The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-25

assistant, and the editor, when Harte was
not busy setting type or running the press,
allowed him to write pieces" He wrote
and the spell was on him.
THE HEATHEN CIIINEE"
Flnally, through some stroke Of luck
which nobody had taken the trouble to ex-
plain, he was appointed secretary of the
San francisco mint. This gave him con-
siderable leisure, and he began to write fire.
quentiy for the more important California
papers. 1t was then, in 1863 that he was
made editor of the Overland Monthly He
contributed "The Luck of Roaring Camn,,
to the first issue that appeared under his
management, as has been told and did a
hotaple thing the next year by writing and
printing his poem, 1.-The Heather Chinoa ;,
which was intended to be an ephemeral no.
ltical satire, but which turned out to he
queer sort of American classic That
same year he was appointed professor of
modern literature in the University of CAL
norma, but he resigned the chair in a year
and started East. He was received every
where he went with great acclaim His
success in the East had been a great deal
bigger than his recognition on the coast
had led him to expect. For a while he lived
in New York, writing all the time, and oc
casionally going on a lecturing tour. adding
every moment to the measure of his famo
Finally however, he went to England 70
live. principally, because, 1t is said of +ho
impossibility Of protecting his books from
foreign thievng publishers if he lived IN
This SIDE or the water. Since then he has
renamed resident of London, but he has
never lost his exuberant America nism-tho
quality that has made him one of the hest
loved writer's whose pen ever dealt with
the things of this great Republic,
HE MEANS WHAT HE SAYS.
The quality which has made Bret Harte's
stories as famous in Europe as they are in
America-their sale in Germany is yearly
greater than their sale in the United States
lis unquestonably their sincerity. They
are stories. They do not pretend to be any,
thing else. Mr.. Harte is not ashamed to he
interesting. When he has a fine thing TO
say he says it finely. When he has a plain
thing to say he says 1t plainly. But neither
is said for its own sake. 1t is said for the
sake of the story. There is always a story
for the fine thing and the plain thing to
wind themselves around. He has not been
inoculated by that modern and distressing
virus which has gained fame for so manv
men in the big magazine offices and made
the public yawn. He believes that the first
thing a story out to do is to interest. He
does not write Studies" He does not 90
on the principle that if thing is otherwise
than commonplace it cannot be otherwise
than vulger. He does not neglect detail
but he sees art in things that are not petty
He realizes that sublimity and simplicitv
sorrow and merriment go together in this
world, and that the story that is great
must have them all. His literature is
broad. That of NEST American short story
writer's is narrow. He has in his work tha
sturdiness of the national spirit that made
Yankees fight and win; that made the Forty
Miners conquer distance and mountains and
win out of a rocky wilderness the nations
most beautiful state. Half a dozen Ameri
cans have promised it, but have not full
flied their bonds. Brander Matthews prom