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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12564-0.txt b/12564-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33a86f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/12564-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6042 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12564 *** + +CALIFORNIA SKETCHES + +New Series. + + + +By O. P. Fitzgerald + +With an Introduction by Bishop George F. Pierce. + + + +The bearded men in rude attire, +With nerves of steel and hearts of fire, +The women few but fair and sweet, +Like shadowy visions dim and fleet, +Again I see, again I hear, +As down the past I dimly peer, +And muse o'er buried joy and pain, +And tread the hills of youth again. + + + + +1883. + + + +A Word. + +Encores are usually anticlimaxes. I never did like them. Yet here I am +again before the public with another book of "California Sketches." The +kind treatment given to the former volume, of which six editions have +been printed and sold; the expressed wishes of many friends who have +said, Give us another book; and my own impulse, have induced me to +venture upon a second appearance. If much of the song is in the minor +key, it had to be so: these Sketches are from real life, and "all lives +are tragedies." + +The Author. + +Nashville, September, 1881. + + + +Introduction. + +The first issue of the "California Sketches" was very popular, +deservedly so. The distinguished Author has prepared a Second Series. In +this fact the reading public will rejoice. + +In these hooks we have the romance and prestige of fiction; the thrill +of incident and adventure; the wonderful phases of society in a new +country, and under the pressure of strong and peculiar excitements; +human character loose from the restraints of an old civilization--a +settled order of things; individuality unwarped by imitation--free, +varied, independent. The materials are rich, and they are embodied in a +glowing narrative. The writer himself lived amid the scenes and the +people he describes, and, as a citizen, a preacher, and an editor, was +an important factor among the forces destined to mold the elements which +were to be formulated in the politics of the State and the enterprises +of the Church. A close observer, gifted with a keen discrimination and +retentive memory, a decided relish for the ludicrous and the sportive, +and always ready to give a religions turn to thought and conversation, +he is admirably adapted to portray and recite what he saw, heard, and +felt. + +These Sketches furnish good reading for anybody. For the young they are +charming, full of entertainment, and not wanting in moral instruction. +They will gratify the taste of those who love to read, and, what is more +important, beget the appetite for books among the dull and indifferent. +He who can stimulate children and young men and women to read renders a +signal service to society at large. Mental growth depends much upon +reading, and the fertilization of the original soil by the habit wisely +directed connects vitally with the outcome and harvest of the future. + +Dr. Fitzgerald is doing good service in the work already done, and I +trust the patronage of the people will encourage him to give us another +and another of the same sort. At my house we all read the "California +Sketches"--old and young--and long for more. + +G. F. Pierce. + + + +Contents. + +Dick The Diggers The California Mad-House San Quentin "Corralled" The +Reblooming The Emperor Norton Camilla Cain Lone Mountain Newton The +California Politician Old Man Lowry Suicide In California Father Fisher +Jack White The Rabbi My Mining Speculation Mike Reese Uncle Nolan +Buffalo Jones Tod Robinson Ah Lee The Climate of California After The +Storm Bishop Kavanaugh In California Sanders A Day Winter-Blossomed A +Virginian In California At The End + + + +Dick. + +Dick was a Californian. We made his acquaintance in Sonora about a month +before Christmas, Anno Domini 1855. This is the way it happened: + +At the request of a number of families, the lady who presided in the +curious little parsonage near the church on the hill-side had started a +school for little girls. The public schools might do for the boys, but +were too mixed for their sisters--so they thought. Boys could rough it +--they were a rough set, anyway--but the girls must he raised according +to the traditions of the old times and the old homes. That was the view +taken of the matter then, and from that day to this the average +California girl has been superior to the average California boy. The boy +gets his bias from the street; the girl, from her mother at home. The +boy plunges into the life that surges around him; the girl only feels +the touch of its waves as they break upon the embankments of home. The +boy gets more of the father; the girl gets more of the mother. This may +explain their relative superiority. The school for girls was started on +condition that it should be free, the proposed teacher refusing all +compensation. That part of the arrangement was a failure, for at the end +of the first month every little girl brought a handful of money, and +laid it on the teacher's desk. It must have been a concerted matter. +That quiet, unselfish woman had suddenly become a money-maker in spite +of herself. (Use was found for the coin in the course of events.) The +school was opened with a Psalm, a prayer, and a little song in which the +sweet voices of the little Jewish, Spanish, German, Irish, and American +maidens united heartily. Dear children! they are scattered now. Some of +them have died, and some of them have met with what is worse than death. +There was one bright Spanish girl, slender, graceful as a willow, with +the fresh Castilian blood mantling her cheeks, her bright eyes beaming +with mischief and affection. She was a beautiful child, and her winning +ways made her a pet in the little school. But surrounded as the bright, +beautiful girl was, Satan had a mortgage on her from her birth, and her +fate was too dark and sad to be told in these pages. She inherited evil +condition, and perhaps evil blood, and her evil life seemed to be +inevitable. Poor child of sin, whose very beauty was thy curse, let the +curtain fall upon thy fate and name; we leave thee in the hands of the +pitying Christ, who hath said, "Where little is given little will be +required." Little was given thee in the way of opportunity, for it was a +mother's hand that bound thee with the chains of evil. + +Among the children that came to that remarkable academy on the hill was +little Mary Kinneth, a thin, delicate child, with mild blue eyes, flaxen +hair, a peach complexion, and the blue veins on her temples that are so +often the sign of delicacy of organization and the presage of early +death. Mike Kinneth,--her father, was a drinking Irishman, a +good-hearted fellow when sober, but pugnacious and disposed to beat his +wife when drunk. The poor woman came over to see me one day. She had +been crying, and there was an ugly bruise on her cheek. + +"Your riverence will excuse me," she said, curtseying, "but I wish you +would come over and spake a word to me husband. Mike's a kind, good +craythur except when he is dhrinking, but then he is the very Satan +himself." + +"Did he give you that bruise on your face, Mrs. Kinneth?" + +"Yis; he came home last night mad with the whisky, and was breaking +ivery thing in the house. I tried to stop him, and thin he bate me--O! +he never did that before! My heart is broke!" + +Here the poor woman broke down and cried, hiding her face in her apron. + +"Little Mary was asleep, and she waked up frightened and crying to see +her father in such a way. Seeing the child seemed to sober him a little, +and he stumbled on to the bed, and fell asleep. He was always kind to +the child, dhrunk or sober. And there is a good heart in him if he will +only stay away from the dhrink." + +"Would he let me talk to him?" + +"Yis; we belong to the old Church, but there is no priest here now, and +the kindness your lady has shown to little Mary has softened his heart +to ye both. And I think he feels a little sick and ashamed this mornin', +and he will listen to kind words now if iver." + +I went to see Mike, and found him half-sick and in a penitent mood. He +called me "Father Fitzgerald," and treated me with the utmost politeness +and deference. I talked to him about little Mary, and his warm Irish +heart opened to me at once. + +"She is a good child, your riverence, and shame on the father that would +hurt or disgrace her!" + +The tears stood in Mike's eyes as he spoke the words. + +"All the trouble comes from the whisky. Why not give it up?" + +"By the help of God I will!" said Mike, grasping my hand with energy. + +And he did. I confess that the result of my visit exceeded my hopes. +Mike kept away from the saloons, worked steadily, little Mary had no +lack of new shoes and neat frocks, and the Kinneth family were happy in +a humble way. Mike always seemed glad to see me, and greeted me warmly. + +One morning about the last of November there was a knock at the door of +the little parsonage. Opening the door, there stood Mrs. Kinneth with a +turkey under her arm. + +"Christmas will soon be coming, and I've brought ye a turkey for your +kindness to little Mary and your good talk to Mike. He has not touched a +dhrop since the blissed day ye spake to him. Will ye take the turkey, +and my thanks wid it?" + +The turkey was politely and smilingly accepted, and Mrs. Kinneth went +away looking mightily pleased. + +I extemporized a little coop for our turkey. Having but little +mechanical ingenuity, it was a difficult job, but it resulted more +satisfactorily than did my attempt to make a door for the miniature +kitchen attached to the parsonage. My object was to nail some +cross-pieces on some plain boards, hang it on hinges, and fasten it on +the inside by a leather strap attached to a nail. The model in my mind +was, as the reader sees, of the most simple and primitive pattern. I +spent all my leisure time for a week at work on that door. I spoiled the +lumber, I blistered my hands, I broke several dollars' worth of +carpenter's tools, which I had to pay, and--then I hired a man to make +that door! This was my last effort in that line of things, excepting the +turkey-coop, which was the very last. It lasted four days, at the end of +which time it just gave way all over, and caved in. Fortunately, it was +no longer needed. Our turkey would not leave us. The parsonage fare +suited him, and he staid, and throve, and made friends. + +We named him Dick. He is the hero of this Sketch. Dick was intelligent, +sociable, and had a good appetite. He would eat any thing, from a crust +of bread to the pieces of candy that the schoolgirls would give him as +they passed. He became as gentle as a dog, and would answer to his name. +He had the freedom of the town, and went where he pleased, returning at +meal-times, and at night to roost on the western end of the +kitchen-roof. He would eat from our hands, looking at us with a sort of +human expression in his shiny eyes. If he were a hundred yards away, all +we had to do was to go to the door and call out, "Dick!" + +"Dick!" once or twice, and here he would come, stretching his long legs, +and saying, "Oot," "oot," "oot" (is that the way to spell it?). He got +to like going about with me. He would go with me to the post-office, to +the market, and sometimes he would accompany me in a pastoral visit. +Dick was well known and popular. Even the bad boys of the town did not +throw stones at him. His ruling passion was the love of eating. He ate +between meals. He ate all that was offered to him. Dick was a pampered +turkey, and made the most of his good luck and popularity. He was never +in low spirits, and never disturbed except when a dog came about him. He +disliked dogs, and seemed to distrust them. + +The days rolled by, and Dick was fat and happy. It was the day before +Christmas. We had asked two bachelors to take Christmas-dinner with us, +having room and chairs for just two more persons. (One of our four +chairs was called a stool--it had a bottom and three legs, one of which +was a little shaky, and no back.) There was a constraint upon us both +all day. I knew what was the matter, but said nothing. About four +o'clock in the afternoon Dick's mistress sat down by me, and, after a +pause, remarked: + +"Do you know that tomorrow is Christmas-day?" + +"Yes, I know it." + +Another pause. I had nothing to say just then. "Well, if--if--if any +thing is to be done about that turkey, it is time it were done." + +"Do you mean Dick?" + +"Yes," with a little quiver in her voice. + +"I understand you--you mean to kill him--poor Dick! the only pet we +ever had." + +She broke right down at this, and began to cry. + +"What is the matter here?" said our kind, energetic neighbor, Mrs. T--, +who came in to pay us one of her informal visits. She was from +Philadelphia, and, though a gifted woman, with a wide range of reading +and observation of human life, was not a sentimentalist. She laughed at +the weeping mistress of the parsonage, and, going to the back-door, she +called out: + +"Dick!" "Dick!" + +Dick, who was taking the air high up on the hillside, came at the call, +making long strides, and sounding his "Oot," "oot," "oot," which was the +formula by which he expressed all his emotions, varying only the tone. + +Dick, as he stood with outstretched neck and a look of expectation in +his honest eyes, was scooped up by our neighbor, and carried off down +the hill in the most summary manner. + +In about an hour Dick was brought back. He was dressed. He was also +stuffed. + + + +The Diggers. + +The Digger Indian holds a low place in the scale of humanity. He is not +intelligent; he is not handsome; he is not very brave. He stands near +the foot of his class, and I fear he is not likely to go up any higher. +It is more likely that the places that know him now will soon know him +no more, for the reason that he seems readier to adopt the bad white +man's whisky and diseases than the good white man's morals and religion. +Ethnologically he has given rise to much conflicting speculation, with +which I will not trouble the gentle reader. He has been in California a +long time, and he does not know that he was ever anywhere else. His +pedigree does not trouble him; he is more concerned about getting +something to eat. It is not because he is an agriculturist that he is +called a Digger, but because he grabbles for wild roots, and has a +general fondness for dirt. I said he was not handsome, and when we +consider his rusty, dark-brown color, his heavy features, fishy black +eyes, coarse black hair, and clumsy gait, nobody will dispute the +statement. But one Digger is uglier than another, and an old squaw caps +the climax. + +The first Digger I ever saw was the best-looking. He had picked up a +little English, and loafed around the mining-camps picking up a meal +where he could get it. He called himself "Captain Charley," and, like a +true native American, was proud of his title. If it was self-assumed, he +was still following the precedent set by a vast host of captains, +majors, colonels, and generals, who never wore a uniform or hurt +anybody. He made his appearance at the little parsonage on the hill-side +in Sonora one day, and, thrusting his bare head into the door, he said: + +"Me Cappin Charley," tapping his chest complacently as he spoke. + +Returning his salutation, I waited for him to speak again. + +"You got grub--coche carne?" he asked, mixing his Spanish and English. + +Some food was given him, which he snatched rather eagerly, and began to +eat at once. It was, evident that Captain Charley had not breakfasted +that morning. He was a hungry Indian, and when he got through his meal +there was no reserve of rations in the unique repository of dishes and +food which has been mentioned heretofore in these Sketches. Peering +about the premises, Captain Charley made a discovery. The modest little +parsonage stood on a steep incline, the upper side resting on the red +gravelly earth, while the lower side was raised three or four feet from +the ground. The vacant space underneath had been used by our several +bachelor predecessors as a receptacle for cast-off clothing. Malone, +Lockley, and Evans, had thus disposed of their discarded apparel, and +Drury Bond and one or two other miners had also added to the treasures +that caught the eye of the inquisitive Digger. It was a museum of +sartorial curiosities--seedy and ripped broadcloth coats, vests, and +pants, flannel mining-shirts of gay colors and of different degrees of +wear and tear, linen shirts that looked like battle-flags that had been +through the war, and old shoes and boots of all sorts, from the high +rubber water-proofs used by miners to the ragged slippers that had +adorned the feet of the lonely single parsons whose names are written +above. + +"Me take um?" asked Captain Charley, pointing to the treasure he had +discovered. + +Leave was given, and Captain Charley lost no time in taking possession +of the coveted goods. He chuckled to himself as one article after +another was drawn forth from the pile which seemed to be almost +inexhaustible. When he had gotten all out and piled up together, it was +a rare-looking sight. + +"Mucho bueno!" exclaimed Captain Charley, as he proceeded to array +himself in a pair of trousers. Then a shirt, then a vest, and then a +coat, were put on. And then another, and another, and yet another suit +was donned in the same order. He was fast becoming a "big Indian" +indeed. We looked on and smiled, sympathizing with the evident delight +of our visitor in his superabundant wardrobe. He was in full-dress, and +enjoyed it. But he made a failure at one point--his feet were too +large, or were not the right shape, for white men's boots or shoes. He +tried several pairs, but his huge flat foot would not enter them, and +finally he threw down the last one tried by him with a Spanish +exclamation not fit to be printed in these pages. That language is a +musical one, but its oaths are very harsh in sound. A battered +"stove-pipe" hat was found among the spoils turned over to Captain +Chancy. Placing it on his head jauntily, he turned to us, saying, Adios, +and went strutting down the street, the picture of gratified vanity. His +appearance on Washington Street, the main thoroughfare of the place, +thus gorgeously and abundantly arrayed, created a sensation. It was as +good as a "show" to the jolly miners, always ready to be amused. Captain +Charley was known to most of them, and they had a kindly feeling for the +good-natured "fool Injun," as one of them called him in my hearing. + +The next Digger I noticed was of the gentler (but in this case not +lovelier) sex. She was an old squaw, who was in mourning. The sign of +her grief was the black adobe mud spread over her face. She sat all day +motionless and speechless, gazing up into the sky. Her grief was caused +by the death of a child, and her sorrowful look showed that she had a +mother's heart. Poor, degraded creature! What were her thoughts as she +sat there looking so pitifully up into the silent, far-off heavens? All +the livelong day she gazed thus fixedly into the sky, taking no notice +of the passersby, neither speaking, eating, nor drinking. It was a +custom of the tribe, but its peculiar significance is unknown to me. + +It was a great night at an adjoining camp when the old chief died. It +was made the occasion of a fearful orgy. Dry wood and brush were +gathered into a huge pile, the body of the dead chief was placed upon +it, and the mass set on fire. As the flames blazed upward with a roar, +the Indians, several hundred in number, broke forth into wild wailings +and howlings, the shrill soprano of the women rising high above the din, +as they marched around the burning pyre. Fresh fuel was supplied from +time to time, and all night long the flames lighted up the surrounding +hills which echoed with the shouts and howls of the savages. It was a +touch of pandemonium. At dawn there was nothing left of the dead chief +but ashes. The mourners took up their line of march toward the +Stanislaus River, the squaws bearing their papooses on their backs, the +"bucks" leading the way. + +The Digger believes in a future life, and in future rewards and +punishments. Good Indians and bad Indians are subjected to the same +ordeal at death. Each one is rewarded according to his deeds. + +The disembodied soul comes to a wide, turbid river, whose angry waters +rush on to an unknown destination, roaring and foaming. From high banks +on either side of the stream is stretched a pole smooth and small, over +which he is required to walk. Upon the result of this post-mortem +Blondinizing his fate depends. If he was in life a very good Indian he +goes over safely, and finds on the other side a paradise, where the +skies are cloudless, the air balmy, the flowers brilliant in color and +sweet in perfume, the springs many and cool, and the deer plentiful and +fat. In this fair clime there are no bad Indians, no briers, no snakes, +no grizzly bears. Such is the paradise of good Diggers. + +The Indian who was in life a mixed character, not all good or bad, but +made up of both, starts across the fateful river, gets on very well +until he reaches about half-way over, when his head becomes dizzy, and +he tumbles into the boiling flood below. He swims for his life. (Every +Indian on earth can swim, and he does not forget the art in the world of +spirits.) Buffeting the waters, he is carried swiftly down the rushing +current, and at last makes the shore, to find a country which, like his +former life, is a mixture of good and bad. Some days are fair, and +others are rainy and chilly; flowers and brambles grow together; there +are some springs of water, but they are few, and not all cool and sweet; +the deer are few, and shy, and lean, and grizzly bears roam the hills +and valleys. This is the limbo of the moderately-wicked Digger. + +The very bad Indian, placing his feet upon the attenuated bridge of +doom, makes a few steps forward, stumbles, falls into the whirling +waters below, and is swept downward with fearful velocity. At last, with +desperate struggles he half swims, and is half washed ashore on the same +side from which he started, to find a dreary land where the sun never +shines, and the cold rains always pour down from the dark skies, where +the water is brackish and foul, where no flowers ever bloom, where +leagues may be traversed without seeing a deer, and grizzly bears +abound. This is the hell of very bad Indians--and a very had one it is. + +The worst Indians of all, at death, are transformed into grizzly bears. + +The Digger has a good appetite, and he is not particular about his +eating. He likes grasshoppers, clover, acorns, roots, and fish. The +flesh of a dead mule, horse, cow, or hog, does not come amiss to him--I +mean the flesh of such as die natural deaths. He eats what he can get, +and all he can get. In the grasshopper season he is fat and flourishing. +In the suburbs of Sonora I came one day upon a lot of squaws, who were +engaged in catching grasshoppers. Stretched along in line, armed with +thick branches of pine, they threshed the ground in front of them as +they advanced, driving the grasshoppers before them in constantly +increasing numbers, until the air was thick with the flying insects. +Their course was directed to a deep gully, or gulch, into which they +fell exhausted. It was astonishing to see with what dexterity the squaws +would gather them up and thrust them into a sort of covered basket; made +of willow-twigs or tule-grass, while the insects would be trying to +escape; but would fall back unable to rise above the sides of the gulch +in which they had been entrapped. The grasshoppers are dried, or cured, +for winter use. A white man who had tried them told me they were +pleasant eating, having a flavor very similar to that of a good shrimp. +(I was content to take his word for it.) + +When Bishop Soule was in California, in 1853, he paid a visit to a +Digger campoody (or village) in the Calaveras hills. He was profoundly +interested, and expressed an ardent desire to be instrumental in the +conversion of one of these poor kin. It was yet early in the morning +when the Bishop and his party arrived, and the Diggers were not astir, +save here and there a squaw, in primitive array, who slouched lazily +toward a spring of water hard by. But soon the arrival of the visitors +was made known, and the bucks, squaws, and papooses, swarmed forth. They +cast curious looks upon the whole party, but were specially struck with +the majestic bearing of the Bishop, as were the passing crowds in +London, who