The grand marshal, horseback, accompanied by ten male members of the
  Twentieth Century Club, also horseback.

  Mr. Stedman in a landau drawn by four horses, two black and two white.

  The Twentieth Century Club in carriages.

  A brass band afoot.

  The Robert Browning Club in Frank Parmelee’s ’buses.

  The Homer Clubs afoot, preceded by a fife-and-drum corps and a real
  Greek philosopher attired in a tunic.

  Another brass band.

  A beautiful young woman playing the guitar, symbolizing Apollo and his
  lute in a car drawn by nine milk-white stallions, impersonating the
  muses.

  Two Hundred Chicago poets afoot.

  The Chicago Literary Club in carriages.

  A splendid gilded chariot bearing Gunther’s Shakespeare autograph and
  Mr. Ellsworth’s first printed book.

  Another brass band.

  Magnificent advertising car of Armour and Co., illustrating the
  progress of civilization.

  The Fishbladder Brigade and the Blue Island Avenue Shelley Club.

  The fire department.

  Another brass band.

  Citizens in carriages, afoot and horseback.

  Advertising cars and wagons.

The line of march will be an extensive one, taking in the packing-houses and other notable points.  At Mr. Armour’s interesting professional establishment the process of slaughtering will be illustrated for the delectation of the honored guest, after which an appropriate poem will be read by Decatur Jones, President of the Lake View Elite Club.  Then Mr. Armour will entertain a select few at a champagne luncheon in the scalding-room.

In high literary circles it is rumored that the Rev. F.M.  Bristol has got an option on all autographs that Mr. Stedman may write during his stay in Chicago.  Much excitement has been caused by this, and there is talk of an indignation meeting in Battery D, to be addressed by the Rev. Flavius Gunsaulus, the Rev. Frank W. Brobst, and other eminent speakers.

Small wonder that Mr. Stedman’s soul was filled with trepidation as his train approached Chicago, and that he was greatly relieved as it rolled into the station to find only a few friends awaiting him; and among them he quickly singled out Eugene Field, “his sardonic face agrin like a school-boy’s.”

Enough has been written and quoted to give the reader a fair idea of the general character of Eugene Field’s daily work and of the spirit that inspired it.  As Mr. Stedman has said, the work of the journeyman and the real literary artist appeared cheek by jowl in his column.  The best of it has been preserved in his collected works.  That given in this chapter is merely intended to show how he illuminated the lightest and most ephemeral topics of the day with a literary touch at once acute and humorous, and certainly unconventional.  In the Appendix to these volumes the reader will find a review of the fictitious biography of Miss Emma Abbott, the once noted opera singer.  It is an ingenious piece of work and will repay reading as a satire on current reviewing, besides illustrating the daring liberty Field could take with anyone whom he reckoned a friend.