Say there! P’r’aps Some on you chaps Might know Jim Wild? Well,–no offense: Thar ain’t no sense In gittin’ riled! Jim was my chum Up on the Bar: That’s why I come Down from up yar, Lookin’ for Jim. Thank ye, sir! YOU Ain’t of that crew,– Blest if you are! Money? Not much: That […]

In sixteen hundred and forty-one, The regular yearly galleon, Laden with odorous gums and spice, India cottons and India rice, And the richest silks of far Cathay, Was due at Acapulco Bay. Due she was, and overdue,– Galleon, merchandise and crew, Creeping along through rain and shine, Through the tropics, under the line. The trains […]

(1865) FATHER FELIPE I speak not the English well, but Pachita, She speak for me; is it not so, my Pancha? Eh, little rogue? Come, salute me the stranger Americano. Sir, in my country we say, “Where the heart is, There live the speech.” Ah! you not understand? So! Pardon an old man,–what you call […]

It was the morning season of the year; It was the morning era of the land; The watercourses rang full loud and clear; Portala’s cross stood where Portala’s hand Had planted it when Faith was taught by Fear, When monks and missions held the sole command Of all that shore beside the peaceful sea, Where […]

Know I not whom thou mayst be Carved upon this olive-tree,– “Manuela of La Torre,”– For around on broken walls Summer sun and spring rain falls, And in vain the low wind calls “Manuela of La Torre.” Of that song no words remain But the musical refrain,– “Manuela of La Torre.” Yet at night, when […]

(REFECTORY, MISSION SAN GABRIEL, 1869) Good!–said the Padre,–believe me still, “Don Giovanni,” or what you will, The type’s eternal! We knew him here As Don Diego del Sud. I fear The story’s no new one! Will you hear? One of those spirits you can’t tell why God has permitted. Therein I Have the advantage, for […]

It was noon by the sun; we had finished our game, And was passin’ remarks goin’ back to our claim; Jones was countin’ his chips, Smith relievin’ his mind Of ideas that a “straight” should beat “three of a kind,” When Johnson of Elko came gallopin’ down, With a look on his face ‘twixt a […]

(BIG PINE FLAT, 1871) “Something characteristic,” eh? Humph! I reckon you mean by that Something that happened in our way, Here at the crossin’ of Big Pine Flat. Times aren’t now as they used to be, When gold was flush and the boys were frisky, And a man would pull out his battery For anything–maybe […]

(IN THE COLORADO PARK, 1873) Wot’s that you’re readin’?–a novel? A novel!–well, darn my skin! You a man grown and bearded and histin’ such stuff ez that in– Stuff about gals and their sweethearts! No wonder you’re thin ez a knife. Look at me–clar two hundred–and never read one in my life! That’s my opinion […]

I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James; I am not up to small deceit or any sinful games; And I’ll tell in simple language what I know about the row That broke up our Society upon the Stanislow. But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan For […]

(TABLE MOUNTAIN, 1870) Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar, Which the same I would rise to explain. Ah Sin was his name; And I shall not deny, In regard to the same, What that […]

(SIMPSON’S BAR, 1858) So you’ve kem ‘yer agen, And one answer won’t do? Well, of all the derned men That I’ve struck, it is you. O Sal! ‘yer’s that derned fool from Simpson’s, cavortin’ round ‘yer in the dew. Kem in, ef you WILL. Thar,–quit! Take a cheer. Not that; you can’t fill Them theer […]

(ALKALI STATION) Cicely says you’re a poet; maybe,–I ain’t much on rhyme: I reckon you’d give me a hundred, and beat me every time. Poetry!–that’s the way some chaps puts up an idee, But I takes mine “straight without sugar,” and that’s what’s the matter with me. Poetry!–just look round you,–alkali, rock, and sage; Sage-brush, […]

Didn’t know Flynn,– Flynn of Virginia,– Long as he’s been ‘yar? Look ‘ee here, stranger, Whar HEV you been? Here in this tunnel He was my pardner, That same Tom Flynn,– Working together, In wind and weather, Day out and in. Didn’t know Flynn! Well, that IS queer; Why, it’s a sin To think of […]

(MUD FLAT, 1860) So you’re back from your travels, old fellow, And you left but a twelvemonth ago; You’ve hobnobbed with Louis Napoleon, Eugenie, and kissed the Pope’s toe. By Jove, it is perfectly stunning, Astounding,–and all that, you know; Yes, things are about as you left them In Mud Flat a twelvemonth ago. The […]

(NYE’S FORD, STANISLAUS, 1870) Do I sleep? do I dream? Do I wonder and doubt? Are things what they seem? Or is visions about? Is our civilization a failure? Or is the Caucasian played out? Which expressions are strong; Yet would feebly imply Some account of a wrong– Not to call it a lie– As […]

(REPORTED BY TRUTHFUL JAMES) Being asked by an intimate party,– Which the same I would term as a friend,– Though his health it were vain to call hearty, Since the mind to deceit it might lend; For his arm it was broken quite recent, And there’s something gone wrong with his lung,– Which is why […]

I’m sitting alone by the fire, Dressed just as I came from the dance, In a robe even YOU would admire,– It cost a cool thousand in France; I’m be-diamonded out of all reason, My hair is done up in a cue: In short, sir, “the belle of the season” Is wasting an hour upon […]

(SIERRAS) We checked our pace, the red road sharply rounding; We heard the troubled flow Of the dark olive depths of pines resounding A thousand feet below. Above the tumult of the canyon lifted, The gray hawk breathless hung, Or on the hill a winged shadow drifted Where furze and thorn-bush clung; Or where half-way […]

It is the story of Thompson–of Thompson, the hero of Angels. Frequently drunk was Thompson, but always polite to the stranger; Light and free was the touch of Thompson upon his revolver; Great the mortality incident on that lightness and freedom. Yet not happy or gay was Thompson, the hero of Angels; Often spoke to […]