At the age of twenty-three he began newspaper work there,
and he continued this work in various places until his death in Chicago in
1895. For the last twelve years of his life he was connected with the
Chicago _Daily News_.
[Illustration: EUGENE FIELD]
He wrote many poems and prose tales, but the work by which he will probably
live in literature is his poetry for children. For his title of
poet-laureate of children, he has had few worthy competitors. His _Little
Boy Blue_ will be read as long as there are parents who have lost a child.
"What a world of little people was left unrepresented in the realms of
poetry until Eugene Field came!" exclaimed a noted teacher. Children listen
almost breathlessly to the story of the duel between "the gingham dog and
the calico cat," and to the ballad of "The Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby
Street," and the dreams which she brings:--
"There is one little dream of a big sugar plum,
And lo! thick and fast the other dreams come
Of popguns that bang, and tin tops that hum,
And a trumpet that bloweth!"
He loved children, and any one else who loves them, whether old or young,
will enjoy reading his poems of childhood.
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