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diff --git a/34940-8.txt b/34940-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65ab12e --- /dev/null +++ b/34940-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13647 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Bret Harte, by Henry Childs Merwin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of Bret Harte + With Some Account of the California Pioneers + +Author: Henry Childs Merwin + +Release Date: January 13, 2011 [EBook #34940] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + +THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE + + + + +[Illustration: Bret Harte] + + + + + The Gale Library of Lives and Letters American Writers Series + + + THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE + + WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CALIFORNIA PIONEERS + + + BY HENRY CHILDS MERWIN + + + WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + The Riverside Press Cambridge + 1911 + + REPUBLISHED BY GALE RESEARCH COMPANY, BOOK TOWER, DETROIT, 1967 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HENRY CHILDS MERWIN + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + _Published September 1911_ + + + Library of Congress Card Number: 67-23887 + + + + +TO Anne Amory Merwin THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is a pleasure for the Author of this book to record his indebtedness to +others in preparing it. Mrs. T. Edgar Pemberton, and Messrs. C. Arthur +Pearson, Limited, the publishers of Pemberton's Life of Bret Harte, have +kindly consented to the quotation from that interesting book of several +letters by Mr. Harte that throw much light upon his character. Similar +permission was given by Mr. Howells and his publishers, the Messrs. Harper +and Brothers, to make use of Mr. Howells' account of Bret Harte's visit to +him at Cambridge; and of this permission the Author has availed himself +with a freedom which the Reader at least will not regret. + +Professor Raymond Weeks, President of the American Dialect Society, +Professor C. Alphonso Smith, Mr. Albert Matthews, and others whose names +are mentioned on page 326, have lent their aid in regard to the Pioneer +language, and Ernest Knaufft, Bret Harte's nephew, has not only furnished +the Author with some information about his uncle's early life, but he has +also read the proofs, and has made more than one valuable suggestion which +the Author was glad to adopt. It is only fair to add that Mr. Knaufft does +not in all respects agree with the Author's estimate of Bret Harte's +character. Another critic, Prescott Hartford Belknap, has put his fine +literary taste at the service of the book, and has saved its writer from +some mistakes which he now shudders to contemplate. + +Most of all, however, the Author is indebted to his accomplished friend, +Edwin Munroe Bacon, who, though much engaged with important literary work +of his own, has read the book twice, once in MS. and once in print,--a +signal, not to say painful proof of friendship which the Author +acknowledges with gratitude, and almost with shame. + +H. C. M. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. BRET HARTE'S ANCESTRY 1 + + II. BRET HARTE'S BOYHOOD 13 + + III. BRET HARTE'S WANDERINGS IN CALIFORNIA 18 + + IV. BRET HARTE IN SAN FRANCISCO 32 + + V. THE PIONEER MEN AND WOMEN 53 + + VI. PIONEER LIFE 85 + + VII. PIONEER LAW AND LAWLESSNESS 120 + + VIII. WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG THE PIONEERS 140 + + IX. FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE PIONEERS 157 + + X. GAMBLING IN PIONEER TIMES 168 + + XI. OTHER FORMS OF BUSINESS 181 + + XII. LITERATURE, JOURNALISM AND RELIGION 192 + + XIII. BRET HARTE'S DEPARTURE FROM CALIFORNIA 214 + + XIV. BRET HARTE IN THE EAST 220 + + XV. BRET HARTE AT CREFELD 251 + + XVI. BRET HARTE AT GLASGOW 266 + + XVII. BRET HARTE IN LONDON 274 + + XVIII. BRET HARTE AS A WRITER OF FICTION 293 + + XIX. BRET HARTE AS A POET 308 + + XX. BRET HARTE'S PIONEER DIALECT 321 + + XXI. BRET HARTE'S STYLE 330 + + INDEX 347 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + BRET HARTE (PHOTOGRAVURE) _Frontispiece._ + From a photograph by Hollyer taken in 1896. + + BERNARD HART, BRET HARTE'S GRANDFATHER 6 + From a painting in the possession of Messrs. + Arthur Lipper & Co., New York. + + SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER, 1844 24 + After a sketch by J. C. Ward. + + BRET HARTE IN 1861 32 + The facsimile of Bret Harte's handwriting is taken + from the back of the photograph in the possession + of Miss Elizabeth Benton Frémont. + + STORESHIP APOLLO, USED AS A SALOON 40 + After a drawing by W. Taber. + + GRAND PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1852 60 + From an old print. + + THE FIRST HOTEL AT SAN FRANCISCO 86 + After a drawing by W. Taber. + + MINERS' BALL 94 + After a drawing by A. Castaigne. + + THE TWO OPPONENTS CAME NEARER 114 + After a drawing by Frederic Remington illustrating + "The Iliad of Sandy Bar." + + SACRAMENTO CITY IN 1852 120 + From an old print. + + THE POST-OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO, 1849-50 144 + After a drawing by A. Castaigne. + + HE LOOKED CURIOUSLY AT HIS REFLECTION 166 + After a drawing by E. Boyd Smith, illustrating "Left + Out on Lone Star Mountain." + + DENNISON'S EXCHANGE, AND PARKER HOUSE, DECEMBER, + 1849, BEFORE THE FIRE 178 + After a drawing by W. Taber. + + MAIN STREET, NEVADA CITY, 1852 196 + From a photograph in the possession of Colonel + Thomas L. Livermore. + + THE BELLS, SAN GABRIEL MISSION 212 + From a photograph. + + I THOUGHT YOU WERE THAT HORSE-THIEF 248 + After a drawing by Denman Fink, illustrating + "Lanty Foster's Mistake." + + THE HOME OF "TRUTHFUL JAMES," JACKASS FLAT, TUOLUMNE + COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 310 + From a photograph. + + + + +THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE + + + + +BRET HARTE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BRET HARTE'S ANCESTRY + + +Francis Brett Harte was born at Albany in the State of New York, on August +twenty-fifth, 1836. By his relatives and early friends he was called +Frank; but soon after beginning his career as an author in San Francisco +he signed his name as "Brett," then as "Bret," and finally as "Bret +Harte." "Bret Harte," therefore, is in some degree a _nom de guerre_, and +it was commonly supposed at first, both in the Eastern States and in +England, to be wholly such. Our great New England novelist had a similar +experience, for "Nathaniel Hawthorne" was long regarded by most of his +readers as an assumed name, happily chosen to indicate the quaint and +poetic character of the tales to which it was signed. Bret Harte's father +was Henry Hart;[1] but before we trace his ancestry, let us endeavor to +see how he looked. Fanny Kemble met him at Lenox, in the year 1875, and +was much impressed by his appearance. In a letter to a relative she wrote: +"He reminded me a good deal of our old pirate and bandit friend, +Trelawney, though the latter was an almost orientally dark-complexioned +man, and Mr. Bret Harte was comparatively fair. They were both tall, +well-made men of fine figure; both, too, were handsome, with a peculiar +expression of face which suggested small success to any one who might +engage in personal conflict with them." + +In reality Bret Harte was not tall, though others beside Mrs. Kemble +thought him to be so; his height was five feet, eight and a half inches. +His face was smooth and regular, without much color; the chin firm and +well rounded; the nose straight and rather large, "the nose of generosity +and genius"; the under-lip having what Mr. Howells called a "fascinating, +forward thrust." + +The following description dates from the time when he left California: "He +was a handsome, distinguished-looking man, and although his oval face was +slightly marred by scars of small-pox, and his abundant dark hair was +already streaked with gray, he carried his slight, upright figure with a +quiet elegance that would have made an impression, even when the +refinement of face, voice and manner had not been recognized." + +Mr. Howells says of him at the same period: "He was, as one could not help +seeing, thickly pitted, but after the first glance one forgot this, so +that a lady who met him for the first time could say to him, 'Mr. Harte, +aren't you afraid to go about in the cars so recklessly when there is this +scare about small-pox?' 'No! madam!' he said, in that rich note of his, +with an irony touched by pseudo-pathos, 'I bear a charmèd life.'" + +Almost every one who met Bret Harte was struck by his low, rich, +well-modulated voice. Mr. Howells speaks of "the mellow cordial of a voice +that was like no other." His handwriting was small, firm and graceful. + +Chance acquaintances made in England were sometimes surprised at Bret +Harte's appearance. They had formed, writes Mme. Van de Velde, "a vague, +intangible idea of a wild, reckless Californian, impatient of social +trammels, whose life among the Argonauts must have fashioned him after a +type differing widely from the reality. These idealists were partly +disappointed, partly relieved, when their American writer turned out to +be a quiet, low-voiced, easy-mannered, polished gentleman, who smilingly +confessed that precisely because he had roughed it a good deal in his +youth he was inclined to enjoy the comforts and avail himself of the +facilities of an older civilization, when placed within his reach." + +Bret Harte's knowledge of these disappointed expectations may have +suggested the plot of that amusing story _Their Uncle from California_, +the hero of which presents a similar contrast to the barbaric ideal which +had been formed by his Eastern relatives. + +The photographs of Bret Harte, taken at various periods in his life, +reveal great changes, apart from those of age. The first one, at +seventeen, shows an intellectual youth, very mature for his age, with a +fine forehead, the hair parted at one side, and something of a rustic +appearance. In the next picture, taken at the age of thirty-five or +thereabout, we see a determined-looking man, with slight side-whiskers, a +drooping mustache, and clothes a little "loud." Five years afterward there +is another photograph in which the whiskers have disappeared, the hair +seems longer and more curly, the clothes are unquestionably "loud," and +the picture, taken altogether, has a slight tinge of Bohemian-like +vulgarity. In the later photographs the hair is shorter, and parted in the +middle, the mustache subdued, the dress handsome and in perfect taste, and +the whole appearance is that of a refined, sophisticated, aristocratic man +of the world, dignified, and yet perfectly simple, unaffected and free +from self-consciousness. + +In a measure Bret Harte seems to have undergone that process of +development which Mr. Henry James has described in "The American." The +Reader may remember how the American (far from a typical one, by the way) +began with sky-blue neckties and large plaids, and ended with clothes and +adornments of the most chastened, correct and elegant character. Actors +are apt to go through a similar process. The first great exponent of the +"suppressed emotion" school began, and in California too, as it happened, +by splitting the ears of the groundlings and sawing the air with both +arms. + +Bret Harte had something of a Hebrew look, and not unnaturally so, for he +came of mixed English, Dutch and Hebrew stock. To be exact, he was half +English, one quarter Dutch, and one quarter Hebrew. The Hebrew strain also +was derived from English soil, so that with the exception of a Dutch +great-grandmother, all his ancestors emigrated from England, and not very +remotely. + +The Hebrew in the pedigree was his paternal grandfather, Bernard Hart. Mr. +Hart was born in London, on Christmas Day, 1763 or 1764, but as a boy of +thirteen he went out to Canada, where his relatives were numerous. These +Canadian Harts were a marked family, energetic, forceful, strong-willed, +prosperous, given to hospitality, warm-hearted, and pleasure-loving. One +of Bernard Hart's Canadian cousins left behind him at his death no less +than fourteen families, all established in the world with a good degree of +comfort, and with a sufficient degree of respectability. Now the +impropriety, to say nothing about the extravagance, of maintaining +fourteen separate families is so great that no Reader of this book (the +author feels confident) need be warned against it; and yet it indicates a +large, free-handed, lordly way of doing things. It was no ordinary man, +and no ordinary strain of blood that could produce such a record. + +Bernard Hart remained but three years in Canada, and in 1780 moved to New +York where, although scarcely more than a boy, he acted as the business +representative of his Canadian kinsfolk. The Canadian Harts had many +commercial and social relations with the metropolis, and there was much +"cousining," much going back and forth between the two places. Bernard +Hart lived in New York for the rest of his life, and attained a high rank +in the community. "Towering aloft among the magnates of the city of the +last and present century," writes a local historian, "is Bernard Hart." He +was successful in business, very active in social and charitable affairs, +and prominent in the synagogue. In 1802 he formed a partnership with +Leonard Lispenard, under the name of Lispenard and Hart. They were +commission merchants and auctioneers, and did a large business. In 1803 +the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Hart continued in trade by himself. In +1831 he became Secretary to the New York Stock Exchange Board, and held +that office for twenty-two years, resigning at the age of eighty-nine. In +1795, the year of the yellow fever plague, Bernard Hart rendered heroic +service, as is testified by a contemporary annalist. "Mr. Hart and Mr. +Pell, who kept store at 108 Market Street, a few doors from Mr. Hart, were +unceasing in their exertions. Night and day, hardly giving themselves time +to sleep or eat, they were among the sick and dying, relieving their +wants. They were angels of mercy in those awful days of the first great +pestilence." + +Bernard Hart was also a military man, and in 1797 became quartermaster of +a militia regiment, composed wholly of citizens of New York. That he was a +"clubable" man, too, is very apparent. It was an era of clubs, and Bernard +Hart founded the association known as "The Friary." It met on the first +and third Sundays of every month at 56 Pine Street. He was also President +of The House of Lords, a merchants' club, which met at Baker's City Tavern +every week-day night, at 7 o'clock, adjourning at 10 o'clock. Each member +was allowed a limited quantity of liquor, business was discussed, +contracts were made, and sociability was promoted. He was, too, a member +of the St. George Society, and is said, also, to have been a Mason, +belonging to Holland Lodge No. 8, of which John Jacob Astor was master in +1798. Bernard Hart was a devout Jew, and his name frequently appears in +the records of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, known as the +Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue established in New York. +He lived in various houses,--at 86 Water Street, at 24 Cedar Street, at 12 +Lispenard Street, at 20 Varick Street, and finally at 23 White Street. A +picture of him still hangs in the counting-room of Messrs. Arthur Lipper +and Co., in Broad Street. + +How came it that this orthodox Jew, this pillar of the synagogue, married +a Christian woman? The romance, if there was one, is imperfectly preserved +even in the family traditions. It is known only that in 1799 Bernard Hart +married Catharine Brett, a woman of good family; that after living +together for a year or less, they separated; that there was one son, Henry +Hart, born February 1, 1800, who lived with his mother, and who became the +father of Bret Harte. + +A few years later, in 1806, Bernard Hart married Zipporah Seixas, one of +the sixteen children, eight sons and eight daughters, born to Benjamin +Mendez Seixas. These young women were noted for their beauty and +amiability, and so strong was the impression which they produced that it +lasted even until the succeeding generation. The marriage ceremony was +performed by Gershom Mendez Seixas, a brother of the bride's father, and +rabbi of the synagogue already mentioned. From this marriage came numerous +sons and daughters, whose careers were honorable. Emanuel B. Hart was a +merchant and broker, an alderman, a member of Congress in 1851 and 1852, +and Surveyor of the Port of New York from 1859 to 1861. Benjamin I. Hart +was a broker in New York. David Hart, a teller in the Pacific Bank, fought +gallantly at the battle of Bull Run and was badly wounded there. Theodore +and Daniel Hart were merchants in New York. + + +[Illustration: BERNARD HART + +Bret Harte's Grandfather] + + +One of Bernard Hart's sons by the Hebrew wife was named Henry. He was born +in 1817, and died of consumption in his father's house in White Street on +November 16, 1850. He was unmarried. Bernard Hart himself died in 1855, at +the age of ninety-one. His wife was then living at the age of +seventy-nine. + +None of his descendants on the Hebrew side knew of his marriage to +Catharine Brett or of the existence of his son, the first Henry Hart, +until some years after Bret Harte's death. It seems almost incredible that +this Hebrew merchant, prominent as he was in business and social life, in +clubs and societies, in the militia and the synagogue, should have been +able to keep the fact of his first marriage so secret that it remained a +secret for a hundred years; it seems very unlikely that a woman of good +English birth and family should in that era have married a Jew; it is +highly improbable that a father should give to a son by a second marriage +the same name already given to his son by a former marriage. And yet all +these things are indisputable facts. There are members of Bret Harte's +family still living who remember Bernard Hart, and his occasional visits +to the family of Henry Hart, his son by Catharine Brett, whom he assisted +with money and advice so long as he lived. Bret Harte himself remembered +being taken to the New York Stock Exchange by his father, who there +pointed out to him his grandfather, Bernard Hart. It may be added that +between the descendants of Bernard Hart and Catharine Brett and those of +Bernard Hart and Zipporah Seixas there is a marked resemblance. + +How far was the venerable Jew from suspecting that the one fact in his +life which he was so anxious to conceal was the very fact which would +rescue his name from oblivion, and preserve it so long as English +literature shall exist! Even if the marriage to Catharine Brett, a +Christian woman, had been known it would not, according to Jewish law, +have invalidated the second marriage, but it would doubtless have +prevented that marriage. What rendered the long concealment possible was, +of course, the deep gulf which then separated Jew from Gentile. Catharine +Brett had been warned by her father that he would cast her off if she +married the Jew; and this threat was fulfilled. Thenceforth, she lived a +lonely and secluded life, supported, it is believed, by her husband, but +having no other relation with him. The marriage was so improbable, so +ill-assorted, so productive of unhappiness, and yet so splendid in its +ultimate results, that it seems almost atheistic to ascribe it to chance. +Is the world governed in that haphazard manner! + +But who was this unfortunate Catharine Brett? She was a granddaughter of +Roger Brett, an Englishman, and, it is supposed, a lieutenant in the +British Navy, who first appears in New York, about the year 1700, as a +friend of Lord Cornbury, then Governor of the Province. The coat of arms +which Roger Brett brought over, and which is still preserved on a pewter +placque, is identical with that borne by Judge, Sir Balliol Brett, before +his elevation to the peerage as Viscount Esher. Roger Brett was a +vestryman of Trinity Church from 1703 to 1706. In November, 1703, he +married Catharyna Rombout, daughter of Francis Rombout, who was one of the +early and successful merchants in the city of New York. Her mother, Helena +Teller, daughter of William Teller, a captain in the Indian wars, was +married three times, Francis Rombout being her third husband. Schuyler +Colfax, once Vice-President of the United States, was descended from her. +Francis Rombout was born at Hasselt in Belgium, and came to New Amsterdam +while it still belonged to the Dutch. He was an elder in the Dutch Church, +served as lieutenant in an expedition against the Swedes, was Schepen +under the Dutch municipal government, alderman under the reorganized +British government, and, in 1679, became the twelfth Mayor of New York. + +Francis Rombout left to his daughter, Roger Brett's wife, an immense +estate on the Hudson River, which included the Fishkills, and consisted +chiefly of forest land. There, in 1709, the young couple built for their +home a manor house, which is still standing and is occupied by a +descendant of Roger Brett, to whom it has come down in direct line through +the female branch. A few years later, at least before 1720, Roger Brett +was drowned at the mouth of Fishkill Creek in the Hudson River. Catharyna, +his widow, survived him for many years. She was a woman of marked +character and ability, known through all that region as Madame Brett. She +administered her large estate, leased and sold much land to settlers, +controlled the Indians who were numerous, superintended a mill to which +both Dutchess County and Orange County sent their grist, owned the sloops +which were the only carriers between this outpost of the Colony and the +city of New York, and was one of the founders of the Fishkill Dutch +Church. In that church, a tablet to her memory was recently erected by the +Rombout-Brett Association, formed a few years ago by her descendants. The +tablet is inscribed as follows:-- + + _In memory of Catharyna Brett, widow of Lieutenant Roger Brett, R.N., + and daughter of Francis Rombout, a grantee of Rombout patent, born in + the city of New York 1687, died in Rombout Precinct, Fishkill, 1764. + To this church she was a liberal contributor, and underneath its + pulpit her body is interred. This tablet was erected by her + descendants and others interested in the Colonial history of + Fishkill, A. D. 1904._ + +Roger Brett had four sons, of whom two died young and unmarried, and two, +Francis and Robert, married, and left many children. Whether the Catharine +Brett who married Bernard Hart was descended from Francis or from Robert +is not certainly known. Francis Brett's wife was a descendant of Cornelius +Van Wyck, one of the earliest settlers on Long Island. Robert Brett's wife +was a Miss Dubois. + +Such was the ancestry of Bret Harte's paternal grandmother. Her son, Henry +Hart,[2] lived with her until, on May 5, 1817, he entered Union College, +Schenectady, as a member of the class of 1820. He remained in college +until the end of his Senior year, and passed all his examinations for +graduation, but failed to receive his degree because a college bill +amounting to ninety dollars had not been paid. The previous bills were +paid by his mother, "Catharine Hart." Alas! the non-payment of this bill +was an omen of the future. Henry Hart and his illustrious son were both +the reverse of thrifty or economical. Money seemed to fly away from them; +they had no capacity for keeping it, and no discretion in spending it. +Unpaid bills were the bane of their existence. Henry Hart's improvidence +is ascribed, in part, by those who knew him, to the irregular manner in +which his father supplied him with money, Bernard Hart being sometimes +very lavish and sometimes very parsimonious with his son. + +Henry Hart was a well-built, athletic-looking man, with rather large +features, and dark hair and complexion. His height was five feet ten +inches, and his weight one hundred and seventy pounds. He was an +accomplished scholar, speaking French, Spanish and Italian, and being well +versed in Greek and Latin. He passed his short life as school-teacher, +tutor, lecturer and translator. + +On May 16, 1830, he married Elizabeth Rebecca, daughter of Henry Philip +Ostrander, an "upstate" surveyor and farmer, who belonged to a prominent +Dutch family which settled at Kingston on the Hudson in 1659. It will be +remembered that the hero of Bret Harte's story, _Two Americans_, is Major +Philip Ostrander. The mother of Elizabeth Ostrander, Henry Hart's wife, +was Abigail Truesdale, of English descent. Henry Hart was brought up by +his mother in the Dutch Reformed faith, but soon after leaving college, +owing to what influence is unknown, he became a Catholic, and remained +such until his death. His wife was an Episcopalian, and his children were +of that, if of any persuasion. + +In 1833 we find Henry Hart at Albany, and there he remained until 1836, +the year of Bret Harte's birth. In 1833 and 1834, he was instructor in the +Albany Female Academy, a girls' school, famous in its day, where he taught +reading and writing, rhetoric and mathematics. Early in 1835 he left the +Academy, and for two years he conducted a private school of his own at 15 +Columbia Street, but this appears not to have been successful, for he +ceased to be a resident of the city in the latter part of 1836, or early +in 1837. One event in Henry Hart's life at Albany is significant. In +December, 1833, a meeting was held in the Mayor's Court Room to organize a +Young Men's Association, which proved to be a great success, and which has +played an important part in the life of the city down to the present day. +Henry Hart, though a comparative stranger in Albany, was chosen to explain +the objects of the Association at this meeting, and at the next meeting he +was elected one of the Managers. When Bret Harte came East from +California, he went to Albany and addressed the Association, upon the +invitation of its members. + +After leaving Albany the family led an unsettled, uncomfortable life, +going from place to place, with occasional returns to the home of an +Ostrander relative in Hudson Street in the city of New York. The late Mr. +A. V. S. Anthony, the well-known engraver, was a neighbor of Bret Harte in +Hudson Street, and played and fought with him there, when they were both +about seven or eight years old. Afterward they met in California, and +again in London. From Albany the Henry Hart family went to Hudson, where +Mr. Hart acted as principal of an academy; and subsequently they lived in +New Brunswick, New Jersey; in Philadelphia; in Providence, Rhode Island; +in Lowell, Massachusetts; in Boston and elsewhere. + +A few years before her death Mrs. Hart read the life of Bronson Alcott, +and when she laid down the book she remarked that the troubles and +privations endured by the Alcott family bore a striking resemblance to +those which she and her children had undergone. Some want of balance in +Henry Hart's character prevented him, notwithstanding his undoubted +talents, his enthusiasm, and his accomplishments, from ever obtaining any +material success in life, or even a home for his family and himself. But +he was a man of warm impulses and deep feeling. When Henry Clay was +nominated for the Presidency in 1844, Henry Hart espoused his cause almost +with fury. He gave up all other employment to electioneer in behalf of the +Whig candidate, and the defeat of his idol was a crushing blow from which +he never recovered. It was the first time that a really great man, as Clay +certainly was, had been outvoted in a contest for the Presidency by a +commonplace man, like Polk; and Clay's defeat was regarded by his +adherents not only as a hideous injustice, but as a national calamity. It +is not given to every one to take any impersonal matter so seriously as +Henry Hart took the defeat of his political chieftain; and his death a +year later, in 1845, may justly be regarded as a really noble ending to a +troubled and unsuccessful life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BRET HARTE'S BOYHOOD + + +After the death of Henry Hart, his widow remained with her children in New +York and Brooklyn until 1853. They were supported in part by her family, +the Ostranders, and in part by Bernard Hart. There were four children, two +sons and two daughters. Eliza, the eldest, who is still living, and to +whom the author is indebted for information about the family, was married +in 1851 to Mr. F. F. Knaufft, and her life has been passed mainly in New +York and New Jersey. Mr. Ernest Knaufft, editor of the "Art Student," and +well known as a critic and writer, is her son. Unfortunately, Mrs. +Knaufft's house was burned in 1868, and with it many letters and papers +relating to her father and his parents, and also the MSS. of various +lectures delivered by him. + +The younger daughter, Margaret B., went to California with Bret Harte, and +preceded him as a contributor of stories and sketches to the "Golden Era," +and other papers in San Francisco. She married Mr. B. H. Wyman, and is +still a resident of California. Bret Harte's sisters are women of +distinguished appearance, and remarkable for force of character. + +Bret Harte's only brother, Henry, had a short but striking career, which +displayed, even more perhaps than did the career of Bret Harte himself, +that intensity which seems to have been their chief inheritance from the +Hebrew strain. The following account of him is furnished by Mrs. Knaufft: + +"My brother Henry was two years and six months older than his brother +Francis Brett Harte. Henry began reading history when he was six years +old, and from that time until he was twelve years of age, he read history, +ancient and modern, daily, sometimes only one hour, at other times from +two to three hours. What interested him was the wars; he would read for +two or three hours, and then if a battle had been won by his favorite +warriors, he would spring to his feet, shouting, 'Victory is ours,' +repeatedly. He would read lying on the floor, and often we would say +ridiculous and provoking things about him, and sometimes pull his hair, +but he never paid the slightest attention to us, being perfectly oblivious +of his surroundings. His memory was phenomenal. He read Froissart's +Chronicles when he was about ten years old, and could repeat page after +page accurately. One evening an old professor was talking with my mother +about some event in ancient history, and he mentioned the date of a +decisive battle. Henry, who was listening intently, said, 'I beg pardon, +Professor, you are wrong. That battle was fought on such a date.' The +professor was astonished. 'Where did you hear about that battle?' he +asked. 'I read that history last year,' replied Henry. + +"When the boy was twelve years old, he came home from school one day, and +rushing into his mother's room, shouted, 'War is declared! War is +declared!' 'What in the name of common sense has that got to do with you?' +asked my mother. 'Mother,' said Henry, 'I am going to fight for my +country; that is what I was created for.' + +"After some four or five months of constant anxiety, caused by Henry's +offering himself to every captain whose ship was going to or near Mexico, +a friend of my mother's told Lieutenant Benjamin Dove of the Navy about +Henry, and he became greatly interested, and finally, through his efforts, +Henry was taken on his ship. Henry was so small that his uniform had to be +made for him. The ship went ashore on the Island of Eleuthera, to the +great delight of my brother, who wrote his mother a startling account of +the shipwreck. I cannot remember whether the ship was able to go on her +voyage, or whether the men were all transferred to Commander Tatnall's +ship the 'Spitfire.' I know that Henry was on Commander Tatnall's ship at +the Bombardment of Vera Cruz, and was in the fort or forts at Tuxpan, +where the Commander and Henry were both wounded. Commander Tatnall wrote +my mother that when Henry was wounded, he exclaimed, 'Thank God, I am shot +in the face,' and that when he inquired for Henry, he was told that he was +hiding because he did not want his wound dressed. When the Commander found +Henry, he asked him why he did not want his wound dressed. With tears in +his eyes Henry said, 'Because I'm afraid it won't show any scar if the +surgeon dresses it.' + +"When my brother returned from Mexico, he became very restless. The sea +had cast its spell about him, and finally a friend, captain of a ship, +took Henry on a very long voyage, going around Cape Horn to California. +When they arrived at San Francisco, my brother, who was then just sixteen, +was taken in charge by a relative. I never heard of his doing anything +remarkable during his short life. As the irony of fate would have it, he +died suddenly from pneumonia, just before the Civil War." + +Bret Harte was equally precocious, and he was precocious even in respect +to the sense of humor, which commonly requires some little experience for +its development. It is a family tradition that he burlesqued the rather +bald language of his primer at the age of five; and his sisters distinctly +remember that, a year later, he came home from a school exhibition, and +made them scream with laughter by mimicking the boy who spoke "My name is +Norval." He was naturally a very quiet, studious child; and this tendency +was increased by ill health. From his sixth to his tenth year, he was +unable to lead an active life. At the age of six he was reading Shakspere +and Froissart, and at seven he took up "Dombey and Son," and so began his +acquaintance with that author who was to influence him far more than any +other. From Dickens he proceeded to Fielding, Goldsmith, Smollett, +Cervantes, and Washington Irving. During an illness of two months, when he +was fourteen years old, he learned to read Greek sufficiently well to +astonish his mother. + +If the Hart family resembled the Alcott family in the matter of +misfortunes and privations, so it did, also, in its intellectual +atmosphere. Mrs. Hart shared her husband's passion for literature; and she +had a keen, critical faculty, to which, the family think, Bret Harte was +much indebted for the perfection of his style. Henry Hart had accumulated +a library surprisingly large for a man of his small means, and the whole +household was given to the reading not simply of books, but of the best +books, and to talking about them. It was a household in which the literary +second-rate was unerringly, and somewhat scornfully, discriminated from +the first-rate. + +When Bret Harte was only eleven years old he wrote a poem called _Autumnal +Musings_ which he sent surreptitiously to the "New York Sunday Atlas," and +the poem was published in the next issue. This was a wonderful feat for a +boy of that age, and he was naturally elated by seeing his verses in +print; but the family critics pointed out their defects with such +unpleasant frankness that the conceit of the youthful poet was nipped in +the bud. Many years afterward, Bret Harte said with a laugh, "I sometimes +wonder that I ever wrote a line of poetry again." But the discipline was +wholesome, and as he grew older his mother took his literary ambitions +more seriously. When he was about sixteen, he wrote a long poem called +_The Hudson River_. It was never published, but Mrs. Hart made a careful +study of it; and at her son's request, wrote out her criticisms at length. + +It will thus be seen that Bret Harte, as an author, far from being an +academic, was strictly a home product. He left school at the age of +thirteen and went immediately into a lawyer's office where he remained +about a year, and thence into the counting-room of a merchant. He was +self-supporting before he reached the age of sixteen. In 1851, as has +already been mentioned, his older sister was married; and in 1853 his +mother went to California with a party of relatives and friends, in order +to make her home there with her elder son, Henry. She had intended to take +with her the other two children, Margaret and Francis Brett; but as the +daughter was in school, she left the two behind for a few months, and they +followed in February, 1854. They travelled by the Nicaragua route, and +after a long, tiresome, but uneventful journey, landed safely in San +Francisco.[3] No mention of their arrival was made in the newspapers; no +guns were fired; no band played; but the youth of eighteen who thus +slipped unnoticed into California was the one person, out of the many +thousands arriving in those early years, whose coming was a fact of +importance. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BRET HARTE'S WANDERINGS IN CALIFORNIA + + +Bret Harte and his sister arrived at San Francisco in March, 1854, stayed +there one night, and went the next morning to Oakland, across the Bay, +where their mother and her second husband, Colonel Andrew Williams, were +living. In this house the boy remained about a year, teaching for a while, +and afterward serving as clerk in an apothecary's shop. During this year +he began his career as a professional writer, contributing some stories +and poems to Eastern magazines. + +Bret Harte, like Thackeray, was fortunate in his stepfather, and if, +according to the accepted story, Thackeray's stepfather was the prototype +of Colonel Newcome, the two men must have had much in common. Colonel +Williams was born at Cherry Valley in the State of New York, and was +graduated at Union College with the Class of 1819. Henry Hart's class was +that of 1820, but the two young men were friends in college. Colonel +Williams had seen much of the world, having travelled extensively in +Europe early in the century, and he was a cultivated, well-read man. But +he was chiefly remarkable for his high standard of honor, and his amiable, +chivalrous nature. He was a gentleman of the old school in the best sense, +grave but sympathetic, courtly but kind. His generosity was unbounded. +Such a man might appear to have been somewhat out of place in bustling +California, but his qualities were appreciated there. He was the first +Mayor of Oakland, in the year 1857, and was re-elected the following year. +Colonel Williams built a comfortable house in Oakland, one of the first, +if not the very first in that city in which laths and plaster were used; +but land titles in California were extremely uncertain, and after a long +and stubborn contest in the courts, Colonel Williams was dispossessed, and +lost the house upon which he had expended much time and money. He then +took up his residence in San Francisco, where he lived until his return to +the East in the year 1871. His wife, Bret Harte's mother, died at +Morristown, New Jersey, April 4, 1875, and was buried in the family lot at +Greenwood, New York. The following year he went back to California for a +visit to Bret Harte's sister, Mrs. Wyman, but soon after his arrival died +of pneumonia at the age of seventy-six. + +The San Francisco and Oakland papers spoke very highly of Colonel Williams +after his death, and one of them closed an account of his life with the +following words: "Colonel Williams had that indefinable sweetness of +manner which indicates innate refinement and nobility of soul. There was a +touch of the antique about him. He seemed a little out of time and place +in this hurried age of ours. He belonged to and typified the calmer temper +of a former generation. A gentler spirit never walked the earth. He +personified all the sweet charities of life. His heart was great, warm and +tender, and he died leaving no man in the world his enemy. Colonel +Williams was the stepfather of Bret Harte, between whom and himself there +existed the most affectionate relations." + +It was during his first year in California that Bret Harte had that +gambling experience which he has related in his _Bohemian Days in San +Francisco_, and which throws so much light on his character that it should +be quoted here in part at least:-- + +"I was watching roulette one evening, intensely absorbed in the mere +movement of the players. Either they were so preoccupied with the game, or +I was really older looking than my actual years, but a bystander laid his +hand familiarly on my shoulder, and said, as to an ordinary _habitué_, 'Ef +you're not chippin' in yourself, pardner, s'pose you give _me_ a show.' +Now, I honestly believe that up to that moment I had no intention, nor +even a desire, to try my own fortune. But in the embarrassment of the +sudden address I put my hand in my pocket, drew out a coin and laid it, +with an attempt at carelessness, but a vivid consciousness that I was +blushing, upon a vacant number. To my horror I saw that I had put down a +large coin--the bulk of my possessions! I did not flinch, however; I think +any boy who reads this will understand my feeling; it was not only my coin +but my manhood at stake.... I even affected to be listening to the music. +The wheel spun again; the game was declared, the rake was busy, but I did +not move. At last the man I had displaced touched me on the arm and +whispered, 'Better make a straddle and divide your stake this time.' I did +not understand him, but as I saw he was looking at the board, I was +obliged to look, too. I drew back dazed and bewildered! Where my coin had +lain a moment before was a glittering heap of gold. + +"... 'Make your game, gentlemen,' said the croupier monotonously. I +thought he looked at me--indeed, everybody seemed to be looking at me--and +my companion repeated his warning. But here I must again appeal to the +boyish reader in defence of my idiotic obstinacy. To have taken advice +would have shown my youth. I shook my head--I could not trust my voice. I +smiled, but with a sinking heart, and let my stake remain. The ball again +sped round the wheel, and stopped. There was a pause. The croupier +indolently advanced his rake and swept my whole pile with others into the +bank! I had lost it all. Perhaps it may be difficult for me to explain why +I actually felt relieved, and even to some extent triumphant, but I seemed +to have asserted my grown-up independence--possibly at the cost of +reducing the number of my meals for days; but what of that!... The man who +had spoken to me, I think, suddenly realized, at the moment of my +disastrous _coup_, the fact of my extreme youth. He moved toward the +banker, and leaning over him whispered a few words. The banker looked up, +half impatiently, half kindly,--his hand straying tentatively toward the +pile of coin. I instinctively knew what he meant, and, summoning my +determination, met his eyes with all the indifference I could assume, and +walked away." + +In 1856, being then twenty years old, young Harte left Colonel Williams's +house, and thenceforth shifted for himself. His first engagement was as +tutor in a private family at Alamo in the San Ramon Valley. There were +several sons in the family, and one or two of them were older than their +tutor. The next year he went to Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, on the +upper coast of California, about two hundred and fifty miles north of San +Francisco. Thence he made numerous trips as express messenger on stages +running eastward to Trinity County, and northward to Del Norte, which, as +the name implies, is the extreme upper county in the State. The experience +was a valuable one, and it was concerning this period of Bret Harte's +career that his friend, Charles Warren Stoddard, wrote: "He bore a charmed +life. Probably his youth was his salvation, for he ran a thousand risks, +yet seemed only to gain in health and spirits." + +The post of express messenger was especially dangerous. Bret Harte's +predecessor was shot through the arm by a highwayman; his successor was +killed. The safe containing the treasure carried by Wells, Fargo and +Company, who did practically all the express business in California, was +always heavily chained to the box of the coach, and sometimes, when a +particularly large amount of gold had to be conveyed, armed guards were +carried inside of the coach. For the stage to be "held up" by highwaymen +was a common occurrence, and the danger from breakdowns and floods was not +small. In the course of a few months between the towns of Visalia and Kern +River the overland stage broke the legs of three several drivers. It was a +frequent thing for the stage to cross a stream, suddenly become a river, +with the horses swimming, a strong current running through the coach +itself, and the passengers perched on the seats to escape being swept +away.[4] + +With these dangers of flood and field to encounter, with precipices to +skirt, with six half-broken horses to control, and with the ever-present +possibility of serving as a target for "road-agents," it may be imagined +that the California stage-driver was no common man, and the type is +preserved in the character of Yuba Bill. He can be compared only with +Colonel Starbottle and Jack Hamlin, and Jack Hamlin was one of the few men +whom Yuba Bill condescended to treat as an equal. Their meeting in +_Gabriel Convoy_ is historic: "'Barkeep--hist that pizen over to Jack. +Here's to ye agin, ole man. But I'm glad to see ye!' The crowd hung +breathless over the two men--awestruck and respectful. It was a meeting of +the gods. None dared speak." + +"Yuba Bill," writes Mr. Chesterton, "is not convivial; it might almost be +said that he is too great even to be sociable. A circle of quiescence and +solitude, such as that which might ring a saint or a hermit, rings this +majestic and profound humorist. His jokes do not flow from him, like those +of Mr. Weller, sparkling and continual like the play of a fountain in a +pleasure garden; they fall suddenly and capriciously, like a crash of +avalanche from a great mountain. Tony Weller has the noisy humor of +London. Yuba Bill has the silent humor of the earth." Then the critic +quotes Yuba Bill's rebuke to the passenger who has expressed a +too-confident opinion as to the absence of the expected highwaymen: "'You +ain't puttin' any price on that opinion, air ye?' inquired Bill politely. + +"'No.' + +"'Cos thar's a comic paper in 'Frisco pays for them things, and I've seen +worse things in it.'" + +Even better, perhaps, is Yuba Bill's reply to Judge Beeswinger, who rashly +betrayed some over-consciousness of his importance as a member of the +State Assembly. "'Any political news from below, Bill?' he asked, as the +latter slowly descended from his lofty perch, without, however, any +perceptible coming down of mien or manner. 'Not much,' said Bill, with +deliberate gravity. 'The President o' the United States hezn't bin hisself +sens you refoosed that seat in the Cabinet. The gin'ral feelin' in +perlitical circles is one o' regret.'" + +"To be rebuked thus," Mr. Chesterton continues, "is like being rebuked by +the pyramids or by the starry heavens. There is about Yuba Bill this air +of a pugnacious calm, a stepping back to get his distance for a shattering +blow, which is like that of Dr. Johnson at his best. And the effect is +inexpressibly increased by the background and the whole picture which Bret +Harte paints so powerfully,--the stormy skies, the sombre gorge, the +rocking and spinning coach, and high above the feverish passengers the +huge, dark form of Yuba Bill, a silent mountain of humor." + +After his service as expressman, Bret Harte went to a town called Union, +about three hundred miles north of San Francisco, where he learned the +printer's trade in the office of the "Humboldt Times." He also taught +school again in Union, and for the second time acted as clerk in a drug +store. Speaking of his experience in this capacity, Mr. Pemberton, his +English biographer, gravely says, "I have heard English physicians express +wonder at his grasp of the subject." One wonders, in turn, if Bret Harte +did not do a little hoaxing in this line. "To the end of his days," writes +Mr. Pemberton, "he could speak with authority as to the virtues and +properties of medicines." Young Harte had a wonderful faculty of picking +up information, and no doubt his two short terms of service as a +compounder of medicines were not thrown away upon him. But Bret Harte was +the last person in the world to pose as an expert, and it seems probable +that the extent of his knowledge was fairly described in the story _How +Reuben Allen Saw Life in San Francisco_. That part of this story which +deals with the drug clerk is so plainly autobiographical, and so +characteristic of the author, that a quotation from it will not be out of +place:-- + +"It was near midnight, the hour of closing, and the junior partner was +alone in the shop. He felt drowsy; the mysterious incense of the shop, +that combined essence of drugs, spice, scented soap, and orris root--which +always reminded him of the Arabian nights--was affecting him. He yawned, +and then, turning away, passed behind the counter, took down a jar +labelled 'Glycyrr. Glabra,' selected a piece of Spanish licorice, and +meditatively sucked it.... + +"He was just nineteen, he had early joined the emigration to California, +and after one or two previous light-hearted essays at other occupations, +for which he was singularly unfitted, he had saved enough to embark on his +present venture, still less suited to his temperament.... A slight +knowledge of Latin as a written language, an American schoolboy's +acquaintance with chemistry and natural philosophy, were deemed sufficient +by his partner, a regular physician, for practical cooperation in the +vending of drugs and putting up of prescriptions. He knew the difference +between acids and alkalis and the peculiar results which attended their +incautious combination. But he was excessively deliberate, painstaking and +cautious. There was no danger of his poisoning anybody through haste or +carelessness, but it was possible that an urgent 'case' might have +succumbed to the disease while he was putting up the remedy.... In those +days the 'heroic' practice of medicine was in keeping with the abnormal +development of the country; there were 'record' doses of calomel and +quinine, and he had once or twice incurred the fury of local practitioners +by sending back their prescriptions with a modest query." + + +[Illustration: SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER, 1844 + +J. C. Ward, del.] + + +It was doubtless Bret Harte's experience in the drug store which suggested +the story of Liberty Jones, whose discovery of an arsenical spring in the +forest was the means of transforming that well-made, but bony and sallow +Missouri girl into a beautiful woman, with well-rounded limbs, rosy +cheeks, lustrous eyes and glossy hair. + +It has been a matter of some discussion whether Bret Harte ever worked as +a miner or not; and the evidence upon the point is not conclusive. But it +is hard to believe that he did not try his luck at gold-seeking, when +everybody else was trying, and his narrative _How I Went to the Mines_ +seems to have the ear-marks of an autobiographical sketch. It is regarded +as such by his sisters; and the modest, deprecating manner in which the +storyteller's adventures are related, serves to confirm that impression. + +Of all his experiences in California, those which gave him the most +pleasure seem to have been his several short but fruitful terms of +service as schoolmaster and tutor. His knowledge of children, being based +upon sympathy, became both acute and profound. How many thousand million +times have children gone to school of a morning and found the master +awaiting them, and yet who but Bret Harte has ever described the exact +manner of their approach! + +"They came in their usual desultory fashion--the fashion of country +school-children the world over--irregularly, spasmodically, and always as +if accidentally; a few hand-in-hand, others driven ahead of or dragged +behind their elders; some in straggling groups more or less coherent and +at times only connected by far-off intermediate voices scattered over a +space of half a mile, but never quite alone; always preoccupied by +something else than the actual business in hand; appearing suddenly from +ditches, behind trunks, and between fence-rails; cropping up in unexpected +places along the road after vague and purposeless détours--seemingly going +anywhere and everywhere but to school!"[5] + +Bret Harte realized the essential truth that children are not little, +immature men and women, but rather infantile barbarians, creatures of an +archaic type, representing a period in the development of the human race +which does not survive in adult life. Hence the reserve, the aloofness of +children, their remoteness from grown people. There are certain things +which the boy most deeply feels that he must not do, and certain other +things that he must do; as, for example, to bear without telling any pains +that may be inflicted upon him by his mates or by older boys. For a +thousand years or more fathers and mothers have held a different code upon +these points, but with how little effect upon their children! Johnny +Filgee illustrated upon a truly Californian scale these boyish qualities +of reticence and endurance. When he had accidentally been shot in the +duel between the Master and Cressy's father (the child being perched in a +tree), he refrained from making the least sound, although a word or an +outcry would have brought the men to his assistance. "A certain respect to +himself and his brother kept him from uttering even a whimper of +weakness." Left alone in the dark woods, unable to move, Johnny became +convinced that his end was near, and he pleased himself by thinking that +"they would all feel exceedingly sorry and alarmed, and would regret +having made him wash himself on Saturday night." And so, having composed +himself, "he turned on his side to die, as became the scion of an heroic +race!" + +Then follows a sentence in which the artist, with one bold sweep of his +brush, paints in Nature herself as a witness of the scene; and yet her +material immensity does not dwarf or belittle the spiritual superiority of +the wounded youngster in the foreground: "The free woods, touched by an +upspringing wind, waved their dark arms above him, and higher yet a few +patient stars silently ranged themselves around his pillow." + +That other Johnny, for whom _Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar_, Richelieu +Sharpe in _A Phyllis of the Sierras_, John Milton Harcourt in the _First +Family of Tasajara_, Leonidas Boone, the _Mercury of the Foot-Hills_, and +John Bunyan Medliker, the _Youngest Prospector in Calaveras_,--all +illustrate the same type, with many individual variations. + +Another phase of the archaic nature of children is their extreme +sensitiveness to impressions. Just as a squirrel hears more acutely than a +man, and the dog's sense of smell is keener, so a child, within the +comparatively small range of his mental activity, is more open to subtle +indications. Bret Harte often touches upon this quality of childhood, as +in the following passage: "It was not strange, therefore, that the little +people of the Indian Spring School knew perhaps more of the real +relations of Cressy McKinstry to her admirers than the admirers +themselves. Not that the knowledge was outspoken--for children rarely +gossip in the grown-up sense, or even communicate by words intelligent to +the matured intellect. A whisper, a laugh that often seemed vague and +unmeaning, conveyed to each other a world of secret significance, and an +apparently senseless burst of merriment in which the whole class +joined--and that the adult critic set down to 'animal spirits'--a quality +much more rare with children than is generally supposed--was only a +sympathetic expression of some discovery happily oblivious to older +perceptions." + +This acuteness of perception, seen also in some men of a simple, archaic +type, puts children in close relationship with the lower animals, unless, +indeed, it is counteracted by that cruelty which is also a quality of +childhood. When Richelieu Sharpe retired to rest, it was in company with a +whole retinue of dependents. "On the pillow near him an indistinguishable +mass of golden fur--the helpless bulk of a squirrel chained to the leg of +his cot; at his feet a wall-eyed cat, who had followed his tyrannous +caprices with the long-suffering devotion of her sex; on the shelf above +him a loathsome collection of flies and tarantulas in dull green bottles, +a slab of gingerbread for light nocturnal refreshment, and his sister's +pot of bear's grease.... The sleeper stirred slightly and awoke. At the +same moment, by some mysterious sympathy, a pair of beady bright eyes +appeared in the bulk of fur near his curls, the cat stretched herself, and +even a vague agitation was heard in the bottles on the shelf."[6] + +That last touch, intimating some community of feeling between Richelieu +and his insects, is, as the Reader will grant, the touch of genius. +Bridging the gulf impassable for an ordinary mind, it assumes a fact +which, like the shape of Donatello's ears, is true to the imagination, and +not so manifestly impossible as to shock the reason. + +It is sometimes said that California in the Fifties represented the +American character in its most extreme form,--the quintessence, as it +were, of energy and democracy. This statement would certainly apply to the +California children, in whom the ordinary forwardness of the American +child became a sort of elfish precocity. Such a boy was Richelieu Sharpe. +His gallantries, his independence, his self-reliance, his adult +ambitions,--these qualities, oddly assorted with the primeval, imaginative +nature of the true child, made Richelieu such a youngster as was never +seen outside of the United States, and perhaps never seen outside of +California. + +The English child of the upper classes, as Bret Harte knew him in after +years, made a strange contrast to the Richelieu Sharpes and John Bunyan +Medlikers that he had learned to love in California. In a letter to his +wife written from the house of James Anthony Froude, in 1878, he said: +"The eldest girl is not unlike a highly-educated Boston girl, and the +conversation sometimes reminds me of Boston. The youngest daughter, only +ten years old, told her sister, in reference to some conversation Froude +and I had, that 'she feared' (this child) 'that Mr. Bret Harte was +inclined to be sceptical!' Doesn't this exceed any English story of the +precocity of American children? The boy, scarcely fourteen, acts like a +boy of eight (an American boy of eight) and talks like a man of thirty, so +far as pure English and facility of expression go. His manners are +perfect, yet he is perfectly simple and boy-like. The culture and breeding +of some English children are really marvellous. But somehow--and here +comes one of my 'buts'--there's always a suggestion of some repression, +some discipline that I don't like."[7] + +Bret Harte's last employment during this wandering life was that of +compositor, printer's devil, and assistant editor of the "Northern +California," published at Eureka, a seacoast town in Humboldt County. Here +he met Mr. Charles A. Murdock, who gives this interesting account of him: +"He was fond of whist, genial, witty, but quiet and reserved, something of +a 'tease'" (the Reader will remember that Mr. Howells speaks of this +trait) "and a practical joker; not especially popular, as he was thought +to be fastidious, and to hold himself aloof from 'the general'; but he was +simply a self-respecting, gentlemanly fellow, with quiet tastes, and a +keen insight into character. He was no roisterer, and his habits were +clean. He was too independent and indifferent to curry favor, or to +counterfeit a liking." + +During a temporary absence of the editor Bret Harte was entrusted with the +conduct of the paper, and about that time a cowardly massacre of Indians +was perpetrated by some Americans in the vicinity. This was no uncommon +event, and the usual attitude of the Pioneers toward the Indians may be +gathered from the following passage in a letter written to a newspaper in +August, 1851, from Rogue River: "During this period we have been searching +about in the mountains, disturbing villages, destroying all the males we +could find, and capturing women and children. We have killed about thirty +altogether, and have about twenty-eight now in camp." At the Stanislaus +Diggings, in 1851, a miner called to an Indian boy to help him catch a +loose horse. The boy, not understanding English, and being frightened by +the man's gestures, ran away, whereupon the miner raised his gun and shot +the boy dead. + +Nobody hated injustice or cruelty more than Bret Harte, and in his +editorial capacity he scathingly condemned the murder of Indians which +occurred in the neighborhood of Eureka. The article excited the anger of +the community, and a mob was collected for the avowed purpose of wrecking +the newspaper office and hanging or otherwise maltreating the youthful +writer. Bret Harte, armed with two pistols, awaited their coming during an +evening which was probably the longest of his life. But the timely arrival +of a few United States cavalrymen, sent for by some peace-lovers in the +town, averted the danger; and the young journalist suffered no harm beyond +an abrupt dismissal upon the hasty return of the editor. + +This event ended his life as a wanderer, and he went back to San +Francisco. There is not the slightest reason to think that during this +period Bret Harte had any notion of describing California life in fiction +or otherwise; and yet, if that had been his object, he could not have +ordered his movements more wisely. He had lived on the seacoast and in the +interior; he had seen cities, ranches, villages, and mines; he had been +tutor, school-teacher, drug clerk, express messenger, printer, and editor. +The period was less than two years, and yet he had accumulated a store of +facts, impressions and images sufficient to last him a lifetime. He was of +a most receptive nature; he was at a receptive age; the world was new to +him, and he lived in it and observed it with all the zest of youth, of +inexperience, of health and genius. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BRET HARTE IN SAN FRANCISCO + + +Bret Harte returned to San Francisco in 1857, and his first occupation was +that of setting type in the office of the "Golden Era." To this paper his +sister, Mrs. Wyman, had been a contributor for some time, and it was +through her that Bret Harte obtained employment on it as a printer. + +The "Golden Era" had been established by young men. "It was," writes Mr. +Stoddard, "the cradle and the grave of many a high hope. There was nothing +to be compared with it on that side of the Mississippi; and though it +could point with pride--it never failed to do so--to a somewhat notable +list of contributors, it had always the fine air of the amateur, and was +most complacently patronizing. The very pattern of paternal patronage was +amiable Joe Lawrence, its Editor. He was an inveterate pipe-smoker, a +pillar of cloud, as he sat in his editorial chair, an air of literary +mystery enveloping him. He spoke as an oracle, and I remember his calling +my attention to a certain anonymous contribution just received, and +nodding his head prophetically, for he already had his eye on the +fledgling author, a young compositor on the floor above. It was Bret +Harte's first appearance in the 'Golden Era,' and doubtless Lawrence +encouraged him as he had encouraged me when, out of the mist about him, he +handed me secretly, and with a glance of caution--for his business +partner, the marble-hearted, sat at his ledger not far away--he handed me +a folded paper on which he had written this startling legend! 'Write some +prose for the "Golden Era," and I will give you a dollar a column.'" + + +[Illustration: BRET HARTE IN 1861] + + +It was not long before Bret Harte was promoted from the compositor's stand +to the editorial room of the paper, and thus began his literary career. +Among the sketches which he wrote a few years later, and which have been +preserved in the complete edition of his works, are _In a Balcony_, _A +Boy's Dog_, and _Sidewalkings_. Except for a slight restraint and +stiffness of style, as if the author had not quite attained the full use +of his wings, they show no indications of youth or crudity. _M'liss_ also +appeared in the "Golden Era," illustrated by a specially designed woodcut; +and some persons think that this, the first, is also the best of Bret +Harte's stories. At all events, the early _M'liss_ is far superior to the +author's lengthened and rewritten _M'liss_ which was included in the +collected edition of his works. + +When it is added that the _Condensed Novels_, or at least the first of +them, were also published in the "Golden Era," it will be seen with what +astonishing quickness his literary style matured. He wrote at first +anonymously; afterward, gaining a little self-confidence, he signed his +stories "B," and then "Bret." + +It was while engaged in writing for the "Golden Era," namely, on August +11, 1862, that Bret Harte was married to Miss Anna Griswold, daughter of +Daniel S. and Mary Dunham Griswold of the city of New York. The marriage +took place at San Raphael. + +In 1864 he was appointed Secretary of the California Mint, an office which +he held for six years and until he left California. For this position he +was indebted to Mr. R. B. Swain, Superintendent of the Mint, a friend and +parishioner of the Reverend Mr. King, who in that way became a friend of +Bret Harte. Mr. Swain had a great liking for the young author, and made +the official path easy for him. In fact, the position seems to have been +one of those sinecures--or nearly that--which are the traditional reward +of men of letters, but which a reforming and materialistic age has +diverted to less noble uses. + +In San Francisco, both before and after his marriage, Bret Harte lived a +quiet, studious life, going very little into society. Of the time during +which he was Secretary of the Mint, Mr. Stoddard writes: "He was now a man +with a family; the resources derived from literature were uncertain and +unsatisfactory. His influential friends paid him cheering visits in the +gloomy office at the Mint where he leavened his daily loaves; and at his +desk, between the exacting pages of the too literal ledger, many a couplet +cropped out, and the outlines of now famous sketches were faintly limned. +His friends were few, but notable. Society he ignored in those days. He +used to accuse me of wasting my substance in riotous visitations, and +thought me a spendthrift of time. He had the precious companionship of +books, and the lives of those about him were as an open volume wherein he +read 'curiously and to his profit.'" + +Of the notable friends alluded to by Mr. Stoddard, the most important were +the Reverend Thomas Starr King, and Mrs. Jessie Benton Frémont, daughter +of Senator Benton, and wife of that Captain, afterward General Frémont, +who became the first United States Senator from California, and Republican +candidate for the Presidency in 1856, but who is best known as The +Pathfinder. His adventures and narratives form an important part of +California history. + +Mrs. Frémont was an extremely clever, kind-hearted woman, who assisted +Bret Harte greatly by her advice and criticism, still more by her sympathy +and encouragement. Bret Harte was always inclined to underrate his own +powers, and to be despondent as to his literary future. On one occasion +when, as not seldom happened, he was cast down by his troubles and +anxieties, and almost in despair as to his prospects, Mrs. Frémont sent +him some cheering news, and he wrote to her: "I shall no longer disquiet +myself about changes in residence or anything else, for I believe that if +I were cast upon a desolate island, a savage would come to me next morning +and hand me a three-cornered note to say that I had been appointed +Governor at Mrs. Frémont's request, at a salary of $2400 a year." + +How much twenty-four hundred a year seemed to him then, and how little a +few years later! A Pioneer who knew them both writes: "Mrs. Frémont helped +Bret Harte in many ways. In turn he marvelled at her worldly +wisdom,--being able to tell one how to make a living. He named her +daughter's pony 'Chiquita,' after the equine heroine of his poem." It was +by Mrs. Frémont's intervention that Bret Harte first appeared in the +"Atlantic Monthly," for, some years before he achieved fame, namely in +1863, _The Legend of Monte del Diablo_ was published in that magazine. The +story was gracefully, even beautifully written, but both in style and +treatment it was a reflection of Washington Irving, who at that time +rivalled Dickens as a popular author. + +Many interesting letters were received by Mrs. Frémont from Bret +Harte,--letters, her daughter thinks, almost as entertaining as his +published writings; but unfortunately these treasures were destroyed by a +fire in the city of New York. + +Starr King, Bret Harte's other friend, was by far the most notable of the +Protestant ministers in California. The son of a Universalist minister, he +was born in the city of New York, but was brought up mainly in +Charlestown, now a part of Boston. Upon leaving school he became first a +clerk, then a school-teacher, and finally a Unitarian minister, preaching +first at his father's old church in Charlestown, and afterward at the +Hollis Street Unitarian Church in Boston. He obtained a wide reputation as +preacher and lecturer, and as author of "The White Hills," still the best +book upon the mountains of New England. In 1860, at the very time when his +services were needed there, he became the pastor of a church in San +Francisco, and to him is largely ascribed the credit of saving California +to the Union. He was a man of deep moral convictions, and his addresses +stirred the heart and moved the conscience of California. + +The Southern element was very strong on the Pacific Slope, and it made +itself felt in politics especially. Nearly one third of the delegates to +the Constitutional Convention, held in September, 1849, were Southern men, +and they acted as a unit under the leadership of W. M. Gwinn, afterward a +member of the United States Senate. The ultimate design of the Southern +delegates was the division of California into two States, the more +southern of which should be a slave State. Slavery in California was +openly advocated. But the Southern party was a minority, and the State +Constitution declared that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, +unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this +State." The Constitution did, however, exclude the testimony of colored +persons from the courts; and when, in 1852, the negroes in San Francisco +presented a petition to the House of Representatives asking for this right +or privilege, the House refused to receive the petition, a majority of the +members taking it as an insult. One member seriously proposed that it +should be thrown out of the window. + +In May, 1852, the "San Francisco Daily Herald" declared that the delay in +admitting California as a State was due to Northern Abolitionists, of whom +it said, with characteristic mildness: "Take the vile crowd of +Abolitionists from the Canadian frontier to the banks of the Delaware, and +you cannot find one in ten thousand of them who from philanthropy cares +the amount of a dollar what becomes of the colored race. What they want is +office." It does not seem to have occurred to the writer that in +espousing the smallest and most hated political party in the whole +country, the Abolitionists had not taken a very promising step in the +direction of office-holding. + +There was even talk of turning California into a "Pacific Republic," in +the event of a dissolution of the Union. And that event was longed for by +at least one California paper on the ground that "it would shut down on +the immigration of these vermin," _i. e._ the Chinese. How far Southern +effrontery went may be gathered from the fact that even the sacred +institution of Thanksgiving Day was ridiculed by another California paper +as an absurd Yankee notion. + +From 1851 until the period of the Civil War the Democratic Party ruled the +State of California under the leadership of Gwinn. Northern men +constituted a majority of the party, but they submitted to the dictation +of the Southerners, just as the Democratic Party in the North submitted to +the dictation of the Southern leaders. The only California politician who +could cope with Gwinn was Broderick,--a typical Irishman, trained by +Tammany Hall. + +Not without difficulty was California saved to the Union; in fact, until +the rebels fired upon Fort Sumter, the real sentiment of the State was +unknown. Bret Harte has touched upon this episode. In _Mrs. Bunker's +Conspiracy_, the attempt of the extreme Southern element to seize and +fortify a bluff commanding the city of San Francisco is foiled by a +Northern woman; and in _Clarence_ we have a glimpse of the city as it +appeared after news came of the first act of open rebellion: "From every +public building and hotel, from the roofs of private houses and even the +windows of lonely dwellings, flapped and waved the striped and starry +banner. The steady breath of the sea carried it out from masts and yards +of ships at their wharves, from the battlements of the forts, Alcatraz +and Yerba Buena.... Clarence looked down upon it with haggard, bewildered +eyes, and then a strange gasp and fulness of the throat. For afar a +solitary bugle had blown the reveille at Fort Alcatraz." + +At this critical time, a mass meeting was held in San Francisco, and, at +the suggestion of Starr King, Bret Harte wrote a poem to be read at the +meeting. The poem was called _The Reveille_, but is better known as _The +Drum_. The first and last stanzas are as follows:-- + + Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands, + And of armèd men the hum; + Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered + Round the quick alarming drum,-- + Saying, "Come, + Freemen, Come! + Ere your heritage be wasted," said the quick alarming drum. + + * * * * * + + Thus they answered,--hoping, fearing, + Some in faith, and doubting some, + Till a trumpet-voice, proclaiming, + Said, "My chosen people, come!" + Then the drum + Lo! was dumb, + For the great heart of the nation, throbbing, answered, "Lord, we come!" + +As these last words were read, the great audience rose to its feet, and +with a mighty shout proclaimed the loyalty of California. Emerson, as Mr. +John Jay Chapman has finely said, sent a thousand sons to the war; and it +is not unreasonable to suppose that Bret Harte's noble poem fired many a +manly heart in San Francisco. + +When the war began, Starr King was active in establishing the California +branch of the Sanitary Commission. He died of diphtheria in March, 1864, +just as the tide of battle was turning in favor of the North. It will thus +be seen that his career in California exactly covered, and only just +covered, that short period in the history of the State when the services +of such a man were, humanly speaking, indispensable. + +_The Reveille_ was followed by other patriotic poems, and after Mr. King's +death Bret Harte wrote in memory of him the poem called _Relieving Guard_, +which indicates, one may safely say, the high-water mark of the author's +poetic talent. In the year following Mr. King's death Bret Harte's second +son was born, and received the name of Francis King. + +On May 25, 1864, the first number of "The Californian" appeared. This was +the famous weekly edited and published by the late Charles Henry Webb, and +written mainly by Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Webb himself, Prentice Mulford, +and Mr. Stoddard. It was of "The Californian" that Mr. Howells wittily +said: "These ingenuous young men, with the fatuity of gifted people, had +established a literary newspaper in San Francisco, and they brilliantly +coöperated to its early extinction." + +It is an interesting coincidence that Bret Harte and Mark Twain both began +their literary careers in San Francisco, and at almost the same time. Bret +Harte was engaged upon "The Californian," and Mark Twain was a reporter +for the "Morning Call," when they were introduced to each other by a +common friend, Mr. George Barnes. Bret Harte thus describes his first +impression of the new acquaintance:-- + +"His head was striking. He had the curly hair, the aquiline nose, and even +the aquiline eye--an eye so eagle-like that a second lid would not have +surprised me--of an unusual and dominant nature. His eyebrows were very +thick and bushy. His dress was careless, and his general manner one of +supreme indifference to surroundings and circumstances. Barnes introduced +him as Mr. Sam Clemens, and remarked that he had shown a very unusual +talent in a number of newspaper articles contributed under the signature +of 'Mark Twain.' We talked on different topics, and about a month +afterward Clemens dropped in upon me again. He had been away in the mining +districts on some newspaper assignment in the mean time. In the course of +conversation he remarked that the unearthly laziness that prevailed in the +town he had been visiting was beyond anything in his previous experience. +He said the men did nothing all day long but sit around the bar-room +stove, spit, and 'swop lies.' He spoke in a slow, rather satirical drawl, +which was in itself irresistible. He went on to tell one of those +extravagant stories, and half unconsciously dropped into the lazy tone and +manner of the original narrator. I asked him to tell it again to a friend +who came in, and then asked him to write it out for 'The Californian.' He +did so, and when published it was an emphatic success. It was the first +work of his that had attracted general attention, and it crossed the +Sierras for an Eastern reading. The story was 'The Jumping Frog of +Calaveras.' It is now known and laughed over, I suppose, wherever the +English language is spoken; but it will never be as funny to any one in +print as it was to me, told for the first time by the unknown Twain +himself on that morning in the San Francisco Mint." + +The first article that appeared in "The Californian" was Bret Harte's +_Neighborhoods I have Moved From_, and next his _Ballad of the Emeu_, but +neither was signed. Both of these are in the collected edition of his +works. The _Condensed Novels_ were continued in "The Californian," and +Bret Harte also contributed to it many poems, sketches, essays, editorial +articles and book reviews. Some of these were unsigned; some were signed +"B" or "Bret," and occasionally the signature was his full name. + + +[Illustration: STORESHIP APOLLO + +Old Ship used as a Saloon + +Copyright, Century Co.] + + +No reader who appreciates the finished workmanship of Bret Harte will be +surprised to learn that he was a slow and intensely self-critical writer. +There is much interesting testimony on this point. Mr. Howells says: +"His talent was not a facile gift; he owned that he often went day after +day to his desk, and sat down before that yellow post-office paper on +which he liked to write his literature, in that exquisitely refined script +of his, without being able to inscribe a line.... When it came to +literature, all the gay improvidence of life forsook him, and he became a +stern, rigorous, exacting self-master, who spared himself nothing to +achieve the perfection at which he aimed. He was of the order of literary +men like Goldsmith and De Quincey and Sterne and Steele, in his relations +with the outer world, but in his relations with the inner world, he was +one of the most duteous and exemplary citizens." + +Noah Brooks wrote as follows: "Scores of writers have become known to me +in the course of a long life, but I have never known another so fastidious +and so laborious as Bret Harte. His writing materials, the light and heat, +and even the adjustment of the furniture of the writing-room, must be as +he desired; otherwise he could not go on with his work. Even when his +environment was all that he could wish, there were times when the divine +afflatus would not come and the day's work must be abandoned. My editorial +rooms in San Francisco were not far from his secluded den, and often, if +he opened my door late in the afternoon, with a peculiar cloud on his +face, I knew that he had come to wait for me to go to dinner with him, +having given up the impossible task of writing when the mood was not on +him. 'It's no use, Brooks,' he would say. 'Everything goes wrong; I cannot +write a line. Let's have an early dinner at Martini's.' As soon as I was +ready we would go merrily off to dine together, and, having recovered his +equanimity, he would stick to his desk through the later hours of the +night, slowly forging those masterpieces which cost him so dearly. + +"Harte was reticent concerning his work while it was in progress. He never +let the air in upon his story or his verses. Once, indeed, he asked me to +help him in a calculation to ascertain how long a half-sack of flour and +six pounds of side-meat[8] would last a given number of persons. This was +the amount of provision he had allowed his outcasts of Poker Flat, and he +wanted to know just how long the snow-bound scapegoats could live on that +supply. I used to save for him the Eastern and English newspaper notices +of his work, and once, when he had looked through a goodly lot of these +laudatory notes, he said: 'These fellows see a heap of things in my +stories that I never put there.'" + +Mr. Stoddard recalls this incident: "One day I found him pacing the floor +of his office in the United States Mint; he was knitting his brows and +staring at vacancy,--I wondered why. He was watching and waiting for a +word, the right word, the one word of all others to fit into a line of +recently written prose. I suggested one; it would not answer; it must be a +word of two syllables, or the natural rhythm of the sentence would suffer. +Thus he perfected his prose." + +In the sketch entitled _My First Book_, printed in volume ten of his +works, Bret Harte has given some amusing reminiscences concerning the +volume of California poems edited by him, and published in 1866. His +selection as Editor, he says, "was chiefly owing to the circumstance that +I had from the outset, with precocious foresight, confided to the +publisher my intention of not putting any of my own verses in the volume. +Publishers are appreciative; and a self-abnegation so sublime, to say +nothing of its security, was not without its effect." After narrating his +extreme difficulty in reducing the number of his selections from the +numerous poets of California, he goes on to describe the reception of the +volume. It sold well, the purchasers apparently being amateur poets who +were anxious to discover whether they were represented in the book. +"People would lounge into the shop, turn over the leaves of other volumes, +say carelessly 'Got a new book of California poetry out, haven't you?' +purchase it, and quietly depart." + +"There were as yet," the Editor continues, "no notices from the press; the +big dailies were silent; there was something ominous in this calm. Out of +it the bolt fell;" and he quotes the following notice from a country +paper: "'The Hogwash and "purp" stuff ladled out from the slop-bucket of +Messrs. ---- and Co., of 'Frisco, by some lop-eared Eastern apprentice, +and called "A Compilation of Californian Verse," might be passed over, so +far as criticism goes. A club in the hands of any able-bodied citizen of +Red Dog, and a steamboat ticket to the Bay, cheerfully contributed from +this office, would be all-sufficient. But when an imported greenhorn dares +to call his flapdoodle mixture "Californian," it is an insult to the State +that has produced the gifted "Yellowhammer," whose lofty flights have from +time to time dazzled our readers in the columns of the "Jay Hawk." That +this complacent editorial jackass, browsing among the docks and thistles +which he has served up in this volume, should make no allusion to +California's greatest bard is rather a confession of his idiocy than a +slur upon the genius of our esteemed contributor.'" + +Other criticisms, inspired by like omissions, followed, each one rivalling +its predecessor in severity. "The big dailies collected the criticisms and +published them in their own columns with the grim irony of exaggerated +head-lines. The book sold tremendously on account of this abuse, but I am +afraid that the public was disappointed. The fun and interest lay in the +criticisms, and not in any pointedly ludicrous quality in the rather +commonplace collection ... and I have long since been convinced that my +most remorseless critics were not in earnest, but were obeying some sudden +impulse, started by the first attacking journal.... It was a large, +contagious joke, passed from journal to journal in a peculiar cyclonic +Western fashion." + +A year later, not, as Bret Harte himself states, in 1865, but in 1867, the +first collection of his own poems was published. The volume was a thin +twelvemo, bound in green cloth, with a gilt design of a sail on the cover, +the title-page reading as follows: "The Lost Galleon and Other Tales. By +Fr. Bret Harte, San Francisco. Tame and Bacon, Printers, 1867." Most of +these poems are contained in the standard edition of his works. + +In the same year were published the _Condensed Novels_ and the _Bohemian +Papers_, reprinted from "The Bulletin" and "The Californian," and making, +as the author himself said, "a single, not very plethoric volume, the +writer's first book of prose." He adds that "during this period," _i. e._ +from 1862 to 1867, he produced "_The Society upon the Stanislaus_, and +_The Story of M'liss_,--the first a dialectical poem, the second a +Californian romance,--his first efforts toward indicating a peculiarly +characteristic Western American literature. He would like to offer these +facts as evidence of his very early, half-boyish, but very enthusiastic +belief in such a possibility,--a belief which never deserted him, and +which, a few years later, from the better known pages of the 'Overland +Monthly,' he was able to demonstrate to a larger and more cosmopolitan +audience in the story of _The Luck of Roaring Camp_, and the poem of the +_Heathen Chinee_." + +The "Overland Monthly" was founded in July, 1868, by Anton Roman, a +bookseller on Montgomery Street, and later on Clay Street. Mr. Roman was +possessed of that enthusiasm which every new enterprise demands. "He had +thought and talked about the Magazine," he declared, "until it was in his +bones." Bret Harte became the first Editor, and it was he who selected the +name. The "Overland" was well printed, on good paper, and the cover was +adorned by that historic grizzly bear who, standing on the ties of the +newly-laid railroad track, with half-turned body and lowered head, seems +prepared to dispute the right of way with the locomotive which might +shortly be expected to come screaming down the track. + +There was originally no railroad track in the picture, simply the bear; +and how the deficiency was supplied is thus explained by Mark Twain in a +letter to Thomas Bailey Aldrich: "Do you know the prettiest fancy and the +neatest that ever shot through Harte's brain? It was this: When they were +trying to decide upon a vignette for the cover of the 'Overland,' a +grizzly bear (of the arms of the State of California) was chosen. Nahl +Bros. carved him and the page was printed, with him in it, looking thus: + +[Illustration] + +"As a bear, he was a success--he was a good bear.