Eugene Field, A Study In Heredity And Contradictions

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 ma

ostly irrelevant and immaterial legislation through the General Assembly hopper, but a running fire of pungent comment on the Idiosyncrasies of its officers and members. He would attach himself to the legislators whose personal qualities afforded most profitable ammunition 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 "west

d, light-hearted western paragrapher. Looking back it is possible, however, to discover something of the flavor of th

NEW

thee, eve

he poet th

and

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ho know not

most illus

enial

e brother

nd chant thei

m rev

O bards, your

yming souls,

se no

the festiv

ry loyal

peppe

h, 1

ut the author's name by London Truth, and went the rounds of the papers in this country, credited to that misnamed pap

L VE

drum in the

creak in the

s boom in the

poe whoops i

w

light soft

roll in the g

her'n and

deep-he is

hop as they l

y r

hen they ge

e little w

the creepfu

he sweet nas

parent li

w

aiden and

creak and bul

wail in the

l throbs wil

pain and the

gl

ver's dis

he newspaper paragrapher's work in the last century, the following "Funny Fanci

o, we mean a green peac

s has wedded a Miss Hoss. He doub

simple legend: "Smallpox in this House" will preser

nsations of Providence, and that is when he finds that his wi

the dearest spot on ea

at Atlanta. Of c

nt at the c

p

oq

r partner

y

si

ives your ch

wh

ba

ing whether they will leave their property to some charitable institu

ublican 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 practical 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

he gentleman who was to introduce Mr. Schurz, Field stepped to the fr

to make you a speedg to-night, but I haf die bleasure to introduce to you my

imself into the centre of the stage. Annoyance and mirth mingled in the explanations that followed. A

galley proof of a doggerel rhyme read by him at the printers' banquet, at St. Joseph, Mo., January 1st, 1876. It details the fate of a "Rat" printer, who, in addition to the mortal offence of

e fatal cannon

hile in accent

ats"-the fatal

inted upwards

boom! Slug 14's

ride a race u

e roof, and u

ht for "cases

ket, or like on

to earth-com

f the Eugene Field whose verses of occasion were destined within a

hich at one time almost limited literary fame in the United States to Henry James, William Dean Howells, Charles Dudley Warner, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Robert 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 Danbury News, an

en 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

be found the following reference t

ed "Christmas Treasures" [see "Little Book of Western Verse"]. Jus

by which he is best remembered. I need hardly say that with a few noteworthy exceptions his most highly-prized poems were written

owth as a writer. Under his management the Times became 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

n 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

dvance 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

, George?"

ll right," re

eipted," continu

d the graci

gravity that should have warned his

was George's la

fu

e unsuspecting philanthropist, enjoy

ng a muscle, "Is it not customary in Missouri when one ge

gradually recovered sufficiently to mumble, "Gen

culated, "Make it a case." And they made a night of it, such as would ha

ing Field often went to work n

ter Sue." It was entitled "The Little Peach" and has had a vogue fully as wide, if not as sentimental, as "Little Boy Blue." F

icly by Henry E. Dixey, John A. Mackey, Sol Smith Russell

e 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 melancholy humor and pathetic conclusion as did the author of their misfortunes and untimely end himself. As a penance, perhaps, for the injustice done

I have retranslated this poem into corresponding English, which

E

ish Equi

ear in a g

pear of e

sun and bath

g

ing that g

e pear kam

mith and 'i

se

pear a klu

he stem on

ttle pear o

k-a

ite and Sue

e trouble b

doktors ko

(parago

rf fare the

d Tom and '

tle souls to

o

he pear of

sun and bath

its mission on

ie