The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-13

fate, he left for home g. wreck,
The two years in Denver tried Fields
capacity, endurance and character to
the utmost. Poor Rothacker. brilliant,
generous but erratic, never found the
upgrade again, and glided swiftly down
to an untimely death at Omaha, with
the pictures of those he loved best
turned to the wall while he expired.
He was a literary encyclopedia, a novel;
list and poet. He left verse worthy of
place on classic shelf, and wrote
epigram with the felicity of Hugo. His
reply to Ingersoll, in which he embalmed
the great American agnostic as "a mo-
ment brawling at eternity" was q
masterpiece of defense for Christianity.
1ngersoll complimented him in an auto
graph letter, on its force and effect as
an answer. This little work was No. 1
in the Tribune literary series, of which
Fields primer was No. 2, and the last.
The cross road of Fields career came
when he was stricken with nervous dys-
pepsia. He was acutely attacked and
for period suffered the contemplative
horrors of suicide and death. Drugs hav-
ing failed to bring him relief, his latent
will power asserted itself and he set
aside all stimulants, together with to-
bacco and coffee. For a year he re-
stricted himself to an invalid diet, work
ing constantly the while. Often he
would write his daily stint, his head
crowned with ice wrapped in a towel.
When his digestion was apparently re-
stored he resumed the tobacco and
cofree habits at Chicago though he
never again touched alcoholic stimu-
lants, save for a brief spell in London.
While there for his health In 1889 his
physician persuaded him to sip of
Bordeaux at meals, but it was unpala-
table and he soon abandoned it as a
dietary aid.
The excessive use of tobacco and
coffee, and an unconquera BILE appetite
for mince pie and indigestibles, together
with an aversion for physical exercise,
shortened Fields life. Even in his suf-
ferings he found inspiration for much
humorous prose and verse, and some of
his best work was done at London in
1SS9-9O while he was living on a hot
milk and cracker diet cooked by himself
three times day.
When Field Joined the Chicago News
staff in 1888 he was broken in health.
destitute and pursued by a horde of
creditors. His family was large; his
responsibilities would have taxed the
stoutest heart No visible worry affect
ed him, however, until the friendship
between himself and Rothacker was
violently sundered. While Field was
attached to the Denver Tribune, Cen
eral Hamill, at that time rated as a.
mining millionaire, and one of the re-
publican leaders of Colorado. owned a
large interest in the property. He was
an exceedingly liberal man, and, for
any one he esteemed, always held an
open purse. Rothacker among the
newspaper fraternity, was especially his
portege. Field having got into a stew
of trouble over a $3.50 furniture debt
telegraphed General Hamill in the
mountains asking him for an immedi-
ate loan OF that amount. He was re-
Quested to visit the general at George
town, when he would be accommodated,
Field took the earliest train, but upon
meeting General Hamill was informed
that it was impossible to let him have
the money. Fields disappointment was
great; his disgust greater. General
Hamllls change of front could be ex-
planned only by the assumption that
somebody to whose advice he would
listen. and warned him by wire against
trusting Field.
Not many months later the Tribune
passed into the junk room of Ameri-
can Journalism; Rothacker was editing
Opinion" weekly literary and po-
Etical publication for which General
Hamill supplied the capital and Field
was writing the "Sharps and Flats"
nonpareil column of the Chicago News
Those of Fields panegyrists who have
tried to clothe his character with the
attributes of Babyland and Angeldom. do
him a maudlin injustice. He was in
tensely human, with virile passions:
an almost theatric contempt for con-
ventionality, and strong appetite for
revenge, where he thought he had been
deceived or injured.
So, when the Colorado senatorial
campaign came under discussion and
General Hamill was mentioned as a
candidate, Field made scurrilous at
tack on him, pointing him out as litter
ate, boorish and INSCRIPTIONS. The
abuse. contained not a word of truth,
was wholly devoid of the humorous or
satrical. and fairly oozed malice. Field
had been guilty of similar departures
from the path of journalistic rectitude,
without having suffered a check. This
time he was administered one severely,
by the last person from whom he should
have expected it.
Rothacker, in despite of their intimacy
and the fellowship in which they had
lived and worked. landed on Field fero-
clously, in Opinion" He denounced
Field as dishonest migrate, and
poured upon him a volume of mucky
lnvective that is not worth while pick
ing over here. AS Field never neglected
an opportunity to goad or satirize a
contempary, the Chicago press retail
eted by reproducing Rothacker's defense
of General Hamill. Field was pilloried
as a journalistic ghoul.
The blow was a severe one, and would
have Jared many a man off the track
Field felt it keenly and brooded over
it. In his moods of resentment his saw