stopped in the streets to gaze with admiration upon the +great American preacher. The Digger chief did not conceal his delight. +After looking upon the Bishop fixedly for some moments, he went up to +him, and tapping first his own chest and then the Bishop's, he said: + +"Me big man--you big man!" + +It was his opinion that two great men had met, and that the occasion was +a grand one. Moralizers to the contrary notwithstanding, greatness is +not always lacking in self-consciousness. + +"I would like to go into one of their wigwams, or huts, and see how they +really live," said the Bishop. + +"You had better drop that idea," said the guide, a white man who knew +more about Digger Indians than was good for his reputation and morals, +but who was a good-hearted fellow, always ready to do a friendly turn, +and with plenty of time on his hands to do it. The genius born to live +without work will make his way by his wits, whether it be in the lobby +at Washington City, or as a hanger-on at a Digger camp. + +The Bishop insisted on going inside the chief's wigwam, which was a +conical structure of long tule-grass, air-tight and weather-proof, with +an aperture in front just large enough for a man's body in a crawling +attitude. Sacrificing his dignity, the Bishop went down on all-fours, +and then a degree lower, and, following the chief; crawled in. The air +was foul, the smells were strong, and the light was dim. The chief +proceeded to tender to his distinguished guest the hospitalities of the +establishment, by offering to share his breakfast with him. The bill of +fare was grasshoppers, with acorns as a side-dish. The Bishop maintained +his dignity as he squatted there in the dirt--his dignity was equal to +any test. He declined the grasshoppers tendered him by the chief, +pleading that he had already breakfasted, but watched with peculiar +sensations the movements of his host, as handful after handful of the +crisp and juicy gryllus vulgaris were crammed into his capacious mouth, +and swallowed. What he saw and smelt, and the absence of fresh air, +began to tell upon the Bishop--he became sick and pale, while a gentle +perspiration, like unto that felt in the beginning of seasickness, +beaded his noble forehead. With slow dignity, but marked emphasis, he +spoke: + +"Brother Bristow, I propose that we retire." + +They retired, and there is no record that Bishop Soule ever expressed +the least desire to repeat his visit to the interior of a Digger +Indian's abode. + +The whites had many difficulties with the Diggers in the early days. In +most cases I think the whites were chiefly to blame. It is very hard for +the strong to be just to the weak. The weakest creature, pressed hard, +will strike back. White women and children were massacred in retaliation +for outrages committed upon the ignorant Indians by white outlaws. Then +there would be a sweeping destruction of Indians by the excited whites, +who in those days made rather light of Indian shooting. The shooting of +a "buck" was about the same thing, whether it was a male Digger or a +deer. + +"There is not much fight in a Digger unless he's got the dead-wood on +you, and then he'll make it rough for you. But these Injuns are of no +use, and I'd about as soon shoot one of them as a coyote" (ki-o-te). + +The speaker was a very red-faced, sandy-haired man, with blood-shot blue +eyes, whom I met on his return to the Humboldt country after a visit to +San Francisco. + +"Did you ever shoot an Indian?" I asked. + +"I first went up into the Eel River country in '46," he answered. "They +give us a lot of trouble in them days. They would steal cattle, and our +boys would shoot. But we've never had much difficulty with them since +the big fight we had with them in 1849. A good deal of devilment had +been goin' on all roun', and some had been killed on both sides. The +Injuns killed two women on a ranch in the valley, and then we set in +just to wipe 'em out. Their camp was in a bend of the river, near the +head of the valley, with a deep slough on the right flank. There was +about sixty of us, and Dave was our captain. He was a hard rider, a dead +shot, and not very tender-hearted. The boys sorter liked him, but kep' a +sharp eye on him, knowin' he was so quick and handy with a pistol. Our +plan was to git to their camp and fall on em at daybreak, but the sun +was risin' just as we come in sight of it. A dog barked, and Dave sung +out: + +"'Out with your pistols! pitch in, and give 'em the hot lead!' + +"In we galloped at full speed, and as the Injuns come out to see what +was up, we let 'em have it. We shot forty bucks--about a dozen got away +by swimmin' the river." + +"Were any of the women killed?" + +"A few were knocked over. You can't be particular when you are in a +hurry; and a squaw, when her blood is up, will fight equal to a buck." + +The fellow spoke with evident pride, feeling that he was detailing a +heroic affair, having no idea that he had done any thing wrong in merely +killing "bucks." I noticed that this sane man was very kind to an old +lady who took the stage for Bloomfield--helping her into the vehicle, +and looking after her baggage. When we parted, I did not care to take +the hand that had held a pistol that morning when the Digger camp was +"wiped out." + +The scattered remnants of the Digger tribes were gathered into a +reservation in Round Valley, Mendocino county, north of the Bay of San +Francisco, and were there taught a mild form of agricultural life, and +put under the care of Government agents, contractors, and soldiers, with +about the usual results. One agent, who was also a preacher, took +several hundred of them into the Christian Church. They seemed to have +mastered the leading facts of the gospel, and attained considerable +proficiency in the singing of hymns. Altogether, the result of this +effort at their conversion showed that they were human beings, and as +such could be made recipients of the truth and grace of God, who is the +Father of all the families of the earth. Their spiritual guide told me +he had to make one compromise with them--they would dance. Extremes +meet--the fashionable white Christians of our gay capitals and the +tawny Digger exhibit the same weakness for the fascinating exercise that +cost John the Baptist his head. + +There is one thing a Digger cannot bear, and that is the comforts and +luxuries of civilized life. A number of my friends, who had taken Digger +children to raise, found that as they approached maturity they fell into +a decline and died, in most cases of some pulmonary affection. The only +way to save them was to let them rough it, avoiding warm bed-rooms and +too much clothing. A Digger girl belonged to my church at Santa Rosa, +and was a gentle, kind-hearted, grateful creature. She was a domestic in +the family of Colonel H--. In that pleasant Christian household she +developed into a pretty fair specimen of brunette young womanhood, but +to the last she had an aversion to wearing shoes. + +The Digger seems to be doomed. Civilization kills him; and if he sticks +to his savagery, he will go down before the bullets, whisky, and vices +of his white fellow-sinners. + + + +The California Mad-House. + +On my first visit to the State Insane Asylum, at Stockton, I was struck +by the beauty of a boy of some seven or eight years, who was moving +about the grounds clad in a strait-jacket. In reply to my inquiries, the +resident physician told me his history: + +"About a year ago he was on his way to California with the family to +which he belonged. He was a general pet among the passengers on the +steamer. Handsome, confiding, and overflowing with boyish spirits, +everybody had a smile and a kind word for the winning little fellow. +Even the rough sailors would pause a moment to pat his curly head as +they passed. One day a sailor, yielding to a playful impulse in passing, +caught up the boy in his arms, crying: + +"'I am going to throw you into the sea!' + +"The child gave one scream of terror, and went into convulsions. When +the paroxysm subsided, he opened his eyes and gazed around with a vacant +expression. His mother, who bent over him with a pale face, noticed the +look, and almost screamed: + +"'Tommy, here is your mother--don't you know me?' + +"The child gave no sign of recognition. He never knew his poor mother +again. He was literally frightened out of his senses. The mother's +anguish was terrible. The remorse of the sailor for his thoughtless +freak was so great that it in some degree disarmed the indignation of +the passengers and crew. The child had learned to read, and had made +rapid progress in the studies suited to his age, but all was swept away +by the cruel blow. He was unable to utter a word intelligently. Since he +has been here, there have been signs of returning mental consciousness, +and we have begun with him as with an infant. He knows and can call his +own name, and is now learning the alphabet." + +"How is his health?" + +"His health is pretty good, except that he has occasional convulsive +attacks that can only be controlled by the use of powerful opiates." + +I was glad to learn, on a visit made two years later, that the +unfortunate boy had died. + +This child was murdered by a fool. The fools are always murdering +children, though the work is not always done as effectually as in this +case. They cripple and half kill them by terror. There are many who will +read this Sketch who will carry to the grave, and into the world of +spirits, natures out of which half the sweetness, and brightness, and +beauty has been crushed by ignorance or brutality. In most cases it is +ignorance. The hand that should guide, smites; the voice that should +soothe, jars the sensitive chords that are untuned forever. He who +thoughtlessly excites terror in a child's heart is unconsciously doing +the devil's work; he that does it consciously is a devil. + +"There is a lady here whom I wish you would talk to. She belongs to one +of the most respectable families in San Francisco, is cultivated, +refined, and has been the center of a large and loving circle. Her +monomania is spiritual despair. She thinks she has committed the +unpardonable sin. There she is now. I will introduce you to her. Talk +with her, and comfort her if you can." + +She was a tall, well-formed woman in black, with all the marks of +refinement in her dress and bearing. She was walking the floor to and +fro with rapid steps, wringing her hands, and moaning piteously. +Indescribable anguish was in her face--it was a hopeless face. It +haunted my thoughts for many days, and it is vividly before me as I +write now. The kind physician introduced me, and left the apartment. + +There is a sacredness about such an interview that inclines me to veil +its details. + +"I am willing to talk with you, sir, and appreciate your motive, but I +understand my situation. I have committed the unpardonable sin, and I +know there is no hope for me." + +With the earnestness excited by intense sympathy, I combated her +conclusion, and felt certain that I could make her see and feel that she +had given way to an illusion. She listened respectfully to all I had to +say, and then said again: + +"I know my situation. I denied my Saviour after all his goodness to me, +and he has left me forever." + +There was the frozen calmness of utter despair in look and tone. I left +her as I found her. + +"I will introduce you to another woman, the opposite of the poor lady +you have just seen. She thinks she is a queen, and is perfectly +harmless. You must be careful to humor her illusion. There she is--let +me present you." + +She was a woman of immense size, enormously fat, with broad red face, +and a self-satisfied smirk, dressed in some sort of flaming scarlet +stuff, profusely tinseled all over, making a gorgeously ridiculous +effect. She received me with a mixture of mock dignity and smiling +condescension, and surveying herself admiringly, she asked: + +"How do you like my dress?" + +It was not the first time that royalty had shown itself not above the +little weaknesses of human nature. On being told that her apparel was +indeed magnificent, she was much pleased, and drew herself up proudly, +and was a picture of ecstatic vanity. Are the real queens as happy? When +they lay aside their royal robes for their grave clothes, will not the +pageantry which was the glory of their lives seem as vain as that of +this tinseled queen of the mad-house? Where is happiness, after all? Is +it in the circumstances, the external conditions? or, is it in the mind? +Such were the thoughts passing through my mind, when a man approached +with a violin. Every eye brightened, and the queen seemed to thrill with +pleasure in every nerve. + +"This is the only way we can get some of them to take any exercise. The +music rouses them, and they will dance as long as they are permitted to +do so." + +The fiddler struck up a lively tune, and the queen, with marvelous +lightness of step and ogling glances, ambled up to a tall, raw-boned +Methodist preacher, who had come with me, and invited him to dance with +her. The poor parson seemed sadly embarrassed, as her manner was very +pressing, but he awkwardly and confusedly declined, amid the titters of +all present. It was a singular spectacle, that dance of the mad-women. +The most striking figure on the floor was the queen. Her great size, her +brilliant apparel, her astonishing agility, the perfect time she kept, +the bows, the smiles and blandishments, she bestowed on an imaginary +partner, were indescribably ludicrous. Now and then, in her evolutions, +she would cast a momentary reproachful glance at the ungallant clergyman +who had refused to dance with feminine royalty, and who stood looking on +with a sheepish expression of face. He was a Kentuckian, and lack of +gallantry is not a Kentucky trait. + +During the session of the Annual Conference at Stockton, in 1859 or +1860, the resident physician invited me to preach to the inmates of the +Asylum on Sunday afternoon. The novelty of the service, which was +announced in the daily papers, attracted a large number of visitors, +among them the greater part of the preachers. The day was one of those +bright, clear, beautiful October days, peculiar to California, that make +you think of heaven. I stood on the steps, and the hundreds of men and +Women stood below me, with their upturned faces. Among them were old men +crushed by sorrow, and old men ruined by vice; aged women with faces +that seemed to plead for pity, women that made you shrink from their +unwomanly gaze; lion-like young men, made for heroes but caught in the +devil's trap and changed into beasts; and boys whose looks showed that +sin had already stamped them with its foul insignia, and burned into +their souls the shame which is to be one of the elements of its eternal +punishment. A less impressible man than I would have felt moved at the +sight of that throng of bruised and broken creatures. A hymn was read, +and when Burnet, Kelsay, Neal, and others of the preachers, struck up an +old tune, voice after voice joined in the melody until it swelled into a +mighty volume of sacred song. I noticed that the faces of many were wet +with tears, and there was an indescribable pathos in their voices. The +pitying God, amid the rapturous hallelujahs of the heavenly hosts, bent +to listen to the music of these broken harps. This text was announced, +My peace I give unto you; and, the sermon began. + +Among those standing nearest to me was "Old Kelley," a noted patient +whose monomania was the notion that he was a millionaire, and who spent +most of his time in drawing checks on imaginary deposits for vast sums +of money. I held one of his checks for a round million, but it has never +yet been cashed. The old man pressed up close to me, seeming to feel +that the success of the service somehow depended on him. I had not more +than fairly begun my discourse, when he broke in: + +"That's Daniel Webster!" + +I don't mind a judicious "Amen," but this put me out a little. I resumed +my remarks, and was getting another good start, when he again broke in +enthusiastically: + +"Henry Clay!" + +The preachers standing around me smiled--I think I heard one or two of +them titter. I could not take my eyes from Kelley, who stood with open +mouth and beaming countenance, waiting for me to go on. He held me with +an evil fascination. I did go on in a louder voice, and in a sort of +desperation; but again my delighted hearer exclaimed: + +"Calhoun!" + +"Old Kelley" spoiled that sermon, though he meant kindly. He died not +long afterward, gloating over his fancied millions to the last. + +"If you have steady nerves, come with me and I will show you the worst +case we have--a woman half tigress, and half devil." + +Ascending a stairway, I was led to an angle of the building assigned to +the patients whose violence required them to be kept in close +confinement. + +"Hark! don't you hear her? She is in one of her paroxysms now." + +The sounds that issued from one of the cells were like nothing I had +ever heard before. They were a series of unearthly, fiendish shrieks, +intermingled with furious imprecations, as of a lost spirit in an +ecstasy of rage and fear. + +The face that glared upon me through the iron grating was hideous, +horrible. It was that of a woman, or of what had been a woman, but was +now a wreck out of which evil passion had stamped all that was womanly +or human. I involuntarily shrunk back as I met the glare of those fiery +eyes, and caught the sound of words that made me shudder. I never +suspected myself of being a coward, but I felt glad that the iron bars +of the cell against which she dashed herself were strong. I had read of +Furies--one was now before me. The bloated, gin-inflamed face, the +fiery-red, wicked eyes, the swinish chin, the tangled coarse hair +falling around her like writhing snakes, the tiger-like clutch of her +dirty fingers, the horrible words--the picture was sickening, disgust +for the time almost, extinguishing pity. + +"She was the keeper of a beer-saloon in San Francisco, and led a life of +drunkenness and licentiousness until she broke down, and she was brought +here." + +"Is there any hope of her restoration?" + +"I fear not--nothing short of a miracle can, retune an instrument so +fearfully broken and jangled." + +I thought of her out of whom were cast the seven devils, and of Him who +came to seek and to save the lost, and resisting the impulse that +prompted me to hurry away from the sight and hearing of this lost woman, +I tried to talk with her, but had to retire at last amid a volley of +such language as I hope never to hear from a woman's lips again. + +"Listen! Did you ever hear a sweeter voice than that?" + +I had heard the voice before, and thrilled under its power. It was a +female voice of wonderful richness and volume, with a touch of something +in it that moved you strangely--a sort of intensity that set your +pulses to beating faster, while it entranced you. The whole of the +spacious grounds were flooded with the melody, and the passing teamsters +on the public highway would pause and listen with wonder and delight. +The singer was a fair young girl, with dark auburn hair, large brown +eyes, that were at times dreamy and sad, and then again lit up with +excitement, as her moods changed from sad to gay. + +"She will sit silent for hours gazing listlessly out of the window, and +then all at once break forth into a burst of song so sweet and thrilling +that the other patients gather near her and listen in rapt silence and +delight. Sometimes at a dead hour of the night her voice is heard, and +then it seems that she is under a special afflatus--she seems to be +inspired by the very soul of music, and her songs, wild and sad, wailing +and rollicking, by turns, but all exquisitely sweet, fill the long +night-hours with their melody." + +The shock caused by the sudden death of her betrothed lover overthrew +her reason, and blighted her life. By the mercy of God, the love of +music and the gift of song survived the wreck of love and of reason. +This girl's voice, pealing forth upon the still summer evening air, is +mingled with my last recollection of Stockton and its refuge for the +doubly miserable who are doomed to death in life. + + + +San Quentin. + +"I want you to go with me over to San Quentin next Thursday, and preach +a thanksgiving-sermon to the poor fellows in the State-prison." + +On the appointed morning, I met our party at the Vallejo-street wharf, +and we were soon steaming on our way. Passing under the guns of Fort +Alcatraz, past Angel Island--why so called I know not, as in early days +it was inhabited not by angels but goats only--all of us felt the +exhilaration of the California sunshine, and the bracing November air, +as we stood upon the guards, watching the play of the lazy-looking +porpoises, that seemed to roll along, keeping up with the swift motion +of the boat in such a leisurely way. The porpoise is a deceiver. As he +rolls up to the surface of the water, in his lumbering way, he looks as +if he were a huge lump of unwieldy awkwardness, floating at random and +almost helpless; but when you come to know him better, you find that he +is a marvel of muscular power and swiftness. I have seen a "school" of +porpoises in the Pacific swimming for hours alongside one of our +fleetest ocean-steamers, darting a few yards ahead now and then, as if +by mere volition, cutting their way through the water with the +directness of an arrow. The porpoise is playful at times, and his +favorite game is a sort of leap-frog. A score or more of the creatures, +seemingly full of fun and excitement, will chase one another at full +speed, throwing themselves from the water and turning somersaults in the +air, the water boiling with the agitation, and their huge bodies +flashing in the light. You might almost imagine that they had found +something in the sea that had made them drunk, or that they had inhaled +some sort of piscatorial anaesthetic. But here we are at our +destination. The bell rings, we round to, and land. + +At San Quentin nature is at her best, and man at his worst. Against the +rocky shore the waters of the bay break in gentle splashings when the +winds are quiet. When the gales from the southwest sweep through the +Golden Gate, and set the white caps to dancing to their wild music, the +waves rise high, and dash upon the dripping stones with a hoarse roar, +as of anger. Beginning a few hundreds of yards from the water's edge, +the hills slope up, and up, and up, until they touch the base of +Tamalpais, on whose dark and rugged summit, four thousand feet above the +sea that laves his feet on the west, the rays of the morning sun fall +with transfiguring, glory while yet the valley below lies in shadow. On +this lofty pinnacle linger the last rays of the setting sun, as it drops +into the bosom of the Pacific. In stormy weather, the mist and clouds +roll in from the ocean, and gather in dark masses around his awful head, +as if the sea-gods had risen from their homes in the deep, and were +holding a council of war amid the battle of the elements; at other +times, after calm, bright days, the thin, soft white clouds that hang +about his crest deepen into crimson and gold, and the mountaintop looks +as if the angels of God had come down to encamp, and pitched here their +pavilions of glory. This is nature at San Quentin, and this is Tamalpais +as I have looked upon it many a morning and many an evening from my +window above the sea at North Beach. + +The gate is opened for us, and we enter the prison-walls. It is a +holiday, and the day is fair and balmy; but the chill and sadness cannot +be shaken off, as we look around us. The sunshine seems almost to be a +mockery in this place where fellow-men are caged and guarded like wild +beasts, and skulk about with shaved heads, clad in the striped uniform +of infamy. Merciful God! is this what thy creature man was made for? How +long, how long? + +Seated upon the platform with the prison officials and visitors, I +watched my strange auditors as they came in. There were one thousand of +them. Their faces were a curious study. Most of them were bad faces. +Beast and devil were printed on them. Thick necks, heavy back-heads, and +low, square foreheads, were the prevalent types. The least repulsive +were those who looked as if they were all animal, creatures of instinct +and appetite, good-natured and stupid; the most repulsive were those +whose eyes had a gleam of mingled sensuality and ferocity. But some of +these faces that met my gaze were startling--they seemed so out of +place. One old man with gray hair, pale, sad face, and clear blue eyes, +might have passed, in other garb and in other company, for an honored +member of the Society of