--But then, it was +objected, that he was an _objectless_ bear--a bear that _meant_ nothing in +particular, signified nothing,--simply stood there snarling over his +shoulder at nothing--and was painfully and manifestly a boorish and +ill-natured intruder upon the fair page. All hands said that--none were +satisfied. They hated badly to give him up, and yet they hated as much to +have him there when there was no _point_ to him. But presently Harte took +a pencil and drew these two simple lines under his feet and behold he was +a magnificent success!--the ancient symbol of Californian savagery +snarling at the approaching type of high and progressive Civilization, the +first Overland locomotive! + +[Illustration] + +"I think that was nothing less than inspiration itself." + +In the same letter Mark Twain pays the following magnanimous tribute to +his old friend: "Bret Harte trimmed and trained and schooled me patiently +until he changed me from an awkward utterer of coarse grotesqueness to a +writer of paragraphs and chapters that have found a certain favor in the +eyes of even some of the very decentest people in the land,--and this +grateful remembrance of mine ought to be worth its face, seeing that Bret +broke our long friendship a year ago without any cause or provocation that +I am aware of." + +The Editor had no prose article of his own in the first number of the +"Overland," but he contributed two poems, the noble lines about San +Francisco, which, with characteristic modesty he placed in the middle of +the number, and the poem entitled _Returned_[9] in the "Etc." column at +the end. + +And now we come to the publication which first made Bret Harte known upon +the Atlantic as well as upon the Pacific coast. The opening number of the +"Overland" had contained no "distinctive Californian romance," as Bret +Harte expressed it, and none such being offered for the second number, the +Editor supplied the omission with _The Luck of Roaring Camp_. But the +printer, instead of sending the proof-sheets to the writer of the story, +as would have been the ordinary course, submitted them to the publisher, +with a statement that the matter was so "indecent, irreligious and +improper" that his proofreader, a young lady, had with difficulty been +induced to read it. Then followed many consultations between author, +publisher, and various high literary authorities whose judgment had been +invoked. Opinions differed, but the weight of opinion was against the +tale, and the expediency of printing it. Nevertheless, the +author--conceiving that his fitness as Editor was now in question--stood +to his guns; the publisher, though fearful of the result, stood by him; +and the tale was published without the alteration of a word. It was +received very coldly by the secular press in California, its "singularity" +being especially pointed out; and it was bitterly denounced by the +religious press as being immoral and unchristian. But there was a wider +public to hear from. The return mail from the East brought newspapers and +reviews "welcoming the little foundling of Californian literature with an +enthusiasm that half frightened its author."[10] The mail brought also a +letter from the Editor of the "Atlantic Monthly" with a request "upon the +most flattering terms" that he would write a story for the "Atlantic," +similar to the _Luck_. + +It should be recorded, as an interesting contrast to the impression made +by the _Luck_ upon the San Francisco young woman, that it was also a girl, +Miss Susan M. Francis, a literary assistant with the publishers of the +"Atlantic Monthly," who, struck by the freshness and beauty of the tale, +brought it to the attention of Mr. James T. Fields, then the Editor of the +magazine, with the result which Bret Harte has described. + +Nor should the attitude of the California young person, and of San +Francisco in general, excite surprise. The Pioneers could not be expected +to see the moral beauty that lay beneath the rough outward aspect of +affairs on the Pacific Slope. The poetry of their own existence was hidden +from them. But California, though crude, was self-distrustful, and it +bowed to the decision of the East. Bret Harte was honored, even if not +understood or appreciated. + +The "Overland" was well received, and the high character of the first two +numbers was long maintained. Aside from Bret Harte's work, many volumes of +prose and verse have been republished from the magazine, and most of them +deserved the honor. In the early Fifties the proportion of really educated +men to the whole population was greater in California than in any other +State, and probably this was true even of the period when the "Overland" +was founded. Scholarship and cultivation were concealed in rough mining +towns, in lumber camps, and on remote ranches. Among the women, +especially, were many who, like the Sappho of Green Springs, gathered from +their lonely, primitive lives a freshness and originality which perhaps +they never would have shown in more conventional surroundings. This class +furnished numerous readers and a few writers. Officers of the Army and +Navy stationed in California contributed some interesting scientific and +literary articles to the early numbers of the "Overland." + +Notwithstanding the success of his first story, Bret Harte was in no haste +to rush into print with another. He had none of that disposition to make +hay while the sun shines which has spoiled many a story-writer. Six months +elapsed before the _Luck_ was followed by _The Outcasts of Poker Flat_. +Meanwhile he was carefully and patiently discharging his duties as Editor. +Mr. Stoddard has thus described him in that capacity: "Fortunately for me +he took an interest in me at a time when I was most in need of advice, and +to his criticism and his encouragement I feel that I owe all that is best +in my literary efforts. He was not afraid to speak his mind, and I know +well enough what occasion I gave him: yet he did not judge me more +severely than I judged myself.... I am sure that the majority of the +contributors to the 'Overland Monthly' profited as I did by his careful +and judicious criticism. Fastidious to a degree, he could not overlook a +lack of finish in the manuscript offered to him. He had a special taste in +the choice of titles, and I have known him to alter the name of an article +two or three times in order that the table of contents might read +handsomely and harmoniously." + +One of the most frequent contributors to the "Overland" was Miss Ina B. +Coolbrith, author of many polished and imaginative poems and stories. In a +recent letter Miss Coolbrith thus speaks of Bret Harte as an Editor: "To +me he was unfailingly kind and generous, looking out for my interests as +one of his contributors with as much care as he accorded to his own. I can +only speak of him in terms of unqualified praise as author, friend and +man." + +The poem entitled _Plain Language from Truthful James_, or the _Heathen +Chinee_, as it is popularly known, and as Bret Harte himself afterward +called it, first appeared in the "Overland" for September, 1870. Within a +few weeks it had spread over the English-speaking world. _The Luck of +Roaring Camp_ gave Bret Harte a literary reputation, but this poem made +him famous. It was copied by the newspapers almost universally, both here +and in England; and it increased the circulation of the "Overland" so much +that, two months after its appearance, a single news company in New York +was selling twelve hundred copies of the magazine. Almost everybody had a +clipping of these verses tucked into his waistcoat pocket or carried in +his purse. Quotations from it were on every lip, and some of its most +significant lines were recited with applause in the National House of +Representatives. + +It came at a fortunate moment when the people of this country were just +awaking to the fact that there was a "Chinese problem," and when interest +in the race was becoming universal in the East as well as in the West. +Says that acute critic, Mr. James Douglas: "There is an element of chance +in the fabrication of great poems. The concatenation comes, the artist +puts the pieces into their places, and the result is permanent wonder. The +_Heathen Chinee_ in its happy felicity is quite as unique as 'The Blessed +Damozel.'" + +The _Heathen Chinee_ is remarkable for the absolutely impartial attitude +of the writer. He observes the Chinaman neither from the locally +prejudiced, California point of view, nor from an ethical or reforming +point of view. His part is neither to approve nor condemn, but simply to +state the fact as it is, not indeed with the coldness of an historian but +with the sympathy and insight of a poet. But this is not all, in fact, as +need hardly be said, it is not enough to make the poem endure. It endures +because it has a beauty of form which approaches perfection. It is +hackneyed, and yet as fresh as on the day when it was written.[11] + +Truthful James himself who tells the story was a real character,--nay is, +for, at the writing of these pages, he still lived in the same little +shanty where he was to be found when Bret Harte knew him. At that time, in +1856, or thereabout, Bret Harte was teaching school at Tuttletown, a few +miles north of Sonora, and Truthful James, Mr. James W. Gillis, lived over +the hill from Tuttletown, at a place called Jackass Flat. Mr. Gillis was +well known and highly respected in all that neighborhood, and he figures +not only in Bret Harte's poetry, but also in Mark Twain's works, where he +is described as "The Sage of Jackass Hill." + +It is a proof both of Bret Harte's remarkable freedom from vanity, and of +the keen criticism which he bestowed upon his own writings, that he never +set much value upon the _Heathen Chinee_, even after its immense +popularity had been attained. When he wrote it, he thought it unworthy of +a place in the "Overland" and handed it over to Mr. Ambrose Bierce, then +Editor of the "News Letter,"[12] a weekly paper, for publication there. +Mr. Bierce, however, recognizing its value, unselfishly advised Bret Harte +to give it a place in the "Overland," and this was finally done. +"Nevertheless," says Mr. Bierce, "it was several months before he overcame +his prejudice against the verses and printed them. Indeed he never cared +for the thing, and was greatly amused by the meanings that so many read +into it. He said he meant nothing whatever by it." + +We have Mark Twain's word to the same effect. "In 1866," he writes, "I +went to the Sandwich Islands, and when I returned, after several years, +Harte was famous as the author of the _Heathen Chinee_. He said that the +_Heathen Chinee_ was an accident, and that he had higher literary +ambitions than the fame that could come from an extravaganza of that +sort." "_The Luck of Roaring Camp_," Mr. Clemens goes on to say, "was the +salvation of his literary career. It placed him securely on a literary +road which was more to his taste." + +Bret Harte, indeed, frequently held back for weeks poems which he had +completed, but with which he was not content. As one of his fellow-workers +declared, "He was never fully satisfied with what he finally allowed to go +to the printer." + +His position in San Francisco was now assured. He had been made professor +of recent literature in the University of California; he retained his +place at the Mint, he was the successful Editor of the "Overland," and he +was happy in his home life. One who knew him well at this period speaks of +him as "always referring to his wife in affectionate terms, and quoting +her clever speeches, and relating with fond enjoyment the funny sayings +and doings of his children." + +Let us, for the moment, leave Bret Harte thus happily situated, and glance +at that Pioneer life which he was now engaged in portraying. Said a San +Francisco paper in 1851, "The world will never know, and no one could +imagine the heart-rending scenes, or the instances of courage and heroic +self-sacrifice which have occurred among the California Pioneers during +the last three years!" + +And yet when these words were penned there was growing up in the East a +stripling destined to preserve for posterity some part, at least, of those +very occurrences which otherwise would have remained "unrecorded and +forgot." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE PIONEER MEN AND WOMEN + + +When Bret Harte first became famous he was accused of misrepresenting +Pioneer society. A California writer of great ability--no less a person +than Professor Royce, the eminent philosopher--once spoke of the "perverse +romanticism" of his tales; and after Mr. Harte's death these accusations, +if they may be called such, were renewed in San Francisco with some +bitterness. It is strange that Californians themselves should have been so +anxious to strip from their State the distinction which Bret Harte +conferred upon it,--so anxious to prove that its heroic age never existed, +that life in California has always been just as commonplace, respectable +and uninteresting as it is anywhere else in the world. + +But, be this as it may, the diaries, letters and narratives written by +Pioneers themselves, and, most important of all, the daily newspapers +published in San Francisco and elsewhere from 1849 to 1855, fully +corroborate Bret Harte's assertion that he described only what actually +occurred. "The author has frequently been asked," he wrote, "if such and +such incidents were real,--if he had ever met such and such characters. To +this he must return the one answer, that in only a single instance was he +conscious of drawing purely from his imagination and fancy for a character +and a logical succession of incidents drawn therefrom. A few weeks after +his story was published, he received a letter, authentically signed, +_correcting some of the minor details of his facts_, and inclosing as +corroborative evidence a slip from an old newspaper, wherein the main +incident of his supposed fanciful creation was recorded with a largeness +of statement that far transcended his powers of imagination." Even that +bizarre character, the old Frenchman in _A Ship of '49_, was taken +absolutely from the life, except that the real man was of English birth. +His peculiarities, mental and physical, his dress, his wig, his residence +in the old ship were all just as they are described by Bret Harte.[13] + +This is not to say that everybody in California was a romantic person, or +that life there was simply a succession of startling incidents. Ordinary +people were doing ordinary things on the Pacific Slope, just as they did +during the worst horrors of the French Revolution. But the exceptional +persons that Bret Harte described really existed; and, moreover, they +existed in such proportion as to give character and tone to the whole +community. + +The fact is that Bret Harte only skimmed the cream from the surface. To +use his own words again, "The faith, courage, vigor, youth, and capacity +for adventure necessary to this emigration produced a body of men as +strongly distinctive as were the companions of Jason." + +They were picked men placed in extraordinary circumstances, and how could +that combination fail to result in extraordinary characters, deeds, +events, and situations! The Forty-Niners,[14] and those who came in the +early Fifties, were such men as enlist in the first years of a war. They +were young men. Never, since Mediæval days when men began life at twenty +and commonly ended it long before sixty, was there so youthful a society. +A man of fifty with a gray beard was pointed out in the streets of San +Francisco as a curiosity. In the convention to organize the State which +met at Monterey, in September, 1849, there were forty-eight delegates, of +whom only four were fifty years or more; fifteen were under thirty years +of age; twenty-three were between thirty and forty. These were the +venerable men of the community, selected to make the laws of the new +commonwealth. A company of California emigrants that left Virginia in 1852 +consisted wholly of boys under twenty.[15] + +The Pioneers were far above the average in vigor and enterprise, and in +education as well. One ship, the "Edward Everett," sailed from Boston in +January, 1849, with one hundred and fifty young men on board who owned +both ship and cargo; and the distinguished gentleman for whom they had +named their ship gave them a case full of books to beguile the tedium of +the voyage around Cape Horn. William Grey, who wrote an interesting +account of California life,[16] sailed from New York with a ship-load of +emigrants. He describes them as a "fine-looking and well-educated body of +men,--all young"; and he gives a similar description of the passengers on +three other ships that came into the port of Rio Janeiro while he was +there. He adds that on his ship there were only three bad characters, a +butcher from Washington Market and his two sons. They all perished within +a year of their arrival in California. The father died while drunk, one of +the sons was hanged, and the other was killed in a street row. + +The Pioneers were handsome men.[17] They were tall men. Of the two +hundred grown men in the town of Suisun, twenty-one stood over six feet +high. Many of the Pioneers were persons for whom a career is not easily +found in a conservative, sophisticated society; who, in such a society, +fail to be successful as much because of their virtues as of their +defects; men who lack that combination of cunning and ferocity which leads +most directly to the acquisition of wealth; magnanimous, free-handed, and +brave, but unthrifty and incapable of monotonous toil; archaic men, not +quite broken in to the modern ideal of drudging at one task for six days +in the week and fifty weeks in the year. Who does not know the type! The +hero of novels, the idol of mothers, the alternate hope and despair of +fathers, the truest of friends, the most ideal and romantic, but perhaps +not the most constant of lovers. + +From the Western and Southwestern States there came across the Plains a +different type. These men were Pioneers already by inheritance and +tradition, somewhat ignorant, slow and rough, but of boundless courage and +industry, stoical as Indians, independent and self-reliant. Most of Bret +Harte's tragic characters, such as Tennessee's Partner, Madison Wayne, and +the Bell-Ringer of Angel's, were of this class. + +Many of these emigrants, especially those who crossed the Mountains before +the discovery of gold, were trappers and hunters,--stalwart, bearded men, +clad in coats of buffalo hide, with faces deeply tanned and wrinkled by +long exposure to wind and weather. Perhaps the best known among them was +"old Greenwood," a tall, raw-boned, muscular man, who at the age of +eighty-three was still vigorous and active. For thirty years he made his +home among the Crow Indians, and he had taken to wife a squaw who bore him +four handsome sons. His dress was of tanned buckskin, and one observer, +more squeamish than the ordinary Pioneer, noted the seeming fact that it +had never been removed since first he put it on. His heroic calibre may be +estimated from the fact that he was capable of eating ten pounds of meat a +day. This man used to boast that he had killed more than a hundred Indians +with his own hand. But all that killing had been done in fair fight; and +when a cowardly massacre of seven Indians, captured in a raid led by +Greenwood's sons, took place near Sacramento in 1849,--one of many such +acts,--the Greenwood family did their best to save the victims. After the +deed had been done, "Old Greenwood," an eye-witness relates, "raved around +his cabin, tossed his arms aloft with violent denunciation, and, stooping +down, gathered the dust in his palms, and sprinkled it on his head, +swearing that he was innocent of their blood." + +Another hero of the Pacific Slope in those large, early days was Peg-leg +Smith. He derived his nickname from a remarkable incident. While out on +the Plains with a wagon-load of supplies, Smith--plain Smith at that +time--was accidentally thrown from his seat, and the heavy wheel passed +over his leg below the knee, crushing it so that amputation became +necessary. There was no surgeon within hundreds of miles; but if the +amputation were not performed, it was plain that mortification and death +would soon result. In this emergency, Smith hacked out a rude saw from a +butcher's knife which he had with him, built a fire and heated an iron +bolt that he took from the wagon, and then, with his hunting knife and his +improvised saw, cut off his own leg. This done, he drew the flesh down +over the wound, and seared it with the hot iron to prevent bleeding. He +recovered, procured a wooden leg, and lived to take part in many +succeeding adventures. + +We owe California primarily to these hunters, trappers and adventurous +farmers who crossed the Mountains on their own account, or, later, as +members of Frémont's band: + + Stern men, with empires in their brains. + +They firmly believed that it was the "manifest destiny" of the United +States to spread over the Continent; and this conviction was not only a +patriotic, but in some sense a religious one. They were mainly descendants +of the Puritans, and as such had imbibed Old Testament ideas which +justified and sanctioned their dreams of conquest. We have seen how the +venerable Greenwood covered his head with dust as a symbolic act. The +Reverend Mr. Colton records a significant remark made to him by a Pioneer, +seventy-six years old, who had four sons in Frémont's company, and who +himself joined the Volunteers raised in California. "I asked him if he had +no compunction in taking up arms against the native inhabitants, the +moment of his arrival. He said he had Scripture example for it. The +Israelites took the promised land of the East by arms, and the Americans +must take the promised land of the West in the same way." + +And Mr. Colton adds: "I find this kind of parallel running in the +imagination of all the emigrants. They seem to look upon this beautiful +land as their own Canaan, and the motley race around them as the Hittites, +the Hivites and Jebusites whom they are to drive out."[18] + +But, it need hardly be said, the Biblical argument upon which they relied +was in the nature of an afterthought--the justification, rather than the +cause of their actions. What really moved them, although they did not know +it, was that primeval instinct of expansion, based upon conscious +superiority of race, to which have been due all the great empires of the +past. + +Many of these people were deeply religious in a Gothic manner, and Bret +Harte has touched lightly upon this aspect of their natures, especially in +the case of Mr. Joshua Rylands. "Mr. Joshua Rylands had, according to the +vocabulary of his class, 'found grace' at the age of sixteen, while still +in the spiritual state of 'original sin,' and the political one of +Missouri.... When, after the Western fashion, the time came for him to +forsake his father's farm, and seek a new 'quarter section' on some more +remote frontier, he carried into the secluded, lonely, half-monkish +celibacy of pioneer life--which has been the foundation of so much strong +Western character--more than the usual religious feeling." + +Exactly the same kind of man is described in that once famous story, Mr. +Eggleston's "Circuit-Rider"; and it is still found in the mountains of +Kentucky, where the maintenance of ferocious feuds and a constant +readiness to kill one's enemies at sight are regarded as not inconsistent +with a sincere profession of the Christian religion. + +The reader of Bret Harte's stories will remember how often the expression +"Pike County" or "Piker" occurs; and this use is strictly historical. As a +very intelligent Pioneer expressed it, "We recognize in California but two +types of the Republican character, the Yankee and the Missourian. The +latter term was first used to represent the entire population of the West; +but Pike County superseded, first the name of the State, and soon that of +the whole West." + +How did this come about? Pike County, Missouri, was named for Lieutenant +Zebulon Montgomery Pike, the discoverer of Pike's Peak, and the officer +who was sent by the United States Government to explore the upper part of +the Mississippi River. He was killed in the War of 1812. The territory was +first settled in 1811 by emigrants from Virginia, Kentucky and Louisiana; +and it was incorporated as a county in 1818. It borders on the Mississippi +River, about forty miles north of St. Louis; and its whole area is only +sixty square miles. It was and is an agricultural county, and in 1850 the +population amounted to only thirteen thousand, six hundred and nine +persons, of whom about half were negroes, mostly slaves. The climate is +healthy, and the soil, especially on the prairies, is very fertile, being +a rich, deep loam.[19] + +Pike County, it will thus be seen, is but a small part, both numerically +and geographically, of that vast Western territory which contributed to +the California emigration; and it owes its prominence among the Pioneers +chiefly to a copy of doggerel verses. In 1849, Captain McPike, a leading +resident of the County, organized a band of two hundred Argonauts who +crossed the Plains. Among them was an ox-driver named Joe Bowers, who soon +made a reputation in the company as a humorist, as an "original," as a +"greenhorn," and as a "good fellow" generally. Joe Bowers was poor, he was +in love, he was seeking a fortune in order that he might lay it at the +feet of his sweetheart; and the whole company became his confidants and +sympathizers. + +Another member of the party was a certain Frank Swift, who afterward +attained some reputation as a journalist; and one evening, as they were +all sitting around the camp-fire, Swift recited, or rather sang to a +popular air, several stanzas of a poem about Joe Bowers, which he had +composed during the day's journey. It caught the fancy of the company at +once, and soon every member was singing it. The poem grew night by night, +and long before they reached their destination it had become a ballad of +exasperating length. The poet, looking forward in a fine frenzy, describes +the girl as proving faithless to Joe Bowers and marrying a red-haired +butcher. This bad news comes from Joe's brother Ike in a letter which also +states the culminating fact of the tragedy, as the following lines +reveal:-- + + It told me more than that, + Oh! it's enough to make me swear. + It said Sally had a baby, + And the baby had red hair! + + +[Illustration: GRAND PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1852] + + +Upon their arrival in California, the two hundred men who composed this +party dispersed in all directions, and carried the ballad with them. It +was heard everywhere in the mines, and in 1856 it was printed in a cheap +form in San Francisco, and was sung by Johnson's minstrels at a hall known +as the Old Melodeon. Joe Bowers thus became the type of the +unsophisticated Western miner, and Pike County became the symbol of the +West. Crude as the verses are they are sung to this day in the County +which gave them birth, and "Joe Bowers" is still a familiar name in +Missouri, if not in the West generally. + +This ballad which came across the Plains had its counterpart in a much +better song produced by Jonathan Nichols, a Pioneer who sailed on the bark +"Eliza" from Salem, Massachusetts, in December, 1848. The first stanza is +as follows:-- + + TUNE, _Oh! Susanna_. (Key of G.) + + I came from Salem city, + With my washbowl on my knee, + I'm going to California, + The gold dust for to see. + It rained all night the day I left, + The weather, it was dry, + The sun so hot I froze to death, + Oh! brothers, don't you cry, + Oh! California, + That's the land for me! + I'm going to Sacramento + With my washbowl on my knee. + +Under the title of the "California Song" these verses soon became the +common property of every ship sailing from Atlantic ports for San +Francisco, and later they were heard in the mines almost as frequently as +"Joe Bowers." But, as hope diminished and homesickness increased, both +ballads--so an old miner relates--gave place to "Home, Sweet Home," "Ole +Virginny," and other sad ditties. + +Pike County seems to have had a natural tendency to burst into poetry. In +the story called _Devil's Ford_, Bret Harte gives us two lines from a poem +otherwise unknown to fame,-- + + "'Oh, my name it is Johnny from Pike, + I'm hell on a spree or a strike.'" + +In the story of _The New Assistant at Pine Clearing School_, three big +boys from Pike County explained to the schoolmistress their ideas upon the +subject of education, as follows: "'We ain't hankerin' much for grammar +and dictionary hogwash, and we don't want no Boston parts o' speech rung +in on us the first thing in the mo'nin'. We reckon to do our sums and our +figgerin', and our sale and barter, and our interest tables and weights +and measures when the time comes, and our geograffy when it's on, and our +readin' and writin' and the American Constitution in regular hours, and +then we calkillate to git up and git afore the po'try and the Boston airs +and graces come round.'" + +The "Sacramento Transcript," of June 11, 1850, tells a story about a +minister from Pike County which has a similar ring. "A miner took sick and +died at a bar that was turning out very rich washings. As he happened to +be a favorite in the camp, it was determined to have a general turn-out at +his burial. An old Pike County preacher was engaged to officiate, but he +thought it proper to moisten his clay a little before his solemn duty. The +parson being a favorite, and the grocery near by, he partook with one and +another before the services began, until his underpinning became quite +unsteady. Presently it was announced that the last sad rites were about +to be concluded, and our clerical friend advanced rather unsteadily to +perform the functions of his office. After an exordium worthy of his best +days, the crowd knelt around the grave, but as he was praying with +fervency one of the party discovered some of the shining metal in the dirt +thrown from the grave, and up he jumped and started for his pan, followed +by the crowd. The minister, opening his eyes in wonder and seeing the +game, cried out for a share; his claim was recognized and reserved for him +until he should get sober. In the mean time, another hole was dug for the +dead man, that did not furnish a like temptation to disturb his grave, and +he was hurriedly deposited without further ceremony." + +Bret Harte's best and noblest character, Tennessee's Partner, might have +been from Pike County,--he was of that kind; and Morse, the hero of the +story called _In the Tules_, certainly was:-- + +"The stranger stared curiously at him. After a pause he said with a +half-pitying, half-humorous smile:-- + +"'Pike--aren't you?' + +"Whether Morse did or did not know that this current California slang for +a denizen of the bucolic West implied a certain contempt, he replied +simply:-- + +"'I'm from Pike County, Mizzouri.'" + +To the same effect is the historian: "To be catalogued as from Pike County +seems to express a little more churlishness, a little more rudeness, a +greater reserve when courtesy or hospitality is called for than I ever +found in the Western character at home."[20] + +The type thus indicated was a very marked one, and was often spoken of +with astonishment by more sophisticated Pioneers. Some of these Missouri +men had never seen two houses together, until they came to California, so +that even a little village in the mines appeared to them as a marvel of +civilization and luxury. Their dress was home-made and by no means new or +clean. Over their shoulders they wore strips of cotton or cloth as +suspenders, and their coats were tight-waisted, long-tailed surtouts such +as were fashionable in the eighteenth century. Their inseparable companion +was a long-barrelled rifle, with which they could "draw a bead" on a deer +or a squirrel or the white of an Indian's eye with equal coolness and +certainty of killing. + +Bayard Taylor describes the same type as he met it in the ship which +carried him from New Orleans to Panama in '49. "Long, loosely-jointed men, +with large hands, and awkward feet and limbs; their faces long and sallow; +their hair long, straight and black; their expression one of settled +melancholy. The corners of their mouths curved downward, and their upper +lips were drawn tightly over their lower ones, thus giving to their faces +that look of ferocity which is peculiar to Indians. These men chewed +tobacco incessantly, drank copiously, were heavily armed with knives and +pistols, and breathed defiance to all foreigners."[21] + +These long, sallow-faced men were probably sufferers from that fever and +ague, or malaria, as we now call it, which was rife in all the "bottom +lands" of the Western States; and the greater part of Pike County was +included in that category. Much, indeed, of the emigration from Missouri +and Illinois to California was inspired less by the love of gold than by +the desire to escape from disease. Bret Harte, in many places, speaks of +these fever-ridden Westerners, especially in _An Apostle of the Tules_, +where he describes a camp-meeting, attended chiefly by "the rheumatic +Parkinsons, from Green Springs; the ophthalmic Filgees, from Alder Creek; +the ague-stricken Harveys, from Martinez Bend; and the feeble-limbed +Steptons, from Sugar Mill." "These," he adds, "might in their combined +families have suggested a hospital, rather than any other social +assemblage." + +But these sickly or ague-smitten people formed only a small part of the +Pioneers. The greater number represented the youth and strength of both +the Western and Eastern States. In 1852, an interior newspaper called the +"San Andreas Independent" declared, "We have a population made up from the +most energetic of the civilized earth's population"; and the boast was +true. + +Moreover, the Pioneers who reached California had been winnowed and sifted +by the hardships and privations which beset both the land and the sea +route. Thousands of the weaker among them had succumbed to starvation or +disease, and their bones were whitening the Plains or lying in the vast +depths of the Pacific Ocean. There was scarcely a village in the West or +South, or even in New England, which did not mourn the loss of some brave +young gold-seeker whose unknown fate was a matter of speculation for years +afterward. + +The length of the voyage from Atlantic ports to San Francisco was from +four to five months, but most of the Pioneers who came by sea avoided the +passage around Cape Horn, and crossed the Isthmus of Nicaragua, or, more +commonly, of Panama. This, in either case, was a much shorter route; but +it added the horrors of pestilence and fever, and of possible robbery and +murder, to the ordinary dangers of the sea. All the blacklegs, it was +noticed, took the shorter route, deeming themselves, no doubt, incapable +of sustaining the prolonged ennui of a voyage around the Cape. Passengers +who crossed the Isthmus of Panama disembarked at Chagres, a port so +unhealthy that policies of life insurance contained a clause to the effect +that if the insured remained there more than one night, his policy would +be void. Chagres enjoyed the distinction of being the dirtiest place in +the world. The inhabitants were almost all negroes, and one Pioneer +declared that a flock of buzzards would present a favorable comparison +with them. + +From Chagres there was, first, a voyage of seventy-five miles up the river +of the same name to Gorgona, or to Cruces, five miles farther. This was +accomplished in dugouts propelled by the native Indians. Thence to Panama +the Pioneers travelled on foot, or on mule-back, over a narrow, winding +bridle-path through the mountains, so overhung by trees and dense tropical +growths that in many places it was dark even at mid-day. + +This was the opportunity of the Indian muleteer, and more than one +gold-seeker never emerged from the gloomy depths of that winding trail. +Originally, it was the work of the Indians; but the Spaniards who used the +path in the sixteenth century had improved it, and in many places had +secured the banks with stones. Now, however, the trail had fallen into +decay, and in spots was almost impassable. But the tracks worn in the +soft, calcareous rock by the many iron-shod hoofs which had passed over +it, still remained; and the mule that bore the American seeking gold in +California placed his feet in the very holes which had been made by his +predecessors, painfully bearing the silver of Peru on its way to enrich +the grandees of Spain. + +Bad as the journey across the Isthmus was or might be, the enforced delay +at Panama was worse. The number of passengers far exceeded the capacity of +the vessels sailing from that port to San Francisco, and those who waited +at Panama were in constant danger of cholera, of the equally dreaded +Panama fever, and sometimes of smallpox. The heat was almost unbearable, +and the blacks were a source of annoyance, and even of danger. "There is +not in the whole world," remarked a contemporary San Francisco paper, "a +more infamous collection of villains than the Jamaica negroes who are +congregated at Panama and Chagres." + +In their eagerness to get away from Panama, some Pioneers paid in advance +for transportation in old rotten hulks which were never expected or +intended to reach San Francisco, but which, springing a leak or being +otherwise disabled, would put into some port in Lower California where the +passengers would be left without the means of continuing their journey, +and frequently without money. + +Both on the voyage from Panama and also on the long route around Cape +Horn, ship-captains often saved their good provisions for the California +market, and fed their passengers on nauseous "lobscouse" and "dunderfunk." +Scurvy and other diseases resulted. An appeal to the United States consul +at Rio Janeiro, when the ship touched there, was sometimes effectual, and +in other cases the passengers took matters into their own hands and +disciplined a rapacious captain or deposed a drunken one. In view of these +uprisings, some New York skippers declined to take command of ships about +to sail for California, supposing that passengers who could do such an +unheard-of thing as to rebel against the master of a vessel must be a race +of pirates. Great pains were taken to secure a crew of determined men for +these ships, and a plentiful supply of muskets, handcuffs and shackles was +always put on board. But such precautions proved to be ridiculously +unnecessary. There was no case in which the Pioneers usurped authority on +shipboard without sufficient cause; and in no case was an emigrant brought +to trial on reaching San Francisco. + +In the various ports at which they stopped much was to be seen of foreign +peoples and customs; and not infrequently the Pioneers had an opportunity +to show their mettle. At Santa Catharina, for example, a port on the lower +coast of Brazil, a young American was murdered by a Spaniard. The +authorities were inclined to treat the matter with great indifference; but +there happened to be in the harbor two ship-loads of passengers en route +for San Francisco, and these men threatened to seize the fortress and +demolish it if justice was not done. Thereupon the murderer was tried and +hung. Many South Americans in the various ports along the coast got their +first correct notion of the people of the United States from these chance +encounters with sea-going Pioneers. + +Still more, of course, was the overland journey an education in +self-reliance, in that resourcefulness which distinguishes the American, +and in that courage which was so often needed and so abundantly displayed +in the early mining days. Independence in the State of Missouri was a +favorite starting-point, and from this place there were two routes, the +southern one being by way of Santa Fé, and the northern route following +the Oregon Trail to Fort Hall, and thence ascending the course of the +Humboldt River to its rise in the Sierra Nevadas. + +At Fort Hall some large companies which had travelled from the Mississippi +River, and even from States east of that, separated, one half going to +Oregon, the other turning westward to California; and thus were broken +many ties of love and friendship which had been formed in the close +intimacy of the long journey, especially between the younger members of +the company. Old diaries and letters reveal suggestions of romance if not +of tragedy in these separations, and in the choice which the emigrant +maiden was sometimes forced to make between the conflicting claims of her +lover and her parents. + +In the year 1850 fifty thousand crossed the Plains. In 1851 immigration +fell off because even at that early date there was a business +"depression," almost a "panic" in California, but in 1852 it increased +again, and the Plains became a thoroughfare, dotted so far as the eye +could see with long trains of white-covered wagons, moving slowly through +the dust. In one day a party from Virginia passed thirty-two wagons, and +during a stop in the afternoon five hundred overtook them. In after years +the course of these wagons could easily be traced by the alien vegetation +which marked it. Wherever the heavy wheels had broken the tough prairie +sod there sprang up, from the Missouri to the Sierras, a narrow belt of +flowering plants and familiar door-yard weeds,--silent witnesses of the +great migration which had passed that way. Multitudes of horsemen +accompanied the wagons, and other multitudes plodded along on foot. +Banners were flying here and there, and the whole appearance was that of +an army on the march. At night camp-fires gleamed for miles through the +darkness, and if the company were not exhausted the music of a violin or a +banjo floated out on the still air of the prairies. But the fatigue of the +march, supplemented by the arduous labors of camping out, was usually +sufficient to send the travellers to bed at the earliest possible moment. + +The food consisted chiefly of salt pork or bacon,--varied when that was +possible with buffalo meat or venison,--beans, baked dough called bread, +and flapjacks. The last, always associated with mining life in California, +were made by mixing flour and water into a sort of batter, seasoning with +salt, adding a little saleratus or cooking soda, and frying the mixture in +a pan greased with fat. Men ate enormously on these journeys. Four hundred +pounds of sugar lasted four Pioneers only ninety days. This inordinate +appetite and the quantity of salt meat eaten frequently resulted in +scurvy, from which there were some deaths. Another cause of illness was +the use of milk from cows driven along with the wagon-trains, and made +feverish by heat and fatigue. + +Many of the emigrants, especially those who undertook the journey in '49 +or '50, were insufficiently equipped, and little aware of the difficulties +and dangers which awaited them. Death in many forms hovered over those +heavy, creaking, canvas-covered wagons--the "prairie-schooners," which, +drawn sometimes by horses, sometimes by oxen, sometimes by mules, jolted +slowly and laboriously over two thousand miles and more of plain and +mountain,--death from disease, from want of water, from starvation, from +Indians, and, in crossing the Sierras, from raging snow-storms and intense +cold. Rivers had to be forded, deserts crossed and a thousand accidents +and annoyances encountered. + +Some men made the long journey on foot, even from points east of the +Mississippi River. One gray-haired Pioneer walked all the way from +Michigan with a pack on his back. Another enthusiast obtained some +notoriety among the emigrants of 1850 by trundling a wheelbarrow, laden +with his goods, from Illinois to Salt Lake City. + +Bret Harte, as we have seen, reached California by sea, and there is no +record of any journey by ox-cart that he made; and yet in _A Waif of the +Plains_ he describes such a journey with a particularity which seems +almost impossible for one who knew it only by hearsay. Thus, among many +other details, he speaks of "a chalky taste of dust on the mouth and lips, +a gritty sense of earth on the fingers, and an all-pervading heat and +smell of cattle." And in the same description occurs one of those minute +touches for which he is remarkable: "The hoofs of the draught-oxen, +occasionally striking in the dust with a dull report, sent little puffs +like smoke on either side of the track." + +Often the cattle would break loose at night and disappear on the vast +Plains, and men in search of them were sometimes lost, and died of +starvation or were killed by Indians. Simply for the sake of better +grazing oxen have been known to retrace their steps at night for +twenty-five miles. + +The opportunities for selfishness, for petulance, for obstinacy, for +resentment were almost innumerable. Cooking and washing were the labors +which, in the absence of women, proved most vexatious to the emigrants. +"Of all miserable work," said one, "washing is the worst, and no man who +crossed the Plains will ever find fault again with his wife for scolding +on a washing day." All the Pioneers who have related their experiences on +the overland journey speak of the bad effect on men's tempers. "The +perpetual vexations and hardships keep the nerves in a state of great +irritability. The trip is a sort of magic mirror, exposing every man's +qualities of heart, vicious or amiable."[22] + +The shooting affairs which occurred among the emigrants were usually the +result of some sudden provocation, following upon a long course of +irritation between the persons concerned. Those who crossed the Plains in +the summer of 1853, or afterward, might have passed a grave with this +inscription: + + BEAL SHOT BY BOLSBY, JUNE 15, 1853. + +And, a day's journey further, they would have noticed another grave thus +inscribed: + + BOLSBY SHOT FOR THE MURDER OF BEAL, JUNE 16, 1853. + +This murder, to call it such, was the consequence of some insult offered +to Bolsby by the other. Bolsby was forthwith tried by the company, and +condemned to be shot the next morning at sunrise. He had been married only +about a year before, and had left his wife and child at their home in +Kentucky. For the remainder of the day he travelled with the others, and +the short hours of the summer night which followed were spent by him in +writing to his wife and to his father and mother. Of all the great +multitude, scattered over the wide earth, who passed that particular night +in sleepless agony of mind, perhaps none was more to be pitied. When +morning came he dressed himself neatly in his wedding suit, and was led +out to execution. With rare magnanimity, he acknowledged that his sentence +was a just one, and said that he had so written to his family, and that he +had been treated with consideration; but he declared that if the thing +were to happen again, he would kill Beal as before. He then knelt on his +blanket, gave the signal for shooting, and fell dead, pierced by six +bullets. + +The misfortunes of the Donner party began with a homicide. This is the +party whose sufferings are described by Bret Harte without exaggeration in +_Gabriel Conroy_. It included robbers, cannibals, murderers and heroes; +and one interesting aspect of its experience is the superior endurance, +both moral and physical, shown by the women. In the small detachment +which, as a forlorn hope, tried to cross the Mountains in winter without +provisions, and succeeded, there were twelve men and five women. Of the +twelve men five died, of the five women none died![23] + +Indians were often encountered on the Great Plains and in the valleys of +the Colorado and Rio Grande. They were well-disposed, at first, and soon +acquired some familiarity with the ordinary forms of speech used by the +Pioneers. Thus one traveller reports the following friendly salutation +from a member of the Snake Tribe: + +"How de do--Whoa haw! G--d d--n you!" + +On another occasion when a party of Pioneers were inquiring of some +Indians about a certain camping-ground ahead of them, they were assured +that there would be "plenty of grass there for the whoa haws, but no water +for the g--d d--ns." + +Later, however, owing chiefly to unprovoked attacks by emigrants, the +Indians became hostile and dangerous. Many Pioneers were robbed and some +were killed by them. The Western Indian was a figure at once grotesque +and terrible; and Bret Harte's description of him, as he appeared to the +emigrant boy lost on the Plains, gives the reader such a pleasant thrill +of horror as he may not have experienced since Robinson Crusoe made his +awful discovery of a human footprint in the sand. + +"He awoke with a start. A moving figure had suddenly uplifted itself +between him and the horizon!... A human figure, but so dishevelled, so +fantastic, and yet so mean and puerile in its extravagance that it seemed +the outcome of a childish dream. It was a mounted figure, yet so +ludicrously disproportionate to the pony it bestrode, whose slim legs were +stiffly buried in the dust in a breathless halt, that it might have been a +straggler from some vulgar wandering circus. A tall hat, crownless and +brimless, a castaway of civilization, surmounted by a turkey's feather, +was on its head; over its shoulders hung a dirty tattered blanket that +scarcely covered the two painted legs which seemed clothed in soiled +yellow hose. In one hand it held a gun; the other was bent above its eyes +in eager scrutiny of some distant point.... Presently, with a dozen quick +noiseless strides of the pony's legs, the apparition moved to the right, +its gaze still fixed on that mysterious part of the horizon. There was no +mistaking it now! The painted Hebraic face, the large curved nose, the +bony cheek, the broad mouth, the shadowed eyes, the straight long matted +locks! It was an Indian!"[24] + +There were some cases of captivity among the Indians the details of which +recall the similar occurrences in New England in the seventeenth century. +Perhaps the most remarkable case was that of Olive Oatman, a young girl +from Illinois, who was carried off by one tribe of Indians, was sold later +to another, nearly died of starvation, and, finally, after a lapse of six +years, was recovered safe and sound. Her brother, a boy of twelve, was +beaten with clubs by the Indians, and left for dead with the bodies of +his father and mother; but he revived, and succeeded in making his way +back for a distance of seventy miles, when he met a party of Pima Indians, +who treated him with kindness. Forty-five miles of that lonely journey lay +through a desert where no water could be obtained. + +Abner Nott's daughter, Rosey, the attractive heiress of the Pontiac, was +made of the same heroic stuff. "The Rosey ez I knows," said her father, +"is a little gal whose voice was as steady with Injuns yellin' round her +nest in the leaves on Sweetwater ez in her purty cabin up yonder." Lanty +Foster, too, was of "that same pioneer blood that had never nourished +cravens or degenerates, ... whose father's rifle had been levelled across +her cradle, to cover the stealthy Indian who prowled outside." + +It was from these Western and Southwestern emigrants that Bret Harte's +nobler kind of woman, and, in most cases, of man also was drawn. The +"great West" furnished his heroic characters,--California was only their +accidental and temporary abiding-place. These people were of the muscular, +farm type, with such health and such nerves as result from an out-door +life, from simple, even coarse food, from early hours and abundant sleep. + +The Pioneer women did indeed lack education and inherited refinement, as +Bret Harte himself occasionally points out. "She brushed the green moss +from his sleeve with some towelling, and although this operation brought +her so near to him that her breath--as soft and warm as the Southwest +trades--stirred his hair, it was evident that this contiguity was only +frontier familiarity, as far removed from conscious coquetry as it was +perhaps from educated delicacy."[25] + +And yet it is very easy to exaggerate this defect. In most respects the +wholesomeness, the democratic sincerity and dignity of Bret Harte's women, +and of his men as well, give them the substantial benefits of gentle +blood. Thus he says of one of his characters, "He had that innate respect +for the secrets of others which is as inseparable from simplicity as it is +from high breeding;" and this remark might have been put in a much more +general form. In fact, the essential similarity between simplicity and +high breeding runs through the whole nature of Bret Harte's Pioneers, and +perhaps, moreover, explains some obscure points in his own life. + +Be this as it may, the defects of Bret Harte's heroines relate rather to +the ornamental than to the indispensable part of life, whereas the +qualities in which they excel are those fundamental feminine qualities +upon which, in the last analysis, is founded the greatness of nations. A +sophisticated reader would be almost sure to underestimate them. Even that +English critic who was perhaps his greatest admirer, makes the remark, +literally true, but nevertheless misleading, that Bret Harte "did not +create a perfectly noble, superior, commanding woman." No, but he created, +or at least sketched, more than one woman of a very noble type. What type +of woman is most valuable to the world? Surely that which is fitted to +become the mother of heroes; and to that type Bret Harte's best women +belong. They have courage, tenderness, sympathy, the power of +self-sacrifice; they have even that strain of fierceness which seems to be +inseparable in man or beast from the capacity for deep affection. They +have the independence, the innocent audacity, the clear common-sense, the +resourcefulness, typical of the American woman, and they have, besides, a +depth of feeling which is rather primeval than American, which certainly +is not a part of the typical American woman as we know her in the Eastern +States. + +Perhaps the final test of nobility in man or woman is the capacity to +value _something_, be it honor, affection, or what you will, be it almost +anything, but to value something more than life itself; and this is the +characteristic of Bret Harte's heroines. They are as ready to die for love +as Juliet was, and along with this _abandon_ they have the coolness, the +independence, the practical faculty, which belong to their time and race, +but which were not a part of woman's nature in the age that produced +Shakspere's "unlessoned girl." + +Bret Harte's heroines have a strong family resemblance to those of both +Tourgueneff and Thomas Hardy. In each case the women obey the instinct of +love as unreservedly as men of an archaic type obey the instinct of +fighting. There is no question with them of material advantage, of wealth, +position, or even reputation. Such considerations, so familiar to women of +the world, never enter their minds. They love as nature prompts, and +having once given their love, they give themselves and everything that +they have along with it. There is a magnificent forgetfulness of self +about them. This is the way of nature. Nature never counts the cost, never +hoards her treasures, but pours them out, to live or die as the case may +be, with a profusion which makes the human by-stander--economical, +poverty-stricken man--stand aghast. In Russia this type of woman is +frequently found, as Tourgueneff, and to a lesser degree Tolstoi, found +her among the upper classes, which have retained a pristine quality long +since bred out of the corresponding classes in England and in the United +States. For women of the same type in England, Thomas Hardy is forced to +look lower down in the social scale; and this probably accounts for the +fact that his heroines are seldom drawn from the upper classes. + +Women of this kind sometimes fail in point of chastity, but it is a +failure due to impulse and affection, not to mere frivolity or sensuality. +After all, chastity is only one of the virtues that women owe to +themselves and to the race. The chaste woman who coldly marries for money +is, as a rule, morally inferior to the unchaste woman who gives up +everything for love. + +It is to be observed, however, that Bret Harte's women do not need this +defence, for his heroines, with the single exception of the faithful +Miggles, are virtuous. The only loose women in Bret Harte's stories are +the obviously bad women, the female "villains" of the play, and they are +by no means numerous. Joan, in _The Argonauts of North Liberty_, the wives +of Brown of Calaveras and The Bell-Ringer of Angel's, respectively, the +cold-blooded Mrs. Decker, and Mrs. Burroughs, the pretty, murderous, +feline little woman in _A Mercury of the Foot-Hills_--these very nearly +exhaust the list. On the other hand, in Thomas Hardy and Tourgueneff, to +say nothing of lesser novelists, it is often the heroine herself who falls +from virtue. Too much can hardly be made of the moral superiority of Bret +Harte's stories in this respect. It is due, not simply to his own taste +and preference, but to the actual state of society in California, which, +in this respect as in all others, he faithfully portrayed. The city of San +Francisco might have told a different story; but in the mining and +agricultural parts of the State the standard of feminine virtue was high. +Perhaps this was due, in part at least, to the chivalry of the men +reacting upon the women,--to that feeling which Bret Harte himself called +"the Western-American fetich of the sanctity of sex," and, again, "the +innate Far-Western reverence for women." + +In all European societies, and now, to a lesser degree, in the cities of +the United States, every man is, generally speaking, the enemy of every +young and good-looking woman, as much as the hunter is the enemy of his +game. How vast is the difference between this attitude of men to women and +that which Bret Harte describes! The California men, as he says +somewhere, "thought it dishonorable and a proof of incompetency to rise by +their wives' superior fortune." They married for love and nothing else, +and their love took the form of reverence. + +The complement of this feeling, on the woman's side, is a maternal, +protecting affection, perhaps the noblest passion of which women are +capable; and this is the kind of love that Bret Harte's heroines +invariably show. No mother could have watched over her child more tenderly +than Cressy over her sweetheart. The cry that came from the lips of the +Rose of Tuolumne when she flew to the rescue of her bleeding lover was +"the cry of a mother over her stricken babe, of a tigress over her mangled +cub." + +Bret Harte's heroines are almost all of the robust type. A companion +picture to the Rose is that of Jinny in the story _When the Waters Were Up +at "Jules'."_ "Certainly she was graceful! Her tall, lithe, but +beautifully moulded figure, even in its characteristic Southwestern +indolence, fell into poses as picturesque as they were unconscious. She +lifted the big molasses can from its shelf on the rafters with the +attitude of a Greek water-bearer. She upheaved the heavy flour sack to the +same secure shelf with the upraised palm of an Egyptian caryatid." + +Trinidad Joe's daughter, too, was large-limbed, with blue eyes, black +brows and white teeth. It was of her that the Doctor said, "If she spoke +rustic Greek instead of bad English, and wore a cestus instead of an +ill-fitting corset, you'd swear she was a goddess." + +Something more, however, goes to the making of a handsome woman than mere +health and muscle. Bret Harte often speaks of the sudden appearance of +beauty and refinement among the Western and Southwestern people. Kitty, +for example, as the Reader will remember, "was slight, graceful, and +self-contained, and moved beside her stumpy commonplace father and her +faded commonplace mother, in the dining-room of the Boomville hotel, like +some distinguished alien." In _A Vision of the Fountain_, Bret Harte, half +humorously, suggested an explanation. He speaks of the hero as "a +singularly handsome young fellow with one of those ideal faces and figures +sometimes seen in Western frontier villages, attributable to no ancestor, +but evolved possibly from novels and books devoured by ancestresses in the +long, solitary winter evenings of their lonely cabins on the +frontier."[26] + +It seems more likely, however, that a fortunate environment is the main +cause of beauty, a life free from care or annoyance; a deep sense of +security; that feeling of self-respect which is produced by the respect of +others, and, finally, surroundings which have either the beauty of art or +the beauty of nature. These are the very advantages which, with many +superficial differences, no doubt, are enjoyed alike by the daughters of +frontiersmen and by the daughters of a nobility. On the other hand, they +are the very advantages with which the middle class in cities, the cockney +class, is almost always obliged to dispense, and that class is +conspicuously deficient in beauty. Perhaps no one thing is more conducive +to beauty than the absence of those hideous creations known as "social +superiors." Imagine a society in which it would be impossible to make +anybody understand what is meant by the word "snob"! And yet such was, and +to a considerable extent still is, the society of the Far West and of +rural New England. + +Bret Harte himself glanced at this subject in describing the Blue-Grass +Penelope. "Beautiful she was, but the power of that beauty was limited by +being equally shared with her few neighbors. There were small, narrow, +arched feet besides her own that trod the uncarpeted floors of outlying +cabins with equal grace and dignity; bright, clearly opened eyes that were +equally capable of looking unabashed upon princes and potentates, as a few +later did, and the heiress of the County judge read her own beauty without +envy in the frank glances and unlowered crest of the blacksmith's +daughter." + +No less obvious is the connection of repose with beauty. Beauty springs up +naturally among people who know the luxury of repose, and yet are vigorous +enough to escape the dangers of sloth. Salomy Jane was lazy as well as +handsome, and when we first catch a glimpse of her she is leaning against +a door-post, engaged in the restful occupation of chewing gum. The same +repose, amounting indeed to indolence, formed the chief charm of Mr. +MacGlowrie's Widow. + +Whether or not the landscape plays a part in the production of womanly +beauty is a question more open to dispute. Not many persons feel this +influence, but, as experience will show, the proportion of country people +who feel it is greater than that of city people, although they have +considerably less to say upon the subject. The wide, open spaces, the +distant horizon, the gathering of storms, the changing green of Spring and +Summer, the scarlet and gold of Autumn, the vast expanse of spotless snow +glistening in Midwinter,--these things must be seen by the countryman, his +eyes cannot escape them, and in some cases they will be felt as well as +seen. Whoever has travelled a New England country road upon a frosty, +moonless night in late October, and has observed the Northern Lights +casting a pale, cold radiance through the leafless trees, will surely +detect some difference between that method of illumination and a kerosene +lantern. + +A New England farmer whose home commanded a noble view of mountain, lake +and forest was blessed with two daughters noted for their beauty. They +grew up and married, but both died young; and many years afterward he was +heard to say, as he looked dreamily out from his doorway, "I have often +thought that the reason why my girls became beautiful women was that from +their earliest childhood they always had this scene before their eyes." +And yet he had never read Wordsworth or Ruskin! + +Bret Harte's heroines enjoyed all the advantages just enumerated as being +conducive to beauty, and they escaped contamination from civilization. +They were close to nature, and as primitive in their love-affairs as the +heroines of Shakspere. "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight!" +John Ashe's betrothed and Ridgeway Dent had known each other a matter of +two hours or so, before they exchanged that immortal kiss which nearly +cost the lives of both. Two brief meetings, and one of those in the dark, +sufficed to win for the brave and clever young deputy sheriff the +affections of Lanty Foster. In _A Jack and Jill of the Sierras_, a +handsome girl from the East tumbles over a precipice, and falls upon the +recumbent hero, part way down, with such violence as to stun him. This is +hardly romantic, but the dangerous and difficult ascent which they make +together furnishes the required opportunity. Ten minutes of contiguity +suffice, and so well is the girl's character indicated by a few masterly +strokes, that the reader feels no surprise at the result. + +And yet there is nothing that savors of coarseness, much less of levity, +in these abrupt romances. When Bret Harte's heroes and heroines meet, it +is the coming together of two souls that recognize and attract each other. +It is like a stroke of lightning, and is accepted with a primeval +simplicity and un-selfconsciousness. The impression is as deep as it is +sudden. + +What said Juliet of the anonymous young man whom she had known something +less than an hour? + + "Go, ask his name: if he be marrièd + My grave is like to be my wedding bed." + +So felt Liberty Jones when she exclaimed to Dr. Ruysdael, "I'll go with +you or I'll die!" + +It is this sincerity that sanctifies the rapidity and frankness of Bret +Harte's love-affairs. Genuine passion takes no account of time, and +supplies by one instinctive rush of feeling the experience of years. Given +the right persons, time becomes as long and as short as eternity. Thus it +was with the two lovers who met and parted at midnight on the hilltop. +"There they stood alone. There was no sound or motion in earth or woods or +heaven. They might have been the one man and woman for whom this goodly +earth that lay at their feet, rimmed with the deepest azure, was created. +And seeing this they turned toward each other with a sudden instinct, and +their hands met, and then their lips in one long kiss." + +But this same perfect understanding may be arrived at in a crowd as well +as in solitude. Cressy and the Schoolmaster were mutually aware of each +other's presence at the dance before they had exchanged a look, and when +their eyes met it was in "an isolation as supreme as if they had been +alone." + +Could any country in the world except our own produce a Cressy! She has +all the beauty, much of the refinement, and all the subtle perceptions of +a girl belonging to the most sophisticated race and class; and underneath +she has the strong, primordial, spontaneous qualities, the wholesome +instincts, the courage, the steadfastness of that Pioneer people, that +religious, fighting, much-enduring people to whom she belonged. + +Cressy is the true child of her father; and there is nothing finer in all +Bret Harte than his description of this rough backwoodsman, ferocious in +his boundary warfare, and yet full of vague aspirations for his daughter, +conscious of his own deficiencies, and oppressed with that melancholy +which haunts the man who has outgrown the ideals and conventions of his +youth. Hiram McKinstry, compared with the masterful Yuba Bill, the +picturesque Hamlin, or the majestic Starbottle, is not an imposing figure; +but to have divined him was a greater feat of sympathetic imagination than +to have created the others. + +It is characteristic, too, of Bret Harte that it is Cressy's father who is +represented as acutely conscious of his own defects in education; whereas +her mother remains true to the ancestral type, deeply distrusting her +husband's and her daughter's innovations. Mrs. McKinstry, as the Reader +will remember, "looked upon her daughter's studies and her husband's +interest in them as weaknesses that might in course of time produce +infirmity of homicidal purpose and become enervating of eye and trigger +finger.... 'The old man's worrits hev sorter shook out a little of his +sand,' she had explained." + +Mr. McKinstry, on the other hand, had almost as much devotion to "Kam" as +Matthew Arnold had to Culture, and meant very nearly the same thing by it. +Thus he said to the Schoolmaster: "'I should be a powerful sight more kam +if I knowed that when I was away huntin' stock or fightin' stakes with +them Harrisons that she was a-settin' in school with the other children +and the birds and the bees, listenin' to them and to you. Mebbe there's +been a little too many scrimmages goin' on round the ranch sence she's +been a child; mebbe she orter know sunthin' more of a man than a feller +who sparks her and fights for her.' + +"The master was silent. Had this selfish, savage, and literally red-handed +frontier brawler been moved by some dumb instinct of the power of +gentleness to understand his daughter's needs better than he?" + +Alas that no genius has arisen to write the epic of the West, as Hawthorne +and Mary Wilkins and Miss Jewett have written the epic of New England! +Bret Harte's stories of the Western people are true and striking, but his +limitations prevented him from giving much more than sketches of them. +They are not presented with that fullness which is necessary to make a +figure in fiction impress itself upon the popular imagination, and become +familiar even to people who have never read the book in which it is +contained. Cressy, like the other heroines of Bret Harte, flits across the +scene a few times, and we see her no more. Mrs. McKinstry is drawn only in +outline; and yet she is a strong, tragic figure, of a type now extinct, or +nearly so, as powerful and more sane than Meg Merrilies, and far more +worthy of a permanent place in literature. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PIONEER LIFE + + +To be successful and popular among the Pioneers was something really to a +man's credit. Men were thrown upon their own resources, and, as in +Mediæval times, were their own police and watchmen, their own firemen, and +in most cases their own judge and jury. There was no distribution of the +inhabitants into separate classes: they constituted a single class, the +only distinction being that between individuals. There was not even the +broad distinction between those who worked with their heads and those who +worked with their hands. Everybody, except the gamblers, performed manual +labor; and although this condition could not long prevail in San Francisco +or Sacramento, it continued in the mines for many months. In fact, any one +who did not live by actual physical toil was regarded by the miners as a +social excrescence, a parasite.[27] + +An old miner, after spending a night in a San Francisco lodging house, +paid the proprietor with gold dust. While waiting for his change he seemed +to be studying the keeper of the house as a novel and not over-admirable +specimen of humanity. Finally he inquired of him as follows: "Say, now, +stranger, do you do nothing else but just sit there and take a dollar from +every man that sleeps in these beds?" "Yes," was the reply, "that is my +business." "Well, then," said the miner after a little further +reflection, "it's a damned mean way of making your living; that's all I +can say." + +Even those who were not democratic by nature became so in California. All +men felt that they were, at last, free and equal. Social distinctions were +rubbed out. A man was judged by his conduct, not by his bank account, nor +by the set, the family, the club, or the church to which he belonged.[28] +All former records were wiped from the slate; and nobody inquired whether, +in order to reach California, a man had resigned public office or +position, or had escaped from a jail. + +"Some of the best men," says Bret Harte, "had the worst antecedents, some +of the worst rejoiced in a spotless, Puritan pedigree. 'The boys seem to +have taken a fresh deal all round,' said Mr. John Oakhurst one day to me, +with the easy confidence of a man who was conscious of his ability to win +my money, 'and there is no knowing whether a man will turn out knave or +king.'" + +This, perhaps, sounds a little improbable, and yet here, as always, Bret +Harte has merely stated the fact as it was. One of the most accurate +contemporary historians says: "The man esteemed virtuous at home becomes +profligate here, the honest man dishonest, and the clergyman sometimes a +profane gambler; while, on the contrary, the cases are not few of those +who were idle or profligate at home, who came here to be reformed."[29] + +"It was a republic of incognitos. No one knew who any one else was, and +only the more ill-mannered and uneasy even desired to know. Gentlemen took +more trouble to conceal their gentility than thieves living in South +Kensington would take to conceal their blackguardism."[30] + + +[Illustration: THE FIRST HOTEL AT SAN FRANCISCO + +Copyright, Century Co.] + + +"Have you a letter of introduction?" wrote a Pioneer to a friend in the +East about to sail for California. "If you have, never present it. No one +here has time to read such things. No one cares even to know your name. If +you are the right sort of a man, everything goes smoothly here." "What is +your partner's last name?" asked one San Francisco merchant of another in +1850. "Really, I don't know," was the reply; "we have only been acquainted +three or four weeks." A miner at Maryville once offered to wager his old +blind mule against a plug of tobacco that the company, although they had +been acquainted for some years, could not tell one another's names; and +this was found upon trial to be the case. + +Men were usually known, as Bret Harte relates, by the State or other place +from which they came,--with some prefix or affix to denote a salient +characteristic. Thus one miner, in a home letter, speaks of his friends, +"Big Pike, Little Pike, Old Kentuck, Little York, Big York, Sandy, and +Scotty." Men originally from the East, and long supposed to be dead, +turned up in California, seeking a new career. In fact, there seems to +have been a general inclination among the Pioneers to strike out in new +directions. "To find a man here engaged in his own trade or profession," +wrote a Forty-Niner, "is a rare thing. The merchant of to-day is to-morrow +a doctor; lawyers turn bankers, and bankers lawyers. The miners are almost +continually on the move, passing from one claim to another, and from the +Southern to the Northern mines, or _vice versa_." + +Bret Harte was startled by meeting an old acquaintance in a strange +situation. "At my first breakfast in a restaurant on Long Wharf I was +haunted during the meal by a shadowy resemblance which the waiter who took +my order bore to a gentleman to whom in my boyhood I had looked up as to a +mirror of elegance, urbanity, and social accomplishment. Fearful lest I +should insult the waiter--who carried a revolver--by this reminiscence, I +said nothing to him; but a later inquiry of the proprietor proved that my +suspicions were correct. 'He's mighty handy,' said this man, 'and can talk +elegant to a customer as is waiting for his cakes, and make him kinder +forget he ain't sarved.'" + +Bret Harte relates another case. "An Argonaut just arriving was amazed at +recognizing in the boatman who pulled him ashore, and who charged him the +modest sum of fifty dollars for the performance, a classmate at Oxford. +'Were you not,' he asked eagerly, 'Senior Wrangler in '43?' 'Yes,' said +the other significantly, 'but I also pulled stroke against Cambridge.'" + +A Yale College professor was hauling freight with a yoke of oxen; a Yale +graduate was selling peanuts on the Plaza at San Francisco; an ex-governor +was playing the fiddle in a bar-room; a physician was washing dishes in a +hotel; a minister was acting as waiter in a restaurant; a lawyer was +paring potatoes in the same place. Lawyers, indeed, were doing a great +deal of useful work in California. One kept a mush and milk stand; another +sold pies at a crossing of the American River; a third drove a team of +mules. + +John A. McGlynn, one of the best known and most successful Forty-Niners, +began by hitching two half-broken mustangs to an express wagon, and acting +as teamster. He was soon chosen to enforce the rules regulating the +unloading of vessels and the cartage of goods. All the drivers obeyed him, +except one, a native of Chili, a big, powerful man, with a team of six +American mules. McGlynn ordered him into line; he refused; and McGlynn +struck him with his whip. In an instant both men had leaped from their +wagon-seats to the ground. The Chileno rushed at McGlynn, with his +bowie-knife in his hand; but the American was left-handed, for which the +Chileno was not prepared; and with his first blow McGlynn stretched his +antagonist on the ground. There he held him until the fellow promised good +behavior. On regaining his feet the defeated man invited all hands to +drink, and became thenceforth a warm friend of the victor. + +The judge of the Court for Santa Cruz County kept a hotel, and after court +adjourned, he would take off his coat and wait on the table, serving +jurors, attorneys, criminals and sheriffs with the same impartiality which +he exhibited on the bench. A brief term of service as waiter in a San +Francisco restaurant laid the foundation of the highly successful career +of another lawyer, a very young man. One day a merchant upon whom he was +waiting remarked to a companion: "If I only had a lawyer who was worth a +damn, I could win that suit." "I am a lawyer," interposed the waiter, "and +I am looking for a chance to get into business. Try me." The merchant did +so; the suit was won; and the former waiter was soon in full legal +practice. + +Acquaintances were formed, and the beginning of a fortune was often made, +by chance meetings and incidents. Men got at one another more quickly than +is possible in an old and conservative society. One who became a +distinguished citizen of California began his career by accepting an offer +of humble employment when he stepped into the street on his first morning +in San Francisco. "Look here, my friend," said a merchant to him, "if you +won't get mad about it, I'll offer you a dollar to fill this box with +sand." "Thank you," said the young fellow, "I'll fill it all day long on +those terms, and never become angry in the least." He filled the box, and +received payment. "Now," he said, "we'll go and take a drink with this +dollar." The merchant acquiesced with a laugh, and thus began a life-long +connection between the two men. + +There were some recognitions of old acquaintances as remarkable as the +making of new friends. Two brothers, Englishmen from the Society Islands, +met in a mining town, and were not aware of their relationship until a +chance conversation between them disclosed it. A merchant from Cincinnati +arrived in San Francisco with the intention of settling there. One of the +first persons whom he met was a prosperous business man who had absconded +some years before with ten thousand dollars of his money. He recovered the +ten thousand dollars and interest, without making the matter public, and +went back to Ohio well satisfied. + +A lawyer of note in San Francisco remarked, in 1850, that the last time he +saw Ned McGowan, previous to his arrival in California, McGowan stood in +the criminal dock of a Philadelphia court where he was receiving a +sentence to the State prison for robbery. Subsequently he was pardoned by +the Governor of Pennsylvania, on condition that he should leave the State. +When this lawyer settled in San Francisco, he was employed to defend some +persons who had been arrested for drunkenness; and upon entering the court +room he was thunderstruck by the appearance of the magistrate upon the +bench. After a careful survey of the magistrate and a pinch of the flesh +to make sure that he was not dreaming, he exclaimed:-- + +"Ned McGowan, is that you?" + +"It is," was the cool reply. + +"Well, gentlemen," said the lawyer, turning to his clients, "you had +better toll down heavy, for I can do you no good with such a judge." +Tolling down heavy was probably a practice which the judge encouraged, +for, a year later, upon the organization of the Vigilance Committee, Ned +McGowan fled from San Francisco, if not from California. + +California, from 1849 to 1858, was a meeting ground for all the nations of +the earth. One of the first acts of the Legislature was to appoint an +official translator. The confusion of languages resulted in many +misunderstandings and some murders. A Frenchman and a German at Moquelumne +Hill had a controversy about a water-privilege, and being unable to +understand each other, they resorted first to pantomime, and then to +firearms, with the unfortunate result that the German was killed. + +A trial which occurred at San José illustrates the multiplicity of tongues +in California. A Spaniard accused a Tartar of assaulting him, but as the +Tartar and his witnesses could not speak English the proceedings were +delayed. At last another Tartar, called Arghat, was found who could speak +Chinese, and then a Chinaman, called Alab, who could speak Spanish; and +with these as interpreters the trial began. Another difficulty then arose, +namely, the swearing of the witnesses. The court, having ascertained that +the Tartar mode of swearing is by lifting a lighted candle toward the sun, +adopted that form. The judge administered the ordinary oath to the English +and Spanish interpreters; the latter then swore Arghat as Tartar and +Chinese interpreter, and he, in turn, swore Alab, by the burning candle +and the sun, as Chinese and Spanish interpreter; and the trial then +proceeded in four languages. + +The first newspaper was printed half in English, half in Spanish. Sermons +were preached by Catholic priests both in English and in Spanish. The +Fourth of July was celebrated at San José in 1850 by one oration in +English and another in Spanish. German and Italian weekly papers were +published in San Francisco. The French population of the city was +especially large. They made _rouge-et-noir_ the fashion. "Where there are +Frenchmen," remarks a Pioneer, "you will find music, singing and gayety." +A French benevolent society was established at San Francisco in 1851. + +Many of the best citizens of California were Englishmen. There was a +famous ale-house in San Francisco, called the Boomerang, where sirloins of +beef could be washed down with English ale, and followed by Stilton +cheese; where the London "Times," "Punch" and "Bell's Life" were taken in. + +Australia and New South Wales contributed a considerable and by no means +the best part of the population. The "Sydney Ducks" who infested the dark +lanes and alleys of San Francisco, and lurked about the wharves at night, +lived mainly by robbery; and they often murdered in order to rob. An +English traveller said of them: "I have seen vice in almost every form, +and under almost every condition in the Old World, but never did it appear +to me in so repulsive and disgusting a shape as it exists among the lower +orders of Sydney, and generally in New South Wales."[31] + +But not all of the immigrants from English colonies were of this +character. Many were respectable men, and succeeded well in California. An +Australian cabman, for example, brought a barouche, a fine pair of horses, +a tall hat and a livery coat all the way across the Pacific, and made a +fortune by hiring out at the rate of twenty dollars an hour. + +There were many Jews in San Francisco, but none in the mines;--they alone +of all the nations gathered in California kept to their ordinary +occupations, chiefly the selling of clothes, and never looked for gold. +Even their dress did not change. "They are," writes a Pioneer, "exactly +the same unwashed-looking, slobbery, slipshod individuals that one sees in +every seaport town." But the Jew prospered, and was a good citizen. +Another Pioneer, who could look beneath the surface, said, "The Jew does +honor to his name here. The pressure which elsewhere bows him to the earth +is removed."