The San Francisco call., 1897-11-14
MEMORIES OF EUGENE FELD-P0ET WRITER GOOD FELL L0W

derest feelings for both and made i'm
mediate reparation in some manner de-
lightiul and endearing. He hated parsi-
mony as the meanest OF vices in Others
and INDUCED prodigality in himself as
failing affording the keenest diversion.
Child fe was to bim crowded with
comedies and tragedies of which he never
tired, either as auditor or historian.
marked change in b attitude toward
that sphere of human activities which re-
wolves around the nursery was perceptibie
shortly after he became attached TO the
News. The sentiments and sympathes
he Knocked so often in himself and masked
so long in the jingle and jest OF macca-
ronics now began 10 find clear utterance
in language fascinating to childhood
and ennobling TO maternity. His songs OF
the cradle, his Iullabys his tales of the
toys will live with the English tongue. In
transmitting to verse and vitalizing the
ronances, localities. am bitions, heroics
ana mlsfortCnes OF infant humanity, he
saw things as through the humorous or
pathetic lens OF mind looking back from
reason to its dawn. His deep affection for
children was emphasized by the caressing
manner OF his jCccse teasings; his toler-
ance for their passions and perversions was
constant and at times an infirmily. No
matter how grave the misdeeu he could
neither punish his own children, nor bear
TO be present when the children of others
were punished.
The severest chastiscment he ever ad.
ministered 10 the young ones was to mock
their badness with facial contortions that
often awakened the conscience and pro-
duced an incredible corrective effect.
Ridicule he used as au assistant. Accord
ing to Fields idea the Juvenile wrongdo-
ing from which laugh could be extracted
indicated no moral perverseness. He had a
way all his own of putting into the heads
OF the children notions Of doing grotesque-
ly funny things, from the effect of which
a desirable reform in their own affairs
would come about.
For example, they had goat at one
time that became the innocent cause of
much domestic disturbance. It was an
odorous goat, and the children were so
fond of caressing and fondling it that they
exuded goat scent everywhere; in bed, at
Ia BILE and at school. Threats to dispossess
them of their pet provoked howls more
O
No argument, persuasion or bribe had
effect. Finally friend who dined with
the family one evening and had the prob
lem brought home to him by olfactory
proof thought to solve it by COMPROMISE,
If he should send to the house a bottle of
cologne it was agreed by the children that
they would make their toilet every time
they returned home from play with the
goat and thus substitute n the house an
agreeable for isagreeable odor.
Field saw the greater possibilities of this
arrangement. The logical processes of his
6-year-old son were set to work on the
proposition, with this perfectly natural
result: eff little cologne three times a
day takes goat smell away from me, all
the cologne will make the goat have no
smell." So the large dollar bottle full OF
cologne was carefully rubbed into the oily
hide Of his goatship. with the expectation
of a triumphant settlement of the whole
difficulty. A.as, sickness and horror per-
vaded the Field house hold that night for
the alcohol had extracted nauseating
something from the angora cuticle that
all fled from. but none could escape. Next
day the children took council of this new
revelation respecting the secret power of
goat scent, and gave the goat away.
One OF the aintiest jokes Field ever
played was at the expense of the postal
department of the United States, though
no doubt it repaid the service with its
provocation for smiles. When Kate Field
was preparing for her lecture tour in
Mormon land, she started an inquisltlve
correspondence with her namesake, whose
humorous primer was at that time spread-
ing his fame. The two soon discovered
that they were cousins, a fact that in
spirea Field TO thus address a letter:
maiden fair of untold age
Seeks to adorn our Wes tern stage;
How foolish OF her. yet how nice
To write me, asking my advicel
New York's the city where you'll find
This prodigy of female kind;
Hotel Victoria's the place
Where you will see her smiling face.
pray the postman bear away
This missiye To her. sans delay.
These lines enclosed writ by me-
Field am l, Field is she.
Two very fertile Fields l ween,
In constant bloom, yet never green,
She is my cousin; happy fate
That gave me such cousin Katei
Imagine the postal clerks unraveling
this envelope superscription, from Denver
to New York, and You may fancy the ex-
quiste sense of Eumor that prompted the