Friends. He had killed a man in a mountain +county. If he was indeed a murderer at heart, nature had given him the +wrong imprint. My attention was struck by a smooth-faced, handsome young +fellow, scarcely of age, who looked as little like a convict as anybody +on that platform. He was in for burglary, and had a very bad record. +Some came in half laughing, as if they thought the whole affair more a +joke than anything else. The Mexicans, of whom there was quite a number, +were sullen and scowling. There is gloom in the Spanish blood. The +irrepressible good nature of several ruddy-faced Irishmen broke out in +sly merriment. As the service began, the discipline of the prison showed +itself in the quiet that instantly prevailed; but only a few, who joined +in the singing, seemed to feel the slightest interest in it. Their eyes +were wandering, and their faces were vacant. They had the look of men +who had come to be talked at and patronized, and who were used to it. +The prayer that was offered was not calculated to banish such a feeling +--it was dry and cold. I stood up to begin the sermon. Never before had +I realized so folly that God's message was to lost men, and for lost +men. A mighty tide of pity rushed in upon my soul as I looked down into +the faces of my hearers. My eyes filled, and my heart melted within me. +I could not speak until after a pause, and only then by great effort. +There was a deep silence, and every face was lifted to mine as I +announced the text. God had touched my heart and theirs at the start. I +read the words slowly: God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain +salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then I said: + +"My fellow-men, I come to you today with a message from my Father, and +your Father in heaven. It is a message of hope. God help me to deliver +it as I ought! God help you to hear it as you ought! I will not insult +you by saying that because you have an extra dinner, a few hours respite +from your toil, and a little fresh air and sunshine, you ought to have a +joyful thanksgiving today. If I should talk thus, you would be ready to +ask me how I would like to change places with you. You would despise me, +and I would despise myself, for indulging in such cant. Your lot is a +hard one. The battle of life has gone against you--whether by your own +fault or by hard fortune, it matters not, so far as the fact is +concerned; this thanksgiving-day finds you locked in here, with broken +lives, and wearing the badge of crime. God alone knows the secrets of +each throbbing heart before me, and how it is that you have come to +this. Fellow-men, children of my Father in heaven, putting myself for +the moment in your place, the bitterness of your lot is real and +terrible to me. For some of you there is no happier prospect for this +life than to toil within these walls by day, and sleep in yonder cells +by night, through the weary, slow-dragging years, and then to die, with +only the hands of hired attendants to wipe the death-sweat from your +brows; and then to be put in a convict's coffin, and taken up on the +hill yonder, and laid in a lonely grave. My God! this is terrible!" + +An unexpected dramatic effect followed these words. The heads of many of +the convicts fell forward on their breasts, as if struck with sudden +paralysis. They were the men who were in for life, and the horror of it +overcame them. The silence was broken by sobbings all over the room. The +officers and visitors on the platform were weeping. The angel of pity +hovered over, the place, and the glow of human sympathy had melted those +stony hearts. A thousand strong men were thrilled with the touch of +sympathy, and once more the sacred fountain of tears was unsealed. These +convicts were men, after all, and deep down under the rubbish of their +natures there was still burning the spark of a humanity not yet extinct. +It was wonderful to see the softened expression of their faces. Yes, +they were men, after all, responding to the voice of sympathy, which had +been but too strange to many of them all their evil lives. Many of them +had inherited hard conditions; they were literally conceived in sin and +born in iniquity; they grew up in the midst of vice. For them pure and +holy lives were a moral impossibility. Evil with them was hereditary, +organic, and the result of association; it poisoned their blood at the +start, and stamped itself on their features from their cradles. Human +law, in dealing with these victims of evil circumstance, can make little +discrimination. Society must protect itself, treating a criminal as a +criminal. But what will God do with them hereafter? Be sure he will do +right. Where little is given, little will be required. It shall be +better for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for Chorazin and +Bethsaida. There is no ruin without remedy, except that which a man +makes for himself by abusing mercy, and throwing away proffered +opportunity. Thoughts like these rushed through the preacher's mind, as +he stood there looking in the tear-bedewed faces of these men of crime. +A fresh tide of pity rose in his heart, that he felt came from the heart +of the all-pitying One. + +"I do not try to disguise from you, or from myself the fact that for +this life your outlook is not bright. But I come to you this day with a +message of hope from God our Father. He hath not appointed you to wrath. +He loves all his children. He sent his Son to die for them. Jesus trod +the paths of pain, and drained the cup of sorrow. He died as a +malefactor, for malefactors. He died for me. He died for each one of +you. If I knew the most broken, the most desolate-hearted, despairing +man before me, who feels that he is scorned of men and forsaken of God, +I would go to where he sits and put my hand on his head, and tell him +that God hath not appointed him to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our +Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. I would tell him that his Father in +heaven loves him still, loves him more than the mother that bore him. I +would tell him that all the wrongs and follies of his past life may from +this hour be turned into so much capital of a warning experience, and +that a million of years from today he may be a child of the Heavenly +Father, and an heir of glory, having the freedom of the heavens and the +blessedness of everlasting life. O brothers, God does love you! Nothing +can ruin you but your own despair. No man has any right to despair who +has eternity before him. Eternity? Long, long eternity! Blessed, blessed +eternity! That is yours--all of it. It may be a happy eternity for each +one of you. From this moment you may begin a better life. There is hope +for you, and mercy, and love, and heaven. This is the message I bring +you warm from a brother's heart, and warm from the heart of Jesus, whose +life-blood was poured out for you and me. His loving hand opened the +gate of mercy and hope to every man. The proof is that he died for us. O +Son of God, take us to thy pitying arms, and lift us up into the light +that never, never grows dim--into the love that fills heaven and +eternity!" + +As the speaker sunk into his seat, there was a silence that was almost +painful for a few moments. Then the pent-up emotion of the men broke +forth in sobs that shook their strong frames. Dr. Lucky, the prisoner's +friend, made a brief, tearful prayer, and then the benediction was said, +and the service was at an end. The men sat still in their seats. As we +filed out, of the chapel, many hands were extended to grasp mine, +holding it with a clinging pressure. I passed out bearing with me the +impression of an hour I can never forget; and the images of those +thousand faces are still painted in memory. + + + +"Corralled." + +"So you were corralled last night?" + +This was the remark of a friend whom I met in the streets of Stockton +the morning after my adventure. I knew what the expression meant as +applied to cattle, but I had never heard it before in reference to a +human being. Yes, I had been corralled; and this is how it happened: + +It was in the old days, before there were any railroads in California. +With a wiry, clean-limbed pinto horse, I undertook to drive from +Sacramento City to Stockton one day. It was in the winter season, and +the clouds were sweeping up from the south-west, the snow-crested +Sierras hidden from sight by dense masses of vapor boiling at their +bases and massed against their sides. The roads were heavy from the +effects of previous rains, and the plucky little pinto sweated as he +pulled through the long stretches of black adobe mud. A cold wind struck +me in the face, and the ride was a dreary one from the start. But I +pushed on confidently, having faith in the spotted mustang, despite the +evident fact that he had lost no little of the spirit with which he +dashed out of town at starting. When a genuine mustang flags, it is a +serious business. The hardiness and endurance of this breed of horses +almost exceed belief. + +Toward night a cold rain began to fall, driving in my face with the +headwind. Still many a long mile lay between me and Stockton. Dark came +on, and it was dark indeed. The outline of the horse I was driving could +not be seen, and the flat country through which I was driving was a +great black sea of night. I trusted to the instinct of the horse, and +moved on. The bells of a wagon-team meeting me fell upon my ear. I +called out, + +"Halloo there!" + +"What's the matter?" answered a heavy voice through the darkness. + +"Am I in the road to Stockton, and can I get there tonight?" + +"You are in the road, but you will never find your way such a night as +this. It is ten good miles from here; you have several bridges to cross +--you had better stop at the first house you come to, about half a mile +ahead. I am going to strike camp myself." + +I thanked my adviser, and went on, hearing the sound of the tinkling +bells, but unable to see any thing. In a little while I saw a light +ahead, and was glad to see it. Driving up in front and halting, I +repeated the traveler's "halloo" several times, and at last got a +response in a hoarse, gruff voice. + +"I am belated on my way to Stockton, and am cold, and tired, and hungry. +Can I get shelter with you for the night?" + +"You may try it, if you want to," answered the unmusical voice abruptly. + +In a few moments a man appeared to take the horse, and taking my satchel +in hand, I went into the house. The first thing that struck my attention +on entering the room was a big log-fire, which I was glad to see, for I +was wet and very cold. Taking a chair in the corner, I looked around. +The scene that presented itself was not reassuring. The main feature of +the room was a bar, with an ample supply of barrels, demijohns, bottles, +tumblers, and all the et ceteras. Behind the counter stood the +proprietor, a burly fellow with a buffalo-neck, fair skin and blue eyes, +with a frightful scar across his left under-jaw and neck; his +shirt-collar was open, exposing, a huge chest, and his sleeves were +rolled up above the elbows. I noticed also that one of his hands was +minus all the fingers but the half of one--the result probably of some +desperate reencounter. I did not like the appearance of my landlord, and +he eyed me in a way that led me to fear that he liked my looks as little +as I did his; but the claims of other guests soon diverted his attention +from me, and I was left to get warm and make further observations. At a +table in the middle of the room several hard-looking fellows were +betting at cards, amid terrible profanity and frequent drinks of whisky. +They cast inquiring and not very friendly glances at me from time to +time, once or twice exchanging whispers and giggling. As their play went +on, and tumbler after tumbler of whisky was drunk by them, they became +more boisterous. Threats were made of using pistols and knives, with +which they all seemed to be heavily armed; and one sottish-looking brute +actually drew forth a pistol, but was disarmed in no gentle way by the +big-limbed landlord. The profanity and other foul language were +horrible. Many of my readers have no conception of the brutishness of +men when whisky and Satan have full possession of them. In the midst of +a volley of oaths and terrible imprecations by one of the most violent +of the set, there was a faint gleam of lingering decency exhibited by +one of his companions: + +"Blast it, Dick, don't cuss so loud--that fellow in the corner there is +a preacher!" + +There was some potency in "the cloth" even there. How he knew my calling +I do not know. The remark directed particular attention to me and I +became unpleasantly conspicuous. Scowling glances were bent upon me by +two or three of the ruffians, and one fellow made a profane remark not +at all complimentary to my vocation--where at there was some coarse +laughter. In the meantime I was conscious of being very hungry. My +hunger, like that of a boy, is a very positive, thing at, least it was +very much so in those days. Glancing toward the maimed and scarred giant +who stood behind the bar, I found he was gazing at me with a fixed +expression. + +"Can I get something to eat? I am very hungry, sir," I said in my +blandest tones. + +"Yes, we've, plenty of 'cold' goose, and maybe Pete can pick up +something else for you if he, is sober and in a good humor. Come this +way." + +I followed him through a narrow passage-way, which led to a long, +low-ceiled room, along nearly the whole length of which was stretched a +table, around which were placed rough stools for the rough men about +the place. + +Pete, the cook; came in and the head of the house turned me over to him, +and returned to his duties behind the bar. From the noise of the uproar +going on, his presence was doubtless needed. Pete set before me a large +roasted wild-goose, not badly cooked, with bread, milk, and the +inevitable cucumber pickles. The knives and forks were not very bright +--in fact, they had been subjected to influences promotive of oxidation; +and the dishes were not free from signs of former use. Nothing could be +said against the tablecloth--there was no tablecloth there. But the +goose was fat, brown, and tender; and a hungry man defers his criticisms +until he is done eating. That is what I did. Pete evidently regarded me +with curiosity. He was about fifty years of age, and had the look of a +man who had come down in the world. His face bore the marks of the +effects of strong drink, but it was not a bad face; it was more weak +than wicked. + +"Are you a preacher?" he asked. + +"I thought so," he added, after getting my answer to his question. "Of +what persuasion are you?"! he further inquired. + +When I told him I was a Methodist, he said quickly and with some warmth: + +"I was sure of it. This is a rough place for a man of your calling. +Would you like some eggs? we've plenty on hand. And may be you would +like a cup of coffee," he added, with, increasing hospitality. + +I took the eggs, but declined the coffee, not liking the looks of the +cups and saucers, and not caring to wait. + +"I used to be a Methodist myself," said Pete, with a sort of choking in +his throat, "but bad luck and bad company have brought me down to this. +I have a family in Iowa, a wife and four children. I guess they think +I'm dead, and sometimes I wish I was." + +Pete stood by my chair, actually crying. The sight of a Methodist +preacher brought up old times. He told me his story. He had come to +California hoping to make a fortune in a hurry, but had only ill luck +from the start. His prospectings were always failures, his partners +cheated him, his health broke down, his courage gave way, and--he +faltered a little, and then spoke it out--he took to whisky, and then +the worst came. + +"I have come down to this--cooking for a lot of roughs at five dollars +a week, and all the whisky I want. It would have been better for me if I +had died when I was in the hospital at San Andreas." + +Poor Pete! he had indeed touched bottom. But he had a heart and a +conscience still, and my own heart warmed toward my poor backslidden +brother. + +"You are not a lost man yet. You are worth a thousand dead men. You can +get out of this, and you must. You must act the part of a brave man, and +not be any longer a coward. Bad luck and lack of success are a disgrace +to no man. There is where you went wrong. It was cowardly to give up and +not write to your family, and then take to whisky." + +"I know all that, Elder. There is no better little woman on earth than +my wife"--Pete choked up again. + +"You write to her this very night, and go back to her and your children +just as soon as you can get the money to pay your way. Act the man, and +all will come right yet. I have writing materials here in my satchel +--pen, ink, paper, envelopes, stamps, every thing; I am an editor, and go +fixed up for writing." + +The letter was written, I acting as Pete's amanuensis, he pleading that +he was a poor scribe at best and that his nerves were too unsteady for +such work. Taking my advice, he made a clean breast of the whole matter, +throwing himself on the forgiveness of the wife whom he had so +shamefully neglected, and promising by the help of God to make all the +amends possible in time to come. The letter was duly directed, sealed, +and stamped; and Pete looked as if a great weight had been lifted from +his soul, He had made me a fire in the little stove, saying it was +better than the barroom; in which opinion I was fully agreed. + +"There is no place for you to sleep tonight without corralling you with +the fellows; there is but one bedroom, and there are fourteen bunks in +it." + +I shuddered at the prospect-fourteen bunks in one small room, and those +whisky-sodden, loud-cursing card-players to be my roommates for the +night! + +"I prefer sitting here by the stove all night," I said; "I can employ +most of the time writing, if I can have a light." + +Pete thought a moment, looked grave, and then said: + +"That won't do, Elder; those fellows would take offense, and make +trouble. Several of them are out now goose-hunting; they will be coming +in at all hours from now till daybreak, and it won't do for them to find +you sitting up here alone. The best, thing for you to do is to go in and +take one of those bunks; you, needn't takeoff any thing but your coat +and boots, and"--here he lowered his voice, looking about him as he +spoke--"if you have any money about, keep it next to your body." + +The last words were spoken with peculiar emphasis. + +Taking the advice given me, I took up my baggage and followed Pete to +the room where I was to spend the night. Ugh! it was dreadful. The +single window in the room was nailed down, and the air was close and +foul. The bunks were damp and dirty beyond belief, grimed with foulness, +and reeking with ill odors. This was being corralled. + +I turned to Pete, saying: + +"I can't stand this--I will go back to the kitchen." + +"You had better follow my advice, Elder," said he very gravely. "I know +things about here better than you do. It's rough, but you had better +stand it." + +And I did; being corralled, I had to stand it. That fearful night! The +drunken fellows staggered in one by one, cursing and hiccoughing, until +every bunk was occupied. They muttered oaths in their sleep, and their +stertorous breathings made a concert fit for Tartarus. The sickening +odors of whisky, onions, and tobacco filled the room. I lay there and +longed for daylight, which seemed as if it never would come. I thought +of the descriptions I had heard and read of hell, and just then the most +vivid conception of its horror was to be shut up forever with the +aggregated impurity of the universe. By contrast I tried to think of +that city of God into which, it is said, "there shall in no wise enter +into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, +or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." +But thoughts of heaven did not suit the situation; it was more +suggestive of the other place. The horror of being shut up eternally in +hell as the companion of lost spirits was intensified by the experience +and reflections of that night when I was corralled. + +Day came at last. I rose with the first streaks of the dawn, and not +having much toilet to make, I was soon out-of-doors. Never did I breathe +the pure, fresh air with such profound pleasure and gratitude. I drew +deep inspirations, and, opening my coat and vest, let the breeze that +swept up the valley blow upon me unrestricted. How bright, was the face +of nature, and how sweet her, breath after the sights, sounds, and +smells of the night! + +I did not wait for breakfast, but had my pinto and buggy brought out, +and, bidding Pete good-by, hurried on to Stockton. + +"So you were corralled last night?" was the remark of a friend, quoted +at the beginning of this true sketch. "What was the name of the +proprietor of the house?" + +I gave him the name. + +"Dave W--!" he exclaimed with fresh astonishment. "That is the roughest +place in the San Joaquin Valley. Several men have been killed and robbed +there during the last two or three years." + +I hope Pete got back safe to his wife and children in Iowa; and I hope I +may never be corralled again. + + + +The Reblooming. + +It is now more than twenty years since the morning a slender youth of +handsome face and modest mien came into my office on the corner of +Montgomery and Clay streets, San Francisco. He was the son of a preacher +well known in Missouri and California, a man of rare good sense, caustic +wit, and many eccentricities. The young man became an attache of my +newspaper-office and an inmate of my home. He was as fair as a girl, and +refined in his taste and manners. A genial taciturnity, if the +expression may be allowed, marked his bearing in the social circle. +Everybody had a kind feeling and a good word for the quiet, brightfaced +youth. In the discharge of his duties in the office he was punctual and +trustworthy, showing not only industry but unusual aptitude for business +It was with special pleasure that I learned that he was turning his +thoughts to the subject of religion. During the services in the little +Pine-street church he would sit with thoughtful face, and not seldom +with moistened eyes. He read the Bible and prayed in secret. I was not +surprised when he came to me one day and opened his heart. The great +crisis in his life had come. God was speaking to his soul, and he was +listening to his voice. The uplifted cross drew him, and he yielded to +the gentle attraction. We prayed together, and henceforth there was a +new and sacred bond that bound us to each other. I felt that I was a +witness to the most solemn transaction that can take place on earth--the +wedding of a soul to a heavenly faith. Soon thereafter he went to +Virginia, to attend college. There he united with the Church. His +letters to me were full of gratitude and joy. It was the blossoming of +his spiritual life, and the air was full of its fragrance, and the earth +was flooded with glory. A pedestrian tour among the Virginia hills +brought him into communion with Nature at a time when it was rapture to +drink in its beauty and its grandeur. The light kindled within his soul +by the touch of the Holy Spirit transfigured the scenery upon which he +gazed, and the glory of God shone round about the young student in the +flush and blessedness of his first love. O blessed days! O days of +brightness, and sweetness, and rapture! The soul is then in its +blossoming-time, and all high enthusiasms, all bright dreams, all +thrilling joys, are realities which inwork themselves into the +consciousness, to be forgotten never; to remain with us as prophecies of +the eternal springtime that awaits the true-hearted on the hills of God +beyond the grave, or as accusing voices charging us with the murder of +our dead ideals! Amid the dust and din of the battle in after-years we +turn to this radiant spot in our journey with smiles or tears; according +as we have been true or false to the impulses, aspirations, and purposes +inspired within us by that first, and brightest, and nearest +manifestation of God. Such a season is a natural to every life as the +April buds and June roses are to forest and garden. The springtime of +some lives is deferred by unpropitious circumstance to the time when it +should be glowing with autumnal glory, and rich in the fruitage of the +closing year. The life that does not blossom into religion in youth may +have light at noon, and peace at sunset, but misses the morning glory on +the hills, and the dew that sparkles on grass and flower. The call of +God to the young to seek him early is the expression of a true +psychology no less than of a love infinite in its depth and tenderness. + +His college-course finished, my young friend returned to California, and +in one of its beautiful valley-towns he entered a law-office, with a +view to prepare himself for the legal profession. Here he was thrown +into daily association with a little knot of skeptical lawyers. As is +often the case, their moral obliquities ran parallel with their errors +in opinion. They swore, gambled genteelly, and drank. It is not strange +that in this icy atmosphere the growth of any young friend in the +Christian life was stunted. Such influences are like the dreaded north +wind that at times sweeps over the valleys of California in the spring +and early summer, blighting and withering the vegetation it does not +kill. The brightness of his hope was dimmed, and his soul knew the +torture of doubt--a torture that is always keenest to him who allows +himself to sink in the region of fogs after he has once stood upon the +sunlit summit of faith. Just at this crisis, a thing little in itself +deepened the shadow that was falling upon his life. A personal +misunderstanding with the pastor kept him from attending church. Thus he +lost the most effectual defense against the assaults that were being +made upon his faith and hope, in being separated from the fellowship and +cut off from the activities of the Church of God. Have you not noted +these malign coincidences in life? There are times when it seems that +the tide of events sets against us when, like the princely sufferer of +the land of Uz, every messenger that crosses the threshold brings fresh +tidings of ill, and our whole destiny seems to be rushing to a predoomed +perdition. The worldly call it bad luck; the superstitious call it fate; +the believer in God calls it by another name. Always of a delicate +constitution, my friend now exhibited symptoms of serious pulmonary +disease. It was at that time the fashion in California to prescribe +whisky as a specific for that class of ailments. It is possible that +there is virtue in the prescription, but I am sure of one thing, namely, +that if consumption diminished, drunkenness increased; if fewer died of +phthisis, more died of delirium tremens. The physicians of California +have sent a host of victims raving and gibbering in drunken frenzy or +idiocy down to death and hell! I have reason to believe that my friend +inherited a constitutional weakness at this point. As flame to tinder, +was the medicinal whisky to him. It grew upon him rapidly, and soon this +cloud overshadowed all his life. He struggled hard to break the +serpent-folds that were tightening around him; but the fire that had +been kindled seemed to be quenchless. An uncontrolled evil passion is +hellfire. He writhed in its burnings in an agony that could be +understood only by such as knew how almost morbidly sensitive was his +nature, and how vital was his conscience. I became a pastor in the town +where he lived, and renewed my association with him as far as I could. +But there was a constraint unlike the old times. When under the +influence of liquor, he would pass me in the streets with his head down, +a deeper flush mantling his cheek as he hurried by with unsteady step. +Sometimes I met him staggering homeward through a back street, hiding +from the gaze of men. He was at first shy of me when sober, but +gradually the constraint wore off, and he seemed disposed to draw nearer +to me, as in the old days. His struggle went on, days of drunkenness +following weeks of soberness, his haggard face after each debauch +wearing a look of unspeakable weariness and wretchedness. One of the +lawyers who had led him into the mazes of doubt--a man of large and +versatile gifts, whose lips were touched with a noble and persuasive +eloquence--sunk deeper and deeper into the black depths of drunkenness, +until the tragedy ended in a horror that lessened the gains of the +saloons for at least a few days. He was found dead in his bed one +morning in a pool of blood, his throat cut by his own guilty hand. + +My friend had married a lovely girl, and the cottage in which they lived +was one of the coziest, and the garden in front was a little paradise of +neatness and beauty. Ah! I must drop a veil over a part of this true +tale. All along I have written under half protest, the image of a sad, +wistful face rising at times between my eyes and the sheet on which +these words are traced. They loved each other tenderly and deeply, and +both were conscious of the presence of the devil that was turning their +heaven into hell. + +"Save him, Doctor, save him! He is the noblest of men, and the +tenderest, truest husband. He loves you, and he will let you talk to +him. Save him, O save him! Help me to pray for him! My heart will +break!" + +Poor child! her loving heart was indeed breaking; and her fresh young +life was crushed under a weight of grief and shame too heavy to be +borne. + +What he said to me in the interviews held in his sober intervals I have +not the heart to repeat now. He still fought against his enemy; he still +buffeted the billows that were going over him, though with feebler +stroke. When their little child died, her tears fell freely, but he was +like one stunned. Stony and silent he stood and saw the little grave +filled up, and rode away tearless, the picture of hopelessness. + +By a coincidence; after my return to San Francisco, he came thither, and +again became my neighbor at North Beach. I went up to see him one +evening. He was very feeble, and it was plain that the end was not far +off. At the first glance I saw that a great change had taken place in +him. + +He had found his lost self. The strong drink was shut out from him, and +he was shut in with his better thoughts and with God. His religious life +rebloomed in wondrous beauty and sweetness. The blossoms of his early +joy had fallen off, the storms had torn its branches and stripped it of +its foliage, but its root had never perished, because he had never +ceased to struggle for deliverance. Aspiration and hope live or die +together in the human soul. The link that bound my friend to God was +never wholly sundered. His better nature clung to the better way with a +grasp that never let go altogether. + +"O Doctor, I am a wonder to myself! It does seem to me that God has +given back to me every good thing I possessed in the bright and blessed +past. It has all come back to me. I see the light and feel the joy as I +did when I first entered the new life. O it is wonderful! Doctor, God +never gave me up, and I never ceased to yearn for his mercy and love, +even in the darkest season of my unhappy life?" + +His very face had recovered its old look, and his voice its old tone. +There could be no doubt of this soul had rebloomed in the life of God. + +The last night came--they sent for me with the message, + +"Come quickly! he is dying." + +I found him with that look which I have seen on the faces of others who +were nearing death--a radiance and a rapture that awed the beholder. O +solemn, awful mystery of death! I have stood in its presence in every +form of terror and of sweetness, and in every case the thought has been +impressed upon me that it was a passage into the Great Realities. + +"Doctor," he said, smiling, and holding my hand; "I had hoped to be with +you in your office again, as in the old days--not as a business +arrangement, but just to be with you, and revive old memories, and to +live the old life over again. But that cannot be, and I must wait till +we meet in the world of spirits, whither I go before you. It seems to be +growing dark. I cannot see your face hold my hand. I am going--going. I +am on the waves--on the waves--." The radiance was still upon his +face, but the hand I held no longer clasped mine-the wasted form was +still. It was the end. He was launched upon the Infinite Sea for the +endless voyage. + + + +The Emperor Norton. + +That was his title. He wore it with an air that was a strange mixture of +the mock-heroic and the pathetic. He was mad on this one point, and +strangely shrewd and well-informed on almost every other. Arrayed in a +faded-blue uniform, with brass buttons and epaulettes, wearing a +cocked-hat with an eagle's feather, and at times with a rusty sword at +his side, he was a conspicuous figure in the streets of San Francisco, +and a regular habitue of all its public places. In person he was stout, +full-chested, though slightly stooped, with a large head heavily coated +with bushy black hair, an aquiline nose, and dark gray eyes, whose mild +expression added to the benignity of his face. On the end of his nose +grew a tuft of long hairs, which he seemed to prize as a natural mark of +royalty, or chieftainship. Indeed, there was a popular legend afloat +that he was of true royal blood--a stray Bourbon, or something of the +sort. His speech was singularly fluent and elegant. The Emperor was one +of the celebrities that no visitor failed to see. It is said that his +mind was unhinged by a sudden loss of fortune in the early days, by the +treachery of a partner in trade. The sudden blow was deadly, and the +quiet, thrifty, affable man of business became a wreck. By nothing is +the inmost quality of a man made more manifest than by the manner in +which he meets misfortune. One, when the sky darkens, having strong +impulse and weak will, rushes into suicide; another, with a large vein +of cowardice, seeks to drown the sense of disaster in strong drink; yet +another, tortured in every fiber of a sensitive organization, flees from +the scene of his troubles and the faces of those that know him, +preferring exile to shame. The truest man, when assailed by sudden +calamity, rallies all the reserved forces of a splendid manhood to meet +the shock, and, like a good ship, lifting itself from the trough of the +swelling sea, mounts the wave and rides on. It was a curious +idiosyncrasy that led this man, when fortune and reason were swept away +at a stroke, to fall back upon this imaginary imperialism. The nature +that could thus, when the real fabric of life was wrecked, construct +such another by the exercise of a disordered imagination, must have been +originally of a gentle and magnanimous type. The broken fragments of +mind, like those of a statue, reveal the quality of the original +creation. It may be that he was happier than many who have worn real +crowns. Napoleon at Chiselhurst, or his greater uncle at St. Helena, +might have been gainer by exchanging lots with this man, who had the +inward joy of conscious greatness without its burden and its perils. To +all public places he had free access, and no pageant was complete +without his presence. From time to time he issued proclamations, signed +"Norton I.," which the lively San Francisco dailies were always ready to +print conspicuously in their columns. The style of these proclamations +was stately, the royal first person plural being used by him with all +gravity and dignity. Ever and anon, as his uniform became dilapidated or +ragged, a reminder of the condition of the imperial wardrobe would be +given in one or more of the newspapers, and then in a few days he would +appear in a new suit. He had the entree of all the restaurants, and he +lodged--nobody knew where. It was said that he was cared for by members +of the Freemason Society to which he belonged at the time of his fall. I +saw him often in my congregation in the Pine-street church, along in +1858, and into the sixties. He was a respectful and attentive listener +to preaching. On the occasion of one of his first visits he spoke to me +after the service, saying, in a kind and patronizing tone: + +"I think it my duty to encourage religion and morality by showing myself +at church, and to avoid jealousy I attend them all in turn." + +He loved children, and would come into the Sunday-school, and sit +delighted with their singing. When, in distributing the presents on a +Christmas-tree, a necktie was handed him as the gift of the young +ladies, he received it with much satisfaction, making a kingly bow of +gracious acknowledgment. Meeting him one day, in the springtime, holding +my little girl by the hand, he paused, looked at the child's bright +face, and taking a rose-bud from his button-hole, he presented it to her +with a manner so graceful, and a smile so benignant, as to show that +under the dingy blue uniform there beat the heart of a gentleman. He +kept a keen eye on current events, and sometimes expressed his views +with great sagacity. One day he stopped me on the street, saying: + +"I have just read the report of the political sermon of Dr.--(giving +the name of a noted sensational preacher, who was in the habit, at +times, of discussing politics from his pulpit). I disapprove +political-preaching. What do you think?" + +I expressed my cordial concurrence. + +"I will put a stop to it. The preachers must stop preaching politics, or +they must all come into one State Church. I will at once issue a decree +to that effect." + +For some unknown reason, that decree never was promulgated. + +After the war, he took a deep interest in the reconstruction of the +Southern States. I met him one day on Montgomery street, when he asked +me in a tone and with a look of earnest solicitude: + +"Do you hear any complaint or dissatisfaction concerning me from the +South?" + +I gravely answered in the negative. + +"I was for keeping the country undivided, but I have the kindest feeling +for the Southern people, and will see that they are protected in all +their rights. Perhaps if I were to go among them in person, it might +have a good effect. What do you think?" + +I looked at him keenly as I made some suitable reply, but could see +nothing in his expression but simple sincerity. He seemed to feel that +he was indeed the father of his people. George Washington himself could +not have adopted a more paternal tone. + +Walking along the street behind the Emperor one day, my curiosity was a +little excited by seeing him thrust his hand into the hip-pocket of his +blue trousers with sudden energy. The hip-pocket, by the way, is a +modern American stupidity, associated in the popular mind with rowdyism, +pistol shooting, and murder. Hip-pockets should be abolished wherever +there are courts of law and civilized men and women. But what was the +Emperor after? Withdrawing his hand just as I overtook him, the mystery +was revealed--it grasped a thick Bologna sausage, which he began to eat +with unroyal relish. It gave me a shock, but he was not the first royal +personage who has exhibited low tastes and carnal hankerings. + +He was seldom made sport of or treated rudely. I saw him on one occasion +when a couple of passing hoodlums jeered at him. He turned and gave them +a look so full of mingled dignity, pain, and surprise, that the low +fellows were abashed, and uttering a forced laugh, with averted faces +they hurried on. The presence that can bring shame to a San Francisco +hoodlum must indeed be kingly, or in some way impressive. In that genus +the beastliness and devilishness of American city-life reach their +lowest denomination when the brutality of the savage and the lowest +forms of civilized vice are combined, human nature touches bottom. + +The Emperor never spoke of his early life. The veil of mystery on this +point increased the popular curiosity concerning him, and invested him +with something of a romantic interest. There was one thing that excited +his disgust and indignation. The Bohemians of the San Francisco press +got into the practice of attaching his name to their satires and hits at +current follies, knowing that the well-known "Norton I." at the end +would insure a reading. This abuse of the liberty of the press he +denounced with dignified severity, threatening extreme measures unless +it were stopped. But nowhere on earth did the press exhibit more +audacity, or take a wider range, and it would have required a sterner +heart and a stronger hand than that of Norton I. to put a hook into its +jaws. + +The end of all human grandeur, real or imaginary, comes at last. The +Emperor became thinner and more stooped as the years passed. The humor +of his hallucination retired more and more into the background, and its +pathetic side came out more strongly. His step was slow and feeble, and +there was that look in his eyes so often seen in the old and sometimes +in the young, just before the great change comes--a rapt, far-away +look, suggesting that the invisible is coming into view, the shadows +vanishing and the realities appearing. The familiar face and form were +missed on the streets, and it was known that he was dead. He had gone to +his lonely lodging, and quietly lain down and died. The newspapers spoke +of him with pity and respect, and all San Francisco took time, in the +midst of its roar-and-rush fever of perpetual excitement, to give a kind +thought to the dead man who had passed over to the life where all +delusions are laid aside, where the mystery of life shall be revealed, +and where we shall see that through all its tangled web ran the golden +thread of mercy. His life was an illusion, and the thousands who sleep +with him in Lone Mountain waiting the judgment-day were his brothers. + + + +Camilla Cain. + +She was from Baltimore, and had the fair face and gentle voice peculiar +to most Baltimore women. Her organization was delicate but elastic--one +of the sort that bends easily, but is hard to break. In her eyes was +that look of wistful sadness so often seen in holy women of her type. +Timid as a fawn, in the class-meeting she spoke of her love to Jesus and +delight in his service in a voice low and a little hesitating, but with +strangely thrilling effect. The meetings were sometimes held in her own +little parlor in the cottage on Dupont street, and then we always felt +that we had met where the Master himself was a constant and welcome +guest. She was put into the crucible. For more than fifteen years she +suffered unceasing and intense bodily pain. Imprisoned in her sick +chamber, she fought her long, hard battle. The pain-distorted limbs lost +their use, the patient face waxed more wan, and the traces of agony were +on it always; the soft, loving eyes were often tear washed. The fires +were hot, and they burned on through the long, long years without +respite. The mystery of it all was too deep for me; it was too deep for +her. But somehow it does seem that the highest suffer most: + +The sign of rank in Nature Is capacity for pain, And the anguish of the +singer Makes the sweetness of the strain. + +The victory of her faith was complete. If the inevitable why? sometimes +was in her thought, no shadow of distrust ever fell upon her heart. Her +sick-room was the quietest, brightest spot in all the city. How often +did I go thither weary and faint with the roughness of the way, and +leave feeling that I had heard the voices and inhaled the odors of +paradise! A little talk, a psalm, and then a prayer, during which the +room seemed to be filled with angel-presences; after which the thin, +pale face was radiant with the light reflected from our Immanuel's face. +I often went to see her, not so much to convey as to get a blessing. Her +heart was kept fresh as a rose of Sharon in the dew of the morning. The +children loved to be near her; and the pathetic face of the dear +crippled boy, the pet of the family, was always brighter in her +presence. Thrice death came into the home-circle with its shock and +mighty wrenchings of the heart, but the victory was not his, but hers. +Neither death nor life could separate her from the love of her Lord. She +was one of the elect. The elect are those who know, having the witness +in themselves. She was conqueror of both--life with its pain and its +weariness, death with its terror and its tragedy. She did not endure +merely, she triumphed. Borne on the wings of a mighty faith, her soul +was at times lifted above all sin, and temptation, and pain, and the +sweet, abiding peace swelled into an ecstasy of sacred joy. Her swimming +eyes and rapt look told the unutterable secret. She has crossed over the +narrow stream on whose margin she lingered so long; and there was joy on +the other side when the gentle, patient, holy Camilla Cain joined the +glorified throng. + +O though oft depressed and lonely, All my fears are laid aside, If I but +remember only Such as these have lived and died! + + + +Lone Mountain. + +The sea-wind sweeps over the spot at times in gusts like the frenzy of +hopeless grief, and at times in sighs as gentle as those heaved by aged +sorrow in sight of eternal rest. The voices of the great city come +faintly over the sand-hills, with subdued murmur like a lullaby to the +pale sleepers that are here lying low. When the winds are quiet, which +is not often, the moan of the mighty Pacific can be heard day or night, +as if it voiced in muffled tones the unceasing woe of a world under the +reign of death. Westward, on the summit of a higher hill, a huge cross +stretches its arms as if embracing the living and the dead-the first +object that catches the eye of the weary voyager as he nears the Golden +Gate, the last that meets his lingering gaze as he goes forth upon the +great waters. O sacred emblem of the faith with which we launch upon +life's stormy main--of the hope that assures that we shall reach the +port when the night and the tempest are past! When the winds are high, +the booming of the breakers on the cliff sounds as if nature were +impatient of the long, long delay, and had anticipated the last thunders +that wake the sleeping dead. On a clear day, the blue Pacific, +stretching away beyond the snowy surf-line, symbolizes the shoreless sea +that rolls through eternity. The Cliff House road that runs hard by is +the chief drive of the pleasure-seekers of San Francisco. Gayety, and +laughter, and heart-break, and tears, meet on the drive; the wail of +agony and the laugh of gladness mingle as the gay crowds dash by the +slow-moving procession on its way to the grave. How often have I made +that slow, sad journey to Lone Mountain--a Via Doloroso to many who +have never been the same after they had gone thither, and coming back +found the light quenched and the music bushed in their homes! Thither +the dead Senator was borne, followed by the tramping thousands, rank on +rank, amid the booming of minute-guns, the tolling of bells, the +measured tread of plumed soldiers, and the roll of drums. Thither was +carried, in his rude coffin, the "unknown man" found dead in the +streets, to be buried in potter's-field. Thither was borne the hard and +grasping idolater of riches, who clung to his coin, and clutched for +more, until he was dragged away by the one hand that was colder and +stronger than his own. Here was brought the little child, out of whose +narrow grave there blossomed the beginnings of a new life to the father +and mother, who in the better life to come will be found among the +blessed company of those whose only path to paradise lay through the +valley of tears. Here were brought the many wanderers, whose last +earthly wish was to go back home, on the other side of the mountains, to +die, but were denied by the stern messenger who never waits nor spares. +And here was brought the mortal part of the aged disciple of Jesus, in +whose dying-chamber the two worlds met, and whose death-throes were +demonstrably the birth of a child of God into the life of glory. + +The first time I ever visited the place was to attend the funeral of a +suicide. The dead man I had known in Virginia, when I was a boy. He was +a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and when I first knew him +he was the captain of a famous volunteer company. He was as handsome as +a picture--the admiration of the girls, and the envy of the young men +of his native town. He was among the first who rushed to California on +the discovery of gold, and of all the heroic men who gave early +California its best bias none was knightlier than this handsome +Virginian; none won stronger friends, or had brighter hopes. He was the +first State Senator from San Francisco. He had the magnetism that won +and the nobility that retained the love of men. Some men push themselves +forward by force of intellect or of will--this man was pushed upward by +his friends because he had their hearts. He married a beautiful woman, +whom he loved literally unto death. I shall not recite the whole story. +God only knows it fully, and he will judge righteously. There was +trouble, rage, and tears, passionate partings and penitent reunions--the +old story of love dying a lingering yet violent death. On the fatal +morning I met him on Washington street. I noticed his manner was hurried +and his look peculiar, as I gave him the usual salutation and a hearty +grasp of