[32] + +The variety and mixture of races in California were without precedent, and +San Francisco especially prided itself upon the barbaric aspect of its +streets. Perhaps the Chinese were the most striking figures. The low-caste +Chinamen wore full jackets and breeches of blue calico, and on their heads +a huge wicker-work hat that would have made a good family clothes-basket. +The aristocratic Chinaman displayed a jacket of gay-colored silk, yellow +satin breeches, a scarlet skull-cap with a gold knob on top, and, in cold +weather, a short coat of Astrakhan fur. + +There was, of course, a Chinese quarter, and a district known as little +Chili, where South Americans of every country could be found, with a +mixture of Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, and negroes from the South +Seas. In July, 1850, there arrived a ship-load of Hungarian exiles, and +somewhat later a company of Bayonnais from the south of France, the men +wild and excitable in appearance, the women dark-skinned, large-eyed, and +graceful in their movements. + +There was a Spanish quarter where, as Bret Harte said, "three centuries of +quaint customs, speech and dress were still preserved; where the proverbs +of Sancho Panza were still spoken in the language of Cervantes, and the +high-flown allusions of the La Manchian knight still a part of the Spanish +Californian hidalgo's dream." + +The Spanish women were usually attended by Indian girls, and their dress +was coquettish and becoming. Their petticoats, short enough to display a +well-turned ankle, were richly laced and embroidered, and striped and +flounced with gaudy colors, of which scarlet was the most common. Their +tresses fell in luxuriant plaits down their backs; and, in all the little +accessories of dress, such as earrings, and necklaces, their costume was +very rich. Its chief feature, the _reboso_, was a sort of scarf, like the +mantilla of old Spain. This was sometimes twined around the waist and +shoulders, and at other times hung in pretty festoons about the figure. + +It was only in respect to their diversions that the Spanish had any +influence upon the Americans. The gambling houses and theatres were +largely in Spanish hands at first, and the _fandango_ was the national +amusement in which the American miners soon learned to join.[33] + +And yet the fundamental gravity of the Spanish nature, a gravity which is +epitomized and immortally fixed in the famous portrait of Admiral Pareja +by Velasquez, was as marked in California as at home. It is thus that Bret +Harte describes Don José Sepulvida, the Knight Errant of the Foot-Hills: +"The fading glow of the western sky through the deep, embrasured windows +lit up his rapt and meditative face. He was a young man of apparently +twenty-five, with a colorless, satin complexion, dark eyes, alternating +between melancholy and restless energy, a narrow, high forehead, long +straight hair, and a lightly pencilled mustache." + +One is struck by the resemblance between Don José Sepulvida, and Culpeper +Starbottle, the Colonel's nephew, whose tragic death the Reader will +remember. Bret Harte thus depicts him: "The face was not an +unprepossessing one, albeit a trifle too thin and lank and bilious to be +altogether pleasant. The cheek-bones were prominent, and the black eyes +sunken in their orbits. Straight black hair fell slantwise off a high but +narrow forehead, and swept part of a hollow cheek. A long, black mustache +followed the perpendicular curves of his mouth. It was on the whole a +serious, even quixotic face, but at times it was relieved by a rare smile +of such tender and even pathetic sweetness, that Miss Jo is reported to +have said that, if it would only last through the ceremony, she would have +married the possessor on the spot. 'I once told him so,' added that +shameless young woman; 'but the man instantly fell into a settled +melancholy, and has not laughed since.'"[34] + + +[Illustration: MINERS' BALL + +A. Castaigne, del.] + + +There were, in fact, many things in common between the Southerner and the +Spaniard. They lived in similar climates, and the fundamental ideas of +their respective communities were very much the same. The Southerner was +almost as deeply imbued as the Spaniard with extreme, aristocratic notions +of government and society; and he, like the Spaniard, was conservative, +religious, dignified, courteous, chivalrous to women, brave, narrow-minded +and indolent. + +In _The Secret of Sobriente's Well_, this resemblance suddenly occurs to +Larry Hawkins, who, in describing to Colonel Wilson, from Virginia, the +character of his Spanish predecessor, the former owner of the _posada_ in +which the Colonel lived, said: "He was that kind o' fool that he took no +stock in mining. When the boys were whoopin' up the place and finding the +color everywhere, he was either ridin' round lookin' up the wild horses he +owned, or sittin' with two or three lazy peons and Injuns that was fed and +looked after by the priests. Gosh! Now I think of it, it was mighty like +you when you first kem here with your niggers. That's curous, too, ain't +it?" + +The hospitality of the Spanish Californian was boundless. "There is no +need of an orphan asylum in California," wrote the American Alcalde at +Monterey. "The question is not who shall be burdened with the care of an +orphan, but who shall have the privilege of rearing it. An industrious man +of rather limited means applied to me to-day for the care of _six_ orphan +children. He had fifteen of his own;" and when the Alcalde questioned the +prudence of his offer, the Spaniard replied, "The hen that has twenty +chickens scratches no harder than the hen that has one." + +A Pioneer, speaking from his own experience, said: "If you are sick there +is nothing which sympathy can divine which is not done for you. This is as +true of the lady whose hand has only figured her embroidery or swept her +guitar, as of the cottage-girl wringing from her laundry the foam of the +mountain stream; and all this from the heart!"[35] + +Generosity and pride are Spanish traits. "The worst and weakest of them," +remarks an English Pioneer, "has that indefinable something about him that +lifts so immeasurably the beggar of Murillo above the beggar of +Hogarth."[36] The Reader will remember how cheerfully and punctiliously +Don José Sepulvida paid the wagers of his friend and servant, Bucking Bob. +A gambling debt was regarded by the Spaniards in so sacred a light that if +he who incurred it was unable to pay, then, for the honor of the family, +any relative, a godfather, or even one who had the misfortune to be +connected by marriage with the debtor, was bound to discharge the +obligation. Some Americans basely took advantage of this sentiment; and, +in one case, an old Spanish lady was deprived of a vineyard, her only +means of support, in order to preserve the reputation of a scapegrace +nephew who had lost to an American at faro a greater sum than he +possessed. + +Some convenient and becoming articles of Spanish dress were adopted by +the Americans, notably the sombrero and the serapé, or horseman's cloak. +Jack Hamlin, as the Reader will remember, sometimes went a little further. +Thus, when he started on his search for the Sappho of Green Springs, he +"modified his usual correct conventional attire by a tasteful combination +of a roquero's costume, and in loose white bullion-fringed trousers, red +sash, jacket and sombrero, looked infinitely more dashing and picturesque +than his original." + +The profuse wearing of jewelry, even by men, was another foreign fashion +which Americans adopted in the early years; so much so, in fact, that to +appear in a plain and unadorned state was to be conspicuous. The jewelry +thus worn was not of the conventional kind, but a sort of miner's jewelry, +significant of the place and time. Ornaments were made from the gold in +its native state by soldering into one mass many small nuggets, without +any polish or other embellishment. Everybody carried a gold watch, and +watch-chains were constructed upon a massive plan, the links sometimes +representing dogs in pursuit of deer, horses at full speed, birds in the +act of flight, or serpents coiled and hissing. Scarf-pins were made from +lumps of gold retaining their natural form and mixed with quartz, +rose-colored, blue-gray, or white, according to the rock from which they +were taken. The big "specimen ring" worn by the hero of _A Night on the +Divide_ was an example. + +Some Americans adhered to their usual dress which, in the Eastern States, +was a sober suit of black; but usually the Pioneers discarded all +conventional clothes, and appeared in a rough and picturesque costume much +like that of a stage pirate. Indeed, it was impossible for any man in '49 +to make his dress sufficiently bizarre to attract attention. The +prevailing fashion included a red or blue flannel shirt, a "wide-awake" +hat of every conceivable shape and color, trousers stuffed into a huge +pair of boots coming up above the knee, and a belt decorated with pistols +and knives. More than one Pioneer landed in San Francisco with a rifle +slung on his back, a sword-cane in his hand, two six-shooters and a +bowie-knife in his belt, and a couple of small pistols protruding from his +waistcoat pockets. + +In the rainy season of '49, long boots were so scarce, and so desirable on +account of the mud, that they sold for forty dollars a pair in San +Francisco, and higher yet in Stockton. Learning of this, Eastern merchants +flooded the market with top-boots a year later; but by that time the +streets had been planked, the miner's costume was passing out of fashion, +and long boots were no longer in demand. These changes were greatly +regretted by unconventional Pioneers, and even so early as 1850 they were +lamenting "the good old times,"--just one year back,--before the tailor +and the barber were abroad in the land. + +Local celebrations were marked by more color and display than are usually +indulged in by Americans. In 1851, on Washington's Birthday, there was a +procession in San Francisco headed by the Mayor in a barouche drawn by +four white horses. Next came the fire engines of the city, each with a +team of eight gray horses, and followed by a long train of firemen in +white shirts and black trousers. Then came a company of teamsters mounted +on their draught horses, and carrying gay banners; and finally a +delegation of Chinamen, preceded by a Chinese band and bearing aloft a +huge flag of yellow silk. + +Horsemen, more or less intoxicated, and shouting like wild Indians, +charged up and down the streets at all hours of the day and night, to the +great discomfort of many and the fatal injury of some pedestrians. "On +Sundays especially, one would imagine," a local newspaper remarks, "that a +horde of Cossacks or Tartars had taken possession of the city." + +"The Spaniard," Bret Harte says, "taught the Americans horsemanship, and +they rode off with his cattle." The Americans usually adopted the Spanish +equipment, consisting of a huge saddle, with cumbrous leather +saddle-flaps, stirrups carved from solid oak, heavy metal spurs, a bridle +jingling with ornaments, and a cruel curb bit,--the whole paraphernalia +being designed to serve the convenience and vanity of the rider without +the least regard to the comfort of his beast. The Spanish manner of abrupt +stopping, made possible by the severe bit, was also taken up by young +Americans who loved to charge down upon a friend, halting at the last +possible moment, in a cloud of dust, with the horse almost upon his +haunches. This was Jack Hamlin's habit. + +A popular figure in the streets of San Francisco was a black pony, the +property of a constable, that stood most of the day, saddled and bridled, +in front of his master's office. The pony's favorite diversion was to have +his hoofs blacked and polished, and whenever a coin was placed between his +lips, he would carry it to a neighboring boot-black, put, first, one +fore-foot, and then the other, on the foot-rest, and, after receiving a +satisfactory "shine," would walk gravely back to his usual station. Even +the dumb animals felt that something unusual was expected of them in +California. + +There were no harness horses or carriages in San Francisco in the early +part of '49; and when they were introduced toward the end of that year, a +touch of barbaric splendor marked the fashionable equipage of the hour. A +pair of white horses with gilt trappings, drawing a light, yellow-wheeled +buggy, was once a familiar sight in the streets of the city. The +_demi-monde_ rode on horseback, in parties of two or three, and even of +six or more, and the pace which they set corresponded with that of +California life in general. The appearance of one of the most noted of +these women is thus described by a Pioneer, the wife of a sea-captain: "I +have seen her mounted on a glossy, lithe-limbed race-horse, one that had +won for her many thousands on the race-course, habited in a close-fitting +riding-dress of black velvet, ornamented with one hundred and fifty gold +buttons, a hat from which depended magnificent sable plumes, and over her +face a short, white lace veil of the richest texture, so gossamer-like one +could almost see the fire of passion flashing from the depths of her dark, +lustrous eyes."[37] + +Even the climate, the dry, bracing air, the cool nights, the aromatic +fragrance of the woods, tended to quicken the pulse of the Argonauts, and +to heighten the general exuberance of feeling. + +Central California, the scene of Bret Harte's stories, is a great valley +bounded on the west by the Coast Range of hills or mountains, which rise +from two thousand to four thousand, and in a few places to five thousand +feet, and on the east by the Foot-Hills. After the immigration, this +valley furnished immense crops of wheat, vegetables and fruit; but in '49 +it was a vast, uncultivated plain, free from underbrush or other small +growth, and studded by massive, spreading oaks, by tall plane trees, and +occasionally by a gigantic redwood, sending its topmost branches two and +even three hundred feet into the air. In the dry season, the surface was +brown and parched, but as soon as the rains began, the wild grasses and +wild oats gave it a rich carpet of green, sparkling with countless field +flowers. The resemblance of the valley, in the rainy season at least, to +an English park, was often spoken of by Pioneers who found in it a +reminder of home. + +On the eastern side this great central valley gradually merges into the +Foot-Hills, the vanguards of the lofty mountain range which separates +central California from Nevada. The Foot-Hills form what is perhaps the +most picturesque part of the State, watered in the rainy season by +numerous rocky, swift-flowing streams, the tributaries of the Sacramento +and the San Joaquin, and broken into those deep, narrow glens so often +described in Bret Harte's poetry and prose. This was the principal +gold-bearing region. The Foot-Hills extend over a space about five hundred +miles long and fifty wide, and from them arise, sometimes abruptly, and +sometimes gradually, the snow-crowned Sierras. + +Such is central California. A region extending from latitude 32° 30´ in +the South to 42° in the North, and rising from the level of the Pacific +Ocean to mountain peaks fifteen thousand feet high, must needs present +many varieties of weather; but on the whole the State may be said to have +a mild, dry, breezy, healthy climate. Except in the mountains and in the +extreme northeast, snow never lies long, the earth does not freeze, and +Winter is like a wet Spring during which the cattle fare much better than +they do in Summer. The passing of one season into the other was thus +described by Bret Harte: "The eternal smile of the California Summer had +begun to waver and grow fixed; dust lay thick on leaf and blade; the dry +hills were clothed in russet leather; the trade winds were shifting to the +south with an ominous warm humidity; a few days longer, and the rains +would be here." + +San Francisco has a climate of its own. Ice never forms there, and +geraniums bloom throughout the Winter; but during the dry season, which +lasts from May or June until September or October, a strong, cold wind +blows in every afternoon from the ocean, dying down at sunset. The mercury +falls with the coming of the wind, the rays of the sun seem to have no +more warmth than moonbeams, the sand blows up in clouds, doors and windows +rattle, and the city is swept and scourged. But fifty miles inland the +air is still and balmy, and residents of San Francisco leave the city in +Summer not to escape unpleasant heat, but to enjoy the relaxation of a +milder and less stimulating climate. "In the interior one bright, still +day follows another, as calm, as dreamy, as disconnected from time and +space as was the air which lulled the lotus-eaters to rest."[38] This +evenness of temperature was amazing and delightful to the weather-beaten +Pioneers from New England. + +The Midsummer days are often intensely hot in the interior, but the nights +are cool, and the atmosphere is so dry that the heat is not enervating. +Men have been seen hard at work digging a cellar with the thermometer at +125° F. in the shade; and sunstrokes, though not unknown, are extremely +rare. Nothing decays or becomes offensive. Fresh meat hung in the shade +does not spoil. Dead animal or vegetable matter simply dries up and wastes +away. + +In 1849 the rains were uncommonly severe, to the great discomfort of the +Pioneers; and Alvarado, the former Spanish governor, explained the fact in +all sincerity by saying that the Yankees had been accompanied to +California by the devil himself. This explanation was accepted by the +natives generally, without doubt or qualification. The streets of San +Francisco, in that year, were like the beds of rivers. It was no uncommon +thing to see, at the same time, a mule stalled in the middle of the +highway, with only his head showing above the road, and an unfortunate +pedestrian, who had slipped off the plank sidewalk, in process of being +fished out by a companion. At the corner of Clay and Kearney Streets there +once stood a sign, erected by some joker, inscribed as follows,-- + + This street is impassable, + Not even jackassable! + +But the rainy season is usually neither long nor constant. The fall of +rain on the Pacific Slope is only about one third of the rainfall in the +Atlantic States; and, before water was supplied artificially, the miner +was often obliged to suspend operations for want of it. Frequently a day's +rain would have been cheaply bought at the price of a million dollars; and +even a good shower gave an impetus to business which was felt by the +merchants and gamblers of San Francisco and Sacramento. It was observed +that after a long drought dimes took the place of gold slugs upon the +roulette and faro tables. Thus, even the weather was a speculation in +Pioneer times. + +And yet, notwithstanding the general mildness of the climate, extremes of +cold, at high levels, are close at hand. Snow often falls to a depth of +one or two feet within fifty miles of San Francisco. Near the head-waters +of the Feather River the snow is sometimes twelve and even fifteen feet +deep; and in December, 1850, eighteen men out of a party of nineteen, and +sixty-eight of their seventy mules froze to death in one night. A +snow-storm came up so suddenly, and fell with such fury, that their +firewood became inaccessible, and they were obliged to burn their cabin; +but even that did not save them. + +Bret Harte has described a California snow-storm not only in _The Outcasts +of Poker Flat_, but in several other stories, notably in _Gabriel Conroy_, +_Snow-Bound at Eagle's_, and _A Night on the Divide_. It is interesting to +know, as Mr. Pemberton tells us, that the description of the snow-storm in +_Gabriel Conroy_ was written on a hot day in August. + +Poker Flat was in Sierra County, and in March, 1860, the snow was so deep +in that county that tunnels were dug through it as a picturesque and +convenient means of access to local saloons. The storm which overwhelmed +the Outcasts was no uncommon event. But when these storms clear off, the +cold, though often intense, is not disagreeable, owing to the dryness of +the air. "We are now working every fair day," wrote a miner in January, +1860, "and have been all the Winter without inconvenience. The long, +sled-runner Norwegian snow-shoes are used here by nearly everybody. I have +seen the ladies floating about, wheeling and soaring, with as much grace +and ease of motion as swans on the bosom of a placid lake or eagles in the +sun-lit air." + +On the summit of the mountains the snow is perpetual, and on the easterly +slopes it often attains the almost incredible depth, or height, of fifty +feet. In _A Tale of Three Truants_, Bret Harte has described an avalanche +of snow, carrying the Three Truants along with it, in the course of which +they "seemed to be going through a thicket of underbrush, but Provy Smith +knew that they were the tops of pine trees." + +On the whole, the climate of California justified the enthusiasm which it +aroused in the Pioneers, and which sometimes found an amusing expression. +The birth of twins to an immigrant and his wife, who had been childless +for fifteen years, was triumphantly recorded by a San José paper as the +natural result of even a short residence on the Pacific Slope. Large +families and long life marked not only the Spaniards, but also the +Mexicans and Indians. Families of fifteen, twenty, and even twenty-five +children excited no surprise and procured no rewards of merit for the +parents. In 1849 there was a woman living at Monterey whose children, all +alive and in good health, numbered twenty-eight. + +We read of an Indian, blind but still active at the age of one hundred and +forty; and of a squaw "very active" at one hundred and twenty-six. Mr. +Charles Dudley Warner[39] a speaks of "Don Antonio Serrano, a tall, spare +man, who rides with grace and vigor at ninety-three," and of an Indian +servant "who was a grown man, breaking horses, when Don Antonio was an +infant. This man is still strong enough to mount his horse and canter +about the country. He is supposed to be about one hundred and eighteen." +This wonderful longevity was ascribed by Mr. Warner to the equable climate +and a simple diet. + +Ancient Mexicans and Indians figure occasionally in Bret Harte's stories. +There is, for example, Concepcion, "a wrinkled Indian woman, brown and +veined like a tobacco leaf," who acts as servant to the Convert of the +Mission; and, at the Mission of San Carmel, Sanchicha, in the form of a +bundle, is brought in and deposited in a corner of the room. "Father Pedro +bent over the heap, and distinguished in its midst the glowing black eyes +of Sanchicha, the Indian centenarian of the Mission. Only her eyes lived. +Helpless, boneless, and jelly-like, old age had overtaken her with a mild +form of deliquescence." + +But it was not length of days,--it was feverish energy that the climate +produced in the new race which had come under its influence. The amount of +labor performed by the Pioneers was prodigious. "There is as much +difference," wrote the Methodist preacher, Father Taylor, "between the +muscular action of the California miner and a man hired to work on a farm, +as between the aimless movements of a sloth and the pounce of the +panther." + +"We have," declared a San Francisco paper, "the most exhilarating +atmosphere in the world. In it a man can do more work than anywhere else, +and he feels under a constant pressure of excitement. With a sun like that +of Italy, a coast wind as cool as an Atlantic breeze in Spring, an air as +crisp and dry as that of the high Alps, people work on without let or +relaxation, until the vital cord suddenly snaps. Few Americans die +gradually here or of old age; they fall off without warning." + +So late as 1860 it was often said that there were busy men in San +Francisco who had never taken a day's vacation, or even left the city to +cross the Bay, from the hour of their arrival in 1849 until that moment. +Even this record has been eclipsed. A Pioneer of German birth, named Henry +Miller, who accumulated a fortune of six million dollars, is said to have +lived, or at least to have existed, in San Francisco for thirty-five years +without taking a single day's vacation. + +It was even asserted at first that the climate neutralized the effect of +intoxicating liquor, and that it was difficult, if not impossible, to get +really drunk in California. Possibly a somewhat lax definition of +drunkenness accounted in part for this theory. A witness once testified in +a San Francisco court that he did not consider a man to be drunk so long +as he could move. But the crowning excellence of the California climate +remains to be stated. It was observed by the Pioneers,--and they had ample +opportunity to make observations upon the subject,--that in that benign +atmosphere gunshot wounds healed rapidly. + +With a climate exhilarating and curative; with youth, health, courage, and +the prospect of almost immediate wealth; with new and exciting +surroundings, it is no wonder that the Pioneers enjoyed their hour. In San +Francisco, especially, a kind of pleasant madness seized upon every +newcomer. "As each man steps his foot on shore," writes one adventurer, +"he seems to have entered a magic circle in which he is under the +influence of new impulses." And another, in a letter to a friend says, "As +soon as you reach California you will think every one is crazy; and +without great caution, you will be crazy yourself." + +Still another Pioneer wrote home even more emphatically on this point: +"You can form no conception of the state of affairs here. I do believe, in +my soul, everybody has gone mad,--stark, staring mad."[40] + +To the same effect is the narrative of Stephen J. Field, afterward, and +for many years, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. +Field, who arrived in San Francisco as a very young man, thus describes +his first experience:-- + +"As I walked along the streets, I met a great many persons whom I had +known in New York, and they all seemed to be in the highest spirits. Every +one in greeting me said, 'It is a glorious country!' or 'Isn't it a +glorious country?' or 'Did you ever see a more glorious country?' In every +case the word 'glorious' was sure to come out.... I caught the infection, +and though I had but a single dollar in my pocket, no business whatever, +and did not know where I was to get my next meal, I found myself saying to +everybody I met, 'It is a glorious country!'"[41] + +"The exuberance of my spirits," Judge Field continues, "was marvellous"; +and the readers of his interesting reminiscences will not be inclined to +dispute the fact when they learn that four days after his arrival, having +made the sum of twenty dollars by selling a few New York newspapers, he +forthwith put down his name for sixty-five thousand dollars' worth of town +lots, and received the consideration due to a capitalist bent upon +developing the resources of a new country. + +The most extravagant acts appeared reasonable under the new dispensation. +Nobody was surprised when an enthusiastic miner offered to bet a friend +that the latter could not hit him with a shotgun at the distance of +seventy-eight yards. As a result the miner received five shots, causing +severe wounds, beside losing the bet, which amounted to four drinks. After +the first State election, a magistrate holding an important office +fulfilled a wager by carrying the winner a distance of three miles in a +wheelbarrow. + +A characteristic scene in a Chinese restaurant is described as follows in +the "Sacramento Transcript" of October 8, 1850:-- + +"One young man called for a plate of mutton chops, and the waiter, not +understanding, asked for a repetition of the order. + +"'Mutton chops, you chuckle head,' said the young gentleman. + +"'Mutton chops, you chuckle head,' shouted the Chinaman to the kitchen. + +"The joke took among the customers, and presently one of them called out, +'A glass of pigeon milk, you long-tailed Asiatic.' + +"'A glass of pigeon milk, you long-tailed satic,' echoed the waiter. + +"'A barrel of homoeopathic soup, old smooth head,' shouted another. + +"'Arrel homepatty soup, you old smooth head,' echoed the waiter. + +"'A hatful of bricks,' shouted a fourth. + +"'Hatter bricks,' repeated the waiter. + +"By this time the kitchen was in a perfect state of confusion, and the +proprietor in a stew of perplexity rushed into the dining-room. 'What you +mean by pigeon milk, homepatty soup, and de brick? How you cooking, +gentlemen?' + +"A roar burst from the tables, and the shrewd Asiatic saw in a moment that +they were hoaxing his subordinates. 'The gentlemen make you all dam +fools,' said he, rushing again into the smoky recess of the kitchen." + +At a dinner given in San Francisco a local orator thus discoursed upon the +glories of California: "Look at its forest trees, varying from three +hundred to one thousand feet in height, with their trunks so close +together [drawing his knife and pantomiming] that you can't stick this +bowie-knife between them; and the lordly elk, with antlers from seventeen +to twenty feet spread, with their heads and tails up, ambling through +these grand forests. It's a sight, gentlemen"-- + +"Stop," cried a newcomer who had not yet been inoculated with the +atmosphere. "My friend, if the trees are so close together, how does the +elk get through the woods with his wide-branching horns?" + +The Californian turned on the stranger with a look of thorough contempt +and replied, "That's the elk's business"; and continued his unvarnished +tale, no more embarrassed than the sun at noonday. + +"There was a spirit of off-hand, jolly fun in those days, a sort of +universal free and easy cheerfulness.... The California Pioneer that could +not give and take a joke was just no Californian at all. It was this +spirit that gives the memory of those days an indescribable fascination +and charm."[42] + +The very names first given to places and situations show the same +exuberant spirit; such, for example, as Murderer's Alley, Dead Man's Bar, +Mad Mule Cañon, Skunk Flat, Whiskey Gulch, Port Wine Diggins, Shirt-Tail +Hollow, Bloody Bend, Death Pass, Jackass Flat, and Hell's Half Acre. + +Even crime took on a bold and original form. A scapegrace in Sacramento +stole a horse while the owner still held the bridle. The owner had stepped +into a shop to ask a question, but kept the end of the reins in his hand, +when the thief gently slipped the bridle from the horse's head, hung it +on a post, and rode off with steed and saddle. + +Bizarre characters from all parts of the world, drawn as by a magnet, took +ship for California in '49 and '50 and became wealthy, or landed in the +Police Court, as fate would have it. The latter was the destination of one +Murphy, an Irishman presumably, and certainly a man of imagination, who +described himself as a teacher of mathematics, and acknowledged that he +had been drunk for the preceding six years. He added, for the benefit of +the Court, that he had been at the breaking of every pane of glass from +Vera Cruz to San Francisco, that he had smoked a dozen cigars in the halls +of the Montezumas, and that there were as many persons contending for his +name as there were cities for the birth of Homer. The Court gave him six +months. + +Two residents of San Francisco, one a Frenchman, the other a Dutchman, +were so enthusiastic over their new and republican surroundings that they +slept every night under the Liberty Pole on the Plaza; and seldom did they +fail to turn in patriotically drunk, shouting for freedom and equality. +Prize-fighters, as a matter of course, were attracted to a place where +sporting blood ran so high. In June, 1850, news came that Tom Hyer (of +whose celebrity the Reader is doubtless aware) was shortly expected with +"his lady" at Panama; and he must have arrived in due course, for in +August, Tom Hyer was tried in the Police Court of San Francisco for +entering several saloons on horseback, in one case performing the classic +feat of riding up a flight of steps. The defence set up that this was not +an uncommon method of entering saloons in San Francisco, and the Court +took "judicial notice" of the fact, his honor having witnessed the same +thing himself on more than one occasion. However, as Mr. Hyer was somewhat +intoxicated, and as the alleged offence was committed on a Sunday, the +Judge imposed a small fine. + +In the same year, Mr. T. Belcher Kay, another famous prize-fighter from +the East, narrowly escaped being murdered while returning from a ball +before daylight one Sunday morning; and subsequently Mr. Kay was tried, +but acquitted, on a charge of burglary. + +In that strange collection of human beings drawn from all parts of the +earth, for the most part unknown to one another, but almost all having +this fundamental trait in common, namely, that they were close to nature, +it was inevitable that incidents of pathos and tragedy, deeds of rascality +and cruelty, and still more deeds of unselfishness and heroism, should +continually occur. + +Some Pioneers met good fortune or disaster at the very threshold. One +young man, upon landing in San Francisco, borrowed ten dollars, went +immediately to a gambling saloon, won seven thousand dollars, and with +rare good sense took the next steamer for home. Another newcomer, who +brought a few hundred dollars with him, wandered into the gambling rooms +of the Parker House soon after his arrival, won twenty thousand dollars +there, and went home two days later. + +A Pioneer who had just crossed the Plains fell into a strange experience +upon his arrival at Placerville. He was a poor man, his only property +being a yoke of oxen which he sold almost immediately for one hundred +dollars in gold dust. Shortly before that a purse containing the same +quantity of gold had been stolen; and when, a few hours later, the +newly-arrived teamster took out his pocket-book to pay for a small +purchase, a man immediately stepped forward and accused him of the +robbery. He was, of course, arrested, and a jury to try him was impanelled +on the spot. The quality of the gold in his purse corresponded exactly +with the quality of the stolen gold. It was known that he had only just +arrived from the Plains and could not have obtained the gold dust by +mining. The man to whom he sold his cattle had gone, and he was unable to +prove how he had come by the treasure. Under these circumstances, the jury +found him guilty, and sentenced him to receive thirty lashes on the bare +back, which were thereupon administered, the unfortunate man all the time +protesting his innocence. + +After he was whipped, he procured a pistol, walked deliberately up to the +person who first accused him, placed the pistol at his head, and declared +that he believed him to be the guilty man, and that if he did not then and +there confess that he had stolen the money he would blow his brains out. +The fellow could not stand the power of injured innocence. He became +frightened, acknowledged that he was the thief, and drew the identical +stolen money out of his pocket. The enraged crowd instantly set upon him, +bore him to the nearest tree, and hung him. A subscription was then +started, and about eighteen hundred dollars were raised in a few minutes +for the sagacious teamster, who departed forthwith for his home in the +East.[43] + +Of the many thousand Pioneers at work in the mines very few reaped a +reward at all commensurate with their toils, privations and +sufferings,--much less with their expectations. The wild ideas which +prevailed in some quarters as to the abundance of the gold may be gathered +from the advice given to one young Argonaut by his father, on the eve of +his departure from Illinois. The venerable man urged his son not to work +too hard, but to buy a low chair and a small iron rake, and, taking his +seat comfortably, to rake over the sand, pick up the nuggets as they came +to view, and place them in a convenient box. + +In reality, the miners' earnings, after deducting necessary living +expenses, are computed to have averaged only about three times the wages +of an unskilled day-laborer in the East. Few of them saved anything, for +there was every temptation to squander their gains in dissipation; and men +whose income is subject to wide fluctuations are notoriously unthrifty. +The following is a typical experience: "Our diet consists of hard bread, +flour which we eat half-cooked, and salt pork, with occasionally a salmon +which we purchase of the Indians. Vegetables are not to be procured. Our +feet are wet all day, while a hot sun shines down upon our heads, and the +very air parches the skin like the hot air of an oven. Our drinking water +comes down to us thoroughly impregnated with the mineral substances washed +through the thousand cradles above us. The hands and feet of the novice +become painfully blistered and the limbs are stiff. Besides all these +causes of sickness, many men who have left their wives and children in +far-distant States are homesick, anxious and despondent."[44] + +Many a family in the East was desolated and reduced to poverty by the +untimely death of a husband and father; and in other cases long absence +was as effectual in this respect as death itself. The once-common +expression "California widow" is significant. Some Eastern men took +informal wives on the Pacific Slope; others, who had succeeded, put off +their home-coming from month to month, and even from year to year, hoping +for still greater success; others yet, who had failed, were ashamed to go +home in poverty, and lingered in California until death overtook them. +This phase of Pioneer life is treated by Bret Harte in the stories _How +Old Man Plunkett went Home_, and _Jimmy's Big Brother from California_. Of +those who were lucky enough to find gold in large quantities, many were +robbed, and some of these unfortunates went home, or died, broken-hearted. + +But as a rule, the Pioneers rose superior to every blow that fate could +deal them. Men met misfortune, danger, even death with composure, and yet +without bravado. A traveller being told that a man was about to be +lynched, proceeded to the spot and found a large gathering of miners +standing around in groups under the trees, and quietly talking. Seeing no +apparent criminal there, he stepped up to one person who stood a little +apart from the others, and asked him which was the man about to be hung. +The person addressed replied, without the slightest change of countenance, +"I believe, Sir, it's me." Half an hour later he was dead. + +There was a battle at Sacramento in 1850 between a party of "Squatters" on +one side, and city officials and citizens on the other. Among the latter +was one J. F. Hooper from Independence in Missouri. Hooper, armed only +with a pistol, discharged all his cartridges, then threw the weapon at his +advancing opponents, and calmly faced them, crossing his hands over his +breast as a protection. They fired at him, notwithstanding his defenceless +situation, and one ball piercing his right hand inflicted a wound, but not +a mortal one, in his side. Four men were killed and several others badly +wounded in this fight. + +When a father and son were arrested by a vigilance committee at Santa +Clara for horse-stealing, and were sentenced to receive thirty-six lashes +apiece, the son begged that he might take his father's share as well as +his own. + +Men died well in California. In November, 1851, two horse-thieves were +hung by a vigilance committee at Stockton. One of them, who was very +young, smoked a cigar up to the last moment, and made a little speech in +which he explained that the act was not dictated by irreverence, but that +he desired to die like a man. When Stuart, a noted robber and horse-thief +was being tried for his life by the Vigilance Committee in San +Francisco, he complained that the proceedings were "tiresome," and asked +for a chew of tobacco. + + +[Illustration: THE TWO OPPONENTS CAME NEARER + +From "The Iliad of Sandy Bar" + +Frederic Remington, del.] + + +The death of this man was one of the most impressive scenes ever witnessed +upon this blood-stained earth. Sentence having been passed upon the +prisoner the Committee, numbering one thousand men, came down from the +hall where they met and formed in the street, three abreast. They +comprised, with some exceptions, the best, the most substantial, the most +public-spirited citizens of San Francisco. In the centre was Stuart, +handcuffed and pinioned, but perfectly self-possessed and cool. A gallows +had been erected some distance off, and the procession moved up Battery +Street, followed by a great throng of men. There was no confusion, no +outcry, no apparent excitement,--not a sound, indeed, except the tread of +many feet upon the planked streets, every footfall sounding the prisoner's +knell. + +It was of this event that Bret Harte wrote in his _Bohemian Days in San +Francisco_: "Under the reign of the Committee the lawless and vicious +class were more appalled by the moral spectacle of several thousand +black-coated, serious-minded business men in embattled procession than by +mere force of arms." + +When they reached the gallows, a rope was placed around the prisoner's +neck, and even then, except for a slight paleness, there was no change in +his appearance. Amid the breathless silence of the whole assemblage +Stuart, standing under the gallows, said, "I die reconciled. My sentence +is just." His crimes had been many, and he seemed to accept his death as +the proper and almost welcome result of his deeds. He was a man of +intellect, and, hardened criminal though he was, the instinct of expiation +asserted itself in his breast. + +In July, 1851, a Spanish woman was tried and condemned by an impromptu +vigilance committee for killing an American who, she declared, had +insulted her. Being sentenced to be hanged forthwith, she carefully +arranged her dress, neatly coiled her hair, and walked quietly and firmly +to the gallows. There she made a short speech, saying that she would do +the same thing again if she were permitted to live, and were insulted in +the same way. Then she bade the crowd farewell, adjusted the noose with +her own hands, and so passed bravely away. + +A few years later at Moquelumne Hill, a young Welshman, scarcely more than +a boy, met death in a very similar manner, and for a similar offence. On +the scaffold he turned to one of the by-standers, and said, "Did you ever +know anything bad of me before this affair occurred?" The answer was, "No, +Jack." "Well," said the youth, "tell those Camp Saco fellows that I would +do the same thing again and be hung rather than put up with an insult." +Men like these died for a point of honor, as much as did Alexander +Hamilton. + +But far higher was the heroism of those who suffered or died for others, +and not for themselves. No event, not even the discovery of gold, stirred +California more profoundly than did the death of James King. In 1856, +King, the editor of the "Bulletin," was waging single-handed a vigorous +warfare against the political corruption then rife in California, and +especially against the supineness of the city officials in respect to +gambling and prostitution. He had given out that he would not accept a +challenge to a duel, but he was well aware of the risk that he ran. San +Francisco, even at that time, indulged in an easy toleration of vice, and +only some striking, some terrible event could have aroused the conscience +of the public. + +Among the city officials whose hatred Mr. King had incurred was James +Casey, a typical New York politician, and a former convict, yet not wholly +a bad man. The two men, King and Casey, really represented two stages of +morality, two kinds of government. Their personal conflict was in a +condensed form the clashing of the higher and the lower ideals. Casey, +meeting King on the street, called upon him to "draw and defend himself"; +but King, being without a weapon, calmly folded his arms and faced his +enemy. Casey fired, and King fell to the ground, mortally wounded. + +"It was expedient that one man should die for the people"; and the death +of King did far more than his life could have done to purify the political +and social atmosphere of California. On the day following the murder, a +Vigilance Committee was organized, and an Executive Committee, consisting +chiefly of those who had managed the first Vigilance Committee in 1851, +was chosen as the practical ruler of the city. It was supported by a band +of three thousand men, distributed in companies, armed, officered and well +drilled. For two months and a half the Executive Committee remained in +office, exercising its power with marked judgment and moderation. Four men +were hung, many more were banished, and the city was purged. Having +accomplished its work the Committee disbanded, but its members and +sympathizers secured control of the municipal government through the +ordinary legal channels, and for twenty years administered the affairs of +the city with honesty and economy. + +The task in 1851 had been mainly to rid the city of Australian convicts; +in 1856 it was to correct the political abuses introduced by professional +politicians from the East, especially from New York; and in each case the +task was successfully accomplished, without unnecessary bloodshed, and +even with mercy. + +Nor was Casey's end without pathos, and even dignity. On the scaffold he +was thinking not of himself, but of the old mother whom he had left in New +York. "Gentlemen," he said, "I stand before you as a man about to come +into the presence of God, and I declare before Him that I am no murderer! +I have an aged mother whom I wish not to hear that I am guilty of murder. +I am not. My early education taught me to repay an injury, and I have done +nothing more. The 'Alta California,' 'Chronicle,' 'Globe,' and other +papers in the city connect my name with murder and assassination. I am no +murderer. Let no newspaper in its weekly or monthly editions dare publish +to the world that I am one. Let it not get to the ears of my mother that I +am. O God, I appeal for mercy for my past sins, which are many. O Lord +Jesus, unto thee I resign my spirit. O mother, mother, mother!" + +The sinking of the steamer, "Central America," off the coast of Georgia, +in 1857, is an event now almost forgotten, and yet it deserves to be +remembered forever. The steamer was on her way from Aspinwall to New York, +with passengers and gold from San Francisco, when she sprang a leak and +began to sink. The women and children, fifty-three in all, were taken off +to a small brig which happened to come in sight, leaving on board, without +boats or rafts, five hundred men, all of whom went down, and of whom all +but eighty were drowned. Though many were armed, and nearly all were rough +in appearance, they were content that the women and children should be +saved first; and if here and there a grumble was heard, it received little +encouragement. Never did so many men face death near at hand more quietly +or decorously.[45] + +And yet the critic tells us about the "perverse romanticism" of Mr. Bret +Harte's California tales! + +One incident more, and this brief record of California heroism, which +might be extended indefinitely, shall close. Charles Fairfax, the tenth +Baron of that name,[46] whose family have lived for many years in +Virginia, was attacked without warning by a cowardly assassin, named Lee. +This man stabbed Fairfax twice, and he was raising his arm for a third +thrust when his victim covered him with a pistol. Lee, seeing the pistol, +dropped his knife, stepped back, and threw up his hands, exclaiming, "I am +unarmed!" + +"Shoot the damned scoundrel!" cried a friend of Fairfax who stood by. + +Fairfax, holding the pistol, with the blood streaming from his wounds, +said: "You are an assassin! You have murdered me! Your life is in my +hands!" And then, after a moment, gazing on him, he added, "But for the +sake of your poor sick wife and of your children, I will spare you." He +then uncocked the pistol, and fell fainting in the arms of his friend. + +All California rang with the nobility of the deed. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PIONEER LAW AND LAWLESSNESS + + +California certainly contained what Borthwick describes as "the élite of +the most desperate and consummate scoundrels from every part of the +world"; but they were in a very small minority, and the rather common idea +that the miners were a mass of brutal and ignorant men is a wild +misconception. An English writer once remarked, somewhat hysterically, +"Bret Harte had to deal with countries and communities of an almost +unexampled laxity, a laxity passing the laxity of savages, the laxity of +civilized men grown savage." + +Far more accurate is the observation of that eminent critic, Mr. +Watts-Dunton: "Bret Harte's characters are amenable to no laws except the +improvised laws of the camp, and the final arbiter is either the +six-shooter or the rope of Judge Lynch. And yet underlying this apparent +lawlessness there is that deep law-abiding-ness which the late Grant Allen +despised as being the Anglo-Saxon characteristic." + +The almost spontaneous manner in which mining laws came into existence, +and the ready obedience which the miners yielded to them, show how correct +is the view taken by Mr. Watts-Dunton. What constituted ownership of a +claim; how it must be proved; how many square feet a claim might include; +how long and by what means title to a claim could be preserved without +working it; when a "find" should become the property of the individual +discoverer, and when it should accrue to the partnership of which he was a +member,--all these matters and many more were regulated by a code quickly +formed, and universally respected. Thus a lump of gold weighing half an +ounce or more, if observed before it was thrown into the cradle, belonged +to the finder, and not to the partnership. + + +[Illustration: SACRAMENTO CITY IN 1852] + + +In the main, mining rules were the same throughout the State, but they +varied somewhat according to the peculiar circumstances of each +"diggings"; and the custom was for the miners to hold a meeting, when they +became sufficiently numerous at any point, and make such laws as they +deemed expedient. If any controversy arose under them it was settled by +the Alcalde. + +In respect to this office, again, the miners showed the same instinct for +law and order, and the same practical readiness to make use of such means +as were at hand.[47] The Alcalde (Al Cadi) was originally a Spanish +official, corresponding in many respects with our Justice of the Peace. +But in the mining camps, the Alcalde, usually an American, was often +given, by a kind of tacit agreement, very full, almost despotic powers, +combining the authority of a Magistrate with that of a Selectman and Chief +of Police. + +The first Alcalde of Marysville was the young lawyer already mentioned, +Stephen J. Field, and he administered affairs with such firmness that the +town, although harboring many desperate persons,--this was in +1850,--gamblers, thieves and cut-throats, was as orderly as a New England +village. He caused the streets and sidewalks to be kept clean and in +repair; he employed men to grade the banks of the river so as to +facilitate landing, and he did many other things for the good of the +community, but really with no authority except that of common consent. +Sitting as a judge, he did not hesitate to sentence some criminals to be +flogged. There was no law for it; but it was the only punishment that was +both adequate and practicable, for the town contained no prison or +"lock-up." + +And yet, so far as was possible, Alcalde Field observed the ancient forms +with true Anglo-Saxon scrupulosity. "In civil cases," he relates, "I +always called a jury if the parties desired one; and in criminal cases +when the offence was of a high grade I went through the form of calling a +grand jury, and having an indictment found; and in all cases I appointed +an attorney to represent the people, and also one to represent the +accused, when that was necessary." + +Spanish and Mexicans, as well as Americans, reaped the benefit of the +change in government. Property, real estate especially, rose in value at +once, and justice was administered as it never had been administered +before. An entry in the diary of the Reverend Walter Colton, Chaplain in +the United States Navy, and Alcalde of Monterey, whose book has already +been cited, runs as follows:-- + +"_September 4, 1849._ I empanelled to-day the first jury ever summoned in +California. One third were Californians, one third Mexicans, one third +Americans. The trial was conducted in three languages and lasted six +hours. The result was very satisfactory. The inhabitants who witnessed the +trial said it was what they liked,--that there could be no bribery in +it,--that the opinion of twelve honest men should set the case forever at +rest. And so it did.... If there is anything on earth for which I would +die, beside religion, it is the right of trial by jury." + +At first no one quite knew what laws were in force in California. The +territory became a part of the United States by means of the treaty with +Mexico which was proclaimed on July 4, 1848, but California was not +admitted as a State until 1850, and in the mean time it was a question +whether the laws of Mexico still prevailed, or the common law, or what. In +this situation the Alcaldes usually fell back upon common sense and the +laws of the State from which they happened to come. + +Others had recourse to an older dispensation. Thus, on one occasion the +Alcalde of Santa Cruz had before him a man who was found guilty of shaving +the hair from the tail of a fine American horse, and the sentence of the +court was that the criminal should have his own head shaved. The young +attorney who represented the defendant thereupon sprang to his feet, and, +with great indignation, demanded to be told what law or authority there +was for so unusual a punishment. "I base that judgment," said the Alcalde +with solemnity, "on the oldest law in the world, on the law of Moses. Go +home, young man, and read your Bible." + +In another case a Spaniard was suing for a divorce from his wife on the +ground of infidelity; but the Alcalde, an American, refused it, inasmuch +as the man was unable to swear that he had been faithful himself. "Is that +United States law?" asked the suitor in naïve amazement. "I don't know +about that," replied the Alcalde; "but it is the law by which I am +governed,--the law of the Bible, and a good law too." + +The Alcalde of Placerville very properly refused to marry a certain man +and woman, because the woman was already married to a man who had been +absent for three months. But another Alcalde who happened to be present +intervened. "Any man in California," he declared, "who has a wife, and so +fine looking a wife as I see here before me, and who remains absent from +her for three months, must be insane, Mr. Alcalde, or dead; and in either +case the lady is free to marry again. I am Alcalde of Santa Cruz, and will +with great pleasure make you man and wife. Step forward, madam, step +forward; I feel sure you will get through this trying occasion without +fainting, if you make the effort, and do not give way to your natural +shyness. Step forward, my dear sir, by the side of your blushing bride, +and I will make you a happy man." + +One other case that was tried in an Alcalde's court is so illustrative of +California life that the Reader will perhaps pardon its insertion at +length. + +"Bill Liddle, conductor of a mule train of eight large American mules, had +just started from Sacramento for a mining camp far in the interior. He was +obliged to pass a dangerous trail about two miles long, cut in the side of +a steep cliff overhanging the river. The trail was only wide enough for a +loaded mule to walk on. In the lead was 'Old Kate,' a heavy, square-built, +bay mule. Bill always said that she understood English, and he always +spoke to her as if that were the fact, and we were often forced to laugh +at the wonderful intelligence she showed in understanding and obeying him. +Sometimes she broke into the stable, unlatching the door, went to the bin +where the barley was kept in sacks, raised the cover, took out a sack, set +it up on one end, ripped the sewing as neatly as Bill could, and then +helped herself to the contents. On such occasions Bill would shake his +head, and exclaim, 'I wonder who Kate is! Oh, I wish I knew, for of course +she is some famous woman condemned to live on earth as a mule!' + +"The train had advanced about a quarter of a mile on the trail just +described, Bill riding behind, when he was startled by hearing a loud bray +from Kate, and all the mules stopped. Ahead was a return train of fifteen +Californian mules, approaching on a jog trot. The two trains could not +pass, and there was not space for Bill's large and loaded mules to turn +around. Bill raised himself in his saddle and furiously called on the +other conductor to stop. He did so, but refused to turn his mules around, +although Bill explained to him the necessity. At last, after much talk, +the other conductor started up his mules, shouting and cracking his whip +and urging them on. Meanwhile Old Kate stood in the centre of the trail, +her fore-legs well apart, her nose dropped lower than usual, and her long, +heavy ears thrown forward as if aimed at the head mule of the other train, +while her large bright eyes were fixed on his motions. Seeing the danger, +Bill called out, 'Kate, old girl, go for them; pitch them all, and the +driver with them, to hell!' Thereupon Kate gave an unearthly bray, dropped +on her knees with her head stretched out close along the rocks, her neck +and lower jaw rubbing the trail, and received the leading mule across her +neck. In a second more that mule was thrown into the air, and fell into +the river far below. + +"Two or three times the conductor of the other train made a similar +attempt, urging his mules forward, and did not stop until five of his +mules had gone into the river. Then he said, 'Well, I will go back, but +when we get out of this trail you and I will settle accounts.' Bill drew +his revolver and his knife, made sure that they were all right, and as +soon as they emerged from the cliff rode up to the other conductor with +his revolver in his hand, and said, 'Shall we settle this business here, +or shall we go before the Alcalde of the next diggings?' The man looked at +him for a moment in silence, and then said, 'Damn me if you don't look +like that she-devil of a mule of yours that threw my mules down the cliff. +Are you and she any blood relation that you know of?' Not at all offended, +Bill answered, 'I can't say positively that we are, but one thing I can +say: I would rather be full brother to a mule that would act as Kate did +to-day, than a forty-second cousin to a man that would act as you did.' +'Well,' said the other, 'put up your revolver, and let us settle matters +before the Alcalde.' + +"The mule-drivers found the Alcalde working in the bottom of a shaft which +he was sinking. They asked him to come up, but he said that was +unnecessary, as he could hear and settle the case where he was. +Accordingly, he turned a bucket upside down, sat down on it, and lit a +cigar, leaning his back against the wall of the shaft. The two conductors +then kissed a Bible which the Alcalde had sent for, and swore to tell the +truth; and they gave their testimony from the top of the shaft, the driver +of the unloaded mules asking for six hundred dollars damages, five hundred +dollars for his mules and one hundred dollars for the pack saddles lost +with them. When they had finished, the Alcalde said, 'I know the trail +well, and I find for the defendant, and order the plaintiff to pay the +costs of court, which are only one ounce.' Thereupon the Alcalde arose, +turned up his bucket and began to shovel the earth into it. As he worked +on, he told the plaintiff to go to the store kept by one Meyer not far +off, and weigh out the ounce of dust and leave it there for him. This was +done without hesitation. Bill went along, treated the plaintiff to a +drink, and paid for a bottle of the best brandy that Meyer had, to be +given in the evening to the Alcalde and his partner as they returned from +work."[48] + +California magistrates were somewhat informal for several years. On one +occasion, during a long argument by counsel, the Alcalde interrupted with +the remark that the point in question was a difficult one, and he would +like to consult an authority; whereupon, the clerk, understanding what was +meant, produced a demijohn and glasses from a receptacle beneath the +bench, and judge and counsel refreshed themselves. A characteristic story +is told of Judge Searls, a San Francisco magistrate who had several times +fined for contempt of court a lawyer named Francis J. Dunn. Dunn was a +very able but dissipated and eccentric man, and apt to be late, and on one +such occasion the judge fined him fifty dollars. "I did not know that I +was late, your Honor," said Mr. Dunn, with mock contrition; "I have no +watch, and I shall never be able to get one if I have to pay the fines +which your Honor imposes upon me." Then, after a pause of reflection, he +looked up and said: "Will your Honor _lend_ me fifty dollars so that I can +pay this last fine?" "Mr. Clerk," said the judge, leaning over the bench, +"remit that fine: the State can afford to lose the money better than I +can." + +But informality is not inconsistent with justice. The Pioneers did not +like to have men, though they were judges, take themselves too seriously; +but the great majority of them were law-abiding, intelligent, industrious +and kind-hearted. It was, as has been said already, a picked and sifted +population. The number of professional men and of well-educated men was +extraordinary. They were a magnanimous people. As the Reverend Dr. +Bushnell remarked, "With all the violence and savage wrongs and dark vices +that have heretofore abounded among the Pioneers, they seldom do a mean +thing." + +An example of this magnanimity was the action of California in regard to +the State debt amounting to five million dollars. It was illegal, having +been contracted in violation of the State Constitution, and the money had +been spent chiefly in enriching those corrupt politicians and their +friends who obtained possession of the California government in the first +years. But the Pioneers were too generous and too proud of the good name +of their State to stand upon their legal rights. They were as anxious to +pay this unjust debt as Pennsylvania and Mississippi had been in former +years to repudiate their just debts. The matter was put to popular vote, +and the bonds were paid. + +Stephen J. Field remarked in his old age, "I shall never forget the noble +and generous people that I found in California, in all ranks of life." +Another Pioneer, Dr. J. D. B. Stillman, wrote, "There are more +intelligence and generous good feeling here than in any other country that +I have ever seen."[49] "The finest body of men ever gathered together in +the world's history," is the declaration of another Pioneer,[50] and even +this extreme statement is borne out by the contemporary records. + +That there was a minority equally remarkable for its bad qualities, is +also unquestionable. Moreover, many men who at home would have been +classed as good citizens gave way in California to their avarice or other +bad passions. Whatever depravity there was in a man's heart showed itself +without fear and without restraint. The very Pioneer, Dr. Stillman, who +has just been quoted to the effect that California had, on the whole, the +best population in the world, gives us also the other side of the picture: +"Last night I saw a man lying on the wet ground, unknown, unconscious, +uncared for, and dying. Money is the all-absorbing object. There are men +who would hang their heads at home at the mention of their heartless +avarice. What can be expected from strangers when a man's own friends +abandon him because he sickens and becomes an encumbrance!" + +Mrs. Bates, whose account of California is never exaggerated, tells us of +a miner who, night after night, deserted his dying brother for a gambling +house, leaving him unattended and piteously crying for water until, at +last, he expired alone. + +It must be remembered, also, that the moral complexion of California +changed greatly from year to year. The first condition was almost an +idyllic one. It was a period of honesty and good-will such as never +existed before, except in the imagination of Rousseau. There were few +doors, and no locks. Gold was left for days at a time unguarded and +untouched. "A year ago," said the "Sacramento Transcript," in October, +1850, "a miner could have left his bag of dust exhibited to full view, and +absent himself a week. His tools might have remained unmolested in any +ravine for months, and his goods and chattels, bed and bedding might have +remained along the highway for an indefinite period without being stolen." + +There was much drinking, much gambling, and some murders were committed in +the heat of passion; but nowhere else in the world, except perhaps in the +smaller villages of the United States, was property so safe as it was in +California. + +"I have not heard," wrote Dr. Stillman in 1849, "of a theft or crime of +any sort. Firearms are thrown aside as useless, and are given away on the +road." Grave disputes involving the title to vast wealth were settled by +arbitration without the raising of a voice in anger or controversy. Even +in Sacramento and San Francisco, merchants left their goods in their +canvas houses and tents, open to any who might choose to enter, while they +went to church or walked over the hills on Sundays. Their gold was equally +unguarded, and equally safe. + +"It was wonderful," said a Pioneer early in the Fifties, "how well we got +on in '49 without any sort of government beyond the universally sanctioned +action of the people, and I have often since questioned in my own mind if +we might not have got on just the same ever since, and saved all the money +we have paid out for thieving legislation and selfish office-holders."[51] + +The change came in the late Summer and early Autumn of 1850, and was +chiefly owing to the influx of convicts from Australia and +elsewhere,--"low-browed, heavy-featured men, with cold, steel-gray eyes." +In a less degree the change was also due to the deterioration of a small +minority of Americans and Europeans, whose moral stamina was not equal to +life in a lawless community, although at first that community was lawless +only in the strict sense of the word;--it had no laws and needed none. As +one Pioneer wrote, "There is no law regarded here but the natural law of +justice." + +Beginning with the Autumn of 1850, things went from bad to worse until +February, 1851, when robbery and murder in San Francisco were stopped by +the first Vigilance Committee; and in the mines the same drastic remedy +was applied, but not always with the same moderation. A Sacramento paper +said in December, 1850: "It is an undeniable fact that crime of almost +every description is on the increase in California, especially +horse-stealing, robbery, arson and murder. In the city of Sacramento +alone, since last April, we should judge there have been at least twenty +murders committed, and we are not aware that any murderer has suffered +capital punishment, or any other kind of punishment. We have got used to +these things, and look upon it as a matter of course that somebody will be +killed and robbed as often as once a week at least; and yet +notwithstanding all this our people generally are composed of the most +orderly, respectable citizens of the United States. The laws furnish us no +protection because they are not enforced." + +But the Reader may ask, why were the laws not enforced? The answer is that +the Pioneers were too busy to concern themselves with their political +duties or to provide the necessary machinery for the enforcement of the +laws. State officers, municipal officers, sheriffs, constables and even +judges were chosen, not because they were fit men, but because they wanted +the job, and no better candidates offered themselves. Moreover, the +Pioneers did not expect to become permanent residents of California; they +expected to get rich, off-hand, and then to go home, and why should they +bother themselves about elections or laws? In short, an attempt was made +to do without law, and, as we have seen, it succeeded for a year or so, +but broke down when criminals became numerous. + +A letter from the town of Sonora, written in July, 1850, said: "The people +are leaving here fast. This place is much deeper in guilt than Sodom or +Gomorrah. We have no society, no harmony. Gambling and drunkenness are the +order of the day." + +In four years there were one thousand two hundred homicides in California. +Almost every mile of the travelled road from Monterey, in the southern +part of the State, to San Francisco, was the scene of some foul murder in +those eventful years. There was more crime in the southern mines than in +the northern, because the Mexicans were more numerous there. + +In Sonora County, in 1850, there were twenty-five murders in a single +month, committed mainly by Mexicans, Chilians, and British convicts from +the penal colonies. A night patrol was organized. Every American tent had +a guard around it, and mining almost ceased. Murder and robbery had +reached the stage at which they seriously interfered with business. This +was not to be endured; and at a mass meeting held at Sonora on August 3, +the following resolution was passed: "Resolved: That for the safety of the +lives and property of the citizens of this portion of the country, notice +shall be given immediately ordering all Mexicans and South Americans to +remove from township No. 2 in one week from this date." + +The consequence was a melancholy exodus of men, women and children, which +included the just and the unjust. Many of them were destitute, and, as +respects the Mexicans, many were being banished from the place of their +birth. "We fear," remarked a contemporary citizen, "that the money-making, +merry old times in Sonora are gone forever." + +This was a characteristic Pioneer remark. The "old times" meant were +somewhat less than a year back; and their "merry" quality was, as we have +seen, considerably modified by robbery and murder. The point of view is +much like that of the landlord of a hotel in Virginia City, where Bret +Harte was once a guest. After a night disturbed by sounds of shouting, +scuffling and pistol shots, Mr. Harte found his host behind the counter in +the bar-room "with a bruised eye, a piece of court-plaster extending from +his cheek to his forehead, yet withal a pleasant smile upon his face. +Taking my cue from this, I said to him, 'Well, landlord, you had rather a +lively time here last night.' 'Yes,' he replied, pleasantly, 'it _was_ +rather a lively time.' 'Do you often have such lively times in Virginia +City?' I added, emboldened by his cheerfulness. 'Well, no,' he said +reflectively; 'the fact is we've only just opened yer, and last night was +about the first time that the boys seemed to be gettin' really +_acquainted_!'" + +The absence of police, and, to a great extent, of law, led to deeds of +violence, and to duelling; but it also tended to make men polite. The +civility with which cases were conducted in court, and the restraint shown +by lawyers in their comments upon one another and upon the witnesses were +often spoken of in California. The experience of Alcalde Field in this +regard is interesting:--"I came to California with all those notions in +respect to acts of violence which are instilled into New England youth; if +a man were rude, I would turn away from him. But I soon found that men in +California were likely to take very great liberties with a person who +acted in such a manner, and that the only way to get along was to hold +every man responsible, and resent every trespass upon one's rights."[52] + +Accordingly, young Field bought a brace of pistols, had a sack-coat made +with pockets appropriate to contain them, and practised the useful art of +firing the pistols with his hands in his pockets. Subsequently he added a +bowie-knife to his private arsenal, and he carried these weapons until the +Summer of 1854. "I found," he says, "that the knowledge that pistols were +generally worn created a wholesome courtesy of manner and language." + +Even the members of the State Legislature were armed. It was a thing of +every-day occurrence for a member, when he entered the House, to take off +his pistols and lay them in the drawer of his desk. Such an act excited +neither surprise nor comment. + +At one time Mr. Field sent a challenge to a certain Judge Barbour who had +grossly insulted him. Barbour accepted the challenge, but demanded that +the duel should be fought with Colt's revolvers and bowie-knives, that it +should take place in a room only twenty feet square, and that the fight +should continue until at least one of the principals was dead. Mr. Field's +second, horrified by these savage proposals, was for rejecting them; but +Field himself insisted that they should be accepted, and the result was +what he had anticipated. Judge Barbour, of his own motion, waived, first +the knives, then the small room, and finally declined the meeting +altogether. But the very next day, when Field had stepped out of his +office, and was picking up an armful of wood for his stove, Barbour crept +up behind him, and putting a pistol to his head, called upon Field to draw +and defend himself. Field did not turn or move, but spoke somewhat as +follows: "You infernal scoundrel, you cowardly assassin,--you come behind +my back, and put your revolver to my head, and tell me to draw! You +haven't the courage to shoot,--shoot and be damned!" And Barbour slunk +away. + +Shooting at sight, especially in San Francisco and the larger towns, was +as common as it is represented by Bret Harte. For the few years, +beginning with and succeeding 1850, the newspapers were full of such +events. On November 25, 1851, the "Alta California" said: "Another case of +the influenza now in fashion occurred yesterday. We allude to a mere +shooting-match in which only one of the near by-standers was shot down in +his tracks." + +Even so late as August, 1855, the "San Francisco Call" was able to refer +in a modest way to the "two or three shooting encounters per week" which +enlivened its columns.[53] + +Duels were common, and in most cases very serious affairs, the battle +being waged with destructive weapons and at close range. As a rule, they +took place in public. Thus, at a meeting between D. C. Broderick, leader +of the Democratic Party in the State, and one J. Cabot Smith, seventy or +eighty persons were present. Broderick was wounded, and would have been +killed had not the bullet first struck and shattered his watch. + +These California duels must be ascribed mainly to the Southern element, +which was strong numerically, and which, moreover, exerted an influence +greater than its numbers warranted. One reason, perhaps the main reason, +for this predominance of the Southerners was that the aristocratic, +semi-feudal system which they represented had a more dignified, more +dashing aspect than the plain democratic views in which the Northern and +Western men had been educated. It made the individual of more importance. +Upon this point Professor Royce makes an acute remark: "The type of the +Northern man who has assumed Southern fashions, and not always the best +Southern fashions, has often been observed in California life. The +Northern man frequently felt commonplace, simple-minded, undignified, +beside his brother from the border or the plantation.... The Northern man +admired his fluency, his vigor, his invective, his ostentatious courage, +his absolute confidence about all matters of morals, of politics, of +propriety, and the inscrutable union in his public discourse of sweet +reasonableness with ferocious intolerance." + +The extreme type of Southerner, as he appeared in California, is +immortalized in Colonel Starbottle. The moment when this strange planet +first swam into Bret Harte's ken seems to have been seized and recorded +with accuracy by his friend, Mr. Noah Brooks. "In Sacramento he and I met +Colonel Starbottle, who had, of course, another name. He wore a tall silk +hat and loosely-fitting clothes, and he carried on his left arm by its +crooked handle a stout walking-stick. The Colonel was a dignified and +benignant figure; in politics he was everybody's friend. A gubernatorial +election was pending, and with the friends of Haight he stood at the hotel +bar, and as they raised their glasses to their lips he said, 'Here's to +the Coming Event!' Nobody asked at that stage of the canvass what the +coming event would be, and when the good Colonel stood in the same place +with the friends of Gorham, he gave the same toast, 'The Coming Event!'" + +This may have been a certain Dr. Ruskin, a Southern politician, who is +described by a Pioneer as wearing "a white fur plug hat, a blue coat with +brass buttons, a buff-colored vest, white trousers, varnished boots, a +black satin stock, and, on state occasions, a frilled shirt front. He +always carried a cane with a curved handle."[54] This, the Reader need not +be reminded, is the exact costume of Colonel Starbottle,--the "low Byronic +collar," which Bret Harte mentions, being the only item omitted. + +From this person Bret Harte undoubtedly derived an idea as to the +appearance and carriage of Colonel Starbottle, and it is not unlikely that +in drawing the character he had also in mind the notorious Judge David S. +Terry. Terry, a native of Texas, was a fierce, fighting Southerner, a +brave and honest man, but narrow, prejudiced, abusive, and ferocious. He +was a leading Democrat, a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and a +bitter opponent of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee. He nearly killed +an agent of the Committee who attempted to arrest one of his companions, +and was himself in some danger of being hung by the Committee on that +account. Later, Terry killed Senator Broderick, of whom mention has just +been made, in a duel which seems to have had the essential qualities of a +murder, and which was forced upon Broderick in much the same way that the +fatal duel was forced upon Alexander Hamilton. + +Later still, Terry became involved in the affairs of one of his clients, a +somewhat notorious woman, whom he married,--clearly showing that mixture +of chivalrous respect for women, combined with a capacity for +misunderstanding them, and of being deluded by them, which was so +remarkable in Colonel Starbottle. In the course of litigation on behalf of +his wife, Terry bitterly resented certain action taken by Mr. Justice +Field of the Supreme Court of the United States,--the same Field who began +his judicial career as Alcalde of Marysville. Terry's threats against the +Justice, then an old man, were so open and violent, and his character was +so well known, that, at the request of the court officials in San +Francisco, a deputy marshal was assigned as a guard to the Justice while +he should be hearing cases on the California circuit. At a railroad +station, one day, Terry and the Justice met; and as Terry was, apparently, +in the act of drawing a weapon, the deputy marshal shot and killed him. + +It was Judge Terry who remarked of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee, +which was mainly composed of business men,--the lawyers holding +aloof,--that they were "a set of damned pork-merchants,"--a remark so +characteristic of Colonel Starbottle that it is difficult to attribute it +to anybody else. + +Colonel Starbottle was as much the product of slavery as Uncle Tom +himself, and he exemplified both its good and its bad effects. His fat +white hand and pudgy fingers indicated the man who despised manual labor +and those who performed it. His short, stubby feet, and tight-fitting, +high-heeled boots conveyed him sufficiently well from office to bar-room, +but were never intended for anything in the nature of a "constitutional." +His own immorality did not prevent him from cherishing a high ideal of +feminine purity; but his conversation was gross. He was a purveyor, Bret +Harte relates, "of sprightly stories such as Gentlemen of the Old School +are in the habit of telling, but which, from deference to the prejudices +of gentlemen of a more recent school, I refrain from transcribing here." + +He had that keen sense of honor, and the determination to defend it, even, +if need be, at the expense of his life, which the Southern slave-holder +possessed, and he had also the ferocity which belonged to the same +character. One can hardly recall without a shudder of disgust the "small, +beady black eyes" of Colonel Starbottle, especially when they "shone with +that fire which a pretty woman or an affair of honor could alone kindle." + +The Reader will remember that the Colonel was always ready to hold himself +"personally responsible" for any consequences of a hostile nature, and +that by some irreverent persons he was dubbed "Old Personal +Responsibility." The phrase was not invented by Bret Harte. On the +contrary, it was almost a catchword in California society; it was a +Southern phrase, and indicated the Southerner's attitude. In a leading +article published in the "San Francisco Bulletin" in 1856, it is said, +"The basis of many of the outrages which have disgraced our State during +the past four years has been the 'personal responsibility' system,--a +relic of barbarism." + +Colonel Starbottle's lack of humor was also a Southern characteristic. The +only humorists in the South were the slaves; and the reason is not far to +seek. The Southerner's political and social creed was that of an +aristocrat; and an aristocrat is too dignified and too self-absorbed to +enter curiously into other men's feelings, and too self-satisfied to +question his own. Dandies are notoriously grave men. The aristocratic, +non-humorous man always takes himself seriously; and this trait in Colonel +Starbottle is what makes him so interesting. "It is my invariable custom +to take brandy--a wineglass-full in a cup of strong coffee--immediately on +rising. It stimulates the functions, sir, without producing any blank +derangement of the nerves." + +There is another trait, exemplified in Colonel Starbottle, which often +accompanies want of humor, namely, a tendency to be theatrical. It would +seem as if the ordinary course of human events was either too painful or +too monotonous to be endured. We find ourselves obliged to throw upon it +an aspect of comedy or of tragedy, by way of relief. The man of humor sees +the incongruity,--in other words, the jest in human existence; and the +non-humorous, having no such perception, represents it to himself and to +others in an exaggerated or theatrical form. The one relies upon +understatement; the other upon overstatement. Colonel Starbottle was +always theatrical; his walk was a strut, and "his colloquial speech was +apt to be fragmentary incoherencies of his larger oratorical utterances." + +But we cannot help feeling sorry for the Colonel as his career draws to a +close, and especially when, after his discomfiture in the breach of +promise case, he returns to his lonely chambers, and the negro servant +finds him there silent and unoccupied before his desk. "''Fo' God! Kernel, +I hope dey ain't nuffin de matter, but you's lookin' mighty solemn! I +ain't seen you look dat way, Kernel, since de day pooh Massa Stryker was +fetched home shot froo de head.' 'Hand me down the whiskey, Jim,' said the +Colonel, rising slowly. The negro flew to the closet joyfully, and brought +out the bottle. The Colonel poured out a glass of the spirit, and drank it +with his old deliberation. 'You're quite right, Jim,' he said, putting +down his glass, 'but I'm--er--getting old--and--somehow--I am missing poor +Stryker damnably.'" + +This is the last appearance of Colonel Starbottle. He represents that +element of the moral picturesque,--that compromise with perfection which, +in this imperfect and transitory world, is universally craved. Even +Emerson, best and most respectable of men, admitted, in his private diary, +that the irregular characters who frequented the rum-selling tavern in his +own village were indispensable elements, forming what he called "the +fringe to every one's tapestry of life."[55] Such men as he had in mind +mitigate the solemnity and tragedy of human existence; and in them the +virtuous are able to relax, vicariously, the moral tension under which +they suffer. This is the part which Colonel Starbottle plays in +literature. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG THE PIONEERS + + +The chief source of demoralization among the Pioneers was the absence of +women and children, and therefore of any real home. "Ours is a bachelor +community," remarked the "Alta California," "but nevertheless possessing +strong domestic propensities." Most significant and pathetic, indeed, is +the strain of homesickness which underlies the wild symphony of Pioneer +life. "I well remember," writes a Forty-Niner, "the loneliness and +dreariness amid all the excitement of the time." The unsuccessful miner +often lost his strength by hard work, exposure, and bad food; and then +fell a prey to that disease which has slain so many a +wanderer--homesickness. At the San Francisco hospital it was a rule not to +give letters from the East to patients, unless they were safely +convalescent. More than once the nurses had seen a sick man, after reading +a letter from home, turn on his side and die. + +In the big gambling saloons of San Francisco, when the band played "Home, +Sweet Home," hundreds of homeless wanderers stood still, and listened as +if entranced. The newspapers of '49 and '50 are full of lamentations, in +prose and in verse, over the absence of women and children. In 1851 the +"Alta California" exclaimed, "Who will devise a plan to bring out a few +cargoes of respectable women to California?" + +On those rare occasions when children appeared in the streets, they were +followed by admiring crowds of bearded men, eager to kiss them, to shake +their hands, to hear their voices, and humbly begging permission to make +them presents of gold nuggets and miners' curiosities. In the autumn of +1849 a beautiful flaxen-haired little girl, about three years old, was +frequently seen playing upon the veranda of a house near the business +centre of San Francisco, and at such times there was always on the +opposite side of the street a group of miners gazing reverently at the +child, and often with tears running down their bronzed cheeks. The cry of +a baby at the theatre brought down a tumultuous encore from the whole +house. The chief attraction of every theatrical troupe was a child, +usually called the "California Pet," whose appearance on the stage was +always greeted with a shower of coins. Next to the Pet, the most popular +part of the entertainment was the singing of ballads and songs relating to +domestic subjects. + +In '49 a woman in the streets of San Francisco created more excitement +than would have been caused by the appearance of an elephant or a giraffe. +Once at a crowded sale in an auction room some one cried out, "Two ladies +going along the sidewalk!" and forthwith everybody rushed pell-mell into +the street, as if there had been a fire or an earthquake. A young miner, +in a remote mountain camp, borrowed a mule and rode forty miles in order +to make a call upon a married woman who had recently arrived. He had a few +minutes' conversation with her, and returned the next day well satisfied +with his trip. At another diggings, when the first woman resident +appeared, she and the mule upon which she rode, were raised from the +ground by a group of strong-armed, enthusiastic miners, and carried +triumphantly to the house which her husband had prepared for her. + +When the town where Stephen J. Field purchased his corner lots was +organized, the first necessity was of course a name. Various titles, +suggested by the situation, or by the imagination of hopeful miners, were +proposed, such as Yubaville and Circumdoro; but finally a substantial, +middle-aged man arose and remarked that there was an American lady in the +place, the wife of one of the proprietors, that her name was Mary, and +that in his opinion, the town should be called Marysville, as a compliment +to her. No sooner had he made this suggestion than the meeting broke out +in loud huzzahs; every hat made a circle around its owner's head, and the +new town was christened Marysville without a dissenting voice. The lady, +Mrs. Coullard, was one of the survivors of the Donner party, and the honor +was therefore especially fitting. + +Doubts have been cast upon the story of the bar surmounted by a woman's +sunbonnet, to which every customer respectfully lifted his glass before +tossing off its contents; but the fact is substantiated by the eminent +engraver, Mr. A. V. S. Anthony, who, as a young man, drank a glass of +whiskey at that very bar, in the early Fifties, and joined in the homage +to the sunbonnet. There is really nothing unnatural in this incident, or +in that other story of some youthful miners coming by chance upon a +woman's cast-off skirt or hat, spontaneously forming a ring and dancing +around it. In both cases, the motive, no doubt, was partly humorous, +partly amorous, and partly a vague but intense longing for the gentle and +refining influence of women's society. + +This feeling of the miners, roughly expressed in the incidents of the +sunbonnet and skirt, was poetically treated by Bret Harte in the story +called _The Goddess of Excelsior_,--another example of that "perverse +romanticism" which has been discovered in his California tales. + +Said the "Sacramento Transcript," in April, 1850, "May we not hope soon to +see around us thousands of happy homes whose genial influences will awaken +the noble qualities that many a wanderer has allowed to slumber in his +heart while absent from the objects of his affection!" + +In the same strain, but in the more florid style which was common in the +California newspapers, another writer thus anticipated the coming of women +and children: "No longer will the desolate heart seek to drown its +loneliness in the accursed bowl. But the bright smiles of love will shed +sunshine where were dark clouds and fierce tornadoes, and the lofty spire, +pointing heavenward, will remind us in our pilgrimage here of the high +destiny we were created to fulfil." This has the ring of sincerity, and +yet, as we read it, we cannot help thinking that when the writer laid down +his pen, he went out and took one more drink from the "accursed bowl"; and +who could blame him! + +A loaf of home-made cake sent all the way around Cape Horn from Brooklyn +to San José was reverently eaten, a portion being given to the local +editor who duly returned thanks for the same. + +The arrival of the fortnightly mail steamer was always the most important +event of those early years; and Bret Harte thus described it: "Perhaps it +is the gilded drinking saloon into which some one rushes with arms +extended at right angles, and conveys in that one pantomimic action the +signal of the semaphore telegraph on Telegraph Hill that a side-wheel +steamer has arrived, and that there are letters from home. Perhaps it is +the long queue that afterward winds and stretches from the Post Office +half a mile away. Perhaps it is the eager men who, following it rapidly +down, bid fifty, a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, and even five +hundred dollars for favored places in the line. Perhaps it is the haggard +man who nervously tears open his letter, and falls senseless beside his +comrade."[56] + +Thus far Bret Harte. In precisely the same vein, and with a literary +finish almost equal, is the following paragraph from a contemporary +newspaper: "This other face is well known. It is that of one who has +always been at his post on the arrival of each steamer for the past six +months, certain at each time that he will get a letter. His eye brightens +for a moment as the clerk pauses in running over the yellow-covered +documents, but the clerk goes on again hastily, and then shakes his head, +and says 'No letter.' The brightened eye looks sad again, the face pales, +and the poor fellow goes off with a feeling in his heart that he is +forgotten by those who knew and loved him at home."[57] + +Anxious men sometimes camped out on the steps of the Post Office, the +night before a mail steamer was due, in order that they might receive the +longed-for letter at the earliest possible moment. + +The coming of three women on a steamer from New York in 1850 was mentioned +by all the newspapers as a notable event. In May of that year the +"Sacramento Transcript" contained an advertisement, novel for California, +being that of a "_Few_ fashionably-trimmed, Florence braid velvet and silk +bonnets." A month later a Sydney ship arrived at San Francisco, having on +board two hundred and sixty passengers, of whom seventy were women. As +soon as this vessel had anchored, there was a rush of bachelors to the +Bay, and boat-loads of them climbed the ship's side, trying to engage +housekeepers. + +In 1851 women began to arrive in somewhat larger numbers, and the coming +of wives from the East gave rise to many amusing, many pathetic and some +tragic scenes. "You could always tell a month beforehand," said a Pioneer, +"when a man was expecting the arrival of his real or intended wife. The +old slouch hat, checked shirt and coarse outer garments disappeared, and +the gentleman could be seen on Sunday going to church, newly rigged from +head to foot, with fine beaver hat, white linen, nice and clean, good +broadcloth coat, velvet vest, patent-leather boots, his long beard +shaven or neatly shorn,--he looked like a new man. As the time drew near +many of his hours were spent about the wharves or on Telegraph Hill, and +every five minutes he was looking for the signal to announce the coming of +the steamer. If, owing to some breakdown or wreck, there was a delay of a +week or two, the suspense was awful beyond description."[58] + + +[Illustration: THE POST-OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO, 1849-50 + +A. Castaigne, del. + +Copyright by the Century Co.] + + +The great beards grown in California were sometimes a source of +embarrassment. When a steamer arrived fathers might be seen caressing +little ones whom they now saw for the first time, while the children, in +their turn, were frightened at finding themselves in the arms of such +fierce-looking men. Wives almost shared the consternation of the children. +"Why don't you kiss me, Bessie?" said a Pioneer to his newly arrived wife. +She stood gazing at the hirsute imitation of her husband in utter +astonishment. At last she timidly ejaculated, "I can't find any place." + +In March, 1852, forty four women and thirty-six children arrived on one +steamer. The proportion of women Pioneers in that year was one to ten. By +1853, women were one in five of the population, and children one in ten. +Even so late as 1860, however, marriageable women were very scarce. In +November of that year the "Calaveras Chronicle" declared: "No sooner does +a girl emerge from her pantalettes than she is taken possession of by one +of our bachelors, and assigned a seat at the head of his table. We hear +that girls are plenty in the cities below, but such is not the case here." + +The same paper gives an account of the first meeting between a heroine of +the Plains, and a Calaveras bachelor. "One day this week a party of +immigrants came down the ridge, and the advance-wagon was driven by a +young and pretty woman--one of General Allen's maidens. When near town +the train was met by a butcher's cart, and the cart was driven by a young +'bach.' He, staring at the lovely features of the lady, neglected to rein +his horse to one side of the road, and the two wagons were about to come +in collision, when a man in the train, noticing the danger, cried out to +the female driver, 'Gee, Kate, Gee!' Said Kate, 'Ain't I a-tryin', but the +dog-gone horses won't gee!'" + +Mrs. Bates speaks of two emigrant wagons passing through Marysville one +day in 1850, "each with three yoke of oxen driven by a beautiful girl. In +their hands they carried one of those tremendous, long ox-whips which, by +great exertion, they flourished to the admiration of all beholders. Within +two weeks each one was married." + +But it was seldom that a woman who had crossed the Plains presented a +comely appearance upon her arrival. The sunken eyes and worn features of +the newcomers, both men and women, gave some hint of what they had +endured.[59] + +A letter from Placerville, written in September, 1850, describes a female +Pioneer who had not quite reached the goal. "On Tuesday last an old lady +was seen leading a thin, jaded horse laden with her scanty stores. The +heat of the sun was almost unbearable, and the sand ankle deep, yet she +said that she had travelled in the same way for the last two hundred +miles." + +And then comes a figure which recalls that of Liberty Jones on her arrival +in California: "By the side of one wagon there walked a little girl about +thirteen years old, and from her appearance she must have walked many +hundreds of miles. She was bare-footed and haggard, and she strode on with +steps longer than her years would warrant, as though in the tiresome +journey she had thrown off all grace, and had accustomed herself to a +gait which would on the long marches enable her with most ease to keep up +with the wagon." + +The long journey across the Plains without the comforts and conveniences, +and sometimes without even the decencies of life, the contact with rough +men, the shock of hardships and fatigues under which human nature is apt +to lose respect for itself and consideration for others,--these things +inevitably had a coarsening effect upon the Pioneer women. Only those who +possessed exceptional strength and sweetness of character could pass +through them unscathed. As one traveller graphically puts it: "A woman in +whose virtue you might have the same confidence as in the existence of the +stars above would suddenly horrify you by letting a huge oath escape from +her lips, or by speaking to her children as an ungentle hostler would to +his cattle, and perhaps listening undisturbed to the same style of address +in reply."[60] The callousness which Liberty Jones showed at the death of +her father was not in the least exaggerated by Bret Harte. + +And yet these defects shrink almost to nothing when we contrast them with +the deeds of love and affection silently performed by women upon those +terrible journeys, and often spoken of with emotion by the Pioneers who +witnessed them. A few of those deeds are chronicled in this book, many +more may be found in the narratives and newspapers of the day, but by far +the greater number were long since buried in oblivion. They are preserved, +if preserved at all, only in the characters of those descended from the +women who performed them. + +Upon one thing the Pioneer women could rely,--the universal respect shown +them by the men. In the roughest mining camp in California an unprotected +girl would not only have been safe, she would have been treated with the +utmost consideration and courtesy. Such was the society of which the +English critic declared that "its laxity surpassed the laxity of +savages!"[61] + +In this respect, if in no other, the Pioneers insisted that foreigners +should comply with their notions. Nothing, indeed, gave more surprise to +the "Greasers" and Chilenos than the fact that they were haled into court +and punished for beating their wives. + +As to the Mexican and Chilean women themselves, it must be admitted that +they contributed more to the gaiety than to the morality or peacefulness +of California life. "Rowdyism and crime," remarked the "Alta California" +in October, 1851, "increase in proportion to the increase in the number of +Señoritas. This is true in the mines as well as in the city." + +At a horse-race that came off that year in San Francisco, we hear of the +Señoritas as freely backing their favorite nags with United States money, +though how it came into their possession, as a contemporary satirist +remarked, "is matter of surmise only." This species of woman is portrayed +by Bret Harte in the passionate Teresa, who met her fate, in a double +sense, in _The Carquinez Woods_, finding there both a lover and her death. +The Spanish woman of good family is represented by Doña Rosita in _The +Argonauts of North Liberty_, by Enriquez Saltello's charming sister, +Consuelo, and by Concepcion,[62] the beautiful daughter of the +Commandante, who, after the death of her lover, the Russian Envoy, took +the veil, and died a nun at Benicia. + +Even before the discovery of gold a few Americans had married into leading +Spanish families of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Sonoma. The +first house erected on the spot which afterward became San Francisco was +built in 1836 by Jacob P. Leese, an American who had married a sister of +General Vallejo. It was finished July 3, and on the following day was +"dedicated to the cause of freedom." + +There is something of great interest in the union of races so diverse, and +Bret Harte has touched upon this aspect of California life in the +character of that unique heroine, Maruja. "'Hush, she's looking.' She had +indeed lifted her eyes toward the window. They were beautiful eyes, and +charged with something more than their own beauty. With a deep, brunette +setting, even to the darkened cornea, the pupils were blue as the sky +above them. But they were lit with another intelligence. The soul of the +Salem whaler looked out of the passion-darkened orbits of the mother, and +was resistless." + +Chapter and verse can always be given to confirm Bret Harte's account of +California life, and even Maruja can be authenticated. A Lieutenant in the +United States Navy, who visited the Coast in 1846, gave this description +of the reigning belle of California: "Her father was an Englishman, her +mother a Spanish lady. She was brunette, with an oval face, magnificent +grey eyes, the corners of her mouth slightly curved downward, so as to +give a proud and haughty expression to the face. She was tall, graceful, +well-shaped, with small feet and hands, a dead shot, an accomplished +rider, and amiable withal. I never saw a more patrician style of beauty +and native elegance."[63] + +California was always the land of romance, and Bret Harte in his poems and +stories touched upon its whole history from the beginning. Even the visit +of Sir Francis Drake in 1578 was not overlooked. In _The Mermaid of +Light-House Point_, Bret Harte quotes a footnote, perhaps imaginary, from +an account of Drake's travels, as follows: "The admiral seems to have lost +several of his crew by desertion, who were supposed to have perished +miserably by starvation in the inhospitable interior or by the hands of +savages. But later voyagers have suggested that the deserters married +Indian wives, and there is a legend that a hundred years later a singular +race of half-breeds, bearing unmistakable Anglo-Saxon characteristics, was +found in that locality." + +This was the origin of the blue-eyed and light-haired mermaid of the +story; and it is only fair to add that the tradition of which the author +speaks was current among the Nicasio Indians who inhabited the valley of +that name, about fifteen miles eastward of Drake's Bay. + +Among the women who first arrived from the East by sea, there were many of +easy virtue; but even these women--and here is disclosed a wonderful +compliment to the sex--were held by observing Pioneers to have an +elevating influence upon the men. "The bad women," says one careful +historian, "have improved the morals of the community. They have banished +much barbarism, softened many hard hearts, and given a gentleness to the +men which they did not have before."[64] + +If this was the effect of the bad, what must have been the influence of +the good women! Let the same writer tell us: "Soon after their arrival, +schools and churches began to spring up; social circles were formed; +refinement dawned upon a debauched and reckless community; decorum took +the place of obscenity; kind and gentle words were heard to fall from the +lips of those who before had been accustomed to taint every phrase with an +oath; and smiles displayed themselves upon countenances to which they had +long been strangers." + +And then the author pays a tribute to woman which could hardly be +surpassed: "Had I received no other benefit from my trip to California +than the knowledge I have gained, inadequate as it may be, of woman's many +virtues and perfections, I should account myself well repaid." In a +ship-load of Pioneers which sailed from New York around Cape Horn to San +Francisco in 1850 there was just one woman; and yet her influence upon the +men was so marked and so salutary that it was often spoken of by the +Captain. + +The effect of their peculiar situation upon the married women was not +good. They were apt to be demoralized by the attentions of their men +friends, and they were too few in number to inflict upon improper females +that rigid ostracism from society, which, some cynics think, is the +strongest safeguard of feminine virtue. Women in California were released +from their accustomed restraints, they were much noticed and flattered; +and, then, as a San Francisco belle exclaimed, "The gentlemen are so rich +and so handsome, and have such superb whiskers!" + +In a single issue of the "Sacramento Transcript," in July, 1850, are the +following two items: "A certain madam now in this town buried her husband, +and seventy-four hours afterward she married another." "One of our fair +and lovely damsels had a quarrel with her husband. He took the stage for +Stockton, and the same day she married another man." + +Even those Pioneers who were fortunate enough to have their wives with +them did not always appreciate the blessing. Being absorbed in business +they often felt hampered by obligations from which their bachelor rivals +were free, or perhaps, they chafed at the wholesome restraint imposed upon +a married man in a community of unmarried persons. There was a dangerous +tendency among California husbands to permit their friends to look after +their wives. On this subject Professor Royce very acutely remarks: "The +family grows best in a garden with its kind. When family life does not +involve healthy friendship with other families, it is likely to be injured +by unhealthy if well-meaning friendships with wanderers." This is a +sentiment which Brown of Calaveras would have echoed. + +Men with attractive wives were apt to be uncomfortably situated in +California. It is matter of history how The Bell-Ringer of Angel's +protected his young and pretty spouse from dangerous communications: "When +I married my wife and brought her down here, knowin' this yer camp, I sez: +'No flirtin', no foolin', no philanderin' here, my dear! You're young and +don't know the ways o' men. The first man I see you talking with, I +shoot.'" + +In 1851, there was a man named Crockett whose predicament was something +like that of the Bell-Ringer, and still more like that of Brown of +Calaveras, for he not only had a very handsome wife, but it was his +additional misfortune to keep a tavern on the road between Sacramento and +Salmon Falls. It was not unusual for a dozen or more bearded miners to be +gazing at Mrs. Crockett or watching for an opportunity to speak with her. +This kept Crockett in a continual state of jealous irritation. He was a +very small man, and he carried ostentatiously a very large pistol, which +he would often draw and exhibit. A guest who stopped at the tavern for +breakfast at a time when miners along the road had been more numerous than +usual, found Crockett "charging around like a madman, and foaming at the +mouth." However, he received the guest with hospitality, informed him +that "he (Crockett) was a devilish good fellow when he was right side up," +and finally set before him an excellent meal. Mrs. Crockett presided at +the table, "but in a very nervous manner, as if she were in expectation of +being at almost any minute made a target of." + +If life in California during the earlier years was bad for women, it was +still worse for children. In San Francisco there was no public school +until the autumn of 1851. Before that time there had been several small +private schools, and one free school supported by charity, but in 1851 +this was given up for want of funds. In the cities and towns outside of +San Francisco there was even greater delay in establishing public schools. +In 1852 there were many children at Marysville who were receiving no +instruction, and others, fourteen years old and even older, were only just +learning to read. Horace Greeley visited California in the year 1859, and +he wrote, "There ought to be two thousand good common schools in operation +this winter, but I fear there will not be six hundred."[65] + +Partly in consequence of this lack of schools, partly on account of the +general demoralization and ultra freedom of California society, boys grew +up in the streets, and were remarkable for their precocious depravity. +Even the climate contributed to this result, for, except in the rainy +season, the shelter of a house could easily be dispensed with by night as +well as by day. "It was the voice of a small boy, its weak treble broken +by that preternatural hoarseness which only vagabondage and the habit of +premature self-assertion can give. It was the face of a small boy, a face +that might have been pretty and even refined but that it was darkened by +evil knowledge from within, and by dirt and hard experience from +without."[66] + +It was no uncommon thing, in San Francisco especially, to see small boys +drinking and gambling in public places. + +A Pioneer describes "boys from six upward swaggering through the streets, +begirt with scarlet sashes, cigar in mouth, uttering huge oaths, and +occasionally treating men and boys at the bar." Miners not more than ten +years old were washing for gold on their own account, and obtaining five +or ten dollars a week, which they spent chiefly on drinks and cigars. Bret +Harte's Youngest Prospector in Calaveras was not an uncommon child. + +An instance of precocity was the attempted abduction in May, 1851, of a +girl of thirteen by two boys a little older. They were all the children of +Sydney parents, and the girl declared that she loved those boys, and had +begged them to take her away, and she thought it very hard to be compelled +to return to her home. This incident may recall to the Reader the +precocious love affairs of Richelieu Sharpe, whose father thus explained +his absence from supper: "'Like ez not, he's gone over to see that +fammerly at the summit. There's a little girl there that he's sparkin', +about his own age.' + +"'His own age!' said Minty indignantly, 'why, she's double that, if she's +a day. Well--if he ain't the triflinest, conceitedest little limb that +ever grew!'" + +The son of a tavern-keeper at Sacramento, a boy only eight years old, was +described as a finished gambler. Upon an occasion when he was acting as +dealer, all the other players being men, one of them accused him of +cheating. The consequence was a general fight: two men were shot, one +fatally, and the man who killed him was hung the next day by a vigilance +committee. Even Bret Harte's "perverse romanticism" never carried him +quite so far in delineation of the California child. The word "hoodlum," +meaning a youthful, semi-criminal rough, originated in San Francisco. + +But there is another side to this picture of childhood on the Pacific +Slope, and we obtain a glimpse of it occasionally. There was a +Sunday-school procession at Sacramento in July, 1850, upon which the +"Sacramento Transcript" remarked, "We have seen no sight here which called +home so forcibly to our minds with all its endearments." Three years later +in San Francisco, there was a May-Day procession of a thousand children, +each one carrying a flower. + +Even Bret Harte's story of the adoption of a child by the city of San +Francisco[67] had a solid foundation in fact, though perhaps he was not +aware of it. In July, 1851, the City Fathers charged themselves with the +support and protection of an orphan girl, and on the thirteenth of that +month a measure providing for her maintenance was introduced in the Board +of Aldermen. + +The scarcity, or rather, as we have seen, the almost total absence at +first of women and children, of wives and sweethearts, led to the adoption +by the Pioneers of a great number and variety of pet animals. Dogs and +cats from all quarters, parrots from over-seas, canaries brought from the +East, bears from the Sierras, wolves from the Plains, foxes and raccoons +from the Foot-Hills,--all these were found in miners' cabins, in gambling +saloons and in restaurants. They occupied the waste places in the hearts +of the Argonauts, and furnished an object, if an inadequate one, for those +affections which might otherwise have withered at the root. One miner was +accompanied in all his wanderings by a family consisting of a bay horse, +two dogs, two sheep and two goats. + +These California pets had their little day, perished, and are +forgotten,--all save one. Who can forget the bear cub that Bret Harte +immortalized under the name of Baby Sylvester! "He was as free from angles +as one of Leda's offspring. Your caressing hand sank away in his fur with +dreamy languor. To look at him long was an intoxication of the senses; to +pat him was a wild delirium; to embrace him an utter demoralization of the +intellectual faculties.... He takes the only milk that comes to the +settlement--brought up by Adams' Express at seven o'clock every morning." + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE PIONEERS + + +In Bret Harte's stories woman is subordinated to man, and love is +subordinated to friendship. This is a strange reversal of modern notions, +but it was the reflection of his California experience,--reinforced, +possibly, by some predilection of his own. There is a significant remark +in a letter written by him from a town in Kansas where he once delivered a +lecture: "Of course, as in all such places, the women contrast poorly with +the men--even in feminine qualities. Somehow, a man here may wear fustian +and glaring colors, and paper collars, and yet keep his gentleness and +delicacy, but a woman in glaring 'Dolly-Vardens,' and artificial flowers, +changes natures with him at once." + +Friendship between one man and another would seem to be the most unselfish +feeling of which a human being is capable. The only sentiment that can be +compared with it in this respect is that of patriotism, and even in +patriotism there is an instinct of self-preservation, or at least of +race-preservation. In modern times the place which the friend held in +classic times is taken by the wife; but in California, owing to the +absence of women and the exigencies of mining, friendship for a brief and +brilliant period, never probably to recur, became once more an heroic +passion. + +That there was no exaggeration in Bret Harte's pictures of Pioneer +friendship might be shown by many extracts from contemporary observers, +but one such will suffice:--"Two men who lived together, slept in the same +cabin, ate together, took turns cooking and washing, tended on each +other in sickness, and toiled day in and day out side by side, and made an +equal division of their losses and gains, were regarded and generally +regarded themselves as having entered into a very intimate tie, a sort of +band of brotherhood, almost as sacred as that of marriage. The word +'partner,' or 'pard' as it was usually contracted, became the most +intimate and confidential term that could be used."[68] + +Even in the cities friendship between men assumed a character which it had +nowhere except in California. Partners in business were partners in all +social and often in all domestic matters. They took their meals and their +pleasures together, and showed that interest in each other's welfare +which, at home, they would have expended upon wives and children. The +withdrawal of one member from a firm seemed like the breaking up of a +family. The citizens of San Francisco and Sacramento were all newcomers, +they were mostly strangers to one another; and every partnership, though +established primarily for business purposes, became a union of persons +bound together by a sense of almost feudal loyalty, confident of one +another's sympathy and support under all circumstances, and forming a +coherent group in a chaotic community. + +In the mines the partnership relation was even more idyllic. Gold was +sought at first by the primitive method of pan-mining. The miners +travelled singly sometimes, but much more often in pairs, with knapsacks, +guns and frying-pans; and they used a wooden bowl, or a metal pan, and +sometimes an Indian wicker basket for washing the gravel or sand which was +supposed to contain gold. Even a family bread-pan might be made to serve +this purpose, and that was the article which the youthful miner, Jack +Fleming, borrowed from beautiful Tinka Gallinger, and so became possessed +in the end, not indeed of gold, but of something infinitely more +valuable,--Tinka herself, the Treasure of the Redwoods. + +The operation of washing was thus described by a Pioneer: "The bowl is +held in both hands, whirled violently back and forth through a half +circle, and pitched this way and that sufficiently to throw off the earth +and water, while the gold mixed with black sand settles to the bottom. The +process is extremely tiresome, and involves all the muscles of the frame. +In its effect it is more like swinging a scythe than any other labor I +ever attempted." + +This work was much less laborious when the miner had access to a current +of water, and in later times it was assisted by the use of a magnet to +draw away the iron of which the black sand was largely composed. + +The bowl or pan stage was the first stage, and its tendency was to arrange +the miners in couples like that of Tennessee and his Partner. Next came +the use of the rocker or cradle,--the "golden canoe," as the Indians +called it. The rocker was an oblong box, open at the lower end, the upper +end being protected by a screen or grating. The screen intercepted all +pebbles and gravel, and the finer material, earth and sand, was swept +through the screen by the action of water thrown or directed against it. +The same water carried the earth through the box, and out at the lower +end; but the heavy sand, containing the gold, sank and was intercepted by +cleats nailed across the inside of the box. A rough cradle, formed from a +hollow log, would sell at one time for two hundred dollars. + +This process required the services of four or five men, and in pursuing it +the miner ceased to be a vagrant. He acquired a habitation, more or less +permanent, and entered into various relationships with his fellows, which +finally included the lynching of a small portion of them. This is the life +described by Bret Harte in _The Luck of Roaring Camp_, _Left Out on Lone +Star Mountain_, and many other stories. + +The rocker period lasted only about a year, and was succeeded by that of +the sluice, a sort of magnified rocker, fifty or even a hundred feet long. +The necessary stream of water was diverted from some river, or was +supplied by an artificial reservoir. It was the bursting of such a +reservoir, as the Reader may remember, that precipitated the romance in +the life of the Youngest Miss Piper. + +But the evolution of the industry was not yet complete. The next step was +to explore the bed of a river by laboriously turning the stream aside. +This was accomplished by constructing a dam across the river, and +directing the water into a canal or flume prepared for it, thus leaving +the bed of the river bare, perhaps for miles. These operations required +the labor of many hands, and were extremely arduous and difficult. The dam +could be built, of course, only in the dry season, and the first autumnal +rains would be sure to send the stream back to its old channel. The coming +of the rainy season in California is extremely uncertain, and river-bed +mining was correspondingly precarious. Sometimes, great perseverance in +these attempts was rewarded by great success. In November, 1849, the +Swett's Bar Company, composed of seventy miners, succeeded in damming and +diverting the Sonora River after fifteen days of extreme exertion. Five +hours later the dam was swept away by a flood. The following summer the +same company, reduced to sixty members, constructed a second and larger +dam, which required sixty-nine days' labor. This also was swept away on +the very day of its completion. But the miners did not give up. The next +morning they began anew, the directors leading the way into the now +ice-cold water, and the rest of the company following, some fairly +shrieking with the contact. The dam was rebuilt as quickly as +possible,--and, again, the river brushed it aside. The third year, a +remnant of the company, some twenty-seven stubborn souls, for the fourth +time completed a dam. This time it stood fast, and before the rains set in +the persevering miners had obtained gold enough to make them all rich. + +Men who had struggled, side by side, through such difficulties and +disappointments were bound by no common tie,--and the tie was a still +closer one when, as in the first idyllic days, the partnership consisted +of two members only. + +Bret Harte has devoted to friendship four of his best stories, namely, +_Tennessee's Partner_, _Captain Jim's Friend_, _In the Tules_, _Uncle Jim +and Uncle Billy_. The subject is touched upon also in the story called +_Under the Eaves_. + +Unquestionably the best of these stories is the first one, and if we +should also set this down as the best of all Bret Harte's stories, we +could not go far wrong. The author himself is said to have preferred it. +It is a complete tale and a dramatic one, and yet it has the simplicity of +an incident. There is not, one makes bold to say, a superfluous word in +it, and perhaps only one word which an exacting reader could wish to +change. The background of scenery that the story requires is touched in +with that deep but restrained feeling for nature, with that realization of +its awful beauty, when contrasted with the life of man, which is a +peculiar trait of modern literature. The Reader will remember that rough, +mean, kerosene-lighted, upper room in which the trial took place. "And +above all this, etched on the dark firmament, rose the Sierra, remote and +passionless, crowned with remoter, passionless stars." + +The pathos of _Tennessee's Partner_ consists chiefly in the fact that +Tennessee, so far as we can judge him, was unworthy of his partner's +devotion. He was courageous and good-humored, to be sure, but he was a +robber, something of a drunkard, and inconsiderate enough to have run +off with his partner's wife. Had Tennessee been a model of all the +virtues, his partner's affection for him would have been a bestowal only +of what was due. It would not have been, as it was in fact, the +spontaneous outpouring of a generous and affectionate character. Whether +we consider that the partner saw in Tennessee something which was really +there, some divine spark or quality, known only to the God who created and +to the friend who loved him, or that in Tennessee he beheld an ideal of +his own creation, something different from the real man,--in either case +his affection is equally disinterested and noble. + +Those who do not give the first place to _Tennessee's Partner_ would +probably assign it either to _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ or _The Outcasts +of Poker Flat_; but in both of those stories the element of accident is +utilized, though not improbably. It was more or less an accident that the +Luck was swept away by a flood; it was an accident that the Outcasts were +banished on the eve of a storm. But in _Tennessee's Partner_, there is no +accident. Given the characters, all the rest followed inevitably. + +An acute, if somewhat degenerate critic, Mr. James Douglas, writing in the +"Bookman,"[69] presents the case against the _Luck_ and the _Outcasts_ in +its most extreme form: "There is no doubt that we have outgrown the art +which relies on picturesque lay figures grouped against a romantic +background.... In Bret Harte's best stories the presence of the scene +painter, the stage carpenter and the stage manager jars on our +consciousness.... Bret Harte takes Cherokee Sal, an Indian prostitute, +puts her in a degraded mining settlement, and sanctifies her by +motherhood. That is good art. He lets her die, while her child survives. +That is not so good. It is the pathos of accident. He sends the miners in +to see the child. That is good art. He makes the presence of the child +work a revolution in the camp. Strong men wash their faces and wear clean +shirts in order to be worthy of the child. That is not good art." + +But here let us interrupt Mr. Douglas for a moment. It should be +remembered that the clean faces and clean shirts were not spontaneous +improvements. "Stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine upon those who aspired +to the honor and privilege of holding the Luck." Moreover, the miners of +Roaring Camp, like the miners generally in California, were no strangers +to clean shirts or clean faces. With few exceptions, they had been brought +up to observe the decencies of life, and if, in the wild freedom of the +mining camp, some of those decencies had been cast off, it was not +difficult to reclaim them. + +However, let us hear Mr. Douglas out: "Finally he drowns the child and his +readers in a deluge of melodramatic sentiment. That is bad art.... The +_Outcasts_ might be analyzed in the same way. The whole tableau is +arranged with a barefaced resolution to draw your tears. You feel that +there is nothing inevitable in the isolation of the Outcasts, in the +snow-storm, in the suicide of the card-sharper, or in the +in-death-they-were-not-divided pathos of vice and virtue. And even +Miggles, I fear, will hardly bear a close examination. The assault and +battery on our emotions is too direct, too deliberate. We like to be +outflanked nowadays, and the old-fashioned frontal attack melts away +before our indulgent smiles with their high velocity and flat trajectory. +M'liss, alas! no longer moves us. We prefer 'What Maisie Knew' to what +M'liss didn't know." + +But at this point the Reader may become a little impatient. What attention +should be paid to a critic who prefers the effeminate subtleties of Henry +James to the wholesome pathos of Bret Harte! And the man himself seems +to be conscious of his degeneracy, for he concludes by saying, with +admirable frankness, "Perhaps, after all, the fault is ours, not Bret +Harte's, and we ought to apologize for the sophisticated insidiousness of +our nerves." + +One or two obvious remarks are suggested by Mr. Douglas's canon of romance +against realism. If it were adopted without qualification, sad havoc would +be made with established reputations. All the great tragedians from +Æschylus to Shakspere, and almost all the great story-tellers from Haroun +al Raschid to Daniel Defoe would suffer. Antigone, Juliet and Robinson +Crusoe were all the victims of accident. Moreover, without the element of +accident, or romance as Mr. Douglas calls it, life could not truly be +represented. What might conceivably happen, and what occasionally does +happen, are as much a part of life as is the thing which always happens. +Many a "Kentuck" was swept away by floods in California. To perish in a +snow-storm was by no means an unheard-of event. It was on the twenty-third +of November, 1850, that the Outcasts were exiled, and on that very day, as +the newspapers recorded soon afterward, a young man was frozen to death in +the snow while endeavoring to walk from Poor Man's Creek to Grass Valley. +One week later a miner from Virginia was frozen to death a few miles north +of Downieville; and Poker Flat and Downieville are in the same county.[70] + +To know a man, we must know how he acts in the face of death as well as +how he appears in his shop or parlor; and therefore, unusual and tragic +events, as well as commonplace events, have their place in good art. + +But the substratum of truth in Mr. Douglas's view seems to be this, that a +tragedy which results from the character of the hero or heroine is, other +things being equal, a higher form of art than the tragedy which results +wholly, or in part, from accident. If human passion can work out the +destiny desired by the author, without the intervention of fire, flood or +disease, without the help of any catastrophe quaintly known in the common +law as "the act of God," why so much the better. From this point of view, +we may fairly place _Tennessee's Partner_ even above _The Luck of Roaring +Camp_ and _The Outcasts of Poker Flat_. + +It only remains to add that like most of Bret Harte's stories, as we have +seen, _Tennessee's Partner_ was suggested by a real incident, which, +however, ended happily; and the last chapter of the true story may be +gathered from a paragraph which appeared in the California newspapers in +June, 1903:-- + +"J. A. Chaffee, famous as the original of _Tennessee's Partner_, has been +brought to an Oakland Sanatorium. He has been living since 1849 in a small +Tuolumne county mining camp with his partner, Chamberlain. In the early +days he saved Chamberlain from the vigilance committee by a plea to Judge +Lynch when the vigilantes had a rope around the victim's throat. It was +the only instance on record in the county where the vigilantes gave way in +such a case. Chamberlain was accused of stealing the miners' gold, but +Chaffee cleared him, as every one believed Chaffee. The two men settled +down to live where they have remained ever since, washing out enough +placer gold to maintain them. Professor Magee of the University of +California found Chaffee sick in his cabin last week, and induced him to +come to Oakland for treatment. Chamberlain was left behind. Both men are +over eighty." + +One who witnessed Chaffee's rescue of his partner gives some details of +the affair, which show how closely Bret Harte kept to the facts until he +saw occasion to depart from them. Chaffee had a donkey and a cart--the +only vehicle in the settlement, and he is described as standing before +the vigilance committee, "hat in hand, his bald head bare, his big +bandanna handkerchief hanging loosely about his neck." + +Of the four stories especially devoted to friendship, the second is +_Captain Jim's Friend_, published in the year 1887. This is almost a +_reductio ad absurdum_ of _Tennessee's Partner_, for Captain Jim's friend, +Lacy Bassett, is a coward, a liar, and an impostor. In the end, Captain +Jim discovers this, and he endeavors to wipe out the disgrace which, he +thinks, Bassett has brought upon him by forcing the latter, at the point +of his pistol, to a more manly course of conduct. And yet, when Bassett +commits the dastardly act of firing at his life-long friend and +benefactor, the heroic Captain Jim feels not only that his own reputation +for "foolishness" is redeemed, but also, in his dying moments, he recurs +to his old affection for the man who shot him; and thus the tinge of +cynicism which the story would otherwise wear is removed. + +The third story, _In the Tules_, is a recurrence to the theme of +_Tennessee's Partner_, the two leading characters being almost a +repetition of those in the earlier story. _In the Tules_ has not the +spontaneousness of its predecessor, not quite the same tragic reality; but +it is a noble story, nevertheless, and the climax forms one of those rare +episodes which raise one's idea of human nature. + +In the fourth story, _Uncle Jim and Uncle Billy_, published much later, +Bret Harte takes the subject in a lighter vein. The sacrifice made to +friendship is not of life, but of fortune; and though, unquestionably, +some men would lay down their lives more easily than they would give up +their property, yet the sacrifice does not wear so tragic an aspect. + +In _Left Out on Lone Star Mountain_, among the very best of the later +stories, we have a little group of miners held together, inspired, and +redeemed from selfishness by the youngest of their number, affectionately +spoken of as "The Old Man," one of those brilliant, fine, lovable +natures, rare but not unknown in real life, to which all the virtues seem +to come as easily as vice and weakness come to the generality of men.[71] + + +[Illustration: HE LOOKED CURIOUSLY AT HIS REFLECTION + +From "Left Out on Lone Star Mountain" + +E. Boyd Smith, del.] + + +The hero of this story plays a part much resembling that of the late James +G. Fair, United States Senator from California, and a leading man in the +State. Mr. Fair, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, crossed the Plains in +1850 with a company of men who were demoralized by their privations and +misfortunes. Though the youngest of the party, being but eighteen years +old, Fair, by mere force of natural fitness, became their leader; and it +was owing to his determined good nature, energy and high spirits that they +finally reached the Pacific Slope. A member of the band afterward wrote: +"My comrades became so peevish from the wear upon the system, and ... the +absence of accustomed comforts, that they were more like children than +men, and at times it was as much as the boy could do to keep them from +killing one another."[72] + +The moral of Bret Harte's stories, it has often been said, is that even +bad men have a good side, and are frequently capable of performing noble +acts. But this, surely, is only a small part of the lesson, or rather of +the inspiration to be derived from his works. In fact most of his heroes +are not bad men, but good men. Would it not be far more true to say that +the moral of Bret Harte's stories is very nearly the same as the moral of +the New Testament, namely, that the best thing a man can do with his life +or anything else that he has, is to give it up,--for love, for honor, for +a child, for a friend! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +GAMBLING IN PIONEER TIMES + + +Doubts have sometimes been cast upon Bret Harte's description of the +gambling element in California life, but contemporary accounts fully +sustain the picture which he drew. One reason for the comparative +respectability of gambling among the Pioneers was that most of the +California gamblers came from the West and South, especially from States +bordering upon the Mississippi River, and in those quarters the status of +the gambler was far higher than in the Eastern or Middle parts of the +country. Early in 1850 a whole ship-load of gamblers arrived from New +Orleans. They stopped, _en route_, at Monterey, went ashore for a few +hours, and, as a kind of first-fruits of their long journey, relieved the +Spaniards and Mexicans resident there of what loose silver and gold they +happened to have on hand. These citizens of Monterey, like all the native +Californians, were inveterate gamblers; but an American who was there at +the time relates that they were like children in the hands of the men from +New Orleans;--and thus we have one more proof of Anglo-Saxon superiority. + +Nor does Bret Harte's account lack direct confirmation. "The gamblers," +says a contemporary historian, "were usually from New Orleans, Louisville, +Memphis, Richmond, or St. Louis. Not infrequently they were well-born and +well-educated, and among them were as many good, honest, square-dealing +men as could be found in any other business; and they were, as a rule, +more charitable and more ready to help those in distress."[73] + +A certain William Thornton, a gambler from St. Louis, known as "Lucky +Bill," had many of the traits associated with Bret Harte's gamblers. He +was noted for his generosity, and, though finally hanged by a vigilance +committee, he made a "good end," for, on the scaffold, he exhorted his son +who was among the spectators, to avoid bad company, to keep away from +saloons, and to lead an industrious and honest life. + +No surprise need be felt, therefore, that in California a gambler like +Jack Hamlin should have the qualities and perform the deeds of a +knight-errant. Bret Harte himself records the fact that it was the +generous gift of a San Francisco gambler which started the Sanitary +Commission in the Civil War, so far at least as California was concerned. +The following incident occurred in the town of Coloma in the summer of +1849. Two ministers, a Mr. Roberts and a Mr. Dawson, preached there one +Sunday to a company of miners, and one of them held forth especially +against the sin of gambling. When the collection had been made, a twenty +dollar and a ten dollar gold piece were found, carefully wrapped in paper, +and on the paper was written: "I design the twenty dollars for Mr. Roberts +because he fearlessly dealt out the truth against the gamblers. The ten +dollars are for Mr. Dawson." The paper was signed by the leading gambler +in the town. + +The principal building in the new city, the Parker House, a two-story, +wooden affair, with a piazza in front, was erected in 1849 at a cost of +thirty thousand dollars, and was rented almost immediately at fifteen +hundred dollars a month for games of chance. Almost everybody played, and +in '49 and '50 the gambling houses served as clubs for business and +professional men. As Bret Harte wrote in the Introduction to the second +volume of his works:--"The most respectable citizens, though they might +not play, are to be seen here of an evening. Old friends who, perhaps, +parted at the church door in the States, meet here without fear and +without reproach. Even among the players are represented all classes and +conditions of men. One night at a faro table a player suddenly slipped +from his seat to the floor, a dead man. Three doctors, also players, after +a brief examination, pronounced it disease of the heart. The coroner, +sitting at the right of the dealer, instantly impanelled the rest of the +players, who, laying down their cards, briefly gave a verdict in +accordance with the facts, and then went on with their game!" + +A similar but much worse scene is recorded as occurring in a Sacramento +gambling house. A quarrel arose in the course of which a man was shot +three times, each wound being a mortal one. The victim was placed in a +dying condition on one of the tables; but the orchestra continued to play, +and the gambling went on as before in the greater part of the room. A +notorious woman, staggering drunk, assailed the ears of the dying man with +profane and obscene remarks, while another by-stander endeavored to create +laughter by mimicking the contortions that appeared in his face, as he lay +there gasping in his death agony upon a gambler's table.[74] + +In San Francisco the principal gambling houses were situated in the very +heart of the city, and they were kept open throughout the whole +twenty-four hours. At night, the brilliantly lighted rooms, the shifting +crowd of men, diverse and often picturesque in costume and appearance, the +wild music which arose now and then, and which, except for the jingling of +gold and silver, was almost the only sound,--all this, as a youthful +spectator recalled in after years, "was a rapturous and fearful thing." +The rooms were gorgeously furnished, with a superabundance of gilt frames, +sparkling chandeliers, and ornaments of silver. + +Behind the long bar were more mirrors, gold clocks, ornamental bottles and +decanters, china vases, bouquets of flowers, and glasses of many colors +and fantastic shapes. + +The atmosphere was often hazy with tobacco smoke and redolent of the fumes +of brandy; but perfect order prevailed, and in the pauses of the music not +a sound could be heard except the subdued murmur of voices, and the +ceaseless chink of gold and silver. It was the fashion for those who stood +at the tables to have their hands full of coins which they shuffled +backward and forward, like so many cards. The noise of a cane falling upon +the marble floor would cause everybody to look up. If a voice were raised +in hilarity or altercation, the by-standers would frown upon the offender +with a stare of virtuous indignation. Every gambling house, even the most +squalid resort on Long Wharf, had its music, which might be that of a +single piano-player or fiddler, or an orchestra of five or six performers. +In the large gambling halls the music was often very good. Two thousand +dollars a month for a nightly performance was the sum once offered to a +violin-player by a San Francisco gambler; and, to the honor of the artist +be it said, the offer was declined. + +All California, sooner or later, was seen in the gambling rooms of San +Francisco: Mexicans wrapped in their blankets, smoking cigarettes, and +watching the game intently from under their broad-brimmed hats; Frenchmen +in their blouses, puffing at black pipes; countrymen fresh from the mines, +wearing flannel shirts and high boots, with pistols and knives in their +belts; boys of ten or twelve years, smoking big cigars, and losing +hundreds of dollars at a play, with the nonchalance of veterans; +low-browed, villainous-looking convicts from Australia; thin, glassy-eyed +men, in the last stages of a misspent life, clad in the greasy black of a +former gentility. The professional gamblers usually had a pale, careworn +look, not uncommon, by the way, in California; but no danger or excitement +could disturb their equanimity. In this respect the players strove hard to +imitate them, though not always with success. The most popular games were +_monte_, usually conducted by Mexicans, and faro, an American game. The +French introduced _rouge-et-noir_, _roulette_, _lansquenet_, and +_vingt-et-un_. + +In the larger halls the custom was to rent different parts of the room to +different proprietors, each of whom carried on his own game independently. +Most of the proprietors were foreigners, and many of them were women. +These women included some of great beauty, and they were all magnificently +attired, their rustling silks, elaborately dressed hair and glittering +diamonds contrasting strangely with the hairy faces, slouch hats and +flannel shirts of the miners. + +That gambling was looked upon at first as a legitimate industry is plain +from the surprising fact that the local courts in Sacramento upheld +gambling debts as valid, and authorized their collection by process of +law. But these decisions--almost sufficient to make Blackstone rise from +his grave--were reversed the following year. + +Indeed, a healthy public opinion against gambling developed very soon. +Even in 1850, the grand jury sitting at San Francisco condemned the +practice; and in 1851 gambling on Sunday was forbidden in that city by an +ordinance which the authorities enforced in so far that open gambling on +that day was no longer permitted. In December, 1850, an ordinance against +gaming in the streets was passed by the city council of Sacramento. By the +end of 1851 there was a perceptible decrease in both gaming and drinking +in all the larger towns of California. "Gambling with all the attractions +of fine saloons and tastefully dressed women is on the wane in +Marysville," a local observer reported; and the same thing was noticed in +San Francisco. The gambling house, as a general _rendez-vous_, was +succeeded by the saloon, and that, in turn, by the club. + +Gambling houses continued to be licensed in San Francisco until 1856, but +public opinion against them steadily grew. "They are tolerated," said the +"San Francisco Herald," "for no other reason that we know of except that +they are charged heavily for licenses. Almost all of them are owned by +foreigners." By the end of the year 1855, the "Bulletin" was condemning +the gamblers as among the worst elements of society; and the death of the +"Bulletin's" heroic Editor in the following year marked the close of the +gambling era in San Francisco. When Bret Harte's first stories were +written the type represented by John Oakhurst and Jack Hamlin had begun to +pass away, and those worthies would soon have been forgotten. + +But who can forget them now! "Bret Harte," said the "Academy," after his +death, "was the Homer of Gamblers. Gamblers there had been before, but +they were of the old sullen type." In making his gamblers good-looking, +Bret Harte only followed tradition, and the tradition is founded on fact. +The one essential trait of the gambler is good nerves. These are largely a +matter of good health and physique, and good looks have much the same +origin. It follows that gamblers having good nerves should also have good +looks. It is natural, too, that they should have excellent manners. The +habit of easy shooting and of being shot at is universally recognized as +conducive to politeness, and, moreover, a certain persuasiveness of +manner, a mingling of suavity and authority, is part of the gambler's +stock-in-trade. An American of wide experience once declared that he had +met but one fellow-countryman whose manners could fairly be described as +"courtly," and he was a professional gambler of Irish birth. Good looks +and good manners, the former especially, were very common among the +California Pioneers, and it is but natural that Oakhurst and Hamlin should +have had an unusual share of these attractions. + +Mr. Oakhurst appears in only a few of the stories, but there is a certain +intensity in the description of him which makes one almost certain that +he, like most of Bret Harte's characters, was drawn from life. "There was +something in his carriage, something in the pose of his beautiful head, +something in the strong and fine manliness of his presence, something in +the perfect and utter control and discipline of his muscles, something in +the high repose of his nature--a repose not so much a matter of +intellectual ruling as of his very nature,--that go where he would and +with whom, he was always a notable man in ten thousand." + +In this description one cannot help perceiving the Author's effort, not +quite successful perhaps, to lay his finger upon the essential trait of a +real and striking personality. + +In two stories only does he play the part of hero, these being _A Passage +in the Life of Mr. John Oakhurst_, and the immortal _Outcasts of Poker +Flat_. The former story closes with a characteristic remark. Two weeks +after the duel in which his right arm was disabled, Mr. Oakhurst "walked +into his rooms at Sacramento, and in his old manner took his seat at the +faro table. 'How's your arm, Jack?' asked an incautious player. There was +a smile following the question, which, however, ceased as Jack looked up +quietly at the speaker. 'It bothers my dealing a little, but I can shoot +as well with my left.' The game was continued in that decorous silence +which usually distinguished the table at which Mr. John Oakhurst +presided." + +It has been objected by one critic that Oakhurst and Jack Hamlin are too +much alike; but if we imagine one of these characters as placed in the +situation of the other, we cannot help seeing how very different they are. +Jack Hamlin could never have been infatuated, as Oakhurst was, by Mrs. +Decker,--or indeed by any woman. Oakhurst was too simple, too solid, too +grave a person to understand women. He lacked the humor, the sympathy, the +cynicism, and the acute perceptive powers of Hamlin. + +One of the best scenes in all Bret Harte is that in which Oakhurst bursts +in upon Mrs. Decker, recounts her guilt and treachery, and declares his +intention to kill her and then himself. "She did not faint, she did not +cry out. She sat quietly down again, folded her hands in her lap, and said +calmly,-- + +"'And why should you not?' + +"Had she recoiled, had she shown any fear or contrition, had she essayed +an explanation or apology, Mr. Oakhurst would have looked upon it as an +evidence of guilt. But there is no quality that courage recognizes so +quickly as courage, there is no condition that desperation bows before but +desperation; and Mr. Oakhurst's power of analysis was not so keen as to +prevent him from confounding her courage with a moral quality. Even in his +fury he could not help admiring this dauntless invalid."[75] + +Jack Hamlin's power of analysis was far more keen; and Mrs. Decker would +never have deceived him. + +The two men were equally brave, equally desperate, but perhaps Oakhurst +was the more heroic. The simplicity of his nature was more akin to heroism +than was the dashing, mercurial, laughter-loving temperament of Jack +Hamlin. Hamlin is almost always represented with companions, male or +female, but Oakhurst was a solitary man in life as in death. His dignity, +his reserve, even his want of humor tended to isolate him. Bret Harte, it +will be noticed, almost always speaks of him as "Mr." Oakhurst. Though he +was numbered among the outcasts of Poker Flat, he was far from being one +of them. + +There is a classic simplicity, not only in Bret Harte's account of +Oakhurst, but in the whole telling of the story, and a depth of feeling +which is more than classic. Every line of that marvellous tale seems to +thrill with anticipation of the tragedy in which it closes; and every +incident is described in the tense language of real emotion. "Mr. Oakhurst +was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed and cold. As he +stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing strongly, brought +to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave it,--snow!" + +Then comes the catastrophe of the snow-storm. We may condemn Oakhurst, on +this or that ground, for his act of self-destruction, but we cannot regard +it as weak or cowardly. To be capable of real despair is the mark of a +strong character. A weaker man will shuffle, disguise the truth in his own +mind, and hope not only against hope but against reason. Oakhurst, when he +saw that the cards were absolutely against him, having done all that he +could do for his helpless companions, decorously withdrew, and, in the +awful solitude of the forest and the storm, forever renounced that game of +life which he had played with so much courage and skill, and yet with so +little success. + +Jack Hamlin figures much more extensively than Oakhurst in the stories, +and he would probably be regarded by most readers of Bret Harte as the +Author's best creation, surpassing even Colonel Starbottle;--and, as Mr. +Chesterton exclaims, "How terrible it is to speak of any character as +surpassing Colonel Starbottle!" His traits are now almost as familiar as +those of George Washington; but the type was a new one, and it completely +revolutionized the ideal of the gambler which had long obtained both in +fiction and on the stage. As a London critic very neatly said, "With this +dainty and delicate California desperado, Bret Harte vanquished forever +the turgid villains of Ainsworth and Lytton." + +In his _Bohemian Days in San Francisco_ Bret Harte gives an account of the +real person who was undoubtedly Jack Hamlin's prototype. He speaks of his +handsome face, his pale Southern look, his slight figure, the scrupulous +elegance and neatness of his dress,--his genial manner, and the +nonchalance with which he set out for the duel that ended in his death. + +In the representation of Jack Hamlin there are some seeming discrepancies. +Such, for instance, is Hamlin's arrogant treatment of the ostler in _Brown +of Calaveras_, and still more his conduct toward Jenkinson, the +tavern-keeper, whom Don José Sepulvida, with contrasting Spanish courtesy, +described as "our good Jenkinson, our host, our father." The barkeeper in +_A Sappho of Green Springs_ fares no better at his hands; and in _Gabriel +Conroy_, Bret Harte, falling into the manner of Dickens at his very worst, +represents Jack Hamlin as concluding a tirade against a servant by +"intimating that he would forcibly dislodge certain vital and necessary +organs from the porter's body." Even less excusable is his retort to the +country youth in _The Convalescence of Jack Hamlin_; and in one story he +is actually guilty of rudeness to a woman, the unfortunate Heiress of Red +Dog. + +In these passages Bret Harte might be accused of admiring Jack Hamlin in +the wrong place. But was he not rather consciously depicting the bad +points of what would seem to have been his favorite character? Hamlin had +several imperfections. Bret Harte does not even represent him as a +gentleman, but only as an approach to one. In the story which first brings +us face to face with him, the gambler is described as lounging up and down +"with that listless and grave indifference of his class which was perhaps +the next thing to good breeding." + +That there should be any doubt as to the author's attitude upon this point +shows how carefully Bret Harte keeps his own personality in the +background. He does not sit in judgment upon his characters; he seldom +says even a word of praise or blame in regard to them. All that he leaves +to the reader. Moreover, he has a rare power of perceiving the defects of +his own heroes and heroines. Occasionally, in fact, the reader of Bret +Harte is a little shocked by his admission of some moral or intellectual +blemish in the person whom he is sketching; and yet, after a moment's +reflection, one is always forced to agree that the blemish is really +there, and that without it the portrait would be incomplete and +misleading. + +A fine example of this subtlety of art is found in _Maruja_, where the +author frankly declares that his heroine could not quite appreciate the +delicacy shown by Captain Carroll when he abstained from any display of +affection, lest he should presume upon the fact that he had just +undertaken a difficult service at her request. "Maruja stretched out her +hand. The young man bent over it respectfully, and moved toward the door. +She had expected him to make some protestation--perhaps even to claim some +reward. But the instinct which made him forbear even in thought to take +advantage of the duty laid upon him, which dominated even his miserable +passion for her, and made it subservient to his exaltation of honor, ... +all this, I grieve to say, was partly unintelligible to Maruja, and not +entirely satisfactory.... He might have kissed her! He did not." + +Bret Harte did not describe perfect characters or mere types, destitute of +individual peculiarities, but real men and women. Let us, therefore, be +thankful for Maruja's lack of delicacy and for Jack Hamlin's petulance and +arrogance. His failings in this respect were a part of the piquancy of +his character, and in part, also, they resulted from his discontent with +himself. + + +[Illustration: DENNISON'S EXCHANGE, AND PARKER HOUSE, DECEMBER, 1849, +BEFORE THE FIRE + +Copyright, Century Co.] + + +This discontent is hidden by his more obvious traits, his love of music +and of children, the facile manner in which he charmed and subdued horses, +dogs, servants, women, and all the other inferior animals, as Bret Harte +somewhere puts it; his scorn of all meanness, his chivalrous defence of +all weakness; his iron nerve; his self-confidence and easy, graceful +assurance; his appreciation of the refinements and niceties of existence. +These are his obvious qualities; but behind them all was something more +important and more original, namely, an undertone of self-condemnation +which ran through his life, and gave the last touch of recklessness and +_abandon_ to his character. We never quite realize what Jack Hamlin was +until we come to that scene in the story of his protegée where, grasping +by the shoulders the two blackguards who had discovered his secret and +were attempting to take advantage of it, he forced them beyond the rail, +above the grinding paddle-wheel of the flying steamer, and threatened to +throw himself and them beneath it. + +"'No,' said the gambler, slipping into the open space with a white and +rigid face in which nothing seemed living but the eyes,--'No; but it's +telling you how two d--d fools who didn't know when to shut their mouths +might get them shut once and forever. It's telling you what might happen +to two men who tried to "play" a man who didn't care to be "played,"--a +man who didn't care much what he did, when he did it, or how he did it, +but would do what he'd set out to do--even if in doing it he went to hell +with the men he sent there.' He had stepped out on the guards, beside the +two men, closing the rail behind him. He had placed his hands on their +shoulders; they had both gripped his arms; yet, viewed from the deck +above, they seemed at that moment an amicable, even fraternal group, +albeit the faces of the three men were dead white in the moonlight." + +One might draw a parallel, not altogether fanciful, between those three +figures standing in apparent quietude on the verge of what was worse than +a precipice, and those other three that compose the immortal group of the +Laocoön. + +The tragedy of Jack Hamlin's life, that which formed a dark background to +his gay and adventurous career, was his own deep dissatisfaction with his +lawless and predatory manner of existence. In this respect, his experience +was the universal experience intensified; and that is why one can find in +Hamlin something of that representative character which readers of many +different races and kinds have found in Hamlet. Who that has passed the +first flush of youth, and has ever taken a single glance at his own heart +will fail to sympathize with Jack Hamlin's self-disgust! It is this +feeling that goes as far as anything can go to reconcile a man to death, +for death ends the struggle. There is no remorse in the grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OTHER FORMS OF BUSINESS + + +"Two years ago," said the "Alta California" in 1851, "trade was a wild +unorganized whirl." Staple goods went furiously up and down in price like +wild-cat mining stocks. There was no telegraph by which supplies could be +ordered from the East or inquiries could be answered, and several months +must elapse before an order sent by mail to New York could be filled. A +merchant at Valparaiso once paid twenty thousand dollars for the +information contained in a single letter from San Francisco. + +Consignors in the East were almost wholly ignorant as to what people +needed in California, and how goods should be stowed for the long voyage +around the Cape. Great quantities of preserved food--it was before the +days of canning--were spoiled _en route_. Coal was shipped in bulk without +any ventilating appliances, and it often took fire and destroyed the +vessels in which it was carried. One unfortunate woman, the wife of a Cape +Cod sea-captain, was wrecked thrice in this way, having been transferred +from one coal-laden schooner to another, and later to a third, all of +which were set on fire by the heating of the coal, and burned to the +water's edge. In one of these adventures she was lashed to a chair on +deck, where she spent five days, in a rough sea, with smoke and gas +pouring from the ship at every seam. Her final escape was made in a +row-boat which landed at a desolate spot on the coast of Peru. + +Elaborate gold-washing machines which proved to be useless and ready-made +houses that nobody wanted were among the articles shipped to San +Francisco. The rate of interest was very high, capital being scarce, and +storage in warehouses was both insecure, from the great danger of fire, +and extremely expensive. It was, therefore, nearly impossible for the +merchants to hold their goods for a more favorable market. + +In July, 1849, lumber sold at the enormous rate of five hundred dollars a +thousand feet,--fifty times the New England price; but in the following +Spring, immense shipments having arrived, it brought scarcely enough to +pay the freight bills. Tobacco, which at first sold for two dollars a +pound, became so plentiful afterward that boxes of it were used for +stepping stones, and in one case, as Bret Harte has related, tobacco +actually supplied the foundation for a wooden house. + +Holes in the sidewalk were stopped with bags of rice or beans, with sacks +of coffee, and, on one occasion, with three barrels of revolvers, the +supply far exceeding even the California demand for that article. Potatoes +brought sixty dollars a bushel at wholesale in 1849, but were raised so +extensively in California the next year that the price fell to nothing, +and whole cargoes of these useful vegetables, just arrived from the East, +were dumped into the Bay. In some places near San Francisco it was really +feared that a pestilence would result from huge piles of superfluous +potatoes that lay rotting on the ground. Saleratus, worth in New York four +cents a pound, sold at San Francisco in 1848 for fifteen dollars a pound. +The menu of a breakfast for two at Sacramento in the same year was as +follows:-- + + 1 box of sardines, $16.00 + 1 pound of hard bread, 2.00 + 1 pound of butter, 6.00 + 1/2 pound of cheese, 3.00 + 2 bottles of ale, 16.00 + ------ + Total, $43.00 + +Flour in the mining camps cost four and even five dollars a pound, and +eggs were two dollars apiece. A chicken brought sixteen dollars; a +revolver, one hundred and fifty dollars; a stove, four hundred dollars; a +shovel, one hundred dollars. Laudanum was one dollar a drop, brandy twenty +dollars a bottle; and dried apples fluctuated from five cents to +seventy-five cents a pound. It is matter of history that a bilious miner +once gave fifteen dollars for a small box of Seidlitz powders, and at the +Stanislaus Diggings a jar of raisins, regarded as a cure for the scurvy +then prevailing, sold for their weight in gold, amounting to four thousand +dollars. As showing the dependence of California upon the East for +supplies, it is significant that even so late as 1853 six thousand tons of +hard bread were imported annually from New York. + +Wages and prices were high, but nobody complained of them. There was in +fact a disdain of all attempts to cheapen or haggle. Gold dust poured into +San Francisco from the launches and schooners which plied on the +Sacramento River, and almost everybody in California seemed to have it in +plenty. "Money," said a Pioneer in a letter written at the end of '49, "is +about the most valueless article that a man can have in his possession +here." + +As an illustration of the lavish manner in which business was transacted, +it may be mentioned that the stamp box in the express office of Wells, +Fargo and Company was a sort of common treasury. Clerks, messengers and +drivers dipped into it for change whenever they wanted a lunch or a drink. +There was nothing secret about this practice, and if not sanctioned it was +at least winked at by the superior officers. Huge lumps of gold were +exhibited in hotels and gambling houses, and the jingling of coins +rivalled the scraping of the fiddle as the characteristic music of San +Francisco. + +The first deposit in the United States Mint of gold from California was +made on December 8, 1848, and between that date and May 1, 1850, there +were presented for coinage gold dust and nuggets valued at eleven million +four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. A lot of land in San Francisco +rose from fifteen dollars in price to forty thousand dollars. In +September, 1850, bricklayers receiving twelve dollars a day struck for +fourteen dollars, and obtained the increase. The wages of carpenters +varied from twelve dollars to twenty dollars a day. Those who did best in +California were, as a rule, the small traders, the mechanics and skilled +workmen, and the professional men who, resisting the temptation to hunt +for gold, made money by being useful to the community. "It may truly be +said," remarked the "San Francisco Daily Herald" in 1852, "that California +is the only spot in the world where labor is not only on an equality with +capital, but to a certain extent is superior to it." + +Women cooks received one hundred dollars a month, and chambermaids and +nurses almost as much. Washerwomen made fortunes and founded families. A +resident of San Francisco went to the mines for four weeks, and came back +with a bag of gold dust which, he thought, would astonish his wife, who +had remained in the city; but meanwhile she had been "taking in washing," +at the rate of twelve dollars a dozen; and he was crestfallen to find that +her gains were twice as much as his. It was cheaper to have one's clothes +sent to China or the Sandwich Islands to be laundered, and some thrifty +and patient persons took that course. A valuable trade sprang up between +China and San Francisco. The solitude became a village, and the village a +city, with startling rapidity. In less than a year, twelve thousand people +gathered at Sacramento where there had not been a single soul. + +Events and changes followed one another so rapidly that each year formed +an epoch by itself. In 1853 men spoke of 1849 as of a romantic and +half-forgotten past. An old citizen was one who had been on the ground a +year. When Stephen J. Field offered himself as a candidate for the +newly-created office of Alcalde at Marysville, the supporters of a rival +candidate objected to Field as being a newcomer. He had been there only +three days. His opponent had been there six days. + +But in 1851 the material progress of California received a great, though +only a temporary, check. As commerce adjusted itself to the needs of the +community prices and wages fell. A drink cost fifteen cents (the half of +"two bits"), instead of fifty cents, which had been the usual price, and +the wages of day laborers shrank to five dollars a day. The change was +thus humorously described by an editor, obviously of Southern extraction: +"About this time the Yankees began to pour into San Francisco, to invest +in corner lots, and speculate in wooden gingerbread, framed houses and the +like. Prices gradually came down, and money which was once thrown about so +recklessly has now come to be regarded as an article of considerable +importance." + +In San Francisco there was almost a commercial panic. The city was heavily +in debt, many private fortunes were swept away, property was insecure, and +robbery and murder were common events. Delano relates that a young man of +his acquaintance, a wild and daring fellow, was offered at this time a +salary of seven hundred dollars a month, to steal horses and mules in a +large, systematic and business-like manner.[76] + +The tone of the San Francisco papers in 1851 was by no means cheerful. The +following is the description which the "Alta California" gave of the city +in December of that year: "Our city is certainly an unfortunate one in the +matter of public accommodation. Her wharves are exposed to tempestuous +northers and to the ravages of the worm; the piles that are driven into +the mud for houses to rest upon are forced out of their perpendicular and +crowded over by pressure of sand used in filling in other water lots +against them; a most valuable portion of the city survey is converted into +a filthy lake or salt water _laguna_ filled with garbage, dead animals and +refuse matter from the streets; the streets are narrow and are constructed +with sidewalks so irregular, miserable, and behampered as to drive off +passengers into the middle of the street to take the chance of being +ridden over and trampled under foot by scores of recklessly driven mules +and horses; with drays, wagons and carriages without number to deafen, +confuse and endanger the unfortunate pedestrian. A few thin strips of +boards, pieces of dry-goods boxes or barrel staves constitute the +sidewalks in some of our most important thoroughfares, and even this +material is so irregularly and insecurely laid that the walks are shunned +as stumbling places full of man-traps; more than all this, the sidewalks +of the principal streets in the city are strewn and obstructed with shop +wares." + +The first Vigilance Committee of 1851 checked crime and restored order for +a short period, and the second Vigilance Committee of 1856, together with +the election which followed it, effected a most decided and lasting +improvement in the government of San Francisco, and especially in the +management of its police. In the brief account already given of James King +and his career, this episode in California life has been touched upon. + +The fires which successively overran the cities of California, and +especially San Francisco, were another source of disaster to the business +world. There were many small fires in San Francisco and six +conflagrations, all within two years. The first of these occurred in +December, '49, the loss being about one million dollars. A characteristic +act at this fire was that of a merchant whose shop had been burned, but +who had saved several hundred suits of black clothes. Having no place for +storing them, and seeing that they would be stolen or ruined, he gave +them away to the bystanders. "Help yourselves, gentlemen!" he cried. The +invitation was accepted, and the next day an unusual proportion of the +citizens of San Francisco were observed to be in mourning. + +In May, and again in June, 1850, there were large fires, and it was after +these disasters that the use of cloth for the sides and roofs of buildings +was prohibited by law. Up to that time the shops of the city had been +constructed very commonly of that highly inflammable material. + +In September, 1850, there was another but less destructive fire, and on +May 4, 1851, occurred the "great fire," in which the loss of property was +at least seven million dollars. It was estimated at the time at fifteen +million dollars. This conflagration produced a night of horror such as +even California had not seen before. The fire started at eleven P. M., and +the flames were fanned by a strong, westerly breeze. The glow in the sky +was seen at Monterey,--one hundred miles distant. So rapidly did the +flames spread that merchants in some cases removed their stock of goods +four or five times, and yet had them overtaken and destroyed in the end. +Since the burning of Moscow no other city had suffered so much from fire. +Delicate women, driven from their homes at midnight, were wandering +through the streets, with no protection from the raw wind except their +nightclothes. A sick man was carried from his bed in a burning house, and +placed in the street, where, amid all the turmoil of the scene, the +roaring of the flames, the shouts, cries and imprecations of men, amid +falling sparks and cinders, and jostled by the half-frenzied passers-by, +he breathed his last. + +Among the brave acts performed at this fire was that of a clerk who picked +up a burning box which contained canisters of powder, carried it a block +on his shoulder, and threw it into a pool of water. It was during this +fire, also, that an American flag, released by the burning of the cord +which held it, soared away, above the flames and smoke, while a cry that +was half a cheer and half a sob, burst from the throats of the crowd +beneath it. + +But, great as this disaster was, the merchants rallied from it with true +California courage. "One year here," wrote the Reverend Mr. Colton, "will +do more for your philosophy than a lifetime elsewhere. I have seen a man +sit and quietly smoke his cigar while his house went heavenward in a +column of flame." This was exemplified in the great fire. Men began to +fence in their lots although the smouldering ruins still emitted an almost +suffocating heat. Contracts for new stores were made while the old ones +were yet burning; and in many cases the ground was cleared, and temporary +buildings went up before the ashes of the burned buildings had cooled. +Lumber, fortunately, was abundant, and the morning after the fire every +street and lane leading to the ruined district was crowded with wagons +full of building tools and material. The city resembled a hive of bees +after it has been rifled of its honey. + +The smaller cities suffered almost as severely from fire. Sacramento was +burned twice and flooded three times before the year 1854. In _The +Reincarnation of Smith_, Bret Harte describes the appearance of the city +when the river upon which it is situated suddenly burst its banks and "a +great undulation of yellow water" swept through the streets of the city. +Two other stories, _In the Tules_ and _When the Waters Were Up at +"Jules',"_ deal with the floods of 1854 and of 1860, and in the first of +these the escape of Martin Morse, the solitary inhabitant of the +river-bank, is described. "But one night he awakened with a start. His +hand, which was hanging out of his bunk, was dabbling idly in water. He +had barely time to spring to his middle in what seemed to be a slowly +filling tank before the door fell out as from inward pressure, and his +whole shanty collapsed like a pack of cards. But it fell outwards, the +roof sliding from over his head like a withdrawn canopy; and he was swept +from his feet against it, and thence out into what might have been another +world! For the rain had ceased, and the full moon revealed only one vast, +illimitable expanse of water! As his frail raft swept under a cottonwood +he caught at one of the overhanging limbs, and, working his way +desperately along the bough, at last reached a secure position in the fork +of the tree." + +Martin Morse was saved eventually; but another victim of the same flood, +and not a fictitious one, was found dead from exposure and exhaustion in +the tree which he had reached by swimming. So close, even in small +incidents, are Bret Harte's stories to the reality of California life! + +During this freshet a man and his wife, who occupied a ranch on the +Feather River, had an experience more remarkable than that of Martin +Morse. They took refuge, first, on the roof of their house, and then, when +the house floated off, they clung to a piece of timber, and so drifted to +a small island. But here they found a prior occupant in the person of a +grizzly bear, and to escape him they climbed a tree, whence they were +rescued the next morning. + +What with fire and flood added to the uncertainties and vicissitudes of +trade carried on thousands of miles from the base of supplies, with no +telegraphic communication and only a fortnightly mail; what with land +values rising and falling; with cities and towns springing up like +mushrooms and often withering as quickly;--under these circumstances, and +in a stimulating climate, it is no wonder that the Californians lived a +feverish, and often a reckless life. The Pioneers could recount more +instances of misfortune and more triumphs over misfortune than any other +people in the world. But suicides were frequent,--they numbered +twenty-nine in San Francisco in a single year,--and one of the first +public buildings erected by the State was an Insane Asylum at Stockton. It +was quickly filled. + +Nevertheless, contemporary with the feverish life of the mining camp and +the city was the life of the farm and the vineyard; and this, too, was not +neglected by Bret Harte. The agricultural resources of California were +beginning to be known even before the discovery of gold, and many of those +who crossed the Plains in '49 and '50 were bent not upon mining but upon +farming. Others, who failed as miners, or who were thrown out of business +by the hard times of '51 and '56, turned to the fertile valleys and +hillsides for support. Monterey, on the lower coast of central California, +was the sheep county; and flocks of ten thousand from Ohio and of one +hundred thousand from Mexico were grazing there before 1860. In that year +it was said to contain more sheep than could be found in any other county +in the United States. Tasajara was known as a "cow county." + +An immigrant from New Jersey, in 1850, brought thirty thousand fruit +trees; and by 1859 the Foot-Hills in the counties of Yuba, Nevada, El +Dorado and Sacramento were covered with vineyards, interspersed with +vine-clad cottages, where, a few years before, there had been only the +rough and scattered huts of a few miners. + +Immense quantities of wheat were raised, especially in Humboldt County on +the northern coast of the State, where we hear of crops averaging sixty +bushels to the acre. In 1860 the surplus of wheat, the quantity, that is, +available for exportation, exceeded three million bushels; and the barley +crop was still larger. The Stanislaus and Santa Clara Valleys, not far +from San Francisco, and southeast of the city, were also grain-growing +districts, as is recorded in Bret Harte's story _Through the Santa Clara +Wheat_. + +He describes his heroine as following her guide between endless rows of +stalks, rising ten and even twelve feet high, like "a long, pillared +conservatory of greenish glass." "She also discovered that the close air +above her head was continually freshened by the interchange of lower +temperature from below,--as if the whole vast field had a circulation of +its own,--and that the adobe beneath her feet was gratefully cool to her +tread. There was no dust; what had at first half suffocated her seemed to +be some stimulating aroma of creation that filled the narrow green aisles, +and now imparted a strange vigor and excitement to her as she walked +along." + +So early as 1851 the newspapers began to publish articles about the +opportunities for farming, and soon afterward the "California Farmer," an +excellent weekly, was started at Sacramento, and supplied the community +with news in general as well as with agricultural information. One can +imagine the relief with which in those strenuous days the reader of the +"Farmer" turned from accounts of robbery, murder, suicide and lynching to +gentle disquisitions upon the rearing of calves, the merits of Durham +steers, and the most approved method of fattening sheep in winter. The +Hubbard squash, then a novelty, was treated by the "Farmer" as seriously +as the Constitutional Convention, or the expulsion of foreigners from the +mines. Practical subjects, as for instance, subsoil ploughs, remedies for +smut, and recipes for rhubarb wine, were carefully discussed by this +Pioneer agriculturist; and not infrequently he rose to higher themes, such +as "The Age of the Earth," and "The Influence of Females on Society." