The Portland daily press., 1878-04-27
[From the New York SUM-
"Jinny."
BY BRET HARTE.

attitude of apology for having at first failed to
recognize her higher nature, but of remorse
that they should have ever lent a credulOus
ear to priori tradition concerning her
family characteristics. She had not escaped
that calumny which she shared with the rest
of her sex for those youthful folies, levities
and indiscretions which belong to imma-
turty. It is very probable that the firmness
that distinguished her maturer will in youth
might have been taken for obstinacy; that
her nice discrimination might at the same
period have been taken for adolescent ca.
price, and that the positive expression Of heI
quick intellect might have been though,
youthful impertinence before her years had
won respect for her judgment.
She was foaled at Indian Creek, and one
month later, when she was brought over to
Sawyer's bar, was considered the smallest
donkey ever seen in the Foot Hills. The
legend that she was brought over in one ol
'Dan, the Quartz Crusher's,o boots required
corroboration from that gentleman; but his
denial being evidently based upon masculine
vanity regarding the size of his foot rather
than desire to be historically accurate, il
went for nothing. 1t is certain that for the
next two months she occupied the cabin o.
Dan, until, perhaps, incensed at this and
other scandals, she one night made her " ay
out. 81 hadn't the least idee wot WOO
COmlu, odu Odu, Uub dUOub uuulSut !
seemed to hear hail onto the roof, and q
shower of rocks and stones like to bias
started in the canyon. When got up anG
struck light, thar was suthin like onto &
cord o. kinklin' wood and splinters wha't
she'd stood asleep, and hole in the side Of
the shanty and-no jimmy! Lookin at them
hoofs O. hern-and mighty pooty they is tt
look at, too-you would allow she could d.
itp' 1 fear that this performance laid thu
foundation of her later infelicitous reputation
and perhaps awakened in her youth fu breas
q misplaced ambition, and an emulation
which might at that time have been diverted
into nobler channel. For the fame of this
juvenile performance-and its possible prom.
Use in the future-brought at once upon her
the dangerous flatteTy and attention of the
whole camp. Under intelligently directed
provocation she would repeat her misguided
exercise until most of the scanty furniture of
the cabin was reduced to a hopeless wreck
and sprains and callosities were developed
upon the limbs of her admirers. Yet even at
this early stage of her history, that penetrat-
ing intellect, which was in after years her
dominant quality, was evident to all. She
could not be made to kick at quartz tailings,
at q barrel of Boston crackers, or at the head
or shin Of "Nigger Pete" An artistic dis
elimination economized her surplus energy.
'Ef you'll notiss," said Dan, with large
parental softness, "she never let's herself out
to onct like them mules or any jackass as
I've heerd of, but kinder holds herself in,
and so to speak, takes her bearings-sorter
feels round gently with that off foot, takes
her distance and her rest, and then with that
ar foot hoverin' round in the air softly, like
an angels wing, and a gentle, dreamy kind o.
look in them eyes, she lites outl Don't ye,
jimmy? Thar! jst ez told ye," continued
Dan, with an artists noble fergetfulness of
self, as he slowly crawled from the splintered
ruin of the barrel on which he had been sit
ting. "Tharl did ye ever see the like? Did
ye dream that all the while was talkin she
was meditatin that?"
The same artistic perception and noble
reticence distinguished her bray. Il was one
OF which less sagacious animal would have
been foolishly vain or ostentatiousy prodigal.
It was contralto of great COMPASS and pro
fuDdity-reaching from low G to high c.
perhaps a trife stronger in the lower register,
and not altogether free from nasal falsetto
in the upper. Daring and brilliant as it was
in the middle notes, it was perhaps more mu-
sicaly remarkable for its great sustaining
power. The element of surprise always en-
tered into the hearers enjoyment, for long af-
ter any ordinary strain OF human origin would
have ceased, faint echoes of Jinny's last note
were perpetually recurring. But it was as
an intellectual and moral expression that her
bray was perfect. As far beyond her size as
were her aspirations, it was a free and run
ming commentary of scorn at all created
things extant, with ironical and sardonic ad-
ditions that were terrible. 1t reviled all hu-
man endeavor, it quenched all sentiment, it
suspended frivolity, it scattered reverie, it
paralyzed action. 1t was Omnlpotent. More
wonderful and characteristic than all, the
very existence of this tremendous organ was
unknown to the camp for six months after
the arrival of its modest owner, and only re-
vealed to them under circumstances that
seemed to point more exclusively than ever
to her rare discretion.
1t was the beginning OF a warm night and
the middle of heated political discussion.
Sawyer's Bar had gathered in force at the
Crossing, and by the light of flaring pine
torches, cheered and applauded the riv al
torches cheered and applauded the rival
speakers who from rude platform addressed
the excited multitude. Partisan spirit at that
time ran high in the Foot Hills; elimination
and recrimination, challenge, reply accusa-
tion and retOrt had already infamed the
meeting, and Col. Bungstarter, after with
ering review Of his opponents policy, cul-
minated with personal attack upon the ca
reer and private character of the eloquent and
chivalrous Col. Culpepper Starbottle of Sisk-
you. That eloquent and chivalrous gentle
man was known to be present, it was rumored
that the attack was expected to provoke a
challenge from Col. Starbottle, which would
give Bungstarter the choice of weapons, and
deprive Starbottle of his advantage as dead
shot. It was whispered also that the saga
cious Starbottle, aware of this fact would re-
taliate in kind so outrageously as to leave
Bungstarter no recourse but to demand sat.
isfaction on the spot. As Col. Starbottle
fhn thnr oil
ing each other in rapt and ecstatic expecta-
ton. "He can't get even on Bungstarter,
onless he allows his sister ran off with mig
ger or that he put up his grandmother at
drawpoker and lost her." whispers the Quartz
Crusher; skin heb" All ears were alert, par
ticularly the very long and hairy ones Just
rising above the railing of the speakers plat
form; for jimmy, having a feminine distrust
OF solitude and fondness for show. had fol-
lowed her master to the meeting and had in
sinuated herself upon the platform where
way was made for her with that frontier
courtesy always extended to her age and
sex.
Col Starbottle, stertorous and purple, ad-
vanced to the railing. There he unbuttonsd
his collar and laid bis neckcloth aside, then
with his eye fixed on his antagonist he drew
off his blue frock coat, and thrustiDg one
hand into his Tuffled shirt front and raising
the other to the dark canopy above him, he
opened his indicative lips. The action, the
attitude were Starbottle's. But the voice
was Lot. For at that sudreme ,moment-a
bray 50 profound, so appalling, so utterly
soul-subduing, SO paralyzing, that everything
else sank to the merest Significance beside
it-filled woods, and sky and air.
For a moment only, the multitude
gasped in speechless astonishment-
1t was moment only-and then the wekin
rang with their shouts. In vain silence was
commanded; in vain Col. Starbottle. with
ghastly smile, remarked that he recognized
in interruption the voice and the Intellect of
the opposition; the laugh continued, the more
as it was discovered that jimmy had not yet
flushed, and was still recurring to her origi-
nal theme. "GentIemen," gasped Starbottie,
"any attempt by (Hee-haw from Jinnyl bru-
tai buffoonery to restrict the right of free
speech to all "a prolonged assent from jimmy
is worthy only the dastardly"-but here a
diminuendo SO long drawn as to appear a
striking imitation of the Coloners own ap.
poplectic sentences drowned his voice with
shIieks of laughter.
1t must not be supposed that during this
performance vigorous attempt was not made
to oust jimmy from the platform. But all in
vain. Equally demoralizing in either ex-
tremity, jimmy speedily cleared a circle with