the hand. As be moved away, I looked after him with mingled +admiration and pity, until his faultless figure turned the corner and +disappeared. + +Ten minutes afterward he lay on the floor of his room dead, with a +bullet through his brain, his hair dabbled in blood. At the +funeral-service, in the little church on Pine street, strong men bowed +their heads and sobbed. His wife sat on a front seat, pale as marble and +as motionless, her lips compressed as with inward pain; but I saw no +tears on the beautiful face. At the grave the body had been lowered to +its resting-place, and all being ready, the attendants standing with +uncovered heads, I was just about to begin the reading of the solemn +words of the burial service, when a tall, blue-eyed man with gray +side-whiskers pushed his way to the head of the grave, and in a voice +choked with passion, exclaimed: + +"There lies as noble a gentleman as ever breathed, and he owes his death +to that fiend!" pointing his finger at the wife, who stood pale and +silent looking down into the grave. + +She gave him a look that I shall never forget, and the large steely-blue +eyes flashed fire, but she spoke no word. I spoke: + +"Whatever maybe your feelings, or whatever the occasion for them, you +degrade yourself by such an exhibition of them here." + +"That is so, sir; excuse me, my feelings overcame me," he said, and +retiring a few steps, he leaned upon a branch of a scrub-oak and sobbed +like a child. + +The farce and the tragedy of real life were here exhibited on another +occasion. Among my acquaintances in the city were a man and his wife who +were singularly mismatched. He was a plain, unlettered, devout man, who +in a prayer-meeting or class-meeting talked with a simple-hearted +earnestness that always produced a happy effect. + +She was a cultured woman, ambitious and worldly, and so fine-looking +that in her youth she must have been a beauty and a belle. They lived in +different worlds, and grew wider apart as time passed by--he giving +himself to religion, she giving herself to the world. In the gay city +circles in which she moved she was a little ashamed of the quiet, humble +old man, and he did not feel at home among them. There was no formal +separation, but it was known to the friends of the family that for +months at a time they never lived together. The fashionable daughters +went with their mother. The good old man, after a short sickness, died +in great peace. I was sent for to officiate at the funeral-service. +There was a large gathering of people, and a brave parade of all the +externals of grief, but it was mostly dry-eyed grief, so far as I could +see. At the grave, just as the sun that was sinking in the ocean threw +his last rays upon the spot, and the first shovelful of earth fell upon +the coffin that had been gently lowered to its resting-place, there was +a piercing shriek from one of the carriages, followed by the +exclamation: + +"What shall I do? How can I live? I have lost my all! O! O! O!" + +It was the dead man's wife. Significant glances and smiles were +interchanged by the bystanders. Approaching the carriage in which the +woman was sitting, I laid my hand upon her arm, looked her in the face, +and said: + +"Hush!" + +She understood me, and not another sound did she utter. Poor woman! She +was not perhaps as heartless as they thought she was. There was at least +a little remorse in those forced exclamations, when she thought of the +dead man in the coffin; but her eyes were dry, and she stopped very +short. + +Another incident recurs to me that points in a different direction. One +day the most noted gambler in San Francisco called on me with the +request that I should attend the funeral of one of his friends, who had +died the night before. A splendid-looking fellow was this knight of the +faro-table. More than six feet in height, with deep chest and perfectly +rounded limbs, jet black hair, brilliant black eyes, clear olive +complexion, and easy manners, he might have been taken for an Italian +nobleman or a Spanish Don. He had a tinge of Cherokee blood in his +veins. I have noticed that this cross of the white and Cherokee blood +often results in producing this magnificent physical development. I have +known a number of women of this lineage, who were very queens in their +beauty and carriage. But this noted gambler was illiterate. The only +book of which he knew or cared much was one that had fifty-two pages, +with twelve pictures. If he had been educated, he might have handled the +reins of government, instead of presiding over a nocturnal banking +institution. + +"Parson, can you come to number--, on Kearney street, tomorrow at ten +o'clock, and give us a few words and a prayer over a friend of mine, who +died last night?" + +I promised to be there, and he left. + +His friend, like himself, had been a gambler. He was from New York. He +was well educated, gentle in his manners, and a general favorite with +the rough and desperate fellows with whom he associated, but with whom +he seemed out of place. The passion for gambling had put its terrible +spell on him, and be was helpless in its grasp. But though he mixed with +the crowds that thronged the gambling-hells, he was one of them only in +the absorbing passion for play. There was a certain respect shown him by +all that venturesome fraternity. He went to Frazer River during the gold +excitement. In consequence of exposure and privation in that wild chase +after gold, which proved fatal to so many eager adventurers, he +contracted pulmonary disease, and came back to San Francisco to die. He +had not a dollar. His gambler friend took charge of him, placed him in a +good boarding-place, hired a nurse for him, and for nearly a year +provided for all his wants. + + + +Newton. + +The miners called him the "Wandering Jew." That was behind his back. To +his face they addressed him as Father Newton. He walked his circuits in +the northern mines. No pedestrian could keep up with him, as with his +long form bending forward, his immense yellow beard that reached to his +breast floating in the wind, he strode from camp to camp with the +message of salvation. It took a good trotting-horse to keep pace with +him. Many a stout prospector, meeting him on a highway, after panting +and straining to bear him company, had to fall behind, gazing after him +in wonder, as he swept out of sight at that marvelous gait. There was a +glitter in his eye, and an intensity of gaze that left you in doubt +whether it was genius or madness that it bespoke. It was, in truth, a +little of both. He had genius. Nobody ever talked with him, or heard him +preach, without finding it out. The rough fellow who offended him at a +camp-meeting, near "Yankee Jim's," no doubt thought him mad. He was +making some disturbance just as the long bearded old preacher was +passing with a bucket of water in his hand. + +"What do you mean?" he thundered, stopping and fixing his keen eye upon +the rowdy. + +A rude and profane reply was made by the jeering sinner. + +Quick as thought Newton rushed upon him with flashing eye and uplifted +bucket, a picture of fiery wrath that was too much for the thoughtless +scoffer, who fled in terror amid the laughter of the crowd. The +vanquished son of Belial had no sympathy from anybody, and the plucky +preacher was none the less esteemed because he was ready to defend his +Master's cause with carnal weapons. The early Californians left scarcely +any path of sin unexplored, and were a sad set of sinners, but for +virtuous women and religion they never lost their reverence. Both were +scarce in those days, when it seemed to be thought that gold-digging and +the Decalogue could not be made to harmonize. The pioneer preachers +found that one good woman made a better basis for evangelization than a +score of nomadic bachelors. The first accession of a woman to a church +in the mines was an epoch in its history. The church in the house of +Lydia was the normal type--it must be anchored to woman's faith, and +tenderness, and love, in the home. + +He visited San Francisco during my pastorate in 1858. On Sunday morning +he preached a sermon of such extraordinary beauty and power that at the +night-service the house was crowded by a curious congregation, drawn +thither by the report of the forenoon effort. His subject was the faith +of the mother of Moses, and he handled it in his own way. The powerful +effect of one passage I shall never forget. It was a description of the +mother's struggle, and the victory of her faith in the crisis of her +trial. No longer able to protect her child, she resolves to commit him +to her God. He drew a picture of her as she sat weaving together the +grasses of the little ark of bulrushes, her hot tears falling upon her +work, and pausing from time to time with her hand pressed upon her +throbbing heart. At length, the little vessel is finished, and she goes +by night to the bank of the Nile, to take the last chance to save her +boy from the knife of the murderers. Approaching the river's edge, with +the ark in her hands, she stoops a moment, but her mother's heart fails +her. How can she give up her child? In frenzy of grief she sinks upon +her knees, and lifting her gaze to the heavens, passionately prays to +the God of Israel. That prayer! It was the wail of a breaking heart, a +cry out of the depths of a mighty agony. But as she prays the +inspiration of God enters her soul, her eyes kindle, and her face beams +with the holy light of faith. She rises, lifts the little ark, looks +upon the sleeping face of the fair boy, prints a long, long kiss upon +his brow, and then with a firm step she bends down, and placing the tiny +vessel upon the waters, lets it go. "And away it went," he, said, +"rocking upon the waves as it swept beyond the gaze of the mother's +straining eyes. The monsters of the deep were there, the serpent of the +Nile was there, behemoth was there, but the child slept as sweetly and +as safely upon the rocking waters as if it were nestled upon its +mother's breast--for God was there!" The effect was electric. The +concluding words, "for God was there!" were uttered with upturned face +and lifted hands, and in a tone of voice that thrilled the hearers like +a sudden clap of thunder from a cloud over whose bosom the lightnings +had rippled in gentle flashes. It was true eloquence. + +In a revival meeting, on another occasion, he said, in a sermon of +terrific power: "O the hardness of the human heart! Yonder is a man in +hell. He is told that there is one condition on which he may be +delivered, and that is that lie must get the consent of every good being +in the universe. A ray of hope enters his soul, and he sets out to +comply with the condition. He visits heaven and earth, and finds +sympathy and consent from all. All the holy angels consent to his +pardon; all the pure and holy on earth consent; God himself repeats the +assurance of his willingness that he maybe saved. Even in hell, the +devils do not object, knowing that his misery only heightens theirs. All +are willing, all are ready--all but one man. He refuses; he will not +consent. A monster of cruelty and wickedness, he refuses his simple +consent to save a soul from an eternal hell! Surely a good God and all +good beings in the universe would turn in horror from such a monster. +Sinner, you are that man! The blessed God, the Holy Trinity, every angel +in heaven, every good man and woman on earth, are not only willing but +anxious that you shall be saved. But you will not consent. You refuse to +come to Jesus that you may have life. You are the murderer of your own +immortal soul. You drag yourself down to hell. You lock the door of your +own dungeon of eternal despair, and throw the key into the bottomless +pit, by rejecting the Lord that bought you with his blood! You will be +lost! you must be lost! you ought to be lost." + +The words were something like these, but the energy, the passion, the +frenzy of the speaker must be imagined. Hard and stubborn hearts were +moved under that thrilling appeal. They were made to feel that the +preacher's picture of a self doomed soul described their own eases. +There was joy in heaven that night over repenting sinners. + +This old man of the mountains was a walking encyclopedia of theological +and other learning. He owned books that could not be duplicated in +California; and he read them, digested their contents, and constantly +surprised his cultivated bearers by the affluence of his knowledge, and +the fertility of his literary and classic allusion. He wrote with +elegance and force. His weak point was orthography. He would trip +sometimes in the spelling of the most common words. His explanation of +this weakness was curious: He was a printer in Mobile, Alabama. On one +occasion a thirty-two-page book-form of small type was "pied." "I +undertook,", said he, "to set that pied form to rights, and, in doing +so, the words got so mixed in my brain that my spelling was spoiled +forever!" + +He went to Oregon, and traveled and preached from the Cascade Mountains +to Idaho, thrilling, melting, and amusing, in turn, the crowds that came +out to hear the wild-looking man whose coming was so sudden, and whose +going as so rapid, that they were lost in wonder, as if gazing at a +meteor that flashed across the sky. + +He was a Yankee from New Hampshire, who, going to Alabama, lost his +heart, and was ever afterward intensely Southern in all his convictions +and affections. His fiery soul found congenial spirits among the +generous, hotblooded people of the Gulf States, whose very faults had a +sort of charm for this impulsive, generous, erratic, gifted, man. He +made his way back to his New England hills, where he is waiting for the +sunset, often turning a longing eye southward, and now and then sending +a greeting to Alabama. + + + +The California Politician. + +The California politician of the early days was plucky. He had to be so, +for faint heart won no votes in those rough times. One of the Marshalls +(Tom or Ned--I forget which), at the beginning of a stump speech one +night in the mines, was interrupted by a storm of hisses and execrations +from a turbulent crowd of fellows, many of whom were full of whisky. He +paused a moment, drew himself up to his full height, coolly took a +pistol from his pocket, laid it on the stand before him, and said: + +"I have seen bigger crowds than this many a time. I want it to be fully +understood that I came here to make a speech tonight, and I am going to +do it, or else there will be a funeral or two." + +That touch took with that crowd. The one thing they all believed in was +courage. Marshall made one of his grandest speeches, and at the close +the delighted miners bore him in triumph from the rostrum. + +That was a curious exordium of "Uncle Peter Mehan," when he made his +first stump-speech at Sonora: "Fellow-citizens, I was born an orphin at +a very early period of my life." He was a candidate for supervisor, and +the good-natured miners elected him triumphantly. He made a good +supervisor, which is another proof that book-learning and elegant +rhetoric are not essential where there are integrity and native good +sense. Uncle Peter never stole any thing, and he was usually on the +right side of all questions that claimed the attention of the +county-fathers of Tuolumne. + +In the early days, the Virginians, New Yorkers, and Tennesseans, led in +politics. Trained to the stump at home, the Virginians and Tennesseans +were ready on all occasions to run a primary-meeting, a convention, or a +canvass. There was scarcely a mining-camp in the State in which there +was not a leading local politician from one or both of these States. The +New Yorker understood all the inside management of party organization, +and was up to all the smart tactics developed in the lively struggles of +parties in the times when Whiggery and Democracy fiercely fought for +rule in the Empire State. Broderick was a New Yorker, trained by Tammany +in its palmy days. He was a chief, who rose from the ranks, and ruled by +force of will. Thick-set, strong-limbed, full-chested, with immense +driving-power in his back-head, he was an athlete whose stalwart +physique was of more value to him than the gift of eloquence, or even +the power of money. The sharpest lawyers and the richest money-kings +alike went down before this uncultured and moneyless man, who dominated +the clans of San Francisco simply by right of his manhood. He was not +without a sort of eloquence of his own. He spoke right to the point, and +his words fell like the thud of a shillalah; or rang like the clash of +steel. He dealt with the rough elements of politics in an exciting and +turbulent period of California politics, and was more of a border chief +than an Ivanhoe in his modes of warfare. He reached the United States +Senate, and in his first speech in that august body he honored his +manhood by an allusion to his father, a stone mason, whose hands, said +Broderick, had helped to erect the very walls of the chamber in which he +spoke. When a man gets as high as the United States Senate, there is +less tax upon his magnanimity in acknowledging his humble origin than +while he is lower down the ladder. You seldom hear a man boast how low +he began until he is far up toward the summit of his ambition. +Ninety-nine out of every hundred self-made men are at first more or less +sensitive concerning their low birth; the hundredth man who is not is a +man indeed. + +Broderick's great rival was Gwin. The men were antipodes in every thing +except that they belonged to the same party. Gwin still lives, the most +colossal figure in the history of California. He looks the man he is. Of +immense frame, ruddy complexion, deep-blue eyes that almost blaze when +he is excited, rugged yet expressive features, a massive bead crowned +with a heavy suit of silver-white hair, he is marked by Nature for +leadership. Common men seem dwarfed in his presence. After he had +dropped out of California politics for awhile, a Sacramento hotel-keeper +expressed what many felt during a legislative session: "I find myself +looking around for Gwin. I miss the chief." + +My first acquaintance with Dr. Gwin began with, an incident that +illustrates the man and the times. It was in 1856. The Legislature was +in session at Sacramento, and a United States Senator was to, be +elected. I was making a tentative movement toward starting a Southern +Methodist newspaper, and visited Sacramento on that business. My friend +Major P. L. Solomon was there, and took a friendly interest in my +enterprise. He proposed to introduce me to the leading men of both +parties, and I thankfully availed myself of his courtesy. Among the +first to whom he presented me was a noted politician who, both before +and since, has enjoyed a national notoriety, and who still lives, and is +as, ready as ever to talk or fight. His name I need not give. I +presented to him my mission, and he seemed embarrassed. + +"I am with you, of course. My mother was a Methodist, and all my +sympathies are with the Methodist Church. I am a Southern man in all my +convictions and impulses, and I am a Southern Methodist in principle. +But you see, sir, I am a candidate for United States Senator, and +sectional feeling is likely to enter into the contest, and if it were +known that my name was on your list of subscribers, it might endanger my +election." + +He squeezed my arm, told me he loved me and my Church, said he would be +happy to see me often, and so forth--but he did not give me his name. I +left him, saying in my heart, Here is a politician. + +Going on together, in the corridor we met Gwin. Solomon introduced me, +and told him my business. + +"I am glad to know that you are going to start a Southern Methodist +newspaper. No Church can do without its organ. Put me down on your list, +and come with me, and I will make all these fellows subscribe. There is +not much religion among them, I fear, but we will make them take the +paper." + +This was said in a hearty and pleasant way, and he took me from man to +man, until I had gotten more than a dozen names, among them two or three +of his most active political opponents. + +This incident exhibits the two types of the politician, and the two +classes of men to be found in all communities--the one all "blarney" +and selfishness, the other with real manhood redeeming poor human +nature, and saving it from utter contempt. The senatorial prize eluded +the grasp of both aspirants, but the reader will not be at a loss to +guess whose side I was on. Dr. Gwin made a friend that day, and never +lost him. It was this sort of fidelity to friends that, when fortune +frowned on the grand old Senator after the collapse at Appomattox, +rallied thousands of true hearts to his side, among whom were those who +had fought him in many a fierce political battle. Broderick and Gwin +were both, by a curious turn of political fortune, elected by the same +Legislature to the United States Senate. Broderick sleeps in Lone +Mountain, and Gwin still treads the stage of his former glory, a living +monument of the days when California politics was half romance and half +tragedy. The friend and protege of General Andrew Jackson, a member of +the first Constitutional Convention of California, twice United States +Senator, a prominent figure in the civil war, the father of the great +Pacific Railway, he is the front figure on the canvas of California +history. + +Gwin was succeeded by McDougall. What a man was he! His face was as +classic as a Greek statue. It spoke the student and the scholar in every +line. His hair was snow-white, his eyes bluish gray, and his form +sinewy and elastic. He went from Illinois, with Baker and other men of +genius, and soon won a high place at the bar of San Francisco. I heard +it said, by an eminent jurist, that when McDougall had put his whole +strength into the examination of a case, his side of it was exhausted. +His reading was immense, his learning solid. His election was doubtless +a surprise to himself as well as to the California public. The day +before he left for Washington City, I met him in the street, and as we +parted I held his hand a moment, and said: + +"Your friends will watch your career with hope and with fear." + +He knew what I meant, and said, quickly: + +"I understand you. You are afraid that I will yield to my weakness for +strong drink. But you may be sure I will play the man, and California +shall have no cause to blush on my account." + +That was his fatal weakness. No one, looking upon his pale, scholarly +face, and noting his faultlessly neat apparel, and easy, graceful +manners, would have thought of such a thing. Yet he was a--I falter in +writing it--a drunkard. At times he drank deeply and madly. When half +intoxicated he was almost as brilliant as Hamlet, and as rollicking as +Falstaff. It was said that even when fully drunk his splendid intellect +never entirely gave way. + +"McDougall commands as much attention in the Senate when drunk as any +other Senator does when sober," said a Congressman in Washington in +1866. It is said that his great speech on the question of +"confiscation," at the beginning of the war, was delivered when he was +in a state of semi-intoxication. Be that as it may, it exhausted the +whole question, and settled the policy of the Government. + +"No one will watch your senatorial career with more friendly interest +than myself; and if you will abstain wholly from all strong drink, we +shall all, be proud of you, I know." + +"Not a drop will I touch, my friend; and I'll make you proud of me." + +He spoke feelingly, and I think there was a moisture about his eye as he +pressed my hand and walked away. + +I never saw him again. For the first few months he wrote to me often, +and then his letters came at longer intervals, and then they ceased. And +then the newspapers disclosed the shameful secret California's brilliant +Senator was a drunkard. The temptations of the Capital were too strong +for him. He went down into the black waters a complete wreck. He +returned to the old home of his boyhood in New Jersey to die. I learned +that he was lucid and penitent at the last. They brought his body back +to San Francisco to be buried, and when at his funeral the words "I know +that my Redeemer liveth," in clear soprano, rang through the vaulted +cathedral like a peal of triumph, I indulged the hope that the spirit of +my gifted and fated friend had, through the mercy of the Friend of +sinners, gone from his boyhood hills up to the hills of God. + +The typical California politician was Coffroth. The "boys" fondly called +him "Jim" Coffroth. There is no surer sign of popularity than a popular +abbreviation of this sort, unless it is a pet nickname. Coffroth was +from