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LITERATURE, JOURNALISM AND RELIGION + + +Most of the newspaper men in the early days of California were Southerners +or under Southern influence, as is plain from many indications. For +example, duelling and shooting at sight were common editorial +functions.[77] + +Bret Harte, in _An Episode of Fiddletown_, gives an instance: "An +unfortunate _rencontre_ took place on Monday last between the Honorable +Jackson Flash, of the 'Dutch Flat Intelligencer,' and the well-known +Colonel Starbottle of this place, in front of the Eureka Saloon. Two shots +were fired by the parties without injury to either, although it is said +that a passing Chinaman received fifteen buckshot in the calves of his +legs from the Colonel's double-barrelled shotgun which were not intended +for him. John will learn to keep out of the way of Melican man's firearms +hereafter." + +This fictitious incident can be paralleled almost exactly from the +California papers of the day. In July, 1851, a certain Colonel Johnston +pulled the nose of the Editor of the "Marysville Times," whereupon the +Editor drew a pistol, and the Colonel ran away. In September of the same +year the "Alta California" announced that a duel between one of the +proprietors of that paper and a brother to the Governor of the State had +been prevented by the police. In March, 1851, two Sacramento Editors had a +dispute in the course of which one endeavored to shoot the other. In May +of the same year, the Editor of the "Calaveras Chronicle" fought a duel +with another citizen of that town, and was dangerously wounded. In +November, 1860, the Editor of the "Visalia Delta" was killed in a street +affray. In San Francisco a duel took place between ex-Governor McDougall +and the Editor of "The Picayune," "A. C. Russell, Esq." + +This use of "Esquire," by the way, was an English custom imported to +California by way of the South, and many humorous examples of it may be +found in Bret Harte. Thus, in the "Star's" account of "Uncle Ben" Dabney's +sudden elevation to wealth and to a more aristocratic name, we read: +"Benjamin Daubigny, Esq., who left town for Sacramento on important +business, not entirely unconnected with his new interests in Indian +Springs, will, it is rumored, be shortly joined by his wife, who has been +enabled by his recent good fortune to leave her old home in the States, +and take her proper proud position by his side.... Mr. Daubigny was +accompanied by his private secretary, Rupert, the eldest son of H. G. +Filgee, Esq.,"--"H. G. Filgee, Esq." being a species of bar-room loafer. + +Another indication of the Southern origin of Californian Editors is the +Starbottlian lack of humor which they often display. In August, 1850, the +junior Editor of the "Alta California" published an extremely long letter +in that paper describing his personal difficulties with two acquaintances, +and concluding as follows: "I had simply intended in our interview to +pronounce Messrs. Crane and Rice poltroons and cowards, and spit in their +faces; and had they seen fit to resent it on the spot, I was prepared for +them."--Nothing more. The "Sacramento Transcript" concluded the account of +a funeral as follows: "She was buried in a neat mahogany coffin, furnished +by Mr. Earle Youmans at one half the established price." The "San +Francisco Daily Herald" of June 21, 1852, contains a very long, minute, +and extremely technical account of a prize-fight, written with evident +relish, but concluding with a wholly unexpected comment as follows: "Thus +ended this brutal exhibition!" + +The editorial tone, especially in San Francisco, was distinguished by +great solemnity, but it was the assumed solemnity of youth, for the +Editors, like everybody else in California, were young. None but a +youthful journalist could have written a leading article, published one +Monday in a San Francisco paper, describing a sermon which the writer had +heard on the preceding Sunday, giving the name of the preacher, and +complaining bitterly, not that he was heterodox or bigoted, but that he +was stupid and uninteresting! + +In fact, the California Editors, despite the solemnity of their tone, +showed a decided inclination to deal with the amusing, rather than with +the serious, aspects of life. The "Sacramento Transcript" in August, 1850, +contained a column letter, in large type, minutely describing "an alleged +difficulty" which occurred at the American Fork House, between Mr. +Gelston of Sacramento, and Mr. Drake, "who has been stopping at this place +for his health,"--with poor results, it is to be feared. In another issue +of the same paper two columns are devoted to an account of a practical +joke played upon a French barber in San Francisco. + +Most of all, however, did the California journalists betray their youth, +and their Southern origin as well, by the ornate style and the hyperbole +in which the early papers indulged, and which are often satirized by Bret +Harte. An editorial article dealing with the prospects of California began +as follows: "When the eagle, emblem of model Republican liberty, winged +its final flight westward from its home where Atlantic surges chafe our +shores, and sought the sunny clime of the mild Pacific Strand, it bore in +its strong talons," and so forth for a sentence of one hundred and twenty +words. + +But the California newspapers, though often crude and provincial, were +almost wholly free from vulgarity. In this respect they far excelled the +average newspaper of to-day. There was nothing of the Philistine about +them. They give the impression of having been written "by gentlemen and +for gentlemen." These California writers were, indeed, very young +gentlemen, as we have seen, and they often lacked breadth of view, +self-restraint, and knowledge of the world, but they were essentially men +of honor, and in public matters they took high ground. The important part +played by the "Bulletin" and its Editor, James King, has already been +described. Nor did they lack literary skill, as is sufficiently shown by +some of the passages from San Francisco papers already quoted. A +correspondent of the "Sacramento Transcript," writing in July, 1850, from +the northern mines, gives an account of the destruction by fire of a store +and restaurant owned by a Mr. Cook, concluding as follows: "With the +recuperative energy so peculiar to American character, Mr. Cook has +already gone down to your city to purchase a new stock, having +reëstablished his boarding-house before leaving. The son of Ethiopia who +conducts the culinary department is not the darker for 'the cloud which +has lowered o'er our house,' and deprived him of many of the instruments +of his office." + +The delicate humor of the last sentence does not seem out of place in the +"Sacramento Transcript" of that date. The same paper published on the +fourth of July, 1850, a patriotic leader which closed with these +words,--they appear far from extravagant now, but at that time they must +have sounded like a rash and audacious prophecy: "'God Save the Queen' and +'Yankee Doodle' will blend in unison around the world." + +The first newspaper published in California was a small sheet called "The +Californian," started at Monterey in the Fall of 1846, and printed half +in English, half in Spanish. Needless to say, its conductors were +Americans.[78] They had discovered in the ruins of the Mission, and used +for this purpose, an old press which the Spaniards had imported in the day +of their rule for printing the edicts of the Governor. In the following +year "The Californian" was removed to San Francisco. Many other newspapers +sprang into existence after the discovery of gold, especially the "Alta +California," which became the leading journal on the Pacific Slope. By the +end of 1850 there were fifteen newspapers in the State, including six +daily papers in San Francisco, and that excellent home and farm weekly, +the "California Farmer." + +As for the buoyant, confident tone of these Pioneer papers, exaggerated +though it was, it only reflected the general feeling. So early as +November, 1851, a meeting was held in San Francisco to advocate the +building of a railroad which should connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. +In June, 1850, the "Sacramento Transcript" warned Europe as follows: "The +present is the most remarkable period the world has ever been called upon +to pass through.... The nations are centering hitherward. Europe is poor, +California is rich, and equilibrium is inevitable. Four years will pass, +and ours will be the most popular State in the Union. She is putting in +the Keystone of Commerce, and concentrating the trade of the world." + +Moreover, busy as the Pioneers were, their reading was not confined to +newspapers. Bret Harte said of them: "Eastern magazines and current +Eastern literature formed their literary recreation, and the sale of the +better class of periodicals was singularly great. Nor was their taste +confined to American literature. The illustrated and satirical English +journals were as frequently seen in California as in Massachusetts; and +the author records that he has experienced more difficulty in procuring a +copy of 'Punch' in an English provincial town than was his fortune at 'Red +Dog' or 'One-Horse Gulch.'" + + +[Illustration: MAIN STREET, NEVADA CITY, 1852 + +From a photograph in the possession of Colonel Thomas L. Livermore] + + +This statement has been questioned, but it is borne out by the +contemporary records and publications. The "Atlantic Monthly," for +example, was regularly advertised in the California papers, and the +"Atlantic" at that time was essentially a literary magazine. In the list +of its contributors published in the "California Farmer" are the names of +Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Parsons, Whittier, Prescott, Mrs. +Stowe, Motley, Herman Melville, C. C. Felton, F. J. Child, Edmund Quincy, +J. T. Trowbridge, and G. W. Curtis. The London "Illustrated News" had a +particularly large sale among the Pioneers, although the California price +was a dollar a copy. + +The shifting character of the population, and the fact, already mentioned, +that, almost to a man, the Pioneers expected to return to the East within +a few months, or, at the latest, within a year or two,--these reasons +discouraged the founding of permanent institutions such as libraries and +colleges; but even in this direction something was done at an early date. +The rush of immigration began in the Spring of 1849, and within less than +a year a meeting had been held at San Francisco to establish a State +college; a State library had been founded at San José; mercantile library +associations had been started both in San Francisco and Sacramento, and an +auction sale of books had been held in the latter city. + +In September, 1850, an audience gathered at Stockton to hear a lecture +upon so recondite a subject as the "State of Learning from the Fall of +Rome to the Fall of Constantinople." In June, 1851, a San Francisco firm +advertised the receipt by the latest steamer of ten thousand new books, +including the complete works of Dickens and Washington Irving. In +November, 1851, a literary society called The California Institute was +organized in San Francisco, and in April, 1856, some one entertained a +hall full of people by giving an account of a lecture which Cardinal +Wiseman had delivered in London upon the Perception of Natural Beauty by +the Ancients and Moderns. + +Before the close of 1856 numerous boarding-schools had been established, +such as the Alameda Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies and Gentlemen, +the Stockton Female Seminary, the Female Institute at Santa Clara, the +Collegiate Institute at Benicia, the Academy of Notre Dame at San José. + +The "legitimate drama," and even Shakspere, flourished in California. In +the Summer of 1850 Charles R. Thorne was playing at Sacramento, and in the +Autumn "Richard III" and "Macbeth" were on the boards there. In the Fall +of 1851 two theatres were open in San Francisco, "Othello" being the play +at one, "Ernest Maltravers" at the other. In 1852 "The Hunchback" was +performed in the same city with Miss Baker, the once-famous Philadelphia +actress, in the leading part. There was no exaggeration in the remark made +by the "Sacramento Transcript" in May, 1850: "Nowhere have we seen more +critical theatrical audiences than those which meet nightly in +Sacramento.... Every mind is wide awake, and the discriminating eye of an +impartial public easily selects pure worth from its counterfeit." + +An amusing incident, which would have delighted Charles Lamb, and which +shows the youthfulness, the humor, and, equally, the decorum of the +California audience, is thus related by an eye-witness: "One night at the +theatre a countryman from Pike, sitting in the 'orchestra' near the stage, +and becoming uncomfortably warm, took off his coat. Thereupon the +gallery-gods roared and hissed,--stopping the play until the garment +should be resumed. Some one touched the man on the shoulder and explained +the situation. The hydra watched and waited. Shirt-sleeves appeared to be +refractory, and a terrific roar came from the hydra. Shirt-sleeves, +quailing at the sound, and at the angry looks and gestures of those who +sat near him, started up with an air of coerced innocence, and resumed his +_toga virilis_. The yell of triumph that arose from the 'gods' in their +joyful sense of victory was beyond the description of tongue or pen."[79] + +It was remarked at an early date that nothing really satisfied the +Pioneers unless it was the best of its kind that could be obtained, +whether that kind were good or bad. Thus San Francisco, as many travellers +observed, had the prettiest courtesans, the truest guns and pistols, the +purest cigars and the finest wines and brandies to be found in the United +States. The neatness and good style which marked the best hotels and +restaurants prove the natural refinement of the people. Bret Harte has +spoken of the old family silver which figured at a certain coffeehouse in +San Francisco; and the Rev. Dr. Bushnell, who, being a minister, may +perhaps be cited as an expert on this subject, was impressed by the good +food and the excellent service which the traveller in California +enjoyed:-- + +"Passing hither and thither on the little steamers to Marysville, to +Stockton, to the towns north of the Bay, where often the number of +passengers did not exceed thirty, we have seen again and again a table +most neatly set, the silver bright and clean, the meals well prepared and +good, without any nonsense of show dishes, the servants tidy, quiet and +respectful,--the whole entertainment more rational and better than we have +ever seen on Mississippi steamboats, or on those of the Atlantic +Coast."[80] + +The steamers that plied up and down the Sacramento were "fast, elegant, +commodious." In July, 1851, some one gave an aristocratic evening party in +the heart of the mountains, fifty miles from Marysville. A long artificial +bower had been constructed under which were spread tables ornamented with +flowers, and loaded with delicious viands, turkeys at twenty dollars +apiece, pigs as costly, jellies, East India preserves, and ice cream. Some +of the guests came from a great distance, ten, twenty, and even thirty +miles. "No gamblers were present," said the local paper which gave an +account of the affair, thus showing how quickly the social line was drawn. + +But even if we regard the beginnings of education and literature in +California as somewhat meagre, it is otherwise with religion. Those who +have looked upon the early California society as essentially lawless and +immoral will be surprised to find how large and how potent was the +religious element. Churches sprang up almost as quickly as gambling +houses. The Baptists have the credit of erecting, in the Summer of '49, +the first church building; but Father William Taylor, the Methodist, was a +close second. Father Taylor set out to build a church with his own hands. +Every morning he crossed the Bay from San Francisco to San Antonio Creek +and toiled with his axe in a grove of redwoods until he had cut down and +hewn into shape the needed timber. This he transported in a sloop to the +city, and then, with the aid of his congregation, constructed the church +which was finished in October, '49. By September, 1850, the following +congregations had been formed in San Francisco: one Catholic, four +Methodist (one being for negroes), one Presbyterian, one Congregational, +one Baptist, one Episcopal, one Union Church. Three separate services +were held at the Catholic Church, which was the largest, one in English, +one in Spanish, one in French. Two years later a Jewish synagogue was +established. + +In July, 1850, five Episcopal clergymen met at San Francisco to create the +diocese of California, and in the following month Dr. Horatio Southgate +was elected Bishop. In the same year the San Francisco Bible Society was +formed, and the next year, the "California Christian Advocate," a +Methodist paper, began publication. + +At Sacramento, in the Spring of 1850, the Episcopalians, Methodists, +Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians were holding regular +services, and church building had begun. In July, 1851, a Methodist +College at San José was incorporated; and in the same month the San +Francisco papers have a long and enthusiastic account of a concert given +by the children of the Baptist church there. "It was like an oasis in the +desert for weary travellers," remarked one of them. A Sacramento paper +speaking of a school festival in that city said: "No bull-fight, +horse-race or card-table ever gave so much pleasure to the spectators." + +A miner, writing from Stockton on a Sunday morning in October, 1851, says, +"The church bell is tolling, and gayly-dressed ladies are passing by the +window." + +The congregations at the early religious meetings were extremely +impressive, being composed almost wholly of men, and of men young, +vigorous and sincere. As Professor Royce remarks: "Nobody gained anything +by hypocrisy in California, and consequently there were few hypocrites. +The religious coldness of a larger number who at home would have seemed to +be devout did not make the progress of the churches in California less +sure." And he speaks of the impression which these early congregations of +men made upon his mother. "She saw in their countenances an intensity of +earnestness that made her involuntarily thank God for making so grand a +being as man." + +It has often been remarked that in times of unbelief and lax morality +there is always found a small element in the community which maintains the +standard of faith and conduct with a strictness wholly alien to the +period. Such was the case in the Roman Empire just before and just after +the advent of the Christian religion. So, in the English Church, in its +most idle, most worldly, most unspiritual days, as before the Evangelical +movement, and again before the Tractarian movement, there was a small body +of priests and laymen, chiefly, as in the Roman Empire, isolated persons +living in the country, who preserved the torch of faith, humility and +self-denial, and served as a nucleus for the new party which was to revive +and reform the Church. Extremes can be met only by extremes. Intense +worldliness can be vanquished only by intense unworldliness; unbelief +fosters faith among a few; and the more loose the habits of the majority, +the more severe will be the practice of the minority. + +This was abundantly seen in California. As Bret Harte himself said: +"Strangely enough, this grave materialism flourished side by side +with--and was even sustained by--a narrow religious strictness more +characteristic of the Pilgrim Fathers of a past century than the Western +Pioneers of the present. San Francisco was early a city of churches and +church organizations to which the leading men and merchants belonged. The +lax Sundays of the dying Spanish race seemed only to provoke a revival of +the rigors of the Puritan Sabbath. With the Spaniard and his Sunday +afternoon bull-fight scarcely an hour distant, the San Francisco pulpit +thundered against Sunday picnics. One of the popular preachers, declaiming +upon the practice of Sunday dinner-giving, averred that when he saw a +guest in his best Sunday clothes standing shamelessly upon the doorstep +of his host, he felt like seizing him by the shoulder and dragging him +from that threshold of perdition." + +An example of this narrow, not to say Pharisaic point of view was +commented upon as follows by the "San Francisco Daily Herald" of February +3, 1852: "Of all countries in the world California is the least favorable +to cant and bigotry.... It is not surprising that a general feeling of +loathing should have been created by an article which recently appeared in +a so-called religious newspaper having the title of the 'Christian +Advocate,' commenting in terms of invidious and slanderous malignity on +the fact of Miss Coad, recently attached to the American Theatre, being +engaged to sing in the choir of the Pacific Church." + +This is well enough, though put in an extravagant and rather boyish way; +but the writer then goes on in the true Colonel Starbottle manner as +follows: "With the conductors of a clerical press it is difficult to deal. +Under the cloak of piety they do not hesitate to libel and malign, and at +the same time not recognizing the responsibility of gentlemen [Colonel +Starbottle's phrase], and being therefore not fit subjects of attack in +retort, one feels almost ashamed in checking their stupidity or reproving +their falsehood." And so on at great length. + +Nevertheless, the Puritan minority, reinforced by the good sense of a +majority of the Pioneers, very quickly succeeded in modifying the free and +easy life of San Francisco, and later of the mining regions. Gamblers of +the better sort, and business men in general, welcomed and supported the +churches as tending to the peace and prosperity even of the Pacific Slope. +"I have known five men," wrote the Reverend Mr. Colton, "who never +contributed a dollar in the States for the support of a clergyman, +subscribe here five hundred dollars each per annum, merely to encourage, +as they termed it, 'a good sort of a thing in a community.'"[81] + +The steps taken in 1850 and 1851 to prohibit or restrain gambling have +already been noticed. In August, 1850, the Grand Jury condemned +bull-baiting and prize-fighting at any time, and theatrical and like +exhibitions on Sunday. In September of the same year, the "Sacramento +Transcript" said, "The bull-fights we have had in this city have been +barbarous and disgusting in the extreme, and their toleration on any +occasion is disgraceful." + +This sentiment prevailed, and shortly afterward bull-fights in Sacramento +were forbidden by city ordinance. A year later gambling houses and +theatres, both in San Francisco and Sacramento, were closed on Sunday, and +we find the "Alta California" remarking on a Monday morning in May, +"Yesterday all was like Sunday in the East, as quiet as the fury of the +winds would allow. Two years ago under similar circumstances many hundreds +of men would have forgotten the day, and the busy hum of business would +have rung throughout the land." + +In the mines Sunday, at first, was almost wholly disregarded; but +abstention from work on that day was soon found to be a physical +necessity. Thus an English miner wrote home, "We have all of us given over +working on Sundays, as we found the toil on six successive days quite hard +enough." + +Men who stood by their principles in California never lost anything by +that course. A merchant from Salem, Massachusetts, came up the Sacramento +River with a cargo of goods in December, 1848. Early on the morning after +his arrival three men with three mules appeared on the bank of the river +to purchase supplies for the mines. It being Sunday, however, the man from +Salem refused to do business on that day, but, after the New England +fashion, accommodated his intending customers with a little good advice. +This they resented in a really violent manner, and went off in a rage, +swearing that they would never trade with such a Puritanical hypocrite. +Yet they came back the next morning, purchased goods then, and on various +later occasions, and finally made the Sabbath-keeper their banker, +depositing in his safe many thousands of dollars. + +Even a matter so unpopular as that of temperance reform was not neglected +by the religious people. A temperance society was organized at Sacramento +in June, 1850, addresses were made in the Methodist chapel, and numerous +persons, including some city officials, signed a total abstinence pledge. +"The subject is an old one," the "Sacramento Transcript" naïvely remarked; +"but this is a new country. Temperance is rather a new idea here, and its +introduction among us seems almost like a novel movement." In the same +month and year a similar society was formed in San Francisco, and +arrangements were made to celebrate the Fourth of July "on temperance +principles." + +The most genuine, the most thorough-going kind of religion found in +California was that of the Western Pioneers, who were mainly Methodists +and Baptists of a rude, primitive sort. Nothing could be further from Bret +Harte's manner of thinking, and yet he has depicted the type with his +usual insight, though perhaps not quite with his usual sympathy. Joshua +Rylands, in _Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation_ (a story already mentioned), is +one example of it, and Madison Wayne, in _The Bell-Ringer of Angel's_, is +another. Of all Bret Harte's stories this is the most tragic, a terrible +fate overtaking every one of the four characters who figure in it. Madison +Wayne is a Calvinistic Puritan,--a New Englander such as has not been seen +in New England for a hundred years, but only in that Far West to which +New England men penetrated, and in which New England ideas and beliefs, +protected by the isolation of prairie and forest, survived the scientific +and religious changes of two centuries. + +In _A Night at Hays'_ we have the same character under a more morose +aspect. "Always a severe Presbyterian and an uncompromising deacon, he +grew more rigid, sectarian, and narrow day by day.... A grim landlord, +hard creditor, close-fisted patron, and a smileless neighbor who neither +gambled nor drank, old Hays, as he was called, while yet scarce fifty, had +few acquaintances and fewer friends." + +In _An Apostle of the Tules_ Bret Harte has described a camp-meeting of +Calvinistic families whose gloom was heightened by malaria contracted from +the Stockton marshes. "One might have smiled at the idea of the +vendetta-following Ferguses praying for 'justification by faith'; but the +actual spectacle of old Simon Fergus, whose shotgun was still in his +wagon, offering up that appeal with streaming eyes and agonized features, +was painful beyond a doubt." + +As for Bret Harte's own religious views, it can scarcely be said that he +had any. He was indeed brought up with some strictness as an Episcopalian, +his mother being of that faith; and when he returned from her funeral with +his sisters, he seemed deeply moved by the beauty of the Episcopal burial +service, and expressed the hope that it would be read at his own grave. +His friends in this country remember that he declined to take part in +certain amusements on Sunday, remarking that, though he saw no harm in +them, he could not shake off the more strict notions of Sunday observance +in which he had been trained as a child. Through life he had a horror of +gambling, and always refused even to play cards for money. In San +Francisco he used to attend the church where his friend Starr King +preached, and in New York he was often present at another Unitarian +church, that of the Reverend O. B. Frothingham; but this seems to have +been the extent of his church-going, and of his connection, external or +internal, with any form of Christianity. + +Nor, so far as one can judge from his writings, and from such of his +letters as have been published, was he one who thought much or cared much +about those mysteries of human existence with which religion is supposed +to deal. Even as a child, Bret Harte had no sense of sin,--no sense of +that hideous discrepancy between character and ideals, between conduct and +duty, which ought to oppress all men, and which, at some period of their +lives, does oppress most men. Everybody, from the Digger Indian up, has a +standard of right and wrong; everybody is aware that he continually falls +below that standard; and from these two facts of consciousness arise the +sense of sin, remorse, repentance, and the instinct of expiation. Perhaps +this is religion, or the fundamental feeling upon which religion is based. + +To be deficient in this feeling is a great defect in any man, most of all +in a man of powerful intellect. In a letter, Bret Harte, speaking of +"Pilgrim's Progress," says that he read it as a boy, but that the book +made no impression upon him, except that the characters seemed so +ridiculous that he could not help laughing at them. This statement gives a +rather painful shock even to the irreligious reader. The truth is, Bret +Harte had the moral indifference, the spiritual serenity of a Pagan, and, +as a necessary concomitant, that superficial conception of human life and +destiny which belongs to Paganism. + +Benjamin Jowett, speaking of the Mediæval hymns, said, "We seem to catch +from them echoes of deeper feelings than we are capable of." That +Mediæval, Gothic depth of feeling, that consciousness of sin and mystery +hanging over and enveloping man's career on earth, survives even in some +modern writers, as in Hawthorne, George Eliot, Tolstoi, and, by a kind of +negation, in Thomas Hardy; and it gives to their stories a sombre and +imposing background which is lacking in the tales of Bret Harte and of +Kipling. + +It is owing partly to this defect, and partly to the unfortunate character +of most of the ministers who reached California before 1860, that the +clerical element fares but ill in Bret Harte's stories.[82] His most +frequent type is the smooth, oily, self-seeking hypocrite. Such is the +Reverend Joshua McSnagley whose little affair with Deacon Parnell's +"darter" is sarcastically mentioned in _Roger Catron's Friend_, and who +comes to a violent end in _M'liss_. The Reverend Mr. Staples who meanly +persecutes the Youngest Prospector in Calaveras, is McSnagley under +another name; and the same type briefly appears again in the Reverend Mr. +Peasley, who greets the New Assistant at Pine Clearing School "with a +chilling Christian smile"; in the Reverend Mr. Belcher, who attempts the +reform of Johnnyboy; and still again in Parson Greenwood, who profits by +the Convalescence of Jack Hamlin to learn the mysteries of poker, and of +whom the gambler said that, when he had successfully "bluffed" his +fellow-players, "there was a smile of humble self-righteousness on his +face that was worth double the money." + +A much less conventional and more interesting type is that of the jovial, +loud-voiced hypocrite who conceals a cold heart and a selfish nature with +an affectation of frankness and geniality. Such are the Reverend Mr. +Windibrook in _A Belle of Cañada City_, and Father Wynn, described in _The +Carquinez Woods_. It was Father Wynn who thus addressed the +newly-converted expressman, to the great disgust and embarrassment of that +youth: "'Good-by, good-by, Charley, my boy, and keep in the right path; +not up or down, or round the gulch, you know, ha, ha! but straight across +lots to the shining gate.' + +"He had raised his voice under the stimulus of a few admiring spectators, +and backed his convert playfully against the wall. 'You see! We're goin' +in to win, you bet. Good-by! I'd ask you to step in and have a chat, but +I've got my work to do, and so have you. The gospel mustn't keep us from +that, must it, Charley? Ha, ha!'" + +James Seabright, the amphibious minister who is responsible for the +Episode of West Woodlands, is rather good than bad, and so is Stephen +Masterton, the ignorant, fanatical, but conscientious Pike County +revivalist who, yielding to the combined charms of a pretty Spanish girl +and the Catholic Church, becomes a Convert of the Mission.[83] + +Of another Protestant minister, the Reverend Mr. Daws, it is briefly +mentioned in _The Iliad of Sandy Bar_ that "with quiet fearlessness" he +endeavored to reconcile those bitter enemies, York and Scott. "When he +had concluded, Scott looked at him, not unkindly, over the glasses of his +bar, and said, less irreverently than the words might convey, 'Young man, +I rather like your style; but when you know York and me as well as you do +God Almighty, it'll be time enough to talk.'" + +But of all Bret Harte's Protestant ministers the only one who figures in +the least as a hero is Gideon Deane, the Apostle of the Tules. Gideon +Deane, it will be remembered, first ventures his own life in an effort to +save that of a gambler about to be lynched, and then, making perhaps a +still greater sacrifice, declines the church and the parsonage and the +fifteen hundred dollars a year offered to him by Jack Hamlin and his +friends, and returning to the lonely farmhouse and the poverty-stricken, +unattractive widow Hiler, becomes her husband, and a father to her +children. + +The story is not altogether satisfactory, for Gideon Deane is in love with +a young girl who loves him, and it is not perfectly clear why her +happiness, as well as that of the preacher himself, should be sacrificed +to the domestic necessities of the widow and her children. Nor is the hero +himself made quite so real as are Bret Harte's characters in general. We +admire and respect him, but he does not excite our enthusiasm, and this is +probably because the author failed to get that imaginative, sympathetic +grasp of his nature which, as a rule, makes Bret Harte's personages seem +like living men and women. + +There is a rather striking resemblance in the matter of ministers between +Bret Harte and Rhoda Broughton. Both have the same instinctive antipathy +to a parson that boys have to a policeman; both have the same general +notion that ministers are mainly canting hypocrites; both, being struck +apparently by the idea of doing full justice to the cloth, have set +themselves to describe one really good and even heroic minister, and in +each case the type evolved is the same, and not convincing. Gideon Deane +has the slender physique, the humility, the courage, the self-sacrificing +spirit, the melancholy temperament of the Reverend James Stanley, and, it +may be added, the same unreality, the same inability to stamp his image +upon the mind of the reader. + +Bret Harte's treatment of the Spanish priest in California is very +different. He pokes a little fun at his Reverence, now and then. He shows +us Father Felipe entering the _estudio_ of Don José Sepulvida "with that +air of furtive and minute inspection common to his order"; and in the +interview with Colonel Parker, Don José's lawyer, there is a beautiful +description of what might be called an ecclesiastical wink. "The Padre and +Colonel Parker gazed long and gravely into each other's eyes. It may have +been an innocent touch of the sunlight through the window, but a faint +gleam seemed to steal into the pupil of the affable lawyer at the same +moment that, probably from the like cause, there was a slight nervous +contraction of the left eyelid of the pious father." + +Father Sobriente, again, "was a polished, cultivated man; yet in the +characteristic, material criticism of youth, I am afraid that Clarence +chiefly identified him as a priest with large hands whose soft palms +seemed to be cushioned with kindness, and whose equally large feet, +encased in extraordinary shapeless shoes of undyed leather, seemed to +tread down noiselessly--rather than to ostentatiously crush--the obstacles +that beset the path of the young student.... In the midnight silence of +the dormitory, he was often conscious of the soft, browsing tread and +snuffy, muffled breathing of his elephantine-footed mentor." + +But the simplicity, the unaffected piety, and the sweet disposition of the +Spanish priest are clearly shown in Bret Harte's stories. The +ecclesiastic with whom he has made us best acquainted is Padre Esteban of +the Mission of Todos Santos, that remote and dreamy port in which the +Crusade of the Excelsior ended. And yet even there the good priest had +learned how to deal with the human heart, as appeared when he became the +confidant of the unfortunate Hurlstone. + +"'A woman,' said the priest softly. 'So! We will sit down, my son.' He +lifted his hand with a soothing gesture--the movement of a physician who +has just arrived at an easy diagnosis of certain uneasy symptoms. There +was also a slight suggestion of an habitual toleration, as if even the +seclusion of Todos Santos had not been entirely free from the invasion of +the primal passion." + +The Reader need not be reminded how often Bret Harte speaks of Junipéro +Serra, the Franciscan Friar who founded the Spanish Missions in +California. Father Junipéro was a typical Spaniard of the religious sort, +austere, ascetic,--a Commissioner of the Inquisition. He ate little, +avoiding all meat and wine. He scourged himself in the pulpit with a +chain, after the manner of St. Francis, and he was accustomed, while +reciting the confession, to hold aloft the Crucifix in his left hand, and +to strike his naked breast with a heavy stone held in his right hand. To +this self-punishment, indeed, was attributed the disease of the lungs +which ultimately caused his death. + + +[Illustration: THE BELLS, SAN GABRIEL MISSION + +Copyright, Detroit Photographic Co.] + + +Each Mission had its garrison, for the intention was to overcome the +natives by arms, if they should offer resistance to Holy Church. But the +California Indians were a mild, inoffensive people, lacking the character +and courage of the Indians who inhabited the Plains, and they quickly +succumbed to that combination of spiritual authority and military force +which the Padres wielded. At the end of the eighteenth century there were +eighteen Missions in California, with forty Padres, and a neophyte +Indian population of about thirteen thousand. But all this melted away +when the Missions were secularized. In 1822 Mexico became independent of +Spain, and thenceforth California was an outlying, neglected Mexican +province. From that time the office-holding class of Mexicans were +intriguing to get possession of the Mission lands, flocks and herds; and +in 1833 they succeeded. The Missions were broken up, the Friars were +deprived of all support; and many of the Christian Indians were reduced to +a cruel slavery in which their labor was recompensed chiefly by +intoxicating liquors. Little better was the fate of the others. Released +from the strict discipline in which they had been held by the priests, +they scattered in all directions, and quickly sank into a state of +barbarism worse than their original state. + +But the Missions were not absolutely deserted. In some cases a small +monastic brotherhood still inhabited the buildings once thronged by +soldiers and neophytes; and these men were of great service. They +ministered to the spiritual needs of Spanish and Mexicans; they instructed +the sons and daughters of the ranch-owners; they kept alive religion, and +to some extent learning in the community; and, finally,--if one may say so +without irreverence,--they contributed that Mediæval element which, +otherwise, would have been the one thing lacking to complete the +picturesque contrasts of Pioneer life. The Missions had been the last +expression of the instinct of conquest upon the part of a decaying nation; +and the Angelus that nightly rang from some fast-crumbling tower sounded +the knell of Spanish rule in America. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BRET HARTE'S DEPARTURE FROM CALIFORNIA + + +Bret Harte, as we have seen, was, for a few years at least, well placed in +San Francisco, but, as time went on, he had many causes of unhappiness. +There were heavy demands upon his purse from persons not of his immediate +family, which he was too generous to refuse, although they distressed, +harassed and discouraged him. His own constitutional improvidence added to +the difficulties thus created. + +Mr. Noah Brooks, who knew Bret Harte well, has very truly described this +aspect of his life: "It would be grossly unjust to say that Harte was a +species of Harold Skimpole, deliberately making debts that he did not +intend to pay. He sincerely intended and expected to meet every financial +obligation that he contracted. But he was utterly destitute of what is +sometimes called the money sense. He could not drive a bargain, and he was +an easy mark for any man who could. Consequently he was continually +involved in troubles that he might have escaped with a little more +financial shrewdness." + +The theory, thus stated by Mr. Brooks, is supported by an unsolicited +letter, now first published, but written shortly after Mr. Harte's +death:-- + + ... After going abroad, Mr. Harte from time to time--whenever able to + do so--sent through the business house of my husband and son money in + payment of bills he was yet owing,--and this when three thousand + miles removed from the pressure of payment,--which too many would + have left unpaid. Life was often hard for him, yet he met it + uncomplainingly, unflinchingly and bravely. A kindly, sweet soul, one + without gall, bitterness or envy, has gone beyond the reach of our + finite voices, leaving the world to us who knew and loved him darker + and poorer in his absence. + + MRS. CHARLES WATROUS + Hague, N. Y. + +May 26, 1902. + +Moreover, there was much friction between Bret Harte and the new publisher +of the "Overland," who had succeeded Mr. Roman; and finally, the moral and +intellectual atmosphere of San Francisco was uncongenial to him. The +early, generous, reckless days of California had passed, and now, +especially in San Francisco, a commercial type of man was coming to the +front. In _The Argonauts of North Liberty_, Bret Harte has depicted +"Ezekiel Corwin, ... a shrewd, practical, self-sufficient and +self-asserting unit of the more cautious later California emigration." + +More than once Bret Harte had run counter to California sentiment. As we +have seen already, he was dismissed from his place as assistant Editor of +a country newspaper because he had chivalrously espoused the cause of the +friendless Indian. His first contribution to the "Overland," as also we +have seen, was that beautiful poem in which he laments the shortcomings of +the city. Had the same thing been said in prose, the business community +would certainly have resented it. + + I know thy cunning and thy greed, + Thy hard, high lust, and wilful deed, + + And all thy Glory loves to tell + Of specious gifts material. + + Drop down, O Fleecy Fog, and hide + Her sceptic sneer and all her pride! + +And yet, with characteristic optimism, the poet looks forward to a time-- + + When Art shall raise and Culture lift + The sensual joys and meaner thrift. + +Later, but in the same year, Bret Harte incurred the enmity of some +leading men in San Francisco by his gentle ridicule of their attempts to +explain away--for the sake of Eastern capitalists--the destructive +earthquake which shook the city in October, 1868. An old Californian thus +relates the story: "As soon as the first panic at this disturbance had +subsided, and while lesser shocks were still shaking the earth, some of +the leading business men of San Francisco organized themselves into a sort +of vigilance committee, and visited all the newspaper offices. They +strictly enjoined that the story of the earthquake be treated with +conservatism and understatement;--it would injure California if Eastern +people were frightened away by exaggerated reports of _el temblor_; and a +similar censorship was exercised over the press despatches sent out from +San Francisco at that time. + +"This greatly amused Bret Harte, and in his 'Etc.' in the November number +of the 'Overland,' he treated the topic jocularly, saying that, according +to the daily papers, the earthquake would have suffered serious damage if +the people had only known it was coming. Harte's pleasantry excited the +wrath of some of the solid men of San Francisco, and when, not long after +that, it was proposed to establish a chair of recent literature in the +University of California and invite Bret Harte to occupy it, one of the +board of regents, whose word was a power in the land, temporarily defeated +the scheme by swearing roundly that a man who had derided the dispute +between the earthquake and the newspapers should never have his support +for a professorship. Subsequently, however, this difficulty was overcome, +and Harte received his appointment." + +San Francisco was then a crude, commercial, restless town, caring little +for art or literature, religious in a narrow way, confident of its own +ideals, and as content with the stage through which it was passing as if +human history had known, and human imagination could conceive, nothing +higher or better. + +In _A Jack and Jill of the Sierras_ Bret Harte makes the youthful hero +reproach himself by saying, or rather thinking, "He had forgotten them for +those lazy, snobbish, purse-proud San Franciscans--for Bray had the +miner's supreme contempt for the moneyed trading classes." + +Bret Harte, whose view of life was mainly derived from eighteenth-century +literature, shared that contempt, and expressed his own feeling, no doubt, +in the sentiment which he attributes to the two girls in _Devil's Ford_. +"It seemed to them that the five millionaires of Devil's Ford, in their +radical simplicity and thoroughness, were perhaps nearer the type of true +gentlemanhood than the citizens who imitated a civilization which they +were unable yet to reach." + +No wonder, then, that, with tempting offers from the East, harassed with +debts, disputes, cares and anxieties, disgusted with the atmosphere in +which he was living,--no wonder Bret Harte felt that the hour for his +departure had struck. Had he remained longer, his art would probably have +suffered. A nature so impressionable as Bret Harte's, so responsive, would +insensibly have been affected by his surroundings, and the more so because +he had in himself no strong, intellectual basis. His life was ruled by +taste, rather than by conviction; and taste is a harder matter than +conviction to preserve unimpaired. Of all the criticisms passed upon Bret +Harte there has been nothing more true than Madame Van de Velde's +observations upon this point: "It was decidedly fortunate that he left +California when he did, never to return to it; for his quick instinctive +perceptions would have assimilated the new order of things to the +detriment of his talent. As it was, his singularly retentive memory +remained unbiassed by the transformation of the centres whence he drew his +inspiration. California remained to him the Mecca of the Argonauts." + +Bret Harte left many warm friends in California, and they were much hurt, +in some cases much angered, because they never had a word from him +afterward. And yet it is extremely doubtful if he expected any such +result. Certainly it was not intended. Kind and friendly feelings may +still exist, although they are not expressed in letters. Bret Harte was +indolent and procrastinating about everything except the real business of +his life, and into that all his energy was poured. And there was another +reason for the failure to communicate with his old friends, which has +probably occurred to the Reader, and which is suggested in a private +letter from one of the very persons who were aggrieved by his silence. "He +went away with a sore heart. He had cares, difficulties, hurts here, +_many_, and they may have embittered him against all thoughts of the +past." + +This, no doubt, is true. The California chapter in Bret Harte's life was +closed, and it would have been painful for him to reopen it even by the +writing of a letter. To say this, however, is not to acquit him of all +blame in the matter. + +The night before he left California a few of his more intimate friends +gave him a farewell dinner which, in the light of all that followed, now +wears an almost tragic aspect. It is thus described by one of the company: +"A little party of us, eight, all working writers, met for a last +symposium. It was one of the veritable _noctes ambrosianae_; the talk was +intimate, heart-to-heart, and altogether of the shop. Naturally Harte was +the centre of the little company, and he was never more fascinating and +companionable. Day was breaking when the party dispersed, and the ties +that bound our friend to California were sundered forever." + +Bret Harte left San Francisco in February, 1871. + +Seventeen years before he had landed there, a mere boy, without money or +prospects, without trade or profession. Now he was the most distinguished +person in California, and his departure marked the close of an epoch for +that State. Who can imagine the mingled feelings, half-triumphant, +half-bitter, with which he must have looked back upon the slow-receding, +white-capped Sierras that had bounded his horizon for those seventeen +eventful years! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BRET HARTE IN THE EAST + + +Before Bret Harte left California he had been in correspondence with some +persons in Chicago who proposed to make him Editor and part proprietor of +a magazine called the "Lakeside Monthly." A dinner was arranged to take +place soon after his arrival in Chicago at which Mr. Harte might meet the +men who were to furnish the capital for this purpose. But the guest of the +evening did not appear. Many stories were told in explanation of his +absence; and Bret Harte's own account is thus stated by Mr. Noah +Brooks:--"When I met Harte in New York I asked him about the incident, and +he said: 'In Chicago I stayed with relations of my wife's, who lived on +the North Side, or the East Side, or the Northeast Side, or the Lord knows +where, and when I accepted an invitation to dinner in a hotel in the +centre of the city, I expected that a guide would be sent me. I was a +stranger in a strange city; a carriage was not easily to be obtained in +the neighborhood where I was, and, in utter ignorance of the way I should +take to reach the hotel, I waited for a guide until the hour for dinner +had passed, and then sat down, as your friend S. P. D. said to you in +California "_en famille_, with my family." That's all there was to it.'" + +Mr. Pemberton, commenting on this explanation says, "I can readily picture +Bret Harte, as the unwelcome dinner hour approached, making excuses to +himself for himself and conjuring up that hitherto unsuggested 'guide.'" + +That Mr. Pemberton was right as to the "guide" being an afterthought, is +proved by the following account, for which the author of this book is +indebted to Mr. Francis F. Browne, at that time editor of the "Lakeside +Monthly": "I remember quite clearly Mr. Harte's visit to my office,--a +small,[84] rather youthful looking but alert young man of pleasing manners +and conversation. We talked of the literary situation, and he seemed +impressed with the opportunity offered by Chicago for a high-class +literary enterprise. A day or two after his arrival here Mr. Harte was +invited to a dinner at the house of a prominent citizen, to meet the +gentlemen who were expected to become interested in the magazine project +with him. Mr. Harte accepted the invitation. There is no doubt that he +intended going, for he was in my office the afternoon of the dinner, and +left about five o'clock, saying he was going home to dress for the +occasion. But he did not appear at the dinner; nor did he send any +explanation whatever. There being then no telephones, no explanation was +given until the next day, and it was then to the effect that he had +supposed a carriage would be sent for him, and had waited for it until too +late to start. A friend of the author tells me that he had previously +asked Mr. Harte whether he should call for him and take him to the dinner; +but Harte assured him that this was not at all necessary, that he knew +perfectly well how to find the place. The other members of the party, +however, were on hand, and after waiting, with no little surprise, for the +chief guest to appear, they proceeded to eat their dinner and disperse; +but Mr. Harte and the project of a literary connection with him in Chicago +no longer interested them." + +It is evident that for some reason, unknown outside of his own family, +Bret Harte could not or would not attend the dinner, and simply remained +away. The result was thus stated by the author himself in a letter to a +friend in California: "I presume you have heard through the public press +how nearly I became editor and part owner of the 'Lakeside,' and how the +childishness and provincial character of a few of the principal citizens +of Chicago spoiled the project." + +Bret Harte, therefore, continued Eastward, leaving Chicago on February 11, +"stopping over" a few days in Syracuse, and reaching New York on February +20. His stories and poems--especially the _Heathen Chinee_--had lifted him +to such a pinnacle of renown that his progress from the Pacific to the +Atlantic was detailed by the newspapers with almost as much particularity +as were the movements of Admiral Dewey upon his return to the United +States after the capture of Manilla. The commotion thus caused extended +even to England, and a London paper spoke humorously, but kindly, of the +"Bret Harte circular," which recorded the daily events of the author's +life. + +"The fame of Bret Harte," remarked the "New York Tribune," as the railroad +bore him toward that city, "has so brilliantly shot to the zenith as to +render any comments on his poems a superfluous task. The verdict of the +popular mind has only anticipated the voice of sound criticism." + +In New York Mr. Harte and his family went immediately to the house of his +sister, Mrs. F. F. Knaufft, at number 16 Fifth Avenue; and with her they +spent the greater part of the next two years. Three days after their +arrival in New York the whole family went to Boston, Mr. Harte being +engaged to dine with the famous Saturday Club, and being desirous of +seeing his publishers. He arrived in Boston February 25, his coming having +duly been announced by telegrams published in all the papers. Upon the +morning of his arrival the "Boston Advertiser" had the following pleasant +notice of the event. "He will have a hearty welcome from many warm friends +to whom his face is yet strange; and after a journey across the continent, +in which his modesty must have been tried almost as severely as his +endurance by the praises showered upon him, we hope that he will find +Boston so pleasant, even in the soberest dress which she wears during the +year, that he may tarry long among us." + +In Boston, or rather at Cambridge, just across Charles River, Bret Harte +was to be the guest of Mr. Howells, then the assistant Editor of the +"Atlantic Monthly," James Russell Lowell being the Editor-in-Chief. Mr. +Howells' account[85] of this visit is so interesting, and throws so much +light upon Bret Harte's character, that it is impossible to refrain from +quoting it here:-- + +"When the adventurous young Editor who had proposed being his host for +Boston, while Harte was still in San Francisco, and had not yet begun his +princely progress Eastward, read of the honors that attended his coming +from point to point, his courage fell, as if he perhaps had committed +himself in too great an enterprise. Who was he, indeed, that he should +think of making this dear son of memory, great heir of fame, his guest, +especially when he heard that in Chicago Harte failed of attending a +banquet of honor because the givers of it had not sent a carriage to fetch +him to it, as the alleged use was in San Francisco? Whether true or not, +and it was probably not true in just that form, it must have been this +rumor which determined his host to drive into Boston for him with the +handsomest hack which the livery of Cambridge afforded, and not trust to +the horse-car and the express to get him and his baggage out, as he would +have done with a less portentous guest. + +"However it was, he instantly lost all fear when they met at the station, +and Harte pressed forward with his cordial hand-clasp, as if he were not +even a fairy prince, and with that voice and laugh which were surely the +most winning in the world. The drive out from Boston was not too long for +getting on terms of personal friendship with the family which just filled +the hack, the two boys intensely interested in the novelties of a New +England city and suburb, and the father and mother continually exchanging +admiration of such aspects of nature as presented themselves in the +leafless sidewalk trees, and patches of park and lawn. They found +everything so fine, so refined, after the gigantic coarseness of +California, where the natural forms were so vast that one could not get on +companionable terms with them. Their host heard them with misgiving for +the world of romance which Harte had built up among those huge forms, and +with a subtle perception that this was no excursion of theirs to the East, +but a lifelong exodus from the exile which he presently understood they +must always have felt California to be. It is different now, when people +are every day being born in California, and must begin to feel it home +from the first breath, but it is notable that none of the Californians of +that great early day have gone back to live amidst the scenes which +inspired and prospered them. + +"Before they came in sight of the Editor's humble roof he had mocked +himself to his guest at his trepidations, and Harte with burlesque +magnanimity had consented to be for that occasion only something less +formidable than he had loomed afar. He accepted with joy the theory of +passing a week in the home of virtuous poverty, and the week began as +delightfully as it went on. From first to last Cambridge amused him as +much as it charmed him by that air of academic distinction which was +stranger to him even than the refined trees and grass. It has already been +told how, after a list of the local celebrities had been recited to him, +he said, 'Why, you couldn't stand on your front porch and fire off your +revolver without bringing down a two-volumer,' and no doubt the pleasure +he had in it was the effect of its contrast with the wild California he +had known, and perhaps, when he had not altogether known it, had invented. + +"Cambridge began very promptly to show him those hospitalities which he +could value, and continued the fable of his fairy princeliness in the +curiosity of those humbler admirers who could not hope to be his hosts or +fellow-guests at dinner or luncheon. Pretty presences in the tie-backs of +the period were seen to flit before the home of virtuous poverty, +hungering for any chance sight of him which his outgoings or incomings +might give. The chances were better with the outgoings than with the +incomings, for these were apt to be so hurried, in the final result of his +constitutional delays, as to have the rapidity of the homing pigeon's +flight, and to afford hardly a glimpse to the quickest eye. + +"It cannot harm him, or any one now, to own that Harte was nearly always +late for those luncheons and dinners which he was always going out to, and +it needed the anxieties and energies of both families to get him into his +clothes, and then into the carriage, where a good deal of final buttoning +must have been done, in order that he might not arrive so very late. He +was the only one concerned who was quite unconcerned; his patience with +his delays was inexhaustible; he arrived smiling, serenely jovial, +radiating a bland gayety from his whole person, and ready to ignore any +discomfort he might have occasioned. + +"Of course, people were glad to have him on his own terms, and it may be +said that it was worth while to have him on any terms. There was never a +more charming companion, an easier or more delightful guest. It was not +from what he said, for he was not much of a talker, and almost nothing of +a story-teller; but he could now and then drop the fittest word, and with +a glance or smile of friendly intelligence express the appreciation of +another's word which goes far to establish for a man the character of born +humorist. + +"It must be said of him that if he took the honors easily that were paid +him, he took them modestly, and never by word or look invited them, or +implied that he expected them. It was fine to see him humorously accepting +the humorous attribution of scientific sympathies from Agassiz, in +compliment of his famous epic describing the incidents that 'broke up the +Society upon the Stanislaus.'" + +Of his personal appearance at this time Mr. Howells says: "He was then, as +always, a child of extreme fashion as to his clothes and the cut of his +beard, which he wore in a mustache and the drooping side-whiskers of the +day, and his jovial physiognomy was as winning as his voice, with its +straight nose and fascinating forward thrust of the under-lip, its fine +eyes and good forehead, then thickly covered with black hair which grew +early white, while his mustache remained dark, the most enviable and +consoling effect possible in the universal mortal necessity of either +aging or dyeing." + +It can easily be imagined, although Mr. Howells does not say so, that the +atmosphere of Cambridge was far from being congenial to Bret Harte. +University towns are notorious for taking narrow, academic views of life; +and in Cambridge, at least during the period in question, the college +circle was complicated by some remnants of colonial aristocracy that +looked with suspicion upon any person or idea originating outside of +England--Old or New. Bret Harte, as may be imagined, was not awed by his +new and highly respectable surroundings. "It was a little fearsome," +writes Mr. Howells, "to hear him frankly owning to Lowell his dislike for +something over-literary in the phrasing of certain verses of 'The +Cathedral.' But Lowell could stand that sort of thing from a man who could +say the sort of things that Harte said to him of that delicious line +picturing the bobolink as he + + Runs down a brook of laughter in the air. + +That, Bret Harte told him, was the line he liked best of all his lines, +and Lowell smoked, well content with the phrase. Yet they were not men to +get on well together, Lowell having limitations in directions where Harte +had none. Afterward, in London, they did not meet often or willingly." + +Bret Harte was taken to see Emerson at Concord, but probably without much +profit on either side, though with some entertainment for the younger man. +"Emerson's smoking," Mr. Howells relates, "amused Bret Harte as a Jovian +self-indulgence divinely out of character with so supreme a god, and he +shamelessly burlesqued it, telling how Emerson proposed having a 'wet +night' with him, over a glass of sherry, and urged the wine upon his young +friend with a hospitable gesture of his cigar." + +"Longfellow, alone," Mr. Howells adds, "escaped the corrosive touch of his +subtle irreverence, or, more strictly speaking, had only the effect of his +reverence. That gentle and exquisitely modest dignity of Longfellow's he +honored with as much veneration as it was in him to bestow, and he had +that sense of Longfellow's beautiful and perfected art which is almost a +test of a critic's own fineness." + +Bret Harte and Longfellow met at an evening party in Cambridge, and walked +home together afterward; and when Longfellow died, in 1882, Bret Harte +wrote down at some length his impressions of the poet.[86] It had been a +characteristic New England day in early Spring, with rain followed by +snow, and finally clearing off cold and still. + +"I like to recall him at that moment, as he stood in the sharp moonlight +of the snow-covered road; a dark mantle-like cloak hiding his evening +dress, and a slouched felt hat covering his full silver-like locks. The +conventional gibus or chimney-pot would have been as intolerable on that +wonderful brow as it would be on a Greek statue, and I was thankful there +was nothing to interrupt the artistic harmony of the most impressive +vignette I ever beheld.... I think I was at first moved by his voice. It +was a very deep baritone without a trace of harshness, but veiled and +reserved as if he never parted entirely from it, and with the abstraction +of a soliloquy even in his most earnest moments. It was not melancholy, +yet it suggested one of his own fancies as it fell from his silver-fringed +lips + + 'Like the water's flow + Under December's snow.' + +Yet no one had a quicker appreciation of humour, and his wonderful skill +as a _raconteur_, and his opulence of memory, justified the saying of his +friends that 'no one ever heard him tell an old story or repeat a new +one.'... Speaking of the spiritual suggestions in material things, I +remember saying that I thought there must first be some actual +resemblance, which unimaginative people must see before the poet could +successfully use them. I instanced the case of his own description of a +camel as being 'weary' and 'baring his teeth,' and added that I had seen +them throw such infinite weariness into that action after a day's journey +as to set spectators yawning. He seemed surprised, so much so that I asked +him if he had seen many--fully believing he had travelled in the desert. +He replied simply, 'No,' that he had 'only seen one once in the _Jardin +des Plantes_.' Yet in that brief moment he had noticed a distinctive +fact, which the larger experience of others fully corroborated." + +Mr. Pemberton also contributes this interesting reminiscence: "With his +intimate friends Bret Harte ever delighted to talk enthusiastically of +Longfellow, and would declare that his poems had greatly influenced his +thoughts and life. Hiawatha he declared to be 'not only a wonderful poem, +but a marvellously true descriptive narrative of Indian life and lore.' I +think he knew it all by heart." + +Bret Harte and his family stayed a week with Mr. Howells, and one event +was the Saturday Club dinner which Mr. Howells has described. "Harte was +the life of a time which was perhaps less a feast of reason than a flow of +soul. The truth is, there was nothing but careless stories, carelessly +told, and jokes and laughing, and a great deal of mere laughing without +the jokes, the whole as unlike the ideal of a literary symposium as well +might be." + +One of the guests, unused to the society of literary men, Mr. Howells +says, had looked forward with some awe to the occasion, and Bret Harte was +amused at the result. "'Look at him!' he said from time to time. '_This is +the dream of his life_'; and then shouted and choked with fun at the +difference between the occasion, and the expectation he would have +imagined in his commensal's mind." The "commensal," as appears from a +subsequent essay by Mr. Howells, was Mark Twain, who, like Bret Harte, had +recently arrived from the West. Somehow, the account of this dinner as +given by Mr. Howells leaves an unpleasant impression. + +The atmosphere of Boston was hardly more congenial to Bret Harte than that +of Cambridge. Boston was almost as provincial as San Francisco, though in +a different way. The leaders of society were men and women who had grown +up with the bourgeois traditions of a rich, isolated commercial and +colonial town; and they had the same feeling of horror for a man from the +West that they had for a Methodist. The best part of Boston was the +serious, well-educated, conscientious element, typified by the Garrison +family; but this element was much less conspicuous in 1871 than it had +been earlier. The feeling for art and literature, also, was neither so +widespread nor so deep as it had been in the thirty-five years preceding +the Civil War. Moreover, the peculiar faults of the Boston man, his +worship of respectability, his self-satisfied narrowness, his want of +charity and sympathy,--these were the very faults that especially jarred +upon Bret Harte, and it is no wonder that the man from Boston makes a poor +appearance in his stories. + +"It was a certain Boston lawyer, replete with principle, honesty, +self-discipline, statistics, authorities, and a perfect consciousness of +possessing all these virtues, and a full recognition of their market +values. I think he tolerated me as a kind of foreigner, gently waiving all +argument on any topic, frequently distrusting my facts, generally my +deductions, and always my ideas. In conversation he always appeared to +descend only halfway down a long moral and intellectual staircase, and +always delivered his conclusions over the balusters."[87] + +And yet, with characteristic fairness, Bret Harte does not fail to portray +the good qualities of the Boston man. The Reader will remember the sense +of honor, the courage and energy, and even--under peculiar +circumstances--the capacity to receive new ideas, shown by John Hale, the +Boston man who figures in _Snow-Bound at Eagle's_, and who was of the same +type as the lawyer just described. + +Henry Hart and his family spent a year in Boston when Bret Harte was about +the age of four, but, contrary to the general impression, Bret Harte never +lived there afterward, although he once spent a few weeks in the city as +the guest of the publisher, Mr. J. R. Osgood, then living on Pinckney +Street, in the old West End. A small section of the north side of Pinckney +Street forms the northern end of Louisburg Square; and this square, as it +happens, is the only place in Boston which Bret Harte depicts. Here lived +Mr. Adams Rightbody, as appears from the brief but unmistakable +description of the place in _The Great Deadwood Mystery_. A telegram to +Mr. Rightbody had been sent at night from Tuolumne County, California; and +its progress and delivery are thus related: "The message lagged a little +at San Francisco, laid over half an hour at Chicago, and fought longitude +the whole way, so that it was past midnight when the 'all-night' operator +took it from the wires at Boston. But it was freighted with a mandate from +the San Francisco office; and a messenger was procured, who sped with it +through dark, snow-bound streets, between the high walls of +close-shuttered, rayless houses to a certain formal square, ghostly with +snow-covered statues. Here he ascended the broad steps of a reserved and +solid-looking mansion, and pulled a bronze bell-knob that, somewhere +within those chaste recesses, after an apparent reflective pause, coldly +communicated the fact that a stranger was waiting without--as he ought." + +That Bret Harte made no mistake in selecting Louisburg Square as the +residence of that intense Bostonian, Mr. Rightbody, will be seen from Mr. +Lindsay Swift's description in his "Literary Landmarks of Boston." "This +retired spot is the quintessence of the older Boston. Without positive +beauty, its dignity and repose save it from any suggestion of ugliness. +Here once bubbled up, it is fondly believed, in the centre of the +iron-railed enclosure, that spring of water with which First Settler +William Blackstone helped to coax Winthrop and his followers over the +river from Charlestown. There is no monument to Blackstone, here or +anywhere, but in this significant spot stand two statues, one to Columbus +and one to Aristides the Just, both of Italian make, and presented to the +city by a Greek merchant of Boston." + +After the week's stay in Cambridge, with, of course, frequent excursions +to Boston, Bret Harte and his family returned to New York. The proposals +made to him by publishing houses in that city were, Mr. Howells reports, +"either mortifyingly mean or insultingly vague"; and a few days later Bret +Harte accepted the offer of James R. Osgood and Company, then publishers +of "The Atlantic," to pay him ten thousand dollars during the ensuing year +for whatever he might write in the twelve months, be it much or little. +This offer, a munificent one for the time, was made despite the +astonishing fact that of the first volume of Bret Harte's stories, issued +by the same publishers six months before, only thirty-five hundred copies +had then been sold. The arrangement did not, of course, require Mr. +Harte's residence in Boston, and for the next two Winters he remained with +his sister in New York, spending the first Summer at Newport. + +It has often been stated that the rather indefinite contract which the +publishers made with Bret Harte turned out badly for them, and that he +wrote but a single story, as it is sometimes put, during the whole year. +But the slightest investigation will show that these statements do our +author great injustice. The year of the contract began with July, 1871, +and ended with June, 1872; and the two volumes of the "Atlantic" covering +that period, No. 28 and No. 29, contain the following stories by Bret +Harte:-- + +_The Poet of Sierra Flat, Princess Bob and Her Friends, The Romance of +Madroño Hollow, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar_; + +And the following poems: _A Greyport Legend, A Newport Romance, Concepcion +de Arguello, Grandmother Tenterden, The Idyl of Battle Hollow_. + +Surely, this was giving full measure, and it represents a year of very +hard work, unless indeed it was partly done in California. One of the +stories, _How Santa Clans Came to Simpson's Bar_, is, as every reader of +Bret Harte will admit, among the best of his tales, inferior only to +_Tennessee's Partner_, _The Luck_, and _The Outcasts_. + +It is noticeable that all these "Atlantic Monthly" stories deal with +California; and an amusing illustration of Bret Harte's literary habits +may be gathered from the fact that in every case his story brings up the +rear of the magazine, although it would naturally have been given the +place of honor. Evidently the manuscript was received by the printers at +the last possible moment. One of the poems, the _Newport Romance_, seems +to lack those patient, finishing touches which it was his custom to +bestow. + +For the next seven years of Bret Harte's life there is not much to record. +During the greater part of the time New York was his winter home. From his +Summer at Newport resulted the poems already mentioned, _A Greyport +Legend_ and _A Newport Romance_. Hence also a scene or two in _Mrs. +Skaggs's Husbands_, published in 1872. But the poems deal with the past, +and neither in them nor in any story did the author attempt to describe +that luxurious, exotic life, grafted upon the Atlantic Coast, over which +other romancers have fondly lingered. + +Two or three Summers were spent by Bret Harte and his family in +Morristown, New Jersey. Here he wrote _Thankful Blossom_, a pretty story +of Revolutionary times, describing events which occurred at the very spot +where he was living, but lacking the strength and originality of his +California tales. "Thankful Blossom" was not an imaginary name, but the +real name of one of his mother's ancestors, a member of the Truesdale +family; and it should be mentioned that before writing this story Bret +Harte, with characteristic thoroughness, made a careful study of the +place where Washington had his headquarters at Morristown, and of the +surrounding country. + +One other Summer the Harte family spent at New London, in Connecticut, and +still another at Cohasset, a seashore town about twenty miles south of +Boston. Here he became the neighbor and friend of the actors, Lawrence +Barrett and Stuart Robson, for the latter of whom he wrote the play called +_Two Men of Sandy Bar_. This was produced in September, 1876, at the Union +Square Theatre in New York, but, although not a failure, it did not attain +permanent success. The principal characters were Sandy Morton, played by +Charles R. Thorne, and Colonel Starbottle, taken by Stuart Robson. John +Oakhurst, the Yankee Schoolmistress (from _The Idyl of Red Gulch_), a +Chinaman, an Australian convict, and other figures taken from Bret Harte's +stories, also appeared in the piece. The part of Hop Sing, the Chinaman, +was played by Mr. C. T. Parsloe, and with so much success that afterward, +in collaboration with Mark Twain, Bret Harte wrote a melodrama for Mr. +Parsloe called _Ah Sin_; but this, too, failed to keep the boards for +long. + +Mr. Pemberton speaks of another play in respect to which Bret Harte sought +the advice of Dion Boucicault; but this appears never to have been +finished. It was a cause of annoyance and disgust to Bret Harte after he +had left this country, that a version of _M'liss_ converting that +beautiful story into a vulgar "song and dance" entertainment was produced +on the stage and in its way became a great success. Bret Harte was unable +to prevent these performances in the United States, but he did succeed, by +means of a suit, threatened if not actually begun, in preventing their +repetition in England. A very inferior theatrical version of _Gabriel +Conroy_, also, was brought out in New York without the author's consent, +and much against his will. + +Bret Harte had a lifelong desire to write a notable play, and made many +attempts in that direction. One of them succeeded. With the help of his +friend and biographer, Mr. Pemberton, he dramatized his story, _The +Judgment of Bolinas Plain_; and the result, a melodrama in three acts, +called _Sue_, was produced in New York in 1896, and was well received both +by the critics and the audience. Afterward the play was successfully +performed on a tour of the United States; and in 1898 it was brought out +in London, and was equally successful there. The heroine's part was taken +by Miss Annie Russell, of whom Mr. Pemberton gracefully says, "How much +the writers owed to her charming personality and her deft handling of a +difficult part they freely and gratefully acknowledged." But even this +play has not become a classic. + +Of his experience as a fellow-worker with Bret Harte, Mr. Pemberton gives +this interesting account. "Infinite painstaking, I soon learned, was the +essence of his system. Of altering and re-altering he was never tired, and +though it was sometimes a little disappointing to find that what we had +considered as finished over-night, had, at his desire, to be reconsidered +in the morning, the humorous way in which he would point out how serious +situations might, by a twist of the pen, or by incompetent acting, create +derisive laughter, compensated for double or even treble work. No one +realized more keenly than he did that to most things there is a comic as +well as a serious side, and it seemed to make him vastly happy to put his +finger on his own vulnerable spots." + +Mr. Pemberton speaks of several other plays written by Bret Harte and +himself, and of one written by Bret Harte alone for Mr. J. L. Toole. But +none of these was ever acted. It is needless to say that Bret Harte loved +the theatre and had a keen appreciation of good acting. In a letter to Mr. +Pemberton, he spoke of John Hare's "wonderful portrayal of the Duke of St. +Olpherts in 'The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith.' He is gallantly attempting to +relieve Mrs. Thorpe of the tray she is carrying, but of course lacks the +quickness, the alertness, and even the actual energy to do it, and so +follows her with delightful simulation of assistance all over the stage, +while she carries it herself, he pursuing the form and ignoring the +performance. It is a wonderful study." + +Bret Harte had not been long in the East, probably he had not been there a +month, before he began to feel the pressure of those money difficulties +from which neither he, nor his father before him, was ever free. Doubtless +he would often have been at a loss for ready money, even if he had +possessed the wealth of all the Indies. He left debts in California, and +very soon had acquired others in New York and Boston. + +Mr. Noah Brooks, who was intimate with Bret Harte in New York as well as +in San Francisco, wrote, after his death: "I had not been long in the city +before I found that Harte had already incurred many debts, chiefly for +money borrowed. When I said to Bowles[88] that I was anxious on Harte's +account that a scandal should not come from this condition of things, +Bowles said, with his good-natured cynicism, 'Well, it does seem to me +that there ought to be enough rich men in New York to keep Harte a-going.' + +"One rich man, a banker and broker, with an ambition to be considered a +patron of the arts and literature, made much of the new literary lion, and +from him Harte obtained a considerable sum, $500 perhaps, in small amounts +varying from $5 to $50 at a time. One New Year's day Harte, in as much +wrath as he was ever capable of showing, spread before me a note from our +friend Dives in which the writer, who, by the way, was not reckoned a +generous giver, reminded Harte that this was the season of the year when +business men endeavored to enter a new era with a clean page in the +ledger; and, in order to enable his friend H. to do that, he took the +liberty of returning to him sundry I. O. U.'s which his friend H. had +given him from time to time. 