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

In the loving "Memory" which his brother Roswell contributed to the "Sabine Edition" of Eugene Field's "Little Book of Western Verse," he says: "Comradeship was the indispensable factor in my brother's life. It was strong in his youth: it grew to be an imperative necessity in later life. In the theory that it is sometimes good to be alone he had little or no faith." From the time of Eugene's coming to Chicago until my marriage, in 1887, I was his closest comrade and almost constant companion.

At the Daily News office, for a time, we shared the same room and then the adjoining rooms of which I have spoken. Field was known about the office as my "habit," a relationship which gave point to the touching appeal which served as introduction to the dearly cherished manuscript copy, in two volumes, of nearly one hundred of his poems, which was his wedding gift to Mrs. Thompson. It was entitled, in red ink, "Ye Piteous Complaynt of a Forsooken Habbit; a Proper Sonet," and reads:

Ye boone y aske is smalle indeede

Compared with what y once did seeke-

Soe, ladye, from yr. bounteous meede

Y pray you kyndly heere mee speke.

Still is yr. Slosson my supporte,

As once y was his soul's delite-

Holde hym not ever in yr. courte-

O lette me have hym pay-daye nite!

One nite per weeke is soothly not

Too oft to leese hym from yr. chaynes;

Thinke of my lorne impoverisht lotte

And eke my jelous panges and paynes;

Thinke of ye chekes y stille do owe-

Thinke of my quenchlesse appetite-

Thinke of my griffes and, thinking so,

Oh, lette me have hym pay-daye nite!

Along the border of this soulful appeal was engrossed, in a woful mixture of blue and purple inks: "Ye habbit maketh mone over hys sore griffe and mightylie beseacheth the ladye yt she graunt hym ye lone of her hoosband on a pay-daye nite."

Through those years of comradeship we were practically inseparable from the time he arrived at the office, an hour after me, until I bade him good-night at the street-car or at his own door, when, according to our pact, we walked and talked at his expense, instead of supping late at mine. The nature of this pact is related in the following verse, to which Field prefixed this note: "While this poem is printed in all the 'Reliques of Ye Good Knights' Poetrie,' and while the incident it narrates is thoroughly characteristic of that Knightly Sage, the versification is so different from that of the other ballads that there is little doubt that this fragment is spurious. Prof. Max Beeswanger (Book III., page 18, old English Poetry) says that these verses were written by Friar Terence, a learned monk of the Good Knight's time."

THE GOOD KNIGHT TO SIR SLOSSON

The night was warm as summer

And the wold was wet with dew,

And the moon rose fair,

And the autumn air

From the flowery prairies blew;

You took my arm, ol' Nompy,

And measured the lonely street,

And you said, "Let's walk

In the gloom and talk-

'Tis too pleasant to-night to eat!"

And you quoth: "Old Field supposin'

Hereafter we two agree;

If it's fair when we're through

I'm to walk with you-

If it's foul you're to eat with me!"

Then I clasped your hand, ol' Nompy,

And I said: "Well, be it so."

The night was so fine

I didn't opine

It could ever rain or snow!

But the change came on next morning

When the fickle mercury fell,

And since, that night

That was warm and bright

It's snowed or it's rained like-well.

Have you drawn your wages, Nompy?

Have you reckoned your pounds and pence?

Harsh blows the wind,

And I feel inclined

To banquet at your expense!

The "Friar Terence" of Field's note was the Edward J. McPhelim to whom reference has already been made, who often joined us in our after-theatre symposiums, but could not be induced to walk one block if there was a street-car going his way.

As bearing on the nature of these "banquets," and the unending source of enjoyment they were to both of us, the following may throw a passing light:

Discussing great and sumptuous cheer

At Boyle's one midnight dark and drear

Two gentle warriors sate;

Out spake old Field: "In sooth I reck

We bide too long this night on deck-

What, ho there, varlet, bring the check!

Egad, it groweth late!"

Then out spake Thompson flaming hot:

"Now, by my faith, I fancy not,

Old Field, this ribald jest;

Though you are wondrous fair and free

With riches that accrue to thee,

The check to-night shall come to me-

You are my honored guest!"

But with a dark forbidding frown

Field slowly pulled his visor down

And rose to go his way-

"Since this sweet favor is denied,

I'll feast no more with thee," he cried-

Then strode he through the portal wide

While Thompson paused to pay.

