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 BEG' 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 THE 
 STORY OF HIS LIFE FOR CHILDREN 
 
 BY 
 
 CLARA BANTA 
 
 A. T. SWEET, Publisher 
 
 KANSAS CITY, MO. 
 
fe 
 
 a. 
 
 
 22453 
 
 Copyrig-ht, 1898, 
 By A. T. Sweet. 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The purpose of this little volume is 
 twofold ; first, to place within the hands 
 of the children a stor^- of this sweet sing- 
 er of the lays of childhood, in so simple 
 a form that it can be read and understood 
 by them while yet in the lower g-rades, 
 with the hope that it may fill them with 
 the desire to read and to memorize the 
 poems of their own loved laureate ; and, 
 second, to assist the teacher in the prep- 
 aration of memorial exercises for the 
 observance of Field Day in the public 
 schools. 
 
If this little story creates a love for 
 Eugene Field in the breast of one little 
 child, or in any way lig-htenes the burden 
 of one weary teacher, it will not have 
 
 been written in vain. C. B. 
 
 Kansas City, Missouri, 
 
 December 8, 1898. 
 
2)eOicate^ to 
 
 Zbc JBo^s anD tbe (5irl9 
 
 Mbo arc Ibclping JSuilD 
 
 B /IRonument to 
 
 ^bc /IRcmori5 ot 
 
 Bugene jficlD 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. — Boyhood. 
 
 II.— School Life. 
 
 III. — Newspaper and Literary Work. 
 
 IV.— Home Life. 
 
 V. — Conclusion. 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 By Permission of Mrs. Field. 
 
Buoene jFtelb 
 
 I. 
 
 BOYHOOD. 
 
 *'Lristen, my children, and you shall hear" 
 
 not 
 "Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere," 
 
 UT of a man who is called the Child- 
 ren's Poet. A man whom all of you 
 love, because he wrote verses for little 
 people. 
 
 No other poet ever made such beautiful, 
 simple rhymes for the willing, listening- 
 ears of childhood. No other man was 
 ever loved by half so many childish 
 hearts. 
 
EUGKNK FIELD 
 
 Would jou not like to know the name 
 of this friend of yours? It is Bug-ene 
 Field, the Children's Laureate. 
 
 On September 2, 1850, in the city of 
 St. Louis, there was born to Roswell 
 Martin Field and his wife, Frances Reed 
 Field, a little son, whom they named 
 Eugene. 
 
 When this little boy was but six years 
 old the dear mother died, and Eug-ene 
 and his brother, Roswell, were taken to 
 New England where they lived with 
 their cousin, Miss Mary Field French, in 
 Amherst, Massachusetts. 
 
 Here in this old college town he spent 
 his quiet, happy childhood. When nine 
 years old he and his brother went to their 
 grandmother's country home in Vermont. 
 It was Eus-ene's first visit to the country. 
 
KUGHNS FIEI.D 
 
 and how he enjoyed it! He said after- 
 wards that his love for nature dates from 
 that visit. 
 
 He must have looked at everything- very 
 carefully, for he has told us of so many 
 things in nature — of the birds, the flow- 
 ers, the trees, the toads, and the bees — 
 in a poem that tells of his boyhood days. 
 
 Read the poem, "Long- Ag-o," in his 
 Little Book of Western Verse, and you 
 will see things in nature you never saw 
 before, althoug-h you may have looked 
 at them many times. 
 
 The boys remained here in the country 
 for seven months ; but the days were not 
 as full of happiness for the grandmother 
 as they were for Kugene and Roswell, 
 for sometimes they sorely tried the dear 
 old lady's patience. 
 
KUGENE FIKLD 
 
 She was very anxious for Kug-ene to be 
 a preacher when he became a man, so 
 she hired him to write sermons when he 
 was a little boy, g-iving- him ten cents for 
 every one he wrote. Kug-ene was at that 
 time fully persuaded to become a preacher; 
 but whether it was the regard for his 
 g-randmother's wishes, or the love of the 
 ten cents, we do not know. One of these 
 juvenile sermons was kept and is now in 
 possession of his family. It is a very 
 solemn and awful plea for wicked people 
 to become better. 
 
