Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-04-23
MARY FRENCH FIELD.

Her Reading In Grange Hall Wednes-
day Evening---VIst with Her Mother
and other Relatives TO the Ancestral
Home in Newfane.
A welcome of peculiar feeling was as
sured to Mary French Field in her first
coming TO the county of her ancestors,
where part of the boyhood days of her
| father was spent. and where the Field
name and fame is held as an inspiring ira
dition. This feeling was enhanced from
the fact that she came as a reciter and in
terpreter of the writings of her father, the
late Eugene Field. The audience which
greeted Miss Field at Grange hall Wednes-
day evening was greeted In turn by tall,
fair, unaffected young woman, gowned in
simple black. Rev. Mr.. Collins, in intro
ducing Miss Field, asked the indulgence OF
the audience as she had a severe cold, and
had been obliged to cancel one of her en-
gagements. Miss Field was plainly suffer
ing severely, and she announced that
changes would be made in her program,
and she "would attempt nothing pathetic,
as the effect would surely be humorous"
Miss Field was at her best in the boys
dialect stories, particularly in "Seein'
Things" which was the perfection of elo-
cutionary rendering and facial expression
"Brothers' Hate and "Some Time"
showed the more serious side of the poet.
The pathos in "Some Time made one
wish to hear Miss Field when in good voice
in two numbers announced but omitted
from the program-"L Boy Blue" and
Gathers Way These are among the
selections which reveal the fine, tender
heart-touching qualities which were char
acteristic of Eugene Field at his best
With Miss Field able to interpret the pa
thetic as effectively as she did the pictures
of wide-awake boyhood her continuance as
public recter means that the fame of
and love for one of the rarest spirits of
American literature is destined to grow
through the personality of his daughter
OF John Francis Glider, the pianist who
assisted Miss Field, there are only words
of praise He is a real artistic, and the au
dience warmly evinced appreciation of his
skill. That he rendered some of the sim
pier but better understood compositions
was none the less pleasing.
visit TO Newfsne.
Miss Field was accompanied on her visit
to Brattleboro by her mother, by her faith
ers cousins, Mrs. Mary Willard of
Greenfield and Henry X. Field of San
Francisco, and by the elder son of the lat
ter, Chas. X. Field, named for his grand
father, so long resident of this village.
BY previous arrangement with Liveryman
Higgins the family party was driven at
once to Newfane, where dinner was eaten
and the afternoon was spent in visiting
places intimately connected with the Field
ancestry. At the court house Charles X.
Field saw the place where bis father and
grandfather were admitted to the bar, and
yrha bfc 4 Yaf nj 4 So
er won repute in the practice of the law.
They went to the church and sat in the old
family pew. At the old Field homestead
the young folk saw where their great grand
parents lived, and where Eugene Field
spent a part of his childhood under his
grandmother's care, and from which came
the inspiration for his delightful article on
THE Woman who Most Influenced Me-
Henry X. Field was there made happy be-
yond expression by the gift of the long
coveted brass knocker from his grand
fathers door, and the precious relic will in
due time ornament the door of his own
residence in Alameda. 1t was a red-letter
day in the lives of the whole party.
Mr. Field and his son and Mrs. Eugene
Field and her daughter left Brattleboro at
1910 Wednesday night for Montpelier,
where other oldassociations were to be re-
neWed. Today they were to 60 TO Boston.
Early next week Mr.. Field ami his son will
go TO St. Louis to attend the wedding of |
Mrs. II. X. Fields brother. From there they |
will go to Chicago for a brief visit, and |
then will 'strike bee line for home" to |
take up the sober work OF life again.
Mr.. Field and his son left San Francisco |
for the East the last day of March. The |
primary purpose of the visit was to be |
present at the celebration in Boston of the |
10Th anniversary of the connection of |
President Stevens with the New England |
Mutual Life, Insurance company, which
Mr.. Field represents on the Pacific coast.
Besides this the visit has been male the oc.
casion for introducing the son, who, since
his graduation from college, has begun
work with his father, to the life and scenes
of the East. A visit to President McKin-
ley has been included among these pleas
ant experiences.