'Damn his impudence!' exclaimed the angry +artist. + +"'What are you going to do about it?' I asked, with some amusement. 'Going +to do about it!' he answered with much emphasis on the first word. 'Going! +I have made a new note for the full amount of these and have sent it to +him with an intimation that I never allow pecuniary matters to trespass on +the sacred domain of friendship.' Poor Dives was denied the satisfaction +of giving away a bad debt." + +"Once, while we were waiting on Broadway for a stage to take him down +town, he said, as the lumbering vehicle hove in sight, 'Lend me a quarter; +I haven't money enough to pay my stage fare.' Two or three weeks later, +when I had forgotten the incident, we stood in the same place waiting for +the same stage, and Harte, putting a quarter of a dollar in my hand, said: +'I owe you a quarter and there it is. You hear men say that I never pay my +debts, but [this with a chuckle] you can deny the slander.' While he lived +in Morristown, N. J., it was said that he pocketed postage stamps sent to +him for his autographs, and these applications were so numerous that with +them he paid his butcher's bill. A bright lady to whom this story was told +declared that the tale had been denied, 'on the authority of the butcher.' +Nobody laughed more heartily at this sally than Harte did when it came to +his ears." + +"Never," says Mr. Howells, to the same effect, "was any man less a +_poseur_. He made simply and helplessly known what he was at any and every +moment, and he would join the witness very cheerfully in enjoying whatever +was amusing in the disadvantage to himself." And then Mr. Howells relates +the following incident: "In the course of events which in his case were +so very human, it came about on a subsequent visit of his to Boston that +an impatient creditor decided to right himself out of the proceeds of the +lecture which was to be given, and had the law corporeally present at the +house of the friend where Harte dined, and in the ante-room at the +lecture-hall, and on the platform where the lecture was delivered with +beautiful aplomb and untroubled charm. He was indeed the only one privy to +the law's presence who was not the least affected by it, so that when his +host of an earlier time ventured to suggest, 'Well, Harte, this is the old +literary tradition: this is the Fleet business over again,' he joyously +smote his thigh and cried out: 'Yes; that's it; we can see it all +now,--the Fleet Prison with Goldsmith, Johnson, and all the rest of the +old masters in a bunch!'" + +It is highly probable that in his own mind, though perhaps half +unconsciously, Bret Harte excused himself by the "old literary tradition" +for his remissness in paying his debts. And for such a feeling on his part +there would be, the present writer makes bold to say, some justification. +It is a crude method of collecting from the community a small part of the +compensation due to the author for the pleasure which he has conferred +upon the world in general. The method, it must be admitted, is imperfectly +just. The particular butcher or grocer to whom a particular poet is +indebted may have a positive distaste for polite literature, and might +naturally object to paying for books which other people read. Nevertheless +there is an element of wild justice in the attitude of the poet. The world +owes him a living, and if the world does not pay its debt, why, then, the +debt may fairly be levied upon the world in such manner as is possible. +This at least is to be said: the extravagance or improvidence of a man +like Bret Harte stands upon a very different footing from that of an +ordinary person. We should be ashamed not to show some consideration, +even in money matters, for the soldier who has served his country in time +of war; and the romancer who has contributed to the entertainment of the +race is entitled to a similar indulgence. + +Soon after Bret Harte's arrival in the East his friends urged him to give +public lectures on the subject of life in California. The project was +extremely distasteful to him, for he had an inborn horror of +notoriety,--even of publicity; and this feeling, it may be added, is fully +shared by the other members of his family. But his money difficulties were +so great, and the prospect held out to him was so flattering that he +finally consented. He prepared two lectures; the first, entitled _The +Argonauts_, is now printed, with some changes, as the Introduction to the +second volume of his collected works. This lecture was delivered at +Albany, New York, on December 3, 1872, at Tremont Temple in Boston on the +thirteenth of the same month, on December 16 at Steinway Hall in New York, +and at Washington on January 7, 1873. + +From Washington the lecturer wrote to his wife: "The audience was almost +as quick and responsive as the Boston folk, and the committee-men, to my +great delight, told me they made money by me.... I called on Charlton at +the British Minister's, and had some talk with Sir Edward Thornton, which +I have no doubt will materially affect the foreign policy of England. If I +have said anything to promote a better feeling between the two countries I +am willing he should get the credit of it. I took a carriage and went +alone to the Capitol of my country. I had expected to be disappointed, but +not agreeably. It is really a noble building,--worthy of the +republic,--vast, magnificent, sometimes a little weak in detail, but in +intent always high-toned, grand and large principled."[89] + +The same lecture was delivered at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 9, +1873, and at Ottawa and Montreal in March of that year. + +From Montreal he wrote to Mrs. Harte as follows:[90]-- + + "In Ottawa I lectured twice, but the whole thing was a pecuniary + failure. There was scarcely enough money to pay expenses, and of + course nothing to pay me with. ---- has no money of his own, and + although he is blamable for not thoroughly examining the ground + before bringing me to Ottawa, he was evidently so completely + disappointed and miserable that I could not find it in my heart to + upbraid him. So I simply told him that unless the Montreal receipts + were sufficient to pay me for my lecture there, and a reasonable part + of the money due me from Ottawa, I should throw the whole thing up. + To-night will in all probability settle the question. Of course there + are those who tell me privately that he is no manager, but I really + do not see but that he has done all that he could, and that his only + fault is in his sanguine and hopeful nature. + + "I did not want to write of this disappointment to you so long as + there was some prospect of better things. You can imagine, however, + how I feel at this cruel loss of time and money--to say nothing of my + health, which is still so poor. I had almost recovered from my cold, + but in lecturing at Ottawa at the Skating Rink, a hideous, dismal + damp barn, the only available place in town, I caught a fresh cold + and have been coughing badly ever since. And you can well imagine + that my business annoyances do not add greatly to my sleep or + appetite. + + "Apart from this, the people of Ottawa have received me very kindly. + They have vied with each other in social attention, and if I had been + like John Gilpin, 'on pleasure bent,' they would have made my visit a + success. The Governor-General of Canada invited me to stay with him + at his seat, Rideau Hall, and I spent Sunday and Monday there. Sir + John and Lady Macdonald were also most polite and courteous. + + "I shall telegraph you to-morrow if I intend to return at once. Don't + let this worry you, but kiss the children for me and hope for the + best. I would send you some money but _there isn't any to send_, and + maybe I shall only bring back myself.--Your affectionate + + "FRANK. + + "P. S.--26th. + + "DEAR NAN,--I did not send this yesterday, waiting to find the result + of last night's lecture. It was a _fair_ house and ---- this morning + paid me one hundred and fifty dollars, of which I send you the + greater part. I lecture again to-night, with fair prospects, and he + is to pay something on account of the Ottawa engagement besides the + fee for that night. I will write again from Ogdensburg.--Always + yours, + + "FRANK." + +This lecture trip in the Spring of 1873 was followed in the Autumn by a +similar trip in the West, with lectures at St. Louis, Topeka, Atchison, +Lawrence, and Kansas City. From St. Louis he wrote to his wife as +follows:-- + + "MY DEAR ANNA,--As my engagement is not until the 21st at Topeka, + Kansas, I lie over here until to-morrow morning, in preference to + spending the extra day in Kansas. I've accepted the invitation of Mr. + Hodges, one of the managers of the lecture course, to stay at his + house. He is a good fellow, with the usual American small family and + experimental housekeeping, and the quiet and change from the hotel + are very refreshing to me. They let me stay in my own room--which by + the way is hung with the chintz of our 49th Street house--and don't + bother me with company. So I was very good to-day and went to + church. There was fine singing. The contralto sang your best + sentences from the _Te Deum_, 'We believe that Thou shalt come,' &c., + &c., to the same minor chant that I used to admire. + + "The style of criticism that my lecture--or rather myself as a + lecturer--has received, of which I send you a specimen, culminated + this morning in an editorial in the 'Republic,' which I shall send + you, but have not with me at present. I certainly never expected to + be mainly criticised for being _what I am not_, a handsome fop; but + this assertion is at the bottom of all the criticism. They may be + right--I dare say they are--in asserting that I am no orator, have no + special faculty for speaking, no fire, no dramatic earnestness or + expression, but when they intimate that I am running on my good + looks--save the mark! I confess I get hopelessly furious. You will be + amused to hear that my gold studs have again become 'diamonds,' my + worn-out shirts 'faultless linen,' my haggard face that of a + 'Spanish-looking exquisite,' my habitual quiet and 'used-up' way, + 'gentle and eloquent languor.' But you will be a little astonished to + know that the hall I spoke in was worse than Springfield, and + _notoriously_ so--that the people seemed genuinely pleased, that the + lecture inaugurated the 'Star' course very handsomely, and that it + was the first of the first series of lectures ever delivered in St. + Louis." + +In a letter dated Lawrence, Kansas, October 23, 1873, he relates an +interesting experience. + + "MY DEAR ANNA,--I left Topeka--which sounds like a name Franky might + have invented--early yesterday morning, but did not reach Atchison, + only sixty miles distant, until seven o'clock at night--an hour + before the lecture. The engine as usual had broken down, and left me + at four o'clock fifteen miles from Atchison, on the edge of a bleak + prairie with only one house in sight. But I got a saddle-horse--there + was no vehicle to be had--and strapping my lecture and blanket to my + back I gave my valise to a little yellow boy--who looked like a dirty + terra-cotta figure--with orders to follow me on another horse, and so + tore off towards Atchison. I got there in time; the boy reached there + two hours after. + + "I make no comment; you can imagine the half-sick, utterly disgusted + man who glared at that audience over his desk that night, and d----d + them inwardly in his heart. And yet it was a good audience, + thoroughly refined and appreciative, and very glad to see me. I was + very anxious about this lecture, for it was a venture of my own, and + I had been told that Atchison was a rough place--energetic but + coarse. I think I wrote you from St. Louis that I had found there + were only three actual engagements in Kansas, and that my list which + gave Kansas City twice was a mistake. So I decided to take Atchison. + I made a hundred dollars by the lecture, and it is yours, for + yourself, Nan, to buy 'Minxes' with, if you want, for it is over and + above the amount Eliza and I footed up on my lecture list. I shall + send it to you as soon as the bulk of the pressing claims are + settled. + + "Everything thus far has gone well; besides my lecture of to-night I + have one more to close Kansas, and then I go on to St. Joseph. I've + been greatly touched with the very honest and sincere liking which + these Western people seem to have for me. They seem to have read + everything I have written--and appear to appreciate the best. Think + of a rough fellow in a bearskin coat and blue shirt repeating to me + _Conception de Arguello_! Their strange good taste and refinement + under that rough exterior--even their tact--are wonderful to me. They + are 'Kentucks' and 'Dick Bullens' with twice the refinement and + tenderness of their California brethren.... + + "I've seen but one [woman] that interested me--an old negro wench. + She was talking and laughing outside my door the other evening, but + her laugh was so sweet and unctuous and musical--so full of breadth + and goodness that I went outside and talked to her while she was + scrubbing the stones. She laughed as a canary bird sings--because she + couldn't help it. It did me a world of good, for it was before the + lecture, at twilight, when I am very blue and low-tuned. She had been + a slave. + + "I expected to have heard from you here. I've nothing from you or + Eliza since last Friday, when I got yours of the 12th. I shall direct + this to Eliza's care, as I do not even know where you are. Your + affectionate + + "FRANK."[91] + +The same lecture was delivered in London, England, in January, 1879, and +in June, 1880. Bret Harte's only other lecture had for its subject +_American Humor_, and was delivered in Chicago on October 10, 1874, and in +New York on January 26, 1875.[92] The money return from these lectures was +slight, and the fatigue and exposure of the long journeys in the West had, +his relatives think, a permanently bad effect upon Bret Harte's health. + +In the Autumn of 1875 we find him at Lenox, in the Berkshire Hills of +Western Massachusetts. Lenox has its place in literature, for Hawthorne +spent a year there, and in adjoining towns once lived O. W. Holmes, +Catherine Sedgwick, Herman Melville, and G. P. R. James. + +_Gabriel Conroy_, Bret Harte's only novel, and on the whole, it must be +admitted, a failure, though containing many exquisite passages, was +published in "Scribner's Magazine" in 1876. + +The poems and stories which Bret Harte wrote during his seven years' +residence in the Eastern part of the United States did not deal with the +human life of that time and place. They either concerned the past, like +_Thankful Blossom_ and the Newport poems, or they harked back to +California, like _Gabriel Conroy_ and the stories published in the +"Atlantic." The only exceptions are the short and pathetic tale called +_The Office-Seeker_, and the opening chapter of that powerful story, _The +Argonauts of North Liberty_. North Liberty is a small town in Connecticut, +and the scene is quickly transferred from there to California; but Joan, +the Connecticut woman, remains the chief figure in the story. + +It is seldom that Bret Harte fails to show some sympathy with the men and +women whom he describes, or at least some relenting consciousness that +they could not help being what they were. But it is otherwise with Joan. +She and her surroundings had a fascination for Bret Harte that was almost +morbid. The man or woman whom we hate becomes an object of interest to us +nearly as much as the person whom we love. An acute critic declares that +Thackeray's wonderful insight into the characters and feelings of servants +is due to the fact that he had almost a horror of them, and was abnormally +sensitive to their criticisms,--the more felt for being unspoken. So Joan +represents what Bret Harte hated more than anything else in the world, +namely, a narrow, censorious, hypocritical, cold-blooded Puritanism. Her +character is not that of a typical New England woman; its counterpart +would much more easily be found among the men; but it is a perfectly +consistent character, most accurately worked out. Joan combines a prim, +provincial, horsehair-sofa respectability with a lawless and sensual +nature,--an odd combination, and yet not an impossible one. She might, +perhaps, be called the female of that species which Hawthorne immortalized +under the name of Judge Pyncheon. + +Joan is a puzzle to the reader, but so she was to those who knew her. Was +she a conscious hypocrite, deliberately playing a false part in the world, +or was she a monstrous egotist, one in whom the soul of truth had so died +out that she thought herself justified in everything that she did, and +committed the worst acts from what she supposed to be the most excusable +motives? Her intimates did not know. One of the finest strokes in the +story is the dawning of suspicion upon the mind of her second husband. +"For with all his deep affection for his wife, Richard Demorest +unconsciously feared her. The strong man whose dominance over men and +women alike had been his salient characteristic, had begun to feel an +indefinable sense of some unrecognized quality in the woman he loved. He +had once or twice detected it in a tone of her voice, in a remembered and +perhaps even once idolized gesture, or in the accidental lapse of some +bewildering word." + +New England people at their best did not attract Bret Harte. That Miltonic +conception of the universe upon which New England was built seemed to him +simply ridiculous, and he did not appreciate the strength of character in +which it resulted. Moreover, the crudity of New England offended his +æsthetic taste as much as its theology offended his reason and his +charity. North Liberty on a cold, stormy Sunday night in March is +described with that _gusto_, with that minuteness of detail which could be +shown only by one who loved it or by one who hated it. + +And yet it would be unjust to say that Bret Harte had no conception of the +better type of New England women. The schoolmistress in _The Idyl of Red +Gulch_, one of his earliest and best stories, is as pure and noble a +maiden, and as characteristic of the soil, as Hilda herself. The Reader +will remember the description of Miss Mary as she appeared playing with +her pupils in the woods. "The color came faintly into her pale cheeks.... +Felinely fastidious and entrenched as she was in the purity of spotless +skirts, collars and cuffs, she forgot all else, and ran like a crested +quail at the head of her brood, until romping, laughing and panting, with +a loosened braid of brown hair, a hat hanging by a knotted ribbon from her +throat, she came ..." upon Sandy, the unheroic hero of the tale. + +In the culminating scene of this story, the interview between Miss Mary +and the mother of Sandy's illegitimate boy, when the teacher consents to +take the child with her to her home in the East, although she is still +under the shock of the discovery that Sandy is the boy's father,--in this +scene the schoolmistress exhibits true New England restraint, and a +beautiful absence of heroics. It was just at sunset. "The last red beam +crept higher, suffused Miss Mary's eyes with something of its glory, +nickered and faded and went out. The sun had set in Red Gulch. In the +twilight and silence Miss Mary's voice sounded pleasantly, 'I will take +the boy. Send him to me to-night.'" + +One can hardly help speculating about Bret Harte's personal taste and +preferences in regard to women. Cressy and the Rose of Tuolumne were both +blondes; and yet on the whole he certainly preferred brunettes. Even his +blue-eyed girls usually have black hair. The Treasure of the Redwoods +disclosed from the recesses of her sunbonnet "a pale blue eye and a thin +black arch of eyebrow." One associates a contralto voice with a brunette, +and Bret Harte's heroines, so far as the subject is mentioned, have +contralto voices. Not one is spoken of as having a soprano voice. Even the +slight and blue-eyed Tinka Gallinger "sang in a youthful, rather nasal +contralto." Bret Harte's wife had a contralto voice and was a good singer. + +As to eyes, he seems to have preferred them gray or brown, a "tender +gray" and a "reddish brown." Ailsa Callender's hair was "dark with a +burnished copper tint at its roots, and her eyes had the same burnished +metallic lustre in their brown pupils." Mrs. MacGlowrie was "a fair-faced +woman with eyes the color of pale sherry." + +A small foot with an arched instep was a _sine qua non_ with Bret Harte, +and he speaks particularly of the small, well-shod foot of the +Southwestern girl. He believed in breeding, and all his heroines were +well-bred,--not well-bred in the conventional sense, but in the sense of +coming from sound, courageous, self-respecting, self-improving stock. +Within these limits his range of heroines is exceedingly wide, including +some that are often excluded from that category. He is rather partial to +widows, for example, and always looks upon their innocent gayeties with an +indulgent eye. Can a woman be a widow and untidy in her dress, and still +retain her preëminence as heroine? Yes, Bret Harte's genius is equal even +to that. "Mrs. MacGlowrie was looking wearily over some accounts on the +desk before her, and absently putting back some tumbled sheaves from the +shock of her heavy hair. For the widow had a certain indolent Southern +negligence, which in a less pretty woman would have been untidiness, and a +characteristic hook-and-eye-less freedom of attire, which on less graceful +limbs would have been slovenly. One sleeve-cuff was unbuttoned, but it +showed the vein of her delicate wrist; the neck of her dress had lost a +hook, but the glimpse of a bit of edging round the white throat made +amends. Of all which, however, it should be said that the widow, in her +limp abstraction, was really unconscious." + + +[Illustration: I THOUGHT YOU WERE THAT HORSE-THIEF + +From "Lanty Foster's Mistake" + +Denman Fink, del.] + + +Red-haired women have been so popular in fiction during recent years that +it was perhaps no great feat for Bret Harte in the _Buckeye Hollow +Inheritance_ to make a heroine out of a red-haired girl, and a +bad-tempered one too; but what other romancer has ever dared to +represent a young and lovely woman as "hard of hearing"! There can be +no question that The Youngest Miss Piper was not quite normal in this +respect, although, for purposes of coquetry and sarcasm no doubt, she +magnified the defect. In her memorable interview with the clever young +grocery clerk (whom she afterward married) she begins by failing to hear +distinctly the title of the book which he was reading when she entered the +store; and we have this picture: "Miss Delaware, leaning sideways and +curling her little fingers around her pink ear: 'Did you say the first +principles of geology or politeness? You know I am so deaf; but of course +it couldn't be that.'" + +The one kind of woman that did not attract Bret Harte as a subject for +literature was the conventional woman of the world. He could draw her +fairly well, for we have Amy Forester in _A Night on the Divide_, Jessie +Mayfield in _Jeff Briggs's Love Story_, Grace Nevil in _A Mæcenas of the +Pacific Slope_, Mrs. Ashwood in _A First Family of Tasajara_, and Mrs. +Horncastle in _Three Partners_. But these women do not bear the stamp of +Bret Harte's genius. + +His Army and Navy girls are better, because they are redeemed from +commonplaceness by their patriotism. Miss Portfire in _The Princess Bob +and her Friends_, and Julia Cantire in _Dick Boyle's Business Card_, +represent those American families, more numerous than might be supposed, +in which it is almost an hereditary custom for the men to serve in the +Army or Navy, and for the women to become the wives and mothers of +soldiers and sailors. In such families patriotism is a constant +inspiration, to a degree seldom felt except by those who represent their +country at home or abroad. + +Bret Harte was patriotic, as many of his poems and stories attest, and his +long residence in England did not lessen his Americanism. "Apostates" was +his name for those American girls who marry titled foreigners, and he +often speaks of the susceptibility of American women to considerations of +rank and position. In _A Rose of Glenbogie_, after describing the male +guests at a Scotch country house, he continues: "There were the usual +half-dozen smartly-frocked women who, far from being the females of the +foregoing species, were quite indistinctive, with the single exception of +an American wife, who was infinitely more Scotch than her Scotch husband." +And in _The Heir of the McHulishes_ the American Consul is represented as +being less chagrined by the bumptiousness of his male compatriots than by +"the snobbishness and almost servile adaptability of the women. Or was it +possible that it was only a weakness of the sex which no Republican +nativity or education could eliminate?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +BRET HARTE AT CREFELD + + +The sums that Bret Harte received for his stories and lectures did not +suffice to free him from debt, and he suffered much anxiety and distress +from present difficulties, with no brighter prospects ahead. An additional +misfortune was the failure of a new paper called "The Capital," which had +been started in Washington by John J. Piatt. + +There is an allusion to this in a letter written by Bret Harte to his wife +from Washington.[93] "Thank you, dear Nan, for your kind, hopeful letter. +I have been very sick, very much disappointed; but I'm better now, and am +only waiting for some money to return. I should have, for the work that I +have done, more than would help us out of our difficulties. But it doesn't +come, and even the money I've expected from the 'Capital' for my story is +seized by its creditors. That hope and the expectations I had from the +paper and Piatt in the future amount to nothing. I have found that it is +bankrupt. + + "Can you wonder, Nan, that I have kept this from you? You have so + hard a time of it there, and I cannot bear to have you worried if + there is the least hope of a change in my affairs as they look, day + by day. Piatt has been gone nearly a month, was expected to return + every day, and only yesterday did I know positively of his inability + to fulfil his promises. ---- came here three days ago, and in a very + few moments I learned from him that I need expect nothing for the + particular service I had done him. I've been vilified and abused in + the papers for having received compensation for my services, when + really and truly I have only received less than I should have got + from any magazine or newspaper for my story. I sent you the fifty + dollars by Mr. D----, because I knew you would be in immediate need, + and there is no telegraph transfer office on Long Island. It was the + only fifty I have made since I've been here. + + "I am waiting to hear from Osgood regarding an advance on that + wretched story. He writes me he does not quite like it. I shall + probably hear from him to-night. When the money comes I shall come + with it. God bless you and keep you and the children safe for the + sake of + + "FRANK." + +Bret Harte's friends, however, were aware of his situation, and they +procured for him an appointment by President Hayes as United States +Commercial Agent at Crefeld in Prussia. The late Charles A. Dana was +especially active in this behalf. Bret Harte, much as he dreaded the +sojourn in a strange country, gladly accepted the appointment, and leaving +his family for the present at Sea Cliff, Long Island, he sailed for +England in June, 1878, little thinking that he was never to return. + +Crefeld is near the river Rhine, about thirty miles north of Cologne. Its +chief industry is the manufacture of silks and velvets, in respect to +which it is the leading city in Germany, and is surpassed by no other +place in Europe except Lyons. This industry was introduced in Crefeld by +Protestant refugees who fled thither from Cologne in the seventeenth +century in order to obtain the protection of the Prince of Orange. A small +suburb of Philadelphia was settled mainly by emigrants from Crefeld, and +bears the same name. + +The Prussian Crefeld is a clean, spacious place, with wide streets, +substantial houses, and all the appearance of a Dutch town. At this time +it contained about seventy-five thousand inhabitants. Bret Harte arrived +at Crefeld on the morning of July 17, 1878, after a sleepless journey of +twelve hours from Paris, and on the same day he wrote to his wife a very +homesick letter. + +"I have audaciously travelled alone nearly four hundred miles through an +utterly foreign country on one or two little French and German phrases, +and a very small stock of assurance, and have delivered my letters to my +predecessor, and shall take possession of the Consulate to-morrow. Mr. +----, the present incumbent, appears to me--I do not know how I shall +modify my impression hereafter--as a very narrow, mean, ill-bred, and not +over-bright Puritanical German. It was my intention to appoint him my +vice-Consul--an act of courtesy suggested both by my own sense of right +and Mr. Leonard's advice, but he does not seem to deserve it, and has even +received my suggestion of it with the suspicion of a mean nature. But at +present I fear I may have to do it, for I know no one else here. I am to +all appearance utterly friendless; I have not received the first act of +kindness or courtesy from any one, and I suppose this man sees it. I shall +go to Bavaria to-morrow to see the Consul there, who held this place as +one of his dependencies, and try to make matters straight."[94] + +This letter shows that the craving for sympathy and companionship, which +is associated with artistic natures, was intensely felt by Bret Harte, +more so, perhaps, than would have been expected in a man of his +self-reliant character. His despondent tone is almost child-like. The +letter goes on: "It's been up-hill work ever since I left New York, but I +shall try to see it through, please God! I don't allow myself to think +over it at all, or I should go crazy. I shut my eyes to it, and in doing +so perhaps I shut out what is often so pleasant to a traveller's first +impressions; but thus far London has only seemed to me a sluggish +nightmare through which I have waked, and Paris a confused sort of +hysterical experience. I had hoped for a little kindness and rest here.... +At least, Nan, be sure I've written now the worst; I think things must be +better soon. I shall, please God, make some friends in good time, and will +try and be patient. But I shall not think of sending for you until I see +clearly that I can stay myself. If the worst comes to the worst I shall +try to stand it for a year, and save enough to come home and begin anew +there. But I could not stand it to see you break your heart here through +disappointment, as I mayhap may do." + +The tone of this letter is so exaggerated that it might seem as if Bret +Harte had been a little theatrical and insincere,--that he had endeavored +to create an impression which was partly false. But such a conjecture +would be erroneous, for under the same date, with the addition of the word +"midnight," we find him writing a second letter to correct the effect of +the first, as follows:-- + + "MY DEAR NAN,--I wrote and mailed you a letter this afternoon that I + fear was rather disconsolate, so I sit down to-night to send another, + which I hope will take a little of the blues out of the first. Since + I wrote I have had some further conversation with my predecessor, Mr. + ----, and I think I can manage matters with him. He has hauled in his + horns considerably since I told him that the position I offered + him--so far as the honor of it went--was better than the one he held. + For the one thing pleasant about my office is that the dignity of it + has been raised on my account. It was only a dependence--a Consular + Agency--before it was offered to me.[95] + + "I feel a little more hopeful, too, for I have been taken out to a + 'fest'--or a festival--of one of the vintners, and one or two of the + people were a little kind. I forced myself to go; these German + festivals are distasteful to me, and I did not care to show my + ignorance of their language quite so prominently, but I thought it + was the proper thing for me to do. It was a very queer sight. About + five hundred people were in an artificial garden beside an artificial + lake, looking at artificial fireworks, and yet as thoroughly enjoying + it as if they were children. Of course there were beer and wine. Here + as in Paris everybody drinks, and all the time, and nobody gets + drunk. Beer, beer, beer; and meals, meals, meals. Everywhere the body + is worshipped. Beside them we are but unsubstantial spirits. I write + this in my hotel, having had to pass through a mysterious gate and so + into a side courtyard and up a pair of labyrinthine stairs, to my dim + 'Zimmer' or chamber. The whole scene, as I returned to-night, looked + as it does on the stage,--the lantern over the iron gate, the inn + strutting out into the street with a sidewalk not a foot wide. I know + now from my own observation, both here and in Paris and London, where + the scene-painters at the theatres get their subjects. Those + impossible houses--those unreal silent streets all exist in Europe." + +On one of those first, melancholy days at Crefeld, the new Consul, walking +listlessly along the main street of the town, happened to throw a passing +glance at the window of a bookseller's shop, and there he saw on the back +of a neat little volume the familiar words "Bret Harte." It was a German +translation of his stories, and it is easy to imagine how the sight +refreshed and comforted the homesick exile. After that, he felt that to +some extent, at least, he was living among friends. Translations of Bret +Harte's poems and stories had appeared before this in German magazines, +and later his stories were reproduced in Germany, in book form, as fast as +they were published in England. In fact, his books have been printed in +every language of Europe, and translations of his stories have appeared in +the "Revue des Deux Mondes," in the "Moscow Gazette," and in periodicals +of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden. In 1878 a translation of +six of Bret Harte's tales was published in the Servian language, with an +enthusiastic preface in German, by the translator, Ivan B. Popovitch. + +The impression that Bret Harte received from Europe,--and it is the one +that every uncontaminated American must receive,--may be gathered from a +letter written by him to his younger son, then a small boy: "We drove out +the other day through a lovely road, bordered with fine poplar trees, and +more like a garden walk than a country road, to the Rhine, which is but +two miles and a half from this place. The road had been built by Napoleon +the First when he was victorious everywhere, and went straight on through +everybody's property, and even over their dead bones. Suddenly to the +right we saw the ruins of an old castle, vine-clad and crumbling, exactly +like a scene on the stage. It was all very wonderful. But Papa thought, +after all, he was glad his boys live in a country that is as yet quite +_pure_, and _sweet_ and _good_; not in one where every field seems to cry +out with the remembrance of bloodshed and wrong, and where so many people +have lived and suffered, that to-night, under this clear moon, their very +ghosts seemed to throng the road and dispute our right of way. Be +thankful, my dear boy, that you are an American. Papa was never so fond of +his country before, as in this land that has been so great, so powerful, +and so very, very hard and wicked."[96] + +Bret Harte, though disclaiming any knowledge of music, had a real +appreciation of it, and wrote as follows to his wife who was a +connoisseur: "I have been several times to the opera at Dusseldorf, and I +have been hesitating whether I should slowly prepare you for a great shock +or tell you at once that musical Germany is a humbug. My first operatic +experience was 'Tannhäuser.' I can see your superior smile, Anna, at this; +and I know how you will take my criticism of Wagner, so I don't mind +saying plainly, that it was the most diabolically hideous and stupidly +monotonous performance I ever heard. I shall say nothing about the +orchestral harmonies, for there wasn't anything going on of that kind, +unless you call something that seemed like a boiler factory at work in the +next street, and the wind whistling through the rigging of a channel +steamer, harmony.... But what I wanted to say was that even my poor +uneducated ear detected bad instrumentation and worse singing in the +choruses. I confided this much to a friend, and he said very frankly that +I was probably right, that the best musicians and choruses went to +America.... + +"Then I was awfully disappointed in 'Faust,' or, as it is known here in +the playbills, 'Marguerite.' You know how I love that delicious idyl of +Gounod's, and I was in my seat that night long before the curtain went up. +Before the first act was over I felt like leaving, and yet I was glad I +stayed. For although the chorus of villagers was frightful, and Faust and +Mephistopheles spouted and declaimed blank verse at each other--whole +pages of Goethe, yet the acting was superb. I have never seen such a +Marguerite. But think of my coming to Germany to hear opera badly sung, +and magnificently acted!"[97] + +Having put the affairs of the Consular office upon a proper footing, Bret +Harte returned to England about the middle of August for a short vacation, +which proved, however, to be a rather long one. His particular object was +a visit to James Anthony Froude at his house in Devonshire. Bret Harte +had a great admiration for Froude's writings; and when the two men met +they formed a friendship which was severed only by death. + +From Froude's home Bret Harte wrote to his wife as follows: "Imagine, if +you can, something between 'Locksley Hall,' and the High Walled Garden, +where Maud used to walk, and you have some idea of this graceful English +home. I look from my windows down upon exquisite lawns and terraces, all +sloping toward the sea wall, and then down upon the blue sea below.... I +walk out in the long, high garden, past walls hanging with netted peaches +and apricots, past terraces looking over the ruins of an old feudal +castle, and I can scarcely believe I am not reading an English novel or +that I am not myself a wandering ghost. To heighten the absurdity, when I +return to my room I am confronted by the inscription on the door, 'Lord +Devon' (for this is the property of the Earl of Devon, and I occupy his +favourite room), and I seem to have died and to be resting under a gilded +mausoleum that lies even more than the average tombstone does. Froude is a +connection of the Earl's, and has hired the house for the Summer. + +"But Froude--dear old noble fellow--is splendid. I love him more than I +ever did in America. He is great, broad, manly,--democratic in the best +sense of the word, scorning all sycophancy and meanness, accepting all +that is around him, yet more proud of his literary profession than of his +kinship with these people whom he quietly controls. There are only a few +literary men like him here, but they are kings. So far I've avoided seeing +any company here; but Froude and I walk and walk, and talk and talk. They +let me do as I want, and I have not been well enough yet to do aught but +lounge. The doctor is coming to see me to-day, and if I am no better I +shall return in a day or two to London, and then to Crefeld."[98] + +Bret Harte's health seems at all times to have been easily upset, and he +was particularly subject to colds and sore throats. This letter was +written in August, but it was the first week in November before he was on +his way back to Crefeld. While in London he had arranged for a lecture +tour in England during the next January (1879), and in that month a volume +of his stories and poems was published in England with the following +Introduction by the author:-- + +"In offering this collection of sketches to the English public, the author +is conscious of attaching an importance to them that may not be shared by +the general reader, but which he, as an American writer on English soil, +cannot fail to feel very sensibly. The collection is made by himself, the +letter-press revised by his own hand, and he feels for the first time that +these fugitive children of his brain are no longer friendless in a strange +land, entrusted to the care of a foster-mother, however discreet, but are +his own creations, for whose presentation to the public in this fashion he +is alone responsible. Three or four having been born upon English soil may +claim the rights of citizenship, but the others he must leave to prove +their identity with English literature on their own merits." + +The lecture on the Argonauts, delivered the first time at the Crystal +Palace, was very well received both by the hearers and the press; but +financially it was a disappointment. Bret Harte was in England three +weeks, lectured five times, and made only two hundred dollars over and +above his expenses. + +A second lecture tour, however, carried out in March of the same year, was +successful in every way. The audiences were enthusiastic, and the payment +was liberal. + +It was during this visit to England that Bret Harte became involved in a +characteristic tangle. He had received the compliment of being asked to +respond for Literature at the Royal Academy banquet in 1879, and, with +his constitutional unwillingness to give a point-blank refusal, had +promised or half-promised to be present. Meanwhile, he had returned to +Crefeld, and the prospect of speaking at the dinner loomed more and more +horrific in his imagination, while the uncertainty in which he left the +matter was a source of vexation in London. Letters and telegrams from his +friends remained unanswered, until finally, Sir Frederic Leighton, the +President of the Academy, sent him a message, the reply to which was +prepaid, saying, "In despair; cannot do without you. Please telegraph at +once if quite impossible." + +This at last drew from Bret Harte a telegram stating that the pressure of +official business would render it impossible for him to leave Crefeld. But +the matter was not quite ended yet. In a day or two Bret Harte received a +letter from Froude, good-naturedly reminding him that a note as well as a +telegram was due to Sir Frederic Leighton. "The President of the Royal +Academy," he wrote, "is a sacred person with the state and honors of a +sovereign on these occasions." And after some further delay Bret Harte did +write to Sir Frederic, and received in reply the following polite but +possibly somewhat ironical note: "Dear Mr. Bret Harte,--It was most kind +of you to write to me after your telegram. I fully understand the +impossibility of your leaving your post, and sincerely regret my loss." + +A year later, however, in 1880, Bret Harte answered the toast to +Literature at the Royal Academy dinner, and his brief speech on that +occasion is included in the volume of lectures by him recently +published.[99] + +In October of this year, 1879, Bret Harte wrote to Washington stating that +his health had suffered at Crefeld, and requesting leave of absence for +sixty days in order that he might follow the advice of his physician, and +seek a more favorable climate. He also asked for a reply by telegraph; +and in the same letter he made application for a better Consular position, +mentioning, as one reason for the exchange, that the business of the +Agency at Crefeld had greatly increased during his tenure. His request for +leave of absence was immediately granted, and in November he wrote to the +State Department acknowledging the receipt of its telegram and letter, but +adding, "Neither my affairs nor my health have enabled me yet to avail +myself of the courtesy extended to me by the Department. When I shall be +able to do so, I shall, agreeably to your instructions, promptly inform +you." He took this leave of absence in the following January and April. + +So far as can be judged from his communications to the State Department, +Bret Harte discharged the duties of the Agency in a very business-like +manner. For one thing, he reduced the time consumed in passing upon +invoices of goods intended for exportation to the United States from +twenty-four hours to three hours, greatly to the convenience of the +Crefeld manufacturers. The increase in the value of the silks and velvets +shipped to this country during Bret Harte's term amounted to about two +hundred thousand dollars quarterly; but perhaps the demands of trade had +something to do with this. + +Two of the reports to the State Department from our Agent at Crefeld +deserve to be rescued from their official oblivion. The first is dated, +October 8, 1879, and it accompanies a table showing the rainfall, +snowfall, and thunderstorms occurring in the district from July 1, 1878, +to June 30, 1879. The Agent states:-- + +"The table is compiled from the observations of a competent local +meteorologist. In mitigation of the fact that it has rained in this +district in the ratio of every other day in the year, it may be stated +that the general gloom has been diversified and monotony relieved by +twenty-nine thunderstorms and one earthquake." + +The second communication, dated October 10, 1879, is in response to an +official inquiry. "In reference to the Department Circular dated August +27, 1879, I have the honor to report that upon careful inquiry of the +local authorities of this district I find that there is not now and never +has been any avowed Mormon emigration from Crefeld, nor any emigration of +people likely to become converts to that faith. Its name as well as its +tenets are unknown to the inhabitants, and only to officials through the +Department Circular. + +"The artisans and peasants of this district--that class from which the +Mormon ranks are supposed to be recruited--are hard-working, thrifty, and +home-loving. They are averse to emigration for any purpose, and as +Catholics to any new revealed religion. A prolific household with _one_ +wife seems to exclude any polygamous instinct in the manly breast, while +the woman, who works equally with her husband, evinces no desire to share +any division of the affections or the profits. The like may be predicated +of the manufacturers, with the added suggestion that a duty of 60 per cent +_ad valorem_ by engaging the fullest powers of the intellect in its +evasion, leaves little room for the play of the lower passions. In these +circumstances I did not find it necessary to report to the Legation at +Berlin." + +The literary product of Bret Harte's two years at Crefeld was _A Legend of +Sammtstadt_, in which there is a pleasant blending of the romantic and the +humorous, _The Indiscretion of Elsbeth_, the _Views from a German Spion_, +and _Unser Karl_. _Unser Karl_, however, was not written, or at least was +not published, until several years later. + +Perhaps the most valuable impression which Bret Harte carried away from +Crefeld was that of the German children. Children always interested him, +and in Prussia he found a new variety, which he described in the _Views +from a German Spion_: "The picturesqueness of Spanish and Italian +childhood has a faint suspicion of the pantomime and the conscious +attitudinizing of the Latin races. German children are not exuberant or +volatile; they are serious,--a seriousness, however, not to be confounded +with the grave reflectiveness of age, but only the abstract wonderment of +childhood. These little creatures I meet upon the street--whether in +quaint wooden shoes and short woollen petticoats, or neatly booted and +furred, with school knapsacks jauntily borne on little square +shoulders--all carry likewise in their round chubby faces their profound +wonderment and astonishment at the big busy world into which they have so +lately strayed. If I stop to speak with this little maid, who scarcely +reaches to the top-boots of yonder cavalry officer, there is less of +bashful self-consciousness in her sweet little face than of grave wonder +at the foreign accent and strange ways of this new figure obtruded upon +her limited horizon. She answers honestly, frankly, prettily, but gravely. +There is a remote possibility that I might bite; and with this suspicion +plainly indicated in her round blue eyes, she quietly slips her little red +hand from mine, and moves solemnly away." + +The Continental practice of making the dog a beast of burden shocked Bret +Harte, as it must shock any lover of the animal. "Perhaps it is because I +have the barbarian's fondness for dogs, and for their lawless, gentle, +loving uselessness that I rebel against this unnatural servitude. It seems +as monstrous as if a child were put between the shafts and made to carry +burdens; and I have come to regard those men and women, who in the +weakest, perfunctory way affect to aid the poor brute by laying idle hands +on the barrow behind, as I would unnatural parents.... I fancy the dog +seems to feel the monstrosity of the performance, and, in sheer shame for +his master, forgivingly tries to assume it is _play_; and I have seen a +little collie running along, barking and endeavoring to leap and gambol in +the shafts, before a load that any one out of this locality would have +thought the direst cruelty. Nor do the older or more powerful dogs seem to +become accustomed to it." + +And then comes an example of that extraordinary keenness of observation +with which Bret Harte was gifted:--"I have said that the dog was generally +sincere in his efforts. I recall but one instance to the contrary. I +remember a young collie who first attracted my attention by his persistent +barking. Whether he did this, as the plough-boy whistled, 'for want of +thought,' or whether it was a running protest against his occupation, I +could not determine, until one day I noticed that, in barking, he slightly +threw up his neck and shoulders, and that the two-wheeled barrow-like +vehicle behind him, having its weight evenly poised on the wheels by the +trucks in the hands of its driver, enabled him by this movement to +cunningly throw the centre of gravity and the greater weight on the +man,--a fact which the less sagacious brute never discerned.... I cannot +help thinking that the people who have lost this gentle, sympathetic, +characteristic figure from their domestic life and surroundings have not +acquired an equal gain through his harsh labors." + +Of his Consular experiences at Crefeld the following is the only one which +found its way into literature: "The Consul's chief duty was to uphold the +flag of his own country by the examination and certification of divers +invoices sent to his office by the manufacturers. But, oddly enough, these +messengers were chiefly women,--not clerks, but ordinary household +servants, and on busy days the Consulate might have been mistaken for a +female registry office, so filled and possessed it was by waiting Mädchen. +Here it was that Gretchen, Liebchen, and Clarchen, in the cleanest of +gowns, and stoutly but smartly shod, brought their invoices in a piece of +clean paper, or folded in a blue handkerchief, and laid them, with fingers +more or less worn and stubby from hard service, before the Consul for his +signature. Once, in the case of a very young Mädchen, that signature was +blotted by the sweep of a flaxen braid upon it as the child turned to go; +but generally there was a grave, serious business instinct and sense of +responsibility in these girls of ordinary peasant origin, which, equally +with their sisters of France, were unknown to the English or American +woman of any class." + +Bret Harte remained nearly two years at Crefeld, but his wife did not join +him there, and, so far as the world knows, they never met again. In May, +1880, he was transferred to the much more lucrative and more desirable +Consulship at Glasgow. It was one of the last cases in which government +bestowed public office as a reward for literary excellence,--a custom so +hallowed by age and association that every lover of literature will look +back upon it with fond regret. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BRET HARTE AT GLASGOW + + +After a month in London, Bret Harte took possession of the Consulate at +Glasgow in July, 1880, and remained there five years. His annual salary +was three thousand dollars. + +In September he wrote to a friend: "As I am trying to get up a good +reputation here, I stay at my post pretty regularly, occasionally making a +cheap excursion. This is a country for them. The other day I went to +Staffa. It was really the only 'sight' in Europe that quite filled all my +expectations. But alas! that magnificent, cathedral-like cave was +presently filled with a howling party of sandwich-eating tourists, +splashing in the water and climbing up the rocks. One should only go there +alone, or with some sympathetic spirit."[100] + +How far the Consul's good intentions were fulfilled it is difficult to +say. London attracted Bret Harte as it attracts everybody of Anglo-Saxon +descent. That vast and sombre metropolis may weary the body and vex the +soul of the visitor, but, after all, it remains the headquarters of the +English-speaking race, and the American, as well as the Canadian or the +Australian, returns to it again and again with a vague longing, never +satisfied, but never lost. + +Another reason for the absenteeism of the Consul was that he lectured now +and again in different parts of England, and that he paid frequent visits +to country houses. Mr. Pemberton quotes a letter from him which contains +an amusing illustration of the English boy's sporting spirit:-- + +"MY DEAR PEMBERTON,--Don't be alarmed if you should hear of my nearly +having blown the top of my head off. Last Monday I had my face badly cut +by the recoil of an overloaded gun. I do not know yet beneath these +bandages whether I shall be permanently marked. At present I am invisible, +and have tried to keep the accident a secret. When the surgeon was +stitching me together, the son of the house, a boy of twelve, came timidly +to the door of my room. 'Tell Mr. Bret Harte it's all right,' he said, +'_he killed the hare_.'" + +However, the reports made by the Consul to the State Department seem to +indicate more attention to his duties than has commonly been credited to +him. One of these communications, dated May 4, 1882, gives a detailed +account of the peculiar Glasgow custom according to which the several +flats or floors of tenement houses are owned by separate persons, usually +the occupants, each owner of a floor being a joint proprietor, with the +other floor-owners, of the land on which the building stands, of the roof, +the staircase and the walls. Another letter states, in answer to a +question by the Department, that there were at the time probably not more +than six American citizens resident in Glasgow, and that only one such was +known to the Consul or to his predecessor. This, in an English-speaking +city of six hundred thousand people, seems extraordinary. + +The most interesting of Bret Harte's communications to the State +Department is perhaps the following:-- + +"On a recent visit to the Island of Iona, within this Consular District, I +found in the consecrated ground of the ruined Cathedral the graves of +nineteen American seamen who had perished in the wreck of the 'Guy +Mannering' on the evening of the 31st of December, 1865, on the north +coast of the island. The place where they are interred is marked by two +rows of low granite pediments at the head and feet of the dead, +supporting, and connected by, an iron chain which encloses the whole +space. This was done by the order and at the expense of the Lord of the +Manor, the present Duke of Argyle. + + * * * * * + +"I venture to make these facts known to the Department, satisfied that +such recognition of the thoughtful courtesy of the Duke of Argyle as would +seem most fit and appropriate to the Department will be made, and that +possibly a record of the names of the seamen will be placed upon some +durable memorial erected upon the spot. + + * * * * * + +"In conclusion I beg to state that should the Department deem any +expenditure by the Government for this purpose inexpedient, I am willing, +with the permission of the Department, to endeavor to procure by private +subscription a sufficient fund for the outlay." + +It is a pleasure to record that these suggestions were adopted by the +State Department. A letter of acknowledgment and thanks was sent to the +Duke of Argyle, and a shaft or obelisk with the names of the seamen +inscribed thereon was erected by the United States Government in the +latter part of the year 1882. + +Bret Harte's Consular experiences with seamen recall those of Hawthorne at +Liverpool, and he appears to have acted with an equal sense of humanity. +In one case he insisted that two sailors who had been convicted of theft +should nevertheless receive the three months' pay due them, without which +they would have been penniless on their discharge from prison. He took the +ground that conviction of this offence was not equivalent to desertion, +and therefore that the wages were not forfeited. He adds: "The case did +not appear to call for any leniency on the part of the Government toward +the ship-owners. The record of the ship's voyage was one of +unseaworthiness, brutality and inefficiency." + +In another case, the Consul supplied from his own pocket the wants of a +shipwrecked American sailor, and procured for him a passage home, there +being no government fund available for the purpose. + +A glimpse of his Consular functions is given in the opening paragraph of +_Young Robin Gray_:-- + +"The good American bark Skyscraper was swinging at her moorings in the +Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But that good American bark--although +owned in Baltimore--had not a plank of American timber in her hulk, nor a +native American in her crew, and even her nautical 'goodness' had been +called in serious question by divers of that crew during her voyage, and +answered more or less inconclusively with belaying-pins, marlin-spikes, +and ropes' ends at the hands of an Irish-American Captain and a Dutch and +Danish Mate. So much so, that the mysterious powers of the American Consul +at St. Kentigern[101] had been evoked to punish mutiny on the one hand, +and battery and starvation on the other; both equally attested by +manifestly false witness and subornation on each side. In the exercise of +his functions, the Consul had opened and shut some jail doors, and +otherwise effected the usual sullen and deceitful compromise, and his flag +was now flying, on a final visit, from the stern sheets of a smart boat +alongside. It was with a feeling of relief at the end of the interview +that he at last lifted his head above an atmosphere of perjury and +bilge-water and came on deck." + +When the Consul reached the deck he saw, for the first time, Ailsa +Callender, one of the most charming of his heroines, and as +characteristically Scotch as M'liss was characteristically Western. The +Reader will not be sorry to recall the impression that Ailsa Callender +subsequently made upon the young American, Robert Gray:-- + +"'She took me to task for not laying up the yacht on Sunday that the men +could go to "Kirk," and for swearing at a bargeman who ran across our +bows. It's their perfect simplicity and sincerity in all this that gets +me! You'd have thought that the old man was my guardian, and the daughter +my aunt.' After a pause he uttered a reminiscent laugh. 'She thought we +ate and drank too much on the yacht, and wondered what we could find to do +all day. All this, you know, in the gentlest, caressing sort of voice, as +if she was really concerned, like one's own sister. Well, not exactly like +mine,'--he interrupted himself grimly,--'but, hang it all, you know what I +mean. You know that our girls over there haven't got _that_ trick of +voice. Too much self-assertion, I reckon; things made too easy for them by +us men. Habit of race, I dare say.' He laughed a little. 'Why, I mislaid +my glove when I was coming away, and it was as good as a play to hear her +commiserating and sympathizing and hunting for it as if it were a lost +baby.' + +"'But you've seen Scotch girls before this,' said the Consul. 'There were +Lady Glairn's daughters whom you took on a cruise.' + +"'Yes, but the swell Scotch all imitate the English, as everybody else +does, for the matter of that, our girls included; and they're all alike.'" + +The shrewd, solid, genial, even religious Sir James MacFen, in _The Heir +of the McHulishes_, and the porter in _A Rose of Glenbogie_, are native to +the soil, and have no counterparts in America, east or west. + +These three stories dealing with Scotch scenes and people prove the +falsity of the assertion sometimes made that Bret Harte could write only +about California:--he could have gone on writing about Scotland all his +life, had he continued to live there, and the tales would have been as +readable, if not so nearly unique, as those which deal with California. He +liked the Scotch people, and was received by them with great kindness and +hospitality. "On my birthday," he wrote, "which became quite accidentally +known to a few friends in the hotel, my table was covered with bouquets of +flowers and little remembrances from cigar-cases to lockets." + +At this period Bret Harte made the acquaintance of William Black and +Walter Besant, and with the former he became very intimate. In the life of +William Black by his friend, Sir Wemyss Reid, there are many references to +Bret Harte. The two story-writers first met as guests of Sir George +Wombwell, who had invited them and a few others, including Mr. Shepard, +the American vice-Consul at Bradford, to make a driving trip to the ruined +abbeys of Eastern Yorkshire. The party dined together at the Yorkshire +Club in York, which was the meeting point. "I remember few more lively +evenings than that," writes Sir Wemyss Reid. "Black and Bret Harte, whose +acquaintance he had just made, vied with each other in the good stories +they told and the repartees they exchanged." + +Shortly afterward Black wrote to Reid, "Bret Harte went down to us at +Brighton, and if we didn't amuse him he certainly amused us. He is coming +again next week." + +Later he wrote again from the Reform Club in London, to Reid: "In a few +weeks' time don't be surprised if Bret Harte and I come and look in upon +you--that is, if he is not compelled for mere shame's sake to go to his +Consular duties ( ! ! ! ) at once. He is the most extraordinary globule of +mercury--comet--aerolite gone drunk--flash of lightning doing Catherine +wheels--I ever had any experience of. Nobody knows where he is, and the +day before yesterday I discovered here a pile of letters that had been +slowly accumulating for him since February, 1879. It seems he never +reported himself to the all-seeing Escott [the hall porter], and never +asked for letters when he got his month's honorary membership last year. +People are now sending letters to him from America addressed to me at +Brighton! But he is a mystery and the cause of mystifications." + +In the following July there is another mention of Bret Harte in one of +Black's letters. "Bret Harte was to have been back from Paris last night, +but he is a wandering comet. The only place he is sure not to be found in +is the Glasgow Consulate." + +But the Consul's wanderings were not so frequent as Mr. Black supposed. +Bret Harte had almost a monomania for not answering letters; and his +absence from Glasgow could not safely be inferred from his failure to +acknowledge communications addressed to him there. A rumor as to the +Consul's prolonged desertion of his post had reached the State Department +at Washington, and in November, 1882, the Department wrote to him +requesting a report on the subject. He replied that he had not been away +from Glasgow beyond the usual limit of ten days,[102] at any one time, +except on holidays and Sundays. This report appears to have been accepted +as satisfactory, and the incident was closed. + +At one time Bret Harte was to have dined with Sir Wemyss Reid and William +Black at the Reform Club; "but in his place," says the biographer, "came a +telegram in which I was invited to ask Black and Lockyer, who had just +spent a few days with him in Scotland, their opinion of the game of +poker--evidence that they had not spent all their time in Scotland in +viewing scenery." + +The damp climate of Glasgow did not agree with Bret Harte, and so early +in his residence there as July, 1881, he wrote to the State Department +requesting leave of absence for three months, with permission to visit the +United States, on the ground that the state of his health was such that he +might require a complete change of scene and air. The request was granted, +but the Consul did not return to his native country. + +In March, 1885, Bret Harte wrote to Black as follows:-- + + "My DEAR BLACK,--I was in the far South, trying to get rid of an + obstinate cold, when your note reached me, and haven't been in London + for some time. I expected you to drop in here on your way up to + 'Balnagownie's arms'--whoever she may be. I'm afraid I don't want any + 'Ardgay' in mine, thank you. Why any man in this damp climate should + want to make himself wetter by salmon-fishing passes my + comprehension. Is there no drier sport to be had in all Great + Britain? I shudder at the name of a river, and shiver at the sight of + any fish that isn't dried. I hear, too, that you are in the habit of + making poetry on these occasions, and that you are dropping lines all + over the place. How far is that place--anyway? I shall be in Glasgow + until the end of March, and if you'll dry yourself thoroughly and + come in and dine with me at that time, I'll show you how 'the + laboring poor' of Glasgow live. Yours always, + + "BRET HARTE." + +But, alas for Bret Harte! when this letter was written, his labors at +Glasgow were about to cease. In the year 1885 a new Administration entered +upon its duties at Washington, and many Consuls were superseded, perhaps +for good cause. Bret Harte was removed in July, and another man of +letters, Mr. Frank Underwood of Boston, reigned in his stead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +BRET HARTE IN LONDON + + +In 1880, during one of his many visits to London, Bret Harte made the +acquaintance of M. Arthur and Mme. Van de Velde, who were already +enthusiastic readers of his works, and it was not long before they became +his most intimate friends in England if not in the world. From 1885, when +he went to London to live, until the death of M. Van de Velde in 1895, he +was an inmate of their house for a great part of the time. Afterward, Bret +Harte took rooms at number 74 Lancaster Gate, which remained his +headquarters for the rest of his life; but he was often a guest at Mme. +Van de Velde's town house, and at her country home, The Red House at +Camberley in Sussex. + +M. Van de Velde was a Belgian whose life had been spent in the diplomatic +service of his country. For many years he was Councillor of Legation in +London. Mme. Van de Velde, his second wife, is of Italian birth, an +accomplished woman of the world, and a writer of reputation. She +translated many of Bret Harte's stories into French, and is the author of +"Random Recollections of Court and Society," "Cosmopolitan Recollections," +and "French Fiction of To-day." A quotation has already been made from her +discriminating essay on Bret Harte. Her influence upon him was an +important factor in the last twenty years of his life. Mme. Van de Velde +led him to take himself and his art more seriously than he had done since +coming to England. He settled down to his work, put his shoulder to the +wheel, and kept it there during the remainder of his life. For a man +naturally indolent and inclined to underrate his own writings, this +well-sustained industry was remarkable. Bret Harte was always more easily +influenced by women than by men. He showed his best side to them, and they +called out the gentleness and chivalry of his nature. No woman ever spoke +ill of him, and among his most grateful admirers to-day are the California +women who contributed to the "Overland Monthly," and who testify to the +uniform kindness and consideration with which he treated them. + +Bret Harte's habits were regular and simple. He smoked a good deal, drank +very little, and took exercise every day. At one time he played golf, and +at another he was somewhat interested in amateur photography. But his real +recreation, as well as his labor, was found in that imaginary world which +sprang to life under his pen. He was often a guest at English country +houses, and was familiar with the history of English cathedrals, abbeys, +churches, and historical ruins. He made a pilgrimage to Macbeth's country +in Scotland and to Charlotte Brontë's home in Yorkshire. He loved Byron's +poetry, and was once a guest at Newstead Abbey. He frequently visited Lord +Compton, later Marquis of Northampton, at Compton Wyngates in Warwickshire +near the battleground of Edgehill, and at Castle Ashby at Northampton. +Reminiscences of these visits may be found in _The Desborough Connections_ +and _The Ghosts of Stukeley Castle_. He belonged to various clubs, such as +The Beefsteak, The Rabelais, The Kinsmen; but during the last few years of +his life he frequented only the Royal Thames Yacht Club. + +"This selection seemed to me so odd," writes Mr. Pemberton, "for he had no +love of yachting, that I questioned him concerning it. 'Why, my dear +fellow,' he said, 'don't you see? I never use a club until I am tired of +my work and want relief from it. If I go to a literary club I am asked +all sorts of questions as to what I am doing, and my views on somebody's +last book, and to these I am expected to reply at length. Now my good +friends in Albemarle Street talk of their yachts, don't want my advice +about them, are good enough to let me listen, and I come away refreshed by +their conversation.'"[103] + +So Hawthorne, it will be remembered, cared little for the meetings of the +Saturday Club in Boston, and was often an absentee, but he delighted in +the company of the Yankee sea-captains at Mrs. Blodgett's boarding-house +in Liverpool. "Captain Johnson," he wrote, "assigned as a reason for not +boarding at this house that the conversation made him sea-sick; and indeed +the smell of tar and bilge-water is somewhat strongly perceptible in it." + +The truth is that an aversion to the society of purely literary men should +naturally be looked for in writers of a profound or original stamp of +mind. Something may be learned and some refreshment of spirit may be +obtained from almost any man who knows almost anything at first +hand,--even from a market-gardener or a machinist; and if his subject is +what might be called a natural one, such as ships, horses or cows, it is +bound to have a certain intellectual interest. But the ordinary, clever, +sophisticated littérateur is mainly occupied neither with things nor with +ideas, but with forms of expression, and consequently he is a long way +removed from reality. It may be doubted if any society in the world is +less profitable than his. + +Mr. Moncure Conway, in his autobiography, gives an amusing reminiscence of +Bret Harte's proneness to escape from what are known as "social duties." +Mrs. Conway "received" on Monday afternoons, and Bret Harte had told her +that he would be present on a particular Monday, but he failed to +appear,--much to the regret of some persons who had been invited for the +occasion. "When chancing to meet him," writes Mr. Conway, "I alluded to +the disappointment; he asked forgiveness and said, 'I will come next +Monday--_even though I promise_.'" + +He had a constant dread that his friendship or acquaintance would be +sought on account of his writings, rather than for himself. A lady who sat +next to him at dinner without learning his name, afterward remarked, "I +have always longed to meet him, and I would have been so different had I +only known who my neighbor was." This, unfortunately, being repeated to +Bret Harte, he exclaimed, "Now, why can't a woman realize that this sort +of thing is insulting?... If Mrs. ---- talked with me, and found me +uninteresting as a man, how could she expect to find me interesting +because I was an author?" + +During the last ten or fifteen years of his life, Bret Harte seldom went +far from home. He never visited Switzerland until September, 1895, and +even then he carried his manuscript with him, and devoted to it part of +each day. He took great delight in the Swiss mountains, often spoke of his +vacation there, and was planning to go again during the summer of his +death. + +From Lucerne he wrote to a friend[104] as follows: "Strangest of all, I +find my heart going back to the old Sierras whenever I get over three +thousand feet of Swiss altitude, and--dare I whisper it?--in spite of +their pictorial composition, I wouldn't give a mile of the dear old +Sierras, with their honesty, sincerity, and magnificent uncouthness, for +one hundred thousand kilometres of the picturesque Vaud." + +Of Geneva he wrote to the same correspondent: "I thought I should not like +Geneva, fancying it a kind of continental Boston, and that the shadow of +John Calvin and the old reformers, or still worse the sentimental idiocy +of Rousseau, and the De Staëls and Mme. de Warens still lingered there." + +But he did like Geneva; and of the lake, as he viewed it from his hotel +window, he wrote, "Ask him if he ever saw an expanse of thirty miles of +water exactly the color of the inner shell of a Mother-of-Pearl oyster." + +Of Geneva itself he wrote again: "It is gay, brilliant, and even as +_pictorial_ as the end of Lake Leman; and as I sit by my hotel window on +the border of the lake I can see Mont Blanc--thirty or forty miles +away--framing itself a perfect vignette. Of course I know the whole thing +was arranged by the Grand Hotel Company that run Switzerland. Last night +as I stood on my balcony looking at the great semi-circle of lights +framing the quay and harbor of the town, a great fountain sent up a spray +from the lake three hundred feet high, illuminated by beautifully shaded +'lime lights,' exactly like a 'transformation scene.' Just then, the new +moon--a pale green sickle--swung itself over the Alps! But it was +absolutely too much! One felt that the Hotel Company were overdoing it! +And I wanted to order up the hotel proprietor and ask him to take it down. +At least I suggested it to the Colonel,[105] but he thought it would do as +well if we refused to pay for it in the bill." + +The same correspondent, by the way, quotes an amusing letter from Bret +Harte, written in 1888, from Stoke Pogis, near Windsor Castle: "I had the +honor yesterday of speaking to a man who had been in personal attendance +upon the Queen for fifty years. He was naturally very near the point of +translation, and gave a vague impression that he did not require to be +born again, but remained on earth for the benefit of American tourists." + +Bret Harte's reasons for remaining so long in England have already been +explained in part. The chief cause was probably the pecuniary one, for by +living in England he was able to obtain more from his writings than he +could have obtained as a resident of the United States. He continued to +contribute to the support of his wife, although after his departure from +this country Mrs. Harte and he did not live together. The cause of their +separation was never made known. On this subject both Mr. Harte and his +wife maintained an honorable silence, which, it is to be hoped, will +always be respected. + +A few years before her husband's death, Mrs. Harte came to England to +live. The older son, Griswold Harte, died in the city of New York, in +December, 1901, leaving a widow and one daughter. The second son, Francis +King Harte, was married in England some years ago, and makes his home +there. He has two children. Bret Harte was often a visitor at his son's +house. The older daughter, Jessamy, married Henry Milford Steele, an +American, and lives in the United States. The younger daughter, Ethel, is +unmarried, and lives with her mother. + +Beyond the pecuniary reason which impelled Bret Harte to live in England +were other reasons which every American who has spent some time in that +country will understand, and which are especially strong in respect to +persons of nervous temperament. The climate is one reason; for the English +climate is the natural antidote to the American; and perhaps the residents +of each country would be better if they could exchange habitats every +other generation. + +England has a soothing effect upon the hustling American. He eats more, +worries less, and becomes a happier and pleasanter animal. A similar +change has been observed in high-strung horses taken from the United +States to England. And so of athletes--the English athlete, transported to +this country, gains in speed, but loses endurance; whereas our athletes on +English soil gain endurance and lose speed. The temperament and manners +of the English people have the same pleasant effect as the climate upon +the American visitor. Why is John Bull always represented as an irascible +animal? Perhaps he is such if his rights, real or assumed, are invaded, or +if his will is thwarted; but as the stranger meets him, he is civil and +good-natured. In fact, this is one of the chief surprises which an +American experiences on his first visit to England. + +More important still, perhaps, is the ease of living in a country which +has a fixed social system. The plain line drawn in England between the +gentleman and the non-gentleman class makes things very pleasant for those +who belong to the favored division. It gives the gentleman a vantage +ground in dealing with the non-gentleman which proves as convenient, as it +is novel, to the American. The fact that it must be inconvenient for the +non-gentleman class, which outnumbers the other some thousands to one, +never seems to trouble the Englishman, although the American may have some +qualms. + +Furthermore, strange as it may seem, the position of an author, _per se_ +is, no doubt, higher in London (though perhaps not elsewhere in England) +than it is in the United States. With us, the well-to-do publisher has a +better standing in what is called "society" than the impecunious author. +In London the reverse would be the case. New York and Boston looked +askance upon Bret Harte, doubting if he were quite respectable; but London +welcomed him. Bret Harte was often asked to lecture in England, and +especially to speak or write upon English customs or English society; but +he always refused, being unwilling, as Thackeray was in regard to the +United States, either to censure a people from whom he had received great +hospitality, or to praise them at the expense of truth. + +Nor was his belief in America and the American social system weakened in +the least by his long residence in England or by his enjoyment of the +amenities of English life. + +An English author wrote of him, while he was yet living: "Time has not +dulled Bret Harte's instinctive affection for the land of his birth, for +its institutions, its climate, its natural beauties, and, above all, the +character and moral attributes of its inhabitants. Even his association +with the most aristocratic representatives of London society has been +impotent to modify his views or to win him over to less independent +professions. He is as single-minded to-day as he was when he first landed +on British soil. A general favorite in the most diverse circles, social, +literary, scientific, artistic, or military, his strong primitive nature +and his positive individuality have remained intact. Always polite and +gentle, neither seeking nor evading controversy, he is steadfastly +unchangeable in his political and patriotic beliefs." + +Another English writer relates that "At the time when there was some talk +of war between Britain and America, he, while deploring even the +suggestion of such a catastrophe, earnestly avowed his intention of +instantly returning to his own country, should hostilities break out." + +No two men could be more opposed in many respects than Hawthorne and Bret +Harte. Nevertheless they had some striking points of resemblance. Both +were men who united primitive instincts with consummate refinement; and +different as is the subject-matter of their stories, the style and +attitude are not unlike. They had the same craving for beauty of form, the +same self-repression, the same horror of what is prolix or tawdry, the +same love of that simplicity which is the perfection of art. + +Long residence in England seems to have had much the same effect upon both +men. It heightened their feeling for their native country almost in +proportion as it pleased their own susceptibilities. Hawthorne's fondness +for England was an almost unconscious feeling. When he returned to +America, there to live for the remainder of his days, he did not find +himself at home in the manner or to the degree which he had expected. "At +Rome," his son writes, "an unacknowledged homesickness affected him, an +Old-Homesickness, rather than a yearning for America. He may have imagined +that it was America that he wanted, but when at last we returned there, he +still looked backward toward England." + +That a man should find it more agreeable to live in one country, and yet +be firmly convinced that the social system of another country was +superior, is nothing remarkable. It is the presence of equality in the +United States and its absence in England which make the chief difference +between them. Even that imperfect equality to which we have attained has +rendered the American people the happiest and the most moral in the world. +To the superficial visitor, indeed, who has seen only a few great cities +in the United States, it might seem that equality is not much more +prevalent here than it is in England; but let him tarry a while in the +smaller cities, in the towns and villages of the Union, from the Atlantic +to the Pacific, and he will reach a different conclusion. An English +writer of unusual discernment speaks of "that conscious independence, that +indefinable assertion of manhood, which is the key to the American +character." + +One result of Bret Harte's long residence in England was the circulation +in this country of many false reports and statements about him which +galled his sensitive nature. He had many times declined to be +"interviewed," and probably made enemies in that way. "But when," writes +Mme. Van de Velde, "in a moment of good nature he yielded to pressing +solicitations, and allowed himself to be questioned, the consequences +were, on the whole, to his disadvantage. From that moment the door was +opened to a flood of apocryphal statements of various length and +importance; sometimes entirely false, sometimes tinged with a dangerous +verisimilitude; often grotesque, occasionally malicious, but one and all +purporting to be derived from unquestionable sources." + +Mr. Pemberton hints at more serious troubles which afflicted Bret Harte's +last years. "If he, in common with many of us, had his deep personal +disappointments and sorrows, he bore them with the chivalry of a Bayard +and a silence as dignified as it was pathetic. To a man of his sensitive +nature, the barbed shafts of 'envy and calumny and hate and pain' +lacerated with a cruelty that at times must have seemed unendurable. Under +such torments he often writhed, but he suffered all things with a quiet +patience that afforded a glorious example to those friends who, knowing of +his wounds, had to be silent concerning them, and could offer him no +balm." + +During the year 1901 Bret Harte's health was failing, although he still +kept at work. His disease was cancer of the throat. He hoped to go abroad +the following summer, and he had written in a letter to a friend, "Alas! I +have never been light-hearted since Switzerland." But early in 1902 his +condition became serious, and he went to stay with Mme. Van de Velde at +Camberley. The Spring was cold and sunless, and he grew worse as it +advanced. Nevertheless he was engaged in writing a play with Mr. +Pemberton, and was meditating a new story which should reintroduce that +favorite of the public, Colonel Starbottle. In March a surgical operation +was performed on his throat, but the relief was slight and temporary; and +from that time forward Bret Harte must have known that his fate was +sealed, although he said nothing to his friends and with them appeared to +be in good, even high spirits. + +April 17, feeling somewhat better, he sat down to begin his new tale. He +headed it, "A Friend of Colonel Starbottle's," and wrote the opening +sentence and part of another sentence. Dissatisfied with this beginning, +he tried again, and taking a fresh sheet of paper, he wrote the title and +one sentence. There the manuscript ends. He was unable to continue it, +although after this date he wrote a few letters to friends. On May 5 he +was sitting in the morning, at his desk, thus engaged, when a hemorrhage +of the throat suddenly attacked him. He was put to bed, and doctors were +sent for. He rallied from this attack, but a second hemorrhage, late in +the afternoon, rendered him partly unconscious, and soon afterward he died +peacefully in the presence of Mme. Van de Velde and her attendants. + +There is something sad in the death of any man far from home and country, +with no kith or kin about him, though ministered to by devoted friends. +Even Bret Harte's tombstone bears the name of one who was a stranger to +his blood and race. We cannot help recalling what Tennessee's Partner +said. "When a man has been running free all day, what's the natural thing +for him to do? Why, to come home." Alas! there was no home-coming for Bret +Harte; and if, as may have been the case, he felt little or no regret at +his situation, the sadness of it would only be intensified by that +circumstance. Some deterioration is inevitable when a husband and father +foregoes, even unwillingly, those feelings of responsibility and affection +which centre in the family,--feelings so natural that to a considerable +degree we share them even with the lower animals. + +That Bret Harte's separation from his family was in part, at least, his +own fault seems highly probable from his character and career. He abhorred +sentimentality in literature, and the few examples of it in his writings +may be ascribed to the influence of Dickens. Nevertheless, with all his +virility, it must be admitted that his nature was that of a +sentimentalist. A sentimentalist is one who obeys the natural good +impulses of the human heart, but whose virtue does not go much beyond +that. He has right feelings and acts upon them, but in cases where there +is nothing to provoke the right feeling he falls short. He is strong in +impulse, but weak in principle. When we see a fellow-being in danger or +distress our instinct is to assist him. If we fail to do so, it is because +we hearken to reason rather than to instinct; because we obey the selfish, +second thought which reason suggests, instead of obeying the spontaneous +impulse which nature puts into our hearts. + +But suppose that the person to be succored makes no appeal to the heart: +suppose that he is thousands of miles away: suppose that one dislikes or +even hates him: suppose that it is a question not of bestowing alms, or of +giving assistance or of feeling sympathy, but of rendering bare justice. +In such cases the sentimentalist lacks a sufficient spur for action: he +feels no impulse: his heart remains cold: he makes excuses to himself; and +having no strong sense of duty or principle to carry him through the +ordeal, he becomes guilty of an act (or, more often, of a failure to act) +which in another person would excite his indignation. In this sense Bret +Harte was a sentimentalist. + +He would have risked his life for a present friend, but was capable of +neglecting an absent one. + +This contradiction, if it be such, affords a clue to his character. In +spite of his amiability, kindness, generosity, there was in Bret Harte an +element of cruelty. Even his natural improvidence in money matters can +hardly excuse him for selling the copyright of all his stories as they +came out, leaving no income to be derived from them after his death. + +The sentimentalist, being a creature of impulse, gets in the habit of +obeying his impulses, good or bad, and is apt to find some difficulty at +last in distinguishing between them. He easily persuades himself that the +thing which he wishes to do is the right thing for him to do. This was a +trait of Bret Harte's character, and it naturally accompanies that lack of +introspection which was so marked in him. There was a want of background, +both intellectual and moral, in his nature. He was an observer, not a +thinker, and his genius was shown only as he lived in the life of others. +Even his poetry is dramatic, not lyric. It was very seldom that Bret +Harte, in his tales or elsewhere, advanced any abstract sentiment or idea; +he was concerned wholly with the concrete; and it is noticeable that when +he does venture to lay down a general principle, it fails to bear the +impress of real conviction. The note of sincerity is wanting. An instance +will be found in the _General Introduction_ which he wrote for the first +volume of his collected stories, where he answers the charge that he had +"confused recognized standards of morality by extenuating lives of +recklessness and often criminality with a single, solitary virtue." After +describing this as "the cant of too much mercy," he goes on to say:-- + +"Without claiming to be a religious man or a moralist, but simply as an +artist, he shall reverently and humbly conform to the rules laid down by a +Great Poet who created the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good +Samaritan, whose works have lasted eighteen hundred years, and will remain +when the present writer and his generation are forgotten. And he is +conscious of uttering no original doctrine in this, but of only voicing +the beliefs of a few of his literary brethren happily living, and one +gloriously dead, who never made proclamation of this from the housetops." + +This is simply Dickens both in manner and substance, and the tone of the +whole passage is insincere and exaggerated, almost maudlin. Lamentable, +but perhaps not strange, that in the one place where Bret Harte explained +and defended what might be called the prevailing moral of his stories, +he should fall so far short of the reader's expectation! + +The truth is that Bret Harte took nothing seriously except his art, and +apparently went through life with as little concern about the origin, +nature, and destiny of mankind as it would be possible for any member of +that unfortunate species to feel. + +And yet there was a noble side to his character. He possessed in an +unusual degree what is, perhaps, the most rare of all good qualities, +namely, magnanimity. No man was ever more free from envy and jealousy; no +writer was ever more quick to perceive and to praise excellence in others, +or more slow to disparage or condemn. He used to say, and really seemed to +believe, that Mr. John Hay's imitations of his own dialect poems were +better than the originals. All the misconstruction and unkind criticism of +which he was the subject never drew from him a bitter remark. He had a +tenderness for children and dumb animals, especially for dogs, and his +sympathy with them gave him a wonderful insight into their natures. Who +but Bret Harte could have penned this sentence which the Reader will +recognize as occurring in _The Argonauts of North Liberty_: "He [Dick +Demorest] had that piteous wistfulness of eye seen in some dogs and the +husbands of many charming women,--the affection that pardons beforehand +the indifference which it has learned to expect." + +In breadth and warmth of sympathy for his fellow-men Bret Harte had what +almost might be described as a substitute for religion; what indeed has +been described as religion itself. Long ago, an author who afterward +became famous, touched with the fervor of youthful enthusiasm for his +vocation, declared that "literature fosters in its adherents a sympathy +with all that lives and breathes which is more binding than any form of +religion." A more recent thinker, Mr. Henry W. Montague, has finely said +that "The most important function of Christianity is not to keep man from +sinning, but to widen the range and increase the depth of his sympathies." + +Judged by these standards, Bret Harte could not be described as an +irreligious writer. Who, more than he, has warmed the heart and suffused +the eyes of his readers with pity for the unfortunate, with admiration for +the heroic? "A kind thought is a good deed," remarked an oriental sage. +The doctrine is a dangerous one; but if it is true of any man, it is true +of an author. His kind thoughts live after him, and they have the force +and effect of deeds. Bret Harte's stories are a legacy to the world, as +full of inspiration as of entertainment. + +It was not by accident or as the result of mere literary taste that he +selected from the chaos of California life the heroic and the pathetic +incidents. Those who know California only through his tales and poems +naturally think that the aspect of it which Bret Harte presents was the +only aspect; that the Pioneer life would have impressed any other observer +just as it impressed him, the single difference being that Bret Harte had +the ability to report what he saw and heard. But such is not the case. +Bret Harte's representation of California is true; there is no +exaggeration in it; but there were other aspects of life there which would +have been equally true. If we were to call up in imagination the various +story-writers of Bret Harte's day, it would be easy to guess what features +of life on the Golden Slope would have attracted them, had they been there +in the days of the Pioneers: how the social peculiarities of San +Francisco, with its flamboyant _demi-monde_ and its early appeal to the +divorce court, would have interested one; how the adventures of outlaws +and robbers would have filled the mind of another; and how a third would +have been content to describe the picturesque traits of the Spanish +inheritors of the soil. + +Bret Harte does indeed touch upon all these points and upon many +others,--not a phase of California life escaped him,--but he does not +dwell upon them. His main theme is those heroic impulses of loyalty, of +chivalry, of love, of pure friendship, which are strong enough to triumph +over death and the fear of death, and which, nevertheless, are often found +where, except to the discerning eye of sympathy, their existence would be +wholly unsuspected. + +For this selection the world owes Bret Harte a debt of gratitude; and none +the less because it was made instinctively. The actions of a really +perfect character would all be instinctive and spontaneous. In such a man +conscience and inclination would coincide. His taste and his sense of duty +would be one and the same thing. A mean, an unkind, an unjust act would be +a solecism as impossible for him as it would be to eat with his knife. The +struggle would have been over before he was born, and his ancestors would +have bequeathed to him a nature in harmony with itself. The credit for his +good deeds would belong, perhaps, rather to his ancestors than to himself, +but we should see in him the perfection of human nature, the final product +of a thousand imperfect natures. + +Something of this spontaneousness and finality belonged to the character +of Bret Harte. If he was weak in conviction and principle, he was strong +in instinct. If he yielded easily to certain temptations, he was +impregnable to others, because he was protected against them by the whole +current of his nature. It would be as impossible to imagine Bret Harte +taking sides against the oppressed, as it would be to imagine him +performing his literary work in a slovenly manner. Both his good and bad +traits were firmly rooted, and, it may be, inextricably mingled. Mr. +Howells said of him that "If his temperament disabled him from certain +experiences of life, it was the sure source of what was most delightful in +his personality, and perhaps most beautiful in his talent." Bret Harte's +stories are sufficient proof that he was at bottom a good man, although he +had grave faults. + +His faults, moreover, were those commonly found in men of genius, and for +that reason they should be treated with some tenderness. When one +considers that the whole progress of the human race, mental and spiritual, +as well as mechanical, is due to the achievements of a few superior +individuals, whom the world has agreed to designate as men of +genius,--considering this, one should be slow to pronounce with anything +like confidence or finality upon the character of one who belongs in that +class. We know that such men are different from other men intellectually, +and we might expect to find, and we do find that they are different from +them emotionally, if not morally. A certain egotism, for example, is +notoriously associated with men of genius; and a kind of egotistic or +unconscious selfishness was Bret Harte's great defect. + +Popular opinion, a safe guide in such matters, has always recognized the +fact that the genius is a species by himself. It is only the clever men of +talent who have discovered that there is no essential difference between +men of genius and themselves. Writers of this description might be named +who have summed up Bret Harte's life and character with amazing +condescension and self-assurance. Meagre as are the known facts of his +career, especially those relating to his private life, these critics have +assigned his motives and judged his conduct with a freedom and a certainty +which they would hardly feel in respect to their own intimates. + +The very absence of information about Bret Harte makes misconstruction +easy. Why he lived apart from his family, why he lived in England, why he +continued to draw his subjects from California,--these are matters as to +which the inquisitive world would have been glad to be informed, but as to +which he thought it more fitting to keep silence; and from that silence no +amount of misrepresentation could move him. Mr. Pemberton has recorded the +congenial scorn with which Bret Harte used to repeat the motto upon the +coat of arms of some Scottish earl. _They say! What say they? Let them +say!