Pennsylvania, where he had gained an inkling of polities and +general literature. He gravitated into California polities by the law of +his nature. He was born for this, having what a friend calls the gift of +popularity. His presence was magnetic; his laugh was contagious; his +enthusiasm irresistible. Nobody ever thought of taking offense at Jim +Coffroth. He could change his politics with impunity without losing a +friend--he never had a personal enemy; but I believe he only made that +experiment once. He went off with the Know-nothings in 1855, and was +elected by them to the State Senate, and was called to preside over +their State Convention. He hastened back to his old party associates, +and at the first convention that met in his county on his return from +the Legislature, he rose and told them how lonesome he had felt while +astray from the old fold, how glad he was to get back, and how humble he +felt, concluding by advising all his late supporters to do as he had +done by taking "a straight chute" for the old party. He ended amid a +storm of applause, was reinstated at once, and was made President of the +next Democratic State Convention. There he was in his glory. His tact +and good humor were infinite, and he held those hundreds of excitable +and explosive men in the hollow of his hand. He would dismiss a +dangerous motion with a witticism so apt that the mover himself would +join in the laugh, and give it up. His broad face in repose was that of +a Quaker, at other times that of a Bacchus. There was a religious streak +in this jolly partisan, and he published several poems that breathed the +sweetest and loftiest religious sentiment. The newspapers were a little +disposed to make a joke of these ebullitions of devotional feeling, but +they now make the light that casts a gleam of brightness upon the +background of his life. I take from an old volume of the Christian +Spectator one of these poems as a literary curiosity. Every man lives +two lives. The rollicking politician, "Jim Coffroth," every Californian +knew; the author of these lines was another man by the same name: + +Amid the Silence of the Night. "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall +neither slumber nor sleep." Psalm cxxi. + +Amid the silence of the night, Amid its lonely hours and dreary, When we +Close the aching sight, Musing sadly, lorn and weary, Trusting that +tomorrow's light May reveal a day more cheery; + +Amid affliction's darker hour, When no hope beguiles our sadness, When +Death's hurtling tempests lower, And forever shroud our gladness, While +Grief's unrelenting power Goads our stricken hearts to madness; + +When from friends beloved we're parted, And from scenes our spirits +love, And are driven, broken-hearted, O'er a heartless world to rove; +When the woes by which we've smarted, Vainly seek to melt or move; When +we trust and are deluded, When we love and are denied, When the schemes +o'er which we brooded Burst like mist on mountain's side, And, from +every hope excluded, We in dark despair abide; + +Then, and ever, God sustains us, He whose eye no slumber knows, Who +controls each throb that pains us, And in mercy sends our woes, And by +love severe constrains us To avoid eternal throes. + +Happy he whose heart obeys him! Lost and ruined who disown! O if idols +e'er displace him, Tear them from his chosen throne! May our lives and +language praise him! May our hearts be his alone! + +He took defeat with a good nature that robbed it of its sting, and made +his political opponents half sorry for having beaten him. He was talked +of for Governor at one time, and he gave as a reason, why he would like +the office that "a great many of his friends were in the State-prison, +and he wanted to use the pardoning power in their behalf." This was a +jest, of course, referring to the fact that as a lawyer much of his +practice was in the criminal courts. He was never suspected of treachery +or dishonor in public or private life. His very ambition was unselfish: +he was always ready to sacrifice himself in a hopeless candidacy if he +could thereby help his party or a friend. + +His good nature was tested once while presiding over a party convention +at Sonora for the nomination of candidates for legislative and county +offices. Among the delegates was the eccentric John Vallew, whose mind +was a singular compound of shrewdness and flightiness, and was stored +with the most out-of-the-way scraps of learning, philosophy, and poetry. +Some one proposed Vallew's name as a candidate for the Legislature. He +rose to his feet with a clouded face, and in an angry voice said: + +"Mr. President, I am surprised and mortified. I have lived in this +county more than seven years, and I have never had any difficulty with +my neighbors. I did not know that I had an enemy in the world. What have +I done, that it should be proposed to send me to the Legislature? What +reason has anybody to think I am that sort of a man? To think I should +have come to this! To propose to send me to the Legislature, when it is +a notorious fact that you have never sent a man thither from this county +who did not come back morally and pecuniarily ruined!" + +The crowd saw the point, and roared with laughter, Coffroth, who had +served in the previous session, joining heartily in the merriment. +Vallew was excused. + +Coffroth grew fatter and jollier; his strong intellect struggled against +increasing sensual tendencies. What the issue might have been, I know +not. He died suddenly, and his destiny was transferred to another +sphere. So there dropped out of California-life a partisan without +bitterness, a satirist without malice, a wit without a sting, the +jolliest, freest, readiest man that ever faced a California audience on +the hustings--the typical politician of California. + + + +Old Man Lowry. + +I had marked his expressive physiognomy among my hearers in the little +church in Sonora for some weeks before he made himself known to me. As I +learned afterward, he was weighing the young preacher in his critical +balances. He had a shrewd Scotch face, in which there was a mingling of +keenness, benignity, and humor. His age might be sixty, or it might be +more. He was an old bachelor, and wide guesses are sometimes made as to +the ages of that class of men. They may not live longer than married +men, but they do not show the effects of life's wear and tear so early. +He came to see us one evening. He fell in love with the mistress of the +parsonage, just as he ought to have done, and we were charmed with the +quaint old bachelor. There was a piquancy, a sharp flavor, in his talk +that was delightful. His aphorisms often crystallized a neglected truth +in a form all his own. He was an original character. There was nothing +commonplace about him. He had his own way of saying and doing every +thing. + +Society in the mines was limited in that day, and we felt that we had +found a real thesaurus in this old man of unique mold. His visits were +refreshing to us, and his plain-spoken criticisms were helpful to me. + +He had left the Church because he did not agree with the preachers on +some points of Christian ethics, and because they used tobacco. But he +was unhappy on the outside, and finding that my views and habits did not +happen to cross his peculiar notions, he came back. His religious +experience was out of the common order. Bred a Calvinist, of the good +old Scotch-Presbyterian type, he had swung away from that faith, and was +in danger of rushing into Universalism, or infidelity. That once famous +and much-read little book, "John Nelson's Journal," fell into his hands, +and changed his whole life. It led him to Christ, and to the Methodists. +He was a true spiritual child of the unflinching Yorkshire stone-cutter. +Like him he despised half-way measures, and like him he was aggressive +in thought and action. What he liked he loved, what he disliked he +hated. Calvinism he abhorred, and he let no occasion pass for pouring +into it the hot shot of his scorn and wrath. One night I preached from +the text, Should it be according to thy mind? + +"The first part of your sermon," he said to me as we passed out of the +church, "distressed me greatly. For a full half hour you preached +straight out Calvinism, and I thought you had ruined every thing; but +you had left a little slip-gap, and crawled out at the last." + +His ideal of a minister of the gospel was Dr. Keener, whom he knew at +New Orleans before coming to California. He was the first man I ever +heard mention Dr. Keener's name for the episcopacy. There was much in +common between them. If my eccentric California bachelor friend did not +have as strong and cool a head, he had as brave and true a heart as the +incisive and chivalrous Louisiana preacher, upon whose head the miter +was placed by the suffrage of his brethren at Memphis in 1870. + +He became very active as a worker in the Church. I made him +class-leader, and there have been few in that office who brought to its +sacred duties as much spiritual insight, candor, and tenderness. At +times his words flashed like diamonds, showing what the Bible can reveal +to a solitary thinker who makes it his chief study day and night. When +needful, he could apply caustic that burned to the very core of an error +of opinion or of practice. He took a class in the Sunday-school, and his +freshness, acuteness, humor, and deep knowledge of the Scriptures, made +him far more than an ordinary teacher. A fine pocket Bible was offered +as a prize to the scholar who should, in three months, memorize the +greatest number of Scripture verses. The wisdom of such a contest is +questionable to me now, but it was the fashion then, and I was too young +and self-distrustful to set myself against the current in such matters. +The contest was an exciting one--two boys, Robert A--and Jonathan R--, +and one girl, Annie P--, leading all the school. Jonathan suddenly fell +behind, and was soon distanced by his two competitors. Lowry, who was +his teacher, asked him what was the reason of his sudden breakdown. The +boy blushed, and stammered out: + +"I didn't want to beat Annie." + +Robert won the prize, and the day came for its presentation. The house +was full, and everybody was in a pleasant mood. After the prize had been +presented in due form and with a little flourish, Lowry arose, and +producing a costly Bible, in a few words telling how magnanimously and +gallantly Jonathan had retired from the contest, presented it to the +pleased and blushing boy. The boys and girls applauded California +fashion, and the old man's face glowed with satisfaction. He had in him +curiously mingled the elements of the Puritan and the Cavalier--the +uncompromising persistency of the one, and the chivalrous impulse and +openhandedness of the other. + +The old man had too many crotchets and too much combativeness to be +popular. He spared no opinion or habit he did not like. He struck every +angle within reach of him. In the state of society then existing in the +mines there were many things to vex his soul, and keep him on the +warpath. The miners looked upon him as a brave, good man, just a little +daft. He worked a mining-claim on Wood's Creek, north of town, and lived +alone in a tiny cabin on the hill above. That was the smallest of +cabins, looking like a mere box from the trail which wound through the +flat below. Two little scrub-oaks stood near it, under which he sat and +read his Bible in leisure moments. There, above the world, he could +commune with his own heart and with God undisturbed, and look down upon +a race he half pitied and half despised. From the spot the eye took in a +vast sweep of hill and dale: Bald Mountain, the most striking object in +the near background, and beyond its dark, rugged mass the snowy summits +of the Sierras, rising one above another, like gigantic stair-steps, +leading up to the throne of the Eternal. This lonely height suited +Lowry's strangely compounded nature. As a cynic, he looked down with +contempt upon the petty life that seethed and frothed in the camps +below; as a saint, he looked forth upon the wonders of God's handiwork +around and above him. + +There was an intensity in all that he did. Passing his mining-claim on +horseback one day, I paused to look at him in his work. Clad in a blue +flannel mining-suit, he was digging as for life. The embankment of red +dirt and gravel melted away rapidly before his vigorous strokes, and he +seemed to feel a sort of fierce delight in his work. Pausing a moment, +he looked up and saw me. + +"You dig as if you were in a hurry," I said. + +"Yes, I have been digging here three years. I have a notion that I have +just so much of the earth to turn over before I am turned under," he +replied with a sort of grim humor. + +He was still there when we visited Sonora in 1857. He invited us out to +dinner, and we went. By skillful circling around the hill, we reached +the little cabin on the summit with horse and buggy. The old man had +made preparations for his expected guests. The floor of the cabin had +been swept, and its scanty store of furniture put to rights, and a +dinner was cooking in and on the little stove. His lady-guest insisted +on helping in the preparation of the dinner, but was allowed to do +nothing further than to arrange the dishes on the primitive table, which +was set out under one of the little oaks in the yard. It was a miner's +feast--can-fruits, can-vegetables, can-oysters, can-pickles, can-every +thing nearly, with tea distilled from the Asiatic leaf by a receipt of +his own. It was a hot day, and from the cloudless heavens the sun +flooded the earth with his glory, and the shimmer of the sunshine was in +the still air. We tried to be cheerful, but there was a pathos about the +affair that touched us. He felt it too. More than once there was a tear +in his eye. At parting, he kissed little Paul, and gave us his hand in +silence. As we drove down the hill, he stood gazing after us with a look +fixed and sad. The picture is till before me the lonely old man standing +sad and silent, the little cabin, the rude dinner-service under the oak, +and the overarching sky. That was our last meeting. The next will be on +the Other Side. + + + +Suicide in California. + +A half protest rises within me as I begin this Sketch. The page almost +turns crimson under my gaze, and shadowy forms come forth out of the +darkness into which they wildly plunged out of life's misery into +death's mystery. Ghostly lips cry out, "Leave us alone! Why call us back +to a world where we lost all, and in quitting which we risked all? +Disturb us not to gratify the cold curiosity of unfeeling strangers. We +have passed on beyond human jurisdiction to the realities we dared to +meet. Give us the pity and courtesy of your silence, O living brother, +who didst escape the wreck!" The appeal is not without effect, and if I +lift the shroud that covers the faces of these dead self-destroyed, it +will be tenderly, pityingly. These simple Sketches of real California +life would be imperfect if this characteristic feature were entirely +omitted; for California was (and is yet) the land of suicides. In a +single year there were one hundred and six in San Francisco alone. The +whole number of suicides in the State would, if the horror of each case +could be even imperfectly imagined, appall even the dryest statistician +of crime. The causes for this prevalence of self-destruction are to be +sought in the peculiar conditions of the country, and the habits of the +people. California, with all its beauty, grandeur, and riches, has been +to the many who have gone thither a land of great expectations, but +small results. This was specially the case in the earlier period of its +history, after the discovery of gold and its settlement by "Americans," +as we call ourselves, par excellence. Hurled from the topmost height of +extravagant hope to the lowest deep of disappointment, the shock is too +great for reaction; the rope, razor, bullet, or deadly drug, finishes +the tragedy. Materialistic infidelity in California is the avowed belief +of multitudes, and its subtle poison infects the minds and unconsciously +the actions of thousands who recoil from the dark abyss that yawns at +the feet of its adherents with its fascination of horror. Under some +circumstances, suicide becomes logical to a man who has neither hope nor +dread of a hereafter. Sins against the body, and especially the nervous +system, were prevalent; and days of pain, sleepless nights, and weakened +wills, were the precursors of the tragedy that promised change, if not +rest. The devil gets men inside a fiery circle, made by their own sin +and folly, from which there seems to be no escape but by death, and they +will unbar its awful door with their own trembling hands. There is +another door of escape for the worst and most wretched, and it is opened +to the penitent by the hand that was nailed to the rugged cross. These +crises do come, when the next step must be death or life-penitence or +perdition. Do sane men and women ever commit suicide? Yes--and, No. +Yes, in the sense that they sometimes do it with even pulse and steady +nerves. No, in the sense that there cannot be perfect soundness in the +brain and heart of one who violates a primal instinct of human nature. +Each case has its own peculiar features, and must be left to the +all-seeing and all-pitying Father. Suicide, where it is not the greatest +of crimes, is the greatest of misfortunes. The righteous Judge will +classify its victims. + +A noted case in San Francisco was that of a French Catholic priest. He +was young, brilliant, and popular--beloved by his flock, and admired by +a large circle outside. He had taken the solemn vows of his order in all +sincerity of purpose, and was distinguished as well for his zeal in his +pastoral work as for his genius. But temptation met him, and he fell. It +came in the shape in which it assailed the young Hebrew in Potiphar's +house, and in which it overcame the poet-king of Israel. He was seized +with horror and remorse, though he had no accuser save that voice +within, which cannot be hushed while the soul lives. He ceased to +perform the sacred functions of his office, making some plausible +pretext to his superiors, not daring to add sacrilege to mortal sin. +Shutting himself in his chamber, he brooded over his crime; or, no +longer able to endure the agony he felt, he would rush forth, and walk +for hours over the sand-dunes, or along the sea-beach. But no answer of +peace followed his prayers, and the voices of nature soothed him not. He +thought his sin unpardonable--at least, he would not pardon himself. He +was found one morning lying dead in his bed in a pool of blood. He had +severed the jugular-vein with a razor, which was still clutched in his +stiffened fingers. His handsome and classic face bore no trace of pain. +A sealed letter, lying on the table, contained his confession and his +farewell. + +Among the lawyers in one of the largest mining towns of California was +H. B--. He was a native of Virginia, and an alumnus of its noble +University. He was a scholar, a fine lawyer, handsome and manly in +person and bearing, and had the gift of popularity. Though the youngest +lawyer in the town, he took a front place at the bar at once. Over the +heads of several older aspirants, he was elected county judge. There was +no ebb in the tide of his general popularity, and he had qualities that +won the warmest regard of his inner circle of special friends. But in +this case, as in many others, success had its danger. Hard drinking was +the rule in those days. Horace B--had been one of the rare exceptions. +There was a reason for this extra prudence. He had that peculiar +susceptibility to alcoholic excitement which has been the ruin of so +many gifted and noble men. He knew his weakness, and it is strange that +he did not continue to guard against the danger that he so well +understood. Strange? No; this infatuation is so common in everyday life +that we cannot call it strange. There is some sort of fatal fascination +that draws men with their eyes wide open into the very jaws of this hell +of strong drink. The most brilliant physician in San Francisco, in the +prime of his magnificent young manhood, died of delirium tremens, the +victim of a self-inflicted disease, whose horrors no one knew or could +picture so well as himself. Who says man is not a fallen, broken +creature, and that there is not a devil at hand to tempt him? This +devil, under the guise of sociability, false pride, or moral cowardice, +tempted Horace B--, and he yielded. Like tinder touched by flame, he +blazed into drunkenness, and again and again the proud-spirited, manly, +and cultured young lawyer and jurist was seen staggering along the +streets, maudlin or mad with alcohol. When he had slept off his madness, +his humiliation was intense, and he walked the streets with pallid face +and downcast eyes. The coarser-grained men with whom he was thrown in +contact had no conception of the mental tortures he suffered, and their +rude jests stung him to the quick. He despised himself as a weakling and +a coward, but he did not get more than a transient victory over his +enemy. The spark had struck a sensitive organization, and the fire of +hell, smothered for the time, would blaze out again. He was fast +becoming a common drunkard, the accursed appetite growing stronger, and +his will weakening in accordance with that terrible law by which man's +physical and moral nature visits retribution on all who cross its path. +During a term of the court over which he presided, he was taken home one +night drunk. A pistol-shot was heard by persons in the vicinity some +time before daybreak; but pistol-shots, at all hours of the night, were +then too common to excite special attention. Horace B--was found next +morning lying on the floor with a bullet through his head. Many a stout, +heavy-bearded man had, wet eyes when the body of the ill-fated and +brilliant young Virginian was let down into the grave, which had been +dug for him on the hill overlooking the town from the south-east. + +In the same town there was a portrait-painter, a quiet, pleasant fellow, +with a good face and easy, gentlemanly ways. As an artist, he was not +without merit, but his gift fell short of genius. He fell in love with a +charming girl, the eldest daughter of a leading citizen. She could not +return his passion. The enamored artist still loved, and hoped against +hope, lingering near her like a moth around a candle. There was another +and more favored suitor in the case, and the rejected lover had all his +hopes killed at one blow by her marriage to his rival. He felt that +without her life was not worth living. He resolved to kill himself, and +swallowed the contents of a two-ounce bottle of laudanum. After he had +done the rash deed, a reaction took place. He told what he had done, and +a physician was sent for. Before the doctor's arrival, the deadly drug +asserted its power, and this repentant suicide began to show signs of +going into a sleep from which it was certain he would never awake. + +"My God! What have I done?" he exclaimed in horror. "Do your best, boys, +to keep me from going to sleep before the doctor gets here." + +The doctor came quickly, and by the prompt and very vigorous use of the +stomach-pump he was saved. I was sent for, and found the would-be +suicide looking very weak, sick, silly, and sheepish. He got well, and +went on making pictures; but the picture of the fair, sweet girl, for +love of whom he came so near dying, never faded from his mind. His face +always wore a sad look, and he lived the life of a recluse, but he never +attempted suicide again--he had had enough of that. + +"It always makes me shudder to look at that place," said a lady, as we +passed an elegant cottage on the western side of Russian Hill, San +Francisco. + +"Why so? The place to me looks specially cheerful and attractive, with +its graceful slope, its shrubbery, flowers, and thick greensward." + +"Yes, it is a lovely place, but it has a history that it shocks me to +think of. Do you see that tall pumping-apparatus, with water-tank on +top, in the rear of the house?" + +"Yes; what of it?" + +"A woman hanged herself there a year ago. The family consisted of the +husband and wife, and two bright, beautiful children. He was thrifty and +prosperous, she was an excellent housekeeper, and the children were +healthy and well-behaved. In appearance a happier family could not be +found on the hill. One day Mr. P--came home at the usual hour, and, +missing the wife's customary greeting, he asked the children where she +was. The children had not seen their mother for two or three hours, and +looked startled when they found she was