Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions - Volume 2

he nation generally that this study of his life should take some account of his political writings, if not of his political

in his adherence to the Republican party, he never took the trouble to make a study of its principles, nor did he care to discuss any of the political issues of his day. It was enough that the Democratic party embodied in his mind his twin aversions, slavery and rebellion, against the Union. He was a thorough-going believer in the doctrine

FO

his pewter t

coheren

ous blubber

rything

the good ol

ur prospe

ountry bless

th on ev

rats desi

zen ye

life-blood,

the answ

same old

in Si

form," they

our lan

form?" And t

the warf

diers in a

d their d

mother's he

our fat

"reformers"

with re

dam rebels

itenti

ocritic

ry needs

ormers suc

om's sac

he country

it, and i

he did many of the other responsibilities of life. As early as 1873, in a letter already published, he announced that he had "given over all hope of rescuing my torn and bleeding country from Grant a

s, and spent many weeks in the lobby of the capitol, and of the lobbies of the hotels in Washington. It was the comprehension of men, and not of measures, he was after, and he got what he sought. In St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver his sketches, notes, and Primer stories attracted more attention and

printer, let me reconstruct here in the type and narrow measure of the Morning News a column of specimens of Field's political paragraphs. The reader must allow for the lapse of time. Only those referring to persons or matters of national note are, fo

S AND

They call him Ne-Ha-Wo-Ne-To-which, according to our off

ported to have contributed $5,000 to t

emocratic party wakes up on Christmas morni

erisively Mocking the Eager hands that strive

be able to get the American Navy out of its winter q

"Macbeth." He says Roosevelt cannot be Mayor, but may

tesmen of the time would leave nothing of the Hon. William R. Mo

her resistance against modern progress, and will not hesitate to fly

nfidently expect that this enterprising false prophet will turn up in a reconstruc

o New Orleans was stopped near this station by bandits last night. After relieving the bandits o

for the predominance of realism in literature and art. He regrets to find that during his absence Franklin H.

onvention. As Chicago will make no attempt to secure this convention, we do not mind telling St. Louis, Philadelphia and Cincinnati

nest man in the Chicago City Council," replied the grim philosopher mournfully, "With what result?" inquired the other. "Well, you

Other men from other States were perhaps just as loyal, but it is so seldom that an Ohio politician does the decent thing that when one hon

n the Hill? They are hunting for the flower which they Fondly hope Blooms on the Hill. Not this year-some other Year, but not this year. The Flower is Roosting high. It has

d clean-cut record. He is a great improvement on the Hon. J. Warren Keifer, of Ohio, who was the Republican leader (so-called) last winter. It would be hard to imagine a more imbecile l

ent Cleveland. The National Republican Convention ought to determine, immediately upon assembling, whether its platform and its nominations shall be dictated, even remotely, by a be

, are you sure the windo

veland-Q

re you using that flypape

levela

u sprinkle the furniture w

why do you ask? Are the

but that Second District Congressman from

ndiany, five hund

goin' to git the

ssured us (in tha

he airth, if we'd

slavin' more like

the people do not

Blaine an' not for

obble-uns

f

o

a

u

my capacity as a cabinet officer." "Good, good!" "But I accepted them in my capacity as editor of the Albany Argus. I owe it to my profession, Grover, not to surrender any of its rights to a strained sense of the dignit

s a highly esteemed citizen and a bright light in the Methodist church. Not long ago the church people concluded they ought to have some improvements upon their modest temple of worship, and consequently a subscrip

English

he subscription list was forwarded to Indianapolis, and a prominent Methodist of that city took it around to Mr. English's office. The ex-vice-president hemmed and hawed and fumbled the paper over for quite a while, and finally, with a profound sigh, sat down at his desk an

glish and

hicago Inter-Ocean and a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1892, with saying that he had no particular choice for Vice-President, but he favored the nomination of some colored Republican as a fitting recognition of the loyalty of the colored voters to the memory and party of Lincoln. The cunningly foreseen consequence was that what Mr. Kohlsaat gained in popularity with the colored brethren he lost in the estimation of those serious-minded souls who swallowed the hoax. Among the latter were many fire-eating editors in the South who seized upon Field's self-evident absurdity to denounce Mr. Kohlsaat as a violent demagogue who sou

