To those who are interested in California's Past or in Fine Printing
and to those who enjoy a good laugh (as who in this weary world
does not)

George Fields

ANNOUNCES FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION

A Sojourn with Royalty

OR, A CLAIM TO DISTINCTION

Together with other sketches by the irresistible OLD BLOCK
[Alonzo Delano], now being printed for the first time in book
form by

The Grabhorn Press

with a foreword by Edmund G. Kinyon and drawings
by Charles Lindstrom

IT IS with real pleasure and some pride that we offer
this western classic, lost for so long in the oblivion
of the files. It recalls the bitter struggle that saved
California for the Union against the plot of Senator
William M. Gwin to form an independent Pacific Re-
public under the control of the Southern aristocrats.
In the fight were enlisted not only military force, but
all the powers of pen and print. It called forth from Old
Block, the pioneer humorist, the most effective use that
he ever made of the weapons of wit and satire. Subtly
but with malice aforethought he ridiculed Gwin's pre-
tensions, aristocratic ambitions, and boasted friend-
ship with foreign princes in an account of his own asso-
ciation with royalty as exemplified in the person of His
Majesty, Wee-mah, merry, naked monarch of the Dig-
ger Indians. It is a tale of ludicrous adventures in the
Sierra wilds, and the serious purpose is all but hidden
under the Rabelasian mirth of the narrative.

*The Sojourn with Royalty* is accompanied in this book
with other sketches by *Old Block* now for the first time
collected, including his story of how the rush to the
Comstock silver mines was started by the historic as-
say and the excited conference in which he participated
at Grass Valley. Edmund G. Kinyon, editor of the *Grass
Valley Union*, has contributed a foreword in which he
gives the benefit of his full knowledge of *Old Block's* life
and his familiarity with the scenes of the sketches. The

drawings by Charles Lindstrom, like those of Old
Block's original illustrator, Nahl, reflect and point the
author's humor. The name of the Grabhorn Press as-
sures typographical excellence.

The edition will be strictly limited to 500 copies,
containing more than 100 pages and eight illustrations
in color. It will sell for $2.75 plus .08 tax on sales made
in California. Our experience with the similarly limited
edition of *The Life and Adventures of James W. Marshall*
leads us to urge those who would not be disappointed
to place their orders early.

George Fields, Publisher
1419 Polk Street
San Francisco, California