Field's glee,
to William S. Gilbert, then at the height of his Pinafore and Bab
Ballad fame:

_APRIL VESPERS

The turtles drum in the pulseless bay,
The crickets creak in the prickful hedge,
The bull-frogs boom in the puddling sedge
And the whoopoe whoops its vesper lay
Away
In the twilight soft and gray.

Two lovers stroll in the glinting gloam--
His hand in her'n and her'n in his--
She blushes deep--he is talking biz--
They hug and hop as they listless roam--
They roam--
It's late when they get back home.

Down by the little wicket-gate,
Down where the creepful ivy grows,
Down where the sweet nasturtium blows,
A box-toed parent lies in wait--
In wait
For the maiden and her mate.

Let crickets creak and bull-frogs boom,
The whoopoe wail in the distant dell--
Their tuneful throbs will ne'er dispel
The planted pain and the rooted gloom--
The gloom
Of the lover's dismal doom._

Just by the way of illustrating in fac-simile and preserving the
character of the newspaper paragrapher's work in the last century, the
following "Funny Fancies," by Field, from the St. Louis Journal of
August 3d, 1878, may be of interest:

A green Christmas--No, no, we mean a green peach makes a fat
graveyard.

A philanthropic citizen of Memphis has wedded a Miss Hoss. He doubtless
took her for wheel or whoa.

We have tried every expedient and we find that the simple legend:
"Smallpox in this House" will preserve the most uninterrupted bliss in
an editorial room.

There is a moment when a man's soul revolts against the dispensations
of Providence, and that is when he finds that his wife has been using
his flannel trousers to wrap up the ice in.

To the average Athenian the dearest spot on earth is the Greece spot.

Mr. Deer was hung at Atlanta. Of course he died game.

'Tis pleasant at the close of day
To play
Croquet.

And if your partner makes a miss
Why kiss
The siss.

But if she gives your chin a thwack,
Why whack
Her back!

A great many newspaper men lie awake night after night mentally
debating whether they will leave their property to some charitable
institution or spend it the next day for something with a little lemon
in it.

It was during his earlier connection wit