 He was also paid five dollars for learn- 
 ing- the Ten Commandments. He did 
 not then enjoy studying* the Bible. But 
 when a man he said, "I would not ex- 
 change for any amount of money the ac- 
 quaintance with the Bible that was 
 drummed into me when I was a boy." 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 He did enjoy, however, learning- pieces 
 to speak and then reciting- them to his 
 friends. Some of his favorites were. 
 Long- fellow's "Psalm of Life," and the 
 last part of "The Building- of the Ship," 
 Drake's "American Flag-," Bryant's 
 "Death of the Flowers," Mrs. Hemans' 
 "Landing- of the Pilg-rims" and Halleck's 
 " Marco Bozzaris." 
 
 He was very kind to every thing-, but 
 especially so to animals. He made pets 
 of all he could g-et except the horse, for 
 he was always afraid of this g-ood servant 
 of mankind. His brother has told us 
 that every friendless dog- or homeless cat 
 always found in him a champion and 
 friend. 
 
 He loved to call his pets by fanciful, 
 unheard-of names, and imag-ined each 
 one had a languag-e of its own which he 
 
EUGEJNK F*IKI.D 
 
 understood. He would talk to them in 
 this peculiar tong-ue, and felt they knew 
 what he said. 
 
 Caring- for the poultry was p art of his 
 work. Once when among- them he stepped 
 on a little chick and killed it. He rushed 
 to the house, threw himself down on the 
 sofa, and cried as if his heart would 
 break. He was a true "Band of Mercy" 
 boy, even if there was no band then for 
 him to join. His kindness toward ani- 
 mals remained with him throug-h life. 
 When he had children of his own he 
 taug-ht them to be g-ood to dumb crea- 
 tures, often saying- to them, "Remember 
 the pussy and the puppy think you are a 
 g-reat, big- g-iant." 
 
 In their New Eng*land home they had 
 a dog- whose name was Pido, but 'Gene 
 
EUGKOK FIELD 
 
 called him Doolej^ His pity for this pet 
 suffering- from heat and fleas called 
 forth his first rhyme. 
 
 It was not ver}^ pretty poetry,but it was 
 quite g-ood for a boy to write, and it 
 shows us what a kind hearted little fellow 
 he was. A boy who loves animals and 
 treats them kindly never grows up to be 
 a bad man. 
 
 Years afterward Mr. Field wrote about 
 Doole}' in a poem called "The Bench- 
 Leg-g-ed Fyce." Would you not like to 
 read it? 
 
 One Christmas, while the boys were 
 still in Amherst, they had a Christmas 
 tree. After the presents were taken off, 
 Eug-ene and "Roswell planted the tree at 
 the corner of Sunset Avenue and Amity 
 Street. Kug-ene never forgot it, and 
 
8 KUGKNK FlKlvD 
 
 many years afterward in talking- with a 
 friend he said he hoped sometime to re- 
 turn to the old town and put on the tree 
 an inscription something- like this: 
 
 "Pause, busy traveler, and g-ive a 
 thought to the happy days of two west- 
 ern boys who lived in old New England, 
 and make resolve to render the boyhood 
 near you happier and brighter." 
 
EUGENE FIELD 
 
 11. 
 
 SCHOOL UFE. 
 
 ipUGENE remained in Amherst with 
 his kind hearted, motherly cousin till 
 he was about nineteen 3^ears of ag-e. 
 
 Durin(f this time he had been sent to 
 school in Amherst, and had also spent a 
 year in Williams College, which is in 
 Williamstown, Massachusetts. He should 
 have entered colleg-e two years earlier, 
 but could not on account of poor health. 
 
 In the summer of 1869 his father died, 
 and he went with his g-uardian, Dr. Bur- 
 g-ess, to Galesburg-, Illinois, where he 
 attended Knox Colleg^e for a year. The 
 next year he went to Missouri and 
 
10 EUGKNK FIKLD 
 
 entered the State University at Colum- 
 bia, where his brother was then in school. 
 
