The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-04-29
Bret Harte.

Though Bret Harte is now resident as
American consul at Crefelt, his normal
life was for years of an extremely
nomadic character. Having dwelt in a
New York hotel, he would suddenly
leave it for a similar establishment at
the seaside or in the country. 0cca-
sionally he might be found in fashion
able clearinghouse near Madison
square, or on Murray hill; and when
bis friends had become accustomed to
the locality, they discovered that he
had taken house to himself in new
quarter. Thence he moved to family
hotel, where ere long it was found he
had gone into the country to spend n
few weeks at the home of friend. As
MIR. Harte's tastes are locomotive, $50
they are also fastidious.
He desires fine surroundings, pictures,
statuettes, objects of vertu, and he has
his room scrupulously arranged, with
every chair in its exact position, and
not the faintest speck of dust on carpet
or furniture. In San Francisco, when
he was editing the Overland Monthly,
there was hired for him an apartment
removed by some little distance from
the office, in order that he might not be
disturbed by the inevitable noise of a
publishing establishment, nor inter-
rupted by frequent intrusions. II was
furnished according TO his taste and at
considerable expense, and was well
known to the journalistic and literary
circles of San Francisco as one of the
most luxurious apartments in the city.
Mr.. Harte added from time to time
various objects of interest which he
picked up. 1t was here that he wrote
many of those marvellous sketches OF
California life which have made his
reputation on both sides of the Atlantic,
and stamped him as genius of no ordi-
nary rank. The room in Sacramento
street should properly be called his
home, as it met his requirements far
better than any place he has since occu-
pied. His private residence was at San
Rafael, short distance from San Fran
cisco, and he occasionally did some of
his work there, but not often. The
babe in the house is not to him a we'll
spring of pleasure; he has never found
the cry of the infant OF the boisterous
play of children an inspiration to his
best thoughts.
Mr.. Harte depends entirely upon his
moods, and will only write when he
feels an impulse to do so. He composes
with the greatest care, and often tears
up his manuscript when nearly COM
pleted, and begins anew. Hence it is
that most OF his work has the clearness
and finish of a steel engraving, and the
characters are outlined and drawn as
sharply as mountain chain against
morning sky.
Mr.. Harte was born forty years ago
in Albany, N. Y, where he passed his
boyhood without any special promise of
future genius. The discovery of 60 d in
California was followed by wave of
emigration from all the States east OF
the Rocky mountains, and Bret Harte
was caught by this wave and carried, in
1854, to the new Ell Dorado. He tried
his hand at mining, at school-teaching,
and other employments, but with no
conspicuous success, and finally drifted
to San Francisco.
Before leaving New York he had
worked as a printer, and accordingly
sought employment in the Office of the
Golden Era, which was then flourish
ing weekly, devoted to news, stories,
humorous sketches, and other matters
calculated to interest the Californian.
While working at the printers case he
found time to write some sketches drawn
from his experience of the mining re-
gions, and with trembling hesitation he
submitted one of them to the editor.
This latter parsonage was a bluff,
hearty, g 'nial diamond in the rough, who
afterward lived at Flushing, near New
York city, and one of his proudest boasts
was that he conducted the paper that
brought out Bret Harte and Mark
Twain. .--NeaO York World.