The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-12-12
Early California Days.

Brett Harte in his humorous lecture
on early California days is thus de-
scribed.
What Mr.. Harte said of the Argo-
nauts of ls49 was as delicately humorous
and tender, at once and in turn, as those
wonderful sketches that first surprised
the world into knowledge of his rare,
new genius. The rudeness, the desper-
ateness, the extravaganza, the coarser
humor, the outer sem1lance of the life
have found other and remarkable cbron-
iclers but no other has reached with
such keen and appreciative touch, its
pathos or its deeper tragedy.
Mr.. Harte proposed to tell of cru
sade without cross, az exodus without
a prophet. "It is not pretty story"
said he; " 1 do not know that it is even
instructive do not know that it is
strictly true. It is of life of which per-
haps the best that can be said is, that it
exists no longer" After this brief
preface, the lecturer sketched the primi-
tive days of California when the land
and the dwellers therein were alike en-
joying a dolce far niente.' He sketched
then rapidly their sudden awakening to
find themselves strangers on their own
soil, foreigners in their own land, ignor-
ant even of the treasure they had been
set to guard. The causes of this swift
change were prefigured for many years.
The oldest and the newest faiths of the
world-the Roman Catholic and the
Mormon-were the pioneers of Cali
fornia. Father Junipero Lena, ringing
his bell in the heather wilderness of up
per California, and Brigham Young,
leading his half-famished legions to Salt
Lake, were the path -clearers of the
Argonauts of 1S49. The Argonauts were
not men to be deeply affected by these
condolences. They were exalted by no
especial mission, and sceptical of even
the existence of the golden fleece until
they saw it. The altogether unexampled
contrasts of the new order of life in those
early days of the Argonautic capture of
the golden State, were here depicted
with that power of characterization of
incident and phrase which have become
so familiar to us all in Mr.. Harte's sto-
ries i; as when he alluded to the exchange
of characters so common, where the best
men had the worst antecedents, and the
worst rejected in spotless Puritan ped
igree. "The boys seem to have taken
fresh deal all round" said Mr.. John
Oakhurst to me, in the easy confidence
of a man conscious of his ability to win
my money "and there is no knowing
whether a man will turn up jack or
king" 1t is relevant to this anecdote
that Mr.. Oakhurst himself came of
family whose ancestors regarded games
of chance as sinful because they were
trifling and amusing, but who had new
er conceived that they might be made
the instruments OF speculation and trag-
ic earnestness." And Mr.. Oakhurst
wondered, as he rose with gain of
$4,000. that there were folks as believes
that keerds is waste of time" This
Oskhurst, the typical gambler of that
time (the hero of "The Outcasts of Poker
Flat "O, once more illustrates in tlis lee
ture phase of contradictory nobility,
by redeeming from the gaming table for
his wife luckless gambler, by buying
his next play, and then losing it by con-
cert with the dealer. AS he confessed
the weakness to friend he added SOL
emnly: ats the first time as / ever
played a game that wasn't on the
square" Harte's description of the
mining camps is even more vivid than
that OF the city population. Their per-
sonal attractions are represented III an
exceedingly fattering light; their ha-
bitual life, minutely drawn with les un-
natural characteristics, its absence of
softening influence, of reverential Gus
tom, and-chief lack of all-of home. In
this connection what more exquisite can
be thought of than the painting of the
lone woman-lone, even though welded
and though beloved by every miner in
the canp-pining slowly daily, and to
everybodys astonishment dying at last.
"'Do you know what they say Ma'am
Richards died of {? said Yuba Bill to his
partner. NO was the reply. 'The
doctor saws she died of nostalg gia,' said
Bill. What - thing is nostalgia ?
said the other. Well, it's a kind O
longing to get to heaven Perhaps he
was right" And with this pathetic in
cident we must close our partial sketch
of this charming essay of California pio-
neer life.