 In speaking- of his school life here, he 
 once said to a friend, "Columbia was an 
 old slave-holding- town, but I liked it. 
 I've g-ot a streak of Southern feeling- in 
 me. 
 
 While in school at Columbia, he was 
 not a very g-ood student; but he was a 
 great favorite with the young- men of the 
 school. He helped them with the colleg-e 
 paper, was the author of their song-s, 
 and a leader in all their fun and frolics. 
 Sometimes this fun was carried too far 
 and became real mischief. 
 
 Dr. Reed, the president of the univer- 
 sity at this time, had a fine carriag-e horse 
 of which he was very proud. One night 
 KutJ-ene Field roached this horse's mane 
 
EUGENE FIELD 11 
 
 and shaved its tail. There was a white 
 horse, also, in the same barn, and this 
 one he painted red, white and blue. 
 
 The next morning- when Dr. Reed went 
 to the barn, he did not know his own 
 horses, and turned the painted one out 
 as a stray. In a short time a man stopped 
 and asked him if his big- gray mule was 
 for sale. This mule buyer was Eugene 
 Field disguised so that Dr. Reed did not 
 know him. 
 
 Injuring- the horses in this way was a 
 very mean act, and had this young man 
 been more thoughtful at that time of 
 what was right and what was wrong, he 
 would have scorned the idea of doing such 
 a thing-. But bad deeds are remembered 
 as well as g-ood ones, and the only way 
 to have people always think well of us is 
 for us always to do well. 
 
12 EUGENE FIEIrD 
 
 One of his favorite enjo^^ments was 
 sitig-itig-, and many a nig-ht the people of 
 Columbia were aroused from their sleep 
 b}' the sweet tenor voice of Kug-ene Field 
 out with a serenading- party. 
 
 When he studied no one knew, but he 
 did not entirely neg-lect his lessons, for 
 he always passed his examinations quite 
 well. In an oratorical contest in which 
 many students took part, he won the medal 
 over all of them. Heg-ot fun out of this 
 contest as he did out of everything- else, for 
 he presented a big- wooden spoon in which 
 he had written a humorous verse, to one 
 of the young- men who had been defeated 
 by him. 
 
 It was while in school here that he 
 learned to love the writing-s of an old 
 Latin poet, Horace, and throug-h his 
 
EUGENE FIEI.D 13 
 
 knowleclg-e of this old author, he g-eiined 
 for a friend the Hon. William E. Glad- 
 stone, 
 
 Nearly twenty years after Bug-ene 
 Field's school days in Columbia, he vis- 
 ited the "Grand Old Man" at his home, 
 Hawarden Castle, in Eng-land. They 
 exchanged translations of Horace, and 
 when Mr. Field left Hawarden, he carried 
 with him as a present from Mr. Glad- 
 stone, the famous ax which this sturdy 
 old man had used in chopping- down trees 
 in the forest near his home. 
 
 At the close of school in 1872 Mr. 
 Field decided to spend a year traveling 
 in Europe with Mr. Comstock, a college 
 friend. They went to Mr. Comstock's 
 home in St. Joseph, Missouri, for a short 
 visit before startinsr on their trio. 
 
14 EUGENE FIETvD 
 
 A month was spent here in this pleas- 
 ant family. These were happ}', g-olden 
 days to Kug-ene Field. Miss Julia, the 
 second daug-hter, a sweet g-irl of fifteen, 
 was his favorite companion. They soon 
 became very much attached to each other 
 and before he left for Kurope he had suc- 
 ceeded in making her promise to become 
 his wife sometime. 
 
 At the end of the month, after a fond 
 farewell to his little sweetheart, he and 
 his friend left for their European trip. 
 Before they reached the Atlantic coast 
 Mr. Comstock missed Mr. Field. He 
 searched for him but failed to find him 
 anywhere. He had no idea where he 
 was, but his sister Julia knew, for he had 
 come back to St. Joseph to see her again 
 before he took his long- journey. 
 
KUGKNE FIELD 15 
 
 Roswell Martin Field, Eug-ene's father, 
 had been a noted lawj^er, and had 
 made quite a fortune. Eug-ene's share 
 of this was sixty thousand dollars, but by 
 the time he returned from his trip 
 throug-h Italy and France, little of all this 
 money was left, thoug-h he had traveled 
 but six months instead of a year as he 
 had intended. 
 
