ndents the following request for a postage stamp
will testify:

_THE GOOD KNIGHT'S DIPLOMACY.[1]

One evening in his normal plight
The good but impecunious knight
Addressing Thompson said:
"Methinks a great increasing fame
Shall add new glory to thy name,
And cluster round thy head.

"There is no knight but he will yield
Before thy valor in the Field
Or in exploits of arms;
And all admit the pleasing force
Of thy most eloquent discourse--
Such are thy social charms.

"Alike to lord and vassal dear
Thou dost incline a pitying ear
To fellow-men in pain;
And be he wounded, sick, or broke,
No brother knight doth e'er invoke
Thy knightly aid in vain.

"Such--such a gentle knight thou art,
And it is solace to my heart
To have so fair a friend.
No better, sweeter boon I pray
Than thy affection--by the way,
Hast thou a stamp to lend?"

"Aye, marry, 'tis my sweet delight
To succor such an honest knight!"
Sir Thompson straight replied.
Field caught the proffered treasure up,
Then tossing off a stirrup-cup
From out the castle hied.

July 2d, 1885._

[1] In this specimen of Field's privately circulated verse, as in
his letters, his own punctuation and capitalization are followed.
He had a system of his own which, when complicated with the
office style of the News, resulted in most admirable confusion
and inconsistency.

Was ever request for so small a "boon" couched in such lordly pomp of
phrase and in such insinuating rhyme?

It was shortly after Field secured this boon that he had his first
opportunity to waste postage stamps on me. With a party of friends I
went up to Mackinac Island to spend a few days. By the first mail that
reached the island after I had registered at the old Island House, I
received a letter bearing in no less than five different colored inks
the following unique superscription:

For that Most Illustrious and Puissant Knight Errant,
_Sir Slosson Thompson_,
Erstwhile of Chicago, but now illumining
_Mackinac Island, Michigan,_

Where, under civic guise, he is accomplishing prodigious slaughter
among the fish that do infest that coast.

It may be taken for granted that the clerks and the hotel guests were
consumed with curiosity as to the contents of an envelope over which
they had a chance to speculate before it reached me. These were:

CHICAGO, July 1