. Field's
lack of reverence for all earthly things, except womankind, was the
barrier between these two.

Thus it came about that Field made the Saints' and Sinners' Corner at
McClurg's famous throughout the book world against its owner's will,
but not against his fortune. For more than six years he advertised its
wares and bargains as no book-store had ever been advertised before.
All the general and his lieutenant had to do was to provide the books
collectors were after, and Field did the rest. He played upon the
strings of bibliomaniac acquisitiveness as a skilled musician upon the
violin; and whether the music they gave forth was grave or gay, it gave
a mocking pleasure to the man who rejoiced that there was so much power
in the "subtile" scratching of his pen.

Among the earliest friends Field made at McClurg's was the late William
F. Poole, for many years in charge of the Chicago Public Library, and
subsequently of the Newberry Library. Dr. Poole came from Salem, Mass.,
and his son at one time was catcher for the Yale base-ball nine. Field
took advantage of these facts, which appealed to his enjoyment of
contradictions to print all manner of odd conceits about Professor
Poole's relations to witches, base-ball, and libraries. The doctor
could not make a move in public that it did not inspire Field to some
new quidity involving his alleged belief in witches, his envy and
admiration of his son's prowess at base-ball, and his real and
extensive familiarity with libraries and literature. Some idea of the
good-natured liberties Field took with the name of Dr. Poole is given
in this paragraph of October 8th, 1889:

Dr. William F. Poole, the veteran bibliophile, is now in San
Francisco attending the meeting of the National Librarians'
Association. While the train bearing the excursionists was _en
route_ through Arizona, a stop of twenty minutes was made one
evening for supper at a rude eating-house, and here Dr. Poole had an
exciting experience with a tarantula. The venomous reptile attacked
the kindly old gentleman with singular voracity, and but for the
high-topped boots which Mr. Poole wore, serious injuries would have
been inflicted upon our friend's person. Mr. Fred Hild, our Public
Librarian, hearing Dr. Poole's cries for help, ran to the rescue,
and with his cane and umbrella succeeded in keeping the tarantula
at bay until the keeper of the restaurant fetched his gun and
dispatched the