16 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 III. 
 
 NEWSPAPKR AND LITERARY 
 WORK. 
 
 *ffT was ag-ood thing- for Eiig"ene P^ield 
 that his mone}^ was g-oiie, for now he felt 
 the need of having- something- to do. A 
 friend advised him to try newspaper work, 
 so he became a reporter on the St. Louis 
 Journal. From St. Louis he went to St. 
 Joseph where he was associate-editor of 
 the Gazette. The next position he held 
 was that of managing- editor of the Kan- 
 sas Cit}^ Times. He afterwards took a 
 similar position on the Denver Tribune. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. Field went to Chicag-o. 
 Here he accepted a position on the staff 
 
EUGENE FIELD 17 
 
 of the Morning- News. The name of this 
 paper was afterwards chang-ed to the 
 Chicag-o Record. He remained with this 
 paper until the time of his death, editing 
 the column in it known as "Sharps and 
 P'lats." 
 
 His newspaper work was not like other 
 men's. There was a brig-htness and a 
 humor in it that pleased everybody, and 
 he soon became well known all over the 
 United States. But his fame now rests 
 mainly on his verses for children. 
 
 This man was always a child. He 
 loved children and childish thing-s, and 
 enjoyed romping- and playing- as well as 
 he did when a boy. 
 
 He himself loved "the little toy dog- " 
 and "the little toy soldier," so we find 
 his "Little Boy Blue" loving- them, too. 
 
18 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 He knew the joys of a trundle-bed, so 
 he tells us of the vojag-e to Dreamland of 
 "Wjnken, Blynken and Nod" in their 
 wooden shoe. 
 
 He was always surrounded by dogs and 
 cats and loved fancy pieces of china, so 
 this is the reason he has told us such an 
 amusing- story of what a Chinese plate 
 told him about a fight that occurred one 
 night between a gingham dog and a 
 calico cat. You will enjoy reading about 
 them in the little verses entitled "The 
 Duel." 
 
 Had he not sometime in his life been 
 afraid of the dark, he could not have so 
 well written "Seein' Things at 
 Night," which tells us how a little boy- 
 felt and what he saw after the light was 
 taken away and he was left alone in the 
 dark. 
 
EUGENE FIELD 1^ 
 
 The little poem entitled "Some Time'' 
 tells us how he loved his own children. 
 Read this one, also, for it will help 3 on 
 to feel how much your father and mother 
 love you. 
 
 One person writing- about the help that 
 came to people through Mr. Field's poems 
 tells us the following- story:— 
 "I came upon an old, white-haired man 
 in the burying- g-rouud of a Canadian vil- 
 lage. He was reading, not his Bible, 
 though it lay close beside, but a news- 
 paper. He lifted a peaceful face to mine 
 and said, in answer to my inquiry, 'I 
 haven't felt so well since she left me as 
 I do to-day. You see, I've been reading 
 of another old grandfather who had to 
 go on living a spell after he had lost his 
 sunshine, and the man who wrote it— he 
 
20 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 seems to kind of know — ^just — how^— it 
 feels.' And the tears fell upon the paper 
 on his knee. He had been reading- Eu- 
 g-ene Field's poem, 'Telling- the Bees.'" 
 Mr. Field verj^ often received letters 
 from children telling- him how much the}' 
 liked his verses, and, big--hearted man 
 that he was, he answered the childish 
 scrawls. 
 
 Once a little g-irl wrote and told him 
 she intended to be just such a writer as 
 he was, when she g-rew to be a woman. 
 He answered her letter, telling- her of all 
 the beautiful thing-s he could see from 
 his window, of the birds and the flowers; 
 and then ended bj saying-, ''Now I must 
 go out and shoot a buffalo for breakfast." 
 
