like daisies peeping up at him 
 from the grass. The similitude was far fetched, 
 but the name stuck. 
 
 In Kansas City, where Field went from St. 
 Louis to assume at thirty years of age the manag 
 ing editorship of the Times of that town, the 
 family lived in a rented house which was made 
 the rendezvous for all the light-hearted members 
 of the newspaper and theatrical professions. Per 
 haps I cannot give a more faithful picture of 
 Field s life through all this period than is con 
 tained in the following unpublished lines, to the 
 original manuscript of which I supplied the title, 
 " The Good Knight and His Lady." Perhaps I 
 should explain that it was written at a time when 
 Field was infatuated with the stories and style 
 of the early English narratives of knights and 
 ladies : 
 
EAELY DOMESTIC LIFE 123 
 
 THE GOOD KNIGHT AND HIS LADY 
 
 Sooihly there was no lady faire 
 In all the province could compare 
 
 With Lady Julia Field, 
 The noble knight s most beauteous wife 
 For whom at any time his life 
 
 He would righte gladly yield. 
 
 Twas at a tourney in St. Joe 
 
 The good knight met her first, I trow, 
 
 And was enamoured, straight; 
 And in less time than you could say 
 A pater noster he did pray 
 
 Her to become his mate. 
 
 And from the time she won his heart, 
 She sweetly played her wifely part 
 
 Contented with her lot! 
 And tho* the little knightly horde 
 Came faster than they could afford 
 
 The good wife grumbled not. 
 
 But when arrived a prattling son, 
 
 She simply said, " God s will be done 
 
 This babe shall give us joy! " 
 And when a little girl appeared, 
 The good wife quoth: " Tis well I feared 
 
 Twould be another boy!" 
 
124 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 She leased her castle by the year 
 
 Her tables groaned with sumptuous cheer, 
 
 As epicures all say; 
 She paid her bills on Tuesdays, when 
 On Monday nights that best of men 
 
 Her husband drew his pay. 
 
 And often, when the good Jcnight craved 
 A dime wherewith he might get shaved, 
 
 She doled him out the same; 
 For these and other generous deeds 
 The good and honest knight must needs 
 
 Have loved the kindly dame. 
 
 At all events, lie never strayed 
 From those hymeneal vows he made 
 
 When their two loves combined; 
 A matron more discreet than she 
 Or husband more devote than he 
 
 It would be hard to find. 
 July 4th, 1885. 
 
 And so in very sooth it would have been. 
 Under what circumstances and with what purpose 
 Field wrote this I cannot now recall, if I ever knew. 
 Nothing like it exists among my many manuscripts 
 of his. It is written in pencil on what appears 
 to be a sheet from a pad of ledger paper, water 
 marked " 1879," a fact I mention for the benefit 
 
EARLY DOMESTIC LIFE 125 
 
 of his bibliomaniac admirers. And, what is most 
 peculiar, it is written on both sides of the sheet 
 something most unusual with Field, except in cor 
 respondence where the economy of the old half 
 ounce three-cent postage and his New England 
 training prevailed over his disposition to be lavish 
 with paper if not with ink. Anyway, Field s 
 " Good Knight and His Lady " gives a clearer in 
 sight into his home relations than any other thing 
 that has been preserved respecting them. That 
 it was prepared with care is witnessed by several 
 interlineations in ink ; sealed by a blot of his 
 favorite red ink on the corner, which for a wonder 
 does not bear the marks of the deliberate blemishes 
 with which he frequently embellished his neatest 
 manuscripts. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Although Eugene Field made his first essay in 
 journalism as a reporter, there is not the shadow 
 of a tradition that he made any more progress 
 along the line of news-gathering and descriptive 
 writing than he did as a student at Williams. He 
 had too many grotesque fancies dancing through 
 his whimsical brain to make account or " copy " 
 of the plain ordinary facts that for the most part 
 make up the sum of the news of the average re 
 porter s day. What he wrote for the St. Louis 
 , Journal or Times-Journal, therefore, had little re 
 lation to the happening he was sent out to report, 
 but from the outset it possessed the quality that 
 attracted readers. The peculiarities and not the 
 conventions of life appealed to him and he de 
 voted himself to them with an assiduity that lasted 
 while he lived. Thus when he was sent by the 
 Journal to Jefferson City to report the proceed 
 ings of the Missouri State Legislature, what his 
 paper got was not an edifying summary of that 
 120 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 127 
 
 unending grist of mostly irrelevant and immaterial 
 legislation through the General Assembly hopper, 
 but a running fire of pungent comment on the 
 idiosyncracies of its officers and members. He 
 would attach himself to the legislators whose per 
 sonal qualities afforded most profitable ammuni 
 tion for sport in print. He shunned the sessions 
 of Senate and House and held all night sessions of 
 story and song with the choice spirits to be found 
 on the floors and in the lobbies of every western 
 legislature. I wonder why I wrote " western " 
 when the species is as ubiquitous in Maine as in 
 Colorado? From such sources .Field gleaned the 
 infinite fund of anecdote and of character-study 
 which eventually made him the most sought-for 
 boon companion that ever crossed the lobby of a 
 legislature or of a state capital hotel in Missouri, 
 Colorado, or Illinois. He was a looker-on in the 
 legislative halls, and right merrily he lampooned 
 everything he saw. Nothing was too trivial for 
 his notice, nothing so serious as to escape his ridi 
 cule or satire. 
 
 There was little about his work at this time that 
 gave promise of anything beyond the spicy facil 
 ity of a quick-witted, light-hearted western para- 
 grapher. Looking back it is possible, however, to 
 discover something of the flavor of the inextin- 
 
128 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 guishable drollery that persisted to his last printed 
 work in such verses as these in the St. Louis Jour 
 nal: 
 
 THE NEW BABY 
 
 We welcome thee, eventful morn 
 Since to the poet there is born 
 
 A son and Tieir; 
 A fuzzy babe of rosy hue, 
 And staring eyes of misty blue 
 
 Sans teeth, sans hair. 
 
 Let those who know not wedded joy 
 Revile this most illustrious boy 
 
 This genial child! 
 But let the brother poets raise 
 Their songs and chant their sweetest lays 
 
 To him reviled. 
 
 Then strike, bards, your tuneful lyres, 
 Awake, rhyming souls, your fires, 
 
 And use no stint! 
 
 Bring forth the festive syrup cup 
 Fill every loyal beaker up 
 
 With peppermint! 
 March, 1878. 
 
 In the spring of 18Y9 the St. Louis Times- 
 Journal printed the following April verses by 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 129 
 
 Field, which were copied without the author s 
 name by London Truth, and went the rounds of 
 the papers in this country, credited to that mis 
 named paper, and attributed, much to Field s glee, 
 to William S. Gilbert, then at the height of his 
 Pinafore and Bab Ballad fame: 
 
 APRIL VESPERS 
 
 The turtles drum in the pulseless bay, 
 The crickets creak in the prickful hedge, 
 The bull-frogs boom in the puddling sedge 
 
 And the whoopoe whoops its vesper lay 
 Away 
 
 In the twilight soft and gray. 
 
 Two lovers stroll in the glinting gloam 
 His hand in her f n and Jier n in his 
 She blushes deep he is talking biz 
 
 They hug and hop as they listless roam 
 They roam 
 
 It s late when they get back home. 
 
 Down by the little wicket-gate, 
 
 Down where the creepful ivy grows, 
 Down where the sweet nasturtium blows, 
 A box-toed parent lies in wait 
 In wait 
 
 For the maiden and her mate. 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
130 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Let crickets creak and bull-frogs boom, 
 The whoopoe wail in the distant dell 
 Their tuneful throbs will ne er dispel 
 
 The planted pain and the rooted gloom 
 The gloom 
 
 Of the lover s dismal doom. 
 
 Just by the way of illustrating in f ac-simile and 
 preserving the character of the newspaper para- 
 grapher s work in the last century, the following 
 " Funny Fancies," by Field, from the St. Louis 
 Journal of August 3d, 1878, may be of interest: 
 
 A green Christmas No, no, we 
 mean a green peach makes a fat graveyard. 
 
 A philanthropic citizen of Mem 
 phis has wedded a Miss Hoss. He doubt 
 less took her for wheel or whoa. 
 
 We have tried every expedient 
 and we find that the simple legend : u Small 
 pox in this House " will preserve the most 
 uninterrupted bliss in an editorial room. 
 
 There is a moment when a man s 
 soul revolts against the dispensations of 
 Providence, and that is when he finds that 
 his wife has been using his flannel trousers 
 to wrap up the ice in. 
 
 To the average Athenian the dear 
 est spot on earth is the Greece spot. 
 
 Mr. Deer was hung at Atlanta. 
 
 Of course he died game. 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 131 
 
 Tis pleasant at the close of day 
 
 To play 
 
 Croquet. 
 And if your partner makes a miss 
 
 Why kiss 
 
 The siss. 
 But if she gives your chin a thwack, 
 
 Why whack 
 
 Her back I 
 
 A great many newspaper men lie 
 awake night after night mentally debating 
 whether they will leave their property to 
 some charitable institution or spend it the 
 next day for something with a little lemon 
 in it. 
 
 It was during his earlier connection with the 
 St. Louis Journal that Field was assigned the duty 
 of misreporting Carl Schurz, when that peripa 
 tetic statesman stumped Missouri in 1874 as a can 
 didate for re-election to the United States Sen 
 ate. Field in later years paid unstinted tribute to 
 the logic, eloquence, and patriotic force of Mr. 
 Schurz s futile appeals to the rural voters of Mis 
 souri. But during the trip his reports were in 
 nowise conducive to the success of the Republican 
 and Independent candidate. Mr. Schurz s only 
 remonstrances were, " Field, why will you lie so 
 outrageously ? " It was only by the exercise of 
 careful watchfulness that Mr. Schurz s party was 
 saved from serious compromise through the prac- 
 
132 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 tical jokes and snares which Field laid for the 
 grave, but not revered Senator. On one occasion 
 when a party of German serenaders appeared at 
 the hotel where the party was stopping, before Mr. 
 Schurz had completed a necessary change of toilet 
 Field stepped out on the veranda, and, waving the 
 vociferous cornet and trombone to silence, pro 
 ceeded to address the crowd in broken English. 
 As he went on the cheering soon subsided into 
 amazed silence at the heterodox doctrines he 
 uttered, until the bogus candidate was pushed un 
 ceremoniously aside by the real one. Mr. Schurz 
 had great difficulty in saving Field from the just 
 wrath of the crowd, which had resented his broken 
 English more than his political heresies. 
 
 On another occasion when there was a momen 
 tary delay on the part of the gentleman who was 
 to introduce Mr. Schurz, Field stepped to the front 
 and with a strong German accent addressed the 
 gathering as follows: 
 
 LADIES AND SHENTLEMEN: I haf such a pad colt 
 dot et vas not bossible for me to make you a speedg 
 to-night, but I haf die bleasure to introduce to you 
 my prilliant chournatistic friend Euchene Fielt, who 
 will spoke you in my blace. 
 
 It was all done so quickly and so seriously that 
 the joke was complete before Mr. Schurz could 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 133 
 
 push himself into the centre of the stage. Annoy 
 ance and mirth mingled in the explanations that 
 followed. A love of music common to both was 
 the only thing that made Field tolerable to his 
 serious-minded elder. 
 
 Eegarding Eugene Field s work upon the St. 
 Jo Gazette, it was local in character and of the 
 most ephemeral nature. There is preserved in 
 the pocket-books of some old printers in the West 
 the galley proof of a doggerel rhyme read by him 
 at the printers banquet, at St. Joseph, Mo., Janu 
 ary 1st, 1876. It details the fate of a " Kat " 
 printer, who, in addition to the mortal offence of 
 " spacing out agate " type with brevier, sealed his 
 doom by stepping on the tail of our old friend, the 
 French poodle McSweeny. The execution of the 
 victim s sentence was described as follows: 
 
 His body in the fatal cannon then they force 
 
 Shouting erstwhile in accents madly hoarse, 
 
 " Death to all Rats " the fatal match is struck, 
 
 The cannon pointed upwards then Tcerchuck ! 
 
 Fiz! Snap! Ker loom! Slug 14 s grotesque form 
 
 Sails out to ride a race upon the storm. 
 
 Up through the roof, and up into the sky 
 
 As if he sought for " cases " up on high, 
 
 Till like a rocket, or like one who s trusted, 
 
 He fell again to earth completely busted. 
 
134 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 There is not much suggestion, or even prom 
 ise, in this doggerel, of the Eugene Field whose 
 verses of occasion were destined within a dozen 
 years to be sought for in every newspaper office in 
 America. 
 
 Long before Field learned the value of his time 
 and writing, he began to appreciate the value of 
 printer s ink and showed much shrewdness in court 
 ing its favor. He did not wait for chance to bring 
 his wares into notice, but early joined the circle of 
 busy paragraphers who formed a wider, if less 
 distinguished, mutual admiration society than that 
 free-masonry of authorship which at one time almost 
 limited literary fame in the United States to Henry 
 James, William Dean Howells, Charles Dudley 
 Warner, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Kobert J. 
 Burdette is about the only survivor of the coterie 
 of paragraphers, who, a quarter of a century ago, 
 made such papers as the Burlington Hawkeye, the 
 Detroit Free Press, the Oil City Derrick, the Dan- 
 bury News, and the Cincinnati Saturday Night, 
 widely quoted throughout the Union for their 
 clever squibs and lively sallies. Field put him 
 self in the way of the reciprocating round of 
 mutual quotation and spicy comment, and before 
 he left St. Louis his " Funny Fancies " in the 
 Times-Journal had the approval of his fellow- 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 135 
 
 jesters if they could not save that paper from its 
 approaching doom. 
 
 Before leaving St. Louis, however, Eugene 
 Field was to strike one of the notes that was to 
 vibrate so sweetly and surely to his touch unto the 
 end. He had lost one baby son in St. Jo, and 
 Melvin was a mere large-eyed infant when his 
 father was moved at Christmas-time, 1878, to write 
 his " Christmas Treasures," which he frequently, 
 though incorrectly, declared to be " the first verse 
 I ever wrote." He probably meant by this that 
 it was the first verse he ever wrote " that he cared 
 to preserve," those specimens I have introduced be 
 ing only given as marking the steps crude and 
 faltering by which he attained a facility and tech 
 nique in the art of versification seldom surpassed. 
 
 In Mr. Field s " Auto-Analysis " will be found 
 the following reference to this early specimen of 
 his verse: 
 
 I wrote and published my first bit of verse in 1879 : 
 It was entitled " Christmas Treasures " [see " Little 
 Book of Western Verse "]. Just ten years later I be 
 gan suddenly to write verse very frequently. 
 
 Which merely indicates what little track Field 
 kept of how, when, or where he wrote the verse 
 that attracted popular attention and by which he 
 
136 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 is best remembered. I need hardly say that with 
 a few noteworthy exceptions his most highly- 
 prized poems were written before 1888, as a refer 
 ence to the "Little Book of Western Verse/ 
 above cited, and which was published in 1889, will 
 clearly show. 
 
 In the year 1880 Field received and accepted 
 an offer of the managing editorship of the Kansas 
 City Times, a position which he filled with singu 
 lar ability and success, but which for a year put an 
 almost absolute extinguisher on his growth as a 
 writer. Under his management the Times be 
 came the most widely-quoted newspaper west of 
 the Mississippi. He made it the vehicle for every 
 sort of quaint and exaggerated story that the free 
 and rollicking West could furnish or invent. He 
 was not particular whether the Times printed the 
 first, fullest, or most accurate news of the day so 
 long as its pages were racy with the liveliest ac 
 counts and comments on the daily comedy, eccen 
 tricity, and pathos of life. 
 
 Right merrily did he abandon himself to the 
 buoyant spirits of an irrepressible nature. Never 
 sparing himself in the duties of his exacting posi 
 tion on the Times, neither did he spare himself in 
 extracting from life all the honey of comedy there 
 was in it. His salary did not begin to keep pace 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 137 
 
 with his tastes and his pleasures. But he faced 
 debts with the calm superiority of a genius to 
 whom the world owed and was willing to pay a 
 living. 
 
 There lived in Kansas City, when Field was at 
 the height of his local fame there, one George 
 Gaston, whose cafe and bar was the resort of all 
 the choice spirits of the town. He fairly wor 
 shipped Field, who made his place famous by en 
 tertainments there, and by frequent squibs in the 
 Times. Although George had a rule suspending 
 credit when the checks given in advance of pay 
 day amounted to more than a customer s weekly 
 salary, he never thought of enforcing it in the 
 case of Gene. More than once some particularly 
 fine story or flattering notice of the good cheer 
 at Gaston s sufficed to restore Field s credit on 
 George s spindle. At Christmas-time that credit 
 was under a cloud of checks for two bits (25 cents), 
 four bits, and a dollar or more each to the total 
 of $135.50, when, touched by some simple piece 
 that Field wrote in the Times, Gaston presented 
 his bill for the amount endorsed " paid in full." 
 When the document was handed to Field he 
 scanned it for a moment and then walked over to 
 the bar, behind which George was standing smil 
 ing complacently and eke benevolently. 
 
138 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 " How s this, George? " said Field. 
 
 " Oh, that s all right," returned George. 
 
 " But this is receipted," continued the ex-debtor. 
 
 " Sure," said the gracious creditor. 
 
 " Do I understand/ said Field, with a gravity 
 that should have warned his friend, " that I have 
 paid this bill? " 
 
 " That s what," was George s laconic assurance. 
 
 " In full? " 
 
 " In full s what I said," murmured the unsus 
 pecting philanthropist, enjoying to the full his own 
 magnanimity. 
 
 " Well, sir/ said Field, raising his voice with 
 out relaxing a muscle, " Is it not customary in 
 Missouri when one gentleman pays another gentle 
 man in full to set up the wine ? " 
 
 George could scarcely respire for a moment, 
 but gradually recovered sufficiently to mumble, 
 " Gents, this is one on yours truly. What ll you 
 have?" 
 
 And with one voice Field s cronies, who were 
 witnesses to the scene, ejaculated, " Make it a 
 case." And they made a night of it, such as would 
 have rejoiced the hearts of the joyous spirits of 
 the " Noctes Ambrosianse." 
 
 From such revels and such fooling Field often 
 went to work next day without an hour s sleep. 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 139 
 
 While in Kansas City Field wrote that pathetic 
 tale of misplaced confidence that records the fate 
 of " Johnny Jones and his sister Sue." It was 
 entitled " The Little Peach " and has had a vogue 
 fully as wide, if not as sentimental, as " Little Boy 
 Blue." Field s own estimate of this production 
 is somewhat bluntly set out in the following note 
 upon a script copy of it made in 1887: 
 
 Originally printed in the Kansas City Times, re 
 cited publicly by Henry E. Dixey, John A. Mackey, 
 Sol Smith Russell, and almost every comedian in 
 America. Popular but rotten. 
 
 The last word is not only harsh but unjust. The 
 variation of the closing exclamation of each verse 
 is as skilful as anything Field ever did. Different, 
 indeed, from the refrain in " Wynken, Blynken 
 and Nod," but touching the chords of mirth with 
 certainty and irresistible effect. Field might have 
 added, that none of the comedians he has named 
 ever gave to the experience of " Johnny Jones and 
 His Sister Sue " in public recitation the same mel 
 ancholy humor and pathetic conclusion as did the 
 author of their misfortunes and untimely end him 
 self. As a penance, perhaps, for the injustice 
 done to " The Little Peack " in the quoted com 
 ment, Field spent several days in 1887 in trans- 
 
140 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 lating it, so to speak, into Greek characters, in 
 which it appears in the volume given to Mrs. 
 Thompson, which is herewith reproduced in fac 
 simile as a specimen of one of the grotesque fan 
 cies Field indulged: 
 
 ia.c. 
 
 X 
 
 A kirt\t nraf cV Q ^ 
 
 A XirtAt TUac cd &!&*! *vt~ 
 
 .* r 77. Q, / . C ?\ /ft r~ /i. ft 
 fit, *H) (TV? < 
 
 /y 
 
 Ir y/ov*. 
 
 CrC tiosj clr *> * 
 
 7^0-0 KA/tt to -n 
 
 
 3o/r ^iirt/^l 77^0-0 KA/tt to 
 
 
 
 a, kv ^ Jiv 
 trcl/* OY l vt( it 
 
 
 3~n (Toxro/if 
 
EXPERIENCES IN JOURNALISM 141 
 
 ifrflP % Mf i da,A\, Tn ^aJnlj 
 J* -nAoVctJ Tcu, art) */V 0~/Vu t O 
 
 ro 
 
 f r /B 
 
 d 
 
 J A/l 
 
 4( 
 
 # 
 
 For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the 
 Greek characters, I have retranslated this poem 
 into corresponding English, which the reader can 
 compare with his version of " The Little Peach." 
 
 THE PEAR 
 (In English Equivalent.) 
 
 A little pear in a garden grue 
 A little pear of emerald ue, 
 Kissed li the sun and bathed hi the due, 
 It grew. 
 
 One da, going that garden thro 
 That little pear kame to the fue 
 Of Thomas Smith and is sister Sue 
 Those tou! 
 
142 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Up at the pear a Hub tha thrue 
 Down from the stem on uikh it grue 
 Fell the little pear of emerald ue 
 Peek-a-boo! 
 
 Tom took a bite and Sue iook one too 
 And then the trouble began to brue 
 Trouble the doctors Wouldn t subdue 
 
 Too true (paragorik too?). 
 
 Under the turf fare the daisies grue 
 They planted Tom and is sister Sue 
 And their little souls to the angels flue 
 Boo oo! 
 
 But as to the pear of emerald ue 
 Kissed bi the sun and bathed bi the due 
 I ll add that its mission on earth is thro 
 Adieu. 
 
CHAPTEE IX 
 
 IN DENVER, 1881-1883 
 
 It was in Denver that Eugene Eield entered 
 upon and completed the final stage of what may 
 be called the hobble-de-hoy period in his life and 
 literary career. He went to the capital of Colo 
 rado the most indefatigable merry-maker that ever 
 turned night into day, a past-master in the art of 
 mimicry, the most inveterate practical joker that 
 ever violated the proprieties of friendship, time, 
 and occasion to raise a laugh or puncture a fraud. 
 As his friend of those days, E. D. Cowen, has 
 written, " as a farceur and entertainer no profes 
 sional could surpass him." 
 
 Field was tempted to go to Denver by the offer 
 of the managing editorship of the Tribune, which 
 was owned and controlled by the railroad and po 
 litical coalition then dominant in Colorado. It 
 was run on a scale of extravagance out of all pro 
 portion to its legitimate revenue, its newspaper 
 functions being altogether subordinate to services 
 as a railroad ally and political organ. The late 
 O. H. Rothacker, one of the ablest and most ver- 
 143 
 
144 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 satile writers in the country, was at the head of its 
 editorial staff, and Fred J. V. Skiff, now head of 
 the Field Columbian Museum, was its business 
 manager. These men, with Field, were given 
 carte blanche to surround themselves with a staff 
 and news-gathering equipment to make the Tribune 
 " hum." And they did make it hum, so that the 
 humming was heard far beyond the borders of the 
 centennial state. 
 
 In studying the character of Eugene Field anc} 
 his doings in Denver, it must be borne in mind 
 that we are considering a period in the life of that 
 city years ago, when the conditions were very dif 
 ferent from those prevailing there now or from those 
 to be met with to-day in any otker large city in 
 the country. Denver in 1881 was very much 
 what San Francisco was under the influence of the 
 gold rush of the early fifties, only complicated with 
 the struggles of rival railway companies. All the 
 politics, railway, and mining interests of the newly 
 created state centred in Denver. The city was 
 alive with the throbbing energy of strife and specu 
 lation over mines, railway grants, and political 
 power. Life was rapid, boisterous, and rough. 
 Nothing had settled into the conventional grooves 
 of habit. The whole community was fearless in 
 its gayety. It had not learned to affect the sobriety 
 
IN DENVER, 1881-1883 145 
 
 and demureness of stupidity lest its frivolity should 
 be likened to the crackling of thorns under a pot. 
 
 Into this civilization of the mining camp and 
 smelter, just emerging into that of the railway, 
 political, and financial centre of a vast and 
 wealthy territory, came Eugene Field at the age 
 of thirty-one, as free from care, warm-hearted, and 
 open-handed as the most reckless adventurer in 
 Colorado. Although a husband and a father, de 
 voted as ever to his family, he threw himself into 
 the bohemian life of Denver with the abandon of a 
 youth of twenty. It is almost inconceivable where 
 Field found the time and strength for the whirl of 
 work and play in which there was no let up during 
 his two years stay in Denver. His duties as man 
 aging editor of the Tribune would have taxed the 
 energies and resources of the strongest man, for he 
 did not spare himself to fulfil the purpose of his 
 engagement to make the paper " hum." He 
 mapped out and directed the work of the staff with 
 a comprehensive shrewdness and keen appreciation 
 of what his public, as well as his employers, wanted 
 that left no room for criticism. He kept the whole 
 city guessing what sensation or reputation would 
 be exploded next in the Tribune. 
 
 But he did not confine himself to the duties of 
 directing the work of others. He started a column 
 VOL. I. 10 
 
146 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 headed " Odds and Ends/ to which he was the 
 principal and, by all odds, the most frequent con 
 tributor. He had not been in the city many 
 months before he began the occasional publication 
 of those skits which, under the title of " The 
 Tribune Primer," were gathered into his first un 
 pretentious book of forty-eight pages, and which 
 in its original form is now one of the most sought 
 after quarries of the American bibliomaniac. Writ 
 ing of these sketches in 1894, he said: 
 
 The little sketches appeared in the Denver Tribune 
 in the Fall of 1881 and winter of 1882. The whole 
 number did not exceed fifty. I quit writing them 
 because all the other newspapers in the country began 
 imitating the project. 
 
 In fact the series began October 10th, 1881, and 
 ended December 19th of the same year. Edward 
 B. Morgan, of Denver, in an introductory note 
 to a few of the sketches omitted from the original 
 " Tribune Primer," printed in the Cornhill Book 
 let for January, 1901, gives the following version 
 of how the skits began: 
 
 Of the origin of these sketches a story is told al 
 though the writer cannot vouch for it that on the 
 Sunday evening preceding their first publication the 
 " printer s devil " was dispatched post-haste to Field s 
 
IN DENVER, 1881-1883 147 
 
 home for copy which his happy-go-lucky manner of 
 working had not produced. We may perhaps picture 
 him engaged in what was always nearest and dearest 
 to his heart, the amusement of his children, and per 
 haps reading to them or more likely composing for 
 them primer sketches which he on the spur of the 
 moment parodied for older readers. He has prob 
 ably expressed his own feelings in the third one of 
 the skits which he then wrote : 
 
 THE REPORTER ON SUNDAY 
 
 Is this Sunday ? Yes, it is a Sunday. How peace 
 ful and quiet it is. But who is the man? He does 
 not look peaceful. He is a reporter and he is swear 
 ing. What makes him swear? Because he has to 
 work on Sunday ? Oh no ! he is swearing because 
 he has to Break the Fourth Commandment. It is a 
 sad thing to be a Reporter. 
 
 According to Mr. Cowen, however, the inspira 
 tion of the primer compositions was a libel suit 
 brought against the Tribune by Governor Evans. 
 In ridiculing the governor and his action Field three 
 times used the old primer method with illustra 
 tions after the fashion of John Phoenix and the 
 success of these little sarcasms undoubtedly encour 
 aged him to elaborate the idea. Field also had a 
 column of unsigned verse and storyettes in the Trib 
 une under the heading, " For the Little Folks." 
 
148 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Mr. Morgan discredits Field s statement that the 
 whole number of the Primers issued did not exceed 
 fifty, because of the unlikelihood of printing such 
 a small edition of a book to be sold for twenty-five 
 cents and advertising it daily a month in ad 
 vance, with a foot-note, " Trade supplied at Special 
 Rates." Which merely shows that Mr. Morgan 
 applied to Field s acts the same rule of thumb that 
 would be applicable to ninety-nine out of a hun 
 dred reasonable publishers. But Field was a rule 
 unto himself, and he could be counted on to be 
 the one hundredth and unique individual where 
 the other ninety-and-nine were orthodox and con 
 ventional. The fact that only seven or eight copies 
 of the original Primer are known to book collectors 
 tends to confirm Field s statement, which receives 
 side light and support from his suggestion to Fran 
 cis Wilson that the first edition of " Echoes from 
 the Sabine Farm," which Mr. Wilson issued in 
 such sumptuous form nearly ten years later, should 
 consist of only fifty copies, and that each of the 
 two should reserve one and that they should " burn 
 the other forty-eight." 
 
 I have not the slightest doubt that the same dis 
 position was made of all copies of " The Tribune 
 Primer " over the first fifty, which were supplied 
 to the favored few at " Special Rates." This was 
 
IN DENVER, 1881-1883 149 
 
 just such a freak as would have occurred to Field, 
 and in Denver there was no restraint upon the 
 act following upon any wild thought that flitted 
 through his topsy-turvy brain. 
 
 The jocose spirit in which Field at this time 
 viewed the methods, duties, and responsibilities of 
 journalism may be gleaned from the following 
 specimens taken at random from his " Tribune 
 Primer " sketches: 
 
 THE EEPORTER 
 
 What is that I see ? That, my Child, is the News 
 Interviewer and he is now interviewing a Man. But 
 where is the Man? I can see no Man. The Man, 
 my Child, is in his Mind. 
 
 A RECHERCHE AFFAIR 
 
 This is a recherche Affair. Recherche Affairs are 
 sometimes met with in Parlors and Ball Rooms. 
 But more Generally in the Society Department of 
 newspapers. A Recherche Affair is an Affair where 
 the Society Editor is invited to the refreshment table. 
 When the Society Editor is told his Room is Better 
 than his Company, the Affair is not Recherche. 
 
 THE STEAM PRESS 
 
 Is this not a Beautiful Steam Press ? The Steam 
 is Lying Down on the Floor taking a Nap. He came 
 from Africa and is Seventy Years Old. The Press 
 
150 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 prints Papers. It can Print Nine Hundred papers 
 an Hour. It takes One Hour and Forty Minutes to 
 Print the Edition of the Paper. The Paper has a 
 circulation of Thirty-seven thousand. The business 
 Manager says so. 
 
 It was indeed a happy departure from the ruder 
 fooling of the newspaper paragrapher of that day 
 to clothe satire on current events and every-day 
 affairs in the innocent simplicity of the nursery. 
 But the vast majority of these Primer paragraphs 
 were by no means as innocent as those quoted. 
 Many of them had a sting more sharp than that 
 of the wasp embalmed in one of them: 
 
 See the Wasp. He has pretty yellow stripes 
 around his Body, and a darning needle in his tail. 
 If you will Pat the Wasp upon the Tail, we will Give 
 you a nice Picture Book. 
 
 Very many of them seemed inspired by an irre 
 pressible desire to incite little children to deeds of 
 mischief never dreamed of in Baxter s Saints 
 Rest. Here are a precious pair of paragraphs, each 
 calculated to bring the joy that takes its meals 
 standing into any home circle where youthful in- 
 corrigibles were in need of outside encouragement 
 to their infant initiative: 
 
IN DENVEE, 1881-1883 151 
 
 THE NASTY TOBACCO 
 
 What is that Nasty looking object ? It is a Chew 
 of Tobacco. Oh, how naughty it is to use the Filthy 
 weed. It makes the teeth black, and spoils the Par 
 lor Carpet. Go Quick and Throw the Horrid Stuff 
 Away. Put it in the Ice Cream Freezer or in the 
 Coffee Pot where Nobody can see it. Little Girls you 
 should never chew Tobacco. 
 
 THE MUCILAGE 
 
 The Bottle is full of Mucilage. Take it and Pour 
 some Mucilage into Papa s Slippers. Then when 
 Papa comes Home it will be a Question whether there 
 will be more Stick in the Slippers than on your Pants. 
 
