The times., 1898-05-01


Those who knew and liked Eugene Field,
and those who know and like Francis
Wilson, have been waiting with some
impatience for book which the come
dian was reputed to be writing about his
friend the poet. 1t has now appeared,
and IL is entitled, THE Eugene Field ]
Knew" 1t is gotten up in careful fashion,
as BELTS the work OF a bbliophile writing
about another of the fraternity. One Of
the strong ties between Field and Wilson,
as anyone might suspect, was their COM
mon love of humor, and another was their
common love of rare books. For the lat
ter reason this book will be likely to be a
small disappointment to people VINO are
not book collectors because about half of
ii is taken up with gossip about first edi-
tions and first appearances, and so on
which is not so interesting to the general
public as the purely personal remins-
cence But, as Wilson says in the begin
ming of his book, Field was a different
man to every friend he had. He could
be all things to all men IN the most liter
; al sense of the phrase; and he was.
one of the funniest anecdotes In the
| book. contrasted with the poets wild and
! WODlIN W eSlcfn nunlOI ldtef IN ne, -
| the story Of how Field when a small
| boy, was paid ninepence for writing
! sermons to please his grandmother.
| One of these sermons is quoted. 1t is
! worth buying the book for, all by itself,
! There are some scores Of interesting
| things in this book but all of them, in
! the nature of printers ink, cannot be
| quoted. The whimsical genius of the
! Chicago poet appears in many anecdotes.
] old a =
| Of information interesting to the ordi-
| nary reader IS given on the authority Of
! Roswell NJ. Field, brother Of the poet,
who now does a column Of racy humOr-
Gus stuff in the Chicago Post, over the
| initials r. NJ + lie says that CantelI
| Whoppers. the hero Of that unequaled
! saga, Dana, of the New York sun
was a real man. and afterward took the
! Kelley cure and became one Of the
! great temperance leaders OF the West
! This suggestion win set most people to
| wondering, ''Which?"
One OF the bibliophilc adventures in
which Field and Wilson were engaged
If anything can be called an adventure
which lasts ten years-4s typical of both.
| Says Wilson:
"The Tribune Primer Denver, 1882 the first OF
! Fields publication in book form, is an Ismo
| Of forty eight pages with pink paper covers.
Nineteen dollars was recently paid for copy
une Primer Is so infrcquently offered for sale as
To command almost any price asked for il.
Confident of the ascendancy OF Fields star,
and believing that sooner later his publica-
tions especially those privately printed and those
Of which only few copies had been or might be
issued would be very scarce and difficult to be
obtained ! set off a long, and what proved
TO be fruitess, search ior copy OF the Denver
Tribune Primer | hampered by less
a person than Field himself who, from love o
mischief, threw every possible obstacle in the way
This state Of affairs continued for ten years.
Field would send seductive advertisements o
dealers from whom the book might be pro
cured, having carefully scissored away the name
Of the city aud street lie ostentatiousy, pro
vokingly and continuously Haunted his copy
and otherwise behaved 50 eYaspcratmgly that al
length it became necessary 10 threaten him will
condien punishment unless he surrendered tho
particular information which he was at the mo
ment withholding Field replied as follows:
'Your note Of warning came too late. Miller i
already on the trail of the possessOr of thC
Primer Way didn't know | meant 10 keep th,
thing secret in order TO have fun with YOU ant
he ba-a-ted the whole business TO Miller, wh'
intends to hunt up the Primer owner the mex
time he goes West. b. L.
| January H. 1895.
There is little collection of facsimiles
al the end of the book, which is the very
cream OF the whole work. II consists oi
reproductions of notes sent by Field tC
friends whom he wished TO touch