The morning call., 1892-08-14

San Francisco house-A. Roman, think
only be had at the Libraries now-under the
modest title of Poems"
This was about quarter OF a century
ago, and although We have given many
books TO the world since as we had before
California has had nothing said OF her so
unique. so pOetical, so prettiIy artistic as
you may find between the covers of this
boys first book. True, the great big world
has said bigger things, mightier thoughts
have thundeTed from
The grand Old masters. the bards sublime,
Whose footsteps echo down the corridors OF time
But this little book was so loyal to Cali
fornia. See the color aud contour of the
brown hills that stand shoulder to shoulder
under the burning sun:
Like Arabs in their cloaEs OF leather.
He sang the sea and the sky of California,
the color OF California in this first book
the only real book on California that has vet
been wTitten-from hill 10 hill. He cee-
brated the majestic march of the seasons
here. Holmes, Whittier. Longfellow and
other kings of thought" have sung the
goldenrod and the maple leaf and all the
perfect colors that mark the lines between
the seasons OF the Atlantic so continually
and so lovingly and so Loyalty. and have done
their work so vlvidly and well that travel
ers and writers for the press have learned to
say there are no seasons in California, or
colors either. Much the same as some
writer. who saw the world from a car
window, said not long since that California
had no songblrds, while In truth and ia fact
she has nearly every songbird on earth
Ave. we have the seasons, We have the
songblrds, We have thousand things and a
thousand themes but we have had, so far
only this one poet who has been entirely in
earnest aud entirely Californian. Here is
the first flag of the invading armies Of su-
tumn:
White caravans OF clouds go by
Across the desert OF bright sky,
What Mecca are they hasteningtos
What princess iourneying 70 woo9
But l am too cunning to dig up ont of
memory any more OF these little canoes of
California. They put my own work to a
disadvantage, and so it is unwise in me to
switch off from the story of his lie to his
work.
One day Charles Warren Stoddard stopped
singing and stopped celebrating California
as suddenly as a clock might stop.
L am not authorized to say why. But
L remember the time and the occa-
sion when he told me he would cease
10 write poetry, And that was the end of
the color and the majesty, the large solem-
nifty, the strength and the mighty earnestness
OF California, so far as the outer world saw
Bret Harte made US weep; Mark Twain
made US laugh, but Charles Warren Stod-
dard, so lar as he was with us, made US
think and see and feel.
We were giving benefit. headed by the
late MIS- Preston Moore, about 20 years ago
In Oakland. most worthy old fellow
scribe, who had been caught under the car
wheels OF time, was the recipient, and Mrs
Moore's plan was TO make the thing very
Californian in style, since we had such
witty old worthy to celebrate, But S.od-
dard's lines began:
The parallels OF Nature run
From the giOw-worm to the sun.
mo-" he said when protested with. "I
write no more poetry about California, and
ieei that shall write no more poetry at
all now; have to 90 10 work"
Now L never heard him complain of Cali
fornia or find any fault at all with any on g
or anything. But L believe with n belief
that amounts to conviction that il the Uni
versity OF California, his own alma mater
had shown him half the respect and consid-
Grafton that the Pope of Rome and others
OF like dignity and power In the far away
worlds bestowed he would have STAYED with
US. And II this man bad been permitted to
earn his bread here why the deaf and the
dumb and the blind would not to-day be
travelling up and down the land and pub
California" NO songbirds In Californla." !"
and ilk. But let US get on the end
The late James X. Osgood, America s
Oldest publisher, and perhaps most honest
one, toid me In London that Stoddard' S
book, "A South Sea Idyl," was the hest
thing, after 1.-Two Years Before the MAST
that had yet been written in this line. /
remember with what earnestness he insisted
that the railroads could do themselves an
immense service by distributing cheap edI-
tlons oil that book all over the world. He
said II the railroads and California would
give up their tiresome map and emigration
schemes and put few millions of tnat hook
out In place OF them then the people would
read and believe and want to see GaIifornia a
and the isles Of fire beyond.
Having shown how ndiffarent CaIiforo,.