 But whoever wishes to learn of the peculiar side 
 of Child life that appealed most strongly to Eugene 
 Field when his own earlier born children were still 
 in the nursery age, should get a copy of " The 
 Tribune Primer " and read, not only the sketches 
 themselves, but between the lines, where he will 
 find much of the teasing spirit that kept his whole 
 household wondering what he would do next. In 
 these sketches will be found frequent references to 
 the Bugaboo, a creation of his fancy, " "With a 
 big Voice like a Bear, and Claws as long as a Knife." 
 His warning to the little children then was, "If 
 
152 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 you are Good, Beware of the Bugaboo." In later 
 life he reserved the terror of the Bugaboo for 
 naughty little boys and girls. 
 
 His first poem to his favorite hobgoblin, as it 
 appeared in the Denver Tribune, was the follow 
 ing: 
 
 THE AWFUL BUGABOO 
 
 There was an awful Bugaboo 
 Whose Eyes were Red and Hair was Blue; 
 His Teeth were Long and Sharp and White 
 And he went prowling round at Night. 
 
 A little Girl was Tucked in Bed, 
 A pretty Night Cap on her Head; 
 Her Mamma heard her Pleading Say, 
 " Oil, do not Take the Lamp away! " 
 
 But Mamma took away the lamp 
 And oh, the Room was Dark and Damp; 
 The Little Girl was Scared to Death 
 She did not Dare to Draw her Breath. 
 
 And all at once the Bugaboo 
 Came Rattling down the Chimney Flue; 
 He Perched upon the little Bed 
 And scratched the Girl until she bled. 
 
 He drank the Blood and Scratched again 
 The little Girl cried out in vain 
 
IN DENVEK, 1881-1883 153 
 
 He picked her up and Off he Flew 
 This Naughty, Naughty Bugaboo! 
 
 So, children when in Bed to-night, 
 Don t let them Take away the Light, 
 Or else the Awful Bugaboo 
 May come and Fly away with You. 
 
 It is a far cry in time and a farther one in lit 
 erary worth from " The Awful Bugaboo " of 1883 
 to " Seein Things " of 1894. The sex of the vic 
 tim is different, and the spirit of the incorrigible 
 western tease gives way to the spirit of Puritanic 
 superstition, but there can be no mistaking the 
 persistence of the Bugaboo germ in the later verse : 
 
 An yet I hate to go to bed, 
 
 For when I m tucked up warm an snug an when m,y 
 
 prayers are said, 
 Mother tells me "Happy Dreams!" and takes away 
 
 the light, 
 An leaves me lyin all alone an seein things at night! 
 
 Sometimes they are as black as ink, an other times 
 
 they re white 
 But the color ain t no difference when you re seein 
 
 things at night. 
 
 In all that Field wrote, whether in prose or 
 rhyme, for the Denver Tribune nothing contrib- 
 
154 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 uted to his literary reputation or gave promise of 
 the place in American letters he was to attain, save 
 one little bit of fugitive verse, which was for years 
 to justify its title of " The "Wanderer." It con 
 tains one of the prettiest, tenderest, most vitally 
 poetic ideas that ever occurred to Eugene Field. 
 And yet he deliberately disclaimed it in the mo 
 ment of its conception and laid it, like a little 
 foundling, at the door of Madame Modjeska. The 
 expatriation of the Polish actress, between whom 
 and Field there existed a singularly warm and en 
 during friendship, formed the basis for the allegory 
 of the shell on the mountain, and doubtless sug 
 gested to him the humor, if not the sentiment, of 
 attributing the poem to her and writing it in the 
 first person. The circumstances of its publication 
 justify its reproduction here, although I suppose 
 it is one of the most familiar of Field s poems. I 
 copy it from his manuscript: 
 
 THE WANDERER 
 
 Upon a mountain height, far from the sea, 
 
 I found a shell, 
 
 And to my listening ear this lonely tiling 
 Ever a song of ocean seem d to sing 
 
 Ever a tale of ocean seem d to tell. 
 
IN DENVEE, 1881-1883 155 
 
 How came the shell upon the mountain height? 
 
 Ah, who can say 
 
 Whether there dropped by some too careless hand 
 Whether there cast when oceans swept the land, 
 
 Ere the Eternal had ordained the day? 
 
 Strange, was it not? Far from its native deep, 
 
 One song it sang; 
 
 Sang of the awful mysteries of the tide, 
 Sang of the restless sea, profound and wide 
 
 Ever with echoes of the ocean rang. 
 
 And as the shell upon the mountain height 
 
 Sang of the sea, 
 
 So do I ever, leagues and leagues away 
 So do I ever, wandering where I may, 
 
 Sing, my home! sing, my home! of thee! 
 
 I have seen it stated that Madame Modjeska re 
 garded the liberty taken with her name in this con 
 nection with feelings of displeasure, and Hamlin 
 Garland has reported a conversation with Field, 
 during the summer of 1893, when the latter, speak 
 ing of his work in Denver, and of " The Tribune 
 Primer " as the most conspicuous thing he did 
 there, said: "The other thing which rose above 
 the level of my ordinary work was a bit of verse, 
 The Wanderer, which I credited to Modjeska, 
 and which has given her no little annoyance." In 
 
156 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 his note to Mrs. Thompson s manuscript copy of 
 " The Wanderer/ 7 Field says: 
 
 These verses appeared in the Denver Tribune cred 
 ited to Helena Modjeska. They were copied far and 
 wide over Modjeska s name. Modjeska took the joke 
 in pretty good part. The original publication was 
 June, 1883. 
 
 Madame Modjeska not only took the joke in 
 " pretty good part," but esteemed its perpetrator 
 all the more highly for the light in which it placed 
 her before the public, which she was then delight 
 ing with her exquisite impersonations of Rosalind 
 and Mary Stuart. For years after its publication 
 Madame Modjeska, wherever she appeared through 
 out the country, was reminded of this joke by the 
 scores of letters sent to her room, as soon as she 
 registered, requesting autograph copies of " The 
 Wanderer," or the honor of her signature to a 
 clipping of it neatly pasted in the autograph hunt 
 er s album. Nor were autograph hunters the only 
 ones imposed on by the signature to " The Wan 
 derer." In August, 1883, Professor David Swing, 
 writing in the Weekly Magazine, gave it as his 
 opinion that the alleged Modjeska poem was in 
 deed written by Modjeska, and concluded: " The 
 conversation and tone of her thoughts as expressed 
 
IN DENVER, 1881-1883 157 
 
 among friends betrays a mind that at least loves 
 the poetic, and is quite liable to attempt a verse. 
 The child-like simplicity of this little song is so 
 like Modjeska that no demand arises for any out 
 side help in the matter." And Field, like the trute 
 fisherman he was, having secured a fine rise, pro 
 ceeded to remark: " It will, perhaps, pain the 
 Professor to learn that Madame Modjeska now de 
 nies ever having seen the verses until they appeared 
 in print." 
 
 But not until Field reclaimed his child and pub 
 lished " The Wanderer " as his own, in " A Little 
 Book of Western Verse," was the verse-reading 
 public satisfied to give the Polish comedienne a long 
 rest from importunities concerning it. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 ANECDOTES OP LIFE IN DENVER 
 
 No story of Eugene Field s life would be true, 
 no study of his personality complete, if it ignored 
 or even glossed over " the mad wild ways of his 
 youthful days " in Denver. He never wearied of 
 telling of the constant succession of harum-scarum 
 pranks that made the Tribune office the storm- 
 centre for all the fun-loving characters in Colo 
 rado. Not that Field ever neglected his work or 
 his domestic duties for play, but it was a dull day 
 for Denver when his pen or his restless spirit for 
 mischief did not provide some fresh cause for local 
 amazement or merriment. His associates and abet 
 tors in all manner of frolics, where he was master 
 of the revels, were kindred spirits among the rail 
 way managers, agents, politicians, mining specu 
 lators, lawyers, and doctors of the town. Into this 
 company a fresh ingredient would be introduced 
 every week from the theatrical troupes which made 
 Denver the western limit of their circuits or a con 
 venient break in the long overland jump. 
 
 Field s office was a fitting retreat for the genius 
 158 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 159 
 
 of disorder. It had none of the conveniences that 
 are supposed to be necessary in the rooms of 
 modern managing editors. It was open and ac 
 cessible to the public without the intermediary of 
 an office-boy or printer s devil. Field had his own 
 way of making visitors welcome, whether they 
 came in friendly guise or on hostile measures bent. 
 Over his desk hung the inhospitable sign, " This 
 is my busy day," which he is said to have invented, 
 and on the neighboring wall the motto, " God bless 
 our proof-reader, He can t call for him too soon." 
 But his cruelest device, " fatal," as his friend E. 
 D. Cowen writes, " to the vengeance of every vis 
 itor who came with a threat of libel suit, and tem 
 porarily subversive of the good feeling of those 
 friends he lured into its treacherous embrace, was 
 a bottomless black-walnut chair." Its yawning seat 
 was always concealed by a few exchanges carelessly 
 thrown there the floor being also liberally strewn 
 with them. As it was the only chair in the room 
 except the one Field occupied himself, his caller, 
 though never asked to do so, would be sure to see 
 in Field s suave smile an invitation to drop into 
 the trap and thence ingloriously to the floor. 
 Through this famous chair, on his first visit to the 
 Tribune office, "Bill" Nye dropped into a life 
 long friendship with Eugene Field. When the 
 
160 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 victim happened to be an angry sufferer from a 
 too personal reference to his affairs in the paper, 
 Field would make the most profuse apologies for 
 the scant furnishings of the office, which he 
 shrewdly ascribed to the poverty of the publishing 
 company, and tender his own chair as some small 
 compensation for the mishap. 
 
 I have spoken of Edgar W. more familiarly 
 known as " Bill " Nye s unceremonious introduc 
 tion to Field s friendship. This followed upon what 
 was virtually the discovery of Nye by Field. The 
 former was what old-time printers described as 
 " plugging along " without recognition on the Lar- 
 amie Boomerang. His peculiar humor caught the 
 attention of Field, who, with the intuition of a 
 born journalist, wrote and got Nye to contribute a 
 weekly letter to the Tribune. At first Nye was 
 paid the princely stipend of $5 a week for these 
 letters. This was raised to $10, and when Field 
 informed Nye that he was to receive $15 per let 
 ter, the latter promptly packed his grip and took 
 the first train for Denver, to see what sort of a 
 newspaper Croesus presided over the order-blank 
 of the Tribune. When he appeared before Field 
 he was whiskered like a western farmer and his 
 head had not pushed its way through a thick growth 
 of hair. He was altogether a different looking per- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIEE IN DENVER 161 
 
 sonage from the bald-headed, clean-shaven humor 
 ist with whose features the world was destined to 
 become so well acquainted. 
 
 After the incident of the chair nothing would 
 do Field but a dinner at the St. James Hotel, given 
 in honor of Bill Nye. The affair started after the 
 Tribune had gone to press and lasted all night. At 
 five o clock in the morning the company escorted 
 their guest to his room and departed, with elaborate 
 professions of good-will. They waited in the hotel 
 office long enough for Nye to get to bed, and then 
 sent up cards, requesting his presence down-stairs 
 on immediate business. But Nye was equal to his 
 tormentors, and the bell-boy returned, bearing a 
 shot-gun, with the message that it would speak for 
 him. "When Nye first visited Field in Chicago, 
 his presence in town was heralded with the follow 
 ing paragraph: 
 
 The latest news from Bill Nye is to the effect that 
 he has discovered a coal mine on his little farm near 
 Hudson, Wis. Ten days ago he was spading over his 
 garden an exercise recommended by his physician 
 and he struck a very rich vein of what is called 
 rock coal. Nye paid $2,000 for this farm, and since 
 the development of this coal deposit on the premises 
 he has been offered $10,000 for five acres. He be 
 lieves that he has a great fortune within his grasp. 
 VOL. I. 11 
 
162 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 As illustrative of how impossible it was for Field 
 to keep money, it is related that on one occasion 
 he coaxed F. J. V. Skiff, then business manager 
 of the Tribune, to advance " just another " $10 
 to meet some urgent domestic demands. Scarcely 
 had Mr. Skiff time to place the order in the cash 
 drawer, ere Field stood before him once more, 
 pleading in forma pauperis for " another X." He 
 was asked what had become of the ten he had just 
 received. 
 
 " Just my luck, Fred," Field replied. " As I 
 was leaving the office whom should I meet but one 
 of my old printer boys, dead broke. The X was 
 all I had, and he told me he had to have it, and 
 he had to." It is needless to say that Field got 
 the second advance and succeeded in dodging all 
 impecunious " old boys " on the way home. 
 
 I have said that Denver at that time was the 
 centre of all the railway interests of Colorado and 
 the far West. Being also the capital, it was the 
 place where legislators and railway agents wres 
 tled with problems of regulating tariffs and grant 
 ing privileges to what may be called their mutual 
 benefit. It was from his experience in Denver that 
 Field learned that two-thirds of the business of a 
 western legislature consisted in causing legislative 
 hold-ups, of which the transportation companies 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 163 
 
 were the victims, and the most vociferously im 
 peccable statesmen the chief beneficiaries. The 
 secret service funds of the railway companies doing 
 business in Colorado paid out a hundred dollars 
 for protection from notorious sandbagging bills and 
 resolutions to every dollar they spent for special 
 favors in grants and franchises. 
 
 This by way of preface to a story in which Eu 
 gene Field and a railway official, who, as I write, 
 holds a high position in the transportation world, 
 figure. This official was at that time the superin 
 tendent of the Southwestern Division of the Pull 
 man system, with head-quarters at St. Louis. In 
 those days every session of the Colorado legislature 
 saw its anti-Pullman rate reduction bill, which 
 Wickersham, as I shall call him, because that is 
 not his name, was commissioned to checkmate, 
 strangle, or make away with in committee by the 
 aid of annual passes, champagne, and the mysteri 
 ous potency of the national bank-note. As was 
 remarked by E. D. Cowen, to whose notes I am 
 indebted for refreshing my memory of Field s 
 tales, Wickersham never failed in generalship, prin 
 cipally because he was bold in his methods and 
 picturesquely lavish with his munitions of war. 
 The Pullman Company did not then enjoy the 
 royalty and defensive alliance which now protects 
 
164 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 it against rate legislation throughout the West, and 
 so Wickersham was kept continually on the go, 
 making alliances and friendships among legislators 
 and journalists against the days of reckoning. 
 
 Field, as the managing editor of the Tribune, 
 was a special favorite with Wickersham, as he was 
 of every professional and commercial visitor hav 
 ing an axe to grind at the capital of the state. 
 Pullman s representative had the wit to appreciate 
 Field, both for his personal qualities and the as 
 sistance he could render through the columns of 
 the newspaper. Field reciprocated the personal 
 friendship, but, so far as the Tribune was con 
 cerned, took a grim satisfaction in giving Wick 
 ersham to understand that though he could use 
 its freedom he could not abuse it or count upon its 
 aid beyond what was strictly legitimate. Field s 
 stereotyped introduction of Wickersham one cal 
 culated to put him on a pleasant business footing 
 with every practical politician, was " He s a good 
 fellow and a thoroughbred." So his coming was 
 invariably celebrated by a general round-up of all 
 the good fellows in Denver, and his departure left 
 the aching heads and parched recollections that 
 from the days of Noah have distinguished the 
 morning after. 
 
 After one of Wickersham s calls, Field deter- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 165 
 
 mined that the sobriety and severe morality of 
 Denver were being scandalized by these periodical 
 visitations, and he issued orders to the Tribune 
 staff that when next the " good fellow and thor 
 oughbred " appeared on the scene he should be 
 given a wide berth, or, as Field put it, should be 
 left to " play a lone hand in his game." So when 
 Wickersham next swung around the legislative cir 
 cle to Denver, not a man about the editorial rooms 
 would go out with him, listen to his stories, accept 
 a cigar at his hands, or associate with him in any 
 of the ways that had been their cheerful wont. 
 The coldness and loneliness of the situation excited 
 Wickersham s thirst for revenge and also for what 
 is known as the wine of Kentucky. Having suc 
 ceeded in getting up a full head of steam, he 
 started out for an explanation or a counter demon 
 stration. Arriving at the Tribune office, when the 
 desks were vacated at the evening dinner-hour, he 
 interpreted it as a further affront and challenge, 
 which he proceeded to answer by destroying every 
 last scrap of copy in sight for the morrow s paper. 
 He then converted himself into a small cyclone, 
 and went through every desk, strewed their litter 
 on the floor, broke all the pens and pencils, and, 
 in the language of an eye-witness, " ended by ton 
 ing the picture of editorial desolation with the 
 
166 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 violet contents of all the ink bottles he could 
 find." 
 
 Then he retired in hilarious satisfaction from the 
 scene of devastation he had made. Consternation 
 reigned in that office until Field returned, when 
 he quickly dispelled the gloom with a promise of 
 revenge, and set the staff at work to patch up the 
 ruin the envious Wickersham had made. But they 
 were not permitted to do this in peace, for their 
 enemy, returning in the dark of night, bombarded 
 the windows of the editorial rooms with the staves 
 of old ash-barrels he had found conveniently by. 
 
 While Wickersham was engaged in this second 
 assault, with windows smashing to right of them 
 and to left of them, with glass falling all around 
 them, and the staves of old ash-barrels playing a 
 devil s tattoo about them, the devoted band of 
 editors, reporters, and copy-readers worked nobly 
 on. They had confidence in their leader that their 
 hour would come. Their first duty was to get 
 out the paper. After that they looked for the 
 deluge. 
 
 When Wickersham had expended his last stave 
 and fiercest epithet on the shattered windows he 
 retired in bad order to his apartments at the St. 
 James Hotel. 
 
 Now began Field s revenge, planned with due 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 167 
 
 deliberation and executed with malicious thorough 
 ness. He first sent for " Possum Jim," an aged 
 and very serious colored man, who worshipped 
 " Mistah Fiel " because of the sympathy Eugene 
 never withheld from the dark-skinned children of 
 the race. " Possum Jim " spent most of his ex 
 istence on the same street corner, waiting for a 
 job, which invariably had to come to him. His 
 outfit consisted of an express wagon strung to 
 gether with telegraph wire, and a nondescript four- 
 footed creature that once bore the similitude of a 
 horse. Whenever Field had an odd job to be done 
 about his household he would go out of his way 
 to let " old Possum Jim " earn the quarter partly 
 to do an act of kindness to " Jim," but chiefly to 
 tease Mrs. Field by the appearance of the broken- 
 down equipage lingering in front of their dwelling. 
 Just before the Tribune went to press, a sergeant 
 of police called on Field in response to a summons 
 by telephone. After a whispered conference he 
 left, with a broad smile struggling under his curl 
 ing mustache. In company with a number of his 
 staff Field next made the round of the all-night 
 haunts and gathered to his aid as fine a collection 
 of bohemian " thoroughbreds " as ever made the 
 revels of Mardi Gras look like a Sunday-school 
 convention. He installed them at the resort of a 
 
1G8 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Kentucky gentleman named Jones, opposite the St. 
 James. As one who was there reports, " The am 
 ber milk of the Blue-grass cow flowed in plenty." 
 Bidding his associates await his return, Field, 
 armed with a single bottle, crossed the street to the 
 hotel in search of the enemy. 
 
 For half an hour they waited, in growing fear 
 that Wickersham had retired for the night, with 
 orders the night clerk dared not disobey, that he 
 was not to be disturbed, even if the hotel was on 
 fire. Just as expectation had grown heavy-eyed, 
 Field appeared crossing the street with Wicker- 
 sham on his arm, very happy, more of a good fellow 
 than ever and more than ever ready for red-eyed 
 anarchy of any sort. 
 
 " After a swift hour " I quote from one who 
 was there and whose account tallies with Field s 
 own " and as the morning opened out Field in 
 sisted on breaking for sunlight and fresh air. 
 Wickersham was always a leader, even in the mat 
 ter of making a noise. He sang; everyone else 
 applauded. He shrieked and shouted; all ap 
 proved. Windows went up across the way in the 
 hotel, and night-capped heads protruded to investi 
 gate. The frantic din of the electric-bells could 
 be heard. The clerk appeared to protest." What 
 attention might have been paid to his protest will 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVEE 169 
 
 never be known, for just then " Tossum Jim s " 
 gothic steed and rattletrap cart rounded the cor 
 ner. 
 
 " I say, old man," shouted Field, " we want 
 your rig for an hour; what s it worth? " 
 
 Jim played his part slyly, and the bargain was 
 finally struck for $2.50, the owner to present no 
 claim for possible damages. Wickersham was so 
 delighted with the shrewdness of the deal that he 
 insisted on paying the bill. The horse, which could 
 scarcely stand on his four corners, was quickly un 
 harnessed and hitched to a telegraph pole, and 
 before he realized what the madcaps were about, 
 Wickersham was himself harnessed into the shafts. 
 The novelty of his position suited his mood. He 
 pranced and snorted, and pawed the ground and 
 whinnied, and played horse in fine fettle until 
 the word go. Field, with a companion beside him, 
 held the reins and cracked the whip. The others 
 helped the thoroughbred in harness the best they 
 could by pushing. 
 
 In this manner, and all yelling like Comanche 
 Indians, twice they made the circuit of the block. 
 All the guests in front of the big hotel were lean 
 ing out of the windows, when the police sergeant 
 popped in sight with a squad of four men. Field, 
 who had been duly apprised of their approach, 
 
170 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 gave the signal, and the crowd, making good their 
 retreat to Jones s, abandoned AVickersham to his 
 fate. He was quickly, but roughly, disentangled 
 from the intricacies of " Possum Jim s " rope- 
 yarn harness. The more he protested and expostu 
 lated, the more inexorable became the five big 
 custodians of the outraged peace, until the last word 
 of remonstrance and explanation died upon his 
 well-nigh breathless lips. Then he tried cajoling 
 and " connudling " and those silent, persuasive arts 
 so often efficacious in legislative lobbies; but there 
 were too many witnesses to his crime, and bribes 
 were not in order. 
 
 When at last Wickersham, from sheer despair 
 and physical exhaustion, sank limp in the arms of 
 his captors, the sergeant, on the pretext of seeking 
 the aiders and abettors in the riot, half carried, half 
 led the prisoner into Jones s resort. 
 
 A quarter of an hour later the police squad made 
 its exit by the back door, and less than an hour 
 afterward Wickersham s special was bearing him 
 southward toward Texas. 
 
 But Field s revenge was not fully sated yet. He 
 caused a $2 Pullman rate-bill, making a sixty per 
 cent, reduction, to be prepared in the Tribune 
 office, and secured its introduction in the legislat 
 ure by the chairman of the House committee on 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 171 
 
 railways. The news was immediately flashed East, 
 and Wickersham came posting back to Denver with 
 the worst case of monopoly fright he had ever ex 
 perienced. The day after his arrival the Tribune 
 had something to say in every department of his 
 nefarious mission, and every reference to him bris 
 tled with biting irony and downright accusation. 
 Never was a " good fellow and a thoroughbred " 
 so mercilessly scarified. 
 
 For the remaining six weeks of the session Wick 
 ersham did not leave Denver, nor did he dare 
 look at the Tribune until after breakfast. Every 
 member of the legislature received a Pullman 
 annual. Champagne flowed, not by the bottle, but 
 by the dray-load. Wickersham begged for quarter, 
 but his appeals fell like music on ears that heard 
 but heeded not. Nor did he find out that the whole 
 affair was a put-up job until the bill was finally 
 lost in the Senate committee. 
 
 One of the familiar stories of Field s rollicking 
 life in Denver was at the expense of Oscar Wilde, 
 then on his widely advertised visit to America. As 
 the reader may remember, this was when the aes 
 thetic craze and the burlesques inseparable from it 
 were at their height. Anticipating Wilde s appear 
 ance in Denver by one day, and making shrewdly 
 worded announcements through the Tribune in 
 
172 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 keeping with his project, Field secured the finest 
 landau in town and was driven through the streets 
 in a caricature verisimilitude of the poet of the 
 sunflower and the flowing hair. 
 
 The impersonation of Wilde a la Bunthorne in 
 Gilbert and Sullivan s opera, " Patience," was well 
 calculated to deceive all who were not in the secret. 
 Field s talent as a farceur and a mimic enabled him 
 to assume and carry out the expression of bored 
 listlessness which was the popular idea of the leader 
 of aesthetes. Nobody in the curious, whooping, 
 yelling crowd assembled along the well-advertised 
 route suspected the delusion, and after an hour s 
 parade Field succeeded in making his exit from 
 public gaze without betraying his identity. 
 
 "When Wilde turned up the next day he was not 
 a little mystified to learn that he had created a 
 sensation driving around Denver in the raiments of 
 Bunthorne, while in reality travelling over the 
 prairie in a palace-car. It was Field himself who 
 relieved his curiosity with a highly amusing nar 
 rative of the experience of the joker lounging in 
 the seat of honor in the landau. 
 
 Wilde, it is related, saw nothing funny in the 
 affair, nor was he provoked at it. His only com 
 ment was, " What a splendid advertisement for my 
 lecture." 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 173 
 
 It was while in Denver that Field had numer 
 ous and flattering offers to leave journalism for the 
 stage, and more than once he was sorely tempted 
 to make the experiment. In the natural qualifica 
 tions for the theatrical profession he was most 
 richly endowed. In the arts of mimicry he had no 
 superior. He had the adaptable face of a comedian, 
 was a matchless raconteur, and a fine vocalist. At 
 a banquet or in a parlor he was an entertainer of 
 truly fascinating parts. During his life in St. Louis 
 and Kansas City his inclination had led him to seek 
 the society of the green-room, and in Denver his 
 position enlarged the circle of his acquaintance with 
 the theatrical profession, until it embraced almost 
 every prominent actor and actress in America, and 
 was subsequently extended to include the more 
 celebrated artists of England. Among his favorites 
 was Madame Bernhardt, whose several visits to the 
 United States afforded him an opportunity for some 
 of the most entertaining sketches that ever de 
 lighted his Chicago readers. None of these con 
 tained more pith in little than that brief paragraph 
 with which he opened his column one day, to the 
 effect that " An empty cab drove up to the stage- 
 door of the Columbia Theatre last night, from 
 which Madame Bernhardt alighted." 
 
 Among the celebrities who visited Denver while 
 
174 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Field was in what he would have called his peri 
 helion was Miss Kate Field, with whose name he 
 took all the liberties of a brother, although there 
 was no blood relationship between them thicker 
 than the leaves of a genealogical compendium. He 
 took especial pains to circulate the report through 
 all the West that Miss Field had brought a sitz- 
 bath with her to alleviate the dust and hardships 
 of travel in the " Woolly West," where, as he rep 
 resented, she thought running water was a luxury 
 and stationary bath-tubs were unknown. But he 
 atoned for this by one of the daintiest pleasantries 
 that ever occurred to his playful mind. When Miss 
 Field was preparing for her lecture tour in Mor 
 mon land she started an inquisitive correspondence 
 with her namesake, whose Tribune Primer was then 
 spreading his fame through the exchanges. The 
 two soon discovered that they were cousins, no mat 
 ter how many times removed, but near enough to 
 inspire Field to entrust a letter to Uncle Sam s 
 mail addressed thus: 
 
 A maiden fair of untold age 
 Seeks to adorn our Western stage; 
 How foolish of her, yet how nice 
 To write me, asking my advice! 
 New York s the city where you ll find 
 This prodigy of female kind; 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 175 
 
 Hotel Victoria s the place 
 Where you ll see her smiling face. 
 I pray thee, postman, bear away 
 This missive to her, sans delay. 
 These lines enclosed are writ by me 
 A Field am I, a Field is she. 
 Two very fertile fields I ween, 
 In constant bloom, yet never green. 
 She is my cousin; happy fate 
 That gave me such a Cousin Kate. 
 
 From Denver to New York this pretty conceit 
 carried the epistle just as safely and directly as if 
 it had borne the most prosaic superscription the 
 postal authorities could exact, and I venture to 
 say that it was handled with a smiling solicitude 
 never bestowed on the humdrum epistles that travel 
 neither faster nor surer for being marked " im 
 portant and immediate." This was before Field 
 had formed the habit of illuminating everything 
 he wrote with colored inks, or the missive to his 
 Cousin Kate would have expressed his variegated 
 fancies in all the colors of the rainbow, especially 
 red. 
 
 In a short sketch, entitled " Eugene Field in 
 Denver," Wolfe Londoner speaks of his friend as 
 a " bright ray of laughing sunshine across this 
 shadowy vale, a mine of sentiment and charity, an 
 
176 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 avalanche of fun and happiness," but one who 
 " never in all the run of his merry, joyous career 
 was known to wake up with a cent." Why? 
 
 Here is the explanation given by Mr. Londoner, 
 who was familiar with every phase of Eugene 
 Field s life in Denver: 
 
 " The course of one short day was ever long 
 enough to drain his open purse, and his boon com 
 panions were as welcome to its contents, while it 
 could stand the strain, as its careless, happy owner. 
 The bright side of life attracted his laughing 
 fancy, and with stern and unalterable determi 
 nation he studiously avoided all seriousness and 
 shadow. There was no room in his happy compo 
 sition for aught of sorrow or sadness, and a quick 
 and merry wit always extricated him from every 
 embarrassing position or perplexing dilemma." 
 
 Mr. Londoner rightly says that an inert Eugene 
 Field was an impossibility, and at that time he 
 was only supremely happy when busily engaged in 
 playing some practical joke on his ever-suspecting 
 but never sufficiently wary friends. Of course Mr. 
 Londoner himself was victimized, and more than 
 once. During one campaign, as chairman of the 
 Republican County Central Committee, Mr. Lon 
 doner was delegated to work up enthusiasm among 
 the colored voters of Denver, and in an unguarded 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 177 
 
 moment he took Field into his confidence and 
 boasted of his flattering progress. The next morn 
 ing the following advertisement, displayed with all 
 the prominence of glaring scare-heads, appeared: 
 
 WANTED ! ! 
 
 EVERY COLORED MAN IN THE CITY. 
 
 To call at Wolfe Londoner s 
 
 Store. 
 
 A Car load of Georgia 
 
 Watermelons 
 
 Just received 
 
 For a special distribution 
 
 Among his 
 Colored Friends. 
 
 Call Early and get Your Melon ! ! ! 
 
 It is needless to say that when Mr. Londoner s 
 store opened in the morning an ever-increasing 
 cloud of dusky humanity, with teeth that glistened 
 with the juice of anticipation, gathered about the 
 entrance. Business in the store was at a standstill 
 and travel on the street was blocked. No explana 
 tion could appease the rising anger of that dark 
 multitude. It was melons, or a riot. Melons, or 
 that unheard-of thing a colored landslide to the 
 democracy. Mr. Londoner was at his wits ends. 
 VOL. I.-12 
 
178 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 There were no melons in the market, and none ex 
 pected. Just as Londoner was preparing to aban 
 don his store to the wrath of the justly incensed 
 melon-maniacs, a car-load of magnificent melons 
 dropped into one of the freight sidings, and Lon 
 doner and the Kepublican party were saved. No 
 body ever knew how or whence that pink-hearted 
 manna came. The price was exorbitant, but that 
 did not matter. Londoner paid it with the air of 
 a man who had ordered melons and was indignant 
 that the railway company had disappointed him in 
 not delivering them the day before. There was 
 not a crack in the solid black Republican column 
 on election day. 
 
 But Field was not through with Mr. Londoner 
 yet. The colored brethren had to hold their rati 
 fication meeting to endorse the Republican nomi 
 nations, and more especially to render thanks for 
 the creation of watermelons, and to the man who 
 paid for them, out of season. Of course Mr. Lon 
 doner was invited to attend, and when it came his 
 turn to address the meeting the chairman, a col 
 ored deacon of the church where " Possum Jim " 
 worshipped, by the name of Williams, introduced 
 him as follows: 
 
 " I now take great pleasure in introducing to 
 you our friend and brother, the Honorable Mistah 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 179 
 
 Wolfe Londoner, who has always been our true 
 friend and brother, who always advises us to do 
 the right thing, and stands ready, at all times, to 
 help us in the good fight. Although he has a white 
 skin, his heart is as black as any of ours. Brothers, 
 the Honorable Wolfe Londoner." 
 
 There was no mistaking the authorship of this 
 felicitous introduction. 
 