 Do you not wish that 3'ou all mig-ht 
 have had a letter from this man who knew 
 
EUGENE FIELD 21 
 
 SO well how to please childen? As this, 
 of course, is impossible, you may still 
 learii very much about the kind of man 
 he was, and what he has written for 3'ou 
 by reading- all of the poems which are 
 spoken of in this story. You will also 
 find many more pretty poems and stories 
 for children in his books: " Love 
 Song-s of Childhood," "With Trumpet 
 and Drum," ''Little Book of Western 
 Verse," " Second Book of Verse," '"Lit- 
 tle Book of Profitable Tales," and " The 
 Holy Cross and Other Tales." 
 
 Perhaps Santa Claus may sometime 
 bring you one of these books, and if he 
 should do so, be sure to read it carefully. 
 
 At the time of his death Mr. Field was 
 busily eng-ag-ed in writing- a book, "The 
 Love Affairs of a Bib-li-o-ma-ni-ac." 
 This lontr word means one who is verv 
 
22 KUGENE FIELD 
 
 fond of books, and the story tells us of 
 the pleasures that come to one who loves 
 to own books and read them. 
 
EUGENK FIKI.D 23 
 
 HOME LIFE. 
 
 ^N an October day in 1873 there Was to 
 be a wedding- in St. Joseph. The guests 
 had assembled at the church, the bridal 
 party was waiting-, the hour for the mar- 
 riag-e was near at hand, but the bride- 
 groom came not. 
 
 Some of of his friends, knowing- how 
 forg-etful this young- man was, went in 
 search of him; and where do you suppose 
 they found him, and who do you suppose 
 it was ? 
 
 It was none other than Mr. Eug-ene 
 Field, down on his knees in the dirt, set- 
 
24 SUGKNE PlKLt) 
 
 tliiio;- a quarrel between two little street 
 urchins over a game of marbles. 
 
 The sig-ht of his friends brought to his 
 mind the thought that tliis was his wed- 
 ding day, so he hastened to the church, 
 where he was united in marriage with 
 Miss Julia Southerland Comstock. 
 
 Their married life was a very happy 
 one; for Mr. Field was a noble, kind- 
 hearted husband, and Mrs. Field a good, ? ^ 
 faithful wife. 
 
 Mr. Field's most pleasant hours were 
 those spent at home with his wife and 
 children. To his wife he was a petted 
 child who had to be carefully looked 
 after, to his children he was an older 
 brother whose sole aim was to make 
 them happy. 
 
 He called his home at Buena Park, 
 Chicago, the Sabine Farm; and his 
 
EUGENE FIELD 25 
 
 Study in this home, he called his "den." 
 Could you have peeped into this room 
 when Mr. Field was there, you would 
 have seen a very tall, slender man with 
 a sober, yet pleasant, face. Had he 
 caug-ht a g-limpse of you, his deep-set, 
 bluish-^ray eyes would have beamed up- 
 on 3^ou so kindly that you surely would 
 have entered the room where he was and 
 have asked him about the wonderful 
 thing-s it contained. 
 
 You would have seen in this "den'' all 
 kinds of funny toys, dolls more than a 
 hundred, dainty china dishes, queer old 
 candlesticks, Indian relics, cases of but- 
 ter-flies, cag-es of canaries, and souvenirs 
 of noted men and women from all over 
 the world. 
 
 The children's play room was often in 
 his study, for he loved to have them 
 
26 EUGENE) FIELD 
 
 near him. He sometimes took the baby, 
 put it in a big- clothes basket, and let it 
 play with toys which he fastened to the 
 end of a fishing- pole. He would write 
 till he grew tired, then turn awa}' from 
 his desk and play with the children till 
 he felt like working again. 
 
 He called all his children by pet names, 
 as he had called his animal friends when 
 a boy. 
 
 To others, his oldest daughter was 
 Mary French Field, but to him, she was 
 Trotty. The boys, Eugene and Fred- 
 erick, were known to him as Pinny and 
 Daisy, and the two baby children he 
 called Posie and Little Sister Girl. 
 
 Once when some one asked Posie his 
 and his little sister's names, he said: 
 **My name is Posie, but my next name is 
 
EUGENE FIELD 27 
 
 Roswell Francis Field; and hers is Lit- 
 tle Sister Girl, but her next name is Ruth 
 Gray. Sanders" (meaning- his father) 
 "always calls us Posie an' Sister." 
 
