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

"Only a single thread
TOO frail to last:
Only woman's hair
Threading tear and a sigh,
Only womans hair
Found to-day in the pie"
II am a mountain lion free
And I roam the mountain side
Il grit my teeth in savage glee
II live on little babies fat
Which from their homes steal
81 love to crunch each toothsome brat
And hear his dying squeal.''
Some folks believe in angels -
"A Drowling around on earth;
"Experience teaches me better
You may take 1t for what it's worth"
The following is the feeble Denver
germ of all the beautiful lullabies writ
ten by Field:
Go. little darling. go,
mid nodding to Bye-low,
THE snow white sheep
''Are fast asleep
I'm such pretty row.
"All in the sweet Bye-lOw
Then go, my darling co.
Compare the foregoing with "The
Rock-a-by Baby from Hushaby Land"
"Wynken, Blynken and Nod" $50, So,
ASONA-o-bJ Nv. Vii " VIC 1dIueUS
Where Dreamikins Crow" Here by
the Sea Mother Croons." "sleep Little
Pigeon" and the many other finished
lullabies of his later years. What Won
der that he should shrink with dread
from the spectre of the future book
making body snatcher
In the Denver collection are a few
suggestions, such as Glover Top and
Thistle Down. Last Years Doll" and
THE Wren's Nest."-of the fanciful
spirit of Dickens which in after years
found ample play in 1.-THE Bingham Dog
and the Calico Cat and many other
verses devoted to the jocular illumina-
ton of the ancient Campanella school
of metaphysics-the belief of the ex-
istence of soul in bird and beast, and
in inanimate and voiceless objects.
Here is one of the Denver samples:
Two pieces of ice in the ice house lay
Waiting the dawn Of another day,
And as they fingered there side by side,
"Oh, tell me brother, since we must die
What an fate evy you'd you choose for the by
The giddiest piece of the couple cried.
ooh, am fondly and gently bred"
The other ice cake signing said,
And 1 would melt in a glass of tea
With a maiden stirring me to and fro
And mixing me up with sugar trow,
Such, pray, may my ending be-.
The other cake for a moment smiled.
II always have been a maynard child
And 1t strikes me now 1 would like to
In brandy punch or whisky sour,
Eeguiling some wretched mortal hour.
And cooling some thirsty mortals
The hours passed on and the days went
Till finally came their time to die,
And the gentle piece of ice expired
Tn bowl of tea, while the other piece.
In rare libation found surcease.
Each one persisted as each desired,
What of the maiden who quaffed the tea?
They planted her under willow tree,
And the mourners come and the mourn
Ice cold tea was the dreadful cause,
Nature avenged her outraged laws,
Neuralgia welded the deadly blow.
And the man-oh. the man of the whisky
He's living and prosperous this very hour.
And he struck it rich in Gunnison mine.
It's always the same with ice and men,
It's nice to be giddy now and then;
in wine.
"Apple Blossoms" is the predecessor
of 1.-THE Little Peach" In the case of
Our Little Tom"
THE days passed on and the weeks passed
''And the blossom into an apple grew.
when along came Tom and gobbled 1t
''skin. stem and core and the green seeds
"Our little Tommy has angel wings
'.And he flops around in the golden slxv.
ITS to be presumed he SWaat1v
"Of apple blossoms in the By and By"
In the later tragedy:
''Cnder the turf where the daisies grew
They planted John and his sister Sue
"And their little souls to the Angels flew
The esthetic feelings Of the eastern
critic revolted against this gruesome
levity. and they castigated Field qua
kerishly for having preserved 'The Lit
tie Peach" in his Little Book of West
ern Verse;" They simply failed to grasp
the motive. Field wrote these trifling
anti-climaxes for the wit of children
more than for the delectation of ma
turity. Most of them were tried first
on the imagination of his own children.
The night he heard Marie Jansen sing
"A Little Peach" with the interpolated
negro refrain Listen to My Tale of
Woe" CHANGED to have been with him.
He hurried from the theater after the
first verse had ben rendered. and apon
reaching the sidewalk breathed an ex-
pletive that is regarded as classic no
where outside of Rabelias, and the field
of Waterloo. Gradually he refined his
method of appeal to the sense Of the
grotesque in childhood. as witness the
shudderful climax Of the great inani-
mate duel: