he irony and mutations of life that
one of the early paragraphs Field wrote for the "Sharps and Flats"
column was inspired by what was supposed to be a fatal assault on his
friend by a notorious political ruffian in Leadville. The paragraph,
which appeared on September 12th, 1883, is interesting as a specimen
of Field's style at that period, and as showing in what esteem he held
Cowen, with whom he had been associated on the Denver Tribune and
whose name recurs in these pages from time to time:

Edward D. Cowen, the city editor of the Leadville Herald, who was
murderously assaulted night before last by a desperado named Joy, was
one of the brightest newspaper men in the West. He came originally
from Massachusetts, and has relatives living in the southern part of
Illinois. He was about thirty years of age. He went to Leadville
about three months ago to work on ex-Senator Tabor's paper, the
Herald, and was doing excellently well. He was a protege, to a
certain extent, of Mrs. Tabor No. 2. She admired his brilliancy, and
volunteered to help him in any possible way. It was speaking of him
that she said: "My life will henceforth be devoted to assisting
worthy young men. In life we must prepare for death, and how can we
better prepare for death than by helping our fellow-creatures? Alas!"
she added with a sad, sad sigh, "alas! death is, after all, what we
live for." Young Cowen had all the social graces men and women
admire; he was bright in intellect, great in heart, and hearty of
manner. The loss of no young man we know of would be more deplored
than his demise.

Cowen never wholly recovered from the effects of his encounter with
Joy, but he survived to joke with Field over the past tense in which
this paragraph is couched, and to afford me valuable assistance in
completing this character-study of our friend.

I have already referred to the "box stall" in which Field sawed his
daily wood, as he was accustomed to call his work. As the day of
thinking that any old pine table, with a candle box for a chair,
crowded off in any sort of a dingy garret, was good enough for the
writers who contributed "copy" for a newspaper, has been succeeded by
an era of quarter-sawed oak desks, swivel chairs, electric light, and
soap and water in editorial quarters throughout the country, let me
attempt to describe the original editorial rooms of the Daily News less
than twenty years ago. The various departme