John A. Logan, whose admiration for General Grant he shared to the fullest degree. But this never restrained Field from taking all sorts of waggish liberties with General Logan's well-known fondness for mixed metaphors and other perversions of the Queen's English. The general, on one occasion, in a burst of eloquence, had sp

t together with characteristic looseness; but it is full of lively dialogue and exciting situations. In the hands of a thorough playwright it would become a splendid melodrama." The play treats upon certain incidents of the late Civil War, and the romantic experiences of a certain Major Algernon Bellville, U.S.A., who is beloved by Maud Glynne, daughter of a Confederate general. The plot turns upon the young lady's u

a! Who don

inald De Courcey done it, fo

a lie upon my honor. I

ws his sword.) Prepare to m

ling)-I see a

e we here? A phial of poison secreted in the stump of this gnarled oak! I thank thee, auspicious heaven, for this sweet boon! (Drinks poison.) Farewell, my native land, I die for thee. (Falls

fying. Convey them to yonder cemetery, and bury them side by side under the weepi

Field had no end of fun with what he cal

N'S

speak as

Blaine nor

re floats a c

e found he'

speak as

nod and dr

ell by his

why he writ

speak as

e bound by f

of this is

me; he's fo

ouching reminiscence may be read with interest by t

OR: A RE

ndy, rock-r

ago sat y

he sullen b

e stately

ocean bre

s into a r

ssed your f

year

ose, the mo

ir castles w

d by the bre

prospect d

ncarnate

ped in e

pleasing h

year

I

night in

e stately

hold is not

but a ten

e hardest

uld fate pu

of that c

year

the Democrats and three legislators, by whose assistance they hoped to defeat and humiliate Logan. Congressman Morrison, he of horizontal fame, was the caucus choice of the Democrats. But as the struggle was prolonged from day to day, it was thought that someone with a barrel, or "soap," as it had been termed by General Arthur in a preceding campaign, was needed to bring the Greenbackers into camp. In the emergency

d and Vivid the Lightning is! Will the Lightning Strike the Tree? Children, that

xt day

n Tree. But the Springfield Politicia

r ever put into English verse, its literary merit alone justifying its preservation, Field hims

AMBER

not of the

by the new

e not in s

orrowing wi

bark walnut b

lm on the

is to the di

soms the L

eks with a t

s the brown

ps down into ea

for the sw

rt tree has a

e on the d

f the Lambert

autiful fr

song of the

f the tra

t tree, with it

-paw of Po

soul with a

sweet dr

psalm of th

ossoming L

the Republicans to steal a march on their opponents in a by-election, and the deadlock was finally broken by Logan securing the bare 103 votes necessary to electi

RE.

burst of th

-oh, wher

e strewn for

a blast

mind the entire Mugwump movement revolved around Grover Cleveland and opposition to the election of Mr. Blaine. The former was not only the idol, but the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the decalogue to many of Field's Mugwump friends whom he cherished personally, but detested and lampo

aused by Mr. Slason Thompson's suggestion that a committee be appointed to investigate the report that J

s. What funds Colonel Ela secured would be used toward the election of the great white-souled Cleveland, and that would be all right. (Applause.) The use of m

anation. It was eminently satisfactory, and he

s instructed to deposit all campaign funds

ed Mr. Franklin H. Head, w

wump?" asked G

d I wish to join th

r unalterable belief in the Mugwump

s I understa

t every voter may vote as he chooses, irrespective of party, s

I choose, and irrespective of party, but I draw the l

y friend, and I'm rather glad of it, for one vice-pre

he was all right, or I wou

essential point, he is fatally weak. Go back, erring brother-go ba

gust in Melville Park, Glencoe. He would order a basket of chicken sandwiches, a g