 On being- asked what he intended to do 
 when he became a man, he said: "Write 
 stories like Sanders 'bout animals." 
 
 One day some one was readiug aloud 
 from a newspaper something- about the 
 "Child Poet." They wondered if Posie, 
 who was in the room, understood who 
 was meant by the "Child Poet," so they 
 asked him. He looked v^exed to think 
 they would ask him such a simple ques- 
 tion, and quickly replied, "Us — Sanders 
 'n' me." 
 
 Mrs. Field had to do all the managing- 
 for the family, for Mr. Field knew but one 
 use for money, and that was to spend it 
 
28 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 as fast as he made it. She loved her 
 husband so well that she never learned 
 not to entrust him with money. 
 
 Once she g'ave him fifty dollars which 
 was to be used in paying- the rent. He left 
 the house fully intending- to use the 
 money as directed. But, g'oing down the 
 street, he met a man with eight cases of 
 butterflies. In a very short time Mr. 
 Field had the butterflies and the man the 
 fifty dollars. Rushing home with them, 
 he called out to his wife, "Never mind 
 about that rent. I've got the finest col- 
 lection of butterflies on the North Side." 
 Mrs. Field merely said, "Dear me! 'Gene, 
 where on earth can we put them?" 
 
 Another time she gave him twenty 
 dollars to pay some bills, and you could 
 never sruess what he did with it. He 
 
EUGENE FIELD 29 
 
 Spent it for a little dog*. He knew that 
 Mrs. Field wonld think that the money 
 had been spent foolishly, so when he 
 reached home he lay face downward on 
 the floor, and remained there till his wife 
 came and asked him what had happened. 
 He then told her what he had done, and 
 begg'ed her forg-iveness. As soon as she 
 forgave him, he g-ot up and raced throug-h 
 the house with his new pet. 
 
 With all her cares and anxieties Mrs. 
 Field did not lose her youthful beauty, 
 or her sweet, loving disposition. No one 
 was prouder of this fact than her hus- 
 band, who loved to write her dainty little 
 verses which told her these thing-s in a 
 very pretty way. 
 
 One summer Mr. and Mrs. Field went 
 back to St. Joseph on a visit. While 
 
30 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 there they were invited to a lunch party. 
 Mrs. Field went with some of their 
 friends, and Mr. Field was to come later. 
 But he, left alone, thought of the old days 
 when he was a youth, and she a maiden, 
 and, forgetting- all about the lunch 
 party, he took a carriage and drove alone 
 to all the places they had so often visited 
 in the happy time of their love-making. 
 One of these places called "Lover's 
 Lane," he has told us of in a poem writ- 
 ten when he and his family were in 
 London. 
 
 No one ever loved a book more than 
 Eugene Field. He called the New Eng- 
 land Primer his first love. 
 
 One of his greatest pleasures was mak- 
 ing collections of books. He spent so 
 much money for rare old volumes that 
 
EUGENE FIELD 31 
 
 he felt ashamed to tell his wife; so when 
 he came home with a new book, he often 
 told her that Mr. Flail, Judg-e Trask or 
 Colonel Bisland had given it to him. 
 
 He soon had so many books obtained 
 in this way that Mrs. Field felt very 
 grateful to these unknown friends who 
 had been so kind to her husband, and in- 
 sisted on their being- invited to the Field 
 home to dinner. Mr. Field then had to 
 tell her they were just "make-believe" 
 people, and that he, himself, had bought 
 the books. 
 
 But with all of Mr. Field's reckless 
 use of money, and a desire to turn the 
 house into a combined museum, menag- 
 erie and library, there was no happier 
 home in all that great city than the one 
 where was found Eugene Field and his 
 wife and children. 
 
32 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 V. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 ^URING the last years of his life, Mr. 
 Field became very popular as a reader of 
 his own poems. He had an eng-ag^ement 
 to g'ive a reading- in Kansas Cit}^ on Mon- 
 day evening', November 4, 1895; but when 
 the evening- came, he was lying- dead in 
 his home at the Sabine Farm in Buena 
 Park, Chicag-o. 
 
