But as to the pear of emerald ’ue
  Kissed bi the sun and bathed bi the due
  I’ll add that its mission on earth is thro’
                    Adieu._

CHAPTER IX

IN DENVER, 1881-1883

It was in Denver that Eugene Field entered upon and completed the final stage of what may be called the hobble-de-hoy period in his life and literary career.  He went to the capital of Colorado the most indefatigable merry-maker that ever turned night into day, a past-master in the art of mimicry, the most inveterate practical joker that ever violated the proprieties of friendship, time, and occasion to raise a laugh or puncture a fraud.  As his friend of those days, E.D.  Cowen, has written, “as a farceur and entertainer no professional could surpass him.”

Field was tempted to go to Denver by the offer of the managing editorship of the Tribune, which was owned and controlled by the railroad and political coalition then dominant in Colorado.  It was run on a scale of extravagance out of all proportion to its legitimate revenue, its newspaper functions being altogether subordinate to services as a railroad ally and political organ.  The late O.H.  Rothacker, one of the ablest and most versatile writers in the country, was at the head of its editorial staff, and Fred J.V.  Skiff, now head of the Field Columbian Museum, was its business manager.  These men, with Field, were given carte blanche to surround themselves with a staff and news-gathering equipment to make the Tribune “hum.”  And they did make it hum, so that the humming was heard far beyond the borders of the centennial state.

In studying the character of Eugene Field and his doings in Denver, it must be borne in mind that we are considering a period in the life of that city years ago, when the conditions were very different from those prevailing there now or from those to be met with to-day in any other large city in the country.  Denver in 1881 was very much what San Francisco was under the influence of the gold rush of the early fifties, only complicated with the struggles of rival railway companies.  All the politics, railway, and mining interests of the newly created state centred in Denver.  The city was alive with the throbbing energy of strife and speculation over mines, railway grants, and political power.  Life was rapid, boisterous, and rough.  Nothing had settled into the conventional grooves of habit.  The whole community was fearless in its gayety.  It had not learned to affect the sobriety and demureness of stupidity lest its frivolity should be likened to the crackling of thorns under a pot.