(SIERRAS, 1876) DRAMATIS PERSONAE First Tourist Second Tourist Yuba Bill, Driver A Stranger FIRST TOURIST Look how the upland plunges into cover, Green where the pines fade sullenly away. Wonderful those olive depths! and wonderful, moreover– SECOND TOURIST The red dust that rises in a suffocating way. FIRST TOURIST Small is the soul that cannot […]

(YREKA, 1873) Which it is not my style To produce needless pain By statements that rile Or that go ‘gin the grain, But here’s Captain Jack still a-livin’, and Nye has no skelp on his brain! On that Caucasian head There is no crown of hair; It has gone, it has fled! And Echo sez […]

DRAMATIS PERSONAE Poet. Philosopher. Jones of Mariposa. POET Halt! Here we are. Now wheel your mare a trifle Just where you stand; then doff your hat and swear Never yet was scene you might cover with your rifle Half as complete or as marvelously fair. PHILOSOPHER Dropped from Olympus or lifted out of Tempe, Swung […]

(REPORTED BY TRUTHFUL JAMES) Waltz in, waltz in, ye little kids, and gather round my knee, And drop them books and first pot-hooks, and hear a yarn from me. I kin not sling a fairy tale of Jinnys* fierce and wild, For I hold it is unchristian to deceive a simple child; But as from […]

REPORTED BY TRUTHFUL JAMES We hev tumbled ez dust Or ez worms of the yearth; Wot we looked for hez bust! We are objects of mirth! They have played us–old Pards of the river!–they hev played us for all we was worth! Was it euchre or draw Cut us off in our bloom? Was it […]

REPORTED BY TRUTHFUL JAMES It was Andrew Jackson Sutter who, despising Mr. Cutter for remarks he heard him utter in debate upon the floor, Swung him up into the skylight, in the peaceful, pensive twilight, and then keerlessly proceeded, makin’ no account what WE did– To wipe up with his person casual dust upon the […]

It was the stage-driver’s story, as he stood with his back to the wheelers, Quietly flecking his whip, and turning his quid of tobacco; While on the dusty road, and blent with the rays of the moonlight, We saw the long curl of his lash and the juice of tobacco descending. “Danger! Sir, I believe […]

(MR. INTERVIEWER INTERVIEWED) Know me next time when you see me, won’t you, old smarty? Oh, I mean YOU, old figger-head,–just the same party! Take out your pensivil, d–n you; sharpen it, do! Any complaints to make? Lots of ’em–one of ’em’s YOU. You! who are YOU, anyhow, goin’ round in that sneakin’ way? Never […]

Why, as to that, said the engineer, Ghosts ain’t things we are apt to fear; Spirits don’t fool with levers much, And throttle-valves don’t take to such; And as for Jim, What happened to him Was one half fact, and t’other half whim! Running one night on the line, he saw A house–as plain as […]

(MOUTH OF THE SHAFT) What I want is my husband, sir,– And if you’re a man, sir, You’ll give me an answer,– Where is my Joe? Penrhyn, sir, Joe,– Caernarvonshire. Six months ago Since we came here– Eh?–Ah, you know! Well, I am quiet And still, But I must stand here, And will! Please, I’ll […]

Blown out of the prairie in twilight and dew, Half bold and half timid, yet lazy all through; Loath ever to leave, and yet fearful to stay, He limps in the clearing, an outcast in gray. A shade on the stubble, a ghost by the wall, Now leaping, now limping, now risking a fall, Lop-eared […]

Coward,–of heroic size, In whose lazy muscles lies Strength we fear and yet despise; Savage,–whose relentless tusks Are content with acorn husks; Robber,–whose exploits ne’er soared O’er the bee’s or squirrel’s hoard; Whiskered chin and feeble nose, Claws of steel on baby toes,– Here, in solitude and shade, Shambling, shuffling plantigrade, Be thy courses undismayed! […]

Captain of the Western wood, Thou that apest Robin Hood! Green above thy scarlet hose, How thy velvet mantle shows! Never tree like thee arrayed, O thou gallant of the glade! When the fervid August sun Scorches all it looks upon, And the balsam of the pine Drips from stem to needle fine, Round thy […]

By scattered rocks and turbid waters shifting, By furrowed glade and dell, To feverish men thy calm, sweet face uplifting, Thou stayest them to tell The delicate thought that cannot find expression, For ruder speech too fair, That, like thy petals, trembles in possession, And scatters on the air. The miner pauses in his rugged […]

(FROM THE SEA) Serene, indifferent of Fate, Thou sittest at the Western Gate; Upon thy height, so lately won, Still slant the banners of the sun; Thou seest the white seas strike their tents, O Warder of two continents! And, scornful of the peace that flies Thy angry winds and sullen skies, Thou drawest all […]

They say that she died of a broken heart (I tell the tale as ’twas told to me); But her spirit lives, and her soul is part Of this sad old house by the sea. Her lover was fickle and fine and French: It was nearly a hundred years ago When he sailed away from […]

(1797) They ran through the streets of the seaport town, They peered from the decks of the ships that lay; The cold sea-fog that came whitening down Was never as cold or white as they. “Ho, Starbuck and Pinckney and Tenterden! Run for your shallops, gather your men, Scatter your boats on the lower bay.” […]

(SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) Shrewdly you question, Senor, and I fancy You are no novice. Confess that to little Of my poor gossip of Mission and Pueblo You are a stranger! Am I not right? Ah! believe me, that ever Since we joined company at the posada I’ve watched you closely, and–pardon an old priest– I’ve caught […]

(A CHEMICAL NARRATIVE) Certain facts which serve to explain The physical charms of Miss Addie De Laine, Who, as the common reports obtain, Surpassed in complexion the lily and rose; With a very sweet mouth and a retrousse nose; A figure like Hebe’s, or that which revolves In a milliner’s window, and partially solves That […]

[William Guild was engineer of the train which on the 19th of April, 1813, plunged into Meadow Brook, on the line of the Stonington and Providence Railroad. It was his custom, as often as he passed his home, to whistle an “All’s well” to his wife. He was found, after the disaster, dead, with his […]