 He had been suffering- from a severe 
 cold for several days, but no one thoug-ht 
 of his being- very ill. After a pleasant 
 evening- spent with his family and a 
 friend who had intended to g-o with him 
 to Kansas City, he retired Sunday night 
 
EUGENE FIELD 33 
 
 feeling- better than he had for some time; 
 but he died from heart failure the next 
 morning at 5 o'clock. He was buried 
 in Graceland Cemeterj-, Wednesday, No- 
 vember 6. 
 
 The family had many friends who sor- 
 rowed with them, but none more truly so 
 than the little poor children whom he 
 had in some way befriended. 
 
 A little crippled boy, a stranger to the 
 family, came before the funeral and 
 asked if he might see Mr. Field. His re- 
 quest was granted, and he hobbled into 
 the death chamber, where he stood piti- 
 fully g-azing- at the face of his dead 
 friend. 
 
 A little g-irl, too poor to buy a flower, 
 begged a yellow rose to take to Mr. Field, 
 as a mark of her love for him. 
 
34 EUGENE FIEI.D 
 
 The family, fully knowing- which flower 
 would be his choice, could he have 
 selected it, chose this simple rose 
 from all the beautiful flowers sent, and 
 placed it in his hand as he lay in his 
 casket ready for the tomb, thus forming* 
 a bond to the last between him and the 
 children. 
 
 Mr. Field little dreamed that he would 
 be compelled to leave his work while yet 
 m the prime of life. He felt that his 
 best days were yet to come. As he g-rew 
 older, his writing's became better, and had 
 he lived to a ripe old ag-e, as did Longfel- 
 low, Whittier, Bryant and Holmes, we 
 surely should have had many more beauti- 
 ful thing's from the pen of this poet, who 
 knew so well how to touch our hearts. 
 
 Memorial services were held on Sun- 
 
EUGENE FIELD 35 
 
 day, November 10, and the vast crowd 
 which filled the hall and packed the 
 street told how well Chicag-o loved 
 Eug-ene Field. 
 
 During- this service, the Rev. Dr. Bris- 
 tol expressed the following- beautiful 
 thoug-ht: 
 
 "Some day, out in God's acre, where 
 ang-els sing- their 'Sleep, Oh, Sleep,' a 
 monument shall mark the resting- place 
 of our g-entle poet; and let it be built, as 
 was Daniel Defoe's in London, by the 
 loving-, g-rateful contribution of the child- 
 ren ol the land." 
 
 Money is being raised by the people of 
 Chicag-o for the purpose of erecting- a 
 monument, in Lincoln Park, to the mem- 
 ory of Eug-ene Field. 
 
 But Chicag-o is not alone in her efforts 
 
36 EUGENE FIELD 
 
 to pay tribute to this sweet sing-er, for no 
 place loves Kug-ene Field more than Mis- 
 souri. She feels he is hers, also; for here 
 he was bom, here he finished his educa- 
 tion, here he did his first newspaper 
 work, and here he was married. 
 
 Since his death, the fourth da}- of No- 
 vember has been known as Field Day in 
 -Missouri, and memorial exercises are held 
 by the school children, The boys and 
 g-irls have g"iven their pennies, nickels 
 and dimes for a monument to be erected on 
 the campus of the State University of 
 Missouri at Columbia. 
 
 A fitting- desig-n for this monument 
 would be a statue of Eug-ene Field with 
 ^'Little Sister Girl" on his knee and 
 '"Posie" nestling- by hisside; while on the 
 base should be the inscription — "Sanders 
 an' me!" 
 
EUGENE FIELD 37 
 
 When this monument is unveiled, it 
 should be a joyous, as well as a solemn oc- 
 casion, and one in which the brig-ht faced 
 boys and girls of our public schools could 
 join in singing- the songs and reciting the 
 poems of their fallen comrade and friend; 
 for these are the ones for whom this 
 man loved to toil and sing. 
 
 May the sweet memories of Eugene 
 Field's deeds of kindness and the beauty 
 of his simple rhymes long be a blessings 
 to the children of our free, happy land! 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 015 785 975 4(