Who is Ruben Pantier from Spoon River Anthology and what is their importance?

Ruben Pantier, son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier, addresses his epitaph to Emily Sparks, whose prayers for him, he says, "were not wasted." Ruben says the milliner's daughter made trouble for him and so he left Spoon River and traveled out into the world becoming intimate with women and wine. Ruben tells a particular story of an encounter he had one night in the Rue de Rivoli with a black-eyed coquette. Ruben says he cried thinking of Spoon River and Emily Sparks, but the Parisian girl thought the tears were for her.