 Field was never tired of repeating another story 
 at the expense of Mr. Londoner, in connection with 
 the visit of Charles A. Dana to Denver. The ar 
 rival of " Mr. Dana of the New York Sun " was 
 made the occasion for one of those receptions by 
 the Press Club which made up in heartiness what 
 they lacked in conventional ceremony. Mr. Lon 
 doner was the president of the club, and it not only 
 fell to his lot to deliver the address of welcome to 
 guests of the club, but to look after their com 
 fort and welfare while they remained in the city, 
 and often to provide them with the wherewithal 
 to leave it. On Mr. Dana s presentation he was 
 called on for some remarks, to which Mr. Londoner 
 listened with the air of a man who had heard the 
 same tale from lips less entitled to deliver a mes 
 sage of counsel and warning to a group of news 
 paper writers. When his guest had finished his 
 remarks, Mr. Londoner, according to Field s story, 
 
180 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 walked over to Mr. Dana and asked him how much 
 he wanted. 
 
 Mr. Dana looked at him with a puzzled air, and 
 asked: " How much what? What do you mean? " 
 
 " Why, money," Mr. Londoner is said to have 
 replied. " Every newspaper man who ever came 
 to this club was introduced the same as you were, 
 made a speech the same as you did, and then came 
 to me to borrow money to get out of town with. 
 Now, how much do you want? " 
 
 According to Field, he never saw a man so great 
 ly relieved as Mr. Londoner was when Mr. Dana as 
 sured him that his hotel bill was paid and he had 
 enough money sewed into his waistcoat to carry 
 him back to New York, where he had a job waiting 
 for him. 
 
 On one occasion Field accompanied the Denver 
 Press Club on a pleasure trip to Manitou, a sum 
 mer resort that nestles in a canon at the base of 
 Mount Rosa. Before the party was comfortably 
 settled in the hotel, Field was approached by a poor 
 woman who had lost her husband, and who poured 
 into his ear a sad tale of indigence and sorrow. He 
 became immediately interested, and at once set 
 about devising means for her relief. As his purse 
 was as lean as her own and his companions were 
 not overburdened with the means to get back to 
 
ANECDOTES OF LIFE IN DENVER 181 
 
 Denver, he announced a grand musical and dra 
 matic entertainment, to be given in the parlors of 
 the hotel that evening, for the benefit of a deserv 
 ing charity. Every guest in the hotel was invited, 
 and the members of the Press Club spread the 
 notices among the citizens of the village. When 
 asked who would be the performers, Field an 
 swered, with the utmost nonchalance, that the Lord 
 would provide the entertainment if Manitou would 
 furnish the audience. The evening came, and the 
 parlors were crowded with guests and villagers, but 
 no performers. After waiting until expectancy 
 and curiosity had almost toppled over from tiptoe 
 to disgust and indignation, Field stepped to the 
 piano with preternatural gravity and attacked it 
 with all the grand airs of a foreign virtuoso. Crit 
 ics would have denied that Field was a pianist, and, 
 technically considered, they would have been right. 
 But his fingers had a fondness for the ivory keys, 
 and they responded to his touch with the sweet 
 melody of the forest to the wind. He carried all 
 the favorite airs of all the operas he had ever 
 heard in his fingers ends. He knew the popular 
 songs of the day by heart, and, where memory 
 failed, could improvise. He had a voice for the 
 soft and deep chords of negro melodies I have never 
 heard surpassed, and with all, he had a command 
 
182 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 of comedy and pathos which, up to this time, was 
 little known beyond the circle in Denver over 
 which he reigned as the Lord of Misrule. That 
 night in Manitou those who were present reported 
 that, from the moment he sat down at the piano 
 until the last note of the good-night song died 
 away, he held that impromptu audience fascinated 
 by his impromptu performance. By turns he sang, 
 played, recited poetry, mimicked actors and well- 
 known Colorado characters, told anecdotes, and al 
 together gave such a single-handed entertainment 
 that the spectators did not know whether to be 
 more astonished at its variety or delighted with its 
 genius. The result was a generous collection, 
 which went far to relieve the distress of the woman 
 who had touched Field s sympathy. 
 
 Let it not be understood that nothing more 
 serious than some hilarious escapade or sardonic bit 
 of humor ever crossed the life of Eugene Field in 
 Denver. His innate hatred of humbug and sham 
 made the Denver Tribune a terror to all public 
 characters who considered that suddenly acquired 
 wealth gave them a free hand to flaunt ostentatious 
 vulgarity on all public occasions. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 COMING TO CHICAGO 
 
 What I have written thus far of Eugene Field 
 has been based upon what the lawyers call hear 
 say or documentary evidence. It has for the most 
 part been directly heard or confirmed from his 
 own lips. In the early days of our acquaintance 
 the stories of his life in Denver were rife through 
 every newspaper office and green-room in the 
 United States. No one who had spent any time 
 in Colorado came East without bringing a fresh 
 budget of tales of the pranks and pasquinades of 
 Eugene Field, of the Denver Tribune. The clip 
 ping vogue of his Primer series had given him 
 a newspaper reputation wide as the continent. He 
 was far more quoted, however, for what he said 
 and did than for anything he wrote. Had his 
 career ended in 1883, before he came to Chicago, 
 there would have been little or nothing left of lit 
 erary value to keep his memory alive, beyond the 
 regretful mention in the obituary columns of the 
 
 western press. 
 
 183 
 
184 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 And it came near ending, like the candle ex 
 posed to the gusts of March, or a bubble that has 
 danced and glistened its brief moment in the sun. 
 The boy who was too delicate for continued appli 
 cation to books in Amherst, who had outgrown 
 his strength so that his entrance at Williams was 
 postponed a year, whose backwardness at his books 
 through three colleges had been excused on the 
 plea of ill-health, had been living a pace too fast 
 for a never strong and always rebellious stomach. 
 He was not intemperate in eating or drinking. It 
 was not excess in the first that ruined his digestion, 
 nor intemperance in the other that caused him to 
 become a total abstainer from all kinds of intoxi 
 cating beverages. He simply became a dyspeptic 
 through a weird devotion to the pieces and pastries. 
 " like Mary French used to make," and he became 
 a teetotaler because the doctors mistook the cause 
 of his digestive distress. 
 
 The one thing of which Eugene Field was in 
 temperate in Denver was of himself. He gave to 
 that delicate machinery we call the body no rest. 
 It was winter when he did not see the sun rise 
 several times a week, and the hours he stole from 
 daylight for sleep were too few and infrequent to 
 make up for the nights he turned into day for work 
 and frolic. Thus it came about that in the sum- 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 185 
 
 mer of 1883 Eugene Field had reached the end 
 of his physical tether, and some change of scene 
 was necessary to save what was left of an impaired 
 constitution. 
 
 From what has been said, it is easy to under 
 stand how Field s abilities were diverted into a 
 new and deeper channel in 1883. " Stricken by 
 dyspepsia," writes Mr. Cowen, " so severely that 
 he fell into a state of chronic depression and alarm, 
 he eagerly accepted the timely offer of Melville 
 E. Stone, then surrounding himself with the best 
 talent he could procure in the West, of a virtually 
 independent desk on the Chicago Morning News. 
 There he quickly regained health, although he 
 never recovered from his ailment." 
 
 How Mr. Stone came to be the " Fairy God 
 mother " to Field at this turning-point in his life 
 may be briefly related, and partly in Mr. Stone s 
 own words. He and Victor F. Lawson had made 
 a surprising success in establishing the Chicago 
 Daily News, in December, 1875, the first one-cent 
 evening paper in Chicago. It is related that in 
 the early days of their enterprise they had to im 
 port the copper coins for the use of their patrons 
 the nickle being up to that time the smallest coin 
 in use in the West, as the dime, or " short bit," was 
 until a more recent date on the Pacific coast. The 
 
186 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Daily News was more distinguished for its enter 
 prise in gathering news and getting it out on the 
 street before the comparative blanket sheets of the 
 early eighties than for its editorial views or liter 
 ary features. 
 
 In January, 1881, Messrs. Lawson & Stone con 
 ceived the idea of printing a morning edition of 
 their daily, to be called the Morning News. As it 
 was to be sold for two cents, it was their purpose 
 to make it better worth the price by a more exact 
 ing standard in the manner of presenting its news 
 and by the employment of special writers for its 
 editorial page. Just then, however, the crop of 
 unemployed writers of demonstrated ability or 
 reputation was unusually short, and the founda 
 tion of the Chicago Herald in May of the same 
 year, by half a dozen energetic journalists of local 
 note, did not tend to overstock the market with 
 the talent sought for by Messrs. Lawson & Stone. 
 It was the rivalry between the Morning News (after 
 wards the Record) and the Herald, that sent Mr. 
 Stone so far afield as Denver for a man to assist 
 him in realizing the idea cherished by him and his 
 associate. An interesting story could be told of 
 that rivalry, which has just ended by the consoli 
 dation of the two papers (March, 1901) into the 
 Chicago Record-Herald, but only so much of it as 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 187 
 
 affects the life and movements of Eugene Field 
 concerns us here. 
 
 In the early summer of 1883 Mr. Stone, who 
 had been watching with appreciative newspaper 
 sense the popularity of the Tribune Primer skits, 
 cast an acquisitive net in the direction of Denver. 
 He had known Field in St. Louis, and describes 
 their first meeting thus : " I entered the office of 
 the Dispatch to see Stillson Hutchins, the then 
 proprietor of that paper. It was in the forenoon, 
 the busy hour for an afternoon newspaper. A 
 number of people were there, but as to the pro 
 prietor, clerks, and customers, none was engaged 
 in any business, for, perched on the front coun 
 ter, telling in a strangely resonant voice a very 
 funny story, sat Eugene Field. He was a striking 
 figure, tall, gaunt, almost bald (though little more 
 than twenty years of age), smooth shaven, and 
 with a remarkable face, which lent itself to every 
 variety of emotion. In five minutes after our in 
 troduction I knew him. There was no reserve 
 about him. He was of the free, whole-souled 
 western type that type which invites your confi 
 dence in return for absolute and unstinted frank 
 ness." 
 
 Instead of broaching his purpose by letter, Mr. 
 Stone slipped off to Denver for a personal inter- 
 
188 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 view with his intended victim, and, as I have al 
 ready intimated, he arrived just in the nick of 
 time to find Field ready for any move that would 
 take him away from the killing kindness and exhila 
 rating atmosphere of the Colorado capital. " The 
 engagement/ 7 says Mr. Stone, " was in itself char 
 acteristic. Field wanted to join me. He was 
 tired of Denver and mistrustful of the limitations 
 upon him there. But if he was to make a change, 
 he must be assured that it was to be for his perma 
 nent good. He was a newspaper man not from 
 choice, but because in that field he could earn his 
 daily bread. Behind all he was conscious of great 
 capability not vain or by any means self -suffi 
 cient, but certain that by study and endeavor he 
 could take high rank in the literary world and 
 could win a place of lasting distinction. So he 
 stipulated that he should be given a column of his 
 own, that he might stand or fall by the excellence 
 of his own work. Salary was less an object than 
 opportunity." 
 
 Mr. Stone gave the necessary assurances, both 
 as to salary by no means princely and opportun 
 ity as large as Field had the genius to fill. As 
 quickly as he could, Field closed up his Denver con 
 nections and prepared for the last move in his news 
 paper life. How he survived the round of fare- 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 189 
 
 well luncheons, dinners, and midnight suppers 
 given for and by him was a source of mingled 
 pride and amusement to the chief sufferer. It was 
 with feelings of genuine regret that he turned his 
 back on Denver and gave up the jovial and con 
 genial association with the Tribune and its staff. 
 Although its chief editorial writer, O. IT. Kotha- 
 ker, had a national reputation, Field was the star 
 of the company that gave to the Tribune its unique 
 reputation among the journals of the West, and 
 all classes of citizens felt that something pictu 
 resquely characteristic of the liberty and good-fel 
 lowship of their bustling town was being taken 
 from them. Field s departure meant the closing 
 of the hobble-de-hoy period in the life of Denver 
 as well as in his own. His life there had been 
 exactly suited to his temperament, to the times, 
 and to the environment. It is doubtful if it would 
 have been possible to repeat such an experience in 
 Denver five years later, and it is certain that in 
 five years Field had developed whole leagues of 
 character beyond its repetition. 
 
 It was in August, 1883, that Eugene Field, with 
 his family and all his personal effects, except his 
 father s library, moved to Chicago. That library 
 was destined to remain safely stored in St. Louis 
 for many years before he felt financially able to 
 
190 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 afford it shelter and quarters commensurate with 
 its intrinsic value and wealth of associations. So 
 far in his newspaper work Field had little time and 
 less inclination to learn from books. All stories 
 of his being a close and omnivorous student of 
 books, previous to his coming to Chicago, are not 
 consistent with the facts. He was learning all 
 about humanity by constant attrition with man 
 kind. He was taking in knowledge of the human 
 passions and emotions at first hand and getting 
 very little assistance through pouring over the 
 printed observations of others. He was not a 
 classical scholar in the sense of having acquired 
 any mastery of or familiarity with the great Latin 
 or Greek writers. Language, all languages, was a 
 study that was easy to him, and he acquired facil 
 ity in translating any foreign tongue, living or 
 dead, with remarkable readiness by the aid of a 
 dictionary and a nimble wit. Student in St. Louis, 
 Kansas City, or Denver he was not, any more than 
 at Williams, Galesburg, or Columbia. But I have 
 no doubt that when Eugene Field left Denver he 
 had a fixed intention, as suggested in the words 
 of Mr. Stone, by study and endeavor to take high 
 rank in the literary world and to " win a place of 
 lasting distinction." 
 
 When he came to Chicago his family consisted 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 191 
 
 of Mrs. Field and their four children, all, happily 
 for him, in vigorous health, and, so far as the chil 
 dren were concerned, endowed with appetites and 
 a digestion the envy and despair of their father. 
 " Trotty," the eldest, was by this time a girl of 
 eight, Melvin a stout sober youth of six, " Pinny " 
 (Eugene, Jr.) a shrewd little rascal of four, and 
 " Daisy " (Fred), his mother s boy, a large-eyed, 
 sturdy youngster of nearly three masterful sum 
 mers. The family was quickly settled in a small 
 but convenient flat on Chicago Avenue, three 
 blocks from the Lake, and a little more than a 
 mile s walk from the office, a distance that never 
 tempted Field to exercise his legs except on one 
 occasion, when it afforded him a chance to aston 
 ish the natives of North Chicago. It occurred to 
 him one bleak day in December that it was time 
 the people knew there was a stranger in town. So 
 he arrayed himself in a long linen duster, buttoned 
 up from knees to collar, put an old straw hat on 
 his head, and taking a shabby book under one arm 
 and a palm-leaf fan in his hand, he marched all the 
 way down Clark Street, past the City Hall, to the 
 office. Everywhere along the route he was 
 greeted with jeers or pitying words, as his appear 
 ance excited the mirth or commiseration of the 
 passers-by. When he reached the entrance to the 
 
192 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Daily News office he was followed by a motley 
 crowd of noisy urchins whom he dismissed with a 
 grimace and the cabalistic gesture with which 
 Nicholas Koorn perplexed and repulsed Antony 
 Van Corlear from the battlement of the fortress 
 of Rensellaerstein. Then closing the door in their 
 astonished faces, he mounted the two flights of 
 stairs to the editorial rooms, where he recounted, 
 with the glee of the boy he was in such things, the 
 success of his joke. 
 
 Trotty was his favorite child, probably because 
 she was the only girl, and he was very fond of little 
 girls. Even then she favored her father in com 
 plexion and features more than any of the boys, 
 having the same large innocent-looking blue eyes. 
 But even she had to serve his disposition to extract 
 humor from every situation. Before Field had 
 been in Chicago two months he realized that he 
 had made a serious miscalculation in impressing 
 Mr. Stone with the thought that salary was less 
 an object to him than opportunity. Opportunity 
 had not sufficed to meet Field s bills in Denver, and 
 the promised salary, that seemed temptingly suffi 
 cient at the distance of a thousand miles, proved 
 distressingly inadequate to feed and clothe three 
 lusty boys and one growing girl in the bracing 
 atmosphere of Chicago. So it was not surprising 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 193 
 
 that when Trotty asked her father to give her an 
 appropriate text to recite in Sunday-school, he 
 schooled her to rise and declaim with great effect: 
 " The Lord will provide, my father can t! " 
 The means Field took to bring the insufficiency 
 of his salary to the attention of Mr. Stone were as 
 ingenious as they were frequent. I don t think he 
 would have appreciated an increase of salary that 
 came without some exercise of his wayward fancy 
 for making mirth out of any embarrassing financial 
 condition. 
 
 It is more than probable that Eugene Field 
 chose Chicago for the place of his permanent 
 abode after deliberately weighing the advantages 
 and limitations of its situation with reference to 
 his literary career. He felt that it was as far east 
 as he could make his home without coming within 
 the influence of those social and literary conven 
 tions that have squeezed so much of genuine Amer 
 ican flavor out of our literature. He had received 
 many tempting offers from New York newspapers 
 before coming to Chicago, and after our acquaint 
 ance I do not believe a year went by that Field 
 did not decline an engagement, personally ten 
 dered by Mr. Dana, to go to the New York Sun, 
 at a salary nearly double that he was receiving 
 here. But, as he told Julian Ralph on one occa- 
 VOL. I. 18 
 
194 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 sion, he would not live in, or write for, the East. 
 For, as he put it, there was more liberty and fewer 
 literary " fellers " out West, and a man had more 
 chance to be judged on his merits and " grow up 
 with the country." 
 
 The Chicago to which Eugene Field came in 
 1883 was a city of something over six hundred 
 thousand inhabitants, and pulsing with active po 
 litical and commercial life. It had been rebuilt, 
 physically, after the fire with money borrowed 
 from the East, and was almost too busy paying 
 interest and principal to have much time to read 
 books, much less make them, except in the wholly 
 manufacturing sense. It had already become a 
 great publishing centre, but not of the books that 
 engage the critical intelligence of the public. The 
 feverish devotion of its citizens to business during 
 the day-time drove them to bed at an unseason 
 ably early hour, or to places of amusement, from 
 which they went so straight home after the per 
 formances that there was not a single fashionable 
 restaurant in the city catering to supper parties 
 after the play. Whether this condition, making 
 theatre-going less expensive here than in other 
 large cities, conduced to the result or not, it was 
 a fact that in the early eighties Chicago was the 
 best paying city on the continent for theatrical 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 195 
 
 companies of all degrees of merit. The losses 
 which the best artists and plays almost invariably 
 reported of New York engagements were fre 
 quently recouped in Chicago. 
 
 Chicago never took kindly to grand opera, and 
 probably for the same reason that it patronized 
 the drama. It sought entertainment and amuse 
 ment, and grand opera is a serious business. As 
 Field said of himself, Chicago liked music 
 " limited"; and its liking was generally limited 
 to light or comic opera and the entertainments of 
 the Apollo Club, until Theodore Thomas, with 
 admirable perseverance, aided by the pocket- 
 books of public-spirited citizens rather than by 
 enthusiastic music-lovers, succeeded in cultivating 
 the study and love of music up to a standard above 
 that of any other American city, with the possible 
 exception of Boston. 
 
 I have referred to the theatrical and musical 
 conditions in Chicago in 1883, because it was in 
 them that Eugene Field found his most congenial 
 atmosphere and associations when he came hither 
 that year. These were the chief reminders of the 
 life he had left behind when he turned his back 
 on Denver, and I need scarcely say that they con 
 tinued to afford him the keenest pleasure and the 
 most unalloyed recreation to the end. 
 
196 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Architecturally, Chicago was no more beautiful 
 and far less impressive than it is now. It could 
 not boast half a dozen buildings, public or private, 
 worthy of a second glance. Its tallest skyscraper 
 stopped at nine stories, and that towered a good 
 two stories over its nearest rival. The bridges 
 across the river connecting the three divisions of 
 the city were turned slowly and laboriously by 
 hand, and the joke was current that a Chicagoan 
 of those days could never hear a bell ring without 
 starting on a run to avoid being bridged. The 
 cable-car was an experiment on one line, and all 
 the other street-cars were operated with horses 
 and stopped operation at 12.20 A.M., as Field often 
 learned to his infinite disgust, for he hated walk 
 ing worse than he did horses or horse-cars. In many 
 ways Chicago reminded Field of Denver, and in 
 no respect more than in its primitive ways, its as 
 sumed airs of importance, and its township poli 
 tics. Despite its forty odd years of incorporated 
 life, Chicago, the third city of the United States, 
 was still a village, and Field insisted on regard 
 ing it as such. 
 
 Transplanted from the higher altitude at the 
 foot of the Eockies to the level of Lake Michigan, 
 I think nothing about Chicago struck him more 
 forcibly than the harshness of its variable sum- 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 197 
 
 mer climate. Scarcely a week went by that his 
 column did not contain some reference in para 
 graph or verse to its fickle alarming changes. Ho 
 had not enough warm blood back of that large 
 gray face to rejoice when the mercury dropped in 
 an hour, as it often did, from 88 or 90 degrees to 
 56 or 60 degrees. Such changes, which came with 
 the whirl of the weather vane, as the wind shifted 
 from its long sweep over the prairies, all aquiver 
 with the heat, to a strong blow over hundreds of 
 miles of water whose temperature in dog days 
 never rose above 60 degrees, provoked from him 
 verses such as these, written in the respective 
 months they celebrate in the year 1884: 
 
 CHICAGO IN JULY 
 
 The white-capp d waves of Michigan break 
 
 On the beach where the jacksnipes croon 
 The breeze sweeps in from the purple lake 
 
 And tempers the heat of noon: 
 In yonder bush, where the berries grow, 
 
 The Peewee tunefully sings, 
 While hither and thither the people go, 
 
 Attending to matters and things. 
 
 There is cool for all in the busy town 
 For the girls in their sealskin sacques 
 
 For the dainty dudes idling up and down, 
 With overcoats on their backs; 
 
198 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 And the horse-cars lurch and the people run 
 And the bell at the bridgeway rings 
 
 But never perspires a single one, 
 Attending to matters and tilings. 
 
 What though the shivering mercury wanes 
 
 What though the air be chill? 
 The beauteous Chloe never complains 
 
 As she roams by the purpling rill; 
 And the torn-tit coos to its gentle mate, 
 
 As Chloe industriously swings 
 With Daphnis, her beau, on the old front gate, 
 
 Attending to matters and things. 
 
 When the moon comes up, and her cold, pale light 
 
 Coquettes with the freezing streams, 
 What care these twain for the wintry night, 
 
 Since Chloe is wrapt in dreams, 
 And Daphnis utters no plaint of woe 
 
 O er his fair jack full on kings, 
 But smiles that fortune should bless him so, 
 
 Attending to matters and things. 
 
 CHICAGO IN AUGUST 
 
 When Cynthia s father homeward brought 
 An India mull for her to wear, 
 
 How were her handsome features fraught 
 With radiant smiles beyond compare! 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 199 
 
 And to her bosom Cynthia strained 
 Her pa with many a fond caress 
 
 And ere another week had waned 
 That mull was made into a dress. 
 
 And Cynthia blooming like a rose 
 
 Which any swain might joy to cull, 
 Cried " How I ll paralyze the beaux 
 
 When I put on my India mull! " 
 Now let the heat of August day 
 
 Be what it may I ll not complain 
 I ll wear the mull, and put away 
 
 This old and faded-out delaine! 
 
 Despite her prayers the heated spell 
 
 Descended not on mead and wold 
 Instead of turning hot as well, 
 
 The weather turned severely cold, 
 The Lake dashed up its icy spray 
 
 And breathed its chill o er all the plain 
 So Cynthia stays at home all day 
 
 And wears the faded-out delaine! 
 
 So is Chicago at this time 
 
 She stands where icy billows roll 
 She wears her beauteous head sublime, 
 
 While cooling zephyrs thrill her soul. 
 But were she tempted to complain, 
 
 Meihinks she d bid the zephyrs lull, 
 That she might doff her old delaine 
 
 And don her charming India mull! 
 
200 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 But there was another feature of Chicago that 
 from the day of his arrival to the day of his de 
 parture to that land where dust troubleth not and 
 soot and filth are unknown, filled his New Eng 
 land soul and nostrils with ineffable disgust. He 
 never became reconciled to a condition in which 
 the motto in hoc signo vinces on a bar of soap had 
 no power to inspire a ray of hope. He had not 
 been here a month before his muse began to wield 
 the " knotted lash of sarcasm " above the strenu 
 ous but dirty back of Chicago after this fashion : 
 
 Brown, a Chicago youth, did woo 
 
 A beauteous Detroit belle, 
 And for a month or, maybe, two 
 
 He wooed the lovely lady well. 
 
 But, oh ! one day one fatal day 
 As mused the belle with naught to do, 
 
 A local paper came her way 
 
 And, drat the luck! she read it through. 
 
 She read of alleys black with mire 
 
 A river with a putrid breath 
 Streets reeking with malarial ire 
 
 Inviting foul disease and death. 
 
 Then, with a livid snort she called 
 
 Her trembling lover to her side 
 " How dare you, wretched youth/ she bawled, 
 
 " Ask me to be your blushing bride? 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 201 
 
 Go back unto your filthy town, 
 
 And never by my side be seen, 
 Nor hope to make me Mrs. Brown, 
 
 Until you ve got your city clean! " 
 
 Eugene Field made his first appearance in the 
 column of the Morning News August 15th, 1883, 
 in the most modest way, with a scant column of 
 paragraphs such as he had contributed to the Den 
 ver Tribune, headed " Current Gossip " instead 
 of " Odds and Ends." The heading was only a 
 makeshift until a more distinctive one could be 
 chosen in its stead. On August 31st, 1883, the 
 title " Sharps and Flats " was hoisted to the top 
 of Field s column, and there it remained over 
 everything he wrote for more than a dozen years. 
 
 There have been many versions of how Field 
 came to hit upon this title, so appropriate to what 
 appeared under it. The most ingenious of these 
 was that evolved by John B. Livingstone in " An 
 Appreciation " of Eugene Field, published in the 
 Interior shortly after his death. In what, on the 
 whole, is probably the best analysis of Field s 
 genius and work extant, Mr. Livingstone goes on 
 to say: 
 
 " What Virgil was to Tennyson, Horace was to 
 Field in one aspect at least of the Venusian s char- 
 
202 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 acter. He could say of his affection for the 
 protege of Maecenas, as the laureate said of his 
 for the poet of the happy Tityrus, I that loved 
 thee since my day began. It has been suggested 
 that he owed to a clever farce-comedy of the early 
 eighties the caption of the widely-read column of 
 journalistic epigram and persiflage, which he filled 
 with machine-like regularity and the versatility of 
 the brightest French journalism for ten years. I 
 prefer to think that he took it, or his cue for 
 it, from a line of Dr. Phillips Francis s transla 
 tion of the eighth of the first book of Horatian 
 Satires : 
 
 Not to be tedious or repeat 
 
 How Flats and Sharps in concert meet. 
 
 " Field s knowledge of Horace and of his trans 
 lators was complete, probably not equalled by that 
 of any other member of his craft. He made a 
 specialty of the study, a hobby of it. And it is 
 more likely, as it is more gratifying, to believe that 
 he caught his famous caption (Sharps and Flats) 
 from a paraphrase of his favorite classic poet than 
 from the play bill of a modern and ephemeral 
 farce." 
 
 Unfortunately for this pretty bit of speculation, 
 which Field would have enjoyed as another evi- 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 203 
 
 dence of his skill in imposing upon the elect of 
 criticism, it has no foundation in fact, and its 
 premises of Field s intimate knowledge and devo 
 tion to Horace anticipates the period of his Hora- 
 tian " hobby," as Mr. Livingstone so well styles 
 it, by at least five years. It was not until the 
 winter of 1888-89 that paraphrases of Horace be 
 gan to stud his column with the first-fruits of 
 his tardy wandering and philandering with Dr. 
 Frank W. Reilly through the groves and mead 
 ows of the Sabine farm. But that is another 
 story. 
 
 According to M. E. Stone, the title of the column 
 which Field established when he came to the 
 Chicago Morning News was borrowed from the 
 name of a play, " Sharps and Flats, 7 written by 
 Clay M. Greene and myself, and played with con 
 siderable success throughout the United States by 
 Messrs. Robson and Crane. 
 
 It may be set down here as well as elsewhere, 
 and still quoting Mr. Stone, that not only did Field 
 write nearly every line that ever appeared in the 
 " Sharps and Flats " column, but that practically 
 everything that he ever wrote, after 1883, ap-^ 
 peared at one time or another in that column. 
 
 To which it may be added that it has been the 
 custom of those writing of Eugene Field to sur- 
 
204 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 round and endow him throughout his career with 
 the acquirement of scholarship, and pecuniary in 
 dependence, which he never possessed before the 
 last six years of his life. 
 
 Practically all Field s scholarship and mental 
 equipment, so far as they were obtained from 
 books, were acquired after he came to Chicago, 
 and he was never lifted above the ragged edge of 
 impecuniosity until he began to receive royalties 
 from the popular edition of " A Little Book of 
 Western Verse " and " A Little Book of Profitable 
 Tales." His domestic life was spent in flats or 
 rented houses until less than five months before his 
 death. The photographs taken a few months be 
 fore his death of Eugene Field s home and the 
 beautiful library in which he wrote are ghastly 
 travesties on the nomadic character of his domes 
 tic arrangements for many years before June, 
 1895 dreams for which he longed, but only lived 
 to realize for four brief months. All the best 
 Field wrote previous to 1890 and it includes the 
 best he ever wrote, except " The Love Affairs of a 
 Bibliomaniac " was written in a room to which 
 many a box stall is palatial, and his sole library was 
 a dilapidated edition of Bartlett s " Familiar Quo 
 tations," Cruden s " Concordance of the Bible," 
 and a well-thumbed copy of the King James 
 
COMING TO CHICAGO 205 
 
 version of the Bible. He detested the revised 
 version. The genius of this man at this time did 
 not depend on scholarship or surroundings, but 
 on the companionship of his fellows and the un- 
 conventionality of his home life. 
 
CHAPTEE XII 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 It was in the month of September, after Field s 
 coming to the Morning News, that a managerial 
 convulsion in the office of the Chicago Herald 
 threw the majority of its editorial corps and 
 special writers across Fifth Avenue into the em 
 ploy of Messrs. Lawson & Stone. They were at 
 first distributed between the morning and evening 
 editions of the News, my first work being for the 
 latter, to which I contributed editorial paragraphs 
 for one week, when Mr. Stone concluded to make 
 me his chief editorial writer on the Morning News. 
 This brought me into immediate personal and pro 
 fessional relations with Field. Our rooms ad 
 joined, being separated by a board partition that 
 did not reach to the ceiling and over which for 
 four years I was constantly bombarded with mis 
 sives and missiles from my ever-restless neighbor. 
 Among the other recruits from the Herald at that 
 time was John F. Ballantyne, who, from being 
 the managing editor of that paper, was transferred 
 to the position of chief executive of the Morning 
 
 206 
 
PEKSONAL CHAEACTBBISTICS 207 
 
 News under Mr. Stone. One of the first duties 
 of his position was to read Field s copy very 
 closely, to guard against the publication of such 
 bitter innuendoes and scandalous personalities as 
 had kept the Denver Tribune in constant hot 
 water between warlike descents upon the editor 
 and costly appeals to the courts. Mr. Stone 
 wanted all the racy wit that had distinguished 
 Field s contributions to the Tribune without the 
 attendant crop of libel suits, and he relied on 
 Ballantyne s Scotch caution to put a query mark 
 against every paragraph that squinted at a breach 
 of propriety or a breach of the peace, or that in 
 vited a libel suit. There was no power of final 
 rejection in Ballantyne s blue pencil. That was 
 left for Mr. Stone s own decision. It was well 
 that it was so, for Mr. Ballantyne s appreciation 
 of humor was so rigid that, had it been the ar 
 biter as to which of Field s paragraphs should be 
 printed, I greatly fear me there would often have 
 been a dearth of gayety in the " Sharps and Flats." 
 The relations in which Ballantyne and I found our 
 selves to Field can best be told in the language of 
 Mr. Cowen, whose own intimate relations wit>h 
 Field antedated ours and continued to the end: 
 
 " Coming immediately under the influence of 
 John Ballantyne and Slason Thompson, respect- 
 
208 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ively managing editor and chief editorial writer 
 of the News the one possessed of Scotch gravity 
 and the other of fine literary taste and discrim 
 ination the character of Field s work quickly 
 modified, and his free and easy, irregular habits 
 succumbed to studious application and methodical 
 labors. Ballantyne used the blue pencil tenderly, 
 first attacking Field s trick fabrications and sup 
 pressing the levity which found vent in preceding 
 years in such pictures of domestic felicity as: 
 
 Baby and, I the weary night 
 
 Are taking a walk for his delight, 
 
 I drowsily stumble o er stool and chair 
 
 And clasp the babe with grim despair, 
 
 For he s got the colic 
 
 And paregoric 
 Don t seem to ease my squalling heir. 
 