Speaking of "the riches that accrued" to Field it may be well to explain that when he came to Chicago from Denver he was burdened with debts, and although subsequently he was in receipt of a fair salary, it barely sufficed to meet his domestic expenses and left little to abate the importunity of the claims that followed him remorselessly. He lived very simply in a flat on the North Side-first on Chicago Avenue, something over a mile from the office, later on in another flat further north, on La Salle Avenue, and still later, and until he went to Europe, in a small rented house on Crilly Place, which is a few blocks west of the south end of Lincoln Park.

By arrangement with the business office, Field's salary was paid to Mrs. Field weekly, she having the management of the finances of the family. Field, Ballantyne, and I were the high-priced members of the News staff at that time, but our pay was not princely, and two of us were engaged in a constant conspiracy to jack it up to a level more nearly commensurate, as we "opined," with our respective needs and worth. The third member of the trio, who personally sympathized with our aspirations and acknowledged their justice, occupied an executive position, where he was expected to exercise the most rigorous economy. Moreover, he had a Scotsman's stern and brutal sense of his duty to get the best work for the least expenditure of his employer's money. It was not until Field and I learned that Messrs. Lawson & Stone were more appreciative of the value of our work that our salaries gradually rose above the level where Ballantyne would have condemned them to remain forever in the sacred name of economy.

I have said that Field's weekly salary-"stipend," he called it-was paid regularly to Mrs. Field. I should have said that she received all of it that the ingenious and impecunious Eugene had not managed to forestall. Not a week went by that he did not tax the fertility of his active brain to wheedle Collins Shackelford, the cashier, into breaking into his envelope for five or ten dollars in advance. These appeals came in every form that Field's fecundity could invent. When all other methods failed the presence of "Pinny" or "Melvin" in the office would afford a messenger and plan of action that was always crowned with success. "Pinny" especially seemed to enter into his father's schemes to move Shackelford's sympathy with the greatest success. He was also very effective in moving Mr. Stone to a consideration of Field's requests for higher pay.

In his "Eugene Field I Knew," Francis Wilson has preserved a number of these touching "notes" to Shackelford, in prose and verse, but none of them equals in the shrewd, seductive style, of which Field was master, the following, which was composed with becoming hilarity and presented with befitting solemnity:

A SONNET TO SHEKELSFORD

Sweet Shekelsford, the week is near its end,

And, as my custom is, I come to thee;

There is no other who has pelf to lend,

At least no pelf to lend to hapless me;

Nay, gentle Shekelsford, turn not away-

I must have wealth, for this is Saturday.

Ah, now thou smil'st a soft relenting smile-

Thy previous frown was but a passing joke,

I knew thy heart would melt with pity while

Thou heardst me pleading I was very broke.

Nay, ask me not if I've a note from Stone,

When I approach thee, O thou best of men!

I bring no notes, but, boldly and alone,

I woo sweet hope and strike thee for a ten.

December 3d, 1884.

There is no mistaking the touch of the author of "Mr. Billings of Louisville" in these lines, in which humor and flattery robbed the injunction of Mr. Stone against advancing anything on Field's salary of its binding force. Having once learned the key that would unlock the cashier's box, he never let a week go by without turning it to some profitable account. But it is only fair to say that he never abused his influence over Mr. Shackelford to lighten the weekly envelope by more than the "necessary V" or the "sorely needed X."

I have dwelt upon these conditions because they explain to some extent our relations, and why, after we had entered upon our study of early English ballads and the chronicles of knights and tourneys, Field always referred to himself as "the good but impecunious Knight, sans peur et sans monnaie," while I was "Sir Slosson," "Nompy," or "Grimesey," as the particular roguery he was up to suggested.

It was while I was visiting my family in the province of New Brunswick, in the fall of 1884, that I received the initial evidence of a particular line of attack in which Field delighted to show his friendship and of which he never wearied. It came in shape of an office postal card addressed in extenso, "For Mr. Alexander Slason Thompson, Fredericton, New Brunswick"-the employment of the baptismal "Alexander" being intended to give zest to the joke with the postal officials in my native town. The communication to which the attention of the curious was invited by its form read:

CHICAGO, October 6th, 1884.

GRIMESEY:

Come at once. We are starving! Come and bring your wallet with you.