_ + +And yet, if a writer has greatly moved or pleased us, we have a natural +desire, especially after his death, to know what manner of man he was. +Most of all, we long to ask that familiar question, the only question +which, at the close of a career, seems to have any relevance or +importance,--Was he a good man? In the present case, such answer as this +book can give has already been made; and if any Reader should be inclined +to a different conclusion, let him weigh well the peculiar circumstances +of Bret Harte's life, and make due allowance for the obscurity in which +his motives are veiled. + +Upon one aspect of his career there can be no difference of opinion. His +devotion to his art was unwavering and extreme. Pagan though he may have +been in some respects, in this matter he was as conscientious a Puritan as +Hawthorne himself. Every plot, every character, every sentence, one might +almost say, every word in his books, was subjected to his own relentless +criticism. The manuscript that Bret Harte consigned to the waste-basket +would have made the reputation of another author. No "pot-boiler" ever +came from his hand, and, whatever his pecuniary difficulties, he never +dreamed of escaping from them by that dashing-off of salable stories which +is a common practice among popular writers of fiction. + +Such he was at the beginning, and such he continued to be until the end. +Six months elapsed, after the publication of his first successful story, +before Bret Harte made his second appearance in the "Overland Monthly." +His friends in California have given us a picture of him, a youthful +author in his narrow office at the Mint, slowly and painfully elaborating +those masterpieces that made him famous. It was the same forty years +afterward when the fatal illness overtook him at his desk in an English +country-house. The pen that dropped from his reluctant fingers had been +engaged in writing and re-writing the simple, opening sentences of a story +that was never to be finished. + +Bret Harte was one of that select band to whom the gods have vouchsafed a +glimpse of perfection. All his life, from mere boyhood, he was inspired by +a vision of that ideal beauty which is at once the joy and the despair of +the true artist. Whoever realizes that vision, even though in an imperfect +manner, has overcome the limitations of time and space, and has obtained a +position among the immortals which may be denied to better and even +greater men. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BRET HARTE AS A WRITER OF FICTION + + +Bret Harte's faculty was not so much that of imagining as of apprehending +human character. Some writers of fiction, those who have the highest form +of creative imagination, are able from their own minds to spin the web and +woof of the characters that they describe; and it makes small difference +where they live or what literary material lies about them. Even these +authors do not create their heroes and heroines quite out of whole +cloth,--they have a shred or two to begin with; but their work is mainly +the result of creation rather than perception. + +The test of creative imagination is that the characters portrayed by it +are subjected to various exigencies and influences: they grow, develop, +yes, even change, and yet retain their consistency. There is a masterly +example of this in Trollope's "Small House at Allington," where he depicts +the slow, astounding, and yet perfectly natural disintegration of Crosby's +moral character. The aftermath of love-making between Pendennis and +Blanche Amory is another instance. This has been called by one critic the +cleverest thing in all Thackeray; but still more clever, though clever is +too base a word for an episode so beautifully conceived, is that dawning +of passion, hopeless and quickly quenched, between Laura Pendennis and +George Warrington, the two strongest characters in the book. Only the hand +of creative genius can guide its characters safely through such labyrinths +of feeling, such back-eddies of emotion. + +A few great novels have indeed been written by authors who did not +possess this faculty, especially by Dickens, in whom it was conspicuously +lacking; but no long story was ever produced without betraying its +author's deficiency in this respect if the deficiency existed. _Gabriel +Conroy_, Bret Harte's only novel, is so bad as a whole, though abounding +in gems, its characters are so inconsistent and confused, its ending so +incomprehensible, that it produces upon the reader the effect of a +nightmare. + +In fact, the nearer Bret Harte's stories approach the character of an +episode the better and more dramatic they are. Of the longer stories, the +best, as everybody will admit, is _Cressy_, and that is little more than +the expansion of a single incident. As a rule, in reading the longer +tales, one remembers, as he progresses, that the situations and the events +are fictitious; they have not the spontaneous, inevitable aspect which +makes the shorter tales impressive. _Tennessee's Partner_ is as historical +as Robinson Crusoe. Bret Harte had something of a weakness for elaborate +plots, but they were not in his line. Plots and situations can hardly be +satisfactory or artistic unless they form the means whereby the characters +of the persons in the tale are developed, or, if not developed, at least +revealed to the reader. The development or the gradual revelation of +character is the _raison d'être_ for the long story or novel. + +But this capacity our author seems to have lacked. It might be said that +he did not require it, because his characters appear to us full-fledged +from the start. He has, indeed, a wonderful power of setting them before +the reader almost immediately, and by virtue of a few masterly strokes. +After an incident or two, we know the character; there is nothing more to +be revealed; and a prolongation of the story would be superfluous. + +But here we touch upon Bret Harte's weakness as a portrayer of human +nature. It surely indicates some deficiency in a writer of fiction if +with the additional scope afforded by a long story he can tell us no more +about his people than he is able to convey by a short story. The +deficiency in Bret Harte was perhaps this, that he lacked a profound +knowledge of human nature. A human being regarded as material for a writer +of fiction may be divided into two parts. There is that part, the more +elemental one, which he shares with other men, and there is, secondly, +that part which differentiates him from other men. In other words, he is +both a type of human nature, and a particular specimen with individual +variations. + +The ideal story-writer would be able to master his subject in each aspect, +and in describing a single person to depict at once both the nature of all +men and also the nature of that particular man. Shakspere, Sterne, +Thackeray have this power. Other writers can do the one thing but not the +other; and in this respect Hawthorne and Bret Harte stand at opposite +extremes. Hawthorne had a profound knowledge of human nature; but he was +lacking in the capacity to hit off individual characteristics. Arthur +Dimmesdale and Hester, even Miriam and Hilda, are not real to us in the +sense in which Colonel Newcome and Becky Sharp are real. Hawthorne's +figures are somewhat spectral; they lack flesh and blood. His forte was +not observation but reflection. He worked from the inside. + +Bret Harte, on the other hand, worked from the outside. He had not that +faculty, so strong in Hawthorne, of delving into his own nature by way of +getting at the nature of other men; but he had the faculty of sympathetic +observation which enabled him to perceive and understand the +characteristic traits that distinguish one man from another. + +_Barker's Luck_ and _Three Partners_, taken together, illustrate Bret +Harte's limitations in this respect. Each of these stories has Barker for +its central theme, the other personages being little more than foils to +him. In the first story, _Barker's Luck_, the plot is very simple, the +incidents are few, and yet we have the character of the hero conveyed to +us with exquisite effect. In _Three Partners_ the theme is elaborated, a +complicated plot is introduced, and Barker appears in new relations and +situations. But we know him no better than we did before. _Barker's Luck_ +covered the ground; and _Three Partners_, a more ambitious story, is far +below it in verisimilitude and in dramatic effect. In the same way, +_M'liss_, in its original form, is much superior to the longer and more +complex story which its author wrote some years afterward, and which is +printed in the collected edition of his works, to the exclusion of the +earlier tale. + +In one case, however, Bret Harte did succeed in showing the growth and +development of a character. The trilogy known as _A Waif of the Plains_, +_Susy_, and _Clarence_, is almost the same as one long story; and in it +the character of Clarence, from boyhood to maturity, is skilfully and +consistently traced. Upon this character Bret Harte evidently bestowed +great pains, and there are some notable passages in his delineation of it, +especially the account of the duel between Clarence and Captain Pinckney. +Not less surprising to Clarence himself than to the reader is the calm +ferocity with which he kills his antagonist; and we share the thrill of +horror which ran through the little group of spectators when it was +whispered about that this gentlemanly young man, so far removed in +appearance from a fire-eater, was the son of Hamilton Brant, the noted +duellist. The situation had brought to the surface a deep-lying, inherited +trait, of which even its possessor had been ignorant. In this character, +certainly in this incident, Bret Harte goes somewhat deeper than his wont. + +We have his own testimony to the fact that his genius was perceptive +rather than creative. In those Scotch stories and sketches in which the +Consul appears, very much in the capacity of a Greek chorus, the author +lets fall now and then a remark plainly autobiographical in character. +Thus, in _A Rose of Glenbogie_, speaking of Mrs. Deeside, he says, "The +Consul, more _perceptive_ than analytical, found her a puzzle." + +This confirms Bret Harte's other statement, made elsewhere, that his +characters, instead of being imagined, were copied from life. But they +were copied with the insight and the emphasis of genius. The ability to +read human nature is about the most rare of mental possessions. How little +do we know even of those whom we see every day, and whom, perhaps, we have +lived with all our lives! Let a man ask himself what his friend or his +wife or his son would do in some supposable emergency; how they would take +this or that injury or affront, good fortune or bad fortune, great sorrow +or great happiness, the defection of a friend, a strong temptation. Let +him ask himself any such question, and, in all probability, he will be +forced to admit that he does not know what would be the result. Who, +remembering his college or schoolboy days, will fail to recognize the +truth of Thoreau's remark, "One may discover a new side to his most +intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public"! + +These surprises occur not because human nature is inconsistent,--the law +of character is as immutable as any other law;--it is because individual +character eludes us. But it did not elude Bret Harte. He had a wonderful +faculty both for understanding and remembering its outward manifestations. +His genius was akin to that of the actor; and this explains, perhaps, his +lifelong desire to write a successful play. Mr. Watts-Dunton has told us +with astonishment how Bret Harte, years after a visit to one of the +London Music Halls, minutely recounted all that he had heard and seen +there, and imitated all the performers. That he would have made a great +actor in the style of Joseph Jefferson is the opinion of that accomplished +critic. + +The surprising quickness with which he seized and assimilated any new form +of dialect was a kind of dramatic capacity. The Spanish-English, mixed +with California slang, which Enriquez Saltello spoke, is as good in its +way as the immortal Costigan's Irish-English. "'To confer then as to thees +horse, which is not--observe me--a Mexican plug. Ah, no! you can your +boots bet on that. She is of Castilian stock--believe me and strike me +dead! I will myself at different times overlook and affront her in the +stable, examine her as to the assault, and why she should do thees thing. +When she is of the exercise I will also accost and restrain her. Remain +tranquil, my friend! When a few days shall pass much shall be changed, and +she will be as another. Trust your oncle to do thees thing! Comprehend me? +Everything shall be lovely, and the goose hang high.'" + +Bret Harte's short stay in Prussia, and later in Scotland, enabled him to +grasp the peculiarities of nature and speech belonging to the natives. +Peter Schroeder, the idealist, could have sprung to life nowhere except +upon German soil. "Peter pondered long and perplexedly. Gradually an +explanation slowly evolved itself from his profundity. He placed his +finger beside his nose, and a look of deep cunning shone in his eyes. +'Dot's it,' he said to himself triumphantly, 'dot's shoost it! Der +Rebooplicans don't got no memories. Ve don't got nodings else.'" + +What character could be more Scotch, and less anything else, than the +porter at the railway station where the Consul alighted on his way to +visit the MacSpaddens. "'Ye'll no be rememberin' me. I had a machine in +St. Kentigern and drove ye to MacSpadden's ferry often. Far, far too +often! She's a strange, flagrantitious creature; her husband's but a puir +fule, I'm thinkin', and ye did yersel' nae guid gaunin' there.'" + +Mr. Callender, again, Ailsa's father, in _Young Robin Gray_, breathes +Scotch Calvinism and Scotch thrift and self-respect in every line. + +"'Have you had a cruise in the yacht?' asked the Consul. + +"'Ay,' said Mr. Callender, 'we have been up and down the loch, and around +the far point, but not for boardin' or lodgin' the night, nor otherwise +conteenuing or parteecipating.... Mr. Gray's a decent enough lad, and not +above instruction, but extraordinar' extravagant.'" + +Even the mysteries of Franco-English seem to have been fathomed by Bret +Harte, possibly by his contact with French people in San Francisco. This +is how the innkeeper explained to Alkali Dick some peculiarities of French +custom: "'For you comprehend not the position of _la jeune fille_ in all +France! Ah! in America the young lady she go everywhere alone; I have seen +her--pretty, charming, fascinating--alone with the young man. But here, +no, never! Regard me, my friend. The French mother, she say to her +daughter's fiancé, "Look! there is my daughter. She has never been alone +with a young man for five minutes,--not even with you. Take her for your +wife!" It is monstrous! It is impossible! It is so!'" + +The moral complement of this rare capacity for reading human nature was +the sympathy, the tenderness of feeling which Bret Harte possessed. +Sympathy with human nature, with its weaknesses, with the tragedies which +it is perpetually encountering, and above all, with its redeeming +virtues,--this is the keynote of Bret Harte's works, the mainspring of his +humor and pathos. He had the gift of satire as well, but, fortunately for +the world, he made far less use of it. Satire is to humor as corporal +punishment is to personal influence. A satire is a jest, but a cutting +one,--a jest in which the victim is held up to scorn or contempt. + +Humor is a much more subtle quality than satire. Like satire, it is the +perception of an incongruity, but it must be a newly discovered or +invented incongruity, for an essential element in humor is the pleasurable +surprise, the gentle shock which it conveys. A New Jersey farmer was once +describing in the presence of a very humane person, the great age and +debility of a horse that he had formerly owned and used. "You ought to +have killed him!" interrupted the humane person indignantly. "Well," +drawled the farmer, "we did,--almost." Satire is merely destructive, +whereas sentiment is constructive. The most that satire can do is to show +how the thing ought _not_ to be done. But sentiment goes much further, for +it supplies the dynamic power of affection. Becky Sharp dazzles and +amuses; but Colonel Newcome softens and inspires. + +There is often in Bret Harte a subtle blending of satire and humor, +notably in that masterpiece of satirical humor, the _Heathen Chinee_. The +poet beautifully depicts the naïve indignation of the American gambler at +the duplicity of the Mongolian,--a duplicity exceeding even his own. "'We +are ruined by Chinese cheap labor!'" + +Another instance is that passage in _The Rose of Tuolumne_, where the +author, after relating how a stranger was shot and nearly killed in a +mining town, records the prevailing impression in the neighborhood "that +his misfortune was the result of the defective moral quality of his being +a stranger." So, in _The Outcasts of Poker Flat_, when the punishment of +Mr. Oakhurst was under consideration, "A few of the Committee had urged +hanging him as a possible example and a sure method of reimbursing +themselves from his pockets of the money he had won from them. 'It's agin +justice,' said Jim Wheeler, 'to let this yer young man from Roaring +Camp--an entire stranger--carry away our money.' But a crude sentiment of +equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to +win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled this narrower local prejudice." + +Even in these passages humor predominates over satire. In fact,--and it is +a fact characteristic of Bret Harte,--the only satire, pure and simple, in +his works is that which he directs against hypocrisy. This was the one +fault which he could not forgive; and he especially detested that peculiar +form of cold and calculating hypocrisy which occasionally survives as the +dregs of Puritanism. Bret Harte was keenly alive to this aspect of New +England character; and he has depicted it with almost savage intensity in +_The Argonauts of North Liberty_. Ezekiel Corwin, a shrewd, flinty, narrow +Yankee, is not a new figure in literature, but an old figure in one or two +new situations, notably in his appearance at the mining camps as a vender +of patent medicines. "That remarkably unfair and unpleasant-spoken man had +actually frozen Hanley's Ford into icy astonishment at his audacity, and +he had sold them an invoice of the Panacea before they had recovered; he +had insulted Chipitas into giving an extensive order in bitters; he had +left Hayward's Creek pledged to Burne's pills--with drawn revolvers still +in their hands." + +Even here, however, the bitterness of the satire is tempered by the humor +of the situation. But in Joan, the heroine of the story, we have a really +new figure in literature, and it is drawn with an absence of sympathy, of +humor and of mitigating circumstances which is very rare, if not unique, +in Bret Harte.[106] + +One other example of pure satire may be found in his works, and that is +Parson Wynn, the effusive, boisterous hypocrite who plays a subordinate +part in _The Carquinez Woods_.[107] With these few exceptions, however, +Bret Harte was a writer of sentiment, and that is the secret of his power. +Sentiment may take the form of humor or of pathos, and, as is often +remarked, these two qualities shade off into each other by imperceptible +degrees. + + Some things are of that nature as to make + One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache. + +A consummate example of this blending of humor and pathos is found in the +story _How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar_. The boy Johnny, after +greeting the Christmas guests in his "weak, treble voice, broken by that +premature harshness which only vagabondage and the habit of premature +self-assertion can give," and after hospitably setting out the whiskey +bottle, with crackers and cheese, creeps back to bed, and is thus accosted +by Dick Bullen, the hero of the story:-- + +"'Hello, Johnny! You ain't goin' to turn in agin, are ye?' + +"'Yes, I are,' responded Johnny decidedly. + +"'Why, wot's up, old fellow?' + +"'I'm sick.' + +"'How sick?' + +"'I've got a fevier, and childblains, and roomatiz,' returned Johnny, and +vanished within. After a moment's pause he added in the dark, apparently +from under the bedclothes,--'And biles!' + +"There was an embarrassing silence. The men looked at each other and at +the fire." + +How graphically in this story are the characters of the Old Man and his +boy Johnny indicated by a few strokes of humor and pathos! Perhaps this is +the greatest charm of humor in literature, namely, that it so easily +becomes the vehicle of character. Sir Roger de Coverley and the Vicar of +Wakefield are revealed to us mainly by those humorous touches which +display the foibles, the eccentricities, and even the virtues of each. +Wit, on the other hand, being a purely intellectual quality, is a +comparatively uninteresting gift. How small is the part that wit plays in +literature! Personality is the charm of literature, as it is of life, and +humor is always a revelation of personality. The Essays of Lamb amount +almost to an autobiography. Goldsmith had humor, Congreve wit; and +probably that is the main reason why "She Stoops to Conquer" still holds +the stage, whereas the plays of Congreve are known only to the scholar. + +California was steeped in humor, and none but a humorist could have +interpreted the lives of the Pioneers. They were, in the main, scions of a +humorous race. Democracy is the mother of humor, and the ideal of both was +found in New England and in the Western States, whence came the greater +part of the California immigration. In passing from New England to the +isolated farms of the Far West, American humor had undergone some change. +The Pioneer, struggling with a new country, and often with chills and +fever, religious in a gloomy, emotional, old-fashioned way, leading a +lonely life, had developed a humor more saturnine than that of New +England. Yuba Bill, in all probability, was an emigrant from what we now +call the Middle West. Upon this New England and Western humor as a +foundation, California engrafted its own peculiar type of humor, which was +the product of youth, courage and energy wrestling with every kind of +difficulty and danger. The Pioneers had something of the Mark Tapley +spirit, and triumphed over fate by making a jest of the worst that fate +could do to them. + +Nothing short of great prosperity could awe the miner into taking a +serious view of things. His solemnity after a "strike" was remarkable. In +'52 and '53 a company of miners had toiled fruitlessly for fourteen +months, digging into solid rock which, from its situation and from many +other indications, had promised to be the hiding-place of gold. At last +they abandoned the claim in despair, except that one of their number +lingered to remove a big, loose block of porphyry upon which he had long +been working. Behind that block he found sand and gravel containing gold +in such abundance as, eventually, to enrich the whole company. The next +day happened to be Sunday, and for the first time in those fourteen months +they all went to church. + +A "find" like this was a gift of the gods, something that could not be +depended upon. It imposed responsibilities, and suggested thoughts of +home. But hardship, adversity, danger and sudden death,--these were all in +the day's work, and they could best be endured by making light of them. + +California humor was, therefore, in one way, the reverse of ordinary +American humor. In place of grotesque exaggeration, the California +tendency was to minimize. The Pioneer was as euphemistic in speaking of +death as was the Greek or Roman of classic times. "To pass in his checks," +was the Pacific Slope equivalent for the more dignified _Actum est de me_. +This was the phrase, as the Reader will remember, that Mr. Oakhurst +immortalized by writing it on the playing card which, affixed to a +bowie-knife, served that famous gambler for tombstone and epitaph. He used +it in no flippant spirit, but in the sadly humorous spirit of the true +Californian, as if he were loath to attribute undue importance to the mere +fact that the unit of his own life had been forever withdrawn from the sum +total of human existence. + +Of this California minimizing humor, frequent also in the pages of Mark +Twain and Ambrose Bierce, there is an example in Bret Harte's poem, +_Cicely_:-- + + I've had some mighty mean moments afore I kem to this spot,-- + Lost on the Plains in '50, drownded almost and shot; + But out on this alkali desert, a-hunting a crazy wife, + Was r'aly as on-satis-factory as anything in my life. + +There is another familiar example in these well-known lines by Truthful +James:-- + + Then Abner Dean of Angels raised a point of order, when + A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen, + And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor, + And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. + +This was typical California humor, and Bret Harte, in his stories and +poems, more often perhaps in the latter, gave frequent expression to it; +but it was not typical Bret Harte humor. The humor of the passage just +quoted from _How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar_, the humor that made +Bret Harte famous, and still more the humor that made him beloved, was not +saturnine or satirical, but sympathetic and tender. It was humor not from +an external point of view, but from the victim's point of view. The +Californians themselves saw persons and events in a different way; and how +imperfect their vision was may be gathered from the fact that they stoutly +denied the truth of Bret Harte's descriptions of Pioneer life. They were +too close at hand, too much a part of the drama themselves, to perceive it +correctly. Bret Harte had the faculty as to which it is hard to say how +much is intellectual and how much is emotional, of getting behind the +scenes, and beholding men and motives as they really are. + +That brilliant critic, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, declares that Bret Harte was +a genuine American, that he was also a genuine humorist, but that he was +not an American humorist; and then he proceeds to support this very just +antithesis as follows: "American humor is purely exaggerative; Bret +Harte's humor was sympathetic and analytical. The wild, sky-breaking humor +of America has its fine qualities, but it must in the nature of things be +deficient in two qualities,--reverence and sympathy. And these two +qualities were knit into the closest texture of Bret Harte's humor. Mark +Twain's story ... about an organist who was asked to play appropriate +music to an address upon the parable of the Prodigal Son, and who +proceeded to play with great spirit, 'We'll all get blind drunk when +Johnny comes marching home' is an instance.... If Bret Harte had described +that scene it would in some subtle way have combined a sense of the +absurdity of the incident with some sense of the sublimity and pathos of +the scene. You would have felt that the organist's tune was funny, but not +that the Prodigal Son was funny." + +No excuse need be offered for quoting further what Mr. Chesterton has to +say about the parodies of Bret Harte, for it covers the whole ground: "The +supreme proof of the fact that Bret Harte had the instinct of reverence +may be found in the fact that he was a really great parodist. Mere +derision, mere contempt, never produced or could produce parody. A man who +simply despises Paderewski for having long hair is not necessarily fitted +to give an admirable imitation of his particular touch on the piano. If a +man wishes to parody Paderewski's style of execution, he must emphatically +go through one process first: he must admire it and even reverence it. +Bret Harte had a real power of imitating great authors.... This means and +can only mean that he had perceived the real beauty, the real ambition of +Dumas and Victor Hugo and Charlotte Brontë. In his imitation of Hugo, Bret +Harte has a passage like this: 'M. Madeline was, if possible, better than +M. Myriel. M. Myriel was an angel. M. Madeline was a good man.' I do not +know whether Victor Hugo ever used this antithesis; but I am certain that +he would have used it and thanked his stars for it, if he had thought of +it. This is real parody, inseparable from imitation." + +The optimism for which Bret Harte was remarkable had its root in that same +sympathy which formed the basis of his humor and pathos. The unsympathetic +critic invariably despairs of mankind and the universe. This is apparent +in social, moral, and even political matters. A typical reformer, such as +the late Mr. Godkin, gazing horror-struck at Tammany and the Tammany +politician, discerns no hope for the future. But the Tammany man himself, +knowing the virtues as well as the vices of his people, is optimistic to +the point of exuberance. After all, there is something in the human heart, +amid all its vileness, which ranges mankind on the side of the angels, not +of the devils. The sympathetic critic perceives this, and therefore he has +confidence in the future of the race; and may even indulge the supreme +hope that from this terrible world we shall pass into another and better +state of existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BRET HARTE AS A POET + + +Whether Bret Harte will make his appeal to posterity mainly as a poet or +as a prose writer is a difficult question, upon which, as upon all similar +matters relating to him, the critics have expressed the most diverse +opinions. There is perhaps more unevenness in his poetry than in his +prose, and certainly more facility in imitating other writers. _Cadet +Grey_ is, in form, almost a parody of "Don Juan." _The Angelus_ might be +ascribed to Longfellow (though he never could have written that last +stanza), _The Tale of a Pony_ to Saxe or Barham, a few others to Praed, +one to Campbell, and one to Calverley. Even that very beautiful poem, +_Conception de Arguello_, a thing almost perfect in its way, strikes no +new note. And yet who could forget the picture which it draws of the +deserted maiden, grieving,-- + + Until hollows chased the dimples from her cheeks of olive brown, + And at times a swift, shy moisture dragged the long sweet lashes down. + +Hardly less pathetic is the description of the grim Commander, her father, +striving vainly to comfort the maid with "proverbs gathered from afar," +until at last + + ... the voice sententious faltered, and the wisdom it would teach + Lost itself in fondest trifles of his soft Castilian speech; + + And on "Concha," "Conchitita," and "Conchita," he would dwell + With the fond reiteration which the Spaniard knows so well. + + So with proverbs and caresses, half in faith and half in doubt, + Every day some hope was kindled, flickered, faded, and went out. + +Few, indeed, are the poets who have surpassed the tender simplicity and +pathos of these lines; and yet there is nothing very original about them +either in form or substance. But there are several poems by Bret Harte, +perhaps half a dozen, which do bear the mark of original genius, and +which, from the perfection of their form, seem destined to last forever. + +The _Heathen Chinee_, little as Bret Harte himself thought of it, is +certainly one of these. This poem, says Mr. James Douglas, "is merely an +anecdote, an American anecdote, not more deeply humorous than a hundred +other American anecdotes. But it is cast in an imperishable mould of +style.... Mr. Swinburne's noble rhythm sang itself into his soul, and he +gave it forth again in an incongruously comic theme. The rhythm of a +melancholy dirge became the rhythm of duplicity in the garb of innocence. +The sadness and the sighing of Meleagar became the bland iniquity of Ah +Sin, and the indignantly injured depravity of Bill Nye. It was a miracle +of humorous counterpoint, a marvel of incongruously associated ideas." + +Too much, however, can easily be made of the part played by the metre of +the _Heathen Chinee_. _Artemis in Sierra_ is as good in its way as the +_Heathen Chinee_, and the very different metre employed in that poem is +made equally effective as the vehicle of irony and burlesque. + +Mr. Douglas goes on to say that the Atalanta metre failed in the poem +called _Dow's Flat_, "because there was no exquisite discord between the +sound and the sense, between the rhyme and the reason." + +But did it fail? Let these two specimen stanzas answer:-- + + For a blow of his pick + Sorter caved in the side, + And he looked and turned sick, + Then he trembled and cried. + For you see the dern cuss had struck--"Water?"--Beg your parding, young + man,--there you lied! + + It was _gold_,--in the quartz, + And it ran all alike; + And I reckon five oughts + Was the worth of that strike; + And that house with the coopilow's his'n,--which the same isn't bad for + a Pike. + +Almost all of Bret Harte's dialect poems have this same perfection of +form, and in the whole range of literature it would be difficult to find +any verses which tell so much in so small a compass. The poems are short, +the lines are usually short, the words are short; but with the few strokes +thus available, the poet paints a picture as complete as it is vivid. The +thing is so simple that it seems easy, and yet where shall we find its +counterpart? + +These poems not only please for the moment, but they are read with +pleasure over and over again, and year after year. Perhaps their most +striking quality is their dramatic quality. They tell a story, and often +depict a person. Truthful James, for example, is known to us only as the +narrator of a few startling tales; and yet even by his manner of telling +them he gives us a fair notion of his own character. The opening lines of +_The Spelling Bee at Angels_ are an example:-- + + Waltz in, waltz in, ye little kids, and gather round my knee, + And drop them books and first pot-hooks, and hear a yarn from me. + I kin not sling a fairy tale of Jinnys fierce and wild, + For I hold it is unchristian to deceive a simple child; + But as from school yer driftin' by, I thowt ye'd like to hear + Of a "Spelling Bee" at Angels that we organized last year. + +As for Miss Edith, her character is shown in every line. + + You think it ain't true about Ilsey? Well, I guess I know girls, + and I say + There's nothing I see about Ilsey to show she likes you, anyway! + I know what it means when a girl who has called her cat after one boy + Goes and changes its name to another's. And she's done it--and I wish + you joy! + + +[Illustration: THE HOME OF "TRUTHFUL JAMES," JACKASS FLAT, TUOLUMNE +COUNTY, CALIFORNIA + +Copyright, Century Co.] + + +But these dramatic poems of Bret Harte are surpassed by his lyrical +poems,--surpassed, at least, in respect to that moral elevation which +lyrical poetry seems to have in comparison with dramatic poetry. Lyrical +poetry strikes the higher note. It is the fusion in the poet's own +experience of thought and feeling;--it is _his_ experience; a first-hand +report of one man's impression of the universe. Whereas dramatic poetry, +with all the splendor of which it is capable, is, after all, only a +second-hand report, a representation of what other men have thought or +felt, or said or done. Not Shakspere himself has so elevated mankind, +raised his moral standard, or enlarged his conceptions of the universe, as +have the great lyrical poets. + +Bret Harte cannot, of course, be ranked with these; nor, in saying that +his lyrical poems are his best poems, do we necessarily assert for him any +high degree of lyrical power. Perhaps, indeed, the chief defect in his +poetry is an absence of the personal or lyrical element. He gives us +exquisite impressions of human character and of nature, but there is +little of that brooding, reflective quality, which affords the deepest and +most lasting charm of poetry. His poetry lacks atmosphere; it lacks the +pensive, religious note. + +Bret Harte, one would think, must have been a romantic and imaginative +lover, and yet in his poetry there is little, if anything, to indicate +that he was ever deeply in love. Of romantic devotion to a woman, as to a +superior being, we find no trace either in his stories or in his poetry. +How far removed from Bret Harte is that mingled feeling of love and +veneration which, originating in the Middle Ages, has lasted, in poetry at +least, almost down to our own time, as in these lines from a writer who +was contemporary with Bret Harte:-- + + When thy cheek is dewed with tears + On some dark day when friends depart, + When life before thee seems all fears + And all remembrance one long smart, + + Then in the secret sacred cell + Thy soul keeps for her hour of prayer, + Breathe but my name, that I may dwell + Part of thy worship alway there. + +Bret Harte was cast in a different mould. No doubts or fears distracted +him. So far as we know, he asked no questions about the universe, and +troubled himself very little about the destiny of mankind. He was +essentially unreligious, unphilosophic, true to his own instincts, but +indifferent to all matters that lay beyond them. And yet within that range +he had a depth and sincerity of feeling which issued in real poetry. Bret +Harte, with all the refinement, love of elegance, reserve and +self-restraint which characterized him, was a very natural man. He +possessed in full degree what one philosopher has called the primeval +instincts of pity, of pride, of pugnacity. He loved his fellow-man, he +loved his country, he loved nature, and these passions, curbed by that +unerring sense of artistic form and clothed in that beauty of style which +belonged to him, were expressed in a few poems that seem likely to last +forever. It was not often that he felt the necessary stimulus, but when he +did feel it, the response was sure. Of these immortal poems, if we may +make bold to call them such, probably the best known is that on the death +of Dickens. This is the last stanza:-- + + And on that grave where English oak and holly + And laurel wreaths entwine, + Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly, + This spray of Western pine![108] + +Still better is the poem on the death of Starr King. It is very short; let +us have it before us. + + RELIEVING GUARD + + THOMAS STARR KING. OBIIT MARCH 4, 1864. + + Came the relief. "What, sentry, ho! + How passed the night through thy long waking?" + "Cold, cheerless, dark,--as may befit + The hour before the dawn is breaking." + + "No sight? no sound?" "No; nothing save + The plover from the marshes calling, + And in yon western sky, about + An hour ago, a star was falling." + + "A star? There's nothing strange in that." + "No, nothing; but above the thicket, + Somehow it seemed to me that God + Somewhere had just relieved a picket." + +What impresses the reader most, or at least first, in this poem is its +extreme conciseness and simplicity. The words are so few, and the weight +of suggestion which they have to carry so heavy, that the misuse of a +single word,--a single word not in perfect taste, would have spoiled the +beauty of the whole. Long years ago the "Saturday Review"--the good old, +ferocious Saturday--sagely remarked: "It is not given to every one to be +simple"; and only genius could have achieved the simplicity of this short +poem. "The relief came" would have been prose. "Came the relief" is +poetry, not merely because the arrangement of the words is unusual, but +because this short inverted sentence strikes a note of abruptness and +intensity which prepares the reader for what is to come, and which is +maintained throughout the poem;--had it not so been maintained, an +anti-climax would have resulted. + +Moreover, short and simple as this poem is, it seems to contain three +distinct strands of feeling. There is, first, the personal feeling for +Thomas Starr King; and although he was a minister and not a soldier, +there is a suitability in connecting him with the picket, for, as we have +seen, it was owing to him, more than to any other man, that California was +saved to the Union in the Civil War. Secondly, there is the National +patriotic feeling which forms the strong under-current of the poem, +nowhere expressed, but unmistakably implied, and present in the minds of +both poet and reader. Possibly, we may even find in "the hour before the +dawn" an allusion to the period when Mr. King died and the poem was +written; for that was the final desperate period of the war, darkened by a +terrible expenditure of human life and suffering, and lightened only by a +prospect of the end then slowly but surely coming into view. Thirdly, +there is the feeling for nature which the poem exhibits in its firm though +scanty etching of the sombre night, the lonely marshes, and the distant +sky. The poem is a blending of these three feelings, each one enhancing +the other;--and even this does not complete the tale, for there is the +final suggestion that the death of a man may be of as much consequence in +the mind of the Creator, and as nicely calculated, as the falling of a +star. + +The truth is that Bret Harte's national poems, with which this tribute to +Starr King may properly be classed, have a depth of personal feeling not +often found elsewhere in his poetry. In common with all men of primitive +impulses, he was genuinely patriotic. "America was always 'my country' +with him," writes one who knew him in England; "and I remember how he +flushed with almost boyish pleasure when, in driving through some casual +rural festivities, his quick eye noted a stray American flag among the +display of bunting." + +This patriotic feeling gave to his national poems the true lyrical note. +Among the best of these is that stirring song of the drum, called _The +Reveille_, which was read at a crowded meeting held in the San Francisco +Opera House immediately after President Lincoln had called for one hundred +thousand volunteers. In this poem the student of American history, and +especially the foreign student, will find an expression of that National +feeling which animated the Northern people, and which sanctified the +horrors of the Civil War,--one of the few wars recorded in history that +was waged for a pure ideal,--the ideal of the Union. + +With these poems may be classed some stanzas from _Cadet Grey_ describing +the life of the West Point cadet, and this one in particular:-- + + Within the camp they lie, the young, the brave, + Half knight, half schoolboy, acolytes of fame, + Pledged to one altar, and perchance one grave; + Bred to fear nothing but reproach and blame, + Ascetic dandies o'er whom vestals rave, + Clean-limbed young Spartans, disciplined young elves, + Taught to destroy, that they may live to save, + Students embattled, soldiers at their shelves, + Heroes whose conquests are at first themselves. + +It has been said that one function of literature, and especially of +poetry, is to enable a nation to understand and appreciate, and thus more +completely to realize, the ideals which it has instinctively formed; and +in the lines just quoted Bret Harte has done this for West Point. + +The poem on San Francisco glows with patriotic and civic feeling, and it +expressed a sentiment which, at the time when it was written, hardly +anybody in the city, except the poet himself, entertained. San Francisco +in 1870 was dominated by that cold, hard, self-satisfied, commercial +spirit which Bret Harte especially hated, and which furnished one reason, +perhaps the main reason, for his departure from the State. + + Drop down, O fleecy Fog, and hide + Her sceptic sneer and all her pride! + + Wrap her, O Fog, in gown and hood + Of her Franciscan Brotherhood. + + Hide me her faults, her sin and blame; + With thy gray mantle cloak her shame! + +And yet it was impossible for Bret Harte, with his deep, abiding faith in +the good instincts of mankind, not to look forward to a better day for San +Francisco, + + When Art shall raise and Culture lift + The sensual joys and meaner thrift, + + And all fulfilled the vision we + Who watch and wait shall never see. + +There is also a strong lyrical element in Bret Harte's treatment of nature +in his poetry, as well as in his prose. What he always gives is his own +impression of the scene, not a mere description of it, although this +impression may be conveyed by a few slight touches, sometimes even by a +single word. The opening stanza of the poem on the death of Dickens is an +illustration:-- + + Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting, + The river sang below; + The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting + Their minarets of snow. + +Ruskin somewhere analyzes the difference between real poetry and prose in +a versified form, and quoting a few lines from Byron, he points out the +single word in them which makes the passage poetic. In the lines just +quoted from Bret Harte, the word "sang" has the same poetic quality; and +no one who has ever heard the sound which the poet here describes can fail +to recognize the truth of his metaphor.[109] + +This is always Bret Harte's method. He reproduces the emotional effect of +the scene upon himself, and thus exhibits nature to the reader as she +appeared to him. Emotion, it need not be said, is transmitted much more +effectively than ideas or information. In fact, an objective, detailed +description of a landscape, however accurate or exhaustive, will leave the +reader almost as it found him; whereas a single word which enables him to +share the emotion inspired by the scene in the breast of the writer will +transport him at a bound to the spot itself. + +The charm of life in California consisted largely in this, that it was +lived in the open air. It was almost a perpetual camping out, made +delightful by the mildness of the climate and the beauty of the +surroundings. Even the cheerful fires of pine or of scrub oak which burn +so frequently in the cabins of Bret Harte's miners, are kindled mainly to +offset the dampness of the rainy season; and though the fire blazes +merrily on the hearth the door of the hut is usually open. The Reader +knows how "Union Mills" indolently left one leg exposed to the rain on the +outside of the threshold, the rest of his body being under cover inside. + +Bret Harte in his poems and stories availed himself of this out-door life +to the fullest extent. When the Rose of Tuolumne was summoned from her +bedroom, at two o'clock in the morning, to entertain her father's guest, +the youthful poet, she met him, not in the stuffy sitting-room of the +house, but in the moonlight outside, with the snow-crowned Sierras dimly +visible in the distance, and "quaint odors from the woods near by +perfuming the warm, still air." + +The young Englishman, Mainwaring, and Louise Macy, the Phyllis of the +Sierras, could not help being confidential sitting in the moonlight on +that unique veranda which overhung the Great Cañon, two thousand feet +deep, as many wide, and lined with tall trees, dark and motionless in the +distance. If the Outcasts of Poker Flat had met their fate in ordinary +surroundings, victims either of the machinery of the law or of man's +violence, we should think of them only as criminals; but with nature +herself as their executioner, and the scene of their death that remote, +wooded amphitheatre in the mountains, they regain their lost dignity as +human beings. How vast is the difference between John Oakhurst shooting +himself in a bedroom at some second-class hotel, and performing the same +act at the head of a snow-covered ravine and beneath the lofty pine tree +to which he affixed the playing card that contained his epitaph! + +In _Tennessee's Partner_, the whole tragedy is transacted in the open air, +excepting the trial scene; and even the little upper room which serves as +a court house for the lynching party is hardly a screen from the +landscape. "Against the blackness of the pines the windows of the old loft +above the express office stood out staringly bright; and through their +curtainless panes the loungers below could see the forms of those who were +even then deciding the fate of Tennessee. And above all this, etched on +the dark firmament, rose the Sierra, remote and passionless, crowned with +remoter passionless stars." + +Nature, thank God, does not share our emotions, and, so far as we know, is +swayed by no emotions of her own. But she inspires certain emotions in us, +and is a visible, tangible representation of strength and serenity. Those +who delight in nature are a long way from regarding her as they would a +brick or a stone. A certain pantheism, such as Wordsworth was accused of, +can be attributed to everybody who loves the landscape. There is a mystery +in the beautiful inanimate world, as there is in every other phase of the +universe. "A forest," said Thoreau, "is in all mythologies a sacred +place"; and it must ever remain such. Let anybody wander alone upon some +mountain-side or hilltop, and watch the wind blowing through the scanty, +unmown grass, and it will be strange if the vague consciousness of some +presence other than his own does not insinuate itself into his mind. He +will begin to understand how it was that the Ancients peopled every bush +and stream with nymphs or deities. Richard Jeffries went even further than +Wordsworth. "Though I cannot name the ideal good," he wrote, "it seems to +me that it will be in some way closely associated with the ideal beauty of +nature." + +Bret Harte did not trouble himself much about the ideal good; but he had +in full degree the modern feeling for nature, and found in her a +mysterious charm and solace,--"that profound peace," to use his own +language, "which the mountains alone can give their lonely or perturbed +children." + +In one of the stories, _Uncle Jim and Uncle Billy_, he describes the +unlucky and unhappy miner going to the door of his cabin at midnight. + +"In the feverish state into which he had gradually worked himself it +seemed to him impossible to await the coming of the dawn. But he was +mistaken. For even as he stood there all nature seemed to invade his +humble cabin with its free and fragrant breath, and invest him with its +great companionship. He felt again, in that breath, that strange sense of +freedom, that mystic touch of partnership with the birds and beasts, the +shrubs and trees, in this greater home before him. It was this vague +communion that had kept him there, that still held these world-sick, weary +workers in their rude cabins on the slopes around him; and he felt upon +his brow that balm that had nightly lulled him and them to sleep and +forgetfulness. He closed the door, crept into his bunk, and presently fell +into a profound slumber." + +This kind of communion with nature depends upon a certain degree of +solitude, and the mere suggestion of a crowd puts it to flight at once. +Even the magnificence of the Swiss mountains is almost spoiled for the +real lover of nature by those surroundings from which only the skilled +mountain-climber is able to escape. Mere solitude, on the other hand, +provided that it be out of doors, is almost always beautiful and +certainly beneficent in itself. + +He who lives in a desert or in a wood, on a mountain top, like the Twins +of Table Mountain, or in an unpeopled prairie, may have many faults and +vices, but there are some from which he will certainly be free. He will be +serene and simple, if nothing more. "It is impossible," as Thomas Hardy +remarks, "for any one living upon a heath to be vulgar"; and the reason is +obvious. Vulgarity, as we all know, is merely a form of insincerity. To be +vulgar is to say and do things not naturally and out of one's own head, +but in the attempt to be or to appear something different from the +reality. There can be no vulgarity on the heath, on the farm, or in the +mining camp, for there everybody's character and circumstances are known; +there is no opportunity for deceit, and there is no motive for pretence. + +Moreover, the primitive simplicity of the mining and the logging camp, or +even that of an isolated farming community, is not essentially different +from the cultivated simplicity of the aristocrat. The laboring man and the +aristocrat have very much the same sense of honor and the same ideals; and +those writers who are at home with one are almost always at home with the +other. Sir Walter Scott and Tolstoi are examples. But between these two +extremes, which meet at many points, comes the citified, trading, clerking +class, which has lost its primitive, manly instincts, and has not yet +regained them in the chastened form of convictions. + +It is no exaggeration to say that the society which Bret Harte enjoyed in +London was more akin to that of the mining camp than to that of San +Francisco. In both cases the charm which attracted him was the charm of +simplicity; in the mining camp, the simplicity of nature, in London the +simplicity of cultivation and finish. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BRET HARTE'S PIONEER DIALECT + + +Occasionally Bret Harte uses an archaic word, not because it is archaic, +but because it expresses his meaning better than any other, or gives the +needed stimulus to the imagination of the reader. Thus, in _A First Family +of Tasajara_ we read that "the former daughters of Sion were there, +_burgeoning_ and expanding in the glare of their new prosperity with +silver and gold." + +Often, of course, the employment of an archaic expression confers upon the +speaker that air of quaintness which the author wishes to convey. +Johnson's Old Woman, for example, "'Lowed she'd use a doctor, ef I'd fetch +him." The verb to _use_, in this sense, may still be heard in some parts +of New England as well as in the West. "I never use sugar in my tea" is a +familiar example. + +Many other words which Bret Harte's Pioneer people employ are still in +service among old-fashioned country folk, although they have long since +passed out of literature, and are never heard in cities. Thus Salomy Jane +was accused by her father of "honeyfoglin' with a hoss-thief"; and the +blacksmith's small boy spoke of Louise Macy as "philanderin'" with Captain +Greyson. These good old English words are still used in the West and +South. In the same category is "'twixt" for between. Dick Spindler spoke +of "this yer peace and good-will 'twixt man and man." "Far" in the sense +of distant is another example: "The far barn near the boundary." +"Mannerly" in the sense of well-mannered has the authority of Shakspere +and of Abner Nott in _A Ship of '49_. + +One of Bret Harte's Western girls speaks of hunting for the plant known +as "Old Man" (southernwood), because she wanted it for "smellidge." +"Smellidge" has the appearance of being a good word, and it was formerly +used in New England and the West, but it is excluded from modern +dictionaries. + +Some expressions which might be regarded as original with Bret Harte were +really Pioneer terms of Western or Southern use. "Johnson's Old Woman," +for "Johnson's wife" was the ordinary phrase in Missouri, Indiana, +Alabama, and doubtless all over the West and South. Thus a Missouri farmer +is quoted as saying: "My old woman is nineteen years old to-day." "You +know fust-rate she's dead" is another quaint expression used by Bret +Harte, but not invented by him, for this use of "fust-rate" in the sense +of very well was not uncommon in the West. In the poem called _Jim_, there +are two or three words which the casual reader might suppose to be +inventions of the poet. + + What makes you star', + You over thar? + Can't a man drop + 'S glass in yer shop + But you must r'ar? + +This use of r'ar or rear, meaning to become angry, to rave, was frequent +in Arkansas and Indiana, if not elsewhere. + +The next stanza runs:-- + + Dead! + Poor--little--Jim! + Why, thar was me, + Jones, and Bob Lee, + Harry and Ben,-- + No-account men: + Then to take _him_! + +"No-account" in this sense was a common Western term; and so was "ornery," +from ordinary, meaning inferior, which occurs in the next and final +stanza. + +When Richelieu Sharpe excused himself for wearing his best "pants" on the +ground that his old ones had "fetched away in the laig," he was amply +justified by the dialect of his place and time. So when little Johnny +Medliker complained of the parson that "he hez been nigh onter pullin' off +my arm," he used the current Illinois equivalent for "nearly." Mr. Hays' +direction to his daughter, "Ye kin put some things in my carpet-bag agin +the time when the sled comes round," was also strictly in the vernacular. + +No verbal error is more common than that of using superfluous +prepositions. "To feed up the horses," for instance, may still be heard +almost anywhere in rural New England. On the same principle, Mr. Saunders, +in _The Transformation of Buckeye Camp_, ruefully admits that he and his +companion were thrown out of the saloon, "with two shots into us, like +hounds ez we were." This substitution of into for in, though common in the +West, is probably now extinct in the Eastern States; but a purist, writing +in the year 1814, quoted the following use as current at that time in New +York: "I have the rheumatism into my knees." + +A few words were taken by the Pioneers from the Spanish. "Savey," a +corruption of _sabe_, was one of these, and Bret Harte employed it. +"Hedn't no savey, hed Briggs." + +The wealth of dialect in Bret Harte's stories is not strange, considering +that it was culled from Pioneers who represented every part of the +country. But, it may be asked, how could there be such a thing as a +California dialect:--all the Pioneers could not have learned to talk +alike, coming as they did from every State in the Union! The answer is, +first, that, in the main, the dialect of the different States was the +same, being derived chiefly from the same source, that is, from England, +directly or indirectly; and, secondly, the dialect of what we now call +the Middle West--of Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois--tended to +predominate on the Pacific Slope, because the Pioneers from that part of +the country were in the majority. It is almost impossible to find a +dialect word used in one Western State, and not in another. + +There are, however, some Western, and more especially some Southern words +which never became domiciled in New England. The word allow or 'low, in +the sense of declare or state, is one of these, and Bret Harte often used +it. "Then she _'lowed_ I'd better git up and git, and shet the door to. +Then I _'lowed_ she might tell me what was up--through the door." + +And here is another example:-- + +"Rowley Meade--him ez hed his skelp pulled over his eyes at one stroke, +foolin' with a she-bear over on Black Mountain--_allows_ it would be +rather monotonous in him attemptin' any familiarities with her." + +("Rowley Meade," by the way, is an example of Bret Harte's felicity in the +choice of names. No common fate could be reserved for one bearing a name +like that.) + +Lowell employs the word allow in its corrupted sense in the "Biglow +Papers"; but he adds in a footnote that it was a use not of New England, +but of the Southern and Middle States; and to prove the antiquity of the +corruption he cites an instance of it in Hakluyt under the date of 1558. + +"Cahoots" is another example. When the warlike Jim Hooker said to +Clarence, "Young fel, you and me are cahoots in this thing," he was using +a common Western expression derived remotely from the old English word +cahoot, signifying a company or partnership, but not known, it is +believed, in New England. + +"When we rose the hill," "put to" (_i. e._ harness) the horse, "cavortin' +round here in the dew," and "What yer yawpin' at ther'?" are found in +almost every State, East or West. But "I ain't kicked a fut sens I left +Mizzouri" is a Southern expression. "Blue mange" for _blanc mange_ is +probably original with Bret Harte. + +One of Bret Harte's most effective dialect words is "gait" in the sense of +habit, or manner. "He never sat down to a square meal but what he said, +'If old Uncle Quince was only here now, boys, I'd die happy.' I leave it +to you, gentlemen, if that wasn't Jackson Wells's gait all the time." And +Rupert Filgee, impatient at Uncle Ben Dabney's destructive use of pens, +exclaimed, "Look here, what you want ain't a pen, but a clothes-pin and +split nail! That'll about jibe with your dilikit gait." + +"Gait" is a very old term in thieves' lingo, meaning occupation or +calling, from which the transition to "habit" is easy; and it is +interesting to observe that in one place Bret Harte uses the word in a +sense which is about half-way between the two meanings. Thus, when Mr. +McKinstry was severely wounded in the duel, he apologized for requesting +the attendance of a physician by saying, "I don't gin'rally use a doctor, +but this yer is suthin' outside the old woman's regular gait." Bret +Harte's adoption of the word as a Pioneer expression is confirmed by +Richard Malcolm Johnston, the recognized authority on Georgia dialect, for +he makes one of his characters say:-- + +"After she got married, seem like he got more and more restless and +fidgety in his mind, and in his gaits in general." + +The ridiculous charge has been made that Bret Harte's dialect is not +Californian or even American, but is simply cockney English. The only +reason ever given for this statement is that Bret Harte uses the word +"which" in its cockney sense, and that this use was never known in +America. + + Which I wish to remark, + And my language is plain, + +is the most familiar instance, and others might be cited. Thus, in _Mr. +Thompson's Prodigal_ we have this dialogue between the father of the +prodigal and a grave-digger:-- + +"'Did you ever in your profession come across Char-les Thompson?' + +"'Thompson be damned,' said the grave-digger, with great directness. + +"'Which, if he hadn't religion, I think he is,' responded the old man." + +This use of "which" is indeed now identified with the London cockney, but +it may still be heard in the eastern counties of England, whence, no +doubt, it was imported to this country. Though far from common in the +United States, it is used, according to the authorities cited below, in +the mountainous parts of Virginia,[110] in West Virginia,[111] in the +mountain regions of Kentucky,[112] especially in Eastern Kentucky,[113] +and in the western part of Arkansas.[114] + +Professor Edward A. Allen of the University of Missouri says that this use +of "which" is "not Southern, but Western." + +Moreover, upon this point also we can cite the authority of Richard +Malcolm Johnston, for the cockney use of "which" frequently occurs in his +tales of Middle Georgia; as, for instance, in these sentences:-- + +"And which I wouldn't have done that nohow in the world ef it could be +hendered." + +"Which a man like you that's got no wife." + +"Howbeever, as your wife is Nancy Lary, which that she's the own dear +sister o' my wife." + +"And which I haven't a single jubous doubt that, soon as the breath got +out o' her body, she went to mansion _in_ the sky same as a bow-'n'-arrer, +or even a rifle-bullet." + +Another authority on this point is the well-known writer of stories, +Alfred Henry Lewis, a native of Arkansas. In his tales we find these +expressions:-- + +"Which his baptismal name is Lafe." + +"Which if these is your manners." + +"Which, undoubted, the barkeeps is the hardest-worked folks in camp." + +"Which it is some late for night before last, but it's jest the shank of +the evening for to-night." + +No writer ever knew Virginia better than did the late George W. Bagby, and +he attributes the cockney "which" to a backwoodsman from Charlotte County +in that State. "And what is this part of the country called? Has it any +particular name?" + +"To be sho. Right here is Brilses, _which_ it is a presink; but this here +ridge ar' called 'Verjunce Ridge.'" + +Mark Twain's authority on a matter of Western dialect will hardly be +questioned, and this same use of "which" is not infrequent in his stories. +Here, for instance, is an example from "Tom Sawyer": "We said it was +Parson Silas, and we judged he had found Sam Cooper drunk in the road, +which he was always trying to reform him." Finally, that well-known +Pioneer, Mr. Warren Cheney, an early contributor to the "Overland," +testifies that "which" as thus used "is perfectly good Pike."[115] + +The rather astonishing fact is that Bret Harte uses dialect words and +phrases to the number, roughly estimated, of three hundred, and a hasty +investigation has served to identify all but a few of these as legitimate +Pioneer expressions. A more thorough search would no doubt account +satisfactorily for every one of them. + +However, that dialect should be authentic is not so important as that it +should be interesting. Many story-writers report dialect in a correct and +conscientious form, but it wearies the reader. Dialect to be interesting +must be the vehicle of humor, and the great masters of dialect, such as +Thackeray and Sir Walter Scott, are also masters of humor. Bret Harte had +the same gift, and he showed it, as we have seen, not only in Pioneer +speech, but also in the Spanish-American dialect of Enriquez Saltello and +his charming sister, in the Scotch dialect of Mr. Callender, in the French +dialect of the innkeeper who entertained Alkali Dick, and in the German +dialect of Peter Schroeder. For one thing, a too exact reproduction of +dialect almost always has a misleading and awkward effect. The written +word is not the same as the spoken word, and the constant repetition of a +sound which would hardly be noticed in speech becomes unduly prominent and +wearisome if put before our eyes in print. In the following passage it +will be seen how Bret Harte avoids the too frequent occurrence of "ye" +(which Tinka Gallinger probably used) by alternating it with "you":-- + +"'No! no! ye shan't go--ye mustn't go,' she said, with hysterical +intensity. 'I want to tell ye something! Listen!--you--you--Mr. Fleming! +I've been a wicked, wicked girl! I've told lies to dad--to mammy--to you! +I've borne false witness--I'm worse than Sapphira--I've acted a big lie. +Oh, Mr. Fleming, I've made you come back here for nothing! Ye didn't find +no gold the other day. There wasn't any. It was all me! I--I--_salted that +pan_!'" + +Bret Harte's writings offer a wide field for the study of what might be +called the psychological aspect of dialect, especially so far as it +relates to pronunciation. What governs the dialect of any time and place? +Is it purely accidental that the London cockney says "piper" instead of +paper, and that the Western Pioneer says "b'ar" for bear,--or does some +inner necessity determine, or partly determine, these departures from the +standard pronunciation? This, however, is a subject which lies far beyond +our present scope. Suffice it to say that it would be difficult to +convince the reader of Bret Harte that there is not some inevitable +harmony between his characters and the dialect or other language which +they employ. Who, for example, would hesitate to assign to Yuba Bill, and +to none other, this remark: "I knew the partikler style of damn fool that +you was, and expected no better." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BRET HARTE'S STYLE + + +In discussing Bret Harte, it is almost impossible to separate substance +from style. The style is so good, so exactly adapted to the ideas which he +wishes to convey, that one can hardly imagine it as different. Some +thousands of years ago an Eastern sage remarked that he would like to +write a book such as everybody would conceive that he might have written +himself, and yet so good that nobody else could have written the like. +This is the ideal which Bret Harte fulfilled. Almost everything said by +any one of his characters is so accurate an expression of that character +as to seem inevitable. It is felt at once to be just what such a character +must have said. Given the character, the words follow; and anybody could +set them down! This is the fallacy underlying that strange feeling, which +every reader must have experienced, of the apparent easiness of writing an +especially good conversation or soliloquy. + +The real difficulty of writing like Bret Harte is shown by the fact that +as a story-teller he has no imitators. His style is so individual as to +make imitation impossible. And yet occasionally the inspiration failed. It +is a peculiarity of Bret Harte, shown especially in the longer stories, +and most of all perhaps in _Gabriel Conroy_, that there are times when the +reader almost believes that Bret Harte has dropped the pen, and some +inferior person has taken it up. Author and reader come to the ground with +a thud. + +Mr. Warren Cheney has remarked upon this defect as follows:-- + +"With most authors there is a level of general excellence along which +they can plod if the wings of genius chance to tire for a time; but with +Mr. Harte the case is a different one. His powers are impulsive rather +than enduring. Ideas strike him with extraordinary force, but the +inspiration is of equally short duration. So long as the flush of +excitement lasts, his work will be up to standard; but when the genius +flags, he has no individual fund of dramatic or narrative properties to +sustain him." + +But of these lapses there are few in the short stories, and none at all in +the best stories. In them the style is almost flawless. There are no +mannerisms in it; no affectations; no egotism; no slang (except, of +course, in the mouths of the various characters); nothing local or +provincial, nothing which stamps it as of a particular age, country or +school,--nothing, in short, which could operate as a barrier between +author and reader. + +But these are only negative virtues. What are the positive virtues of Bret +Harte's style? Perhaps the most obvious quality is the deep feeling which +pervades it. It is possible, indeed, to have good style without depth of +feeling. John Stuart Mill is an example; Lord Chesterfield is another; +Benjamin Franklin another. In general, however, want of feeling in the +author produces a coldness in the style that chills the reader. Herbert +Spencer's autobiography discloses an almost inhuman want of feeling, and +the same effect is apparent in his dreary, frigid style. + +On the other hand, it is a truism that the language of passion is +invariably effective, and never vulgar. Grief and anger are always +eloquent. There are men, even practised authors, who never write really +well unless something has occurred to put them out of temper. Good style +may perhaps be said to result from the union of deep feeling with an +artistic sense of form. This produces that conciseness for which Bret +Harte's style is remarkable. What author has used shorter words, has +expressed more with a few words, or has elaborated so little! His points +are made with the precision of a bullet going straight to the mark, and +nothing is added. + +How effective, for example, is this dialogue between Helen Maynard, who +has just met the one-armed painter for the first time, and the French girl +who accompanies her: "'So you have made a conquest of the recently +acquired but unknown Greek statue?' said Mademoiselle Renée lightly. + +"'It is a countryman of mine,' said Helen simply. + +"'He certainly does not speak French,' said Mademoiselle mischievously. + +"'Nor think it,' responded Helen, with equal vivacity." + +Possibly Bret Harte sometimes carries this dramatic conciseness a little +too far,--so far that the reader's attention is drawn from the matter in +hand to the manner in which it is expressed. To take an example, +_Johnson's Old Woman_ ends as follows:-- + +"'I want to talk to you about Miss Johnson,' I said eagerly. + +"'I reckon so,' he said with an exasperating smile. 'Most fellers do. But +she ain't _Miss_ Johnson no more. She's married.' + +"'Not to that big chap over from Ten Mile Mills?' I said breathlessly. + +"'What's the matter with _him_,' said Johnson. 'Ye didn't expect her to +marry a nobleman, did ye?' + +"I said I didn't see why she shouldn't,--and believed that she _had_." + +This is extremely clever, but perhaps its very cleverness, and its +abruptness, divert the reader's interest for a moment from the story to +the person who tells it. + +One other characteristic of Bret Harte's style, and indeed of any style +which ranks with the best, is obvious, and that is subtlety. It is the +office of a good style to express in some indefinable manner those +_nuances_ which mere words, taken by themselves, are not fine enough to +convey. Thoughts so subtle as to have almost the character of feelings; +feelings so well defined as just to escape being thoughts; attractions and +repulsions; those obscure movements of the intellect of which the ordinary +man is only half conscious until they are revealed to him by the eye of +genius;--all these things it is a part of style to express, or at least to +imply. Subtlety of style presupposes, of course, subtlety of thought, and +possibly also subtlety of perception. Certainly Bret Harte had both of +these capacities; and many examples might be cited of his minute and +sympathetic observation. For instance, although he had no knowledge of +horses, and occasionally betrays his ignorance in this respect, yet he has +described the peculiar gait of the American trotter with an accuracy which +any technical person might envy. "The driver leaned forward and did +something with the reins--Rose never could clearly understand what, though +it seemed to her that he simply lifted them with ostentatious lightness; +but the mare suddenly seemed to _lengthen herself_ and lose her height, +and the stalks of wheat on either side of the dusty track began to melt +into each other, and then slipped like a flash into one long, continuous, +shimmering green hedge. So perfect was the mare's action that the girl was +scarcely conscious of any increased effort.... So superb was the reach of +her long, easy stride that Rose could scarcely see any undulations in the +brown, shining back on which she could have placed her foot, nor felt the +soft beat of the delicate hoofs that took the dust so firmly and yet so +lightly."