In This
Connection, I May State That Mr. Maslin Confirmed The Story Of The Three
Friends In Nevada City, Who Attempted To Withstand "The Ordeal By Fire."
Mr. Maslin is justly jealous for the reputation of the Argonauts.
Perhaps Bret Harte's miner, with his ready pistol, was as far from the
mark as Rudyard Kipling's picture of Tommy Atkins as "an absentminded
beggar" - an imputation the real "Tommy" hotly resented.
At the same
time, such stories as "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "Tennessee's
Partner," not to quote others, prove Bret Harte conceded to the miner,
courage, patience, gentleness, generosity and steadfastness in
friendship. If Bret Harte really "hurt" California, it was because,
leaving the State for good in February, 1871, he carried with him the
atmosphere of the early mining days and never got out of it. He never
realized the transition from mining to agriculture and horticulture, as
the leading industries of the State. Thus his later stories which dealt
with California, written long after the subsidence of the mining
excitement, continued to convey to the Eastern or English reader an
impression of the Californian as a bearded individual, his trousers
tucked into long boots and the same old "red shirt" with the sleeves
rolled back to the shoulders! As lately - comparatively speaking - as
the Chicago Columbian Exposition, a lady told me she met at the Fair a
woman who said she wanted to visit California, and asked if it would be
safe to do so "on account of the Indians!" While Indians do not appear
in Bret Harte's pages, it is a safe conjecture that, through association
of ideas, this lady conjured up a vague vision of a "prairie schooner"
crossing the plains, harassed by the Indian of the colored prints!
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