Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-09-08
FRANCIS BRET HARTE.
fSan Francisco Chronicle. ]

~.~.~--~sS'1
Of the names which have been written
in golden letters on the hearts of all true
Californians, none shines with a brighter
lustre than that of Francis Bret Harte,
the creator of new literature, who was,
according to the Great Register of the
city and country Ga work founded on
the sworn declarations of those entered
therein and therefore reasonably relia-
ble), born in the State of New York in
the year 1886.
The Harte family came early to Cali
fornia and had all the mixed fortunes of
pioneer life. Harte had brilliant (per-
haps dissipated) brother, some of whose
characteristics have, it is suspected, been
transferred to fictitious personages who
stand forth in his sketches. Bret became
a compositor in a printing Office. He
there picked up something of literary
taste, which was supplemented by a
slight experience as schoolmaster in a
country school. He also held at one
time subordinate position in the Unit
ed States Land Office. His appreciation
of books and style helped to direct
his tendencies as writer. Noticeably,
the keen admiration which he felt for
Dickens and Thackeray exercised a
strong influence upon him.
His early days were his industrious
ones. While reeling off column after
column for poor dead 10 Lawrence's
weekly, his mind showed itself particu-
larly fertile, and the quality of the work
may to-day appear uneven, but much of
it is as worthy of admiration as any that
he ever wrote. 1t is said that quarter
eagle per column was all that could we'll
be paid by the publisher in those days,
but it was enough to help the young
printer forward.
If all the sketches then written by
Harte were to be named, many would
be found to be rough drafts of what
afterwards were presented in more pol
ished form. Here let it be said that Bret
Harte's style was always happy in pro-
portion to the labor he bestowed upon it.
Whenever it is weak, it is through negli-
gence or carelessness. When Jessie Ben
ton Fremont was one of the grandes
danes of California, she took an interest,
in Lady Blessington sort of way, in the
young writer, and we believe it was
through her sponsorship that Harte's
first production for an Eastern audience
was given to the world in the Atlantic
Monthly. This was in 1868. The
Sketch, "a Legend of Monte Diablo," is
about a fair expression of what criti-
cal young New Englander would feel in
the presence Of the antique world of
Spanish Catholic civilization in Cali
fornia.
Robert B. Swain was at this time
Superintendent of the United States
Branch Mint. He gave Harte \ pleas
ant desk as Superintendent Secretary,
which Harte filled in the main very
creditably, though perhaps at times his
mind would be more burdened with the
task of turning couplet than with
auditing requisition for borax or melt
ing-pots. Swain, however, preferred
that sort of weakness to any other, and
did his very best to aid and advance his
Secretary in his literary character.
1t was at this period that Harte
edited a clean little weekly, legacy of
Webb John Paul., of which our old
friend Bogardus was publisher. There
WAS no money in the enterprise for
either editor or publisher, but in The
Californian (that was the name of the
sheeD there appeared many of Harte's
wittiest productions, The CONDENSED
Novels were given out in this paper
Those who read them at that time will
be surprised to learn how well they were
considered in other places. In passing,
it may be as well to state that Mark
Twain's frog first jumped, with his handi-
Gaping of shot, into the literary arena
through the Californian.
In those days Anton Romans book
store was a place of literary resort. Mr.
Roman fancied that monthly would
flourish in California soil, in spite of
"climate influences which Harte had
once put forward as an apology for the
| meagerness of little volume of Cali
fornia poetry, to which he had contribu-
ted a preface.
The Overland monthly accordingly ap-
peared in, 1868, with Roman as really
genial publisher, with Harte as editor,
and with a miscellaneous staff of con-
tributors, some good, some bad, some
(the most of them, in fact) hampered
| with provincial atiectations, which only
liItlOi III Il uttltHtlildIi CliS CtEi "tdf
| Oft. As a pecuniary venture the maga-
zine was hardly success. And though
many of the writer's ga mob of gentle
| men who wrote with ease') were fair
to middling," and even above the aver.
age of magazine writers, yet the only
pronounced success of the effort lay with
the editor himself.
The Luck of Roaring Camp" was
the nugget dug out by him. 1t was fol,
lowed by The Outcasts of Poker Flat, "
''Tennessee's Partner" and "Miggles, -
when the pocket digging seemed ex-
hausted; but Bret Harte's reputa ton
was established on national basis, and
every thing he wrote had thenceforward
a standard merit in the literary market.
Little bits of verse, idyllic attempts,
humorous sketches in meter followed.
'The Heather Chinee" was the colo
phon of Harte's California work. He
went East. The Overland languished
and finally died, leaving its burial ex-
penses to be paid by John Carmany, who
had succeeded Roman as its publisher.
Harte did not find literary career in
Boston to be call beer and skittles. p"
He found jealousies to combat, imper-
fections of his own to weaken, and his
natural Incidence weighed him down.
His troubles as a dramatist-well, even
Tennyson stiffens awkwardly on the
stage-and his various other disasters
are food for other critics.