[116] + +Equally correct is the description of the "great, yellow mare" Jovita, +that carried Dick Bullen on his midnight ride:[117] "From her Roman nose +to her rising haunches, from her arched spine hidden by the stiff +_manchillas_ of a Mexican saddle, to her thick, straight bony legs, there +was not a line of equine grace. In her half-blind but wholly vicious white +eyes, in her protruding under lip, in her monstrous color, there was +nothing but ugliness and vice." + +Jovita, plainly, was drawn from life, and she must have been of +thoroughbred blood on one side, for her extraordinary energy and temper +could have been derived from no other source. Such a mare would naturally +have an unusually straight hind leg; and Bret Harte noticed it. + +As to his heroines, he had such a faculty of describing them that they +stand before us almost as clearly as if we saw them in the flesh. He does +not simply tell us that they are beautiful,--we see for ourselves that +they are so; and one reason for this is the sympathetic keenness with +which he observed all the details of the human face and figure. Thus Julia +Porter's face "appeared whiter at the angles of the mouth and nose through +the relief of tiny freckles like grains of pepper." + +There are subtleties of coloring that have escaped almost everybody else. +Who but Bret Harte has really described the light which love kindles upon +the face of a woman? "Yerba Buena's strangely delicate complexion had +taken on itself that faint Alpine glow that was more of an illumination +than a color." And so of Cressy, as the Schoolmaster saw her at the dance. +"She was pale, he had never seen her so beautiful.... The absence of color +in her usually fresh face had been replaced by a faint magnetic aurora +that seemed to him half spiritual. He could not take his eyes from her; he +could not believe what he saw." + +The forehead, the temples, and more especially the eyebrows of his +heroines--these and the part which they play in the expression of emotion, +are described by Bret Harte with a particularity which cannot be found +elsewhere. Even the eyelashes of his heroines are often carefully painted +in the picture. Flora Dimwood "cast a sidelong glance" at the hero, "under +her widely-spaced, heavy lashes." Of Mrs. Brimmer, the fastidious Boston +woman, it is said that "a certain nervous intensity occasionally lit up +her weary eyes with a dangerous phosphorescence, under their brown +fringes." + +The eyes and eyelashes of that irrepressible child, Sarah Walker, are thus +minutely and pathetically described: "Her eyes were of a dark shade of +burnished copper,--the orbits appearing deeper and larger from the rubbing +in of habitual tears from long wet lashes." + +Bret Harte has the rare faculty of making even a tearful woman attractive. +The Ward of the Golden Gate "drew back a step, lifted her head with a +quick toss that seemed to condense the moisture in her shining eyes, and +sent what might have been a glittering dewdrop flying into the loosened +tendrils of her hair." The quick-tempered heroine is seen "hurriedly +disentangling two stinging tears from her long lashes"; and even the +mannish girl, Julia Porter, becomes femininely deliquescent as she leans +back in the dark stage-coach, with the romantic Cass Beard gazing at her +from his invisible corner. "How much softer her face looked in the +moonlight!--How moist her eyes were--actually shining in the light! How +that light seemed to concentrate in the corner of the lashes, and then +slipped--flash--away! Was she? Yes, she was crying." + +There is great subtlety not only of perception but of thought in the +description of the Two Americans at the beginning of their intimacy:-- + +"Oddly enough, their mere presence and companionship seemed to excite in +others that tenderness they had not yet felt themselves. Family groups +watched the handsome pair in their innocent confidence and, with French +exuberant recognition of sentiment, thought them the incarnation of Love. +Something in their manifest equality of condition kept even the vainest +and most susceptible of spectators from attempted rivalry or cynical +interruption. And when at last they dropped side by side on a sun-warmed +stone bench on the terrace, and Helen, inclining her brown head toward her +companion, informed him of the difficulty she had experienced in getting +gumbo soup, rice and chicken, corn cakes, or any of her favorite home +dishes in Paris, an exhausted but gallant boulevardier rose from a +contiguous bench, and, politely lifting his hat to the handsome couple, +turned slowly away from what he believed were tender confidences he would +not permit himself to hear." + +Without this subtlety, a writer may have force, even eloquence, as Johnson +and Macaulay had those qualities, but he is not likely to have an enduring +charm. Subtlety seems to be the note of the best modern writers, of the +Oxford school in particular, a subtlety of language which extracts from +every word its utmost nicety of meaning, and a subtlety of thought in +which every faculty is on the alert to seize any qualification or +limitation, any hint or suggestion that might be hovering obscurely about +the subject. + +Yet subtlety, more perhaps than any other quality of a good style, easily +becomes a defect. If it is the forte of some writers, it is the foible, +not to say the vice, of others. The later works of Henry James, for +instance, will at once occur to the Reader as an example. Bret Harte +himself is sometimes, but rarely, over-subtle, representing his characters +as going through processes of thought or speech much too elaborate for +them, or for the occasion. + +There is an example of this in _Susy_, where Clarence says: "'If I did not +know you were prejudiced by a foolish and indiscreet woman, I should +believe you were trying to insult me as you have your adopted mother, and +would save you the pain of doing both in _her_ house by leaving it now and +forever.'" + +And again, in _A Secret of Telegraph Hill_, where Herbert Bly says to the +gambler whom he has surprised in his room, hiding from the Vigilance +Committee: "'Whoever you may be, I am neither the police nor a spy. You +have no right to insult me by supposing that I would profit by a mistake +that made you my guest, and that I would refuse you the sanctuary of the +roof that covers your insult as well as your blunder.'" And yet the +speaker is not meant to be a prig. + +There is another characteristic of Bret Harte's style which should perhaps +be regarded as a form of subtlety, and that is the surprising resources of +his vocabulary. He seems to have gathered all the words and idioms that +might become of service to him, and to have stored them in his memory for +future use. If a peculiar or technical expression was needed, he always +had it at hand. Thus when the remorseful Joe Corbin told Colonel +Starbottle about his sending money to the widow of the man whom he had +killed in self-defence, the Colonel's apt comment was, "A kind of +expiation or amercement of fine, known to the Mosaic, Roman and old +English law." And yet his reading never took a wide range. His large +vocabulary was due partly, no doubt, to an excellent memory, but still +more to his keen appreciation of delicate shades in the meaning of words. +He had a remarkable gift of choosing the right word. In the following +lines, for example, the whole effect depends upon the discriminating +selection of the verbs and adjectives:-- + + Bunny, thrilled by unknown fears, + Raised his soft and pointed ears, + Mumbled his prehensile lip, + Quivered his pulsating hip. + +Depth of feeling, subtlety of perception and intellect,--these qualities, +supplemented by the sense of form and beauty, go far to account for the +charm of Bret Harte's style. He had an ear for style, just as some persons +have an ear for music; and he could extract beauty from language just as +the musician can extract it from the strings of a violin. This kind of +beauty is, in one sense, a matter of mere sound; and yet it is really much +more than that. "Words, even the most perfect, owe very much to the +spiritual cadence with which they are imbued."[118] + +A musical sentence, made up of words harmoniously chosen, and of +sub-sentences nicely balanced, must necessarily deepen, soften, heighten, +or otherwise modify the bare meaning of the words. In fact, it clothes +them with that kind and degree of feeling which, as the writer consciously +or unconsciously perceives, will best further his intention. Style, in +short, is a substitute for speech, the author giving through the medium of +his style the same emotional and personal color to his thoughts which the +orator conveys by the tone and inflections of his voice. Hence the saying +that the style is the man. + +If we were looking for an example of mere beauty in style, perhaps we +could find nothing better than this description of Maruja, after parting +from her lover: "Small wonder that, hidden and silent in her enwrappings, +as she lay back in the carriage, with her pale face against the cold, +starry sky, two other stars came out and glistened and trembled on her +passion-fringed lashes." + +No less beautiful in style are these lines:-- + + Above the tumult of the cañon lifted, + The gray hawk breathless hung, + Or on the hill a winged shadow drifted + Where furze and thorn-bush clung.[119] + +And yet, so exact is the correspondence between thought and word here, +that we find ourselves doubting whether the charm of the passage lies in +its form, or in the mere idea conveyed to the reader with the least +possible interposition of language; and yet, again, to raise that very +doubt may be the supreme effect of a consummate style. + +Bret Harte was sometimes a little careless in his style, careless, that +is, in the way of writing obscurely or ungrammatically, but very seldom so +careless as to write in a dull or unmusical fashion. To find a harsh +sentence anywhere in his works would be almost, if not quite, impossible. +A leading English Review once remarked, "It was never among Mr. Bret +Harte's accomplishments to labor cheerfully with the file"; and again, a +few years later, "Mr. Harte can never be accused of carelessness." Neither +statement was quite correct, but the second one comes very much nearer the +truth than the first. + +Beside these occasional lapses in the construction of his sentences, Bret +Harte had some peculiarities in the use of English to which he clung, +either out of loyalty to Dickens, from whom he seems to have derived them, +or from a certain amiable perversity which was part of his character. He +was a strong partisan of the "split infinitive." A Chinaman "caused the +gold piece and the letter to instantly vanish up his sleeve." "To coldly +interest Price"; "to unpleasantly discord with the general social +harmony"; "to quietly reappear," are other examples. + +The wrong use of "gratuitous" is a thoroughly Dickens error, and it almost +seems as if Bret Harte went out of his way to copy it. In the story of +_Miggles_, for example, it is only a few paragraphs after Yuba Bill has +observed the paralytic Jim's "expression of perfectly gratuitous +solemnity," that his own features "relax into an expression of gratuitous +and imbecile cheerfulness." + +"Aggravation" in the sense of irritation is another Dickens solecism which +also appears several times in Bret Harte. + +Beside these, Bret Harte had a few errors all his own. In _The Story of a +Mine_, there is a strangely repeated use of the awkward expression "near +facts," followed by a statement that the new private secretary was a +little dashed as to his "near hopes." Diligent search reveals also +"continued on" in one story, "different to" in another, "plead" for +"pleaded," "who would likely spy upon you" in an unfortunate place, and +"too occupied with his subject" somewhere else. + +This short list will very nearly exhaust Bret Harte's errors in the use of +English; but it must be admitted, also, that he occasionally lapses into a +Dickens-like grandiloquence and cant of superior virtue. There are several +examples of this in _The Story of a Mine_, especially in that part which +relates to the City of Washington. The following paragraph is almost a +burlesque of Dickens: "The actors, the legislators themselves, knew it and +laughed at it; the commentators, the Press, knew it and laughed at it; the +audience, the great American people, knew it and laughed at it. And nobody +for an instant conceived that it ever, under any circumstances, might be +different." + +Still worse is this description of the Supreme Court, which might serve as +a model of confused ideas and crude reasoning, only half believed in by +the writer himself: "A body of learned, cultivated men, representing the +highest legal tribunal in the land, still lingered in a vague idea of +earning the scant salary bestowed upon them by the economical founders of +the government, and listened patiently to the arguments of counsel, +whose fees for advocacy of the claims before them would have paid the life +income of half the bench." + +That exquisite sketch, _Wan Lee, the Pagan_, is marred by this +Dickens-like apostrophe to the clergy: "Dead, my reverend friends, dead! +Stoned to death in the streets of San Francisco, in the year of grace, +eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, by a mob of half-grown boys and Christian +school-children!" + +In the description of an English country church, which occurs in _A +Phyllis of the Sierras_, we find another passage almost worthy of a +"condensed novel" in which some innocent crusaders, lying cross-legged in +marble, are rebuked for tripping up the unwary "until in death, as in +life, they got between the congregation and the Truth that was taught +there." + +Bret Harte has been accused also of "admiring his characters in the wrong +place," as Dickens certainly did; but this charge seems to be an +injustice. A scene in _Gabriel Conroy_ represents Arthur Poinsett as +calmly explaining to Doña Dolores that he is the person who seduced and +abandoned Grace Conroy; and he makes this statement without a sign of +shame or regret. "If he had been uttering a moral sentiment, he could not +have been externally more calm, or inwardly less agitated. More than that, +there was a certain injured dignity in his manner," and so forth. + +This is the passage cited by that very acute critic, Mr. E. S. Nadal. But +there is nothing in it or in the context which indicates that Bret Harte +admired the conduct of Poinsett. He was simply describing a type which +everybody will recognize; but not describing it as admirable. Bret Harte +depicted his characters with so much _gusto_, and at the same time was so +absolutely impartial and non-committal toward them, that it is easy to +misconceive his own opinion of them or of their conduct.[120] From +another fault, perhaps the worst fault of Dickens, namely, his propensity +for the sudden conversion of a character to something the reverse of what +it always has been, Bret Harte--with the single exception of Mrs. +Tretherick, in _An Episode of Fiddletown_--is absolutely free. + +It should be remembered, moreover, that Bret Harte's imitations of Dickens +occur only in a few passages of a few stories. When Bret Harte nodded, he +wrote like Dickens. But the better stories, and the great majority of the +stories, show no trace of this blemish. Bret Harte at his best was perhaps +as nearly original as any author in the world. + +On the whole, it seems highly probable--though the critics have mostly +decided otherwise--that Bret Harte derived more good than bad from his +admiration for Dickens. The reading of Dickens stimulated his boyish +imagination and quickened that sympathy with the weak and suffering, with +the downtrodden, with the waifs and strays, with the outcasts of society, +which is remarkable in both writers. The spirit of Dickens breathes +through the poems and stories of Bret Harte, just as the spirit of Bret +Harte breathes through the poems and stories of Kipling. Bret Harte had a +very pretty satirical vein, which might easily, if developed, have made +him an author of satire rather than of sentiment. Who can say that the +influence of Dickens, coming at the early, plastic period of his life, may +not have turned the scale? + +That Dickens surpassed him in breadth and scope, Bret Harte himself would +have been the first to acknowledge. The mere fact that one wrote novels +and the other short stories almost implies as much. If we consider the +works of an author like Hawthorne, who did both kinds equally well, it is +easy to see how much more effective is the long story. Powerful as +Hawthorne's short stories are--the "Minister's Black Veil," for +example--they cannot rival the longer-drawn, more elaborately developed +tragedy of "The Scarlet Letter." + +The characters created by Dickens have taken hold of the popular +imagination, and have influenced public sentiment in a degree which cannot +be attributed to the characters of Bret Harte. Dickens, moreover, despite +his vulgarisms, despite even the cant into which he occasionally falls, +had a depth of sincerity and conviction that can hardly be asserted for +Bret Harte. Dickens' errors in taste were superficial; upon any important +matter he always had a genuine opinion to express. With respect to Bret +Harte, on the other hand, we cannot help feeling that his errors in taste, +though infrequent, are due to a want of sincerity, to a want of conviction +upon deep things. + +And yet, despite the fact that Dickens excelled Bret Harte in depth and +scope, there is reason to think that the American author of short stories +will outlast the English novelist. The one is, and the other is not, a +classic writer. It was said of Dickens that he had no "citadel of the +mind,"--no mental retiring-place, no inward poise or composure; and this +defect is shown by a certain feverish quality in his style, as well as by +those well-known exaggerations and mannerisms which disfigure it. + +Bret Harte, on the other hand, in his best poems and stories, exhibits all +that restraint, all that absence of idiosyncrasy as distinguished from +personality, which marks the true artist. What the world demands is the +peculiar flavor of the artist's mind; but this must be conveyed in a pure +and unadulterated form, free from any ingredient of eccentricity or +self-will. In Bret Harte there is a wonderful economy both of thought and +language. Everything said or done in the course of a story contributes to +the climax or end which the author has in view. There are no digressions +or superfluities; the words are commonly plain words of Anglo-Saxon +descent; and it would be hard to find one that could be dispensed with. +The language is as concise as if the story were a message, to be delivered +to the reader in the shortest possible time. + +One other point of much importance remains to be spoken of, although it +might be difficult to say whether it is really a matter of style or of +substance. Nothing counts for more in the telling of a story, especially a +story of adventure, than the author's attitude toward his characters; not +simply the fact that he blames or praises them, or abstains from doing so, +but his unspoken attitude, his real feeling, disclosed between the lines. +Too much admiration on the part of the author is fatal to a classic +effect, even though the admiration be implied rather than expressed. This +is perhaps the greatest weakness of Mr. Kipling. That a man should be a +gentleman is always, strangely enough, a matter of some surprise to that +conscientious author, and that he should be not only a gentleman, but +actually brave in addition, is almost too much for Mr. Kipling's +equanimity. His heroes, those gallant young officers whom he describes so +well, are exhibited to the reader with something of that pride which a +showman or a fond mother might pardonably display. Mr. Kipling knows them +thoroughly, but he is not of them. He is their humble servant. They are, +he seems to feel, members of a species to which he, the author, and +probably the reader also, are not akin. Now, almost everybody who writes +about fighting or heroic men in these days,--about highwaymen, cow-boys, +river-drivers, woodsmen, or other primitive characters,--imitates Mr. +Kipling, very seldom Bret Harte. Partly, no doubt, this is because Mr. +Kipling's mannerisms are attractive, and easily copied. That little trick, +for example, of beginning sentences with the word "also," is a familiar +earmark of the Kipling school. + +But a stronger reason for imitating Mr. Kipling is that the attitude of +frank admiration which he assumes is the natural attitude for the +ordinary writer. Such a writer falls into it unconsciously, and does not +easily rise above it. The author is a "tenderfoot," discoursing to another +tenderfoot, the reader, about the brave and wonderful men whom he has met +in the course of his travels; and the reader's astonishment and admiration +are looked for with confidence. + +Vastly different from all this is the attitude of Bret Harte. He takes it +for granted that the Pioneers in general had the instincts of gentlemen +and the courage of heroes. His characters are represented not as +exceptional California men, but as ordinary California men placed in +rather exceptional circumstances. Brave as they are, they are never brave +enough to surprise him. He is their equal. He never boasts of them nor +about them. On the contrary, he gives the impression that the whole +California Pioneer Society was constructed upon the same lofty plane,--as +indeed it was, barring a few renegades. + +When Edward Brice, the young expressman, "set his white lips together, and +with a determined face, and unfaltering step," walked straight toward the +rifle held in Snapshot Harry's unerring hands, the incident astonishes +nobody,--except perhaps the reader. Certainly it does not astonish the +persons who witness or the author who records it. It evokes a little +good-humored banter from Snapshot Harry himself, and a laughing compliment +from his beautiful niece, Flora Dimwood, but nothing more. We have been +told that Shakspere cut no great figure in his own time because his +contemporaries were cast in much the same heroic mould,--greatness of soul +being a rather common thing in Elizabethan days. For a similar reason, the +heroes of Bret Harte are accepted by one another, by the minor characters, +and, finally, by the author himself, with perfect composure and without +visible surprise. + +Bret Harte makes the reader feel that he is describing not simply a few +men and women of nobility, but a whole society, an epoch, of which he +was himself a part; and this gives an element of distinction, even of +immortality, to his stories. Had only one man died at Thermopylæ, the fact +would have been remembered by the world, but it would have lost its chief +significance. The death of three hundred made it a typical act of the +Spartan people. The time will come when California, now strangely +unappreciative of its own past, and of the writer who preserved it, will +look back upon the Pioneers as the modern Greek looks back upon Sparta and +Athens. + + +THE END + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] The final _e_ was added to Henry Hart's name in the last years of his +life, and the family tradition is that this was done to distinguish him +from another Henry Hart who, like himself, was very active in the +political campaign of the year 1844. + +[2] For the spelling of Henry Hart's name, see the footnote on page 1. + +[3] The _Crusade of the Excelsior_ contains some reminiscences of the +voyage. + +[4] The following account of a ride in a California stage is given by +Borthwick: "All sense of danger was lost in admiration of the coolness and +dexterity of the driver as he circumvented every obstacle without going +one inch farther out of his way than was necessary to save us from +perdition. With his right foot he managed a brake, and, clawing at the +reins with both hands, he swayed his body from side to side, to preserve +his equilibrium, as now on the right pair of wheels, now on the left, he +cut the outside edge round a stump or a rock; and when coming to a spot +where he was going to execute a difficult manoeuvre on a slanting piece +of ground, he trimmed the wagon, as we would a small boat in a squall, and +made us all crowd up to the weather side to prevent a capsize." + +[5] _Cressy._ The paragraph quoted is only a part of the description. + +[6] _A Phyllis of the Sierras._ + +[7] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 102. + +[8] Side-meat is the thin flank of a pig, cured like a ham. It was the +staple article of food in the Southwest. + +[9] This poem is included in the author's collected poems under the title, +_The Return of Belisarius_. + +[10] Bret Harte in the General Introduction to his works. + +[11] The proof-sheets of the _Heathen Chinee_ are preserved in the +University of California, and they show many changes in Bret Harte's +writing. See "Bret Harte's Country," an interesting illustrated article by +Will. M. Clemens, in "The Bookman," vol. xiii, p. 224. + +[12] _The Society upon the Stanislaus_ first appeared in the "News +Letter." + +[13] See Hittell's "History of California." This book, the best and +fullest on the subject, contains ample evidence of our author's accuracy. + +[14] A Forty-Niner, as defined by the California Society of Pioneers, is +an immigrant who, before midnight of December 31, 1849, was within the +State of California, or on shipboard within three miles of the coast, that +being the extent of the maritime jurisdiction of the State. + +[15] There was, however, a miner of seventy at Sonoma who had left a wife +and six children at home in the East; and on October 1, 1850, there +arrived in Sacramento a veteran of the Revolutionary War, ninety years of +age. He had come all the way from Illinois to seek the fortune which fate +had hitherto denied him. Unfortunately, he was so feeble that it became +necessary to send him to a hospital, and history does not record his +subsequent career, if indeed he survived to have one. + +[16] "Pioneer Times in California." + +[17] Mr. Kipling, who visited California in the year 1898, speaks of "the +remarkable beauty" of the women of San Francisco,--descendants in most +cases of the Pioneers. + +[18] The Reverend Walter Colton, "Three Years in California." + +[19] Just across the river, in the State of Illinois, is another Pike +County, similar in soil and population; and this Illinois county was the +scene of John Hay's "Pike County Ballads." + +[20] Eliza W. Farnham, "California, Indoors and Out." + +[21] Bayard Taylor, "El Dorado." + +[22] Edwin Bryant, "California." + +[23] See Thornton's "Oregon and California in 1848." + +[24] _A Waif of the Plains._ + +[25] _When the Waters Were Up at "Jules'."_ + +[26] In _A First Family of Tasajara_ he gives the same explanation for the +beauty of Clementina, which is described as "hopelessly and even wantonly +inconsistent with her surroundings." + +[27] "The coarse, the horny-handed, the bull-throated were the most +successful. They set the fashion, those great men of the pickaxe and the +pistol, and a fine, fire-eating, antediluvian, reckless fashion it +was."--W. M. Fisher, "The Californians." + +[28] How long this continued to be the California point of view is shown +by an interesting reminiscence of Professor Royce's. "I reached twenty +years of age without ever becoming clearly conscious of what was meant by +judging a man by his antecedents, a judgment that in an older and less +isolated community is natural and inevitable, and that, I think, in most +of our Western communities grows up more rapidly than it has grown up in +California, where geographical isolation is added to the absence of +tradition." + +[29] D. B. Woods, "Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings." + +[30] G. K. Chesterton, in "The Critic." + +[31] "Perils, Pastimes and Pleasures of an Emigrant," by J. W. + +[32] Eliza W. Farnham, "California, Indoors and Out." + +[33] Dancing was a common amusement among the miners even when there were +no women to be had as partners. "It was a strange sight to see a party of +long-bearded men, in heavy boots and flannel shirts, going through all the +steps and figures of the dance with so much spirit, and often with a great +deal of grace; hearty enjoyment depicted on their dried-up, sun-burned +faces, and revolvers and bowie-knives glancing in their belts; while a +crowd of the same rough-looking customers stood around, cheering them on +to greater efforts, and occasionally dancing a step or two quietly on +their own account."--Borthwick's "Three Years in California." + +[34] _The Romance of Madroño Hollow._ + +[35] The Reverend Walter Colton, "Three Years in California." + +[36] W. M. Fisher, "The Californians." + +[37] Mrs. D. B. Bates, "Incidents on Land and Water." + +[38] J. M. Letts, "California Illustrated." + +[39] "Our Italy." + +[40] This quality seems to have persisted, if we can trust Mr. Rudyard +Kipling, who wrote in the year 1899: "San Francisco is a mad city.... +Recklessness is in the air. I can't explain where it comes from, but there +it is. The roaring winds off the Pacific make you drunk, to begin with." + +[41] Stephen J. Field, "Personal Reminiscences of California." + +[42] William Grey, "Pioneer Times in California." + +[43] See the San Francisco "Herald" of May 19, 1856. + +[44] D. B. Woods, "Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings." + +[45] The Captain calmly directed the transfer of the women and children, +kept his place on the paddle-box, and went down with the others. He was +James Lewis Herndon, a Commander in the United States Navy, and the +explorer of the Amazon. A monument to his memory was erected by brother +officers in the grounds of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The steamer was +bringing $2,000,000 in gold, and the loss of this treasure increased the +commercial panic then prevailing in the Atlantic States. + +[46] Baron Fairfax of Cameron in the Peerage of Scotland. Many stories are +told of his adventures in California. + +[47] Bayard Taylor, who visited the mining camps in the winter of '49, +found them well organized under the rule of an Alcalde. "Nothing in +California," he wrote, "seemed more miraculous to me than this spontaneous +evolution of social order from the worst elements of anarchy." + +[48] William Grey, "Pioneer Times in California." + +[49] "Seeking the Golden Fleece." + +[50] Shucks, "Bench and Bar of California." + +[51] William Grey, "Pioneer Times in California." + +[52] S. J. Field, "Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California." + +[53] Journalistic affrays were frequent. See page 192 _infra_. + +[54] C. W. Haskins, "The Argonauts of California." + +[55] "Emerson in Concord," page 94. + +[56] Introduction to volume ii of Bret Harte's works. + +[57] "Alta California" of July 21, 1851. + +[58] The Reverend William Taylor, "California Life." + +[59] In one day two women, crazed by the sufferings of their children, +drowned themselves in the Humboldt River. + +[60] E. W. Farnham, "California Indoors and Out." + +[61] Before the Civil War, the treatment of women, even in the Eastern +cities, was almost invariably courteous and respectful. It was the +exception, in New York or Boston, when a man neglected to give up his seat +in a public conveyance to a woman; whereas, nowadays the exception is the +other way. Profound respect shown to woman as woman is incompatible with a +society founded upon an aristocratic, plutocratic, or caste system. It was +never known in England. It is the product of a real democracy and of that +alone; and in this country, as we become more and more plutocratic, the +respect for women diminishes. The great cities of the United States are +fast approaching, in this regard, the brutality of London, Paris and +Berlin. + +[62] In the poem, _Concepcion de Arguello_. + +[63] H. A. Wise, "Los Gringos." + +[64] H. R. Helper, "The Land of Gold." + +[65] Horace Greeley, "An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco." + +[66] _How Santa Claus came to Simpson's Bar._ + +[67] _A Ward of the Golden Gate._ + +[68] S. C. Upham, "Scenes in El Dorado." + +[69] Volume xv, page 466. + +[70] See also page 103, _supra_. + +[71] The late Sherman Hoar of Concord, whose name is inscribed on the +tablet in Memorial Hall devoted to those Harvard Graduates who lost their +lives in the Spanish War, was almost exactly such a character as Bret +Harte described,--long to be remembered with affection. + +[72] H. H. Bancroft, "Chronicles of the Builders." + +[73] C. W. Haskins, "The Argonauts of California." + +[74] Benton, "The California Pilgrim." + +[75] _A Passage in the Life of Mr. John Oakhurst._ + +[76] Delano, "Life on the Plains." + +[77] "The Virginia Editor is a young, unmarried, intemperate, pugnacious, +gambling gentleman."--George W. Bagby, "The Old Virginia Gentlemen and +Other Sketches." + +[78] They were the Reverend Walter Colton, Chaplain in the United States +Navy, and Alcalde, as already mentioned, and Dr. Robert Semple, a +well-known Pioneer politician. + +[79] "Men and Memories of San Francisco," by Barry and Patten. + +[80] "California: its Characteristics and Prospects." + +[81] See also _supra_, p. 169. + +[82] It must be admitted that the ministers were placed in a difficult +situation, being obliged to cope with the hardy, humorous materialism of +Pioneer life. The following dialogue is an authentic illustration:-- + +"Mr. Small, do not you believe in the overruling Providence of God?" + +"Which God?" + +"There is but one God." + +"I don't see it, Parson. On this yere Pacific Coast gods is +numerous--Chinee gods, Mormon gods, Injin gods, Christian gods, _an' the +Bank o' Californy_!"--"The Californians," by W. M. Fisher. + +[83] A traveller passing through Dolores in Mexico was the witness of a +marriage like that of Stephen Masterton: "Whilst stopping here I saw a +smart-looking Yankee and a Spanish girl married by the priest, whose words +were interpreted to the bridegroom as the ceremony proceeded. The lady was +of rather dark complexion but extremely pretty; and although she knew +scarcely a word of English, and the bridegroom knew still less of Spanish, +it was evident from the eloquence of the glances which passed between +them, that they were at no loss to make themselves understood."--"Personal +Adventures in Upper and Lower California," W. R. Ryan. + +[84] Mrs. Kemble, on the other hand, as the Reader may remember, described +him as "tall." His real height, already mentioned, was five feet, eight +inches. + +[85] W. D. Howells, "Literary Friends and Acquaintance." + +[86] See Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 228. + +[87] _My Friend the Tramp_, written in 1872. + +[88] Samuel Bowles, famous as Editor of the "Springfield Republican." + +[89] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 133. + +[90] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 136. + +[91] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," pp. 137-142. + +[92] These lectures, with a short address delivered in London, have +recently been published in a volume entitled "The Lectures of Bret Harte," +by Charles Meeker Kozlay, New York. + +[93] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 145. + +[94] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," pp. 168-170. + +[95] It was now a Commercial Agency, the grade next below that of a +Consulship. + +[96] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 173. + +[97] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 186. + +[98] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 181. + +[99] See footnote on page 244, _supra_. + +[100] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," p. 265. + +[101] St. Kentigern established a Bishopric in the year 560 in the place +which afterward became Glasgow, and thus he is regarded as the founder of +the city. His monument is shown beneath the choir of the Cathedral where +his body was interred A. D. 601. + +[102] By the regulations then in force Consuls were forbidden to be absent +from their posts for a period exceeding ten days, without first obtaining +leave from the President. + +[103] Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," page 334. + +[104] Mary Stuart Boyd. See "Harper's Magazine," vol. 105, page 773. + +[105] His friend and travelling companion, Colonel Arthur Collins. + +[106] See _ante_, page 245. + +[107] See _ante_, page 209. + +[108] When news of the death of Dickens reached Bret Harte he was camping +in the Foot-Hills, far from San Francisco, but he sent a telegram to hold +back for a day the printing of the "Overland," then ready for the press, +and his poem was written that night and forwarded the next morning. A week +or two later Bret Harte received a cordial letter from Dickens, written +just before his death, complimenting the California author, and requesting +him to write a story for "All the Year Round." + +[109] A miner, writing in August, 1850, from the Middle Fork of the +American River, said: "When I came up here, the river was a roaring +torrent, and its _sombre music_ could plainly be heard upon the tops of +the mountains rising to a height of about three thousand feet." + +[110] G. H. Denny, President of Washington and Lee University. + +[111] Thomas E. Cramblet, President of Bethany College. + +[112] Gerard Fowke, author of the "Archæological History of Ohio." + +[113] R. H. Crossfield, President of Transylvania University. + +[114] J. I. D. Hinds, Dean of the University of Nashville. + +[115] For the meaning of "Pike," see _supra_, page 59. + +[116] _Through the Santa Clara Wheat._ + +[117] _How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar._ + +[118] R. L. Stevenson. + +[119] The author had described this scene before in prose, though he may +have forgotten it. In the story called _Who Was My Quiet Friend?_ he +wrote: "The pines in the caftan below were olive gulfs of heat, over which +a hawk here and there drifted lazily, or, rising to our level, cast a +weird and gigantic shadow of slowly moving wings on the mountain-side." + +[120] See page 178, _supra_. + + + + +INDEX + + + "Abner Nott," 74, 321. + + "Academy," the London, on Bret Harte's portrayal of gamblers, 173. + + "Ah Sin," a play by Bret Harte and Mark Twain, 234. + + "Ailsa Callender," 248, 269, 270, 299. + + Alamo, 21. + + Albany, birthplace of Bret Harte, 1; + Henry Hart's occupations in, 11; + Young Men's Association, 11; + 12; + lecture by Bret Harte in, 239. + + Albany Female Academy, Henry Hart an instructor in, 11. + + Alcaldes, the, duties of, 121; + decisions by, 123, 124, 125-126. + + Alcott, Bronson, 12. + + Alcott family, resemblance of the Harte family to, 12, 16. + + Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 45. + + "Alkali Dick," 328. + + Allen, Edward A., 326. + + "Allow," "'low," in the sense of declare or say, 324. + + "Alta California," The, cited, 134, 140, 144, 148, 181, 185-186, 192, + 193, 196, 204. + + Alvarado, Spanish governor, 102. + + _American Humor_, 244. + + _Angelus, The_, 308. + + Anthony, A. V. S., boy-neighbor of Bret Harte in Hudson Street, New + York, 11-12; + after-meetings with in California and in London, 12; + recollections of California in the '50s, 142. + + _Apostle of the Tules, An_, 64, 206. + + Archaic words in Bret Harte, 321, 324, 325. + + Argonauts, 2, 60, 155, 218. + + "Argonauts, The," Bret Harte's lecture on, 239, 259. + + "Argonauts of California, The," cited, 135, 168. + + _Argonauts of North Liberty, The_, 77, 148, 215, 245, 287, 301. + + Argyle, Duke of, 267, 268. + + Arnold, Matthew, 83. + + "Art Student," 13. + + _Artemis in Sierra_, 309. + + "Arthur Poinsett," 341. + + Astor, John Jacob, 5. + + Atchison, Bret Harte's lecture in, 241. + + "Atlantic Monthly," the, Bret Harte's first appearance in, 35, 47; + sale of in early California, 197; + 223; + Bret Harte's contributions to, 232, 233, 245. + + _Autumnal Musings_, 16. + + + "Baby Sylvester," 156. + + Bagby, George W., 327; + his "The Old Virginia Gentlemen and Other Sketches," cited, 192 _n._ + + Baker's City Tavern, New York, 5. + + _Ballad of the Emeu_, 40. + + Bancroft, H. H., his "Chronicles of the Builders," cited, 167. + + Barbour, Judge, 133. + + _Barker's Luck_, 295, 296. + + Barnes, George, 39. + + Barrett, Lawrence, 234. + + Barry and Patten, their "Men and Memories of San Francisco," cited, 198, + 199. + + Bates, Mrs. D. B., her "Incidents on Land and Water," cited, 100, 128, + 146. + + Beauty, in women, its development, 79; + of Bret Harte's women, 334, 335; + beauty in literary style, 338. + + Beefsteak Club, London, 275. + + _Bell-Ringer of Angels, The_, 56, 77, 152, 205. + + _Belle of Cañada City, A_, 209. + + "Bench and Bar of California," cited, 128. + + Benicia, 149, 198. + + Besant, Walter, Bret Harte's acquaintance with, 271. + + Bierce, Ambrose, 51, 304. + + "Biglow Papers," 324. + + Black, William, Bret Harte's intimacy with, 271; + first meeting of the two, 271; + 272, 273. + + Blondes, among Bret Harte's women, 247. + + "Blue-Grass Penelope, A," 79. + + _Bohemian Days in San Francisco_, 19, 115, 177. + + _Bohemian Papers_, 44. + + "Bookman, The," 50 _n._, 162. + + Borthwick, J. D., his "Three Years in California," cited, 22 _n._, 94, + 120. + + Boston, 12; + Bret Harte in, 222, 223, 224, 229, 230, 231; + its characteristics, 229-230; + lecture by Bret Harte in, 239. + + "Boston Daily Advertiser," the, 223. + + Bowers, Joe, 60, 61. + + Bowles, Samuel, 236, 236 _n._ + + Boy gamblers, 154. + + _Boy's Dog, A_, 33. + + Boyd, Mary Stuart, paper of, cited, 277. + + "Bret Harte's Country," cited, 50 _n._ + + Bret Harte's gamblers, 173. + + Bret Harte's women, 157. See also "Women." + + Brett, Sir Balliol, later Viscount Esher, 8. + + Brett, Catharine. See Hart, Catharine (Brett). + + Brett, Catharyna (Rombout), grandmother of Catharine (Brett) Hart, 8; + estate of on the Hudson River, 9; + sketch of, 9; + a founder of the Fishkill Dutch Church, 9; + tablet to her memory, 9. + + Brett, Francis, 9, 10. + + Brett, Robert, 9, 10. + + Brett, Roger, grandfather of Catharine (Brett) Hart, 8, 9. + + Broderick, David C., 37; + duels of, 134, 136. + + Brontë, Charlotte, 275. + + Brooks, Noah, 41, 135, 214, 220, 236. + + Broughton, Rhoda, her treatment of ministers, 210. + + "Brown of Calaveras," 77, 152, 177. + + Browne, Francis F., editor of "Lakeside Monthly," 221. + + Brunettes, preferred by Bret Harte, 247. + + Bryant, Edwin, his "California," cited, 71. + + _Buckeye Hollow Inheritance, The_, 248. + + "Bucking Bob," 96. + + Bull-fights, 202, 204. + + "Burgeoning," 321. + + Bushnell, the Rev. Dr., his "California: its Characteristics and + Prospects," cited, 127, 199, 200. + + Byron, Lord, 275. + + + _Cadet Grey_, 308, 315. + + "Cahoots," 324. + + "Calaveras Chronicle," the, cited, 145; + editor of in a duel, 193. + + California, at the outbreak of the Civil War, 36, 37, 38; + climate of, 100-106; + society of, 148, 149; + precocity of the early California boy, 154; + the gambling element in, 160-180; + lavish manner of transacting business in the early days, 181-184; + "trade a wild unorganized whirl," 181; + soaring prices, 182-184; + "washerwomen made fortunes and founded families," 184; + reaction in 1851, with quick fall in prices, 185; + losses by fire and flood, 186-187, 188-189; + first public building erected in, an Insane Asylum, 190; + life of the farm and the vineyard, 190; + dealt with in Bret Harte's stories, 190; + literature, journalism, and religion of, 192-213; + newspaper men of, 192; + churches in, 200-202; + California children, 201; + Bret Harte's representation of true, 288, 289, 291; + open-air life in, 317-319. + + "California," cited, 71. + + "California: its Characteristics and Prospects," cited, 200. + + "California Christian Advocate," the, 201, 203. + + "California Farmer," the, 191, 196. + + "California Illustrated," cited, 102. + + "California Indoors and Out," cited, 63, 93, 147. + + "California Life," cited, 145. + + California newspapers, early. See Newspapers. + + "California Pet," the, 141. + + California pets, 155; + the bear cub "Baby Sylvester," 156. + + California pioneers. See Pioneers. + + California saloons, the bar surmounted by a woman's sunbonnet, 142. + + "California Song, The," 61. + + "Californian, The," 39, 40, 44, 196. + + "Californians, The," cited, 85 _n._, 96, 208 _n._ + + Camberley, Sussex, the Red House at, 274, 283. + + Cambridge, Mass., Bret Harte in, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227; + 229, 232. + + Canada, relatives of Bret Harte in, 4; + Bernard Hart in, 4. + + Canadian Harts, the, 4. + + Cape Horn, voyage around, 55, 65, 67, 143, 151, 181. + + "Capital, The," failure of, 251. + + "Captain Carroll," 178. + + _Captain Jim's Friend_, 161, 166. + + _Carquinez Woods, The_, 148, 209, 302. + + Casey, James, career and death of, 116, 117-118. + + "Cass Beard," 335. + + Castle Ashby, 275. + + "Cavortin'," 324. + + "Central America," the, sinking of, 118. + + Central California, 100, 101, 190. + + Chaffee, J. A., the original of _Tennessee's Partner_, 165-166. + + Chagres, 65, 66. + + Chamberlain, partner of Chaffee, the original of _Tennessee's Partner_, + 165. + + Chapman, John Jay, 38. + + Cheney, Warren, 327, 330. + + "Cherokee Sal," 162. + + Chesterfield, Lord, his style, 331. + + Chesterton, G. K., on Yuba Bill, 22-23; + 86, 87; + on Bret Harte's humor, 22, 305; + on Colonel Starbottle, 176; + on Bret Harte's parodies, 306. + + Chicago, Bret Harte in, 220, 221, 222, 223; + lectures in, 244. + + Children, Bret Harte's, 26, 29; + his impression of English children, 29; + California children, 153-155, 201; + his impression of German children, 262, 263. + + Chilenos, 148. + + Chinese in California, 92. + + Chinese restaurant, scene in, 108. + + "Chronicles of the Builders," cited, 167. + + Churches in early California, 200-202. + + _Cicely_, 304-305. + + "Circuit-Rider, The," cited, 59. + + Civil War, California's part in, 37, 38; + Bret Harte's poems relating to, 38, 314. + + _Clarence_, 37, 296. + + Clemens, Samuel L. See Mark Twain. + + Clemens, Will. M., 50 _n._ + + "Clementina," 79. + + Climate of California, 100-106, 317. + + Clubs, London, to which Bret Harte belonged, 275. + + Cohasset, Mass., Bret Harte in, 234. + + Colfax, Schuyler, 8. + + Collins, Col. Arthur, 278 _n._ + + Coloma, traits of gamblers of, 169. + + "Colonel Newcome," 18. + + "Colonel Starbottle," 22, 83, 135-139, 176, 192; + reintroduced in Bret Harte's last, unfinished tale, 283; + 337. + + "Colonel Wilson," 95. + + Colton, the Rev. William, his "Three Years in California," cited, 58, + 96, 122, 188, 203; + conductor of first newspaper in California, 196 _n._ + + Commercial agent, Bret Harte as, at Crefeld, 252, 261-262. + + Compton Wyngates, 275. + + "Concepcion," 105, 149. + + _Conception de Arguello_, 149, 232, 308. + + Concord, Mass., 227. + + _Condensed Novels_, the, 33, 40, 44, 306. + + Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, 6. + + "Consuelo," 148. + + Consul, Bret Harte as, at Glasgow, 267-273; + the consul in Bret Harte's stories, 297. + + Contraltos, preferred by Bret Harte, 247. + + _Convalescence of Jack Hamlin, The_, 177. + + Convicts, English, 117, 129. + + Conway, Moncure, on Bret Harte's avoidance of "social duties," 276. + + Coolbrith, Miss Ina B., 49. + + Cornbury, Lord, 8. + + Coullard, Mrs., for whom Marysville was named, 142. + + Cramblet, Thomas E., 326. + + Crefeld, 252; + Bret Harte at, 252-256, 260-265. + + "Cressy," 26, 28, 78, 82, 83, 247, 294, 324. + + Crime in California, increase in, 129, 130. + + "Critic, The," 87. + + Crossfield, R. H., 326. + + Cruces, 65, 66. + + _Crusade of the Excelsior, the_, 17, 212. + + "Culpeper Starbottle," the nephew, 94. + + + Dana, Charles A., 252. + + Del Norte, 21. + + Delano, A., his "Life on the Plains," cited, 185. + + _Demi-monde_ in San Francisco, 99. + + Denny, G. H., 326. + + _Desborough Connections, The_, 275. + + _Devil's Ford_, 62, 217. + + Dialect, Bret Harte's dialect poems, 310; + his Pioneer and other dialect, 321-329; + masters of, 328; + humor essential to, 328; + psychology of, 329. + + _Dick Boyle's Business Card_, 249. + + "Dick Demorest," 287. + + Dickens, Charles, his influence on Bret Harte, 177, 284, 286, 339-342; + his letter to Bret Harte, 312 _n._; + Bret Harte's poem on, 312; + compared with Bret Harte, 342, 343. + + Dogs, as beasts of burden, 263-264; + Bret Harte's tenderness for, 287. + + "Don José Sepulvida," 94, 96, 177, 211. + + Donner Party, the, 72, 142. + + "Doña Rosita," 148. + + Douglas, James, 50, 162-165, 309. + + _Dow's Flat_, 309-310. + + Downieville, 164. + + "Dr. Ruysdael," 82. + + Drake, Sir Francis, 150. + + Drake's Bay, 150. + + Drama, the, in Pioneer California, 198. + + "Drum, The," 38. + + Dubois, Miss, 10. + + Duels, 132, 133, 134, 192, 193. + + Dumb animals, in Pioneer California, 99, 155; + Bret Harte's tenderness for, 287. + + + Earthquake in San Francisco, 216. + + Editors, in Pioneer California, Southern origin of, 192, 193. + + Education in Pioneer California, 197, 198, 200. + + "Edward Brice," 345. + + "Edward Everett," ship, 55. + + Eggleston, Edward, his "The Circuit-Rider," cited, 59. + + "El Dorado," cited, 64. + + El Dorado County, vineyards in, 190. + + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 38, 139; + Bret Harte's meeting with, 227. + + "Emerson in Concord," cited, 139. + + England, 1, 2; + Bret Harte's lectures in, 244, 244 _n._, 259; + publication of his stories in, 259; + visiting country houses in, 266; + his last years in, 274-284. + + English, the, in Pioneer California, 92. + + English children, 29. + + English convicts, 92. + + "Enriquez Saltello," 148, 298, 328. + + Episcopalianism in early San Francisco, 201. + + _Episode of Fiddletown, An_, paralleled in contemporary newspapers, 192; + 342. + + "Episode of West Woodlands," the, 209. + + "Esquire," the use of, in Pioneer California, 193; + Bret Harte's humorous examples of, 193. + + Eureka, 30. + + Everett, Edward, 55. + + Expulsion of Mexicans and South Americans, 131. + + Eye-lashes, and Eye-brows, Bret Harte's description of, 334, 335. + + "Ezekiel Corwin," 215, 301. + + + Fair, James G., 167. + + Fairfax, Charles, heroism of, 119; + 119 _n._ + + "Far," in the sense of distant, 321. + + Farnham, Eliza W., her "California Indoors and Out," cited, 63, 93, 147. + + "Father Felipe," 211. + + "Father Pedro," 105. + + "Father Sobriente," 211. + + "Father Wynn," 209. + + Feather River, 103, 189. + + "Fetched away," for torn, 323. + + Field, Stephen J., 107; + his "Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California," cited, 107, + 121, 122, 127, 132; + first Alcalde of Marysville, 121; + 122; + his duelling experience, 133; + his experience with Terry, 136; + at the beginning of Marysville, 141, 185. + + Fields, James T., 47. + + Firearms, carrying of, 132, 133. + + _First Family of Tasajara, A_, 27, 79 _n._, 249, 321. + + Fisher, W. M., his "The Californians," cited, 85 _n._, 96, 208 _n._ + + Fishkill Dutch Church, 9. + + "Flora Dimwood," 335, 345. + + Foot-Hills, 94, 100, 101; + foxes and raccoons from the, as pets, 155; + 190. + + Fort Hall, 68. + + "Forty-Niner," definition of, 54, 54 _n._ + See also Pioneers. + + Fowke, Gerard, 326. + + Francis, Miss Susan M., 47. + + Franklin, Benjamin, his style, 331. + + Frémont, Mrs. Jessie Benton, 34, 35. + + Frémont, John C., 34, 57, 58. + + French, the, in California, 92. + + Friary, The, club, New York, 5. + + _Friend of Colonel Starbottle's, A_, Bret Harte's last MS., 283-284. + + Frontiersmen, the, 56. + See also Pioneers. + + Frothingham, the Rev. O. B., 207. + + Froude, James Anthony, his daughter, 29; + Bret Harte's visit to, 257, 258. + + "Fust-rate," for very well, 322. + + + "Gabriel Conroy," 22, 72, 103, 177, 234, 244, 245, 294, 330, 341. + + "Gait," in the sense of habit or manner, 325. + + Gamblers, boy gamblers, 154; + Bret Harte's gamblers, 173. + See also Gambling in California. + + Gambling in California, 19, 20, 160-180; + Bret Harte's pictures of and contemporary accounts, 168-169; + the gambling era in Sacramento, 170, 172; + in San Francisco, 170-172; + development of public opinion and laws against, 172. + + George Eliot, 208. + + German children, 262, 263. + + _Ghosts, The, of Stukeley Castle_, 275. + + "Gideon Deane," 210, 211. + + Gillis, James W., 50, 51. + See also "Truthful James." + + Glasgow, Bret Harte appointed consul at, 265; + his five years in, 266-273; + his reports, 267-268; + his friendships in 271; + departure from, 273. + + _Goddess of Excelsior, The_, 142. + + Godkin, E. L., 307. + + Golden canoe, the, 159. + + "Golden Era," the, 13, 32, 33. + + _Grandmother Tenterden_, 232. + + Grass Valley, 164. + + "Gratuitous," 339. + + "Greasers," 148. + + _Great Deadwood Mystery, The_, 231. + + Greeley, Horace, his "Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco," + cited, 153. + + Grey, William, his "Pioneer Times in California," cited, 55, 109, 126, + 129. + + _Greyport Legend, A_, 232, 233. + + Griswold, Miss Anna, her marriage to Bret Harte, 33. + + Griswold, Daniel S., 33. + + Griswold, Mary Dunham, 33. + + Gwinn, W. M., 36, 37. + + + Hardy, Thomas, 76, 77, 208, 320. + + Hare, John, 235. + + "Harper's Magazine," 277. + + Hart, Benjamin I., 6. + + Hart, Bernard, paternal grandfather of Bret Harte, 4-7; + career of, 4-6; + secretary to the New York Exchange Board, 5; + prominent in the Synagogue, 5, 6; + in the militia, 5; + member of clubs and societies, 5; + homes of 6, 7; + portrait of, 6; + marriage of, to Catharine Brett, 6; + marriage of, to Zipporah Seixas, 6; + family of, 6-7; + death of, 7; + 10, 13. + + Hart, Catharine (Brett), paternal grandmother of Bret Harte, 6; + marriage of, to Bernard Hart, 6; + the marriage kept a secret by Bernard Hart, 7; + her lonely and secluded life, 8; + her ancestry and family connections, 8-10. + + Hart, Daniel, 6. + + Hart, David, 6. + + Hart, Elizabeth Rebecca (Ostrander), mother of Bret Harte, 10; + her religious faith, 11, 12; + life of, after Henry Hart's death, 13; + her passion for literature, 16; + moves to California, 17; + death of, at Morristown, N. J., 19; + 233. + + Hart, Emanuel B., 6. + + Hart [Harte], Henry, father of Bret Harte, 1; + final _e_ added to name of, 1 _n._; + birth of, 6; + 7; + at Union College, 10, 18; + description of, 10; + career of, 10, 11; + marries Elizabeth Ostrander, 10; + 11; + homes of, in New York City, 11; + brought up in the Dutch Reformed faith, becomes a Catholic, 11; + principal of an academy in Hudson, N. Y., 12; + other places of residence, 11; + ardently espouses the cause of Henry Clay, 12; + death of, 12; + his library and its use by his household, 16; + 230. + + Hart, Henry, son of Bernard Hart by his Hebrew wife, 7. + + Hart, Theodore, 6. + + Hart, Zipporah (Seixas), Hebrew wife of Bernard Hart, 6; + her marriage and family, 6; + 7. + + Harts, the, in Canada, 4. + + Harte, Francis Brett, birthplace of, 1; + ancestry of, 1, 4; + father of, 1, 6; + evolution of his signature as an author, 1; + descriptions of, 1-3, 4; + his voice, 2; + his handwriting, 2; + pictures of, 3; + paternal grandfather of, 4-7; + numerous relatives of, in Canada, 4; + mother of, 10-11, 16, 17, 19; + boyhood homes of, in New York City, 11; + in various places, 12, 13; + boyhood life after his father's death, 13; + his precocity, 15; + his early studies and writings, 16; + arrival in California, 17, 18; + begins his career as a professional writer, 18; + gambling experience, 19; + as express messenger, 21; + as tutor and schoolmaster, 21, 24, 26; + as druggist's clerk, 24, 25; + as printer, 24, 30, 32; + as editor, 30, 31, 48; + appointed secretary of the Mint, 33; + marriage, 33; + his manner of working, 40-42; + editor of book of poems, 40-42; + his first published book, 44; + first editor of the "Overland Monthly," 45; + the publication that first made him known on the Atlantic coast, + 46-47; + his _Heathen Chinee_ makes him famous, 49-50; + professor in the University of California, 51; + accuracy of his account of Pioneer life, 53-54, 56, 149, 150, 155, + 189, 192; + fidelity of his pictures of Pioneer friendship, 157; + four stories devoted to friendship, 161-167; + moral of his stories, 167; + his portrayal of gambling in Pioneer California sustained by + contemporary accounts, 168; + his gamblers, a new type in fiction, 176; + John Oakhurst and Jack Hamlin compared, 174-177; + his attitude toward his characters, 178; + his religious views, 206, 207; + departure from California, 214, 217, 218, 219; + in Chicago, 220-222; + his Eastern reception, 222; + visit to Boston and Mr. Howells, 223-227, 229; + meeting with Lowell, 226-227, + with Longfellow, 227, + with Emerson, 227; + in Boston, 229-231; + his contract with James R. Osgood & Co., 232; + at Newport, 232; + his literary habits, 233; + as a playwright, 234-235; + his money troubles, 236, 237, 238, 240, 251; + his lectures, 238, 239, 244; + his letters to his wife, 239-244, 251, 253, 254, 256, 258; + impression of Western people, 243; + his health, 244, 259, 260; + his dislike of New England, 246; + his women characters, 247-250; + his patriotism, 249; + appointed U. S. commercial agent at Crefeld, 252; + translations of his works, 255, 256; + his impressions of German music and acting, 257; + visit to Froude, 258; + his lectures in England, 259; + publication of his stories in England, 259; + as commercial agent, 261, 262, 264; + impressions of German children, 262, 263; + as consul, 266, 267, 268, 269, 271, 272; + in Glasgow, 266-273; + his reports, 267; + causes the erection of a memorial over the graves of wrecked sailors, + 268; + glimpse of his consular functions given in _Young Robin Gray_, 269; + his stories dealing with Scotch scenes and people, 270; + his friendships with William Black and Walter Besant, 271; + his monomania for not answering letters, 272; + granted leave of absence, 273; + superseded in the Glasgow consulship, 273; + last years in London, 274-292; + his friendship with M. and Mme. Van de Velde, 274; + Mme. Velde's influence upon his work, 274; + his later rooms at No. 74 Lancaster Gate, 274; + membership in various London clubs, 275; + his habits in later life, 275; + his real recreations, 275; + his proneness to escape "social duties," 276, 277; + visits Switzerland, 277-278; + reasons that impelled him to live in England, 279-280; + yet ever a devoted American, 281; + false reports about him circulated in America, 282; + his disinclination to be "interviewed," 282; + his character, 284-292; + was he a sentimentalist? 284-286; + his separation from his family in his latter years, 284; + at work until the end, 283; + his last MS., 283; + his last illness, 283; + his last letters, 284; + death, at Camberley, May 5th, 1902, 284; + his faults and his good qualities, 287, 290; + his devotion to his art, 291; + the manner of man he was, 291, 312, 320; + as a writer of fiction, 293-307; + his knowledge of human nature, 297; + his dialect, 298; + his humor, 300; + his satire, 300-302; + his optimism, 307, 316; + his poetry, 308-316; + his poem on Dickens, 312, 316; + influence of Dickens on him, 340-342; + compared with Dickens, 342-343; + his poem on Starr King, 313; + his patriotic poems, 314-316; + his treatment of nature, 316-319; + his style, 309, 330-346; + his style in poetry, 309, 313, 337-338; + defects of his style, 330, 336, 339; + virtues of his style, 331, 333-338, 343-346; + his vocabulary, 337-338; + his attitude toward his characters, 345, 346. + + Harte, Mrs. Francis Brett, her marriage, 33; + her voice, 247; + removes to England before Bret Harte's death, 279. + + Harte, Eliza. See Knaufft, Eliza (Harte). + + Harte, Ethel, Bret Harte's younger daughter, 279. + + Harte, Francis King, Bret Harte's second son, 39, 279. + + Harte, Griswold, Bret Harte's elder son, 279. + + Harte, Henry, Bret Harte's brother, 13-15, 17. + + Harte, Jessamy. See Steele, Jessamy (Harte). + + Harte, Margaret B. See Wyman, Margaret B. (Harte). + + Haskins, C. W., his "The Argonauts of California," cited, 135, 168. + + Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1, 83, 208, 244, 245, 268, 276, 295, 342. + + Hawthorne and Bret Harte compared, 281, 291. + + Hay, John, 60, 287. + + Hayes, President, appoints Bret Harte as U. S. commercial agent at + Crefeld, 252. + + _Heathen Chinee, The_, 44, 49, 50, 50 _n._, 51, 222, 300, 309. + + _Heir, The, of the McHulishes_, 250, 270. + + "Heiress of Red Dog," the, 177. + + "Helen Maynard," 332. + + Helper, H. R., his "The Land of Gold," cited, 150. + + "Herbert Bly," 337. + + Herndon, James Lewis, 118 _n._ + + Heroines, Bret Harte's, 74-84, 246-249, 334. + + Hinds, J. I. D., 326. + + Hittell's "History of California," cited, 54. + + Hoar, Sherman, his resemblance to the hero in _Left Out on Lone Star + Mountain_, 167 _n._ + + "Honeyfoglin'," 321. + + "Honorable Jackson Flash, The," 192. + + Hoodlum, 155. + + Hooper, J. F., 114. + + Horses, in San Francisco, 99; + Bret Harte's description of, 333. + + House of Lords, The, club, New York, 5. + + _How I Went to the Mines_, 25. + + _How Old Man Plunkett went Home_, 113. + + _How Reuben Allen Saw Life in San Francisco_, 24. + + _How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar_, 27, 154, 232, 233, 302, 305, + 333. + + Howells, William Dean, his account of Bret Harte, 2, 30, 39, 41, 223-227; + 229, 237-238, 290. + + Hudson, N. Y., home of the Hartes in, 11. + + _Hudson River, The_, 16. + + Humboldt Bay, 21. + + Humboldt County, 21, 30; + wheat crops, 190. + + Humboldt River, 68, 146 _n._ + + "Humboldt Times," 24. + + Humor and pathos, 300; + California humor, 303, 304; + Western and New England humor, 303. + + Hyer, Tom, 110. + + + _Idyl of Battle Hollow, The_, 232. + + _Idyl of Red Gulch, The_, 234, 246. + + _Iliad of Sandy Bar, The_, 209. + + "Illustrated News," London, sale of, in Pioneer California, 197. + + Imagination, creative, 293, 294. + + _In a Balcony_, 33. + + _In the Tules_, 63, 161, 166, 188. + + "Incidents on Land and Water," cited, 100, 128. + + Independence, in Missouri, 68. + + Indians, 30, 56, 70, 72; + Bret Harte's description of, 73; + the Californian, 30, 105, 212-213. + + _Indiscretion of Elsbeth, The_, 262. + + Insane Asylum, an, the first public building erected by the State of + California, 190. + + "Into," for in, 323. + + Irving, Washington, 35. + + + "J. W.," "Perils, Pastimes and Pleasures of an Emigrant," by, cited, 92. + + "Jack Fleming," 158. + + "Jack Hamlin," 22, 83; + his dress, 97; + 99; + 169, 173, 175; + compared with "John Oakhurst," 176-177; + his prototype, 177; + his character, 178-180. + + _Jack and Jill of the Sierras_, A, 81, 217. + + Jackass Flat, 50. + + James, Henry, 3, 163; + his style, 336. + + "James Seabright," 209. + + _Jeff Briggs's Love Story_, 249. + + Jeffries, Richard, 319. + + Jewelry, miners', 97. + + Jewett, Sarah O., 83. + + Jews in Pioneer California, 92. + + _Jim_, 322. + + _Jimmy's Big Brother from California_, 113. + + "Jinny," 78. + + "Joan," 77, 245, 246, 301. + + "Joe Corbin," 337. + + "John Ashe," 81. + + "John Bunyan Medliker," 27. + + "John Hale," 230. + + "John Milton Harcourt," 27. + + "John Oakhurst, Mr.," 86, 173, 174; + compared with "Jack Hamlin," 176; + 300, 304, 318. + + "Johnny," 302. + + Johnson, Samuel, 336. + + _Johnson's Old Woman_, 321, 322, 332. + + Johnston, Richard Malcolm, 325, 326. + + "Joshua Rylands," 58, 205. + + "Jovita," 333-334. + + Jowett, Benjamin, 207. + + _Judgment of Bolinas Plain, The_, 235. + + "Julia Cantire," 249. + + "Julia Porter," 334, 335. + + Jury, the first in California, 122. + + + "Kam," 83. + + Kansas, Bret Harte's lectures in, 241, 242, 243. + + Kay, T. Belcher, 111. + + Kemble, Fanny, her description of Bret Harte, 1; + 2, 221 _n._ + + "Kicked a fut," 325. + + King, James, career and tragic death of, 116-117, 186, 195. + + King, the Rev. Thomas Starr, 33, 34, 35-36, 38, 39, 207; + Bret Harte's poem upon him, 313, 314. + + Kingston-on-the-Hudson, 10. + + Kinsmen Club, London, 275. + + Kipling, Rudyard, 55, 107 _n._, 208, 342, 344. + + "Kitty," 78. + + Knaufft, Eliza (Harte), Bret Harte's sister, 13, 17, 222, 232. + + Knaufft, Ernest, 13. + + Knaufft, F. F., 13. + + Kozlay, Charles M., publisher of Bret Harte's lectures, 244 _n._ + + + "Lacy Bassett," 166. + + "Lakeside Monthly," the, Bret Harte's connection with, 220, 221, 222. + + "Land of Gold, The," cited, 150. + + "Lanty Foster," 74, 81. + + "Larry Hawkins," 95. + + Lawrence, Ks., Bret Harte's lecture in, 241, 242. + + Lawyer, the Boston, 231. + + Lectures, by Bret Harte, 238, 239-244; + edited by Kozlay, 244 _n._; + in England, 259. + + Leese, Jacob P., 149. + + _Left Out on Lone Star Mountain_, 160, 166. + + _Legend of Monte del Diablo, The_, 35. + + _Legend of Sammtstadt, A_, 262. + + Leighton, Sir Frederic, 260. + + Lenox, Mass., 1; + Bret Harte's stay there, 244. + + "Leonidas Boone," 27. + + Letters by Bret Harte, to his wife, 239-244, 251, 253, 254, 256, 258; + letter to his son, 256; + to Mr. Pemberton, 267; + from Switzerland, 277. + + Letts, J. M., his "California Illustrated," cited, 102. + + Lewis, Alfred Henry, 327. + + "Liberty Jones," 25, 82, 146, 147. + + "Life on the Plains," cited, 185. + + Lipper, Arthur & Co., New York, 6. + + Lispenard, Leonard, 5. + + Lispenard & Hart, merchants, in New York, 5. + + "Literary Friends and Acquaintances," cited, 223. + + "Literary Landmarks of Boston," cited, 231. + + Literature among the Pioneers, 196, 197, 198, 200. + + London, Bret Harte in. See England. + + Longevity, of Spanish Californians, 104; + of Indians, 105. + + Longfellow, H. W., Bret Harte's meeting with, 227-228; + Bret Harte's opinion of, 228, 229. + + Los Angeles, 149. + + "Los Gringos," cited, 150. + + _Lost Galleon, The, and Other Tales_, 44. + + Louisburg Square, in Boston, 231. + + Love, for women, 78, 311, 312. + + "'Low," in the sense of declare or say, 324. + + Lowell, James Russell, 223, 227, 324. + + Lowell, Mass., home of the Hartes in, 12. + + Lower California, 67. + + _Luck of Roaring Camp, The_, 44, 46, 47, 49, 51, 159, 162, 165, 233. + + + Macaulay, his style, 331, 336. + + McDougall, ex-governor, duel with a San Francisco editor, 193. + + McGlynn, John A., 88, 89. + + McGowan, "Ned," 90. + + McPike, Capt., 60. + + "Madison Wayne," 56, 205. + + _Mæcenas of the Pacific Slope, A_, 249. + + Magee, Prof., 165. + + Magistrates, California, 122-127. + + "Major Philip Ostrander," 11. + + "Mannerly," 321. + + Mark Twain, Bret Harte's first meeting with, 39, 40; + 45, 46, 51, 229, 234, 304, 306, 327. + + "Martin Morse," 188, 189. + + "Maruja," 149, 178, 338. + + Marysville, Alcalde of, 121, 122, 185; + origin of name of, 142; + 146, 153; + gambling in, 173. + + "Marysville Times, The," 192. + + "Men and Memories of San Francisco," cited, 199 _n._ + + _Mercury of the Foot-Hills, A_, 27, 77. + + _Mermaid of Light-House Point, The_, 150. + + Mexicans, expulsion from the mines, 131. + + Mexican and Chilean women in early California, 148. + + "Miggles," 77, 163, 330, 339. + + Mill, John Stuart, his style, 331. + + Miller, Henry, 106. + + Miners, the, 85; + their gains, 112, 113; + their laws, 120, 121; + the miners of Roaring Camp, 163. + See also Pioneers. + + Mining, primitive methods of, 158-160. + See Pan-mining; Rocker, the; Sluce, the; River-bed mining. + + Mining laws, 120, 121. + + Ministers, in Pioneer California, 208, 302; + Bret Harte's ministers, 208-212, 302. + + Mint, the U. S., California, Bret Harte as secretary of, 33; + 34, 42, 52, 292. + + "Miss Edith," 310. + + "Miss Jo," 95. + + "Miss Mary," 246, 247. + + Missions, the Spanish, 212, 213. + + Missouri, its emigrants to California, 59, 63, 64. + + "M'liss," 33, 163, 208, 234, 269, 296. + + Montague, Henry W., 288. + + Monterey, 54, 149, 166, 187, 195. + + Monterey County, the sheep county, 190. + + Montreal, Bret Harte at, 240, 241. + + Morristown, N. J., 19; + Bret Harte at, 233, 234, 237. + + "Mr. Adams Rightbody," 231. + + "Mr. Callender," 299, 328. + + _Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation_, 205. + + "Mr. John Oakhurst." See "John Oakhurst." + + "Mr. McKinstry," 83. + + _Mr. Thompson's Prodigal_, 326. + + "Mrs. Brimmer," 335. + + _Mrs. Bunker's Conspiracy_, 37. + + "Mrs. Burroughs," 77. + + "Mrs. Decker," 77, 175. + + "Mrs. MacGlowrie," 80, 248. + + "Mrs. McKinstry," 83, 84. + + _Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands_, 233. + + Mulford, Prentice, 39. + + Murders, frequency of, 130-131. + + Murdock, Charles A., 30. + + _My First Book_, 42. + + _My Friend the Tramp_, 230. + + + Nadal, E. S., 341. + + Nature, as treated by Bret Harte, 27, 316-319; + influence of, 80, 318. + + _Neighborhoods I have Moved From_, 40. + + Nevada County, vineyards in, 190. + + _New Assistant of Pine Clearing School, The_, 62. + + New Brunswick, N. J., home of the Hartes in, 12. + + New England, 245, 246; + its humor, 303. + + New London, Conn., Bret Harte at, 234. + + New Orleans, ship-load of gamblers from, arrive in California, 168. + + New York City, Bernard Hart in, 4-6; + the Congregation Shearith Israel in, 6; + homes of Bernard Hart in, 6; + sons of in, 6, 7; + 9; + boyhood home of Bret Harte, 11; + Bret Harte in, 222, 232; + lectures in, 239, 244. + + New York State, 1, 10. + + New York Stock Exchange Board, Bernard Hart secretary to, 5, 7. + + "New York Sunday Atlas," 16. + + New York "Tribune," 222. + + Newport, R. I., Bret Harte in, 232. + + _Newport Romance, A_, 232, 233. + + "News Letter," the, 51, 51 _n._ + + Newspapers, the first in California, 91, 195; + editors of the early, 134, 192, 193, 194; + tone of, 194, 195, 196. + See under their respective titles. + + Newstead Abbey, Bret Harte a guest at, 275. + + Nicaragua, 17, 65. + + Nicasio Indians, the, 150. + + Nichols, Jonathan, 61. + + "Nigh onter," for nearly, 323. + + _Night at Hays', A_, 206. + + _Night on the Divide, A_, 97, 103, 249. + + "No-account," 322. + + "North Liberty," 245, 246. + + "Northern California," the, 30. + + "Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, The," 236. + + + Oakland, Cal., 18, 19, 165. + + Oatman, Olive, 73. + + _Office-Seeker, The_, 245. + + "Old Greenwood," 56, 57, 58. + + "Old Personal Responsibility," 137. + + "Old Virginia Gentlemen, The, and Other Sketches," cited, 192 _n._ + + "Old woman," for wife, 322. + + Oregon, 68. + + "Oregon and California in 1848," cited, 72. + + Oregon Trail, 68. + + "Ornery," 322. + + Osgood, James R., 231; + contract with Bret Harte, 232. + + Ostrander, Elizabeth Rebecca. See Hart, Elizabeth Rebecca. + + Ostrander, Henry Philip, 10. + + Ostranders, home of, in New York, 11, 13. + + Ottawa, Bret Harte's lecture and stay there, 240. + + "Our Italy," cited, 104. + + _Outcasts of Poker Flat, The_, 48, 103, 162, 163, 165, 174, 233, 300, + 317. + + "Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco," cited, 153. + + "Overland Monthly," the, 44, 46; + Bret Harte its first editor, 45, 48, 49, 51, 52; + its bear, 45; + 215, 216, 275, 292, 312 _n._, 327. + + Oxford School of writers, 336. + + + Padre Esteban, 212. + + Pan-mining, 158-159. + + Panama, 65, 66, 67. + + "Pard," 158. + + Parody in Bret Harte, 306. + + Parsloe, C. T., 234. + + "Parson Wynn," 302. + + _Passage in the Life of Mr. John Oakhurst, A_, 174, 175. + + Pathos, 302. + + Peg-Leg Smith, 57. + + Pell, Mr., merchant, New York, 5. + + Pemberton, T. Edgar, on Bret Harte, 220, 229; + his account of Bret Harte as a playwright, 234, 235; + letter of Bret Harte to him, 267; + collaborates with, as a dramatist, 286. + + Pemberton's "Life of Bret Harte," extracts from, 24, 29, 103, 228, 229, + 239-244, 251, 253, 266, 275-276, 283, 291. + + "Pendennis," 293. + + "Perils, Pastimes and Pleasures of an Emigrant," cited, 92. + + "Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California," cited, 209. + + "Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California," cited, 107, 121, + 122, 127, 132. + + "Peter Schroeder," 298, 328. + + Philadelphia, home of the Hartes in, 12. + + "Philandering," 321. + + _Phyllis of the Sierras, A_, 27, 28, 317, 341. + + Piatt, John J., 251. + + "Picayune," The, editor of in a duel, 193. + + Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M., 59. + + Pike County, "Piker," 59, 60, 62-64. + + "Pike County Ballads," 60. + + "Pioneer Times in California," cited, 55, 109, 126, 129. + + Pioneers, the, 30, 47, 52, 54-213; + their youthfulness, 54; + their good looks, 55; + their intelligence, 55; + their descendants, 55 _n._; + their sufferings _en route_, 65; + crossing the Plains, 65, 68-71; + by sea, 66-68; + their food, 69; + their quarrels, 71, 72; + their women and children, 74-84, 78, 140-151; + varied employments of, 86-89; + multiplicity of tongues among, 91; + dress of, 97-98; + energy of, 105; + exuberance of, 106-109; + misfortunes of, 111-113; + courage of, 114-119; + law-abidingness, 120-121; + magnanimity, 127, 129; + long beards of, 145; + friendships among, 157-167; + good manners common among, 173-174; + literature among, 196-197; + good taste of, 199; + their humor, 303, 304; + their dialect, 323-324. + + Pioneer women, 74-84; + beauty in, 79; + small feet of, 248. + + Pittsburgh, Bret Harte's lecture in, 240. + + Placerville, 111, 123, 146. + + _Plain Language from Truthful James_, 49. + + Plains, The, crossing them, 56, 60, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 167; + a heroine of, 145; + effect of the long journey upon women, 146, 147; + wolves from the, as pets, 155. + + _Poet of Sierra Flat, The_, 232. + + Poker Flat, 103, 164, 176. + + Poor Man's Creek, 164. + + Prairie schooners, 70. + + Prepositions, superfluous, 323. + + Priests, the Spanish, 211, 213. + + _Princess Bob and Her Friends, The_, 232, 249. + + Prize-fights, and prize-fighters, 194. + + Providence, R. I., home of the Hartes in, 12. + + Publishers, Bret Harte's relations with, 232. + + "Punch," 197. + + Puritanism in California, 202, 203. + + "Put to," for harness, 324. + + + Rabelais Club, London, 275. + + Rain, fall of, 103. + + Rainy season, 102, 103. + + "R'ar," 322. + + Reform Club, London, 271, 272. + + Reid, Sir Wemyss, 271; + references to Bret Harte in his life of William Black, 271, 272. + + _Reincarnation, The, of Smith_, 188. + + _Relieving Guard_, 39, 313. + + Religion among the Pioneers, 200-202, 204, 205-206, 208. + + _Return of Belisarius, The_, 46 _n._ + + _Returned_, 46, 46 _n._ + + "Rev. Mr. Daws, the," 209. + + _Reveille, The_, 38, 39, 314. + + "Richelieu Sharpe," 27, 28, 29; + the precocious love affairs of, 154. + + "Ridgway Dent," 81. + + River-bed mining, 160-161. + + "Rise," for ascend, 324. + + Road-agents, 22. + + Robson, Stuart, 234. + + Rocker, or cradle, the, in mining, 159. + + _Roger Catron's Friend_, 208. + + Rogue River, 30. + + Roman, Anton, 44, 45, 215. + + _Romance of Madroño Hollow, The_, 95, 232. + + Rombout, Francis, 8, 9. + + Rombout, Helena (Teller), 8. + + Rombout-Brett Association, 9. + + _Rose of Glenbogie, A_, 250, 270, 297. + + "Rose of Tuolumne," the, 78, 247, 300, 317. + + "Rosey Nott," 74. + + "Rowley Meade," 324. + + Royal Academy Banquet, Bret Harte's speech at, 259, 260. + + Royal Thames Yacht Club, London, 275. + + Royce, Josiah, Prof., 53, 86 _n._, 134, 152, 201. + + Ruskin, 316. + + "Russian Envoy, The," 149. + + Ryan, W. R., his "Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California," + cited, 209. + + + Sabe, savey, 323. + + Sacramento, 57, 152, 154, 155, 158; + gambling in, 170, 172; + fires and floods in, 188, 191; + fighting editors of, 192; + literature in, 197. + + Sacramento County, vineyards in, 190. + + Sacramento River, 200, 204. + + "Sacramento Transcript," the, 63, 108, 129, 142, 144, 151, 155, 193, + 194, 195, 196, 198, 204, 205. + + St. George Society, 5. + + St. Kentigern, 269, 269 _n._ + + St. Louis, "Lucky Bill," a gambler from, 169; + Bret Harte in, 241, 242. + + Salmon Falls, 152. + + "Salomy Jane," 80, 321. + + San Francisco, at the outbreak of the Civil War, 37, 38; + Bret Harte in, 32; + processions in, 98; + animals in, 99; + climate of, 101, 102; + politics in, 116, 117; + scarcity of women in, in '49, 141; + the "hoodlum," 155; + early citizens, 158; + the gambling era in, 170-173; + early development of public opinion and laws against gambling, 172-173; + panic of 1851 in, 185; + increase of crime in, 185; + Vigilance Committees of 1851 and 1856 in, 186; + great fires in, and incidents of, 186-187; + 29 suicides in a single year, 190; + its later atmosphere, 215, 217; + Bret Harte's representation of, true, 288; + Bret Harte's poem upon, 215, 315. + + "San Francisco Bulletin," the, 44, 138, 173, 195; + tragic death of its editor, 116-117, 173. + + "San Francisco Call," the, 39, 134. + + "San Francisco Daily Herald," the, 36, 112 _n._, 173, 184, 193, 203. + + San Francisco gambling saloons, 140, 170. + + San Francisco horse races, 148. + + San Francisco hospital, 140. + + San José, 91, 143, 197, 198, 201. + + San Ramon Valley, 21. + + San Raphael, 33. + + Sanitary Commission, 38; + the, and the gambler, 169. + + Santa Barbara, 149. + + Santa Clara, 198. + + Santa Clara Valley, 190. + + Santa Cruz, 123. + + Santa Cruz County, 89. + + Santa Fé, route to California, 68. + + _Sappho of Green Springs, A_, 177. + + "Sarah Walker," 335. + + Satire, 300. + + Saturday Club, the Boston, Dinner, 222, 229, 276. + + "Saturday Review," the, 313. + + "Scenes from El Dorado," cited, 158. + + Scotch characters of Bret Harte, 298. + + Scott, Sir Walter, 320, 328. + + "Scribner's Magazine," 244. + + Sea Cliff, Long Island, 252. + + Searls, Judge, 126. + + _Secret of Sobriente's Well, The_, 95. + + _Secret of Telegraph Hill, A_, 337. + + "Seeking the Golden Fleece," cited, 128, 129. + + Seixas, Benjamin Mendez, 6. + + Seixas, Gershom Mendez, rabbi, 6. + + Seixas, Zipporah. See Hart, Zipporah (Seixas). + + Semple, Dr. Robert, 196 _n._ + + Señoritas, 148. + + "Sepulvida, Don José," 94, 96. + + Serra, Father Junipéro, 212. + + Shakspere, in California, 198; + his apprehension of human nature, 295; + 321. + + Shepard, vice-consul, at Bradford, 271. + + _Ship of '49, A_, 54, 321. + + Shuck, O. T., his "Bench and Bar of California," cited, 128. + + _Sidewalkings_, 33. + + Sierra County, 103. + + Sierras, the, 68, 69; + bears from the, as pets, 155, 161; + 219. + + Simplicity, 313; + compared with cultivation, 320. + + "Sir James Mac Fen," 270. + + "Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings," cited, 86, 113. + + Slavery, prohibited in California, 36. + + Sluce, the, in mining, 160. + + "Smellidge," 322. + + Smith, J. Cabot, 134. + + "Snapshot Harry," 345. + + Snow in California, 103, 104, 164. + + _Snow-Bound at Eagle's_, 103, 230. + + _Society upon the Stanislaus, The_, 44, 51 _n._ + + Solitude, 319, 320. + + Sonora, 131. + + Sonora County, 131. + + Sonora River, 160. + + Sopranos, absence of, among Bret Harte's heroines, 247. + + South-Western girl, the, 248. + + Southerners in California, 36, 37; + resemblance to Spanish, 94, 95; + 134, 135, 192. + + Southgate, Dr. Horatio, elected bishop, 201. + + Spanish in California, 93, 94; + gravity of, 94; + resemblance to Southerners, 94, 95; + qualities of, 96; + their longevity, 105; + horsemanship, 199; + the Spanish priest, 211, 212, 213. + + _Spelling Bee at Angels, The_, 310. + + Spencer, Herbert, his style, 331. + + Split infinitive, the, 339. + + "Springfield Republican," the, 236 _n._ + + Squatters, 114. + + Stage-Coaching in California, 21, 22, 22 _n._ + + Stanislaus Diggings, 30. + + Stanislaus Valley, the, 190. + + Starbottle, Col. See Colonel Starbottle. + + Steele, Henry Milford, 279. + + Steele, Jessamy (Harte), Bret Harte's older daughter, 279. + + "Stephen Masterton," 209, 209 _n._ + + Sterne, Lawrence, 295. + + Stevenson, R. L., 338. + + Stillman, Dr. J. D. B., his "Seeking the Golden Fleece," cited, 128, 129. + + Stockton, 98, 151, 190, 197, 198, 201. + + Stoddard, Charles W., 21, 32, 34, 39, 42, 48. + + _Story of M'liss, The_, 44. + + _Story of a Mine, The_, 340. + + Stuart, the robber, death of, 114-115. + + Style, Bret Harte's, 330-346; + defects of, 330, 332, 336, 339; + virtues of, 333-338, 343-346; + his subtlety, 333-337; + his style in poetry, 309, 313, 337-338; + beauty in style, 338. + + Subtlety, as a quality of style, 333-336; + Bret Harte's, 333-337; + over-subtlety, 336, 337. + + _Sue_, produced in New York, 235. + + Sunday in California, 204. + + Supreme Court, Bret Harte's description of, 340. + + _Susy_, 296, 336. + + Swain, R. B., 33. + + Swett's Bar Company, 160. + + Swift, Frank, 60. + + Swift, Lindsay, his "Literary Landmarks of Boston," cited, 231. + + Swinburne, his metre copied by Bret Harte, 309. + + "Sydney Ducks," 92. + + + _Tale of a Pony, The_, 308. + + _Tale of Three Truants, A_, 104. + + Tasajara County, the "cow county," 190. + + Tatnall, Commander, letter from to Bret Harte's mother, 15. + + Taylor, Bayard, his "El Dorado," cited, 64, 121. + + Taylor, the Rev. William, his "California Life," cited, 145. + + Tearful women, as described by Bret Harte, 335. + + Telegraph Hill, 143; + pioneers watching from for the fortnightly mail-steamer, 145. + + Teller, William, 8. + + Temperance in early California, 205. + + "Tennessee," 159, 161-162, 318. + + _Tennessee's Partner_, 56, 63, 159, 161, 162, 165; + the story suggested by a real incident, 165; + 166, 233, 284, 294, 318. + + "Teresa," 148. + + Terry, Judge David S., 136. + + Thackeray, 18, 245; + his creative imagination, 293, 295; + 328. + + _Thankful Blossom_, 233, 245. + + Theatres in California, 198, 199. + + _Their Uncle from California_, 3. + + Thoreau, Henry D., 297, 318. + + Thorne, Charles R., 198. + + Thornton, William, alias "Lucky Bill," gambler, 169. + + Thornton, J. Quinn, his "Oregon and California in 1848," cited, 72. + + _Three Partners_, 249, 295, 296. + + "Three Years in California," Borthwick's, cited, 22 _n._, 94, 120; + Colton's, cited, 58, 96, 122, 188, 203. + + _Through the Santa Clara Wheat_, 190, 333. + + "Tinka Gallinger," 158, 159, 247, 328. + + Tolstoi, 76, 208, 320. + + Toole, J. L., collaborates with Bret Harte, 235. + + Topeka, Bret Harte's lecture at, 241. + + Tourgueneff, 76, 77. + + _Transformation of Buckeye Camp, The_, 323. + + _Treasure of the Redwoods, A_, 159. + + "Trinidad Joe's" daughter, 78. + + Trinity Church, New York, 8. + + Trinity County, 21. + + Trollope, Anthony, 293. + + Truesdale, Abigail, 11. + + "Truthful James," 50, 305, 310. + + Tuolumne County, 165. + + Tuttletown, 50. + + "'Twixt," for between, 321. + + _Two Americans, The_, 11, 335. + + _Two Men of Sandy Bar_, produced in New York, 234. + + + "Uncle Ben Dabney," 193. + + _Uncle Jim and Uncle Billy_, 161, 166, 319. + + Underwood, Francis H., 273. + + Union, 24. + + Union College, Henry Hart at, 10, 18. + + "Union Mills," 317. + + University of California, 51, 216. + + _Unser Karl_, 262. + + Upham, S. C., his "Scenes in El Dorado," cited, 158. + + "Use," in the sense of employ, 321. + + Vallejo, Gen., 149. + + Van de Velde, Arthur, 274. + + Van de Velde, Mme., 2-3; + her view of Bret Harte's departure from California, 217; + in London, 274; + translator of Bret Harte's stories, 274; + her influence upon him and his art, 274; + 282; + her country seat at Camberley where he died, 283, 284. + + Van Wyck, Cornelius, 10. + + _Views from a German Spion_, 262, 263. + + Vigilance Committees, 90, 114, 115, 116, 117, 130, 136, 186, 216, 337. + + Virginia City, 132. + + "Visalia Delta, The," editor of, killed in street affray, 193. + + _Vision of the Fountain, A_, 79. + + Vocabulary, Bret Harte's, 321, 337. + + Voices, of Bret Harte's women, 247; + his own voice, 2. + + Voyage to California, 65, 67. + + Vulgarity, definition of, 320. + + + _Waif of the Plains, A_, 70, 73, 296. + + _Wan Lee, the Pagan_, 341. + + _Ward of the Golden Gate, A_, 155, 335. + + Warner, Charles Dudley, his "Our Italy," cited, 104, 105. + + Washington, Bret Harte lectures in, 239; + his account of the Capitol at, 239. + + Watrous, Mrs. Charles, letter from, 215. + + Watts-Dunton, Theodore, 120, 297. + + Webb, Charles Henry, 39. + + West, the, its humor, 303. + + Western people, Bret Harte's impressions of, 243. + + West Point, 315. + + _When the Waters Were Up at "Jules',"_ 74, 78, 188. + + "Which," in the cockney sense, as used by Bret Harte, 326-327. + + _Who was my Quiet Friend?_ 338 _n._ + + Widows in Bret Harte's stories, 248. + + Wilkins, Mary, 83. + + Williams, Col. Andrew, Bret Harte's stepfather, 18-19. + + Wise, H. A., his "Los Gringos," cited, 150. + + Wombwell, Sir George, 271. + + Women, the Pioneer, 74-84, 150-151; + respect for women in America, 77, 147, 148; + development of beauty among the pioneer, 79; + Bret Harte's literary treatment of, 247-250; + his conventional women, 249; + his army and navy women, 249; + snobbishness of women, 250; + Bret Harte's keen observation of, 334-336; + his descriptions of beauty in, 334, 335. + + Woods, D. B., his "Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings," cited, 86, 113. + + Wyman, Margaret B. (Harte), Bret Harte's sister, 13, 17, 19, 32. + + + "Yawpin'," 324. + + "Yerba Buena," 334. + + Yorkshire Club, York, Eng., first meeting of Bret Harte and William + Black at, 271. + + Young Men's Association in Albany, 11. + + _Young Robin Gray_, 269, 270, 299. + + "Youngest Miss Piper," the, 160, 249. + + "Youngest Prospector in Calaveras," the, 27; + not an uncommon child, 154; + 208. + + "Yuba Bill," 22, 23, 83, 303, 329, 339. + + Yuba County, vineyards in, 190. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "newpapers" corrected to "newspapers" (page 17) + "Fremont" standardized to "Frémont" (page 34) + "beside" corrected to "besides" (page 80) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of Bret Harte, by Henry Childs Merwin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE *** + +***** This file should be named 34940-8.txt or 34940-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/4/34940/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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