 Baby and I in the morning gray 
 Are griping and squalling and walking away 
 The fire s gone out and I nearly freeze 
 There s a smell of peppermint on the breeze. 
 
 Then Mamma wakes 
 
 And the baby takes 
 And says, " Now cook the breakfast please." 
 
 " The every-day practical joker and entertain 
 ing mimic of Denver recoiled in Chicago from the 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 209 
 
 reputation of a Merry Andrew, the prospect of 
 gaining which he disrelished and feared. He pre 
 ferred to invent paragraphic pleasantries for the 
 world at large and indulge his personal humor in the 
 office, at home, or with personal friends. Gayety 
 was his element. He lived, loved, inspired, and 
 translated it, in the doing which latter he wrote, 
 without strain or embarrassment, reams of prose 
 satire, conies risques, and Hudibrastic verse." 
 
 It is a singular illustration of the irony and 
 mutations of life that one of the early paragraphs 
 Field wrote for the " Sharps and Flats " column 
 was inspired by what was supposed to be a fatal 
 assault on his friend by a notorious political ruffian 
 in Leadville. The paragraph, which appeared on 
 September 12th, 1883, is interesting as a specimen 
 of Field s style at that period, and as showing in 
 what esteem he held Cowen, with whom he had 
 been associated on the Denver Tribune and whose 
 name recurs in these pages from time to time : 
 
 Edward D. Cowen, the city editor of the Leadville 
 Herald, who was murderously assaulted night before 
 last by a desperado named Joy, was one of the bright 
 est newspaper men in the West. He came originally 
 from Massachusetts, and has relatives living in the 
 southern part of Illinois. He was about thirty years 
 of age. He went to Leadville about three months ago 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
210 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 to work on ex- Senator Tabor s paper, the Herald, and 
 was doing excellently well. He was a protege, to a 
 certain extent, of Mrs. Tabor No. 2. She admired 
 his brilliancy, and volunteered to help him in any 
 possible way. It was speaking of him that she said : 
 " My life will henceforth be devoted to assisting 
 worthy young men. In life we must prepare for 
 death, and how can we better prepare for death than 
 by helping our fellow-creatures ? Alas ! " she added 
 with a sad, sad sigh, " alas ! death is, after all, what 
 we live for." Young Co wen had all the social graces 
 men and women admire; he was bright in intellect, 
 great in heart, and hearty of manner. The loss of 
 no young man we know of would be more deplored 
 than his demise. 
 
 Cowen never wholly recovered from the effects 
 of his encounter with Joy, but he survived to joke 
 with Field over the past tense in which this para 
 graph is couched, and to afford me valuable assist 
 ance in completing this character-study of our 
 friend. 
 
 I have already referred to the " box stall " in 
 which Field sawed his daily wood, as he was ac 
 customed to call his work. As the day of think 
 ing that any old pine table, with a candle box for 
 a chair, crowded off in any sort of a dingy garret, 
 was good enough for the writers who contributed 
 " copy " for a newspaper, has been succeeded by 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 211 
 
 an era of quarter-sawed oak desks, swivel chairs, 
 electric light, and soap and water in editorial 
 quarters throughout the country, let me attempt 
 to describe the original editorial rooms of the Daily 
 News less than twenty years ago. The various 
 departments of the paper occupied what had been 
 three four-story, twenty-five-foot buildings. The 
 floors of no two of these buildings above the first 
 story were on the same level. They had evidently 
 been originally built for lodging houses. The 
 presses and storerooms for the rolls of paper filled 
 the cellars. The business office occupied one 
 store, which was flanked on either side by stores 
 that would have been more respectable had they 
 been rented as saloons, which they were not, be 
 cause of the conscientious scruples of Messrs. Law- 
 son & Stone. Parts of two of the buildings were 
 still rented as lodgings. Up one flight of stairs 
 of the centre building, in the front, Mr. Stone had 
 his office, which was approached through what had 
 been a hall bedroom. His room was furnished 
 with black walnut, and a gloomy and oppressive 
 air of mystery. Mr. Stone had the genius and 
 the appearance of a chief inquisitor. He was as 
 alert, daring, and enterprising an editor as the 
 West has ever produced. 
 
 The rear of this twenty-five-foot building was 
 
212 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 given up to the library and to George E. Plumbe, 
 the editor for many years of the Daily News 
 Almanac and Political Register. The library con 
 sisted of files of nearly all the Chicago dailies, 
 of Congressional Records and reports, the lead 
 ing almanacs, the " Statesman s Year Book/ sev 
 eral editions of " Men of the Times," half a dozen 
 encyclopaedias, the Imperial and Webster s dic 
 tionaries, a few other text books, and about two 
 inches of genuine Chicago soot which incrusted 
 everything. The theory advanced by Field s 
 friend, William F. Poole, then of the Public 
 Library and later of the Newberry Library, that 
 dust is the best preservative of books, rendered it 
 necessary that the only washstand accessible to the 
 Morning News should be located in the library. 
 None of us ever came out of that library as we 
 went in the one clean roller a day forbade it. 
 Nothing but the conscientious desire to embellish 
 our " copy " with enough facts and references to 
 make a showing of erudition ever induced Field 
 or any of the active members of the editorial staff 
 to borrow the library key from Ballantyne to 
 break in upon the soporific labors of Mr. Plumbe. 
 Here the editorial conferences, which Field has 
 illustrated, were held. 
 
 Before quitting the library, which has since 
 
214 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 grown, in new quarters, to be one of the most com 
 prehensive newspaper libraries in the country, I 
 cannot forbear printing one of Field s choice bits 
 at the expense of the occupants of this floor of the 
 Daily News office. It has no title, but is supposed 
 to be a soliloquy of Mr. Stone s: 
 
 I wish my men were more like Plumbe 
 
 And not so much like me 
 / hate to see the paper hum 
 
 When it should stupid ~be. 
 For when a lot of wit and rhyme 
 
 Appears upon our pages, 
 I know too well my men in time 
 
 Will ask a raise in wages. 
 
 I love to sit around and chin 
 
 With folk of doubtful fame, 
 But oh, it seems a dreadful sin 
 
 When others do the same; 
 For others gad to get the news 
 
 To use in their profession. 
 But anything I get I use 
 
 For purpose of suppression. 
 
 Field s poetical license here does injustice to Mr. 
 Stone, whose inquisitions generally concerned mat 
 ters of public or political concern and whose prac 
 tice of the editorial art of suppression was never 
 
PEESONAL CHAEACTERISTICS 215 
 
 exercised with any other motive than the public 
 good or the sound discretion of the editor, who 
 knew that the libel suits most to be feared were 
 those where the truth about some scalawag was 
 printed without having the affidavits in the vault 
 and a double hitch on the witnesses. 
 
 Up another long, narrow, dark stairway was the 
 office of Mr. Ballantyne, the managing editor. 
 He occupied what had been a rear hall bedroom, 
 7 x 10 feet. He was six feet two tall, and if he 
 had not been of an orderly nature, there would 
 not have been room in that back closet, with its 
 one window and flat-topped desk, for his feet and 
 the retriever, Snip the only dog Field ever thor 
 oughly detested. Ballantyne s room was evidently 
 arranged to prevent any private conferences with 
 the managing editor. It boasted a second chair, 
 but when the visitor accepted the rare invitation 
 to be seated, his knees prevented the closing of 
 the door. The remainder of this floor of the 
 centre building and the whole of the same floor 
 of the next building south were taken up by the 
 composing room. A door had been cut in the wall 
 of the building to the north, just by Mr. Ballan- 
 tyne s room, through which, and down three steps, 
 was the space devoted to the editorial and repor- 
 torial staff of the Morning News. The front end 
 
216 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 of this space was partitioned off into three rooms, 
 7 x 12 feet each. Field claimed one of these 
 boxes, the dramatic critic and solitary artist of 
 the establishment one, and Morgan Bates, the ex 
 change editor, and I were sandwiched in between 
 them. The rest of the floor was given up to the 
 city staff. The telegraph editor had a space railed 
 off for his accommodation in the composing room. 
 If a fire had broken out in the central building in 
 those days, along about ten P.M., the subsequent 
 proceedings of Eugene Field and of others then 
 employed on the Morning News would probably 
 not have been of further interest, except to the 
 coroner. 
 
 Of the three rooms mentioned, Field s was the 
 only one having any pretensions to decoration. 
 Its floor and portions of the wall were stained and 
 grained a rich brown with the juice of the tobacco 
 plant. In one corner Field had a cupboard-shaped 
 pigeon-file, alphabetically arranged, for the clip 
 pings he daily made almost all relating some bit 
 of personal gossip about people in the public eye. 
 Scattered about the floor were dumb-bells, Indian 
 clubs, and other gymnastic apparatus which Field 
 never touched and which the janitor had orders 
 not to disturb in their disorder. Above Field s 
 desk for some time hung a sheet of tin, which he 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 217 
 
 used as a call bell or to drown the noise of the 
 office boy poking the big globe stove which was 
 the primitive, but generally effective, way of heat 
 ing the whole floor in winter. That it was not 
 always effective, even after steam was introduced, 
 may be inferred from the following importunate 
 note written by Field to Collins Shackelford, the 
 cashier, on one occasion when the former had been 
 frozen almost numb: 
 
 DEAR MR. SHACKELFORD : There has been no 
 steam in the third-floor editorial rooms this after 
 noon. Somebody must be responsible for this brutal 
 neglect, which is of so frequent occurrence that for 
 bearance has ceased to be a virtue. I appeal to you 
 in the hope that you will be able to correct the out 
 rage. Does it not seem an injustice that the writers 
 of this paper should be put at the mercy of sub-cellar 
 hands, who are continually demonstrating their in- 
 competency for the work which they are supposed to 
 do and for which they are paid ? 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 January 11, 1887. EUGENE FIELD. 
 
 To those familiar with the internal economy of 
 newspaper offices it will be no news to learn that 
 death by freezing in the editorial rooms would 
 be regarded as a matter of small moment com 
 pared to a temperature in the press room that 
 
218 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 chilled the printing ink in the fountains to the 
 slow consistency of molasses in January. 
 
 To return to the furnishing of the room in which 
 Field did the greater part of his work for the 
 Morning News. Originally it did not boast a 
 desk. A pine table with two drawers was con 
 sidered good enough for the most brilliant para- 
 grapher in the United States, and, for all he cared, 
 so it was. He had no special use for a desk, for 
 at that time he carried his library in his head and 
 wrote on his lap. I am happy in being able to 
 present in corroboration of this a study of Eugene 
 Field at work, drawn from life by his friend, J. L. 
 Sclanders, then artist for the News, and also the 
 copy of a blue print photograph, on the back of 
 which Field wrote, " And they call this art! " 
 
 In explanation of these pictures, both true to 
 life when made, it should be said that, except 
 when there was no steam on, Field almost invari 
 ably wrote in his shirt-sleeves, generally with his 
 waistcoat unbuttoned and his collar off, and always 
 with his feet crossed across the corner of the desk 
 or table. One of the first things he did on coming 
 to the office was to take off his shoes and put on a 
 pair of slippers with no counters around the heels, 
 so that they slapped along the floor as he walked 
 and hung from his toes as he wrote. 
 
i. 
 
 I 
 
 
 FIELD AT WORK. 
 The Caricature from a Drawing by Sclanders. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 219 
 
 Why Field always rolled up the bottoms of his 
 trousers on coming into the office and turned them 
 down when he went out, I do not remember to 
 have known. Probably it was partly on account 
 of his contradictory nature and partly to save the 
 trousers from dragging, for the unloosening of his 
 " vest " was always attended by the unbuttoning of 
 his suspenders to permit of his sitting with greater 
 ease upon the curve of his spine. But why he 
 should have rolled his trousers half way up to the 
 knee passes my comprehension, as the reason has 
 passed from my memory, if I ever knew it. 
 
 For a long time a rusty old carpenter s saw hung 
 on the wall of his " boudoir." Beside it were some 
 burglars implements, and subsequently a convict s 
 suit hanging to a peg excited the wonder of the 
 curious and the sarcasm of the ribald. 
 
 The table in Field s room, besides serving as a 
 resting place for his feet, was covered with the ex 
 changes which were passed along to him after they 
 had passed under the scrutiny and shears of the 
 exchange editor. When Field had gone through 
 them with his rusty scissors they were only fit for 
 the floor, where he strewed them with a riotous 
 hand. 
 
 If the reader has followed thus far he has a 
 tolerably fair notion of the unpropitious and ec- 
 
220 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 centric surroundings amid which Field worked 
 immediately after coming to Chicago. Out of this 
 strange environment came as variegated a column 
 of satire, wit, and personal persiflage as ever at 
 tracted and fascinated the readers of a daily news 
 paper. 
 
 And now of the man himself as I first saw him. 
 He was at that time in his thirty-third year, my 
 junior by a year. If Eugene Field had ever stood 
 up to his full height he would have measured 
 slightly over six feet. But he never did and was 
 content to shamble through life, appearing two 
 inches shorter than he really was. Shamble is per 
 haps hardly the word to use. But neither glide nor 
 shuffle fits his gait any more accurately. It was 
 simply a walk with the least possible waste of 
 energy. It fitted Dr. Holmes s definition of walk 
 ing as forward motion to prevent falling. And 
 yet Field never gave you the impression that he 
 was about to topple over. His legs always acted 
 as if they were weary and would like to lean their 
 master up against something. As to what that 
 something might be, he would probably have an 
 swered, " Pie." 
 
 Field s arms were long, ending in well-shaped 
 hands, which were remarkably deft and would 
 have been attractive had he not at some time 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 221 
 
 spoiled the fingers by the nail-biting habit. His 
 shoulders were broad and square, and not nearly 
 as much rounded as might have been expected 
 from his position in writing. It was not the stoop 
 of his shoulders that detracted from his height, but 
 a certain settling together, if I may so say, of the 
 couplings of his backbone. He was large-boned 
 throughout, but without the muscles that should 
 have gone with such a frame. He would probably 
 have described himself as tall, big, gangling. He 
 had no personal taste or pride in clothing, and 
 never to my knowledge came across a tailor who 
 took enough interest in his clothes to give him the 
 benefit of a good fit or to persuade him to choose 
 a becoming color. For this reason he looked best- 
 dressed in a dress suit, which he never wore when 
 there was any possibility of avoiding it. His 
 favorite coat was a sack, cut straight, and made 
 from some cloth in which the various shades of 
 yellow, green, and brown struggled for mastery. 
 
 But it was of little consequence how Field s body 
 was clothed. He wore a 7 3-8 hat and there was 
 a head and face under it that compelled a second 
 glance and repaid scrutiny in any company. The 
 photographs of Field are numerous, and some of 
 them preserve a fair impression of his remarkable 
 physiognomy. None of the paintings of him that 
 
222 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 I have seen do him justice, and the etchings are not 
 much of an improvement on the paintings. The 
 best photographs only fail because they cannot re 
 tain the peculiar deathlike pallor of the skin and 
 the clear, innocent china blue of the large eyes. 
 These eyes were deep set under two arching brows, 
 and yet were so large that their deep setting was 
 not at first apparent. Field s nose was a good size 
 and well shaped, with an unusual curve of the 
 nostrils strangely complementary to the curve of 
 the arch above the eyes. There was a mole on 
 one cheek, which Field always insisted on turning 
 to the camera and which the photographer very 
 generally insisted on retouching out in the finish 
 ing. Field was wont to say that no photograph 
 of him was genuine unless that mole was " blown 
 in on the negative." The photographs all give him 
 a good chin, in which there was merely the sug 
 gestion of that cleft which he held marred the 
 strength of George William Curtis s lower jaw. 
 
 The feature of his face, if such it can be called, 
 where all portraits failed, was the hair. It was so 
 fine that there would not have been much of it 
 had it been thick, and as it was quite thin there 
 was only a shadow between it and baldness. Even 
 its color was elusive a cross between brown and 
 dove color. Only those who knew Field before 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 223 
 
 he came to Chicago have any impression as to the 
 color of the thatch upon that head which never 
 during our acquaintance stooped to a slouch hat. 
 This typical head gear of the West had no attrac 
 tion for him. The formal black or brown derby 
 for winter and the seasonable straw hat for sum 
 mer seemed necessary to tone down the frivolity 
 of his neckties, which were chosen with a cow 
 boy s gaudy taste. To the day of his death Field 
 delighted to present neckties, generally of the 
 made-up variety, to his friends, which, it is need 
 less to say, they never failed to accept and seldom 
 wore. Often in the afternoon as it neared two 
 o clock he would stick his head above the parti 
 tion between our rooms and say, " Come along, 
 Nompy " (his familiar address for the writer). 
 " Come along and I ll buy you a new necktie." 
 
 " The dickens take your neckties! " or some 
 thing like it, would be my reply. 
 
 Whereupon, with the philosophy of which he 
 never wearied, Field would rejoin, " Very well, if 
 you won t let me buy you a necktie, you must buy 
 me a lunch," and off we would march to Henrici s 
 coffee-house around the corner on Madison Street, 
 generally gathering Ballantyne and Snip in our 
 train as we passed the kennel of the managing 
 editor of what was to be the newspaper with the 
 largest morning circulation in Chicago. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 
 
 Reference has been made to Field s predilection 
 for the theatrical profession and to his fondness for 
 the companionship of those who had attained promi 
 nence in it. During his stay in Denver he had 
 established friendly, and in some instances inti 
 mate, relations with the star actors who included 
 that city in the circuit of their yearly pilgrimages. 
 The story of how he ingratiated himself into the 
 good graces of Christine Nilsson, at the expense of 
 a rival newspaper, may be of interest before tak 
 ing a final farewell of the episodes connected with 
 his life in Colorado. When Madame Nilsson was 
 journeying overland in her special drawing-room 
 car with Henry Abbey, Marcus Meyer, and Charles 
 Mathews, Field wrote to Omaha, anticipating their 
 arrival there, to make inquiry as to how the party 
 employed the dull hours of travel so as to interest 
 the erratic prima donna. It was his intention to 
 prepare a newspaper sketch of the trip. 
 
 The reply was barren of incident, save a casual 
 allusion to certain sittings at the American game 
 224 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 225 
 
 of poker, in which the Swedish songstress had the 
 advantage of the policy or the luck of her com 
 panions. Out of this inch of cloth Field manu 
 factured something better than the proverbial ell 
 of very interesting gossip. The reconstructed item 
 reached San Francisco as soon as Madame Nilsson, 
 and was copied from the Tribune into the coast 
 papers on the eve of her opening concert. Now, 
 the madame thought that the American world 
 looked askance at a woman who gambled, and 
 when the article was kindly brought to her atten 
 tion she flew into one of those rages which, report 
 has said, were the real tragedies of her life. When 
 returning overland to Denver, Abbey telegraphed 
 ahead to Field, and he, with Cowen, went up to 
 Cheyenne to meet the party. On entering the 
 drawing-room car the visitors were hurried into 
 Abbey s compartment with an air of bewildering 
 mystery, and were there informed in whispers that 
 Madame Nilsson was furious against the Tribune 
 and would never forgive anybody attached to it. 
 
 "Oh, I ll arrange that," said Field. "Don t 
 announce us, but let us call on the madame and be 
 introduced." 
 
 After some further parley this was done, and this 
 is how he was greeted. 
 
 " Meestair Field zee T-r-ee-bune," Madame 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
226 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Nilsson exclaimed hotly. " I prefair not zee ac 
 quaintance of your joor-nal." 
 
 " Excuse me, madam," persisted Field, blandly 
 and with grave earnestness, " I think from what 
 Mr. Abbey has told us that you are bent on doing 
 the Tribune and its staff a great injustice. It was 
 not the Tribune that published the poker story that 
 caused you so much just annoyance. It was our 
 rival, the Republican, a very disreputable news 
 paper, which is edited by persons without the least 
 instinct of gentlemen and with no consideration for 
 the feelings of a lady of your refined sensibilities. " 
 
 At this Madame Nilsson thawed visibly, and 
 promptly appealed to Abbey, Mathcws, and Mayer 
 to learn if she had been misinformed. They, of 
 course, fell in with Field s story, and upon being 
 assured that she was in error the madame s anger 
 relaxed, and she was soon holding her sides from 
 laughter at Field s drolleries. The result was that 
 the innocent Republican staff could not get within 
 speaking distance of Madame Mlsson during her 
 stay in Denver. The second night of her visit 
 being Christmas eve, the madame held her Christ 
 mas tree in the "Windsor Hotel, with Field acting 
 the role of Santa Claus and the Tribune staff play 
 ing the parts of good little boys, while their envious 
 rivals of the Republican were not invited to share 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 227 
 
 in the crumbs that fell from that Christmas supper- 
 table. 
 
 " I have been a great theatre-goer," says Field 
 in his " Auto- Analysis." And it may be doubted 
 if any writer of our time repaid the stage as gen 
 erously for the pleasure he received from those who 
 walked its boards before and behind the footlights. 
 No better analysis of his relations to the profession 
 has been made than that from the pen of his friend 
 Cowen : 
 
 " At the very outset of his newspaper career," 
 says he, " Field s inclinations led him to the society 
 of the green-room. Of western critics and review 
 ers he was the first favorite among dramatic people. 
 Helpful, kind, and enthusiastic, he was rarely se 
 vere and never captious. Though in no sense an 
 analyst, he was an amusing reviewer and a great 
 advertiser. Once he conceived an attachment for 
 an actor or actress, his generous mind set about 
 bringing such fortunate person more conspicuously 
 into public notice. Emma Abbott s baby, which 
 she never had, and of whose invented existence he 
 wrote at least a bookful of startling and funny ad 
 ventures; Francis Wilson s legs; Sol Smith Kus- 
 sell s Yankee yarns; Billy Crane s droll stories; 
 Modjeska s spicy witticisms these and other jocu 
 lar pufferies, quoted and read everywhere with rel- 
 
228 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ish for years were among his hobby-horse per 
 formances begun at that time (1881) and continued 
 long after he had settled down in the must and rust 
 of bibliomania." 
 
 For a long time not a week went by that Field 
 did not invent some marvellous tale respecting 
 Emma Abbott, once the most popular light-opera 
 prima donna of the American stage every yarn 
 calculated to widen the circle of her popularity. 
 Upon an absolutely fictitious autobiography of Miss 
 Abbott he once exhausted the fertility of his fancy 
 in the form of a review,* which went the rounds 
 of the press and which, on her death, contributed 
 many a sober paragraph to the newspaper reviews 
 of her life. 
 
 To the fame of another opera singer of those 
 clays he contributed, by paragraphs of an entirely 
 different flavor from those that extolled the Puri 
 tan virtues and domestic felicities of Miss Abbott 
 (Mrs. Wetherell), as may be judged from the fol 
 lowing "Love Plaint," written shortly after hi; 
 came to Chicago: 
 
 The tiny birdlings in the tree 
 
 Their tuneful tales of love relate 
 
 Alas, no lover comes to me 
 / flock alone, without a mate. 
 
 * Vide Appendix. 
 
FRANCIS WILSON. 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 229 
 
 Mine eyes are hot with bitter tears, 
 
 My soul disconsolately yearns 
 But, ah, no wooing knight appears 
 
 In vain my quenchless passion burns. 
 
 Unheeded are my glowing charms 
 No heroes claim a moonlight tryst 
 
 All empty are my hungry arms 
 My virgin cheeks are all unkissed. 
 
 Oh, would some cavalier might haste 
 To crown me with his manly love, 
 
 And, with his arm about my waist, 
 Feed on my cherry lips above. 
 
 Alas, my blush and bloom will fade, 
 And I shall lose my dulcet notes 
 
 Then I shall die an old, old maid, 
 
 And none will mourn Miss Alice Gates. 
 
 Of his friendship with Francis Wilson there is 
 no need to write here, for is it not fully set forth 
 in that charming little brochure, in which Mr. Wil 
 son gives to the world a characteristic sketch of 
 the Eugene Field and bibliomaniac he knew, and 
 in whose work he was so deeply interested? But 
 Mr. Wilson does not tell how he was pursued and 
 plagued with the following genial invention which 
 Field printed in his column in 1884, and which 
 still occasionally turns up in country exchanges: 
 
 " Mr. Francis Wilson, the comedian, is a nephew 
 
230 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 of Pere Hyacinthe, the ancient divine. During his 
 recent sojourn in Paris he was the pere s guest, and 
 finally became deeply interested in the great work 
 of reform in which the famous preacher is engaged. 
 His intimate acquaintances say that Mr. Wilson is 
 fully determined to retire from the stage at the 
 expiration of five years and devote himself to 
 theological pursuits. He gave Pere Hyacinthe 
 his promise to this effect, and his sincerity is un 
 doubted." 
 
 "William Florence, the comedian, was an actor of 
 whom, on and off the stage, Field never wearied. 
 Night after night would we go to see " Billy," as 
 he was familiarly and irreverently called, as Bard- 
 well Slote in the " Mighty Dollar," or as Captain 
 Cuttle in " Dombey and Son." Although originally 
 an Irish comedian of rollicking and contagious 
 humor, Florence had played " Bar dwell Slote " so 
 constantly and for so many years that his voice and 
 manner in every-day life had the ingratiating tone 
 of that typical Washington lobbyist. Before his 
 death, while touring with Jefferson as Sir Lucius 
 Trigger in " The Rivals," he renewed his earlier 
 triumphs in Irish character, but, even here the 
 accents of the oily Bardwell gave an additional 
 touch of blarney to his brogue. 
 
 One of the stories that Field delighted to tell of 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 231 
 
 Florence dates back to 1884, when Monseigneur 
 Capel was in the United States. It related with the 
 circumspection of verity how Florence and the Mon 
 seigneur had been friends for a number of years. 
 Meeting on the street in Chicago, the story ran, 
 after a general conversation Florence asked Capel 
 whether he ever spent an evening at the theatre, 
 intending, in case of an affirmative reply, to invite 
 him to one of his performances. Capel shook his 
 head. " No," said he, " it has been twenty-four 
 years since I attended a theatre, and I cannot con 
 scientiously bring myself to patronize a place where 
 the devil is preached." Florence protested that 
 the monseigneur placed a false estimate on the the 
 atrical profession. 
 
 " Ah, no," replied Capel, with a sad smile; " you 
 people are sincere enough; you don t know it, but 
 you preach the devil all the same." 
 
 " Well, your grace," inquired Florence, with 
 great urbanity, " which is worse, preaching the 
 devil from the stage without knowing it, or preach 
 ing Christ crucified from the pulpit without believ 
 ing it?" 
 
 " Both are reprehensible," replied Monseigneur 
 Capel; and, bowing stiffly, he went his way, while 
 Florence shrugged his shoulders a la his own fas 
 cinating creation of Jules Obenreizer in " No Thor- 
 
232 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 oughfare," and walked off in the opposite direction, 
 whistling to himself as he walked. 
 
 Florence delighted in companionship and in the 
 good things and good stories of the table, whether 
 at a noon breakfast which lasted well through the 
 afternoon or at the midnight supper which knew 
 no hour for breaking up, and he never came to 
 Chicago that we did not accommodate our con 
 venience to his late hours for breakfast or supper. 
 Nothing short of a concealed stenographer could 
 have done these gatherings justice. Mr. Stone 
 footed the bills, and Field, Florence, Edward J. 
 McPhelim of the Chicago Tribune, poet and dra 
 matic critic, and three or four others of the Daily 
 News staff did the rest. The eating was good, 
 although the dishes were sometimes weird, the 
 company was better, the stories, anecdotes, remi 
 niscences, songs, and flow of soul beyond compare. 
 Field, who ate sparingly and touched liquor not at 
 all, unless it was to pass a connoisseurs judgment 
 upon some novel, strange, and rare brand, divided 
 the honors of the hour with the entire company. 
 
 In acknowledgment of such attentions, Florence 
 always insisted that before the close of his engage 
 ments we should all be his guests at a regular 
 Italian luncheon of spaghetti at Caproni s, down on 
 AVabash Avenue. It is needless to say that the 
 
EELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 233 
 
 spaghetti was merely the central dish, around which 
 revolved and was devoured every delicacy that 
 Florence had ever heard of in his Italian itinerary, 
 the whole washed down with strange wines from 
 the same sunny land. Florence s fondness for this 
 sort of thing gave zest to a story Field told of his 
 friend s experience in London, in the summer of 
 1890. The epicurean actor had made an excursion 
 up the Thames with a select party of English club 
 men. Two days later Florence was still abed at 
 Morley s, and, as he said, contemplated staying 
 there forever. Sir Morell Mackenzie was called 
 to see him. After sounding his lungs, listening to 
 his heart, thumping his chest and back, looking at 
 his tongue, and testing his breath with medicated 
 paper, Sir Morell said: 
 
 " As near as I can get at it, you are a victim 
 of misplaced confidence. You have been training 
 with the young bucks when you should have been 
 ploughing around with the old stags. You must 
 quit it. Otherwise it will do you up." 
 
 " Well now," said Florence, as related by Field, 
 " that was the saddest day of my life. Just think 
 of shutting down on the boys, after being one 
 of them for sixty years! But Sir Morell told 
 the truth. The Garrick Club boys were terribly 
 mad about it; they said Sir Morell was a quack, 
 
234 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 and they adopted resolutions declaring a lack of 
 confidence in his medical skill. But my mind was 
 made up. Billy/ says I to myself, you must 
 let up, you ve made a record; it s a long one and 
 an honorable one. Now you must retire. Your 
 life henceforth shall be reminiscent and its declin 
 ing years shall be hallowed by the refulgent rays 
 of retrospection. To that resolution I have ad 
 hered steadily. People tell me that I am as 
 young as ever; but no, they can t fool me, I know 
 better." 
 
 Whereupon, according to Field, " Joe " Jeffer 
 son broke in incredulously: " Just to illustrate the 
 folly of all that talk, I ll tell you what I saw last 
 night. When I returned to the hotel, after the 
 play, I went up to Billy s room and found Billy 
 and the President of the Philadelphia Catnip Club 
 at supper. What do you suppose they had ? Stewed 
 terrapin and f rapped champagne! " 
 
 " That s all right enough," exclaimed Mr. Flor 
 ence. " Terrapin and champagne never hurt any 
 body; I have had em all my life. What I 
 maintain is that people of my age should not and 
 cannot indulge in extravagance of diet. The ut 
 most simplicity must be the rule of their life. If 
 Joe would only eat terrapin and drink champagne 
 he wouldn t be grunting around with dyspepsia all 
 
WILLIAM J. FLORENCE. 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 235 
 
 the time. He lives on boiled mutton and graham 
 bread, and the public call him i the reverend vet 
 eran Joseph Jefferson. I stick to terrapin, green 
 turtle, canvasbacks, and the like, and every young 
 chap in the land slaps me on the back, calls me 
 Billy, and regards me as a contemporary. But I 
 ain t; I m getting old not too old, but just old 
 enough! " 
 
 A dozen years with the boys had done for Field s 
 digestion what the robust Florence was dreading 
 after sixty, and to the day of his death, Field, from 
 the rigid practice of his self-denial, pitied and sym 
 pathized with the unhappy wight who had received 
 the warning given to Florence, " You must quit 
 training with the boys, otherwise it will do you 
 up." But he had no more obeyed the warning as 
 to coffee and pie than Florence did as to the in 
 junction of Sir Morell against terrapin and cham 
 pagne. 
 
