Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-12-25
THE ARGONAUTS OF 40,
Bret Harris Lecture-Ninety Minutes of
ImmoderRte Mirth and Laughter.


From the New York Times, 17th.l
a very large and appreciative audience
greeted Bret Harris appearance as lectur-
er at Steinway Hall last evening. He Sc
lected as the subject of his lecture 1.-The
Argonauts of 40" and during its delivery,
which occupied an hour and half, he
kept the entire audience in q continuous
roar of laughter. Commencing with rap
id sketch of the early settlement of Cali
fornia by the Spaniards, he humorously
illustrated their mode of life aud the prim-
tive institutions which they originated.
AS an instance of the condition of their
judiciary he narrated where an injured
wife accused her husband of serenading
the wife of another man. The delinquent,
with his guitar was brought into court,
and he was compelled to repeat the amor
Gus performances of the preceding night.
81 find" said the Alcadi, before whom the
matter was Investigated, that he has an
infamous voice and most eXecrable gui-
tar, and hold the Seigneur for vilely dis
turbing the peace.' Laughter. In the
Sierras the plain, uncouth, but kind wife
of Texan was venerated as the embodi-
ment of heavenly grace and beauty. She
died, and the most heartfelt grief pervaded
the entire camp. Blear eyed Bill, saluting
his partner, asked what she died of.
doctor says she died of nostalgia" was
the reply. "What the - is that ?" was
the question, and the answere was: "a
kind of longing to get to heaven
Laughter. The laws against dishonesty
were so strict that dishonesties were pun
ished with death. a horse thief was tried,
and the jury having retired to deliberate
upon their verdict were slow on returning
into court. The Judge pushed his head
through the door of their room, and found
they had not agreed. Take your time,
gentlemen,n he said, "but remember we
are waiting for this room to lay out the
corpse in" [Great laughter. With much
graphic power the lecturer continued to re-
fer to the fondness for witticisms so gener-
al among them, and the epigrammatic
terms in which they were expressed. A
gentleman replied once to query of a
parishioner of the Rev. Thomas King, that
as preacher he won every trick. Laugh
ter. An engineer on the Pacific railroad
told of a comrade who died of consump-
ton. poor Jim" he said, "got a run
ming slower, until one day he stopped on
his centre.o What picture of the help
less hitch of this weary human machine.
Applause. 4 teamster met n surveyor
and farmer angrily discussing. Siding
with the surveyor, he said: "If / were you
1 would just theodolites that fellow out of
camp Laughter. Another teamster
was rebuked for his profanity by young
girl returning from camp meeting. "Why,
Miss said he, 'yOu don't call that swear
ing, do you? Why, you ought to hear
Bill Jones exhort the impenitent mule"
Laughter. The names of places were
expressive. A letter dated from "Dead
Broken was not calculated to induce credit,
and stranger would hesitate to accept an
invitation to "Murderers' Barr Laugh
| ter.
| Mr.. Bret Harte, who is authority on
California History and Heather Chinee"
poetry, is delivering lecture this season
| on the 'Argonauts of 1917 In his lecture
| in New York the other evening, after Civ
| ing a historical sketch of the Argonauts,
Mr.. Harte sketched the San Francisco OF
| 1852, in Winter time, when flour was
worth $50 barrel, and a glimpse of a
woman's face was one of the comforts for
which the hardy adventures sighed. The
| gambling saloon was next described as the
central point of interest in the history OF
the ArgOnauts. 1t was approached by nc
mysterious passage or guarded entrance
and frequently opened upon the street,
with every invitation of gliding, lights
| and music.
| The social life of that day was peculiar
| The best-dressed men were gamblers and
the best-dressed ladies had no right to that
| title. Gentlemen young in years had
wives much their seniors and considerably
larger in their physical persons, and often
one lady had a troop of gallants to dc
escort duty of an eYening. Surely, in the
multiplicity of such attention there was
safety, and especially so when each gen
tleman wore his revolver. A wife of an
old pioneer used to show a chair with q
hole through the cushion made by gen
tleman caller, who sat down in bashfu
confusion and exploded his revolver.
Happily the wants of the Argonaut
were few and infrequent. 1t was Otter
that the diversity of amendments to thu
miners clothes were a serious perplexitN
to the recognition of the person wearing
them. In the earlier days, two gentlemen
of responsibility lost their identity entire
ly in the labels of the flour sacks which
had been added TO their clothing, so tina
one of them came to be called "Genese
Mills,n and the other Eagle Brand.
Laughter. The lecturer then spok
briefly of domestic life, and described tn
time when the highest excellence il
woman was to keep clearinghouse, an
to be the wife of an aristocratic Argonau
was to be able of taking in washing.