The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-20
LIFE AT The SABINE FARM.
Home Life of Eugene Field With POsie and
Little Sister Girl.
Song
Copyrighted


lions he is expressing
once I was ia an antique shop in Lon
don. looking at things Greek and Roman.
military and pacific. Oaken srun and
crOekery. j had no money, my tempera-
ture. in consequence. was below zero. In
the first newspaper 1 picked up after
reaching New York, I caught the line.
.sNhen / was broke in London in the fall
nj ga" I read on and on with a laugh
and a choke,
''Of ANTIQUE swords and spears 1 saw
vast and dazzling heap
That Curio Fenton offered me at prices
passing cheap
And, oh. the quaint old bureaus and the
warming pans OF brass,
And the lovely hideOus freaks louAd
in pewter and in glass 49,, 49,,
And Oh. the sidebOards, candlesticks, the
cracked old CHINA plates s
The clocks and spoons from AIilsleI utHi
that antedate all dates. .,-,
When in the course OF natural things,
go to my reward
Let no imposing epitaph my martyrdolns
But in plain Anglo-saxon-tha he may
know who seeks
What agOniZing pangs i've Iiau WhIle oAi
the hunt for freaks ,--
my grave this line; -,
Deceased was broke IN LouuOh III t+4S
That epitaph has not been written yet,
and yesterday l had the chance IoI WhlCu
Field If those lines were written for him
self or for me; if he bought nothing az
Fenton's, or If by a process OF te l,,i,a,
week and came away empty-handed.
Throwing himself back in a leather
chair with an inscrutable look on that race
that is as solemn as a bust of Dante ana
yet has as many lines of humor about the
mouth as a mask Of Bacchus, Mr., tleld
said mo, 1 got nothing at Fentons, but
that little table, pointing 10 a small round
unstable affair in mahogany. 1t IS 400
years old. and / brought 1t across IN 50
many pieces that on the strength OF IL
might have struggled thousands Of dol
lars worth of silk and jewels. The Gus
tom house people pitied me and looked no
further, when they saw those poor, worm
eaten, dusty sticks of furniture"
And 50 "Broke in London" was NOT
blow, but this is not beginning at the be-
The sand of the Illinois prairies is
about the Sabine farm, broken by
patches of scrub oak and willows. II is
in Chicago, because Chicago has annex
ed so much of the habitable globe The
lake shore Is a block away, and the keen
winds from the water shake down brown
and yellow leaves as one walks up the
long path that leads from the street 10
the low white house that was a farm
house not so very long ago, in reality.
There is a little red wheelbarrow in
the door yard, and presently its owner,
over the fence, appears on the scene of
acuon-a sturdy youngster, aged two and
a half years, who toddles across the
grass with look of business determina-
ton borne out by his blue checked over
ais, the quaintest Of all baby play
clothes.
1t is not necessary to knock, for the
chubby little figure in broad red hat
and soft light curls pounds on the door
with an emphasis that leaves no doubt
of the fact that "Posie' Field means
10 be let in.
is an excellent place to follow him. There
never was such a library before, it is not
likely there ever will be again. Its neu-
tral tinted walls and its low book shelves
running completely around except where
space Is demanded for the windows. its
rug-strewn floor and its leather-uphOl-
stored seats might be matched in scores
Of places; but not so its old pewter its
rare autograph letters framed and hung
in every available corner its Greek and
Roman curios, that came from some
place If they did not come from Fen
toms, and still less the features that
make It as much the sanctum Of Posie as
of Eugene Field.
Posie sits down in a mite of a red chair
and gravely considers the speed posi-
bilities Of a train Of cars stretching half
across the carpet. He crosses his legs,
an infant philosopher with dimpled hands
and velvet cheeks, and eyes that look
into unknown distances. POSies mother
watches Inm Quizzically, tall, fair WO-
man, slender, brown-haired and clear
skinned. In her arms is little sister girl
Ruth Field, the youngest member of the
Sabine Farm household. Little sister girl
in her short white frock looks at Posie
too; he is nearer to being comprehensive
than any other inhabitant of this strange
new world. But Posie looks only at his
engine and cars. Is he wondering If they
will take him in half an hour to the land
of Daisybright and Thistleblow and back
Scene Field, in his famous old over
coat, the coat that all the west knows,
lounges against a window seat and
Presently he
begins to stride about the room, winding
up mechanical toys. Mrs. Field looks
indulgent, POsie at last appreciatiVe.
There is a Canton flannel elephant with
a scarlet and gold howdah on top of one
book case, fianked by old glass and things
Etruscan, and when Key has been
turned in some mysterious part of its
anatomy 1t shakes its head and moves
its trunk with slow dignity. There is
black bear between two rare Greek vases,
and all at once it begins swapping its jaws
with vicious ferOcity. There is a harle-
quin over Mrs. Fields head, with a lot
of old pewter for company, and the aero
batic tricks that red and yellow clown
sets about performing would dazzle older
eyes than Posie's. Ihere are toys all
over the room, mot for the children, but
for me-" says Gene, and in a. moment
the equivalent of a three-ring circus is in
Il like toys. especially if they are odd
or weird" says Posie's father. And that
is why you couldn't match in America
the Sabine Farm library, any more than
you could the man, Eugene Field There
are pictures of him afioat everywhere, and
not one that would suggest Gene" Pho
tographers take out lines and destroy
Character They make of the most unique
personality Of the west something smooth
faced, non-suggestiVe, meek-loOking. Con-
slider the head of him, long from the crown
10 the chin like skull; somber, unsmil-
ing Nothing but a caricature gives the
face as it is, and caricatures Mr. Field
draws of himself and delights in them
Get him started on a story with Jest
5n every sentence and only the fine lines
about the mouth to show that the Joker
knows he is joking, and you don't wonder
that he is an artists despair, this Eugene
Field.
It is when nature is bent on tour de
force that she makes such a many sided
man; scholar, critic, humorist, art coIIec-
tor; with all the pictureSqueness of the
west, and all the cultivation of the east
and a warm home life to humanize and
harmonic the growth of the multitude
of hobbies that take root in such strong
fertile soil 1t is the home life that a
visitor sees most of, that gives one the
source of the "lOve songs of childhood"
and makes the western poet himself love
able. All the children at the Sabine
Farm have quaint nicknames Miss
Trotty'' is Miss Trotty stiu though she
has grown to be tall, pretty girl of is
years When she was no older than Posie
she was so plump and so round that she
had an odd little trOt and the name that
n hnV hon will STA hvrh her