 Another " Billy," William H. Crane, was one 
 of Field s favorites, and the one with whose name 
 he took the greatest liberties in his column of 
 " Sharps and Flats." His waggish mind found no 
 end of humor in creating a son for Mr. Crane, who 
 was christened after his father s stage partner, 
 Stuart Robson Crane. This child of Field s sar 
 donic fancy was gifted with all the roguish attri- 
 
236 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 butes that are the delight and despair of fond 
 parents. Scarcely a month, sometimes hardly a 
 week, went by that Field did not print some yarn 
 about the sayings or doings of the obstreperous 
 Stuart Kobson Crane. Every anecdote that he 
 
 COMMODORE CRANE. 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
 heard he adapted to the years and supposed circum 
 stances of " Master Crane." The close relations 
 which existed between Field and the Cranes for 
 he included Mrs. Crane within the inner circle of 
 his good-fellowship may be judged from the fol 
 lowing tribute: 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 237 
 
 MRS. BILLY CRANE 
 
 A woman is a blessing, be she large or be she small, 
 Be she wee as any midget, or as any cypress tall: 
 And though I m free to say I like all women folks 
 
 the best, 
 
 I think I like the little women better than the rest 
 And of all the little women I m in love with I am fain 
 To sing the praises of the peerless Mrs. Billy Crane. 
 
 I met this charming lady never mind how long 
 
 ago 
 
 In that prehistoric period I was reckoned quite a beau: 
 You d never think it of me if you chanced to see m,e 
 
 now, 
 With my shrunken shanks and dreary eyes and 
 
 deeply furrowed brow; 
 But I was young and chipper when I joined that brisk 
 
 campaign 
 At Utica to storm the heart of Mrs. Billy Crane. 
 
 We called her Ella in those days, as trim a little minx 
 As ever fascinated man with coquetries, methinks! 
 I saw her home from singing-school a million times 
 
 I guess, 
 And purred around her domicile three winters, more 
 
 or less, 
 And brought her lozenges and things alas: tivas all 
 
 in vain 
 She was predestined to become a Mrs. Billy Crane! 
 
238 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 That Mr. Billy came in smart and handsome, I ll aver, 
 Yet, with all his brains and beauty, he s not good 
 
 enough for her: 
 Now, though I m somewhat homely and in gumption 
 
 quite a dolt, 
 
 The quality of goodness is my lest and strongest holt, 
 And as goodness is the only human thing that doesn t 
 
 Wane, 
 I wonder she preferred to wed with Mr. Billy Crane. 
 
 Yet heaven has blessed her all these years she s just 
 
 as blithe and gay 
 As when the belle of Utica, and she ain t grown old 
 
 a day! 
 Her face is just as pretty and her eyes as bright as 
 
 then 
 Egad! their gracious magic makes me feel a boy 
 
 again, 
 And still I court (as still I were a callow, York State 
 
 swain) 
 With hecatombs of lozenges that Mrs. Billy Crane! 
 
 That she has heaps of faculty her husband can t 
 
 deny 
 Whenever he don t toe the mark she knows the reason 
 
 why : 
 She handles all the moneys and receipts, which as a 
 
 rule 
 She carries around upon her arm in a famous reticule, 
 
KELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 239 
 
 And Billy seldom gets a cent unless he can explain 
 The wherefores and etceteras to Mrs. Billy Crane! 
 
 Yet ye gracious actors! with uppers on your feet, 
 And ye bankrupt critics! athirst for things to eat 
 Did you ever leave her presence all unrequited when 
 In an hour of inspiration you struck her for a ten? 
 No! never yet an applicant there was did not obtain 
 A solace for his misery from Mrs. Billy Crane. 
 
 Dear little Lady-Ella! (let me call you that once 
 
 more, 
 
 In memory of the happy days in Utica of yore) 
 If I could have the ordering of blessings here below, 
 I might keep some small share myself, but most of 
 
 em should go 
 To you yes, riches, happiness, and health should 
 
 surely rain 
 Upon the temporal estate of Mrs. Billy Crane! 
 
 You re coming to Chicago in a week or two and then. 
 In honor of that grand event, I shall blossom out 
 
 again 
 In a brand-new suit of checkered tweed and a low-cut 
 
 satin vest 
 I shall be the gaudiest spectacle in all the gorgeous 
 
 West! 
 And with a splendid coach and four I ll meet you at 
 
 the train 
 So don t forget the reticule, dear Mrs. Billy Crane! 
 
240 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 And lie may doubt, who never knew this master 
 torment, that Field carried out his threat to ap 
 pear at Crane s " first night " with that low-cut 
 satin vest and that speckled tweed suit, which did 
 indeed make him a gaudy spectacle. But his sol 
 emn face gave no sign that his mixed apparel was 
 making him the cynosure of all curious eyes. 
 
 Mr. Crane suffered from the same digestive 
 troubles that confined Florence to terrapin and 
 champagne and Field to coffee and pies, and so 
 the state of his health was a constant source of para 
 graphic sympathy in " Sharps and Flats." In such 
 paragraphs the actor and President Cleveland were 
 often represented as fellow-fishermen at Buzzard s 
 Bay Crane s summer home being at Cohasset. 
 How they were associated is illustrated in the fol 
 lowing casual item: 
 
 Mr. William H. Crane, the actor, is looking unusu 
 ally robust this autumn. He seems to have recovered 
 entirely from the malady which made life a burden 
 to him for several years. He thought there was some 
 thing the matter with his liver. Last July he put in 
 a good share of his time blue-fishing with Grover 
 Cleveland. One day they ran out of bait. 
 
 " Wonder if they d bite at liver? " asked Crane. 
 
 " They love it," answered Cleveland. 
 
 So without further ado Crane out with his pen- 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 241 
 
 knife, amputated his liver, and minced it up for bait. 
 He hasn t had a sick day since. 
 
 By way of introduction to a few words respect 
 ing the close, quizzical, and always sincere friend 
 ship that existed between Field and Helena Mod- 
 jeska, the following invention of March 29th, 1884, 
 may serve to indicate the blithesome spirit with 
 which he tortured facts when racketting around for 
 something to add to the bewilderment of his readers 
 and his own relaxation: 
 
 A letter from Mr. William H. Crane imparts some 
 interesting gossip touching the Cincinnati dramatic 
 festival. It says that an agreeable surprise awaits 
 the patrons of the festival in an interchange of parts 
 between Madame Modjeska and Mr. Stuart Robson, 
 the comedian ; that is to say, Modjeska will take Mr. 
 Robson s place in the " Two Dromios," and Robson 
 will take Madame Modjeska s place in the great emo 
 tional play of " Camille." It is well known that 
 Modjeska has a penchant for masculine roles, and her 
 success as Rosalind and Viola leaves no room for 
 doubt that she will give great satisfaction in the 
 " Comedy of Errors." Mr. Robson has never liked 
 female roles, but his falsetto voice, his slender figure, 
 his smooth, rosy face, and his graceful, effeminate 
 manners qualify him to a remarkable degree for the 
 impersonation of feminine characters. Moreover, 
 VOL. I. 16 
 
242 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 his long residence in Paris has given him a thorough 
 appreciation and elaborate knowledge of those char 
 acteristics, which must be understood ere one can de 
 lineate and portray the subtleties of Camille as they 
 should be given. Those who anticipate a farcical 
 treatment of Dumas s creation at Mr. Robson s hands 
 will be most wofully surprised when they come to 
 witness and hear his artistic presentation of the most 
 remarkable of emotional roles. 
 
 Elsewhere I have referred to the roguish pleasure 
 Field took in ascribing the authorship of " The 
 Wanderer " to Helena Modjeska. That was before 
 he came to Chicago, and seemed to be the overture 
 to a friendship that continued to exchange its favors 
 and tokens of affection to the close of his life. The 
 doings of the Madame and Count Bozenta, her al 
 ways vivacious and enjoyable husband, were peren 
 nial subjects for Field s kindliest paragraphs. As 
 he says, he was a great theatre-goer, but Field 
 became a constant one when " Modjesky " came to 
 town. Her Camille a character in which she 
 was not excelled by the great Bernhardt herself 
 had a remarkable vogue in the early eighties. She 
 imparted to its impersonation the subtle charm of 
 her own sweet womanliness, which served to excuse 
 Armand s infatuation and as far as possible lifted 
 the play out of its unwholesome atmosphere of 
 
MODJESKA. 
 
KELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 243 
 
 French immorality to the plane of romantic devo 
 tion and self-sacrifice. Her Camille seemed a vic 
 tim of remorseless destiny, a pure soul struggling 
 amid inexorable circumstances that racked and ca 
 joled a diseased and suffering body into the mael 
 strom of sin. 
 
 Field was so constituted that, without this saving 
 grace of womanliness, the presentation of Camille, 
 with all its hectic surroundings, would have re 
 pelled him. He did not care to see Mademoiselle 
 Bernhardt a second time in the role, and he fled 
 from the powerful and fascinating portrayal of 
 pulmonary emotion which initiated the audiences of 
 Clara Morris into the terrors of tubercular disease. 
 Night after night, when Modjeska played Camille, 
 Field would occupy a front seat or a box. When 
 so seated that his presence could not be overlooked 
 from the stage, he was wont to divert Camille from 
 her woes with the by-play of his mobile features. 
 Wherever he sat, his large, white, solemn visage 
 had a fascination for Madame Modjeska, and from 
 the time she caught sight of it until Camille settled 
 back lifeless in the final scene, she played " at him." 
 He repaid this tribute by distorting his face in 
 agony when Camille was light-hearted, and by 
 breaking into noiseless merriment as her woes were 
 causing handkerchiefs to flutter throughout the 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 audience. When we went to visit her next day, as 
 we often did, she scarcely ever failed to reproach 
 him in some such fashion as: " Ah, Meester Fielt, 
 why will you seet in the box and talk with your 
 
 FIELD WITNESSING MODJESKA AS CAMILLE. 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
 overcoat on the chair to make Camille laugh who 
 is dying on the stage? Ah, Meester Fielt, you are 
 a very bad man, but I lof you, don t we, Charlie? " 
 And the count always stopped rolling a cigarette 
 long enough to acknowledge that Field was their 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 245 
 
 dearest friend and that they both loved him, no 
 matter what he did. Next to his wife, the count 
 was devoted to politics, which he discusses with 
 all the warmth and gesticulations of a French 
 man and the intelligence of a Polish-American 
 patriot. 
 
 If there were any other visitors present, Mod- 
 jeska always insisted on Field s giving his imitation 
 of herself in Camille, in which he rendered her 
 lines with exaggerated theatrical sentiment and 
 with the broken-English accent, such as Modjeska 
 permitted herself in the freedom of private life. 
 She would give him Armand s cues for particular 
 speeches and his impassioned " Armo, I lof, I lof 
 you! " never failed to convulse her, while his pul 
 monary cough was so deep and sepulchral that it 
 rang through the hotel corridors, making other 
 guests think that Modjeska herself was in the last 
 stages of a disease she simulated unto death nightly. 
 After Field had added colored inks to his stock in 
 trade, these fits of coughing were succeeded by a 
 handkerchief act, in which the dying Camille ap 
 peared to spit blood in carmine splotches. No 
 burlesque that I have seen of a play frequently 
 burlesqued ever approached the side-splitting ab 
 surdity of these rehearsals for the benefit of the 
 heroine of " Modjesky as Cameel." 
 
246 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 An, while Hodjesky stated we wuz somewhat off our 
 
 I half opined she liked it by the look upon her face, 
 I recollect that Hoover regretted he done wrong 
 In throwin that there actor through a vista ten miles 
 long. 
 
 When Field went to California in search of 
 health, in the winter of 1893-94, Madame Mod- 
 jeska placed her ranch, located ten miles from the 
 railway, half-way between San Diego and Los 
 Angeles, at his disposal. The ranch contained 
 about a thousand acres, and he was given carte 
 blanche to treat it as his own during his stay a 
 privilege he would have hastened to invite all his 
 friends to share had his health been equal to the 
 opportunity to indulge in merry-making. 
 
 At a breakfast given to Modjeska at Kinsley s, 
 April 22d, 1886, Field read the following poem in 
 honor of the guest: 
 
 TO HELENA MODJESKA 
 
 In thy sweet self, dear lady guest, we find 
 Juliet s dark face, Viola s gentle mien, 
 The dignity of Scotland s martyr d queen 
 
 The beauty and the wit of Rosalind. 
 
 What wonder, then, that we who mop our eyes 
 And sob and gush when we should criticise 
 
TWO PROFILES OF EUGENE FIELD. 
 
 The upper one drawn in pencil by Field himself ; the lower one by 
 Jlfodjeska. Reproduced from a fly-leaf of Mrs. Thompson s volume of 
 autograph verse. 
 
248 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Charmed by the graces of your mien and mind 
 What wonder we should hasten to proclaim 
 The art that has secured thy deathless fame ? 
 And this we swear: We will endorse no name 
 But thine alone to old Melpomene, 
 Nor will revolve, since rising sons are we, 
 Round any orb, save, dear Modjeska, thee 
 Who art our Pole star, and will ever be. 
 
 As originally written by Field, the rhymes in 
 the first four lines of this tribute fell alternately, 
 the lines being transposed so that they ran in order 
 first, third, fourth, and second of the poem as it 
 appears above. For the fifth and sixth lines of his 
 first version Field wrote: 
 
 What wonder, then, that we who mop our eyes 
 When we are hired to rail and criticise? 
 
 It is a question the reader can decide for himself 
 whether his second thought was an improvement. 
 His original intention contemplated a longer poem, 
 but after he had written a fourteenth line that read : 
 
 The radiant Pole star of the mimic stage 
 
 Field concluded to wind it up with the fourteenth 
 line, as in the finished version. 
 
 Upon the back of the original manuscript of 
 
KELAT10NS WITH STAGE FOLK 249 
 
 these lines to Madame Modjeska I find this Sapphic 
 fragment under the line suggestive of its sub 
 ject, "The Things of Life 7 : 
 
 A little sour, a little sweet, 
 
 Fill out our brief and human hour, 
 meet 
 
 He never filled out the blank or gave a clue as 
 to what further reflections on the springs of life 
 were in his mind. 
 
 I never knew Field to be as infatuated with any 
 stage production as with the first performance of 
 the pirated edition of " The Mikado " in Chicago, 
 in the summer of 1885. The cast was indeed a 
 memorable one, including Koland Reed as Koko, 
 Alice Harrison as Yum- Yum, Belle Archer as 
 Pitti-Sing, Frederick Archer as Pooh-Bah, George 
 Broderick as the Mikado, and Mrs. Broderick as 
 Katisha. The Brodericks had rich church-choir 
 voices, Belle Archer was a beauty of that fresh, in 
 nocent type that did one s eyes good simply to 
 look upon, and she was just emerging into a career 
 that grew in popularity until her untimely death. 
 Archer was a stilted English comedian who seemed 
 built to be " insulted " as Pooh-Bah, while Eoland 
 Reed and Miss Harrison were two comedians of 
 the first rank. As a singing soubrette, daring, ver- 
 
250 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 satile, and popular, Miss Harrison had no superiors 
 in her day. The entire company was saturated 
 with the spirit and " go " of Gilbert, and fairly 
 tingled with the joyous music of Sullivan. The fact 
 that the production was of a pirated version, un 
 trammelled by the oversight of D Oyley Carte, 
 added zest to the performance and enlisted Field s 
 partisan sympathy and co-operation from the start. 
 He enjoyed each night s performance with all the 
 relish of a boy eating the apples of pleasure from 
 a forbidden orchard. When the season came to an 
 end, as all good things must, Field, Ballantyne, 
 and I went to Milwaukee to see that our friends 
 had a fair start there. We got back to Chicago on 
 the early morning milk train, and in " Sharps and 
 Flats" the next day Field recorded the defini 
 tive judgment that " Miss Alice Harrison, in her 
 performance of Yum- Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan s 
 new opera of The Mikado, has set the standard 
 of that interesting role, and it is a high one. In 
 fact, we doubt whether it will ever be approached 
 by any other artist on the American stage." 
 
 It never has been approached, nor has the opera, 
 so far as my information goes, ever been given with 
 the same Gilbertian verve and swing. The subse 
 quent performance of " The Mikado " by the au 
 thorized company, seen throughout the United 
 
EELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 251 
 
 States, seemed by comparison " like water after 
 wine." 
 
 On the operatic stage Madame Sembrich was by 
 all odds Field s favorite prima donna. He was one 
 of the earliest writers on the press to recognize the 
 wonderful beauty of the singer s voice and the per 
 fection of her method. He easily distinguished 
 between her trained faculty and the bird-like notes 
 of Patti, but the personality of the former won 
 him, where he remained unmoved when Patti s 
 wonderful voice rippled through the most difficult, 
 florid music like crystal running water over the 
 smooth stones of a mountain brook. Field s ad 
 miration for Sembrich often found expression in 
 more conventional phrases, but never in a form that 
 better illustrated how she attracted him than in the 
 following amusing comment on her appearance 
 in Chicago, January 24th, 1884, in Lucia: 
 
 It is not at all surprising that Madame Sembrich 
 caught on so grandly night before last. She is the 
 most comfortable-looking prima donna that has ever 
 visited Chicago. She is one of your square-built, 
 stout-rigged little ladies with a bright, honest face 
 and bouncing manners. Her arms are long but 
 shapely, and in the last act of Lucia her luxurious 
 black hair tumbles down and envelopes her like a 
 mosquito net. Her audience night before last was a 
 
252 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 coldly critical one, of course, and it sat like a bump 
 on a log until Sembrich made her appearance in the 
 mad scene, where Lucheer gives her vocal circus in 
 the presence of twenty-five Scotch ladies in red, white, 
 and green dresses, and twenty-five supposititious 
 Scotch gentlemen in costumes of the Court of Louis 
 XIV. Instead of sending for a doctor to assist Lu 
 cheer in her trouble, these fantastically attired ladies 
 and gentlemen stand around and look dreary while 
 Lucheer does ground and lofty tumbling, and executes 
 pirouettes and trapeze performances in the vocal art. 
 
 Then the audience began to wake up. The com 
 fortable-looking little prima donna gathered herself 
 together and let loose the cyclone of her genius and 
 accomplishments. It was a whirlwind of appoggia- 
 turas, semi-quavers, accenturas, rinforzandos, mod- 
 eratos, prestos, trills, sforzandos, fortes, rallentan- 
 dos, supertonics, salterellos, sonatas, ensembles, pi- 
 anissimos, staccatos, accellerandos, quasi-innocents, 
 cadenzas, symphones, cavatinas, arias, counter-points, 
 fiorituras, tonics, sub-medicants, allegrissimos, chro 
 matics, concertos, andantes, etudes, larghettos, ada 
 gios, and every variety of turilural and dingus known 
 to the minstrel art. The audience was paralyzed. 
 When she finally struck up high F sharp in the de 
 scending fourth of D in alt, one gentleman from the 
 South Side who had hired a dress-coat for the occa 
 sion broke forth in a hearty " Brava ! " This en 
 couraged a resident of the North Side to shout " Bra- 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 253 
 
 vissimo," and then several dudes from the Blue 
 Island district raised the cry of " Bong," " Tray 
 beang," and " Brava ! " 
 
 The applause became universal it spread like 
 wild-fire. The vast audience seemed crazed with de 
 light and enthusiasm. And it argues volumes for 
 the culture of our enterprising and fair city that not 
 one word of English was heard among the encourag 
 ing and approving shouts that were hurled at the 
 smiling prima donna. Even the pork merchants and 
 the grain dealers in the family circle vied with each 
 other in hoarsely wafting Italian words of cheer at 
 the triumphant Sembrich. French was hardly good 
 enough, although it was utilized by a few large manu 
 facturers and butterine merchants who sat in the 
 parquet, and one man was put out by the ushers be 
 cause he so far forgot himself and the eclat of the 
 occasion as to shout in vehement German : " Mein 
 Gott in himmel das ist ver tampt goot ! " It was 
 an ovation, but it was no more than Sembrich de 
 served bless her fat little buttons ! 
 
 Remember, this was nearly twenty years ago. 
 It argues much for the saneness of Field s enthusi 
 asm, as well as for the perfection of Madame Sem- 
 brich s methods, that she is still able to arouse a 
 like enthusiasm in audiences where true dramatic 
 instinct and high vocal art are valued as the rarest 
 combination on the operatic stage. 
 
254 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Two manuscript poems in my scrap-book testify 
 that another songster, early in Field s Chicago 
 life, enjoyed his friendship and inspired his pen 
 along a line it was to travel many a tuneful metre. 
 The first, with frequent erasures and interlineations, 
 bears date May 25th, 1894, and was inscribed, 
 " To Mrs. Will J. Davis." It runs as follows: 
 
 A HUSHABY SONG 
 
 The stars are twinkling in the skies, 
 
 The earth is lost in slumber deep 
 So hush, my sweet, and close your eyes 
 
 And let me lull your soul to sleep; 
 Compose thy dimpled hands to rest, 
 
 And like a little Girdling lie 
 Secure within thy cosy nest 
 Upon my mother breast 
 
 And slumber to my lullaby; 
 
 80 hushaby, oh, hushaby. 
 
 The moon is singing to the star 
 
 The little song I sing to you, 
 The father Sun has strayed afar 
 
 As baby s sire is straying, too. 
 And so the loving mother moon 
 
 Sings to the little star on high, 
 And as she sings, her gentle tune 
 Is borne to me, and thus I croon 
 
 To thee, my sweet, that lullaby 
 
 Of hushaby, oh, hushaby. 
 
KELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 255 
 
 There is a little one asleep 
 
 That does not hear his mother s song, 
 But angel-watchers as I weep 
 
 Surround his grave the night-tide long; 
 And as I sing, my sweet, to you, 
 
 Oh, would the lullaby I sing 
 The same sweet lullaby he knew 
 When slumbering on this bosom, too 
 
 Were borne to him on angel wing ! 
 
 So hushaby , oh, hushaby. 
 
 The second of these songs bears the same title 
 as one of Field s favorite tales, and is inscribed, 
 " To Jessie Bartlett Davis on the first anniversary 
 of her little boy s birth, October 6th, 1884 ": 
 
 THE SINGER MOTHER 
 
 A Singer sang a glorious song 
 So grandly clear and subtly sweet, 
 
 That, with huzzas, the listening throng 
 Cast down their tributes at her feet. 
 
 The Singer heard their shouts the while, 
 But her serene and haughty face 
 
 Was lighted by no flattered smile 
 Provoked by homage in that place. 
 
 The Singer sang that night again 
 In mother tones, tender and deep, 
 
 Not to the public ear, but when 
 She rocked her little one to sleep. 
 
256 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 The song we bless through all the years 
 As memory s holiest, sweetest thing, 
 
 Instinct with pathos and with tears 
 The song that mothers always sing. 
 
 So tuneful was the lullaby 
 
 The mother sang, her little child 
 Cooed, oh! so sweetly in reply, 
 
 Stretched forth its dimpled hands and smiled. 
 
 The Singer crooning there above 
 
 The cradle where her darling lay 
 Snatched to her breast her smiling love 
 
 And sang his soul to dreams away. 
 
 Oh, mother-love, that knows no guile, 
 
 That s deaf to ftatt ry, blind to art, 
 A dimpled hand hath wooed thy smile 
 
 A baby s cooing touched thy heart. 
 
 Lest my readers should conclude from these early 
 specimens of Field s fondness for lilting lullabies 
 that the gentler sex and " mother love " blinded 
 him to the manly attractions and true worth of his 
 own sex, let the following never-to-be-forgotten ode 
 to the waistcoat of the papa of the hero of the two 
 preceding songs bear witness. Mr. Davis has been 
 a manager of first-class theatres and theatrical com- 
 

 JESSIE BARTLETT DAVIS. 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 257 
 
 parries for a score of years, and there are thousands 
 to testify that in the rhymes that follow Field has 
 done no more than justice to the amazing " con 
 fections " in wearing apparel he affected in the 
 days when we were boys together: 
 
 Of waistcoats there are divers kinds, from those 
 
 severely chaste 
 To those with fiery colors dight or with fair figures 
 
 traced : 
 Those that high as liver-pads and chest-protectors 
 
 serve, 
 While others proudly sweep away in a sub stomachic 
 
 curve, 
 But the grandest thing in waistcoats in the streets 
 
 in this great and wondrous west 
 Is that which folks are wont to call the Will J. Pavis 
 
 vest! 
 
 This paragon of comeliness is cut nor low nor high 
 But just enough of loth to show a bright imported 
 
 tie: 
 
 Bound neatly with the choicest silks its lappets wave- 
 like roll, 
 While a watch-chain dangles sprucely from the 
 
 proper buttonhole 
 
 And a certain sensuous languor is ineffably expressed 
 In the contour and the mise en scene of the Will J. 
 Davis vest. 
 VOL. L 17 
 
258 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Its texture is of softest silk : Its colors, ah, how vain 
 The task to name the splendid hues that in that vest 
 
 obtain! 
 Go, view the rainbow and recount the glories of the 
 
 sight 
 
 And number all the radiances that in its glow unite, 
 And then, when they are counted, with pride be it 
 
 confessed 
 They re nil beside the splendor of the Will J. Davis 
 
 vest. 
 
 Sometimes the gorgeous pattern is a sportive pump 
 kin vine, 
 
 At other times the lily and the ivy intertwine: 
 And then again the ground is white with purple polka 
 
 dots 
 
 Or else a dainty lavender with red congestive spots 
 In short, there is no color, hue, or shade you could 
 
 suggest 
 That doesn t in due time occur in a Will J. Davis vest. 
 
 Now William is not handsome he s told he s just 
 
 like me. 
 And in one respect I think he is, for he s as good as 
 
 good can be! 
 
 Yet, while I find my chances with the girls are pre 
 cious slim, 
 
 The women-folks go wildly galivanting after him: 
 And after serious study of the problem I have guessed 
 That the secret of this frenzy is the Will J. Davis 
 vest. 
 
EELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 259 
 
 I ve stood in Colorado and looked on peaks of snow 
 
 While prisoned torrents made their moan two thou 
 sand feet below: 
 
 The Simplon pass and prodigies Vesuvian have I 
 done, 
 
 And gazed in rock-bou/id Norway upon the midnight 
 sun 
 
 Yet at no time such wonderment, such transports 
 filled my breast 
 
 As when I fixed my orbs upon a Will J. Davis vest. 
 
 All vainly have I hunted this worldly sphere around 
 For a waistcoat like that waistcoat, but that waistcoat 
 
 can t be found! 
 The Frenchman shrugs his shoulders and the German 
 
 answers " nein," 
 When I try the haberdasheries on the Seine and on 
 
 the Rhine, 
 And the truckling British tradesman having trotted 
 
 out his best 
 Is forced to own he can t compete with the Will J. 
 
 Davis vest. 
 
 But better yet, Dear William, than this garb of which 
 I sing 
 
 Is a gift which God has given you, and that s a price 
 less thing. 
 
 What stuff we mortals spin and weave, though pleas 
 ing to the eye, 
 
 Doth presently corrupt, to be forgotten by and by. 
 
260 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 One tiling, and one alone, survives old time s remorse 
 less test 
 
 The valor of a heart like that which beats beneath 
 that vest! 
 
 Playgoers of these by-gone days will remember 
 the name of Kate Claxton with varying degrees 
 of pleasure. She was an actress of what was then 
 known as the Union Square Theatre type a type 
 that preceded the Augustin Daly school and was 
 strong in emotional roles. With the late Charles 
 H. Thome, Jr., at its head, it gave such plays as 
 " The Banker s Daughter," " The Two Orphans," 
 "The Celebrated Case," and "The Danicheffs," 
 their great popular vogue. Miss Claxton was what 
 is known as the leading juvenile lady in the Union 
 Square Company, and her Louise, the blind sister, 
 to Miss Sara Jewetfs Henrietta in " The Two 
 Orphans," won for her a national reputation. 
 She was endowed by nature with a superb shock 
 of dark red hair, over which a Titian might have 
 raved. This was very effective when flowing loose 
 about the bare shoulders of the blind orphan, but 
 afterward, when Miss Claxton went starring over 
 the country and had the misfortune to have several 
 narrow escapes from fire, the newspaper wits of the 
 day could not resist the inclination to ascribe a 
 certain incendiarism to her hair, and also to her 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 261 
 
 art. And Field, who was on terms of personal 
 friendship with Miss Claxton ; led the cry with the 
 following : 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF KATE CLAXTON 
 
 This famous conflagration broke out on May 3d, 
 1846, and has been raging with more or less violence 
 ever since. She comes of a famous family, being a 
 lineal descendant of the furnace mentioned in script 
 ural history as having been heated seven times hotter 
 than it could be heated, in honor of the tripartite 
 alliance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. One 
 of her most illustrious ancestors performed in Rome 
 on the occasion of the Emperor Nero s famous violin 
 obligato, and subsequently appeared in London when 
 a large part of that large metropolis succumbed to 
 the fiery element. This artist is known and respected 
 in every community where there is a fire department, 
 and the lurid flames of her genius, the burning elo 
 quence of her elocution, and the calorific glow of her 
 consummate art have acquired her fame, wherever 
 the enterprising insurance agent has penetrated. 
 Mrs. O Leary s cow vainly sought to rob her of much 
 of her glory, but through the fiery ordeal of jealousy, 
 envy, and persecution, has our heroine passed, till, 
 from an incipient blaze, she has swelled into the most 
 magnificent holocaust the world has ever known. 
 And it is not alone in her profession that this gifted 
 
262 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 adustion has amazed and benefited an incinerated 
 public: to her the world is indebted for the many 
 fire-escapes, life-preservers, salamander safes, im 
 proved pompier ladders, play-house exits, standpipes, 
 and Babcock extinguishers of modern times. In pay 
 ing ardent homage, therefore, to this incandescent 
 crematory this week, let us recognize her not only as 
 the reigning queen of ignition, diathermancy, and 
 transcalency, but also as the promoter of many of the 
 ingenious and philanthropic boons the public now 
 enjoys. 
 
 This was written in November, 1883, and is 
 worthy of remark as an illustration of how in 
 that day Field began deliberately to multiply 
 words, each having a slight difference of mean 
 ing, as an exercise in the use of English a prac 
 tice that eventually gave him a vocabulary of al 
 most unlimited range and marvellous accuracy. 
 
 The patience of the reader forbids that I should 
 attempt an enumeration of all Field s friendships 
 with stage folk, or of the unending flow of good- 
 natured raillery and sympathetic comment that 
 kept his favorites among them ever before the 
 public eye. When it came Field s time, all un 
 timely, to pay the debt we all must pay, it was 
 left for Sir Henry Irving, the dean of the Eng 
 lish-speaking profession, to acknowledge in a brief 
 
KELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 263 
 
 telegram his own and its debt to the departed poet 
 and paragrapher in these words: 
 
 The death of Eugene Field is a loss not only to 
 his many friends, but to the world at large. He was 
 distinctly a man of genius, and he was dowered with 
 a nature whose sweetness endeared him to all who 
 knew him. To me he was a loved and honored 
 friend, and the world seems vastly the poorer with 
 out him. 
 
 Of what singular materials and contradictory 
 natures was their friendship compact. From the 
 day Henry Irving first landed in New York until 
 Field s pen was laid aside forever the actor s phys 
 ical peculiarities and vocal idiosyncrasies were 
 the constant theme of diverting skits and life-like 
 vocal mimicry. Field, however, always man 
 aged to mingle his references to Mr. Irving s un 
 matched legs and eccentric elocution with some 
 genuine and unexpected tribute to his personal 
 character and histrionic genius. Nat Goodwin 
 and Henry Dixey were the two comedians whose 
 imitations >of Mr. Irving s peculiarities of voice 
 and manner were most widely accepted as life 
 like, while intensely amusing. But neither of 
 them could approach Field in catching the subtile 
 inflection of Henry Irving s "ISFaw! ISJaw! " and 
 
264 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 " Ah-h! Ah-h! " with which the great actor pre 
 fixed so many of his lines. With a daring that 
 would have been impertinent in another, Field gave 
 imitations of Mr. Irving in Louis XI and Hamlet 
 in his presence and to his intense enjoyment. It 
 is a pity, however, that Sir Henry could not have 
 been behind the screen some night at Billy Boyle s 
 to hear Field and Dixey in a rivalry of imitations 
 of himself in his favorite roles. Dixey was the 
 more amusing, because he did and said things in 
 the Irvingesque manner which the original would 
 not have dreamed of doing, whereas Field con 
 tented himself with mimicking his voice and gest 
 ure to life. 
 
