Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 2 — John Shaqi
Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 2Thompson, Slason
General
Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 2
Thompson, Slason
Field, Eugene, 1850-1895; Journalists -- United States -- Biography; Poets, American -- 19th century -- Biography
I make bold to send herewith a diagram of the new rooms in which your
brother Slason is now [brown ink] ensconced. The drawing may be bad
and the perspective may be out of plumb, but the motif is good, as
you [green ink] will allow. All that Brother Slason needs now to
symmetrize his new abode is a box from home--a box filled [purple
ink] with those toothsome goodies which only a kind, loving,
indulgent sister can make and donate to an absent [black ink]
brother. Having completed my contribution to the Larned gallery, and
having exhibited the pictures in the [red ink] recent salon, I have a
large supply of colored inks on hand, which fact accounts for that
appearance of an [blue ink] Easter necktie or a crazy quilt which
this note has. In a few days I shall take the liberty of sending
[brown ink] you the third volume of the "Aunt Mary Matilda" series--a
tale of unusual power and interest. With [green ink] many reverential
obeisances and respectful assurances of regard, I beg to remain,
[lilac ink] Your obedient servant,
[purple ink] EUGENE FIELD,
[red ink] per
[blue ink] William Smith,
[brown ink] Secretary.
This epistle did indeed look like a crazy quilt. There was a change of
color at the beginning of each line, as I have endeavored to indicate.
It is beautifully written and in many respects besides its variegated
aspect is the most perfect specimen of Field's painstaking epistolary
handiwork I know of.
The "diagram of Mr. Slason Thompson's New Rooms" accompanying this
letter was entirely worthy of it, and must have afforded him hours of
boyish pleasure. No description can do it justice. He gave a ground
plan of two square rooms with the windows marked in red ink, the doors
in green, the bed, with a little figure on it, in blue, the fireplace
in yellow, chairs and tables in purple, and the "buttery," as he
insisted on calling the bathroom, in brown. As these apartments were in
the Pullman Building, on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams
Street, and commanded a glimpse of the lake, Field's diagram included a
representation of Lake Michigan by zigzag lines of blue ink, with a
single fish as long as a street-car, according to his scale, leering at
the spectator from the billowy depths of indigo blue. Everything in the
diagram was carefully identified in the key which accompanied it. An
idea of the infinite attention to detail Field bestowed on such
frivoling as this may be gathered from the accompanying cut of the
Pullman Building, from the seventh story of which I am shown waving a
welcome to the good but "impecunious knight." The inscription, in
Field's handwriting, tells the story.
[Illustration: THE GOOD KNIGHT SLOSSON'S CASTLE.
_From a drawing by Eugene Field._
The good knight Slosson from a watch tower of his castle desenith and
salutith the good Knight Eugene, sans peur et sans monie.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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