missing. Messengers were sent to +the nearest neighbors to make inquiries, but no one had seen her. Mr. P +----'s face began to wear a troubled look as he walked the floor, from +time to time going to the door and casting anxious glances about the +premises. + +"About dusk a sudden shriek was heard, issuing from the water-tank in the +yard, and the Irish servant-girl came rushing from it, with eyes +distended and face pale with terror. + +"Holy Mother of God! It's the Missus that's hanged herself!" + +The alarm spread, and soon a crowd, curious and sympathetic, had +collected. They found the poor lady suspended by the neck from a beam at +the head of the staircase leading to the top of the inclosure. She was +quite dead, and a horrible sight to see. At the inquest no facts were +developed throwing any light on the tragedy. There had been no cloud in +the sky portending the lightning stroke that laid the happy little home +in ruins. The husband testified that she was as bright and happy the +morning of the suicide as he had ever seen her, and had parted with him +at the door with the usual kiss. Every thing about the house that day +bore the marks of her deft and skillful touch. The two children were +dressed with accustomed neatness and, good taste. And yet the bolt was +in the cloud, and it fell before the sun had set! What was the mystery? +Ever afterward I felt something of the feeling expressed by my lady +friend when, in passing, I looked upon the structure which had been the +scene of this singular tragedy. + +One of the most energetic business men living in one of the foothill +towns, on the northern edge of the Sacramento Valley, had a charming +wife, whom he loved with a deep and tender devotion. As in all true +love-matches, the passion of youth had ripened into a yet stronger and +purer love with the lapse of years and participation in the joys and +sorrows of wedded life. Their union had been blessed with five children, +all intelligent, sweet, and full of promise. It was a very affectionate +and happy household. Both parents possessed considerable literary taste +and culture, and the best books and current magazine literature were +read, discussed, and enjoyed in that quiet and elegant home amid the +roses and evergreens. It was a little paradise in the hills, where Love, +the home-angel, brightened every room and blessed every heart. But +trouble came in the shape of business reverses; and the worried look and +wakeful nights of the husband told how heavy were the blows that had +fallen upon this hard and willing worker. The course of ruin in +California was fearfully rapid in those days. When a man's financial +supports began to give way, they went with a crash. The movement +downward was with a rush that gave no time for putting on the brakes. +You were at the bottom, a wreck, almost before you knew it. So it was in +this case. Every thing was swept away, a mountain of unpaid debts was +piled up, credit was gone, clamor of creditors deafened him, and the +gaunt wolf of actual want looked in through the door of the cottage upon +the dear wife and little ones. Another shadow, and a yet darker one, +settled upon them. The unhappy man had been tampering with the delusion +of spiritualism, and his wife had been drawn with him into a partial +belief in its vagaries. In their troubles they sought the aid of the +"familiar spirits" that peeped and muttered through speaking, writing, +and rapping mediums. This kept them in a state of morbid excitement that +increased from day to day until they were wrought up to a tension that +verged on insanity. The lying spirits; or the frenzy of his own heated +brain, turned his thought to death as the only escape from want. + +"I see our way out of these troubles, wife," he said one night, as they +sat hand in hand in the bedchamber, where the children were lying +asleep. "We will all die together! This has been revealed to me as the +solution of all our difficulties. Yes, we will enter the beautiful +spirit-world together! This is freedom! It is only getting out of +prison. Bright spirits beckon and call us. I am ready." + +There was a gleam of madness in his eyes, and, as he took a pistol from +a bureau-drawer, an answering gleam flashed forth from the eyes of the +wife, as she said: + +"Yes, love, we will all go together. I too am ready." + +The sleeping children were breathing sweetly, unmindful of the horror +that the devil was hatching. + +"The children first, then you, and then me," he said, his eye kindling +with increasing excitement. + +He penciled a short note addressed to one of his old friends, asking him +to attend to the burial of the bodies, then they kissed each of the +sleeping children, and then--but let the curtain fall on the scene that +followed. The seven were found next day lying dead, a bullet through the +brain of each, the murderer, by the side of the wife, still holding the +weapon of death in his hand, its muzzle against his right temple. + +Other pictures of real life and death crowd upon, my mind, among them +noble forms and faces that were near and dear to me; but again I hear +the appealing voices. The page before me is wet with tears--I cannot +see to write. + + + +Father Fisher. + +He came to California in 1855. The Pacific Conference was in session at +Sacramento. It was announced that the new preacher from Texas would +preach at night. The boat was detained in some way, and he just had time +to reach the church, where a large and expectant congregation were in +waiting. Below medium height, plainly dressed, and with a sort of +peculiar shuffling movement as he went down the aisle, he attracted no +special notice except for the profoundly reverential manner that never +left him anywhere. But the moment he faced his audience and spoke, it +was evident to them that a man of mark stood before them. They were +magnetized at once, and every eye was fixed upon the strong yet +benignant face, the capacious blue eyes, the ample forehead, and massive +head, bald on top, with silver locks on either side. His tones in +reading the Scripture and the hymns were unspeakably solemn and very +musical. The blazing fervor of the prayer that followed was absolutely +startling to some of the preachers, who had cooled down under the +depressing influence of the moral atmosphere of the country. It almost +seemed as if we could hear the rush of the pentecostal wind, and see the +tongues of flame. The very house seemed to be rocking on its +foundations. By the time the prayer had ended, all were in a glow, and +ready for the sermon. The text I do not now call to mind, but the +impression made by the sermon remains. I had seen and heard preachers +who glowed in the pulpit--this man burned. His words poured forth in a +molten flood, his face shone like a furnace heated from within, his +large blue eyes flashed with the lightning of impassioned sentiment, and +anon swam in pathetic appeal that no heart could resist. Body, brain, +and spirit, all seemed to feel the mighty afflatus. His very frame +seemed to expand, and the little man who had gone into the pulpit with +shuffling step and downcast eyes was transfigured before us. When, with +radiant face, upturned eyes, an upward sweep of his arm, and +trumpet-voice, he shouted, "Hallelujah to God!" the tide of emotion +broke over all barriers, the people rose to their feet, and the church +reechoed with their responsive hallelujahs. The new preacher from Texas +that night gave some Californians a new idea of evangelical eloquence, +and took his place as a burning and a shining light among the ministers +of God on the Pacific Coast. + +"He is the man we want for San Francisco!" exclaimed the impulsive B. T. +Crouch, who had kindled into a generous enthusiasm under that marvelous +discourse. + +He was sent to San Francisco. He was one of a company of preachers who +have successively had charge of the Southern Methodist Church in that +wondrous city inside the Golden Gate--Boring, Evans, Fisher, +Fitzgerald, Gober, Brown, Bailey, Wood, Miller, Ball, Hoss, Chamberlin, +Mahon, Tuggle, Simmons, Henderson. There was an almost unlimited +diversity of temperament, culture, and gifts among these men; but they +all had a similar experience in this, that San Francisco gave them new +revelations of human nature and of themselves. Some went away crippled +and scarred, some sad, some broken; but perhaps in the Great Day it may +be found that for each and all there was a hidden blessing in the +heart-throes of a service that seemed to demand that they should sow in +bitter tears, and know no joyful reaping this side of the grave. O my +brothers, who have felt the fires of that furnace heated seven times +hotter than usual, shall we not in the resting-place beyond the river +realize that these fires burned out of us the dross that we did not know +was in our souls? The bird that comes out of the tempest with broken +wing may henceforth take a lowlier flight, but will be safer because it +ventures no more into the region of storms. + +Fisher did not succeed in San Francisco, because he could not get a +hearing. A little handful would meet him on Sunday mornings in one of +the upper-rooms of the old City Hall, and listen to sermons that sent +them away in a religious glow, but he had no leverage for getting at the +masses. He was no adept in the methods by which the modern sensational +preacher compels the attention of the novelty-loving crowds in our +cities. An evangelist in every fiber of his being, he chafed under the +limitations of his charge in San Francisco, and from time to time he +would make a dash into the country, where, at camp-meetings and on other +special occasions, he preached the gospel with a power that broke many a +sinner's heart, and with a persuasiveness that brought many a wanderer +back to the Good Shepherd's fold. His bodily energy, like his religious +zeal, was unflagging. It seemed little less than a miracle that he +could, day after day, make such vast expenditure of nervous energy +without exhaustion. He put all his strength into every sermon and +exhortation, whether addressed to admiring and weeping thousands at a +great camp-meeting, or to a dozen or less "standbys" at the +Saturday-morning service of a quarterly-meeting. + +He had his trials and crosses. Those who knew him intimately learned to +expect his mightiest pulpit efforts when the shadow on his face and the +unconscious sigh showed that he was passing through the waters and +crying to God out of the depths. In such experiences, the strong man is +revealed and gathers new strength; the weak one goes under. But his +strength was more than mere natural force of will, it was the strength +of a mighty faith in God--that unseen force by which the saints work +righteousness, subdue kingdoms, escape the violence of fire, and stop +the mouths of lions. + +As a flame of fire, Fisher itinerated all over California and Oregon, +kindling a blaze of revival in almost every place he touched. He was +mighty in the Scriptures, and seemed to know the Book by heart. His was +no rose-water theology. He believed in a hell, and pictured it in Bible +language with a vividness and awfulness that thrilled the stoutest +sinner's heart; he believed in heaven, and spoke of it in such a way +that it seemed that with him faith had already changed to sight. The +gates of pearl, the crystal river, the shining ranks of the white-robed +throngs, their songs swelling as the sound of many waters, the holy love +and rapture of the glorified hosts of the redeemed, were made to pass in +panoramic procession before the listening multitudes until the heaven he +pictured seemed to be a present reality. He lived in the atmosphere of +the supernatural; the spirit-world was to him most real. + +"I have been out of the body," he said to me one day. The words were +spoken softly, and his countenance, always grave in its aspect, deepened +in its solemnity of expression as he spoke. + +"How was that?" I inquired. + +"It was in Texas. I was returning from a quarterly-meeting where I had +preached one Sunday morning with great liberty and with unusual effect. +The horses attached to my vehicle became frightened, and ran away. They +were wholly beyond control, plunging down the road at a fearful speed, +when, by a slight turn to one side, the wheel struck a large log. There +was a concussion, and then a blank. The next thing I knew I was floating +in the air above the road. I saw every thing as plainly as I see your +face at this moment. There lay my body in the road, there lay the log, +and there were the trees, the fence, the fields, and every thing, +perfectly natural. My motion, which had been upward, was arrested, and +as, poised in the air, I looked at my body lying there in the road so +still, I felt a strong desire to go back to it, and found myself sinking +toward it. The next thing I knew I was lying in the road where I had +been thrown out, with a number of friends about me, some holding up my +head, others chafing my hands, or looking on with pity or alarm. Yes, I +was out of the body for a little, and I know there is a spirit-world." + +His voice had sunk into a sort of whisper, and the tears were in his +eyes. I was strangely thrilled. Both of us were silent for a time, as if +we heard the echoes of voices, and saw the beckonings of shadowy hands +from that Other World which sometimes seems so far away, and yet is so +near to each one of us. + +Surely you heaven, where angels see God's face, Is not so distant as we +deem From this low earth. 'Tis but a little space, 'Tis but a veil the +winds might blow aside; Yes, this all that us of earth divide From the +bright dwellings of the glorified, The land of which I dream. + +But it was no dream to this man of mighty faith, the windows of whose +soul opened at all times Godward. To him immortality was a demonstrated +fact, an experience. He had been out of the body. + +Intensity was his dominating quality. He wrote verses, and whatever they +may have lacked of the subtle element that marks poetical genius, they +were full of his ardent personality and devotional abandon. He +compounded medicines whose virtues, backed by his own unwavering faith, +wrought wondrous cures. On several occasions he accepted challenge to +polemic battle, and his opponents found in him a fearless warrior, whose +onset was next to irresistible. In these discussions it was no uncommon +thing for his arguments to close with such bursts of spiritual power +that the doctrinal duel would end in a great religious excitement, +bearing disputants and hearers away on mighty tides of feeling that none +could resist. + +I saw in the Texas Christian Advocate an incident, related by Dr. F. A. +Mood, that gives a good idea of what Fisher's eloquence was when in full +tide: + +"About ten years ago," says Dr. M., "when the train from Houston, on the +Central Railroad, on one occasion reached Hempstead, it was peremptorily +brought to a halt. There was a strike among the employees of the road, +on what was significantly called by the strikers 'The Death-warrant.' +The road, it seems, had required all of their employees to sign a paper +renouncing all claims to moneyed reparation in case of their bodily +injury while in the service of the road. The excitement incident to a +strike was at its height at Hempstead when our train reached there. The +tracks were blocked with trains that had been stopped as they arrived +from the different branches of the road, and the employees were gathered +about in groups, discussing the situation--the passengers peering +around with hopeless curiosity. When our train stopped, the conductor +told us that we would have to lie over all night, and many of the +passengers left to find accommodations in the hotels of the town. It was +now night, when a man came into the car and exclaimed, 'The strikers are +tarring and feathering a poor wretch out here, who has taken sides with +the road--come out and see it!' Nearly every one in the car hastened +out. I had risen, when a gentleman behind me gently pulled my coat, and +said to me, 'Sit down a moment.' He went on to say: 'I judge, sir, you +are a clergyman; and I advise you to remain here. You may be put to much +inconvenience by having to appear as a witness; in a mob of that sort, +too, there is no telling what may follow.' I thanked him, and resumed my +seat. He then asked me to what denomination I belonged, and upon my +telling him I was a Methodist preacher, he asked eagerly and promptly if +I had ever met a Methodist preacher in Texas by the name of Fisher, +describing accurately the appearance of our glorified brother. Upon my +telling him I knew him well, he proceeded to give the following +incident. I give it as nearly as I can in his own words. Said he: + +"'I am a Californian, have practiced law for years in that State, and, +at the time I allude to, was district judge. I was holding court at [I +cannot now recall the name of the town he mentioned], and on Saturday +was told that a Methodist camp-meeting was being held a few miles from +town. I determined to visit it, and reached the place of meeting in good +time to hear the great preacher of the occasion--Father Fisher. The +meeting was held in a river canyon. The rocks towered hundreds of feet +on either side, rising over like an arch. Through the ample space over +which the rocks hung the river flowed, furnishing abundance of cool +water, while a pleasant breeze fanned a shaded spot. A great multitude +had assembled--hundreds of very hard cases, who had gathered there, +like myself, for the mere novelty of the thing. I am not a religious man +--never have been thrown under religious influences. I respect religion, +and respect its teachers, but have been very little in contact with +religious things. At the appointed time, the preacher rose. He was +small, with white hair combed back from his forehead, and he wore a +venerable beard. I do not know much about the Bible, and I cannot quote +from his text, but he preached on the Judgment. I tell you, sir, I have +heard eloquence at the bar and on the hustings, but I never heard such +eloquence as that old preacher gave us that day. At the last, when he +described the multitudes calling on the rocks and mountains to fall on +them, I instinctively looked up to the arching rocks above me. Will you +believe it, sir?--as I looked up, to my horror I saw the walls of the +canyon swaying as if they were coming together! Just then the preacher +called on all that needed mercy to kneel down. I recollect he said +something like this: "'Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall +confess;' and you might as well do it now as then." The whole multitude +fell on their knees--every one of them. Although I had never done so +before, I confess to you, sir, I got down on my knees. I did not want to +be buried right then and there by those rocks that seemed to be swaying +to destroy me. The old man prayed for us; it was a wonderful prayer! I +want to see him once more; where will I be likely to find him?' + +"When he had closed his narrative, I said to him: 'Judge, I hope you +have bowed frequently since that day.' 'Alas! no, sir,' he replied; 'not +much; but depend upon it, Father Fisher is a wonderful orator--he made +me think that day that the walls of the canyon were falling.'" + +He went back to Texas, the scene of his early labors and triumphs, to +die. His evening sky was not cloudless--he suffered much--but his +sunset was calm and bright; his waking in the Morning Land was glorious. +If it was at that short period of silence spoken of in the Apocalypse, +we may be sure it was broken when Fisher went in. + + + +Jack White. + +The only thing white about him was his name. He was a Piute Indian, and +Piutes are neither white nor pretty. There is only one being in human +shape uglier than a Piute "buck"--and that is a Piute squaw. One I saw +at the Sink of the Humboldt haunts me yet. Her hideous face, begrimed +with dirt and smeared with yellow paint, bleared and leering eyes, and +horrid long, flapping breasts--ugh! it was a sight to make one feel +sick. A degraded woman is the saddest spectacle on earth. Shakespeare +knew what he was doing when he made the witches in Macbeth of the +feminine gender. But as you look at them you almost forget that these +Piute hags are women--they seem a cross between brute and devil. The +unity of the human race is a fact which I accept; but some of our +brothers and sisters are far gone from original loveliness. If Eve could +see these Piute women, she would not be in a hurry to claim them as her +daughters; and Adam would feel like disowning some of his sons. As it +appears to me, however, these repulsive savages furnish an argument in +support of two fundamental facts of Christianity. One fact is, God did +indeed make of one blood all the nations of the earth; the other is the +fact of the fall and depravity of the human race. This unspeakable +ugliness of these Indians is owing to their evil living. Dirty as they +are, the little Indian children are not at all repulsive in expression. +A boy of ten years, who stood half-naked, shivering in the wind, with +his bow and arrows, had well-shaped features and a pleasant expression +of countenance, with just a little of the look of animal cunning that +belongs to all wild tribes. The ugliness grows on these Indians +fearfully fast when it sets in. The brutalities of the lives they lead +stamp themselves on their faces; and no other animal on earth equals in +ugliness the animal called man, when he is nothing but an animal. + +There was a mystery about Jack White's early life. He was born in the +sagebrush desert beyond the Sierras, and, like all Indian babies, +doubtless had a hard time at the outset. A Christian's pig or puppy is +as well cared for as a Piute papoose. Jack was found in a deserted +Indian camp in the mountains. He had been left to die, and was taken +charge of by the kind hearted John M. White, who was then digging for +gold in the Northern mines. He and his good Christian wife had mercy on +the little Indian boy that looked up at them so pitifully with his +wondering black eyes. At first he had the frightened and bewildered look +of a captured wild creature, but he soon began to be more at ease. He +acquired the English language slowly, and never did lose the peculiar +accent of his tribe. The miners called him Jack White, not knowing any +other name for him. + +Moving to the beautiful San Ramon Valley, not far from the Bay of San +Francisco, the Whites took Jack with them. They taught him the leading +doctrines and facts of the Bible, and made him useful in domestic +service. He grew and thrived. Broad-shouldered, muscular, and straight +as an arrow, Jack was admired for his strength and agility by the white +boys with whom he was brought into contact. Though not quarrelsome, he +had a steady courage that, backed by his great strength, inspired +respect and insured good treatment from them. Growing up amid these +influences, his features were softened into a civilized expression, and +his tawny face was not unpleasing. The heavy under-jaw and square +forehead gave him an appearance of hardness which was greatly relieved +by the honest look out of his eyes, and the smile which now and then +would slowly creep over his face, like the movement of the shadow of a +thin cloud on a calm day in summer. An Indian smiles deliberately, and +in a dignified way--at least Jack did. + +I first knew Jack at Santa Rosa, of which beautiful town his patron, Mr. +White, was then the marshal. Jack came to my Sunday-school, and was +taken into a class of about twenty boys taught by myself. They were the +noisy element of the school, ranging from ten to fifteen years of age +--too large to show the docility of the little lads, but not old enough +to have attained the self-command and self-respect that come later in +life. Though he was much older than any of them, and heavier than his +teacher, this class suited Jack. The white boys all liked him, and he +liked me. We had grand times with that class. The only way to keep them +in order was to keep them very busy. The plan of having them answer in +concert was adopted with decided results. It kept them awake and the +whole school with them, for California boys have strong lungs. Twenty +boys speaking all at once, with eager excitement and flashing eyes, +waked the drowsiest drone in the room. A gentle hint was given now and +then to take a little lower key. In these lessons, Jack's deep guttural +tones came in with marked effect, and it was delightful to see how he +enjoyed it all. And the singing made his swarthy features glow with +pleasure, though he rarely joined in it, having some misgiving as to the +melody of his voice. + +The truths of the gospel took strong hold