EUGENE F--D.

JOHN F. B--E.

Of course the postmaster at Fredericton read the message, and I was soon conscious that a large part of the community was consumed with curiosity as to my relations with my starving correspondents.

But this served merely as a prelude to what was to follow. My visit was cut short by an assignment from the Daily News to visit various towns in Maine to interview the prominent men who had become interested, through James G. Blaine, in the Little Rock securities which played such a part in the presidential campaigns of 1876 and 1884. For ten days I roved all over the state, making my headquarters at the Hotel North, Augusta, where I was bombarded with postal cards from Field. They were all couched in ambiguous terms and were well calculated to impress the inquisitive hotel clerk with the impecuniosity of my friends and with the suspicion that I was in some way responsible for their desperate condition. Autograph hunters have long ago stripped me of most of these letters of discredit, but the following, which has escaped the importunity of collectors of Fieldiana, will indicate their general tenor:

CHICAGO, October 10th, 1884.

If you do not hasten back we shall starve. Harry Powers has come to our rescue several times, but is beginning to weaken, and the outlook is very dreary. If you cannot come yourself, please send certified check.

Yours hungrily,

E.F.

J.F.B.

The same postal importunities awaited me at the Parker House while in Boston, and came near spoiling the negotiations in which I was engaged, for the News, for the, till then, unpublished correspondence between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Fischer, of the Mulligan letters notoriety. My assignment as staff correspondent called for visits to New York, Albany, and Buffalo on my way home, and wherever I stopped I found proofs that Field was possessed of my itinerary and was bound that I should not escape his embarrassing attentions.

There is no need to tell that of all anniversaries of the year Christmas was the one that appealed most strongly to Eugene Field's heart and ever-youthful fancy. It was in his mind peculiarly the children's festival, and his books bear all the testimony that is needed, from the first poem he acknowledged, "Christmas Treasures," to the last word he wrote, that it filled his heart with rejoicings and love and good will. But there is an incident in our friendship which shows how he managed to weave in with the blessed spirit of Christmas the elfish, cheery spirit of his own.

We had spent Christmas Eve, 1884, together, and, as usual, had expended our last dime in providing small tokens of remembrance for everyone within the circle of our immediate friends. I parted from him at the midnight car, which he took for the North Side. Going to the Sherman House, I caught the last elevator for my room on the top floor, and it was not long ere I was oblivious to all sublunary things.

Before it was fairly light the next morning I was disturbed and finally awakened by the sound of voices and subdued tittering in the corridor outside my door. Then there came a knock, and I was told that there was a message for me. Opening the door, my eyes were greeted with a huge home-knit stocking tacked to it with a two-pronged fork and filled with a collection of conventional presents for a boy-a fair idea of which the reader can glean from the following lines in Field's handwriting dangling from the toe:

I prithee, gentle traveller, pause

And view the work of Santa Claus.

Behold this sock that's brimming o'er

With good things near our Slason's door;

Before he went to bed last night

He paddled out in robe of white,

And hung this sock upon the wall

Prepared for Santa Claus's call.

And said, "Come, Santa Claus, and bring

Some truck to fill this empty thing."

Then back he went and locked the door,

And soon was lost in dream and snore.

The Saint arrived at half-past one-

Behold how well his work is done:

See what a wealth of food and toy

He brought unto the sleeping boy:

An apple, fig, and orange, too,

A jumping-jack of carmine hue,

A book, some candy, and a cat,

Two athletes in a wrestling spat,

A nervous monkey on a stick,

And honey cake that's hard and thick.

Oh, what a wealth of joy is here

To thrill the soul of Slason dear!

Touch not a thing, but leave them all

Within this sock upon the wall;

So when he wakes and comes, he may

Find all these toys and trinkets gay,

And thank old Santa that he came

Up all these stairs with all this game.

If I have succeeded in conveying any true impression of Eugene Field's nature, the reader can imagine the pleasure he derived from this game, in planning it, in providing the old-fashioned sock, toys, and eatables, and in toiling up six flights of stairs after he knew I was asleep, to see that everything was arranged so as to attract the attention of the passing traveller. The success of his game was fully reported to him by his friend, the night clerk-now one of the best known hotel managers in Chicago-and mightily he enjoyed the report that I had been routed out by the early wayfarer before the light of Christmas broke upon the slumbering city.