 When Irving reached Chicago, Field and I, with 
 the connivance of Mr. Stone, lured him into a 
 newspaper controversy over his conception and 
 impersonation of Hamlet^ which ended in an ex 
 change of midnight suppers and won for me the 
 sobriquet of " Slaughter Thompson " from Mis 
 tress Ellen Terry, who enjoyed the splintering of 
 lances where all acknowledged her the queen of 
 the lists. 
 
 I have reserved for latest mention the one actor 
 who throughout Field s life was always dearest 
 to his heart. Apart, they seemed singularly alike; 
 together, the similarities of Eugene Field and Sol 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 265 
 
 Smith Russell were overshadowed by their differ 
 ences. There was a certain resemblance of out 
 line in the general lines of their faces and figures. 
 Both were clean-shaven men, with physiognomies 
 that responded to the passing thought of each, 
 with this difference Field s facial muscles seemed 
 to act in obedience to his will, while Russell s ap 
 peared to break into whimsical lines involuntarily. 
 Russell has a smile that would win its way around 
 the world. Field could contort his face into a 
 thunder-cloud which could send children almost 
 into convulsions of fear. There was one story 
 which they both recited with invariable success, 
 that gave their friends a great chance to compare 
 their respective powers of facial expression. It 
 was of a green New England farmer who visited 
 Boston, and of course climbed up four flights of 
 stairs to a skylight " studio " to have his " daguer- 
 otype took." After the artist had succeeded in 
 getting his subject in as stiff and uncomfortable 
 position as possible, after cautioning him not to 
 move, he disappeared into his ill-smelling cabinet 
 to prepare the plate. "When this was ready he 
 stepped airily out to the camera and bade his vic 
 tim " look pleasant." Failing to get the impos 
 sible response the artist bade his sitter to smile. 
 Then the old farmer with a wrathful and torture- 
 
266 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 riven contortion of his mouth ejaculated, " I am 
 smiling! " 
 
 In rendering this, " I am smiling! " there was 
 the misery of pent-up mental woe and physical 
 agony in Russell s voice and face. There was 
 something ludicrously hopeless about the attempt, 
 as Russell s face mingled the lines of mirth and 
 despair in a querulous grin that seemed to say, 
 " For heaven s sake, man, don t you see that I 
 am laughing myself to death?" Field s "I am 
 smiling! " was almost demoniacal in its mixture 
 of wrath, vindictiveness, and impatience. There 
 was the snarl of a big animal about the grin with 
 which he exposed his teeth in the mockery of 
 mirth. His whole countenance glowered at the 
 invisible artist in lines of suppressed rage, that 
 seemed to bid him cut short the exposure or forfeit 
 his life. 
 
 All Field s most successful bits of mimicry and 
 stories were learned from Sol Smith Russell, and 
 very many of the latter s most successful recita 
 tions were written for him by Field. They talked 
 them over together, compared their versions and 
 methods, and stimulated each other to fresh feats 
 of mimicry and eccentric character delineation. 
 Many a night, and oft after midnight, in the 
 rotunda of the Tremont House, when John A. 
 
SOL SMITH RUSSELL. 
 
KELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 267 
 
 Rice, of bibliomaniac fame, was its lessee, I was 
 the sole paying auditor of these seances, the bal 
 ance of the audience consisting of the head night 
 clerk, night watchman, and " scrub ladies." 
 
 It may be recalled that Field s " Our Two Opin 
 ions," written in imitation of James Whitcomb 
 Riley s most successful manner, was dedicated to 
 Sol Smith Russell, and he for his part put into its 
 recitation a subdued dramatic force and pathos 
 that won from Henry Irving the comment that 
 it was the greatest piece of American characteri 
 zation he had ever witnessed. 
 
 Whenever Russell came to town Field spent 
 all the time he could spare, when Russell was not 
 acting or asleep, in his company. They ex 
 changed all sorts of stories, but delighted chiefly 
 in relating anecdotes of New England life and 
 character. As Russell had for years travelled the 
 circuit of small eastern towns, he had an exhaust- 
 less repertory of these, that smacked of salt cod 
 fish and chewing-gum, checkerberry lozenges, and 
 that shrewd, dry Yankee wit that is equal to any 
 situation. Between the two of them they per 
 fected two stories that have been heard in every 
 town in the Union where Russell has played or 
 Field read, " The Teacher of Ettyket " and " The 
 Old Deacon and the New Skule House." These 
 
268 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 were originally Russell s property, and he was 
 inimitable in telling them. But having once 
 caught Field s fancy, he proceeded to elaborate 
 them in a way to establish at least a joint owner 
 ship in them. 
 
 I wish I could remember the speech against the 
 new school-house. It may be in print for ought 
 I know, but I have never run across it. He 
 opened with the declaration, " Fellow Citizens, 
 I m agin this yer new skule house." Then he 
 went on to say that " the little old red skule house 
 was good enuff fur them as cum afore us, it was 
 good enuff fur us, an I reckon its good enuff fur 
 them as cum arter us." Before proceeding he 
 would take a generous mouthful of loose tobacco. 
 Next he told how he had never been to school 
 more than a few weeks " atween seasons, and yet 
 I reckon I kin mow my swarth with the best of 
 them that s full of book-larnin an all them sort 
 of jim-cracks." Then he proceeded to illustrate 
 the uselessness of " book-larnin " by referring to 
 " Dan l Webster, good likely a boy ez wus raised 
 in these parts, what s bekum ov him? Got his 
 head full of redin, ritin, cifern, and book-larnin. 
 What s bekum of him, I say? Went off to Boston 
 and I never hearn tell of him arterwards." 
 
 Russell s version of the story ended here with 
 
RELATIONS WITH STAGE FOLK 2G9 
 
 an emphatic declaration that the old deacon voted 
 " No ! " Field, on the contrary, when the laugh 
 over Daniel Webster s disappearance subsided, 
 and, seemingly as an after-thought, before taking 
 his seat mumbled out, " By the way, I did hear 
 somebody tell Dan l had written a dictionary on 
 a bridge, huh! " 
 
 Field s attentions to Russell did not end with 
 their personal association. Week after week and 
 month after month he sent apocryphal stories fly 
 ing through the newspapers about wonderful 
 things that never happened to Sol and his family. 
 At one time he had Russell on the high road to a 
 Presidential nomination on the Prohibition ticket. 
 lie solemnly recorded generous donations that 
 Russell was (not) constantly making to philan 
 thropic objects, with the result that the gentle 
 comedian was pestered with applications for 
 money for all sorts of institutions. In order to 
 provide Russell with the means to bestow un 
 limited largess, Field endowed him with the touch 
 of Midas. He would report that the matchless 
 exponent of " Shabby Genteel " bought lead 
 mines, to be disappointed by finding tons of vir 
 gin gold in the quartz. Like Bret Harte s hero of 
 Downs Flat, when Russell dug for water his luck 
 was so contrary that he struck diamonds. When 
 
270 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 he ordered oysters each half shell had its bed of 
 pearls. One specimen will do to illustrate the 
 character of the gifts Field bestowed on Russell 
 " as from an exhaustless urn " : 
 
 Sol Smith Bussell s luck is almost as great as his 
 art. Last week his little son Bob was digging in the 
 back yard of the family residence in Minneapolis, and 
 he developed a vein of coal big enough to supply the 
 whole state of Minnesota with fuel for the next ten 
 years. Mr. Kussell was away from home at the time, 
 but his wife (who has plenty of what the Yankees 
 call faculty) had presence of mind not to say any 
 thing about the " Find " until, through her attorney, 
 she had secured an option on all the real estate in 
 the locality. 
 
 They never had any differences of opinion like 
 " me nd Jim." 
 
 So after all it s soothin to know 
 
 That here Sol stays nd yonder s Jim 
 He havin his opinyin uv Sol, 
 
 Sol havin his opinyin uv him. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 BEGINNING OF HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 
 
 Before he came to Chicago, pretty much all that 
 Eugene Field knew of literature and books had 
 been taken in at the pores, as Joey Laddie would 
 say, through association with lawyers, doctors, and 
 actors. His academic education, as we have seen, 
 was of the most cursory and intermittent nature. 
 When he left the University of Missouri it was 
 without a diploma, without studious habits, and 
 without pretensions to scholarship. His trip to 
 Europe dissipated his fortune, and his early mar 
 riage rendered it imperative that he should stop 
 study as well as play and go to work. His father s 
 library was safely stored in St. Louis for the con 
 venient season that was postponed from year to 
 year, until a score were numbered ere the nails 
 were drawn from the precious boxes. Every cent 
 of the salary that might have been squandered (?) 
 in books was needed to feed and clothe the raven 
 ous little brood that came faster than their parents 
 " could afford," as he has told us. What time was 
 not devoted to them and to the daily round of 
 
 newspaper writing was spent in conversing with 
 271 
 
272 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 his fellows, studying life first hand, visiting thea 
 tres and enjoying himself in his own way gener 
 ally. All the advance that Field had made in 
 journalism before the year 1883 was due to native 
 aptitude, an unfailing fund of humor and an in 
 herited turn for literary expression. Without 
 ever having read that author, he followed Pope s 
 axiom that " the proper study of mankind is man." 
 This he construed to include women and children. 
 The latter he had every opportunity to study early 
 and often in his own household, and most thor 
 oughly did he avail himself thereof. As for 
 books, his acquaintance with them for literary 
 pleasure and uses seemed to have begun and 
 ended with the Bible and the New England 
 Primer. They furnished the coach that enabled 
 his fancy " to take the air." 
 
 His knowledge of Shakespeare, so far as I could 
 judge, had been acquired through the theatre. 
 The unacted plays were not familiar to him. Few 
 people realize what a person of alert intelligence 
 and retentive memory can learn of the best Eng 
 lish literature through the theatre-going habit. 
 Measuring Field s opportunity by my own, dur 
 ing the decade from 1873 to 1883, here is a list 
 of Shakespearian plays he could have taken in 
 through eyes and ears without touching a book: 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 273 
 
 "The Tempest," "The Merry Wives of Wind 
 sor," " Measure for Measure/ " The Comedy of 
 Errors," " Much Ado About Nothing," " A Mid 
 summer Night s Dream," " The Merchant of 
 Venice," "As You Like It," "The Taming of 
 the Shrew," "Twelfth Night," " Kichard II," 
 "Kichard III," "Henry IV," "Henry V," 
 " Coriolanus," "Borneo and Juliet," "Julius 
 Csesar," "Macbeth," "Hamlet," "King Lear," 
 " Othello," " Antony and Cleopatra," and " Cym- 
 beline." 
 
 This list, embracing two-thirds of all the plays 
 Shakespeare wrote, and practically all of his dra 
 matic work worth knowing, covers what Field 
 might have seen and, with a few possible exceptions, 
 unquestionably did see, in the way calculated to give 
 him the keenest pleasure and the most lasting im 
 pressions. These plays, during that decade, were 
 presented by such famous actors and actresses as 
 Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, John McCul- 
 lough, Barry Sullivan, George Eignold, E. L. 
 Davenport, Ristori, Adelaide Neilson, Modjeska, 
 Mary Anderson, Mrs. D. P. Bowers, and Rose 
 Eytinge in the leading roles. It is impossible to 
 overestimate the value of listening night after 
 night to the great thoughts and subtle philosophy 
 
 of the master dramatist from the lips of such in- 
 VOL. I. 18 
 
274 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 terpreters, to say nothing of the daily association 
 with the men and women who lived and moved in 
 the atmosphere of the drama and its traditions. 
 So, perhaps, it is only fair to include Shakespeare 
 and the contemporaneous drama with the Bible 
 and the New England Primer as the only staple 
 foundations of Field s literary education when he 
 came to Chicago. If this could have been ana 
 lyzed more closely, it would have shown some 
 traces of what was drilled into him by his old pre 
 ceptor, Dr. Tufts, and many odds and ends of the 
 recitations from the standard speaker of his elo 
 cutionary youth, but no solids either of Greek or 
 Latin lore and not a trace of his beloved Horace. 
 
 Now it so happened that all I had ever learned 
 in school or college of Greek and Latin had slid 
 from me as easily as running water over a smooth 
 stone, leaving me as innocent of the classics in the 
 original as Field. But, unlike Field, when our 
 fortunes threw us together, I had kept up a close 
 and continuous reading and study of English lan 
 guage and literature. The early English period 
 had always interested me, and we had not been 
 together for two months before Field was inocu 
 lated with a ravenous taste for the English litera 
 ture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its 
 quaintness and the unintentional humor of its 
 
HIS LITERAKY EDUCATION 275 
 
 simplicity cast a spell over him, which he neither 
 sought nor wished to escape. He began with the 
 cycle of romances that treat of King Arthur and 
 his knights, and followed them through their prose 
 and metrical versions of the almost undecipher 
 able Saxon English to the polished and perfect 
 measure of the late English laureate. For three 
 years Mallory s " History of King Arthur and of 
 the Knights of the Round Table " was the delight 
 of his poetic soul and the text-book for his con 
 versation and letters, and its effect was traceable 
 in almost every line of his newspaper work. 
 Knights, damosells, paynims, quests, jousts, and 
 tourneys, went " rasing and trasing " through his 
 manuscript, until some people thought he was pos 
 sessed with an archaic humor from which he would 
 never recover. 
 
 But Sir Thomas Mallory was not his only diet 
 at this time. He discovered that the old-book 
 corner of A. C. McClurg & Co. s book-store was 
 a veritable mine of old British ballads, and he be 
 gan sipping at that spring which in a few years 
 was to exercise such a potent influence on his own 
 verse. It was from this source that he learned 
 the power of simple words and thoughts, when 
 wedded to rhyme, to reach the human heart. His 
 " Little Book of Western Verse " would never 
 
276 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 have possessed its popular charm had not its 
 author taken his cue from the " Grand Old Mas 
 ters." He caught his inspiration and faultless 
 touch from studying the construction and the pur 
 pose of the early ballads and songs, illustrative of 
 the history, traditions, and customs of the knights 
 and peasantry of England. Where others were 
 content to judge of these in such famous specimens 
 as " Chevy Chase " and " The Nut Brown Maid," 
 Field delved for the true gold in the neglected 
 pages of Anglo-Saxon chronicle and song. He 
 did not waste much time on the unhealthy pro 
 ductions of the courtiers of the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth, but chose the ruder songs of the bards, 
 whose hearts were pure even if their thoughts were 
 sometimes crude, their speech blunt, and their 
 metre queer. Who cannot find suggestions for a 
 dozen of Field s poems in this single stanza from 
 " Lady Anne BothwelPs Lament " : 
 
 Balow, my lobe, lye still and sleipe! 
 It grieves me sair to see thee weipe: 
 If tJwust be silent Ise be glad, 
 Thy maining males my heart ful sad. 
 Balow, my boy, thy mother s joy, 
 Thy father breides me great annoy. 
 
 Balow, my babe, ly still and sleipe, 
 It grieves me sair, to see thee weipe. 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 277 
 
 Or where could writer go to a better source for 
 inspiration than to ballads preserving in homely 
 setting such gems as this, from " Bartham s 
 Dirge": 
 
 They buried Mm at mirk midnight, 
 
 When the dew fell cold and still, 
 When the aspin gray forgot to play, 
 
 And the mist clung to the hill. 
 When you have mingled the simple, bald, and 
 often beautiful pathos of this old balladry with the 
 fancies of fairy-land which Field invented, or bor 
 rowed from Hans Andersen s tales, you have the 
 key to much of the best poetry and prose he ever 
 wrote. The secret of his undying attachment to 
 Bonn s Standard Library was that therein he 
 found almost every book that introduced him to 
 the masters of the kind of English literature that 
 most appealed to him. Here he unearthed the 
 best of the ancients in literal English garb, from 
 ^Eschylus to Xenophon, to say nothing of a dic 
 tionary of Latin and of Greek quotations done into 
 English with an index verborum. More to the 
 purpose still, Bohn put into his hands Smart s 
 translation of Horace, " carefully revised by an 
 Oxonian." In the cheap, uniform green cloth of 
 Bohn, he fell in with Percy s " Keliques of Ancient 
 English," Bell s " Ballads and Songs of the Peas- 
 
278 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 antry of England," Bede s " Ecclesiastical His 
 tory," Marco Polo s " Travels," Keightly s " Fairy 
 Mythology," and renewed his acquaintance with 
 Andersen s " Danish Legends and Fairy Tales," 
 and Grimm s " Fairy Tales," and last, but not least, 
 with one of the best editions of Isaac "Walton s 
 " Complete Angler," wherein he did some of his 
 best fishing. 
 
 It has been a common impression that Field was 
 attracted to the old-book corner of McClurg s store 
 by the old and rare books displayed there. These 
 were not for him, as he had not then learned that 
 bibliomania could be made to put money in his 
 purse or to wing his shafts of irony with feathers 
 from its favorite nest. He went to browse among 
 the dark green covers of Bohn and remained years 
 after to prey upon the dry husks of the biblio 
 maniacs. 
 
 Among the cherished relics of those days there 
 lies before me as I write " The Book of British 
 Ballads," edited by S. C. Hall, inscribed on the 
 title page: 
 
 " Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit." 
 
 To Slason Thompson 
 
 from 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 Christmas, 1885. 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 279 
 
 This volume Field had picked up in some second 
 hand book-store for a quarter or a dime. He had 
 erased the pencilled name of the original owner 
 on the fly-leaf and had written mine and the date 
 over it in ink. Then turning to the inside of the 
 back cover he had rubbed out the price mark and 
 ostentatiously scrawled " $2.50." This " doctor 
 ing " of price marks was a favorite practice of 
 Field s, perfectly understood among his friends as 
 a token of affectionate humor and never dreamed 
 of as an attempt at deception. By such means he 
 added zest to the exchange of those mementoes of 
 friendship, which were never forgotten as Christ 
 mas-tide rolled round, to the end of the chapter. 
 The day has indeed come when it is " a pleasure to 
 remember these things." 
 
 The Latin motto on this particular copy of 
 ballads reminds me, among other pleasant memo 
 ries, that during the year 1885 there came into 
 Field s life and mine an intimate friendship that 
 was to exercise a more potent influence on Field s 
 literary bent than anything in his experience. I 
 have before me the following description of " The 
 Frocked Host of Watergrasshill " : 
 
 Prout had seen much of mankind, and, in his de 
 portment through life, showed that he was well versed 
 in all those varied arts of easy, but still gradual, ac- 
 
280 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 quirement which singularly embellished the inter 
 course of society: these were the results of his 
 excellent continental education 
 
 IIoXXwv 8 av6pu>TT<DV iSov aorea, xai roov eyi/<o 
 
 But at the head of his own festive board he par 
 ticularly shone; for, though in ministerial functions 
 he was exemplary and admirable, ever meek and un 
 affected at the altar of his rustic chapel, where 
 
 " His looks adorned the venerable place" 
 
 still, surrounded by a few choice friends, the calibre 
 of whose genius was in unison with his own, with a 
 bottle of his choice old claret before him, he was truly 
 a paragon. 
 
 Substitute a physician for the priest; change the 
 scene from the neighborhood of the Blarney stone 
 to a basement chop and oyster house in Chicago; 
 instead of a continental education give him an 
 American experience as a surgeon in the Civil 
 War, in the hospitals of Cincinnati, and on the 
 yellow fever commission that visited Memphis in 
 1867, and you have the Dr. Frank W. Eeilly, to 
 whom Field owed more than to all the schools, 
 colleges, and educational agencies through which 
 he had flitted from his youth up. When I first 
 knew Dr. Reilly he was Secretary of the Illinois 
 State Board of Health, located at Springfield, 
 
DR FRANK W. REILLY. 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 281 
 
 and an occasional correspondent of the Chicago 
 Herald. The State of Illinois owes to him its 
 gradual rescue from a dangerous laxity in the 
 matter of granting medical licenses, until to-day 
 the requirements necessary to practise his profes 
 sion in this state compare favorably with those of 
 any other state of the Union. Shortly after I 
 went from the Herald to the News, as related in 
 a previous chapter, Dr. Keilly changed his cor 
 respondence to the latter paper. In 1885 he re 
 signed his position on the State Board of Health, 
 and, coming to Chicago, formed an editorial con 
 nection with the News that continued until he was 
 appointed Deputy Commissioner of Health for 
 Chicago. In this last position, which he occupies 
 to-day, I do not hesitate to say that he has done 
 more to promote its health, cleanliness, and conse 
 quent happiness, than any other single citizen of 
 Chicago. If the sanitary canal was not his child, 
 it was pushed to completion through the fostering 
 hand of his adoption. The Lincoln Park Sani 
 tarium for poor children, and other similar agen 
 cies exploited by the Daily News, were born of his 
 suggestions and were nurtured by his personal 
 supervision. It is impossible, and would be out 
 of place here, to specify what Dr. Reilly has done 
 for the sanitation of Chicago as Chief Deputy in 
 
282 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 the Health Office. Administrations may come 
 and go. Would that he could sip the elixir of 
 life, that he might go on forever ! 
 
 On his occasional visits to Chicago, before he 
 came up here for good, Dr. Reilly had become a 
 welcome guest and sometimes host in our midnight 
 round-ups at the Boston Oyster House, and when 
 he made his home here he was taken into regular 
 fellowship. The regulars then were Field, Bal- 
 lantyne, Reilly, and I with Mr. Stone, Willis 
 Hawkins, a special writer on the News, Morgan 
 Bates, Paul Hull, a sketch writer who fancied he 
 looked like Lincoln and told stories that would 
 have made Lincoln blush to own a faint resem 
 blance, and Cowen when in town, to say nothing 
 of " visiting statesmen " and play-actors as occa 
 sional visitors and contributors to the score. Some 
 insight into the characters of the four regulars 
 may be gained from the statement that Field in 
 variably ordered coffee and apple pie, Ballantyne 
 tea and toast with oysters, Dr. Reilly oysters and 
 claret, and I steak and Bass s ale. 
 
 It was during these meetings that Field caught 
 from Dr. Reilly s frequent unctuous quotations 
 his first real taste for Horace. To two works the 
 doctor was impartially devoted, the " Noctes Am- 
 brosianae " and " The Reliques of Father Prout." 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 283 
 
 He never wearied of communion with the classical 
 father, or of literary companionship with Chris 
 topher North, Timothy Tickler, and the Ettrick 
 Shepherd. We never sat down to pie or oysters 
 that his imagination did not transform that Chi 
 cago oyster house into Ambrose s Tavern, the 
 scene of the feasts and festivities of table and con 
 versation of the immortal trio. But though the 
 doctor enjoyed association with Kit North and the 
 voluble Shepherd, it was for the garrulous Father 
 Prout, steeped in the gossip and learning of the 
 ancients, that he reserved his warmest love and 
 veneration. So saturated and infatuated was the 
 doctor with this fascinating creation of Francis 
 Mahony s, that he inoculated Field with his devo 
 tion, and before we knew it the author of the 
 Denver Tribune Primer stories was suffering from 
 a literary disease, to the intoxicating pleasure of 
 which he yielded himself without reservation. 
 
 To those who wish to understand the effect of 
 this inspiration upon the life and writings of 
 Eugene Field, but who have not enjoyed familiar 
 acquaintance with the celebrated Prout papers, 
 some description of this work of Francis Mahony 
 may not be amiss. He was a Roman Catholic 
 priest, educated at a Jesuit college at Amiens, who 
 had lived and held positions in France, Switzer- 
 
284 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 land, and Ireland. It was while officiating at the 
 chapel of the Bavarian Legation in London that 
 he began contributing the Prout papers to Eraser s 
 Magazine. These consisted of fanciful narratives, 
 each serving as a vehicle for the display of his 
 wonderful polyglot learning, and containing trans 
 lations of well-known English songs into Latin, 
 Greek, French, and Italian verse, which later he 
 seriously represented as the true originals from 
 which the English authors had boldly plagiarized. 
 He also introduced into his stories the songs of 
 France and Italy and felicitous translations, none 
 of which were better than those from Horace. 
 His command of the various languages into which 
 he rendered English verse was extraordinary, and 
 his translations were so free and spirited in 
 thought and diction as to excite the admiration of 
 the best scholars. When it is said that his trans 
 lations of French and Latin odes preserved their 
 poetical expression and sentiments with the free 
 dom of original composition almost unequalled in 
 English translations, the exceptional character of 
 Father Prout s work will be appreciated. Ac 
 companying these English versions there was a 
 running commentary of semi-grave, but always 
 humorous, criticism. Of Francis Mahony s ac 
 knowledged poems, the " Bells of Shandon " is 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 285 
 
 the best known. In the Prout papers, while his 
 genius finds its chief expression in fantastic in 
 vention and sarcastic and cynical wit, it is every 
 where sweetened by gentle sentiments and an 
 unfailing fund of human nature and kindly 
 humor. 
 
 " Front s translations from Horace are too free 
 and easy," solemnly said the London Athenseum, 
 reviewing them as they came out more than sixty 
 years ago. And no wonder, for Prout invented 
 Horatian odes that he might translate them into 
 such rollicking stanzas as Burns s " Green Grow 
 the Rashes, O! " 
 
 That Field, at the time of which I am writing 
 (1885), had quite an idea of following in the wake 
 of Father Prout may be indicated by the follow 
 ing Latin jingle written in honor of his friend, 
 Morgan Bates, who, with Elwin Barron, had writ 
 ten a play of western life entitled " The Mountain 
 Pink." It was described as a " moral crime," and 
 had been successfully staged in Chicago. 
 
 MAECENAS 
 
 Mons! aliusque cum nobis, 
 
 Illicet tibi feratum, 
 Quid, ejusmodi licec vobis, 
 
 Hunc aliquando erratum. 
 
286 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Esse futurus fuisse, 
 
 Melior optimus vates? 
 Quamquam amo amavisse 
 
 Bonum ad Barron et Bates! 
 
 Gloria, Mons! sempiturnus, 
 
 Jupiter, Pluvius, Juno, 
 Itur ad astra diurnus, 
 
 Omnes et ceteras um! 
 
 Fratres! cum bibite vino, 
 
 Moralis, criminis fates, 
 Montem hie vita damfino 
 
 Hie vita ad Barron et Bates. 
 
 A very slight knowledge of Latin verse is 
 needed to detect that this has no pretence to Latin 
 composition such as Father Mahony s scholarship 
 caracoled in, but is merely English masquerading 
 in classical garb. 
 
 Father Prout also introduced Field to fellow 
 ship with Beranger, the national song writer of 
 France, to whom, next to the early English ballad- 
 ists and Horace, he owes so much of that clear, 
 simple, sparkling style that has given his writings 
 enduring value. Beranger s description of him 
 self might, with some modifications, be fitted to 
 Field: "I am a good little bit of a poet, clever 
 
HIS LITERAEY EDUCATION 287 
 
 in the craft, and a conscientious worker, to whom 
 old airs have brought some success." Beranger 
 chose to sing for the people of France, Field 
 for the children of the world. Field caught his 
 fervor for Beranger from the enthusiasm of 
 Prout. 
 
 " I cannot for a moment longer," wrote he, " re 
 press my enthusiastic admiration for one who has 
 arisen in our days to strike in France with a mas 
 ter hand the lyre of the troubadour and to fling 
 into the shade all the triumphs of bygone min 
 strelsy. Need I designate Beranger, who has 
 created for himself a style of transcendent vigor 
 and originality, and who has sung of war, love, and 
 wine, in strains far excelling those of Blondel, 
 Tyrtseus, Pindar, and the Tei an bard. He is now 
 the genuine representative of Gallic poesy in her 
 convivial, her amatory, her warlike and her philo 
 sophic mood; and the plenitude of the inspiration 
 that dwelt successively in the souls of all the 
 songsters of ancient France seems to have trans 
 migrated into Beranger and found a fit recipient 
 in his capacious and liberal mind." 
 
 That Field caught the inspiration of Beranger 
 more truly than Father Prout, those who question 
 can judge for themselves by a comparison of their 
 respective versions of " Le Yiolon Brise " the 
 
288 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 broken fiddle. A stanza by each must suffice to 
 show the difference: 
 
 BERANGEB 
 
 Viens, mon chien! viens, ma pauvre bete! 
 
 Mange, malgre, mon desespoir. 
 II me reste un gateau de fete 
 
 Demain nous aurons du pain noir! 
 
 PROUT 
 
 My poor dog! here! of yesterday s festival-cake 
 
 Eat the poor remains in sorrow; 
 For when next a repast you and I shall make, 
 It must be on brown bread, which, for charity s sake, 
 Your master must beg or borrow. 
 
 FIELD 
 
 There, there, poor dog, my faithful friend, 
 Pay you no heed unto my sorrow: 
 
 But feast to-day while yet we may, 
 
 Who knows but we shall starve to-morrow! 
 
 The credit for verbal literalness of translation 
 is with Prout, but the spirit of the fiddler of 
 Beranger glows through the free rendition of 
 Field. 
 
 The reader of Eugene Field s works will find 
 scant acknowledgment of his indebtedness to 
 Father Francis Mahony, but there are many ex- 
 
FATHER PROUT." 
 
 Francis Mahony. 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 289 
 
 pressions of his love and admiration for the friend 
 who introduced him to the scholar, wit, and phi 
 losopher, by whose ways of life and work his own 
 were to be so shaped and tinged. Among these 
 my scrap-books afford three bits of verse which 
 indicate in different degrees the esteem in which 
 " the genial dock " of our comradeship was held 
 by his associates as well as by Field. The first 
 was written in honor of the doctor s silver wed 
 ding: 
 
 TO DR. FRANK W. REILLY 
 
 If I were rich enough to buy 
 
 A case of wine (though I abhor it !) 
 I d send a case of extra dry, 
 
 And willingly get trusted for it. 
 But, lack a day ! you know that I m 
 
 As poor as Job s historic turkey 
 In lieu of Mumm, accept this rhyme, 
 
 An honest gift, though somewhat jerky. 
 
 This is your silver-wedding day 
 
 You didn t mean to let me know it ! 
 And yet your smiles and raiment gay 
 
 Beyond all peradventure show it! 
 By all you say and do it s clear 
 
 A birdling in your breast is singing, 
 And everywhere you go you hear 
 
 The old-time bridal bells a-ringing. 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
290 EUGEXE FIELD 
 
 Ah, well, God grant that these dear chimes 
 
 May mind you of the sweetness only 
 Of those far-distant callow times 
 
 When you were bachelor and lonely 
 And when an angel blessed your lot 
 
 For angel is your helpmate, truly 
 And when to share the joy she brought, 
 
 Came other little angels duly. 
 
 So here s a health to you and wife: 
 
 Long may you mock the reaper s warning, 
 And may the evening of your life 
 
 In rising Sons renew the morning; 
 May happiness and peace and love 
 
 Come with each morrow to caress ye; 
 And when you ve done with earth, above 
 
 God bless ye, dear old friend God bless ye! 
 
 The second is of a very different flavor and 
 shows Field indulging in that play of personal 
 persiflage, in which he took a never-flagging 
 pleasure. It has no title and was written in 
 pencil on two sheets of rough brown paper: 
 
 The Dock he is a genial friend, 
 He frequently has cash to lend; 
 He writes for Rauch, and on the pay 
 He sets em up three times a day. 
 Oh, how serenely I would mock 
 My creditors, if 1 were Dock. 
 
HIS LITEEARY EDUCATION 291 
 
 The Cow en is a lusty lad 
 For whom the women-folks go mad; 
 He has a girl in every block 
 Herein, methinks, tie beats the Dock 
 Yes, if the choice were left to me 
 A lusty Cowen I would be. 
 
 Yet were I Cowen, where, oh, where 
 Would be my Julia, plump and fair? 
 And where would be those children four 
 Which now I smilingly adore ? 
 The thought induces such a shock, 
 I d not be Cowen I d be Dock! 
 
 But were I Dock, with stores of gold, 
 How would I pine at being old 
 How grieve to see in Cowen s eyes 
 That amorous fire which age denies 
 Oh, no, I d not be Dock forsooth, 
 I d rather be the lusty youth. 
 
 Nor Dock, nor Cowen would I be, 
 But such as God hath fashioned me; 
 For I may now tvith maidens fair 
 Assume I m Cowen debonnair, 
 Or, splurging on a borrowed stock, 
 I can imagine I m the Dock. 
 
