The morning call., 1892-10-23

Little doubt but Cadmus brought their very
alphabet from abroad, and il is certain that
most OF the seven wise men went to Egypt
TO study philosophy. At least the spot
where Plato studied in the city Of On, only
an Obeiisk there now. has been pointed out
70 NE every time my travels led me ND or
down the Nile. But what Greek ever left
4 Greek TO celebrate another race or name.
THE face that launched a thousand
battle-ships and burned the cl0ud-loft
towers of Iiium." 4 Greek face, Greek
lover, Greek leader; Greek teams, Greek
games, Greek governors, Greek everything.
So with all their marbles. So with their
music, so far rs l can fad out. And al
though the pyramids loomed within a
stones throw, as the Bible puts il, and the
hundred gates of Thebes were being bat
tered down, almost at their own doors they
Dehed in their own land, their own little
California; they loved II, they sang Of II,
they wrote Of it, and of it only. They
never looked back. They never borrowed
strength or leaned against the pyramids or
loafed about the gates Of karnas, Thebes
or On; they were IN earnest. They loved
their own country, their own virtues IN Tact.
And so ii is we have pictures that have sur
vived a thousand empires Of time-the
wealth and breadth Of brave. loyal little
Greece.
The Hebrews were another loyal PEOPLE
loyal TO themselves loyal to art, religion, loyal
10 their poets, their great temple builders,
who wrote their melodies IN shapely marble
pUrches, arches and awful domes that how
cred in the heavens above Jerusalem like
clouds. But they borrowed nothing. They
leaned on no one. They never looked back.
Their architecture Is as distinct from that
of tie land they came from as is the Gothic
from the Doric Or Etrusean. They must
have knswn all about the colossal red gram
ite bulls by the great gate OF NIneveh, now
in the British Museum, but there Is DO
trace Of them Ia the rams heads, lions,
bullocks and the like from Jerusalem
that lie not far away from the huge
red bulls in the same museum. They
surely knew a lot about Babylon. But their
architecture is as entirely their own as II
Babylon had not been. Indeed, but for the
Hebrew singing the psalms OF the Hebrew, or
that beautiful young Jew, st. John, the be-
loved disciple. prophesying in his deep base
voice, Babylon the mighty IS fallen, fallen,"
the city Of Nimrod might have passed en-
tirely from the pages Of history. The He
brew was loyal to the Hebrew ana the
home OF the Hebrew, as the Greek was
loyal 10 the land OF the Greek, and so she
survived Her people were loyal to her
poets, prophets, DTiests-all one in their
day mainly - and so her poets, prophets,
priests were loyal to them. and SO passed
them on down the groves Of time to lmmor-
tally.
The other day l picked up in the very
select library OF one of our famous clubs a
little book which charmed me. ] have
finally obtained reluctant permission from
General Eoote, the author of il, to make
some selections from notes on California
authors For you see 1t is not only Califor-
MIA poetry by q Californian, but it is poetry
that will not perish from the earth. Gold is
gold wherever found. ! claim no high eriti-
cal apprehension or diseernment. but | do
know gold from brass. and l beg again to
call attention 10 the fact that brass is
brighter than gold, q 90 cd deal brighter. How
well the Hebrews knew this, too. Sounding
brass" and so on. | undertake to say that
truly there never was an immodesI
or bTaZen poet. True, you may
stamp the mint mark on a piece
OF brass, but that don't make gold of it. So
when / see long and strained and elaborate
and assertiye reviews in magazines which
pronounce this or that work poetry am
sorry. There is so much of the continually
stamping the ponderous and glittering Jumps
OF brass with the mint mark. But when come
upon book like the "Red Letter Day.
which has been hiding away from the critic:
for years. am very glad. Let US look int
it. l find l grow garrulous as | grow old
/ beg your pardon for saying so much as
have said when all this time you might have
been reading from this modest Red Letter
Day." by this most modest and sensitive
poet of California, General Foote. Let us
begin with his lines on