The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-13
x y EVOLUTION OF EUGENE FIELD. y =

But the truth about the cat and pup
| is this: they ate each other up!
| Now what do you think of that!'
| During the Anglo Egyptian trouble
Field recorded 1.-THE Fate of Tomato
Kahn" as follows:
| Old Ragbag Bey. venerable man.
Arose one morning and to his servant said
oenq nither, slave my son, Tomato
If, by, the Prophets beard. he's out of
Tomato Khan responded in all haste.
And, kneeling on the earth before his
Kissed thrice his feet. and clinging to his
Why ir,I hast thou called?" respectful did
"Mush Allah!" cried the old man in
Our country is in dire complaint, see.
On every hand is desola ton, death
And she demands sacrifice OF me-
from Am ell Telba unto Goghars wall
From Batra's palms to Ondigs sandy
| hear the roll of drum, the trumpet's call.
The clash of arms and wars intense re-
Bind on this scimeter, my son. and go
This "a day to Goshar on thy fiery. daunt-
| Join thou the army of the Faithful, show
Thy zest for Allah in thy country's hour
| Tomato Khan bound on old Ragbag's
His love, the fair Amirie, begged him
in vain the maiden wept, in vain implored.
| Tomato Khan strobe on his vengeful way.
| He did not die, as Ragbag hoped he might
Nor as Amirie thought warrior should,
! He did not perish on the field of fight,
No , Christian hands are reeking with his
kicked by mule, he fell at sneeze-el-
| A cheap, Arabian mule, vulgar beast.
He family, murmured, Allah! this is
And then the throbbings of his sick heart
| ceased.
So. for his country died Tomato Khan
youth equipped for great, chivalric
Dead by a mule martyred. glorious man.
patriot since the end doth glorify the
mausoleum hath old Ragbag built
! AS tribute to Tomato Khan's brave deeds.
Al morn. at night his bitter tears are split.
The fair Amirie wears a widows weeds.
Nothing that Field wrote in Denver
provoked more laughter than his I'm
re Spring." ascribed to Judge G.. G..
Symes, pompous deep-voiced lawyer
who subsequently was elected to con-
gress:
Whereas on sundry boughs and sprays,
| NOW divers birds are heard to sing.
And sundry flowers their heads uprse,
f'all TO the coming on of Spring!
The songs of the said birds arouse
The memory of our youthful hours,
AS young and green as these said bouehs
| AS fresh and fair those said flowers
The birds aforesaid, happy pairs,
Love midst the aforesaid bougrs en-
| shrine
III household nests, themselves. their heirs,
Administrators and assigns.
o. busiest term of Cupids Court.
When tendeE plaintiffs actions bring;
Hail! as aforesaid, coming spring.
Fields ability as punster and trick
versifier, INDUCED without restraint at
Denver, represser at Chicago, and after
ward delcately revived in the para
phrases of Horace, is fairly illustrated
| III the following:
Suppose" he said. in accent soft,
| "A fellow just like me
Should axle little girl to wed.
! What would the answer be?' =
| The maiden drops her LIQUID eyes.
=! Her smiles with bushes mingle
! Why seek the bride halter when
You may love on. sur, cinsle?"
| And then he spoke cob be my bride.
ask you once again:
| You are the empress of my heart,
| And there shall ever rein!
'1'll never tire of kindly deeds
! To win your gentle heart.
And saddle be the shaft that rendS
| Our happy lies apart"
| Upon her cheek the maiden felt
| The mantling bushes glow.
She took him for her faithful hub,
ID share his wheel or whoa
| Although the Denver volume discloses
the crudeness and flippancy Of much of
| Fields earlier versification, 1t will serve
| to prove the expansion of his talent un.
der severe study and with happy en-
vironment. At first loose and vulgar in
| composition, needless Of literary grace
| or elegance, he became in time a stick
Ter for all the verbal niceties of ex-
preston, delved to the depths Of phi
Illogical technique, and eventually
prided himself on his acquired knowl-
edge of the shade meaning of words.
His Yvetot fanciful Saxon legend,
the rounding out of which occupied his
spare moments for a year. he priced as
l'is greatest literary achievement, CA
pacity for work he regarded as his only
genius. He fiattered himself, justly.
that he could initiate or paraphrase all
the poets. His mastery of the style Of
Horace. Heine. Beranger. Villon, Hugo,
DR.. Watt. CHANGER. Spencer. Butler and
English folk lore, was complete. The
Horace of himself and his brother Ros-
WE'LL now the editor Of youths Com
panion," is considered the best in Eng
fish. Once he composed number Of
hymns, after Watt; had them published
in the New York Sun as the posthumous
| discovery of the London Standard,
and the literary sharpers of Chicago,
| in q series of interviews in the News