 The last tribute which I quote from Field to his 
 school-master, literary guide, and friend is credited 
 to the " Wit of the Silurian Age," and is accom- 
 
292 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 panied by a drawing by the poet, who took a cut 
 from some weekly of the day and touched it up 
 with black, red, and green ink to represent the 
 genial " Dock " seated in an arm-chair before a 
 cheery fire, with the inevitable claret bottle on a 
 stand within easy reach and a glass poised in his 
 hand ready for the sip of a connoisseur, while the 
 devotee of Eat North and Father Prout beamed 
 graciously at you through his glasses: 
 
 Said Field to Dr. Eeilly, " You 
 
 Are like the moon, for you get brighter 
 
 When you get full, and it is true 
 
 Your heavy woes thereby grow lighter/ 
 
 " And you the Doctor answer made, 
 " Are like the moon because you borrow 
 
 The capital on which you trade 
 As I m acquainted, to my sorrow! " 
 
 " Tis true I m like the moon, I know," 
 Replied the poor but honest wight, 
 
 " For, journeying through this vale of woe, 
 I borrow oft, but always light!" 
 
 But Field s acknowledgments of an ever-increas 
 ing debt of gratitude to Dr. Reilly were not con 
 fined to privately circulated tokens of affection and 
 friendship, as the following stanzas, printed in his 
 column in the News, in February, 1889, testify: 
 
HIS LITERARY EDUCATION 293 
 
 TO F. W. E. AT 6 P.M. 
 
 My friend, Maecenas and physician, 
 
 Is in so grumpy a condition 
 
 I really more than half suspicion 
 
 He nears his end; 
 
 Who then would be on earth to shave me, 
 To feed me, coach me, and to save me 
 From tedious cares that would enslave me 
 
 Without this friend? 
 
 Nay, fate for fend such wild disaster! 
 
 May I play Pollux to his Castor 
 
 Thro years that bind our hearts the faster 
 
 With golden tether; 
 And every morbid fear releasing, 
 May our affection bide unceasing 
 With every salary raise increasing 
 
 Then die together! 
 
 Finally, Dr. Eeilly is the Dr. O Rell of " The 
 Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac," whom Field play 
 fully credits with prescribing one or the other 
 the Noctes or the Reliques to his patients, no mat 
 ter what disease they might be afflicted with. He 
 prescribed them to both of us, and Field took to 
 his bed with the Reliques and did not get up until 
 he had " comprehended " the greater part of its 
 five hundred and odd pages of perennial literary 
 stimulant. 
 
CHAPTEK XV 
 
 METHOD OF WORK 
 
 
 
 Although Eugene Field was the most unconven 
 tional of writers, there was a method in all his ways 
 that made play of much of his work. No greater 
 mistake was ever made than in attributing his 
 physical break-down to exhaustion from his daily 
 grind in a newspaper office. No man ever made 
 less of a grind than he in preparing copy for the 
 printer. He seldom arrived at the office before 
 eleven o clock and never settled down to work be 
 fore three o clock. The interim was spent in put 
 tering over the exchanges, gossiping with visitors, 
 of whom he had a constant stream, quizzing every 
 other member of the staff, meddling here, chaffing 
 there, and playing hob generally with the orderly 
 routine of affairs. He was a persistent, insistent, 
 irrepressible disturber of everything but the good- 
 fellowship of the office, to which he was the chief 
 contributor. No interruption from Field ever came 
 or was taken amiss. From the hour he ambled 
 
 laboriously up the steep and narrow stairs, anathe- 
 294 
 
METHOD OF WORK 295 
 
 matizing them at every step, in every tone of mock 
 ery and indignation, to the moment he sat down 
 to his daily column of " leaded agate, first line 
 brevier," no man among us knew what piece of 
 fooling he would be up to next. 
 
 Something was wrong, Field was out of town, 
 or some old crony from Kansas City, St. Louis, or 
 Denver was in Chicago, if about one o clock I was 
 not interrupted by a summons from him that the 
 hour for luncheon had arrived. Although I was 
 at work within sound of his voice, these came 
 nearly always in the form of a note, delivered with 
 an unvarying grin by the office-boy, who would 
 drop any other errand, however pressing, to do 
 Field s antic bidding. These notes were generally 
 flung into the waste-paper basket, much to my 
 present regret, for of themselves they would have 
 made a most remarkable exhibit. Sometimes the 
 summons would be in the form of a bar of music 
 like this which I preserved: 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 ^y.is- w , v 
 
 A ^ff \ t T b pvF 
 g j J^ Jrj J 
 
296 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 But more often it was a note in the old English 
 manner, which for years was affected between us, 
 like this one: 
 
 PUISSANT AND TRIUMPHANT LORD : 
 
 By my halidom it doth mind me to hold discourse 
 with thee. Come thou privily to my castle beyond 
 the moat, an thou wilt. 
 
 In all fealty, my liege, 
 Thy gentle vassal, 
 His Mark. THE GOOD KNIGHT. 
 
 Or, going down to the counting-room, he would 
 summon a messenger to mount the stairs with a 
 formal invitation like this: 
 
 SIR SLOSSON : 
 
 The Good but Impecunious Knight bides in the 
 business office, and there soothly will he tarry till you 
 come anon. So speed thee, bearing with thee ducats 
 that in thy sweet company and by thy joyous courtesy 
 the Good Knight may be regaled with great and 
 sumptuous cheer withal. 
 
 THE GOOD KNIGHT. 
 
 Then out we would sally to the German restau 
 rant around the corner, where the coffee was good, 
 the sandwiches generous, and the pie execrable. If 
 there was a German cook in Chicago who could 
 make good pies we never had the good fortune to 
 find him. 
 
METHOD OF WORK 
 
 297 
 
 Having regaled ourselves with this sumptuous 
 cheer to " repletion," we would walk three blocks 
 to McClurg s book-store and replenish our stock of 
 
 
 CLO^) 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 From a drawing by Eugene Field. 
 
298 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 English, sacred and profane, defiled and undefiled. 
 I am writing now of the days before Field made 
 the old-book department famous throughout the 
 country as the browsing ground of the biblioma 
 niacs. After loitering there long enough to digest 
 our lunches and to nibble a little literature, we 
 would retrace our steps to the office, where Field 
 resumed his predatory actions until he was ready 
 to go to work. Then peace settled on the establish 
 ment for about three hours. If any noisy visitor 
 or obstreperous reporter in the local room did any 
 thing to disturb the " literary atmosphere " that 
 brooded around the office, Field would bang on the 
 tin gong hanging over his desk until all other noises 
 sank into dismayed silence. Then he would resume 
 " sawing wood " for his " Sharps and Flats." 
 
 If Field had not quite worked off his surplus 
 stock of horse-play on his associates, he would vent 
 it upon the compositor in some such apostrophe as 
 the following: 
 
 By my troth, I ll now begin tcr 
 
 Cut a literary caper 
 
 On this pretty tab of paper 
 For the homey-handed printer; 
 
 I expect to hear him swearing 
 
 That these inks are very wearing 
 On his oculary squinter. 
 
METHOD OF WORK 299 
 
 Or tins: 
 
 We desire to announce that Mademoiselle Rhea, the 
 gifted Flanders maid, who has the finest wardrobe 
 on the stage, will play a season of bad brogue and flash 
 dresses in this city very soon. This announcement, 
 however, will never see the dawn of November 13th, 
 and we kiss it a fond farewell as we cheerfully sub 
 mit it as a sop to Cerberus. 
 
 Field had a theory that Ballantyne, the manag 
 ing editor, would not consider that he was earning 
 his salary, and that Mr* Stone would not think that 
 he was exercising the full authority of editorship, 
 unless something in his column was sacrificed to 
 the blue pencil of a watchful censorship. Coupled 
 with this was the more or less cunning belief that 
 it was good tactics to write one or two outrageously 
 unprintable paragraphs to draw the fire, so to speak, 
 of the blue pencil, and so to divert attention from 
 something, about which there might be question, 
 which he particularly wished to have printed. Bal 
 lantyne, as I have said, was a very much more 
 exacting censor than Stone, for the reason that the 
 humor of a story or paragraph often missed his 
 Scotch literalness, while Stone never failed to let 
 anything pass on that score. 
 
 By six o clock Field s writing for the day was 
 
300 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 done, and he generally went home for dinner. But 
 that this was not always the case the following 
 notes testify: 
 
 GOOD AND GENTLE KNIGHT : 
 
 If so be ye pine and so hanker after me this night 
 I pray you come anon to the secret lair near the moat 
 on the next floor, and there you will eke descry me. 
 There we will discourse on love and other joyous 
 matters, and until then I shall be, as I have ever 
 
 been, 
 
 Your most courteous friend, 
 
 E. FIELD. 
 
 An it please the good and gentle knight, Sir Slos- 
 son Thompson, his friend in very sooth, the honest 
 knight will arrive at his castle this day at the 8th 
 hour, being minded to partake of Sir Slosson s cheer 
 and regale him with the wealth of his joyous dis 
 course. 
 
 THE GOOD KNIGHT. 
 
 Five nights out of the week Field spent some 
 part of the evening at one of the principal theatres 
 of the town, of which at that time there were five. 
 He was generally accompanied by Mrs. Field and 
 her sister, Miss Comstock, who subsequently be 
 came Mrs. Ballantyne. When it was a family 
 party, Ballantyne and I would join it about the 
 
METHOD OF WORK 301 
 
 last act, and there was invariably a late supper 
 party, which broke up only in time for the last 
 north-bound car. When Field was a self-invited 
 guest with any of his intimates at dinner the party 
 would adjourn for a round of the theatres, ending 
 at that one where the star or leading actor was 
 most likely to join in a symposium of steak and 
 story at Billy Boyle s English chop-house. This 
 resort, on Calhoun Place, between Dearborn and 
 Clark Streets, was for many years the most famous 
 all-night eating-house in Chicago. For chops and 
 steaks it had not its equal in America, possibly not 
 in the world. Long after we had ceased to fre 
 quent Boyle s, so long that our patronage could not 
 have been charged with any share in the catas 
 trophe, it went into the hands of the sheriff. This 
 afforded Field an opportunity to write the following 
 sympathetic and serio-whimsical reminiscence of a 
 unique institution in Chicago life: 
 
 It is unpleasant and it is hard to think of Billy 
 Boyle s chop-house as a thing of the past, for that 
 resort has become so closely identified with certain 
 classes and with certain phases of life in Chicago 
 that it seems it must necessarily keep right on for 
 ever in its delectable career. We much prefer to 
 regard its troubles as temporary, and to believe that 
 presently its hospitable doors will be thrown open 
 
302 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 again to the same hungry, appreciative patrons who 
 for so many years have partaken of its cheer. 
 
 When the sheriff asked Billy Boyle the other day 
 where the key to the door was, Billy seemed to feel 
 hurt. What did Billy know about a key, and what 
 use had he ever found for one in that hospitable spot, 
 whither famished folk of every class gravitated nat 
 urally for the flying succor of Billy s larder ? 
 
 " The door never had a key," said Billy. " Only 
 once in all the time I have been here has the place 
 been closed, and then it was but four hours." 
 
 Down in New Orleans there is a famous old saloon 
 called the Sazeraz. For fifty-four years it stood open 
 to the thirsty public. Then the City Council passed 
 a Sunday-closing ordinance, and with the enforce 
 ment of this law came the discovery that through in 
 nocuous desuetude the hinges of the doors to the 
 Sazeraz had rusted off, while the doors themselves 
 had become so worm-eaten that they had to be re 
 placed by new ones. The sheriff who pounced down 
 on Billy Boyle s in his official capacity must have 
 fancied he had struck a second Sazeraz, for the lock 
 upon the door was so rusty and rheumatic through 
 disuse that it absolutely refused to respond to the 
 persuasion of the keys produced for the performance 
 of its functions. We cannot help applauding the 
 steadfastness with which this lock resented the in 
 dignity which the official visit of the sheriff implied. 
 
 If we were to attempt to make a roster of the 
 
METHOD OF WORK 303 
 
 names of those who have made the old chop-house 
 their Mecca in seasons of hunger and thirst, we could 
 easily fill a page. So, although you may have never 
 visited the place yourself, it is easy for you to un 
 derstand that many are the associations and reminis 
 cences which attached to it. There was never any 
 attempt at style there; the rooms were unattractive, 
 save for the savory odors which hung about them; 
 the floors were bare, and the furniture was severe to 
 the degree of rudeness. There was no china in use 
 upon the premises; crockery was good enough; men 
 came there to feed their stomachs, not their eyes. 
 
 Boyle s was a resort for politicians, journalists, 
 artists, actors, musicians, merchants, gamblers, pro 
 fessional men generally, and sporting men specially. 
 Boyle himself has always been a lover of the horse 
 and a patron of the turf; naturally, therefore, his 
 restaurant became the rendezvous of horsemen, so 
 called. Upon the walls there were colored prints, 
 which confirmed any suspicion which a stranger 
 might have of the general character of the place, and 
 the mise en scene differed in no essential feature from 
 that presented in the typical chop-house one meets 
 in the narrow streets and by-ways of " dear ol 
 Lunnon ! " 
 
 It is likely that Boyle s has played in its quiet w#y 
 a more important part in the history of the town 
 than you might suppose. It was here that the law 
 yers consulted with their clients during the noon 
 luncheon hour; politicians came thither to confer 
 
304 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 with one another and to devise those schemes by 
 which parties were to be humbugged. It was here 
 that the painter and the actor discussed their re 
 spective arts; here, too, in the small hours of morn 
 ing, the newspaper editor and reporters gathered 
 together to dismiss professional cares and jealousies 
 for the nonce, and to feed in the most amicable spirit 
 from the same trough. Jobs were put up, coups 
 planned, reconciliations effected, schemes devised, 
 combinations suggested, news exploited and scandals 
 disseminated, friendships strengthened, acquaint 
 ances made all this at Billy Boyle s so you see it 
 would have been hard to find a better field in which 
 to study human nature, for hither came people of 
 every class and kind with their ambitions, hopes, pur 
 poses, and eccentricities. 
 
 The glory of the house of Boyle was the quality of 
 viands served there, and nowhere else in the world 
 was it possible to find finer steaks and chops. These 
 substantials were served with a liberality that would 
 surely have astounded those who did not understand 
 that the patrons of Billy Boyle s were men blest with 
 long appetites and robust digestions. Spanish stew 
 was one of the specialties; so were baked potatoes, 
 and so were Spanish roasted onions. It was the cus- 
 ton to sit and smoke after the meal had been dis 
 posed of, and the quality of the cigars sold in the 
 place was the best; at night particularly say after 
 the newspaper clans began to gather Boyle s wore 
 
METHOD OF WORK 305 
 
 the aspect of a smoke-talk in full blast. Harmony 
 invariably prevailed. If, perchance, any discordant 
 note was sounded it was speedily hushed. Charlie, 
 the man behind the bar, had a way of his own of 
 preserving the peace. He was a gentleman of a few 
 words, slow to anger, but sure of wrath. Experience 
 had taught him that the best persuasive to respectful 
 and reverential order was a spoke of a wagon-wheel. 
 One of these weapons lay within reach, and it never 
 failed to restore tranquillity when produced and 
 wielded at the proper moment by Charlie. The con 
 sequence was that Charlie inspired all good men with 
 respect and all evil men with terror, and the result 
 was harmony of the most enjoyable character. Per 
 haps if Charlie had been on watch when that horrid 
 sheriff arrived on his meddlesome errand, Billy 
 Boyle s might still be open to the rich and the poor 
 who now meet together in that historic alley and be 
 moan the passing of their old point of rendezvous. 
 Perhaps but why indulge in surmises? It is pleas- 
 anter to regard this whole disagreeable sheriff busi 
 ness as an episode that is soon to pass away and to 
 be forgotten, if not forgiven. 
 
 Surely the clouds will roll by; surely you, Sep- 
 timius, and you, Tuliarchus mine, will presently 
 gather with others of the old cronies around the hos 
 pitable board of that genial host to renew once more 
 the delights of days and nights endeared to us in 
 memory ! 
 
 VOL. I. 20 
 
306 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Billy Boyle s succumbed to his love for the race 
 track and the abuse of his credit-check system. 
 Field has mentioned gamblers as among the patrons 
 of the place. After midnight they were his most 
 liberal customers. Winning or losing, their appe 
 tites were always on edge and their tastes epicu 
 rean. Nothing the house could afford was too 
 good for them, and, while Charlie was on deck, 
 what the house could afford was good enough for 
 them, whether they thought so or not. During 
 the 80s Chicago was a gamblers paradise. Every 
 thing was run " wide open," as the saying is, under 
 police regulation and protection, and Billy Boyle s 
 was in the very centre of the gambling district. 
 If Billy had been paid cash, and could have been 
 kept away from the race-tracks, he would have 
 grown rich beyond the terrors of the sheriff. 
 While the gamblers were winning they supped 
 like princes and paid like goldsmiths. When they 
 were losing their losses whetted their appetites, 
 they ate to keep their spirits up, and Billy s spin 
 dles were not long enough to hold their waiters 
 checks. In flush times a goodly percentage of these 
 checks were redeemed, but the reckoning of the 
 bad ones at the bottom grew longer and dirtier and 
 more hopeless, until it brought the sheriff. 
 
 We of the Morning News Field, Stone, Ballan- 
 
METHOD OF WORK 307 
 
 tyne, Reilly, and I frequented Boyle s until the 
 war which the paper waged unceasingly upon the 
 league between the city administration and the 
 gamblers brought about a stricter surveillance of 
 gaming, and we came to be regarded by our fellow- 
 guests as interlopers, if not spies, upon their goings 
 in and out. Neither Boyle nor the ever faithful 
 Charlie ever by word or sign intimated that we 
 were personce non grata?, but the atmosphere of the 
 place became too chilly for the enjoyment of late 
 suppers. 
 
 I have devoted so much space to Billy Boyle s 
 because for several years Field found there the best 
 opportunity of his life " to study human nature " 
 and observe the " ambitions, hopes, purposes, and 
 eccentricities " of his fellow-man. 
 
 After the " pernicious activity " of our news 
 paper work had " put the shutters up " against us 
 in Calhoun Place, we transferred our midnight cus 
 tom to the Boston Oyster House, on the corner of 
 Clark and Madison streets, which Field selected 
 because of the suggestion of baked beans, brown 
 bread, and codfish in its name. Here we were as 
 signed a special table in the corner near the grill 
 range, and here we were welcomed along about 
 twelve o clock by the cheerful chirping of a cricket 
 in the chimney, which Field had a superstition was 
 
308 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 intended solely for him. The Boston Oyster House 
 had the advantage over Billy Boyle s that here we 
 could bring " our women folks " after the theatre 
 or concert. It was through a piece of doggerel, 
 composed and recited by Field with great gusto 
 on one of these occasions, that we first learned of 
 the serious attentions of our managing editor to 
 Mrs. Field s youngest sister. One of these stanzas 
 ran thus: 
 
 A quart taken out of the ice-box, 
 
 A dozen broiled over the fire. 
 Then home from the show 
 With her long-legged beau, 
 
 What more can our sister desire f 
 
 But the ladies were never invited to invade the 
 cricket s corner, where we were permitted to be 
 guile the hours in gossip, song, and story until the 
 scrub-women had cleaned the rest of the big base 
 ment and " the first low swash " of the suds and 
 brush threatened the legs of our chairs. Then, with 
 a parting anathema on the business of slaves that 
 toiled when honest folk should be abed, we would 
 ascend the stairs and betake ourselves to our sev 
 eral homes. It was at the Boston that Field varied 
 his diet of pie and coffee with what he was pleased 
 to describe as " the staying qualities as well as the 
 pleasing aspect of a Welsh rabbit." 
 
METHOD OF WORK 309 
 
 During the first years of his connection with the 
 Morning News, Field worked without intermission 
 six days of the week, without a vacation and, except 
 when he transferred his scene of operations to the 
 capitol at Springfield, without leaving Chicago 
 with two noteworthy exceptions. For some reason 
 Field had taken what the Scotch call a scunner to 
 ex-President Hayes, whom he regarded as a polit 
 ical Pecksniff. The refusal of Mr. Hayes while 
 President to serve wine in the White House 
 Field regarded as a cheap affectation, and so when, 
 through his numerous sources of information, he 
 learned that Mr. Hayes derived a part of his in 
 come from saloon property in Omaha, nothing 
 would do Field but, accompanied by the staff artist, 
 he must go to Omaha and investigate himself the 
 story for the News. 
 
 He went, found the facts were as represented, 
 and returned with the proofs and a photograph 
 of himself sitting on a beer-keg in a saloon owned 
 by Rutherford B. Hayes. He also bought the keg, 
 and out of its staves had a frame made for the 
 picture, which he presented to Mr. Ballantyne. 
 
 His other notable absence from Chicago in those 
 days was also connected with ex-President Hayes. 
 This time it involved a visit to the latter s home 
 at Fremont, O. In all his frequent references to 
 
310 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Mr. Hayes, Field had always spoken of Mrs. Hayes 
 with sincere admiration for her womanly qualities 
 and convictions. So long as these were confined 
 to the ordering of her personal household he deemed 
 them as sacred as they were admirable. Nor did he 
 blame her for attempting to extend them to rule 
 the actions of her husband in his public relations. 
 But it was for permitting this that Mr. Hayes 
 earned the scorn of Field. When President Hayes 
 retired from the White House to Fremont, instead 
 of becoming another Cincinnatus at the plough he 
 was overshadowed by the stories of Mrs. Hayes s 
 devotion to her chicken-farm, and the incongruity of 
 the occupation appealed so strongly to Field s sense 
 of the ridiculous that he prevailed on Mr. Stone 
 to let him go down to Fremont to take in its full 
 absurdity with his own eyes. 
 
 Before going to Omaha, Field had taken the pre 
 caution to write enough " Sharps and Flats " to 
 fill his column until he returned a precaution he 
 omitted when he started for Fremont, on the un 
 derstanding that his associates on the editorial page 
 would do his work for him. This was our oppor 
 tunity, and gladly we availed ourselves of it. The 
 habit had grown on Field of introducing his 
 paragraphic skits with such " country journal- 
 
METHOD OF WORK 311 
 
 " We opine," 
 
 " Anent the story," 
 
 " We are free to admit," 
 
 " We violate no confidence," 
 
 " It is stated, though not authoritatively," 
 
 " Our versatile friend," 
 
 " We learn from a responsible source," and 
 
 " Our distinguished fellow-townsman." 
 
 This he accompanied with a lavish bestowal 
 of titles that would have done credit to the most 
 courtly days of southern chivalry. 
 
 So when Field was safely off for Fremont we 
 started to produce a column that would be a trav 
 esty on his favorite expressions at the expense of 
 his titled friends. We opined and violated all the 
 confidences of which we were possessed in regard 
 to Colonel Phocion Howard, of the Batavia frog- 
 farm, Major Moses P. Handy, the flaming sword 
 of the Philadelphia Press, Senator G. Frisbie Hoar, 
 Major Charles Hasbrook, Colonel William E. Cur 
 tis, Colonel John A. Joyce, Colonel Fred W. Nye, 
 Major E. Clarence Stedman, and Colonels Dana, 
 Watterson, and Halstead, and we exhausted the 
 flowers of Field s vocabulary in daring encomiums 
 on Madame Modjeska, Lotta, Minnie Maddern, 
 and Marie Jansen. If any of Field s particular 
 friends were omitted from " favorable mention " in 
 
312 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 that column, it was because we forgot or Mr. 
 Stone s blue pencil came to the rescue of his absent 
 friend. Ballantyne was party to the conspiracy, 
 because he had often remonstrated against the rut 
 of expression into which Field was in danger of 
 falling. 
 
 When Field returned that one column had 
 driven all thoughts of Mrs. Hayes s hens from his 
 thoughts. There was a cold glitter in his pale blue 
 eyes and a hollow mock in the forced " ha, ha " 
 with which he greeted some of our " alleged efforts 
 at wit." He said little, but a few days later re 
 lieved his pent-up feelings by printing the fol 
 lowing: 
 
 MAY THE 26th, 1885 
 
 As when the bright, the ever-glorious sun 
 
 In eastern slopes lifts up his -flaming head, 
 And sees the harm the envious night has done 
 
 While he, the solar orb, has been abed 
 Sees here a yawl wrecked on the slushy sea, 
 
 Or there a chestnut from its roost blown down, 
 Or last year s birds nests scattered on the lea, 
 
 Or some stale scandal rampant in the town 
 Sees everywhere the petty work of night, 
 
 Of sneaking winds and cunning, coward rats, 
 Of hooting owls, of bugaboo and sprite, 
 
 Of roaches, wolves, and serenading cats 
 
METHOD OF WORK 313 
 
 Beholds and smiles that bagatelles so small 
 
 Should seek to devastate the slumbering earth 
 Then smiling still he pours on one and all 
 
 The warmth and sunshine of his grateful mirth; 
 So he who rules in humor s vast domain, 
 
 Borne far away by some Ohio train, 
 Returns again, like some recurring sun. 
 
 And shining, God-like, on the furrowed plain 
 Repairs the ills that envious hands have done. 
 
 But the daring violation of Field s confidence 
 effected its purpose. Never again did he employ 
 the type-worn expressions of country journalism, 
 except with set prepense and self-evident satire. 
 He shunned them as he did an English solecism, 
 which he never committed, save as a decoy to draw 
 the fire of the ever-watchful and hopeless gram 
 matical purist. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 
 
 In the last chapter I have told in general terms 
 how Field employed himself day by day, from 
 which the reader may form the impression that be 
 tween eleven A.M. and midnight not over one- 
 quarter of his time was actually employed in work, 
 the balance being frittered away in seeming play. 
 In one sense the reader would be right in such 
 an inference. Field worked harder and longer at 
 his play than at what the world has been pleased 
 to accept as the work of a master workman, but 
 out of that play was born the best of all that he 
 has left. His daily column was a crystallization 
 of the busy fancies that were running through his 
 head during all his hours of fooling and nights of 
 light-hearted pleasure. It reflected everything he 
 read and heard and saw. It was a " barren sea 
 from which he made a dry haul " a dreary and 
 colorless gathering that left him without material 
 for his pen. He did not hunt for this material 
 with a brass band, but went for it with studied per 
 sistence. 
 
 314 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 315 
 
 Field never believed that he was sent into the 
 world to reform it. His aim was to amuse himself, 
 and if in so doing he entertained or gratified others, 
 so much the better. " Reform away," he was once 
 reported as saying, " reform away, but as for me, 
 the world is good enough for me as it is. I am a 
 thorough optimist. In temperament I m a little 
 like old Horace I want to get all the happiness 
 out of the world that s possible." And he got it, 
 not intermittently and in chunks, but day by day 
 and every hour of the day. 
 
 His brother Roswell has said that the " curse of 
 comedy was on Eugene," and " it was not until he 
 threw off that yoke and gave expression to the better 
 and sweeter thoughts within him that, as with Bion, 
 the voice of song flowed freely from the heart." 
 
 I do not think it is quite fair to regard com 
 edy as a curse or a yoke. Certainly Eugene 
 Field never suffered under the blight of the one 
 nor staggered under the burden of the other. If 
 there is any curse in comedy, unadulterated by 
 lying, malice, or envy, he never knew it. He knew 
 none better that the author who would com 
 mand the tears that purify and sweeten life must 
 move the laughter that lightens it. What says our 
 Shakespeare ? 
 
316 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Jog on, jog, on the foot-path way, 
 And merrily hent the stile-a, 
 
 A merry heart goes all the day, 
 Your sad tires in a mile-a. 
 
 Eugene Field trod the footpath way to popu 
 larity and fame with a buoyant and merry heart. 
 If there was any abatement of his joyous spirits I 
 never knew it, and I do not think that his writ 
 ings disclose any sweeter strain, as his brother sug 
 gests, in the days when ill-health checked the ardor 
 of his boyish exuberance, but could not dim the 
 unextinguishable flame of his comedy. The two 
 books that contain what to the last he considered 
 his choicest work a judgment confirmed by their 
 continued popularity and sale, " A Little Book 
 of Western Verse " and " A Little Book of Profit 
 able Tales " were compiled from the writings 
 (1878-1887) that flowed from his pen when he 
 worshipped most assiduously at the shrine of the 
 goddess of comedy and social intercourse. 
 
 I have been tempted into this digression in order 
 that the reader may not be at a loss to reconcile 
 the apparent frivolity of Field s life and the mass 
 of his writings at this period with the winnowed 
 product as it appeared in the two volumes just men 
 tioned. Out of the comedy of his nature came the 
 sweetness of his work, and out of his association 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 317 
 
 with all conditions of his fellow-men came that 
 insight into the springs of human passion and 
 action that leavens all that he wrote, from " The 
 Eobin and the Violet " (1884) down to " The Love 
 Affairs of a Bibliomaniac " (1895). 
 
 The general character of Eugene Field s life and 
 writing went through a gradual process of evolu 
 tion from the time of his arrival in Chicago to the 
 final chapters of " The Love Affairs," which were 
 his last work. But it can be safely divided into 
 two periods of six years each, with the turning 
 point at the publication of his little books of verse 
 and tales in the year 1889. Nearly all that he 
 wrote previous to that year was marked by his as 
 sociation with his kind; that which he wrote sub 
 sequently was saturated with his closer association 
 with books. About all the preparation he needed 
 for his daily " wood-sawing " was a hurried glance 
 through the local papers and his favorite exchanges, 
 among which the New York Sun held first place, 
 with the others unplaced. He insisted that the 
 exchange editor should send to his desk daily a 
 dozen or more small country sheets from the most 
 out of the way places papers that recorded the 
 painting of John Doe s front fence or that Seth 
 Smith laid an egg on the editor s table with a 
 breezy " come again, Seth, the Lord loveth a cheer- 
 
318 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ful liar." When Field had accumulated enough 
 of these items to suit his humor, he would para 
 phrase them, and, substituting the names of local 
 or national celebrities, as the incongruity tickled 
 his fancy, he would print them in his column un 
 der the heading of local, social, literary, or indus 
 trial notes, as the case might be. He seldom 
 changed the form of these borrowed paragraphs 
 materially, for he held most shrewdly that no hu 
 morist could improve upon the unconscious humor 
 of the truly rural scribe. Field never outgrew the 
 enjoyment and employment of this distinctively 
 American appreciation of humor. As late as Oc 
 tober 29th, 1895, " The Love Affairs " had to wait 
 while he regaled the readers of the Chicago Record 
 with his own brand of " Crop Reports from East 
 Minonk," of which the following will serve as 
 specimens : 
 
 All are working to get in the corn crop as if they 
 never expected to raise another crop. The schools 
 are almost deserted, and even the schoolm ams may 
 yet be drafted in as huskers. As the season ad 
 vances the farmers begin to realize the immensity of 
 the crop, and the dangers and difficulties of handling 
 it. Owing to its cumbersomeness the old-fashioned 
 way of handling it becomes obsolete, and new 
 methods will have to be adopted and hydraulic ma- 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 319 
 
 chinery procured. Many new uses can be made of 
 the corn-stalks, such as flag-poles for school-houses, 
 telegraph poles and sewer-pipes. By hollowing out 
 a corn-stalk it will make the very best of windmill 
 towers, as the plunger-rod can be placed inside, thus 
 protecting it from the weather, and if desired, an 
 excellent fountain can be obtained by perforating the 
 joints with an awl. 
 
 A freight train on the Santa Fe railroad was de 
 layed four hours last Saturday by a corn-stalk in Jake 
 Schlosser s field, which had been undermined by 
 hogs, falling across the track. It was removed with 
 a crane and considerable difficulty by the wrecking 
 crew. 
 
 The town of Hegler, on the Kankakee, Minonk and 
 Western railroad, is invisible in a forest of corn. A 
 search party under the direction of the road commis 
 sioners are looking for it. 
 
