While the intellectual prominences upon the cranium of our friend and fellow-citizen had been well looked to, Dame Nature totally neglected to develop his bump of veneration; age possessed no qualities, wealth and position no prerogatives, which this singularly constituted young man felt bound to respect.  When his father’s executor, an able and exceedingly dignified member of the St. Louis bar, would refuse to respond to his frequent demands for moneyed advances, the young reprobate would coolly elevate his heels to a point in dangerous proximity to the old gentleman’s nose, and threaten to go upon the stage, taking his guardian’s honored name as a stage pseudonym and representing himself to be his son.  This threat generally sufficed to bring the elder gentleman to terms, as he knew his charge’s ability to execute as well as to threaten.

He was an inveterate joker, and his tendency to break out without regard to fitness of time or place into some mad prank made him almost a terror to his friends.  On one occasion he informed a young lady friend that he did not think he would be able to come to her wedding because he had such a terrible toothache.  “Then why not have your tooth pulled out?” said the young lady.  “I never thought of that,” quoth Eugene gravely; “I guess I will.”  When the wedding day arrived, among the other bridal gifts came a small box bearing Mr. Field’s card, and reposing on a velvet cushion inside was the identical tooth which the bride had advised him to have extracted, and in the cavity where had once throbbed the agonizing nerve was neatly stuffed a fifty-dollar bill.

The recollection of the many amusing traits and freaks of this versatile genius affords amusement to the innumerable friends of his to this day.  But time which sobers us all has doubtless taken some of the foam and sparkle from this rare spirit, although it would be hard to convince his friends that he will ever be anything but the gay and debonnaire Eugene.

Mr. Gray, who vouches for the general accuracy of the story of the strange wedding present, with its costly filling, preserves among his most cherished mementoes of his foster son-in-law, if I may be allowed the expression, Field’s prompt repudiation of that paragraph in the above which charged him with lack of respect for one from whom he had received every evidence of affection: 

  DENVER, June 25, 1883.

  DEAR MR. GRAY,

A copy of last Saturday’s St. Louis Spectator has just arrived and I am equally surprised, pained and indignant to find in it a personal article about myself which represents me in the untruthful light of having been disrespectful and impudent to you.  I believe you will bear me out when I say that my conduct towards you has upon all occasions been respectful and gentlemanly.  I may not have been able to repay you the many obligations you have placed me under, but I have always regarded you with feelings of affectionate gratitude and I