Show children Child rems beloved beli oved poet will sleep I 1 m cherchis churchs Chur chiS shadow shaaol 7 by DEWITT J MASON HEN eugene field moved W thirty years ago last summer to his sabine farm in the outskirts of chicago he said now that I 1 am here in my own house I 1 shall dball do better work than ever before the beloved childrens poet assembled his thousands of books arranged his treasured collection of antique bottles old songs bells walking sticks and tops hung on the wall the ax gladstone had given him laid out danas scissors and was rip supremely remely happy but lie he died khi all aind and was wag burled buried in graceland graveland Gra celand cemetery ce in chicago now the sabine farm home Is to give way to an apartment house also fields remains arl to be removed from graceland graveland Gra celand cemetery to a specially built memorial tomb in the cloisters of thy the little ivy clad ept episcopal church of the holy comforter at kenilworth ni ill it may be that there have been poets not necessarily better poets or more religious ones writes robert L duffus in the new york times who would feel more at home in the shadow of a cloister than would eugene field yet the two incidents together have their significance the sabine farm dissolves hito the thin substance stance of dreams but the memory of eugene field has not been corroded by the years it may be however that those who pass through the kenilworth cloisters will remember the author of the sugarplum sugar plum ilium tree and Wyn ken cn blyn ken and nod and forget the madcap editor and of the old denver and chicago days the wild humorist who gave utterance to the tribune primer the great jester who lived for the purpose of malting making pose and pretense ridiculous the relentless satirist eugene field came of a distinguished family but hot of one given to eccentric genius his father OB as counsel for the runaway negro dred scott made a protest against slavery which for a moment gave him national dional prominence his mother a women of beauty and charm died in 1856 when eugene was only six years old and he and his brother were brought up by an aunts aunt mary field french in Api herst mass at fifteen he went to a school at monson mass kept by a clergyman and hla his wife and at eighteen he entered williams college the trifflie influences nm that surrounded him were thus sobering if not abil absolutely puritanical he left williams partly because of the death of his father and partly because of the lack of enthusiasm over the prospect of having him any longer lie he had not committed any unpardonable offenses but he be too plainly hiked that respect for office and authority which was deemed es himatlal drut hiat lal next year he be entered knox college ebi lege at galesburg ill III an event chiefly important because during that year he began newspaper work by contri contributing butini to the galesburg lesburg 14 register he be was restless and in 1870 moved on to the university of 0 Misso missouri url at columbia the most significant thing that happened to him there was waa hla his meeting with the girl of fifteen who was later to become his alfa ills his share of his fathers estate was at the end of the year in columbia mo he shook tho the dust of higher education forever from his feet and set oft off with his friend edgar comstock brother of the young lady with whom he was in loc ione for a hilarious tour of europe from time to time lie he cabled home for money when six months had passed and the two adventurers had reached italy the was all gone 11 11 1 I came home broke he afterward said so I 1 got marr married led mrs field was then sixteen their life together was a happy one she bore him eight children and understood his whimsical variety of humor she also managed the family financed a task of which lie he was constitutionally incapable their only clashes came when he was caught trying to smuggle home books when money was needed to pay the grocer field knew that he was not in every respect a model husband and liked to tell about a conversation he once had in a dream with the patriarch job it la Is true job was represented as saying that tor for along a long time I 1 enjoyed quite a reputation for boang bang very patient but now I 1 have to take lake a back seat you see theres a woman in chicago named mrs eugene field w who he has proved herself a lot pa pat lenter than th an I 1 field had bad always wanted to be an actor he even bought complete sets of costumes eos for hamlet lear and ethello pt Qt hello and in 1872 actually went out with a company of other reckless youths on a barnstorming tour in june 1873 he went to the st louis evening journal as a cub reporter and before the year closed was city editor subsequently he was city editor of the gazette of st joseph a for the journal and the times journal in st louis managing editor of the kansas city times and then in 1881 managing editor of the denver tribune it was waa in denver that he began to acquire more than local fame not merely as aa managing editor of a lively paper but as dramatic critic and it Is essential to add practical joker in IM 1883 he was called to chicago at a considerable increase of fi alary to write whatever he pleased for the chicago news newl he took over a nondescript column called current gossip which blossomed out on august 31 81 1883 as aa tho the famous sharps and flats eugene eeugene field not talk u ft A rule in terms of little boy blue or 01 the wanderer lerer ile he saved that side of his lathre mostly for pen and am yet it spilled out 1 I always feel like shedding tears lie ho said eald to george millard one christinas ewhen I 1 see all those people going home with their little gifts for the babies I 1 cant help crying it overwhelms me ile he did not have to unbend to children lie ile understood them because lie he looked at the world through their eyes for him as fur them it had mystery 11 1 I believe he said in ghosts in witches and in fairles fairies 1 he had the air of a changeling an air of knowing more than lie he meant to tell that mummers bummers mum mers face as it a friend called called it hid more than it revealed he lamented as newspaper men have done doile ever since the acta v 5 rome that his bis job left him insufficient time and strength A gaunt awkward homely cel counted on to make people laugh and cry not even hla his wife knew perhaps what he was like when the makeup make up was off dana announced a standing offer of double the chicago Clil cago salary it if field would come comb to new york he preferred to sit alt in the record office and let fame A find d him there if it so desired litle A little book of western verse containing much of his best work appeared in 1889 and in a popular edition in 1800 1890 so did A little book of profitable tales when he went to england in IM 1889 he found his bis name a passport into whatever literary circles he cared to enter he was conscious of growing powers of larger plans but his health had never been robust and because he hated exercise was wai ond fond of tobacco and pastry and would not take enough sleep it grew worse for years he fought with humorous gallantry the inroads of dyspepsia in 1893 lie he nearly died of typhoid fever his heart gave way and he died in his sleep during the night of november 4 1895 he may have felt death coming for he had said a few days daxe before this Is the dying time of year ile he had grown gentler and more like the childrens eugene field the uncouth dancing spirit of the woods was less with him toward the last ins his final snood was that in which he be wrote by way of preface go forth little lyrics and sing to the hearts of men this beAutt beautiful ful world Is full of song and thy voices way may not be heard beard at allbut sins sing on children of ours sing to the hearts of men and thy song shall at least swell the universal harmony that bespeak eth gods god love jove and the sweetness of humanity |