The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-25
From the kansas city star.

A MOVEMENT has been started to
"a erect monument over the
a grave of Eugene Field in a
Chicago cemetery, ard the originator
of the plan is Will J.. Davis, for many
years theatre manager and an init
mate friend of Fields. Field made
Davis, taste in the matter Of waistcoats
the subject of a long poem. Here's
part of it;
Now William is not handsome-zhe's
told he's just like me.
And in one respect | think he.is, for
he's as good as good can be-
Yet, while 1 find my chances with 'the
girls are precious slim,
The women folks go Wildly galliVant-
ing after him.
And after serious study of the problem
| have guessed
That the secret of this frenzy is the
Will j. Davis vest.
I'VE stood in Colorado and looked on
peaks of snow
While prisoned torrents made their
moan two thousand feet below;
The Simplon pass and prodigies Nesu-
Wan have / doue,
And gazed in roclSbound Norway upon
the inidn ght sun &.
Yet at no time such wonderment, such
transports filed my breast
AS when | fixed my orbs upon Will
J. Davis vest.
But better yet, dear William, than this
garb of which | sing
Is a gift which God has givensyou, and
that's a priceless thing.
What stuff we mortais spin and weave,
though pleasing to the eye.
Doth presently corrupt, to be forgotten
by and by.
One thing and one alone survives old
Times remorseless test
The valor of heart like that which
beats beneath that vest.
Gene Field, though born in St Louis,
was brought up in New England. In a
contribution to the Ladies' Home Jour
nal he once gave a more or less fanci-
full picture of those days:
There was no cooking on Sunday.
At noon Mrs. Deacon Ranney and other
old ladies used to come from church
with grandma to cat luncheon ond dis
cuss the sermon and suggest deeds Of
piety for the ensuing week. 1 remem-
ber Mrs Deacon Ranney and her frigid
companions very distinctly. They never
smiled, and they wore austere bomba-
zines that rustled and squeaked do
lorously. Mrs. Deacon Ranney seldom
noticed me furthen than to regard me
with a look which seemed to stigmat1zc
me as an incipient vessel of wrath that
was not to be approved of. and I never
liked Mrs. Deacon Ranney after heard
her reminding grandma one day that
Solomon had truly said, Spare the rod
and spoil the child still think i'll of
Mrs. Deacon Ranney for having sought
to corrupt dear old grandma's gentle
nature with any such incendiary sug
gestions.'
Field was always very fond of ami
mails, no lass as grown man than as
q boy. He wrote in the Chicago Record
January Q, 1892
s'For number of years the silent
partner in the construction of this
sporadic column of 'Sharps and Flats
writer hereof by his friend, Mr. Will
j. Davis. We named our little COM
panion Jessie and our attachment to
her was wholly reciprocated. Jessie
contributed to and participated in our
work in this wise: She would sit and
admiringly watch the writer at his
work, wagging her abridged tail COR
daily whenever he bestowed a casual
glance upon her. We have tried our
poems upon Jessie, and she always
liked them; leastwise she always
wagge0h her tail approvingly and smiled
her batteries as only very intelligent
little dog can.
well, last Tuesday night Jessie dis
appeared---vanished as mysteriously as
liz the earth had opened up and swal-
a discreet dog friend in Fullerton ave-
nue. and that was the last seen of her,
where can she have gone? 1t is very
lonesome without Jessie. Moreover,
there are poems to be read for her ap-
proval before they can be printed; the
great cause of literature waits upon
Jessie. She must be found and restored
to her proper sphere"
Three colleges contributed to Fields
Observation-Disclosures college in Massa-
chusetts, Knox college at Galesburg.
H.. and the University of Missouri. He
didn't stay long enough to get a
diploma from any Of them. At 21 he
went to st. Louis, where he made his
home with Melvin L. Gray. the cxecu-
tor Of his fathers will. The elder Field