, to strike out "chicken" and insert "sardine." Mr. Stone accepted the

ne to buy the sardines and tea at Brother Frank

Book of Martyrs" were nothing to what he, a stanch Republican partisan, earned by enduring and associating daily with the piping, puling independents who infested that "ranch." He said that he expected a place high

le Rock bonds. Field, throughout the campaign, stood by Blaine and Logan and defied the Mugwumps to do their worst. So on the morning after the election he was in a thoroughly disgusted mood. He scoffed at the idea of becoming a Mugwump, but declared himself ready to renounce his Republicanism and become a Democrat. To that end he prepared a formal renunciation. It consisted of a flamboyant denunciation of the past glories and present virtues of the Republican party and an enthusiastic eulogy of the crimes, blunders, and base methods of the Democratic party. Field announced that he preferred to be enrolled as a Democrat, and to ac

succeeded him in sole control, both papers retained their independence, but became less aggressive in the maintenance of their views. Mr. Lawson sought to make them impartial purveyors of unbiased news to all parties. Har

at he will, under no circumstances, become a candidate f

Mr. Stone was then editor of the paper; he was in the convention hall when Blaine's nomination was secured. His editorial associates waited with serious agitation his return, and his instructions as to the course which the paper would pursue in the emergency which had been presented. There were different opinions as to what Mr. Stone would be likely to do, but there was a general feeling that he would be likely

ooth, the dumb wheels reverenced the dismal sanctity of the hour. The elevator crept silently down with the five o'clock forms, so decently and so composedly as scarcely to jar the bottle of green ink on the Austin landholder's table. All at once the doo

h, but in so hollow and tube-like a tone as to give one the impression that the voice came from far away. A somewhat similar device is now exhibited in our museums, where,

licable machine that astounds the patrons of dime-museums. He seemed to take in the situation at once; knew as surely as though he had been told what we were talking about and how terribly we were wrought up. His right arm moved mech

man in that supreme m

foiled, his sweetest hopes frustrated. Yet he was calm. Ever and anon the sky that arches the Neapolitan landscape reaches down its lips, they say, and kisses the bald summit of Vesuvius; as if it recognized the grand impressiveness of this scene, the Mediterranean at such times h

adi janos-he who had addressed us in the tone of prehistoric centuries-he who bade us be calm, and at the same time gave us the finest tableau of human calmness human eye ever contemplated

orable death to the rewards of treachery, proudly cast their votes for the nominees of the grand old party,-these three men are entitled to places in the foremost rank of Christian martyrs. Two of them were Joe Bingham and Morgan Bates. Bingham is dead now; peace to his dust. He never was his old hearty self after the

tes would not pursue it long. He preferred to go into voluntary exile at Des Moines, Iowa; and in that glorious Republican harvest-field he accomplished a great and good work, w

he polls, and will then and there cast their individual votes for the nominees of the Republic

ost, like an Ossa, upon the Pelion of Infamy, which shall surely mark the grave of Mugwumpery. Every poem which we persecuted defenders of the faith have been bulldozed into weaving for the regalement of our persecutors shall be sung again when the other shore is reached, and when the horse and the rider are thrown into the sea. Never for a moment during the trials of these four years have we doubted (and when we say "we," Bates is in

n of the new day. Its warmth and its splendor will soon be over and about us. And, mindful of our martyrdom and contemplating its rew

ll thrill the

y in glo

e sinner

less flam

d did from these political tribulations. That he never lost his waggish or satirical interest in politics is evidenced by the f

FORE E

ur Honor," as on th

Hopkins, but to mo

year I've run the

cemen and the gamb

fool the pious peo

he medicine I

whole year round there

lection I'm as g

she hopes to se

Mugwumpery, whos

e has never known

candidates and tra

ntleman although

ut of scalps while s

at bossing things ar

election I'm as

ndering why I've lef

accent: "What's the m

ion comes from ou

r Hopkins is chock-f

penitent and wea

"Good gracious! how i

e to my racket a

election I'm as

o hope to get the

nd q's right sharp in

assess the boys for ev

rations, and prom

he ladies, and "ye

entioned, roll your

past has been-jest

lection I'm as g

blic men with a whimsical bit of his verse, descriptive of how business and politics are mixed in a

ESMAN'

pringfield g

ny yea

Bunn patrol

ragon

the people

ered ther

Bunn walked

y a dole

off a di

t of sor

red in a

s that vexe

w pitiful

how wondr

party at

ch a man

ith eager hea

e to buy

e, sugar, b

flour, a

y articl

good gr

se here ama

y fines

a canvass

presides

qualifi

y grocer

ce mesmerize

y ill

ed to the

r, eggs,

precipitat

my heart

s happy, h

a word

e goods of v

hey swell

leveland's nam

speak of

He eschewed controversy and controversial subjects. His study was literature and the domestic side and social amenities of life; and he left