 These solemnly exaggerated crop notes were 
 strung out to the extent of over half a column. 
 Some will question the wit of such fantastic ex 
 travagance, but Field had early learned the truth 
 of Puck s exclamation: "Lord, what fools these 
 mortals be ! " He knew that there was absolutely 
 no bounds to the gullibility of mankind, and he 
 felt it a part of his mission to cater to it to the top 
 
320 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 of its bent. One of his most successful imposi 
 tions was international in its scope. On September 
 13th, 1886, the following paragraph, based on the 
 current European news of the day, appeared in his 
 column: 
 
 We do not see that Prince Alexander, the deposed 
 Bulgarian monarch, is going to have very much diffi 
 culty in keeping the wolf away from the door. In 
 addition to the income from a $2,000,000 legacy, he 
 has a number of profitable investments in America 
 which he can realize upon at any time. He owns 
 considerable real estate in Chicago, Kansas City, 
 Denver, and Omaha, and he is a part owner of one 
 of the largest ranches in New Mexico. His American 
 property is held in the name of Alexander Marie 
 Wilhelm Ludwig Maraschkoff, and his interests in 
 this country are looked after by Colonel J. S. Nor 
 ton, the well-known attorney of this city. Colonel 
 Norton tells us that he would not be surprised if 
 Prince Alexander were to come to this country to 
 live. In a letter to Colonel Norton last June the 
 Prince said : " If ever it is in divine pleasure to re 
 lease us from the harassing responsibilities which 
 now rest upon us, it will be our choice to find a home 
 in that great country beyond the Atlantic, where, 
 removed from the intrigues of court and state, we 
 may enjoy that quiet employment and peaceful medi 
 tation for which we have always yearned." 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 321 
 
 Now it must be confessed that this bears a suf 
 ficient air of verisimilitude to deceive the casual 
 reader. It is as perfect a specimen of the pure in 
 vention which Field delighted to deck out in the 
 form of truth with facts and the names of real 
 personages as he ever wrote. In that year not only 
 Englishmen, but other foreigners, were investing in 
 American real estate. James S. Norton was indeed 
 a well-known attorney of Chicago, as he deserved 
 to be for his wit and professional ability. He was 
 on such friendly terms with Field that the latter 
 thought nothing of taking any liberty he pleased 
 with his name whenever it served to lend credibility 
 to an otherwise unconvincing narrative. In sub 
 sequent paragraphs Field answered fictitious in 
 quiries as to Mr. Norton s reality by giving his 
 actual address, with the result that Mr. Norton was 
 pestered with correspondence from all over the 
 union offering opportunities to invest Prince Alex 
 ander s funds. 
 
 But the success of this hoax was not confined to 
 the American side of the Atlantic, as the follow 
 ing paragraph from London Truth shortly after 
 proves : 
 
 I gave some particulars a few weeks ago of the 
 large amount of property which had been extracted 
 VOL. I. 21 
 
322 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 from Bulgaria by Prince Alexander, who arrived at 
 Sofia penniless, except for a sum of money which was 
 advanced to him by the late Emperor of Russia. It 
 is now asserted by the American papers that Prince 
 Alexander has made considerable purchases under an 
 assumed name (Alexander Marie Wilhelm Ludwig 
 Maraschkoff ) of real estate in Chicago, Denver, Kan 
 sas City, and Omaha, and that he is part owner of 
 one of the largest sheep ranches in New Mexico. 
 The Prince s property in America is under the charge 
 of Colonel Norton, a well-known attorney of Chicago. 
 Prince Alexander must be possessed of a true Yankee 
 cuteness if he managed to squeeze the " pile " for 
 these investments out of Bulgaria in addition to the 
 70,000 to which I referred recently. The Russian 
 papers have accused him of dabbling in stock ex 
 change speculations, and if disposed for such busi 
 ness, his position must have given him some excellent 
 opportunities of making highly profitable bargains. 
 
 Thus was Prince Alexander convicted of having 
 burglarized Bulgaria upon an invention which 
 should not have deceived Mr. Labouchere. How 
 that ostentatiously manufactured alias ever im 
 posed on Truth passes comprehension. Is it any 
 wonder that at one of our numerous mid-day 
 lunches "Colonel" Norton fired the following 
 rhyming retort at Field? 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 323 
 
 TO EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Forgive, dear youth, the forwardness 
 Of her who blushing sends you this, 
 
 Because she must her love confess, 
 Alas! Alas! A lass she is. 
 
 Long, long, so long, her timid heart 
 
 Has held its joy in secrecy, 
 Being by nature s cunning art 
 
 So made, so made, so maidenly. 
 
 She knew you once, but as a pen 
 In humor dipt in wisdom s pool, 
 
 And gladly gave her homage then 
 To one, to one, too wonderful; 
 
 But having seen your face, so mild, 
 
 So pale, so full of animus, 
 She can but cry in accents wild, 
 
 Eugene! Eugene! You genius! 
 
 The deep and abiding interest Field felt in the 
 fortunes of Prince Alexander may be inferred 
 from his exclamation, " When Stofsky meets Etro- 
 vitch, then comes the tug of Servo-Bulgarian war! " 
 
 He took no end of pleasure in starting discus 
 sions over the authorship of verses and sayings by 
 wilfully attributing them to persons whose mere 
 name in such connection conveyed the sense of 
 humorous impossibility, and he thoroughly enjoyed 
 
324 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 such suggestions being taken seriously. Once hav 
 ing started the ball of doubt rolling he never let 
 it stop for want of some neat strokes of his cunning 
 pen. Several noteworthy instances of this form of 
 literary diversion or perversion occur to me. There 
 never was any occasion to doubt the authorship of 
 "The Lost Sheep," which won for Sally Pratt 
 McLean wide popular recognition a decade and a 
 half ago. Its first stanza will recall it to the 
 memory of all: 
 
 De massa of de sheep fol 
 
 Dat guard de sheep fol bin, 
 Look out in de gloomerin meadows 
 
 Whar de long night rain begin 
 So he call to de hirelin f shepa d, 
 
 " Is my sheep, is dey all come in ? " 
 Oh, den says de hirelin shepa d, 
 
 " Dey s some, dey s black and thin, 
 And some, dey s po ol wedda s, 
 
 But de res dey s all brung in 
 
 But de res dey s all brung in. 
 
 The very notoriety of the authorship of these 
 lines merely served as an incentive for Field to print 
 the following paragraph calling it in question: 
 
 Miss Sally McLean, author of " Cape Cod Folks," 
 claims to have written the dialect poem, " Massa of 
 de Sheep Fold," which the New York Sun pronounces 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 325 
 
 a poetic masterpiece. We dislike to contradict Miss 
 McLean, but candor compels us to say that we have 
 reason to believe that she is not the author of the 
 stanzas in question. According to the best of our 
 recollection, this poem was dashed off in the wine- 
 room of the Gault House, at Louisville, Ky., by 
 Colonel John A. Joyce, from ten to twenty years ago. 
 Joyce was in the midst of a party of convivial friends. 
 After several cases of champagne had been tossed 
 down, a member of the party said to Colonel Joyce, 
 " Come, old fellow, give us an extempore poem." As 
 Colonel Joyce had not utilized his muse for at least 
 twenty minutes, he cordially assented to the proposi 
 tion, and while the waiter was bringing a fresh sup 
 ply of wine Colonel Joyce dashed off the dialect poem 
 so highly praised by the New York Sun. We are 
 amazed that he has laid no claim to its authorship 
 since its revival. Unfortunately, all the gentlemen 
 who were present at the time he dashed off the poem 
 are dead, or there would be no trouble in substantiat 
 ing his claims to its authorship. We distinctly re 
 member he wrote it the same evening he dashed off 
 the pretty poem so violently claimed by, and so gen 
 erally accredited to, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 This was written in February, 1885, and though 
 it failed of its ostensible aim of discrediting Miss 
 McLean s authorship of " The Lost Sheep," it suc 
 ceeded in rekindling throughout the exchanges the 
 
326 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 smouldering fires of the dispute Field had himself 
 started over that of Ella Wheeler Wilcox s " Soli 
 tude," the relevant verse of which runs: 
 
 Laugh, and the world laughs with you; 
 
 Weep, and you weep alone, 
 For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, 
 
 But has troubles enough of its own. 
 Sing, and the hills will answer; 
 
 Sigh, it is lost on the air, 
 The echoes bound to a joyful sound, 
 
 But shrink from voicing care. 
 
 From the day " Solitude " appeared in Miss 
 Wheeler s " Poems of Passion " in 1883, and so 
 long as Field lived, he never ceased to fan this 
 controversy into renewed life, more often than not 
 by assuming a tone of indignation that there should 
 be any question over it, as in the following recur 
 rence to the subject in July, 1885: 
 
 It is reported that Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox is 
 anxious to institute against Colonel John A. Joyce 
 such legal proceedings as will determine beyond all 
 doubt that she, and not Colonel Joyce, was the author 
 of the poem entitled "Love and Laughter," and 
 beginning : 
 
 " Laugh, and the world laughs with you; 
 Weep, and you weep alone" 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 327 
 
 Mrs. Wilcox is perhaps the most touchy person in 
 American literature at the present time. For a num 
 ber of years she has been contributing to the news 
 paper press of the country, and her verses have been 
 subjected to the harshest sort of criticism. The 
 paragraphists of the press have bastinadoed and gib 
 beted her in the most cruel manner; her poems have 
 been burlesqued, parodied, and travestied heartlessly 
 in short, every variety of criticism has been heaped 
 upon her work, which, even the most prejudiced will 
 admit, has evinced remarkable boldness and an amaz 
 ing facility of expression. Now we would suppose 
 that all this shower of criticism had tanned the fair 
 author s hide we speak metaphorically until it was 
 impervious to every unkindly influence. But so far 
 from being bomb-proof, Mrs. Wilcox is even more 
 sensitive than when she bestrode her Pegasus for the 
 first time and soared into that dreamy realm where 
 the lyric muse abides. There is not a quip nor a quil 
 let from the slangy pen of the daily newspaper writers 
 that she does not brood over and worry about as 
 heartily as if it were an overdue mortgage on her 
 pianoforte. We presume to say that the protests 
 which she has made within the last two years against 
 the utterances of the press would fill a tome. Now 
 this Joyce affair is simply preposterous; we do not 
 imagine that there is in America at the present time 
 an ordinarily intelligent person who has ever believed 
 for one moment that Colonel Joyce wrote the poem 
 
328 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 in question the poem entitled " Love and Laugh 
 ter." Colonel Joyce is an incorrigible practical 
 joker, and his humor has been marvellously tickled 
 by the prodigious worry his jest has cost the Wiscon 
 sin bard. The public understands the situation; 
 there is no good reason why Mrs. Wilcox should fume 
 and fret and scurry around, all on account of that 
 poem, like a fidgety hen with one chicken. Her claim 
 is universally conceded; there is no shadow of doubt 
 that she wrote the poem in question, and by becoming 
 involved in any further complication on this subject 
 she will simply make a laughing-stock of herself; we 
 would be sorry to see her do that. 
 
 And yet whenever his stock of subjects for com 
 ment or raillery ran low he would write a letter 
 to himself, asking the address of Colonel John A. 
 Joyce, the author of " Love and Laughter," and 
 manage in his answer to open up the whole con 
 troversy afresh. I suppose that to this day there 
 are thousands of good people in the United States 
 whose innocence has been abused by Field s su- 
 perserviceable defence of Mrs. Wilcox s title to 
 " Laugh and the World Laughs with You." It 
 was delicious fooling to him and to those of us who 
 were on the inside, but I question if Mrs. Wilcox 
 ever appreciated its humorous aspect. 
 
 Speaking of his practice of getting public atten- 
 
NATUEE OF HIS DAILY WORK 329 
 
 tion for his own compositions through a letter of 
 his own " To the Editor," the following affords a 
 good example of his ingenious method, with his 
 reply : 
 
 EVANSTON, ILL., Aug. 15, 1888. 
 To the Editor: 
 
 Several of us are very anxious to learn the author 
 ship of the following poem, which is to be found in 
 so many scrap-books, and which ever and anon ap 
 pears as a newspaper waif : 
 
 RESIGNATION 
 
 I have a dear canary bird, 
 
 That every morning sings 
 The sweetest songs I ever heard, 
 
 And ftaps his yellow wings. 
 
 I love to sit the whole day long 
 
 Beside the window-sill, 
 And listen to the joyous song 
 
 That warbler loves to trill. 
 
 My mother says that in a year 
 
 The bird that I ve adored 
 Will maybe lay some eggs and rear 
 
 A callow, cooing horde. 
 
 But father says it s quite absurd 
 
 To think that bird can lay, 
 For though it is a wondrous bird, 
 
 It isn t built that way. 
 
330 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 Now whether mother tells me true 
 
 Or father, bothers me; 
 There s nothing else for me to do 
 
 But just to wait and see. 
 
 Whatever befalls this bird of mine f 
 I am resolved twill please 
 
 Far be it from me to repine 
 At what the Lord decrees. 
 
 Mr. Slason Thompson, compiler of " The Humbler 
 Poets/ could decide this matter for us if he were 
 here now, but unhappily he is out of town just at 
 present. We have a suspicion that the poem was 
 originally written by Isaac Watts, but that suspicion 
 is impaired somewhat by another suspicion that there 
 were no such things as canary birds in Isaac Watts s 
 time. Yours truly, 
 
 MELISSA MAYFIELD. 
 
 We have shown this letter to Evanston s most dis 
 tinguished citizen, the Hon. Andrew Shuman, and 
 that sapient poet-critic tells us that as nearly as he 
 can recollect the poem was written, not by Dr. Watts, 
 but by an American girl. But whether that girl was 
 Lucretia Davidson or Miss Ada C. Sweet he cannot 
 recall. 
 
 Mr. Francis F. Browne, of The Dial, thinks it is 
 one of Miss Wheeler s earlier poems, since it is im 
 bued with that sweet innocence, that childish sim 
 plicity, and that meek piety which have ever char- 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 331 
 
 acterized the work of the famous Wisconsin lyrist. 
 But as we can learn nothing positive as to the author 
 ship of the poem, we shall have to call upon the 
 public at large to help us out. 
 
 It is needless to say that the public at large could 
 throw no light on the composition of this imita 
 tion of Dr. Watts with which Field was not already 
 possessed, since both poem and " Melissa Mayfield " 
 were creations of Field s fancy. 
 
 One of the most characteristic examples of the 
 pains he would take to palm off a composition of 
 his own upon some innocent and unsuspecting pub 
 lic man appeared in the Morning News on Janu 
 ary 22d, 1887. It was nothing short of an attempt 
 to father upon the late Judge Thomas M. Cooley 
 the authorship of half a dozen bits of verse of vary 
 ing styles and degrees of excellence. He professed 
 to have received from Jasper Eastman, a promi 
 nent citizen of Adrian, Mich., twenty-eight poems 
 written by Judge Cooley, " the venerable and 
 learned jurist, recently appointed receiver of the 
 Wabash Kailroad." These were said to have ap 
 peared in the Ann Arbor Daily News when it was 
 conducted by the judge s most intimate friend, be 
 tween the years 1853 and 1861. Field anticipated 
 public incredulity by saying that " people who knew 
 him to be a severe moralist and a profound scholar 
 
332 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 will laugh you to scorn if you try to make them 
 believe Cooley ever condescended to express his 
 fancies in verse." Then he went on to describe 
 the judge, at the time of writing the verse, as " a 
 long, awkward boy, with big features, moony eyes, 
 a shock of coarse hair, and the merest shadow of a 
 mustache," in proof of which description he pre 
 sented a picture of the young man, declared to be 
 from a daguerrotype in the possession of Mr. East 
 man. The first " specimen gem " was said to be a 
 paraphrase from Theocritus, entitled " Mortality " : 
 
 Nicias, not for us alone 
 
 Was laughing Eros ~born, 
 Nor shines for us alone the moon, 
 
 Nor burns the ruddy morn. 
 Alas! to-morrow lies not in the ken 
 Of us who are, Nicias, mortal men. 
 
 Next followed a bit, " in lighter vein, from 
 the Simonides of Amorgas," entitled " A Fickle 
 Woman": 
 
 Her nature is the sea s, that smiles to-night 
 A radiant maiden in the moon s soft light; 
 The unsuspecting seaman sets his sails, 
 Forgetful of the fury of her gales; 
 To-morrow, mad with storms, the ocean roars, 
 And o er his hapless wreck her flood she pours. 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 333 
 
 Field then went on to describe Judge Cooley as 
 equally felicitous in Latin verse, presenting in proof 
 thereof the following, " sung at the junior class 
 supper at Ann Arbor, May 14th, 1854 ": 
 
 Nicyllam bellis oculis 
 
 (Videre est amare), 
 Carminibus et poculis, 
 
 Tra la la, tra la la, 
 Me placet propinare: 
 
 Tra la la f tra la la, 
 Me placet propinare! 
 
 Beside such grotesque literary horse-play as this, 
 with a gravity startling in its unexpected daring, 
 Field proceeded to attribute to the venerable jurist 
 one of the simplest and purest lullabies that ever 
 came from his own pen, opening with: 
 
 I hear Thy voice, dear Lord; 
 I hear it by the stormy sea 
 
 When winter nights are bleak and wild, 
 And when, affright, I call to Thee; 
 It calms my fears and whispers me, 
 
 " Sleep well, my child/ 
 
 Then follows " The Vision of the Holy Grail," 
 one of those exercises in archaic English in which 
 Field took infinite pains as well as delight, and to 
 which, as a production of Judge Cooley s, he paid 
 the passing tribute of saying that it was " a grace- 
 
334 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 ful imitation of old English." As an example of 
 the judge s humorous vein Field printed the con 
 clusion of his lines " To a Blue Jay ": 
 When I had shooed the bird away 
 
 And plucked the plums a quart or more 
 I noted that the saucy jay, 
 Albeit he had naught to say, 
 
 Appeared much bluer than before. 
 
 After crediting the judge with a purposely awful 
 parody on " Dixie," in which " banner " is made 
 to rhyme with " Savannah," and " holy " with 
 " Pensacola," Field concluded the whimsical fabri 
 cation with the serious comment: " It seems a pity 
 that such poetic talent as Judge Cooley evinced was 
 not suffered to develop. His increasing profes 
 sional duties and his political employments put a 
 quietus to those finer intellectual indulgences with 
 which his earlier years were fruitful." 
 
 Having launched this piece of literary drollery, 
 over which he had studied and we had talked for 
 a week or more, Field proceeded to clinch the 
 verse-making on Judge Cooley by a series of let 
 ters to himself, one or two of which will indicate 
 the fertile cleverness and humor he employed to 
 cram his bald fabrication down the public gullet. 
 The first appeared on January 24th, in the follow 
 ing letter " to the Editor ": 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 335 
 
 I have read Judge Cooley s poems with a good deal 
 of interest. I am somewhat of a poet myself, having 
 written sonnets and things now and then for the last 
 twenty years. My opinion is that Judge Cooley s 
 translations, paraphrases, and imitations, are much 
 worthier than his original work. I hold that no poet 
 can be a true poet unless he is at the same time some 
 what of a naturalist. If Judge Cooley had been any 
 thing of a naturalist he would never have made such 
 a serious blunder as he has made in his poem entitled 
 " Lines to a Blue Jay." The idea of putting a blue 
 jay into a plum-tree is simply shocking! I don t 
 know when I ve had anything grate so harshly upon 
 my feelings as did this mistake when I discovered it 
 this morning. It is as awful as the blunder made 
 by one of the modern British poets (I forget his 
 name) in referring to the alligators paddling about 
 in Lake Erie. The blue jay (Cyanurus cristatus) 
 does not eat plums, and therefore does not infest 
 plum-trees. Yours truly, 
 
 CADMON E. BATES. 
 
 Upon which Field, in his editorial plurality, 
 commented : 
 
 To Professor Bates s criticism we shall venture no 
 reply. We think, however, that allowance should be 
 made for the youth of the poet when he committed 
 the offence which so grievously torments our cor 
 respondent. It might be argued, too, that the jay of 
 
336 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 which the poet treats is no ordinary bird, but is one 
 of those omnivorous creatures which greedily pounce 
 upon everything coming within their predatory 
 reach. 
 
 And two days later he made bold to crush the 
 judge s critics with letters from the same versatile 
 pen that never failed to aid in the furtherance of its 
 master s hoaxes: 
 
 To the Editor : Prof. Bates may be a good taxider 
 mist, but he knows little of ornithology. Never be 
 fore he spoke was it denied that the Cyanurus cris- 
 tatus (blue jay) fed upon plums. All the insect- 
 eating birds also eat of the small fruits. It is plain 
 that the poet knew this, even though the taxidermist 
 didn t. Yours truly, 
 
 L. E. COWPERTHWAITE. 
 
 To the Editor : Isn t Prof. Bates too severe in his 
 claim that genius like that of the poetic Judge Cooley 
 should be bound down by the prosaic facts of ornith 
 ology? Milton scorned fidelity to nature, especially 
 when it came to ornithological details, and poets, as 
 a class, have been singularly wayward in this respect. 
 My impression is that Judge Cooley has simply made 
 use of a poetic license which any fair-minded person 
 should be willing to concede the votaries of the muse. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. G. K. 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 337 
 
 The echoes of Judge Cooley s youthful verse 
 were never permitted to die wholly out of Field s 
 column, but were frequently given renewed life 
 by casual references. Even the publication of 
 "The Divine Lullaby" in his "Little Book of 
 Western Verse " did not prevent Field from 
 speaking of Judge Cooley s poetical diversions. 
 
 On another occasion he spent his odd time for 
 weeks in preparing a humorous hoax upon the 
 critics of Chicago. It consisted of a number of 
 close imitations of the typical verses of Dr. Watts, 
 in which he was a master. The fruits of his 
 congenial labor on this occasion are preserved in 
 his collected works. But the purpose for which 
 they were prepared adds to their interest. They 
 were incorporated in a prose article which gave a 
 plausible account of how they had been exhumed 
 from the correspondence of a sentimental friend 
 of Watts. When the last strokes had been put 
 upon the story, whose tone of genuineness was 
 calculated to deceive the elect, it was mailed to 
 Charles A. Dana, who was thoroughly in sympa 
 thy with Field in all such enterprises, and on the 
 following Sunday it appeared in the New York 
 Sun as an extract from a London paper. As soon 
 as the publication reached Chicago a number of 
 
 the cleverest reporters on the News staff were 
 VOL. I. 22 
 
338 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 sent out to interview the local literary authorities. 
 They were all carefully coached by Field what 
 questions to ask and what points to avoid, and 
 their reports were all turned over to him to pre 
 pare for publication. Next morning the better 
 part of a page of the News was surrendered to 
 quotations from the fictitious article, with learned 
 dissertations on the value of the discovery, coupled 
 with careful comparisons of the style and senti 
 ments of the verse with the acknowledged work 
 of Watts. In the whole city only one of those 
 interviewed was saved, by a sceptical analysis, 
 from falling into the pit so adroitly prepared by 
 Field. 
 
 Loyal to Chicago, to a degree incomprehensible 
 by those who judged his sentiments by his un 
 sparing comments on its crudities in social and 
 literary ways, he never ceased to get pleasure out 
 of serio-comic confounding of its business activi 
 ties and artistic aspirations. Its business men 
 and enterprises were constantly referred to in his 
 column as equally strenuous in the pursuit of 
 the almighty dollar and of the higher intellectual 
 life. In his view " Culture s Garland," from 
 the Chicago stand-point, was, indeed, a string of 
 sausages. Of this spirit the following, printed in 
 December, 1890, is a good example: 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 339 
 
 A DANGER THAT THREATENS 
 
 The rivalry between the trade and the literary in 
 terests in Chicago has been wondrously keen this year. 
 
 Prof. Potwins, the most eminent of our statisti 
 cians, figures that we now have in the midst of us 
 either a poet or an author to every square yard within 
 the corporate limits, and he estimates that in ten 
 years time we shall have a literary output large 
 enough to keep all the rest of the world reading all 
 the time. 
 
 Our trade has been increasing, too. Last Septem 
 ber 382,098 cattle were received, against 330,994 in 
 September of 1889. So far this year the increase 
 over 1889 in the receipts of hogs is 2,000,000. 
 
 Last year not more than 2,700 young authors con 
 tributed stories to the Christmas number of the Daily 
 News : this year the number of contributors reached 
 6,125. 
 
 Hitherto the rivalry between our trade and our lit 
 erature has been friendly to a degree. The packer has 
 patronized the poet ; metaphorically speaking, the hog 
 and the epic have lain down together and wallowed 
 in the same Parnassan pool. The censers that have 
 swung continually in the temple of the muses have 
 been replenished with lard oil, and to our grateful 
 olfactories has the joyous Lake breezes wafted the 
 refreshing odors of sonnets and of slaughter pens 
 commingled. 
 
340 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 But how long is this sort of thing going to last? 
 It surely cannot be the millennium. These twin 
 giants will some day alas, too soon learn their 
 powers and be greedy to test them against one an 
 other. A fatal jealousy seems to be inevitable; it 
 may be fended off, but how ? 
 
 The world s fair will be likely to precipitate a con 
 flict between the interests of which we speak. Each 
 interest is already claiming precedence, and we hear 
 with alarm that less than a week ago one of our most 
 respected packers threatened to withdraw his support 
 of the international copyright bill unless the Chicago 
 Literary Society united in an indorsement of his 
 sugar-cured hams. 
 
 When we think of the horrors that will attend and 
 follow a set-to between Chicago trade and Chicago 
 literature, we are prone to cry out, in the words of 
 the immortal Moore not Tom but Mrs. Julia A., 
 of Michigan: 
 
 An awful tremor quakes the soul! 
 
 And makes the heart to quiver, 
 While up and down the spine dotli roll 
 
 A melancholy shiver. 
 
 In December, 1895, Edmund Clarence Sted- 
 man contributed to the " Souvenir Book " of the 
 New York Hebrew Fair a charmingly apprecia 
 tive, yet justly critical, tribute to Eugene Field, 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 341 
 
 whom he likened to Shakespeare s Yorick, whose 
 " motley covered the sweetest nature and tender- 
 est heart." Mr. Stedman there speaks of Field 
 as a " complex American with the obstreperous 
 bizarrerie of the frontier and the artistic delicacy 
 of our oldest culture always at odds within him 
 but he was above all a child of nature, a frolic 
 incarnate, and just as he would have been in any 
 time or country." He also tells how Field put 
 their friendship to one of those tests which sooner 
 or later he applied to all the test of linking 
 their names with something utterly ludicrous and 
 impossible, but published with all the solemn ear 
 marks of verity. It was on the occasion of Mr. 
 Stcdman s visit to Chicago on its invitation to lect 
 ure before the Twentieth Century Club. This 
 gave Field the cue to announce the coming event 
 in a way to fill the visitor with consternation. 
 About two weeks before the poet-critic was ex 
 pected, Field s column contained the following 
 innocent paragraph: 
 
 Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet, and the 
 foremost of American critics, is about to visit Chi 
 cago. He comes as the guest of the Twentieth 
 Century Club, and on the evening of Tuesday, the 
 28th inst., he will deliver before that discriminating 
 body an address upon the subject of " Poetry," this 
 
342 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 address being one of the notable series which Mr. 
 Stedman prepared for and read before the under 
 graduates of Johns Hopkins University last winter. 
 These discourses are, as we judge from epitomes pub 
 lished in the New York Tribune, marvels of scholar 
 ship and of criticism. 
 
 Twenty years have elapsed, as we understand, since 
 Mr. Stedman last visited Chicago. He will find 
 amazing changes, all in the nature of improvements. 
 He will be delighted with the beauty of our city and 
 with the appreciation, the intelligence, and the cult 
 ure of our society. But what should and will please 
 him most will be the cordiality of that reception 
 which Chicago will give him, and the enthusiasm 
 with which she will entertain this charming prince 
 of American letters, this eminent poet, this mighty 
 good fellow ! 
 
 I doubt if Mr. Stedman ever saw this item, 
 which Field merely inserted, as was his wont, as 
 a prelude to the whimsical announcement which 
 followed in two days, and which was eagerly 
 copied in the E"ew York papers in time to make 
 Mr. Stedman cast about for some excuse for being 
 somewhere else than in Chicago on the 29th of 
 April, 1891. This second notice is too good an 
 instance of the liberty Field took with the name 
 of a friend in his delectable vocation of laying 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 343 
 
 " the knotted lash of sarcasm " about the shoul 
 ders of wealth and fashion of Chicago, not to be 
 quoted in full. It was given with all the pre 
 cision of typographical arrangement that is con 
 sidered proper in printing a veritable programme 
 of some public procession, in the following terms: 
 
 Chicago literary circles are all agog over the pros 
 pective visit of Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, the 
 eminent poet-critic. At the regular monthly con 
 clave of the Robert Browning Benevolent and Patri- 
 otical Association of Cook County, night before last, 
 it was resolved to invite Mr. Stedman to a grand 
 complimentary banquet at the Kinsley s on Wednes 
 day evening, the 29th. Prof. William Morton Payne, 
 grand marshal of the parade which is to conduct the 
 famous guest from the railway station the morning 
 he arrives, tells us that the procession will be in this 
 order : 
 
 Twenty police officers afoot. 
 
 The grand marshal, horseback, accompanied by ten 
 male members of the Twentieth Century Club, 
 
 also horseback. 
 Mr. Stedman in a landau drawn by four horses, 
 
 two black and two white. 
 The Twentieth Century Club in carriages. 
 
 A brass band afoot. 
 
 The Robert Browning Club in Frank Parmelee s 
 buses. 
 
344 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 The Homer Clubs afoot, preceded by a fife-and-drum 
 
 corps and a real Greek philosopher 
 
 attired in a tunic. 
 
 Another brass band. 
 
 A beautiful young woman playing the guitar, sym 
 bolizing Apollo and his lute in a car drawn 
 by nine milk-white stallions, imper 
 sonating the muses. 
 Two Hundred Chicago poets afoot. 
 The Chicago Literary Club in carriages. 
 A splendid gilded chariot bearing Gunther s Shake 
 speare autograph and Mr. Ellsworth s first 
 
 printed book. 
 
 Another brass band. 
 
 Magnificent advertising car of Armour and Co., 
 
 illustrating the progress of civilization. 
 
 The Fishbladder Brigade and the Blue Island 
 
 Avenue Shelley Club. 
 
 The fire department. 
 
 Another brass band. 
 
 Citizens in carriages, afoot and horseback. 
 Advertising cars and wagons. 
 
 The line of march will be an extensive one, taking 
 in the packing-houses and other notable points. At 
 Mr. Armour s interesting professional establishment 
 the process of slaughtering will be illustrated for the 
 delectation of the honored guest, after which an ap 
 propriate poem will be read by Decatur Jones, Presi- 
 
NATURE OF HIS DAILY WORK 345 
 
 dent of the Lake View Elite Club. Then Mr. Ar 
 mour will entertain a select few at a champagne 
 luncheon in the scalding-room. 
 
 In high literary circles it is rumored that the Rev. 
 F. M. Bristol has got an option on all autographs 
 that Mr. Stedman may write during his stay in Chi 
 cago. Much excitement has been caused by this, and 
 there is talk of an indignation meeting in Battery D, 
 to be addressed by the Rev. Flavius Gunsaulus, the 
 Rev. Frank W. Brobst, and other eminent speakers. 
 
 Small wonder that Mr. Stedman s soul was rilled 
 with trepidation as his train approached Chicago, 
 and that he was greatly relieved as it rolled into 
 the station to find only a few friends awaiting 
 him; and among them he quickly singled out 
 Eugene Field, " his sardonic face agrin like a 
 school-boy s." 
 
 Enough has been written and quoted to give 
 the reader a fair idea of the general character of 
 Eugene Field s daily work and of the spirit that 
 inspired it. As Mr. Stedman has said, the work 
 of the journeyman and the real literary artist ap 
 peared cheek by jowl in his column. The best 
 of it has been preserved in his collected works. 
 That given in this chapter is merely intended to 
 show how he illuminated the lightest and most 
 ephemeral topics of the day with a literary touch 
 
346 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 at once acute and humorous, and certainly un 
 conventional. In the Appendix to these volumes 
 the reader will find a review of the fictitious bi 
 ography of Miss Emma Abbott, the once noted 
 opera singer. It is an ingenious piece of work 
 and will repay reading as a satire on current re 
 viewing, besides illustrating the daring liberty 
 Field could take with anyone whom he reckoned 
 a friend. 
 
 The following paragraph, which will serve as a 
 tail-piece to this chapter, printed May 31st, 1894, 
 shows how the playful raillery which marked 
 his earlier work in and about Chicago survived 
 to the end: 
 
 The oldest house in Chicago stands on the West 
 Side, and was built in 1839 A.D. The oldest horse 
 in Chicago works for the Lake View Street-Car Com 
 pany, and was present at the battle of Marathon, 
 490 B.C. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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