The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-01-25
GENE Field ON FAIRIES
III 55f4S.s .l >. .s.ss-+r
a Book That Would Have Been
Finished But For the
Authors Death.
The Beauty of the Dead Poet Told
by Many Quaint Instances
in His Life.

His Ideas of Giving Wholesome
Appreciation of the Good
Things of Life.
| A melancholy pleasure attaches to the
reading of '''rhe Love Affairs of Biblo-
maniac (Scribner's), for it was the late
Eugene Fields ambition to write this
book, and he was at work upon it up to
| a day or two before his death, says Jean
nette L. Glider in Chicago Tribune. His
brother, Roswell Martin Field. who
writes the introduction to the book, tells
the sad story The determination to found
| a story or series of sketches on the "de-
lights, adventures and misadventures
connected with biblomania' did not come
impulsively to Eugene Field, his brother
tells. For quarter of a Gentry he was
a collector, and some of his hapipest
verses We're those in which he sang the
pleasures of book hunting. Of its kind
he wrote nothing better than Dear Old
London" and "Dibdin's Ghost" To-
wards the close of August last Mr.. Field
wrote the first chapter of "The Love At
fairs Of a BiblonsGniac,'' at that time his
brother writes, he was in an exhausted
physical condition and apparently unfit
for any protracted literary labor. But
"the prospect of gratifying long cher
ished ambition, the delight of beginning
the story he had planned to hopefully
seemd to give him new strength, and he
| thusiasnn that was, alas, misleading to
those who had noted fearfully his declin-
ling vigor of body. For years no literary
occupation had seemed to give him equal
pleasure, and in the discussion of the
progress of his writing from day to day
his eve would brighten, all Of his old
animation would return, and everything
would betray the lively interest he felt
/ in the creature of magination in whom
he was living over the delights OF the
book hunters chase 1t was his ardent
wish that his work, for the fulillment4o 4of
| which he had been SO long preparing,
should, be, as he playfully expressed it, a
monument of apologetic compensation
to class of people he had so humorous
~ maligned, and those who knew him in
timately will recognize in the shortcom-
ings of the biblomaniae the humble con-
fession Of his own weakness
So he worked on, hoping to complete
this labor of love. The brother tells the
story of those last days 1t is strange
that so many humorists, so many men
who have made the world laugh with
them, should die from the effects OF
haunting disease. Philip Weleh was
one: Eugene Field another / will let
the brother tell the story of the closing
scene: -..@
During the afternoon Of Saturday,
Nov. q. the nineteenth installment of
'sThe Love Affairs was written. 1t was
the conclusion of his literary life. The
verses supposedly contributed by Judge
Methuen's friend, with which the chap
ter ends, were the last words written by
Eugene Field: He was a. that time APP
parently quite as we'll as on any. day
during the fall months, and neither he
nor any member of his family had the
slightest Dremonjtion that death was
lowering about the household. The next
day, though still feeling indisposed, he
was at times up and about, always cheer
full and full of that sweetness and sum
shine which, in his last years, seem now
to have been the preparation for the life
beyond. He. spoke of the chapter he had
written the day before, and it was then
that he outlined his plan OF completing
the work One chapter only remained
to be written, and it was to chronicle
the death of the old bibliomaniac. but not
until he had unexpectedly fallen heir to
very rare and almost priceless copy
of Horace, which acquisition marked the
pinnacle of the book-hunter's conquest.
True to his love for the Sabine singer,
the Western poet characterized the inn
mortal odes of twenty centuries gone
the greatest happiness of bibliomania.
."In the early morning Of Nov. the
soul of Eugene Field passed upward. On
the table folded and sealed, were the me-
mnoirs Of the old man upon whom The
sentence of death has been pronounced.
On the bed in the corner OF the room,
with one arm thrown over his breast,
ana LlG SlullS VI pCdSS- dAu ACot VA II 10
tranquil face, the poet lay. All around
him, on the shelves and in the cases,
were the books he loved so we'll -
my First Love- the opening chapter
lis called, and the love referred to is the
New England Primer. 1t was this, per-
haps, that gave Mr.. Field the idea of his
famous Denver Tribune Primer which
noW fetches $50 at auction. Although Mr..
Field writes this book as if he were. an old
man and not himself, it is, l am told, part
IL autobiographical. He begins by dis
cussing the general subject Of love, which:
he reverences as the "noblest Of the pas
sons. Il have always contended," he
writes, that one who is in love land hav-
ing once been in love is to be always in
love- has actually no confession to make
Then he goes on to tell US how, as little.
boy OF. q, he went to Five with his grand
mot her in a New England farm house and
there, naturally enough, he found his first
loye-tlle New England Primer.
As a. child I was serious minded = he
writes. @I cared little for the sports
which usually excite the ardor Of youth.
TO out of door games and exercises had
/ Darticillar aversion II was born in "a
Southern Ia altitude, but 1T the age OF e
wears I went to I've with my grand
mother in. New. HaInps pshires both my par
|ents having fallen ctims ~ the cholera
from BE sbalny teu,peratuIe
EE6a the Soufh % tlIe III fg0rs the North
|allas e.,lsallt