University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-07-26
GENE FIELD LORE. TOLD
BY COLUDIBIA RESIDENTS

IL Il ~ VII - W. Il
Kansas City likes to tell of an old
newspaper man who took a visiting
friend to see the sights in the city.
When they entered the old Junction
Building at Ninth and Main streets, he
took off his hat and, turning to his
friend, said reverently:
"Step lightly, my boy. Eugene Field
once trod these halls."
Something of the same impulse
would come to a Field lover when he
visits the University of Missouri,
were it. not that the old observatory
and the presidents house are the only
buildings of Fields day left on the
campus. Should he yearn to know
what the boy Field-he was just 20
when he matriculated here for junior
work in September, 1S70-was like, he
may still find in Columbia men and
women who can give him glimpses of
the Eugene Field of rorty-five years
ago. They will tell you that he was
not so different from the hundreds of
other boys who enter mere each fall,
except that he had had no mother
since his sixth year, and had been
banded about from father to grand
mother to aunt to cousin without ac-
quiring any very well-defined ideas of
obedience to superior will in the pro-
cess.
A ''Gangling" Boy.
One friend of his schooldays de-
scribes him then as he was in later
life-tall, thin, slightly stopped, al
most "gangling" in appearance. In
contrast with his seeming delicacy OF
physique was his big, booming voice.
That same voice doubtless stood him
in good stead when in June, 1871, he
won the second of the six prizes in
defamation offered by Colonel Theo-
dore Case of Kansas City. His selec-
ton was one calculated to show off
that voice to the best advantage
"Spartacus' Address to the Gladia-
tors"
That same commencement saw him
literary editor of the newly estab-
lished University Missourian, volume
/ number of which appeared June 80,
1871. This was the only number Field
helped to put out. He did not return
to complete his senior year. for reas-
ons which the faculty records of those
times could best explain. Instead he
spent, as he explains in his Auto
Analysis" six months and his patri-
mony in Europe.
Unfortunately the Historical Socie-
ty has not that first number of the
Missourian among the three bound
volumes of the publication. The seek
er after Field lore can therefore only
conjecture what the literary charac-
ter of the paper may have been.
Offered Tive Prizes.
It is characteristic of Field for three
years after leaving the University,
two prizes were offered by him and his
brother. One was given in the name
of their father, Judge Roswell NJ.
Field, for proficiency in American
history and government. The other
was the Eugene Field prize for Shakes
pearean reading.
The first prize for this last-named
was a volume of Shakspeare's works;
the second, Chambers English Lit
erature," and the third, volume of
Tennyson. In 1874, the prizes were
The University, accord
ing to the Statesman of commence
ment week, 1874, declined the kind
offer of Mr.. Eugene Field of st. Louis
to provide prizes as heretofore" on the !
ground of the difficulty of providing |
selections for the contestants. |
Field was intensely popular among |
the young people," says a Columbia |
matron who was member /
Of the younger set in Field s |
day, "but older people did not approve
Of his erratic ways and could foresee
no useful career for him. For all the
-alk of his wildness and drinking, |
never saw him intoxicated, though |
often heard wild tales of his carous-
ng."
According to this same friend,
Fields popularity was due largely to
lis high spirit, his genial good humor
md his wonderful power of entertain
ng. No one could be dull when Field
vas in the party.
Notes, Not Phone Calls, Then.
Church was the only possible place
# entertainment on Sunday evening.
nd of course no girl could go without
N escort. Telephones were not yet