The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-21

seemed never to have known SoFEOW Yet there was once a little boy in blue who day after day, had snugg1ed himself more closely around that heart, stirring it to many blithsome strain. That little boy died and his father, who had been laughing at and with the world, wrote out his grief in that beautiful little poem, Little Boy Blue," the poem of the toys,
 And they wonder as waiting these
 long years through
 In the dust of that little chair,
 What has become of our Little Boy
 Blue,
 Since he kissed them and put them
 there.''
 It is true when Field put on cap and bell no one could rival him at jest. A ''frolic incarnate he passed his fun around impartially and sooner or later even his best friends came in for their share of his practical kes and seem ed to think the victim of his fun must enjoy it as much as he. Although Field was a genius at newspaper work and to give him the editorship meant success for the paper, too much money was required for the defense of libel suits to permit him being a newspaper manager. At one time when Field | was editor of a Chicago paper one of his dearest friends, Edmund Clarence Stedman. was coming to Chicago on lecture tour. This was Fields op portunity for a great joke at Sted- mans expense. When the evening papers came out the columns of the first page were headed Chicago ex- cited, Tremendous Preparations for Stedman's Reception This was fol- lowed by the order ;.nd line of march of the procession that was to escort the lecturer from the station. Field did not doubt but what his friend would enjoy this form of advertise ment. The indignant Stednan's only satisfaction when he arrived at the 1 station was to see Eugene beaming at him with a sardonic grin that com p1ete1y disarmed him of all resent | ment-
 Field also ranked among the great dramatic readers of his day. He had one of those clean cut, mobile coun- tenances that was capable of ex- pressing every varying emotion. But l the hunorist was wont to veil these emotions with a mask of solemnity ! when bent on fun or a clever retort
 One night, at a. dinner party in Lon don, Field was seated, beside Mrs. Humphrey Ward. After her lady ship had ignored him during half the 1 evening, she turned to him and asked patronizingly, what the habits and characteristics of his people were. As suning a solemn mien and most seri- ous face, with just a suggestion of a | When they caught me was up a tree" The sympathetic cadence of his voice combined with his emotional face and a certain sweet simplicity of manner, soon endeared him to the | public as a reader and lecturer. One evening, while attending a perform ance of Uncut Leaves on being rec ognized among the audience he was | immediately requested to add some thing to the evenings program
 He would not take the platform, as he was not in evening attire, but con l scented to stand up in his seat in his 1 long Iank ulster and render 'tGibdin's s l Ghost!" and the two 'tOpinions,'' in a manner that spoiled the chances of those who came after him.
 And there you have the nature of the man-bubbling humor mingled with tenderous pathos- To read the fragments, he would write day after | day, there seemed to be nothing in l the man but a boundless desire to turn i life into jest Then unexpectedly | he would burst into song of exquisite l sweetness whose charm lay perhaps
 in it's very nonsense and you would laugh and at the same time feeI.a sad sweet stirring of the heartstrings. 1 Who that has ever read that delight full lullabye, 'Wynken, Blynken and | Nod," can ever forget it
 There is another ray of concentrat-
 ed sunshine-done up in very small l package-that I always think of with I Eugene Field, Marshal P. Wilder!I A little dwarf not over 3 1-2 feet high
 but with one of the biggest. merriest
 hearts that ever beat in a human l breast. Of himself the little fellow
 says, Dame Nature seemed out of l sorts when she got a hold of me. She l put a couple of feet under me but left a couple of feet off my statue. But 1 after a while, when she took another l she seemed to think she hadn't done the right thing by me so she gave me an expansive smile and a, big laugh" " l This smile and laugh won place for him wherever he went. Even as a school boy who could never hope to
 cope physically with his fellow stu 1 dents,- h won them over by his mer- ry smile and endeared himself to them
 as a companion with his ever ready l jest and hearty laugh. As he grew
 older and began to think of a nfe's
 occupation, he found therel were very few professions open to such a little fellow as he. However, it occurred 1 to him that there were great many
 solemn people in the world and very few who devoted their time to mak- ing their fe11owmen laugh. So he l decided to become an entertainer. His
 efforts met with the greatest success
 for the world always receives those | kindly who come to it smiling. There
 was no room in hist life for disagree
 able things, he just t'p1ucked the
 blossoms from the gardens of patho and humor, which lie side by side and in weaving them into garland claimed only as his own the string that bound them togeth her.''
 And so these two men spent their lives radiating sunshine wherever they went. Both men by their sweet
 ness of character drew many toward them and made lifelong friends of many of their contemporaries. One !, of Fields fellow poets in a burst of grief over his friends illness, wrote this little quotrain to him,
 ] i Death thought to claim you in this