Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-02-06
BRET HARTE TOLD THIS, BUT
NEVER WROTE 1T.

Think | met Bret Harte once.
am not positive about it. In the
days when Bret Harte was making
a name for himself in the West
was a passenger in the coach be-
tween Denver and several towns in
the contiguous section. On that
trip fell in with a man who said
he was Bret Heart. He came into
the stage after nightfall and some
where OH the road between that
hour and the break of day he got
out. Some time in the night, in
spite of the fact that the man was
unusually interesting, | went to
sleep. Several consecutive days of
travel had worn me to exhaustion,
and my condition yielded to the de-
mand of nature.
have always regretted that it
was so. Since the name of Bret
Harte has been familiarized in two
continents and since he belongs to
my country, and having read every
thing he has written, so far as /
know, it is most annoying for me
to be in the doubt l am. His pho
tographs that have seen, do not
solve the mystery, for as | have al
ready said, we-that is, the man
who said he was Bret Harte and
myself-were vis-a-vis in a ram
shackle conveyance on tie rocky
road in the depths of starless
night, and | could not see his face
with any distinctness.
He broke the ice by asking me if
| had been in the country very long.
1t was my first trip and l told him
so. | soon learned from him that
he was familiar with it and Its
strange people. But no man was
ever more loyal to his own than was
this man to those whom he after
wards immortalized.
For some time he interested me.
To be more accurate, he interested
me all the time listened. 1t was
not his fault or his lack of being
entertaining that caused me to drop
into state of forgetfulness. Be-
fore | was overcome | had asked
him several questions. to all of
which he replied satisfactorily. One
of these questions | shall never for
get, not because there was any ORR
ginslity in it, but because it drew
from him a story which have Of
ten looked for in his writings, but
have never found. And that is
one reason, and the only one | have,
for thinking that the man may not
not have been Bret Harte, for if it
were otherwise | think he would
certainly have woven it into one of
his characteristic sketches. | have
one excuse now to offer for attempt
ing to give it. He-Bret Harte. or
whoever the man was-has neglect
ed to writeit. Thequestion l asked
was this :: Are these people as sin
cere in their assertions for justice
as they appear to be?
He answered without hesitation.
He said that no man had written or
spoken of them as they deserved.
He assured me that there had been
no exaggeration of their character.
| shall not attempt at this late day
to give the story as he told it. /
could not do him the credit he de-
serves-whoever he was. AS I re-
call it, it was something like this ::
In one Of the mining camps-he
named it in telling the story, but I
have long since forgotten that--was
a man who had come to that place
unknown. That was nothing in
that country. 1t did not meter
what q man had been previous to
his settling, or where he hailed
from. His record, his pedigree,
dated from the hour he hit the
gravel in the camp or began to live
on the ranch. There was an excep-
tion to this, too, as | recall the
story. If it came to light that the