months in France and Italy. From this European trip have sprung the
absurd stories which have represented him as squandering thousands of
dollars in the pursuit of pleasure. Unquestionably he had the not
unnatural extravagance which accompanies youth and a most generous
disposition, for he was lavish and open-handed all through life to an
unusual degree, but at no time was he particularly given to wild
excesses, and the fact that my father's estate, which was largely
realty, had shrunk perceptibly during the panic days of 1873 was enough
to make him soon reach the limit of even moderate extravagance. At the
same time many good stories have been told illustrative of his contempt
for money, and it is eminently characteristic of his lack of the
Puritan regard for small things that one day he approached my father's
executor, Hon. M. L. Gray, of St. Louis, with a request for
seventy-five dollars.

"But," objected this cautious and excellent man, "I gave you
seventy-five dollars only yesterday, Eugene. What did you do with that?"

"Oh," replied my brother, with an impatient and scornful toss of the
head, "I believe I bought some postage stamps."

Before going to Europe he had met Miss Julia Sutherland Comstock, of St.
Joseph, Missouri, the sister of a college friend, and the attachment
which was formed led to their marriage in October, 1873. Much of his
tenderest and sweetest verse was inspired by love for the woman who
became his wife, and the dedication to the "Second Book of Verse" is
hardly surpassed for depth of affection and daintiness of sentiment,
while "Lover's Lane, St. Jo.," is the very essence of loyalty, love, and
reminiscential ardor. At the time of his marriage my brother realized
the importance of going to work in earnest, and shortly before the