Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-06-18
BRET HARTFs ANTHOLOGY.
And How 1t was Received by the Cali
fOrnia Press.

A well-known bookseller Of San
Francisco one day handed me COLES
ton of certain poems, which had al
ready appeared in Pacific coast maya
zines and newspapers, with the request
that I should, if possible, secure further
additions to them, and then make
selection Of those [ considered the most
notable and characteristic for a single
volume to be issued by him.
I have reason to believe that the m
fortunate man was actuated by a laud-
able desire to publish a pretty Califor-
man book,-his first essay in publica-
ton, and, at the same time, to foster
eastern immigration by an exhibit OF
California literary product; but looking
back upon his venture. I am inclined
to think that the little volume never
contained anything more POLITICALLY
pathetic or touchingly imaginative
than that conception. I winnowed the
poems and he exploited a preliminary
announcement to an eager and waiting
press, and we moved unwittingly to
our doom.
The book appeared,-a pretty little
volume, geographically and externally
a credit to pioneer bookmaking.
Copies were literally supplied to the
press, and calmly and serenely we
waited for fame. 1t soon came. A
well-known mining weekly, which
will POLITICALLY veil under the title Of
| the Red Dog Jay Hawk. was the first to
swoop down upon the tuneful and I'M
suspecting quarry as follows: "The
| hog wash and 'purp' stuff ladled out
from the slop bucket of Messrs.- & Co.
of Frisco by some lopeared eastern
apprentice, and called Compilation
of California Verses. might be passed
over as far as criticism goes. A club
in the hands of any able-bodied citizen
of Red Dog and a steamboat ticket to
the bay, cheerfully contributed from
this office, would be all-suff1cient But
when an imported greenhorn dares to
call his fap-doodle mixture 'Califor-
MIA, it is an insult to the state that has
produced the gifted Yellow Hammer,
whose lofty flights have from time to
time dazzled our readers in Ire
columns of the Jay Hawk That this
complacent editorial jackass, browsing
among the dock and the thistles which
he had served up in this volume should
make no allusion to CALIFORNIA; great
est bard, is rather a confession of
idiocy than a slur upon the genius Of
our esteemed contributor"
The Dutch Flat Clarion followed
with no uncertain sound. 1--WE doubt"
said that journal, ''if more feeble
collection of drivel could have been
made, even if taken exclusively from
the editors own verse. which we note
he has, by an equal editorial incom-
potency, eft out of the volume When
we add that, by felicity of idiotic
selection, this person has chosen only
one, and the least characteristic of the
really clever poems Of Adoniram
Skaggs which have SO often graced oHr
columns, we have said enough
The Mormon Hill Quartz Crusher re
lieved this simple directness with more
fancy. eve don't know why Messrs.--
& Co. send u.s. under the title of Sc
lections of California Poetry, quanti-
ty of slumgullion which really belongs
to the sluices of placer mining camp
or the bitches of the rural districts.
We have sometimes been compelled 70
run lot Of trailings through our
stamps, but never of the grade offered,
which, we should say, would average
about 33 13 cents a ton We have,
however, come across a single speci-
men of pure gold, evidently overlooked
by the serene ass who has compiled
this volume. We copy it with pleas
ure, as it has already been shown in
the poets corner Of the Crusher.-Bret
Harte in Success.