of Jack's mind, and his +inquiries indicated a deep interest in the matter of religion. I was +therefore not surprised when, during a protracted-meeting in the town, +Jack became one of the converts; but there was surprise and delight +among the brethren at the class-meeting when Jack rose in his place and +told what great thing the Lord had done for him, dwelling with special +emphasis on the words, "I am happy, because I know Jesus takes my sins +away--I know he takes my sins away." His voice melted into softness, +and a tear trickled down his cheek as he spoke; and when Dan Duncan, the +leader, crossed over the room and grasped his hand in a burst of joy, +there was a glad chorus of rejoicing Methodists over Jack White, the +Piute convert. + +Jack never missed a service at the church, and in the social-meetings he +never failed to tell the story of his newborn joy and hope, and always +with thrilling effect, as he repeated with trembling voice, "I am happy, +because I know Jesus takes my sins away." Sin was a reality with Jack, +and the pardon of sin the most wonderful of all facts. He never tired of +telling it; it opened a new world to him, a world of light and joy. Jack +White in the class-meeting or prayer-meeting, with beaming face, and +moistened eyes, and softened voice, telling of the love of Jesus, seemed +almost of a different race from the wretched Piutes of the Sierras and +sagebrush. + +Jack's baptism was a great event. It was by immersion, the first baptism +of the kind I ever performed--and almost the last. Jack had been talked +to on the subject by some zealous brethren of another "persuasion," who +magnified that mode, and though he was willing to do as I advised in the +matter, he was evidently a little inclined to the more spectacular way +of receiving the ordinance. Mrs. White suggested that it might save +future trouble, and "spike a gun." So Jack, with four others, was taken +down to Santa Rosa Creek, that went rippling and sparkling along the +southern edge of the town, and duly baptized in the name of the Father, +and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. A great crowd covered the bridge +just below, and the banks of the stream; and when Wesley Mock, the Asaph +of Santa Rosa Methodism, struck up-- + + O happy day that fixed my choice + On thee, my Saviour and my God, + +and the chorus-- + + Happy day, happy day, when + Jesus washed my sins away, + +was swelled by hundreds of voices, it was a glad moment for Jack White +and all of us. Religiously it was a warm time; but the water was very +cold, it being one of the chilliest days I ever felt in that genial +climate. + +"You were rather awkward, Brother Fitzgerald, in immersing those +persons," said my stalwart friend, Elder John McCorkle, of the +"Christian" or Campbellite Church, who had critically but not unkindly +watched the proceedings from the bridge. "If you will send for me the +next time, I will do it for you," he added, pleasantly. + +I fear it was awkwardly done, for the water was very cold, and a +shivering man cannot be very graceful in his movements. I would have +done better in a baptistery, with warm water and a rubber suit. But of +all the persons I have welcomed into the Church during my ministry, the +reception of no one has given use more joy than that of Jack White, the +Piute Indian. + +Jack's heart yearned for his own people. He wanted to tell them of +Jesus, who could take away their sins; and perhaps his Indian instinct +made him long for the freedom of the hills. + +"I am going to my people," he said to me; "I want to tell them of Jesus. +You will pray for me?" he added, with a quiver in his voice and a +heaving chest. + +He went away, and I have never seen him since. Where he is now, I know +not. I trust I may meet him on Mount Sion, with the harpers harping with +their harps, and singing, as it were, a new song before the throne. + +Postscript.--Since this Sketch was penciled, the Rev. C. Y. Rankin, in +a note dated Santa Rosa, California, August 3, 1880, says: "Mrs. White +asked me to send you word of the peaceful death of Jack White (Indian). +He died trusting in Jesus." + + + +The Rabbi. + +Seated in his library, enveloped in a faded figured gown, a black velvet +cap on his massive head, there was an Oriental look about him that +arrested your attention at once. Power and gentleness, childlike +simplicity, and scholarliness, were curiously mingled in this man. His +library was a reflex of its owner. In it were books that the great +public libraries of the world could not match--black-letter folios that +were almost as old as the printing art, illuminated volumes that were +once the pride and joy of men who had been in their graves many +generations, rabbinical lore, theology, magic, and great volumes of +Hebrew literature that looked, when placed beside a modern book, like an +old ducal palace alongside a gingerbread cottage of today. I do not +think he ever felt at home amid the hurry and rush of San Francisco. He +could not adjust himself to the people. He was devout, and they were +intensely worldly. He thundered this sentence from the teacher's desk in +the synagogue one morning: "O ye Jews of San Francisco, you have so +fully given yourselves up to material things that you are losing the +very instinct of immortality. Your only idea of religion is to acquire +the Hebrew language, and you don't know that!" His port and voice were +like those of one of the old Hebrew prophets. Elijah himself was not +more fearless. Yet, how deep was his love for his race! Jeremiah was not +more tender when he wept for the slain of the daughter of his people. +His reproofs were resented, and he had a taste of persecution; but the +Jews of San Francisco understood him at last. The poor and the little +children knew him from the start. He lived mostly among his books, and +in his school for poor children, whom he taught without charge. His +habits were so simple and his bodily wants so few that it cost him but a +trifle to live. When the synagogue frowned on him, he was as independent +as Elijah at the brook Cherith. It is hard to starve a man to whom +crackers and water are a royal feast. + +His belief in God and in the supernatural was startlingly vivid. The +Voice that spoke from Sinai was still audible to him, and the Arm that +delivered Israel he saw still stretched out over the nations. The +miracles of the Old Testament were as real to him as the premiership of +Disraeli, or the financiering of the Rothschilds. There was, at the same +time, a vein of rationalism that ran through his thought and speech. We +were speaking one day on the subject of miracles, and, with his usual +energy of manner, he said: + +"There was no need of any literal angel to shut the mouths of the lions +to save Daniel; the awful holiness of the prophet was enough. There was +so much of God in him that the savage creatures submitted to him as they +did to unsinning Adam. Man's dominion over nature was broken by sin, but +in the golden age to come it will be restored. A man in full communion +with God wields a divine power in every sphere that he touches." + +His face glowed as he spoke, and his voice was subdued into a solemnity +of tone that told how his reverent and adoring soul was thrilled with +this vision of the coming glory of redeemed humanity. + +He knew the New Testament by heart, as well as the Old. The sayings of +Jesus were often on his lips. + +One day, in a musing, half-soliloquizing way, I heard him say: + +"It is wonderful, wonderful! a Hebrew peasant from the hills of Galilee, +without learning, noble birth, or power, subverts all the philosophies +of the world, and makes himself the central figure of all history. It is +wonderful!" + +He half whispered the words, and his eyes had the introspective look of +a man who is thinking deeply. + +He came to see me at our cottage on Post street one morning before +breakfast. In grading a street, a house in which I had lived and had the +ill luck to own, on Pine street, had been undermined, and toppled over +into the street below, falling on the slate-roof and breaking all to +pieces. He came to tell me of it, and to extend his sympathy. + +"I thought I would come first, so you might get the bad news from a +friend rather than a stranger. You have lost a house; but it is a small +matter. Your little boy there might have put out his eye with a pair of +scissors, or he might have swallowed a pin and lost his life. There are +many things constantly taking place that are harder to bear than the +loss of a house." + +Many other wise words did the Rabbi speak, and before he left I felt +that a house was indeed a small thing to grieve over. + +He spoke with charming freedom and candor of all sorts of people. + +"Of Christians, the Unitarians have the best heads, and the Methodists +the best hearts. The Roman Catholics hold the masses, because they give +their people plenty of form. The masses will never receive truth in its +simple essence; they must have it in a way that will make it digestible +and assimilable, just as their, stomachs demand bread, and meats, and +fruits, not their extracts or distilled essences, for daily food. As to +Judaism, it is on the eve of great changes. What these changes will be I +know not, except that I am sure the God of our fathers will fulfill his +promise to Israel. This generation will probably see great things." + +"Do you mean the literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine?" + +He looked at me with an intense gaze, and hastened not to answer. At +last he spoke slowly: + +"When the perturbed elements of religious thought crystallize into +clearness and enduring forms, the chosen people will be one of the chief +factors in reaching that final solution of the problems which convulse +this age." + +He was one of the speakers at the great Mortara indignation-meeting in +San Francisco. The speech of the occasion was that of Colonel Baker, the +orator who went to Oregon, and in a single campaign magnetized the +Oregonians so completely by his splendid eloquence that, passing by all +their old party leaders, they sent him to the United States Senate. No +one who heard Baker's peroration that night will ever forget it. His +dark eyes blazed, his form dilated, and his voice was like a bugle in +battle. + +"They tell us that the Jew is accursed of God. This has been the plea of +the bloody tyrants and robbers that oppressed and plundered them during +the long ages of their exile and agony. But the Almighty God executes +his own judgments. Woe to him who presumes to wield his thunderbolts! +They fall in blasting, consuming vengeance upon his own head. God deals +with his chosen people in judgment; but he says to men, Touch them at +your peril! They that spoil them shall be for a spoil; they that carried +them away captive shall themselves go into captivity. The Assyrian smote +the Jew, and where is the proud Assyrian Empire? Rome ground them under +her iron heel, and where is the empire of the Caesars? Spain smote the +Jew, and where is her glory? The desert sands cover the site of Babylon +the Great. The power that hurled the hosts of Titus against the holy +city Jerusalem was shivered to pieces. The banners of Spain, that +floated in triumph over half the world, and fluttered in the breezes of +every sea, is now the emblem of a glory that is gone, and the ensign of +a power that has waned. The Jews are in the hands of God. He has dealt +with them in judgment, but they are still the children of promise. The +day of their long exile shall end, and they will return to Zion with +songs and everlasting joy upon their heads!" + +The words were something like these, but who could picture Baker's +oratory? As well try to paint a storm in the tropics. Real thunder and +lightning cannot be put on canvas. + +The Rabbi made a speech, and it was the speech of a man who had come +from his books and prayers. He made a tender appeal for the mother and +father of the abducted Jewish boy, and argued the question as calmly, +and in as sweet a spirit, as if he had been talking over an abstract +question in his study. The vast crowd looked upon that strange figure +with a sort of pleased wonder, and the Rabbi seemed almost unconscious +of their presence. He was as free from self-consciousness as a little +child, and many a Gentile heart warmed that night to the simple-hearted +sage who stood before them pleading for the rights of human nature. + +The old man was often very sad. In such moods he would come round to our +cottage on Post street, and sit with us until late at night, unburdening +his aching heart, and relaxing by degrees into a playfulness that was +charming from its very awkwardness. He would bring little picture-books +for the children, pat them on their heads, and praise them. They were +always glad to see him, and would nestle round him lovingly. We all +loved him, and felt glad in the thought that he left our little circle +lighter at heart. He lived alone. Once, when I playfully spoke to him of +matrimony, he laughed quietly, and said: + +"No, no--my books and my poor schoolchildren are enough for me." + +He died suddenly and alone. He had been out one windy night visiting the +poor, came home sick, and before morning was in that world of spirits +which was so real to his faith, and for which he longed. He left his +little fortune of a few thousand dollars to the poor of his native +village of Posen, in Poland. And thus passed from California-life Dr. +Julius Eckman, the Rabbi. + + + +My Mining Speculation. + +"I Believe the Lord has put me in the way of making a competency for my +old age," said the dear old Doctor, as he seated himself in the armchair +reserved for him at the cottage at North Beach. + +"How?" I asked. + +"I met a Texas man today, who told me of the discovery of an immensely +rich silver mining district in Deep Spring Valley, Mono county, and he +says he can get me in as one of the owners." + +I laughingly made some remark expressive of incredulity. The honest and +benignant face of the old Doctor showed that he was a little nettled. + +"I have made full inquiry, and am sure this is no mere speculation. The +stock will not be put upon the market, and will not be assessable. They +propose to make me a trustee, and the owners, limited in number, will +have entire control of the property. But I will not he hasty in the +matter. I will make it a subject of prayer for twenty-four hours, and +then if there be no adverse indications I will go on with it." + +The next day I met the broad-faced Texan, and was impressed by him as +the old Doctor had been. + +It seemed a sure thing. An old prospector had been equipped and sent out +by a few gentlemen, and he had found outcroppings of silver in a range +of hills extending not less than three miles. Assays had been made of +the ores, and they were found to be very rich. All the timber and +waterpower of Deep Spring Valley had been taken up for the company under +the general and local preemption and mining laws. It was a big thing. +The beauty of the whole arrangement was that no "mining sharps" were to +be let in; we were to manage it ourselves, and reap all the profits. + +We went into it, the old Doctor and I, feeling deeply grateful to the +broad-faced Texan, who had so kindly given us the chance. I was made a +trustee, and began to have a decidedly business feeling as such. At the +meetings of "the board," my opinions were frequently called for, and +were given with great gravity. The money was paid for the shares I had +taken, and the precious evidences of ownership were carefully put in a +place of safety. A mill was built near the richest of the claims, and +the assays were good. There were delays, and more money was called for, +and sent up. The assays were still good, and the reports from our +superintendent were glowing. "The biggest thing in the history of +California mining," he wrote; and when the secretary read his letter to +the board, there was a happy expression on each face. + +At this point I began to be troubled. It seemed, from reasonable +ciphering, that I should soon be a millionaire. It made me feel solemn +and anxious. I lay awake at night, praying that I might not be spoiled +by my good fortune. The scriptures that speak of the deceitfulness of +riches were called to mind, and I rejoiced with trembling. Many +beneficent enterprises were planned, principally in the line of endowing +colleges, and paying church-debts. (I had had an experience in this +line.) There were further delays, and more money was called for. The +ores were rebellious, and our "process" did not suit them. Fryborg and +Deep Spring Valley were not the same. A new superintendent--one that +understood rebellious ores--was employed at a higher salary. He +reported that all was right, and that we might expect "big news" in a +few days, as he proposed to crush about seventy tons of the best rock, +"by a new and improved process." + +The board held frequent meetings, and in view of the nearness of great +results did not hesitate to meet the requisitions made for further +outlays of money. They resolved to pursue a prudent but vigorous policy +in developing the vast property when the mill should be fairly in +operation. + +All this time I felt an undercurrent of anxiety lest I might sustain +spiritual loss by my sudden accession to great wealth, and continued to +fortify myself with good resolutions. + +As a matter of special caution, I sent for a parcel of the ore, and had +a private assay made of it. The assay was good. + +The new superintendent notified us that on a certain date we might look +for a report of the result of the first great crushing and cleanup of +the seventy tons of rock. The day came. On Kearny street I met one of +the stockholders--a careful Presbyterian brother, who loved money. He +had a solemn look, and was walking slowly, as if in deep thought. +Lifting his eyes as we met, he saw me, and spoke: + +"It is lead!" + +"What is lead?" + +"Our silver mine in Deep Spring Valley." + +Yes; from the seventy tons of rock we got eleven dollars in silver, and +about fifty pounds of as good lead as was ever molded into bullets. + +The board held a meeting the next evening. It was a solemn one. The +fifty-pound bar of lead was placed in the midst, and was eyed +reproachfully. I resigned my trusteeship, and they saw me not again. +That was my first and last mining speculation. It failed somehow--but +the assays were all very good. + + + +Mike Reese. + +I had business with him, and went at a business hour. No introduction +was needed, for he had been my landlord, and no tenant of his ever had +reason to complain that he did not get a visit from him, in person or by +proxy, at least once a month. He was a punctual man--as a collector of +what was due him. Seeing that he was intently engaged, I paused and +looked at him. A man of huge frame, with enormous hands and feet, +massive head, receding forehead, and heavy cerebral development, full +sensual lips, large nose, and peculiar eyes that seemed at the same time +to look through you and to shrink from your gaze--he was a man at whom +a stranger would stop in the street to get a second gaze. There he sat +at his desk, too much absorbed to notice my entrance. Before him lay a +large pile of one-thousand-dollar United States Government bonds, and he +was clipping off the coupons. That face! it was a study as he sat using +the big pair of scissors. A hungry boy in the act of taking into his +mouth a ripe cherry, a mother gazing down into the face of her pretty +sleeping child, a lover looking into the eyes of his charmer, are but +faint figures by which to express the intense pleasure he felt in his +work. But there was also a feline element in his joy--his handling of +those bonds was somewhat like a cat toying with its prey. When at length +he raised his head, there was a fierce gleam in his eye and a flush in +his face. I had come upon a devotee engaged in worship. This was Mike +Reese, the miser and millionaire. Placing his huge left-hand on the pile +of bonds, he gruffly returned my salutation, + +"Good morning." + +He turned as he spoke, and east a look of scrutiny into my face which +said plain enough that he wanted me to make known my business with him +at once. + +I told him what was wanted. At the request of the official board of the +Minna-street Church I had come to ask him to make a contribution toward +the payment of its debt. + +"O yes; I was expecting you. They all come to me. Father Gallagher, of +the Catholic Church, Dr. Wyatt, of the Episcopal Church, and all the +others, have been here. I feel friendly to the Churches, and I treat all +alike--it won't do for me to be partial--I don't give to any!" + +That last clause was an anticlimax, dashing my hopes rudely; but I saw +he meant it, and left. I never heard of his departing from the rule of +strict impartiality he had laid down for himself. + +We met at times at a restaurant on Clay street. He was a hearty feeder, +and it was amusing to see how skillfully in the choice of dishes and the +thoroughness with which he emptied them he could combine economy with +plenty. On several of these occasions, when we chanced to sit at the +same table, I proposed to pay for both of us, and he quickly assented, +his hard, heavy features lighting up with undisguised pleasure at the +suggestion, as he shambled out of the room amid the smiles of the +company present, most of whom knew him as a millionaire, and me as a +Methodist preacher. + +He had one affair of the heart. Cupid played a prank on him that was the +occasion of much merriment in the San Francisco newspapers, and of much +grief to him. A widow was his enslaver and tormentor--the old story. +She sued him for breach of promise of marriage. The trial made great fun +for the lawyers, reporters, and the amused public generally; but it was +no fun for him. He was mulcted for six thousand dollars and costs of the +suit. It was during the time I was renting one of his offices on +Washington street. I called to see him, wishing to have some repairs +made. His clerk met me in the narrow hall, and there was a mischievous +twinkle in his eye as he said: + +"You had better come another day--the old man has just paid that +judgment in the breach of promise case, and he is in a bad way." + +Hearing our voices, he said, + +"Who is there?--come in." + +I went in, and found him sitting leaning on his desk, the picture of +intense wretchedness. He was all unstrung, his jaw fallen, and a most +pitiful face met mine as he looked up and said, in a broken voice, + +"Come some other day--I can do no business today; I am very unwell." + +He was indeed sick--sick at heart. I felt sorry for him. Pain always +excites my pity, no matter what may be its cause. He was a miser, and +the payment of those thousands of dollars was like tearing him asunder. +He did not mind the jibes of the newspapers, but the loss of the money +was almost killing. He had not set his heart on popularity, but cash. + +He had another special trouble, but with a different sort of ending. It +was discovered by a neighbor of his that, by some mismeasurement of the +surveyors, he (Reese) had built the wall of one of his immense business +houses on Front street six inches beyond his own proper line, taking in +just so much of that neighbor's lot. Not being on friendly terms with +Reese, his neighbor made a peremptory demand for the removal of the +wall, or the payment of a heavy price for the ground. Here was misery +for the miser. He writhed in mental agony, and begged for easier terms, +but in vain. His neighbor would not relent. The business men of the +vicinity rather enjoyed the situation, humorously watching the progress +of the affair. It was a case of diamond cut diamond, both parties +bearing the reputation of being hard men to deal with. A day was fixed +for Reese to give a definite answer to his neighbor's demand, with +notice that, in case of his noncompliance, suit against him would be +begun at once. The day came, and with it a remarkable change in Reese's +tone. He sent a short note to his enemy breathing profanity and +defiance. + +"What is the matter?" mused the puzzled citizen; "Reese has made some +discovery that makes him think he has the upper-hand, else he would not +talk this way." + +And he sat and thought. The instinct of this class of men where money is +involved is like a miracle. + +"I have it!" he suddenly exclaimed; "Reese has the same hold on me that +I have on him." + +Reese happened to be the owner of another lot adjoining that of his +enemy, on the other side. It occurred to him that, as all these lots +were surveyed at the same time by the same party, it was most likely +that as his line had gone six inches too far on the one side, his +enemy's had gone as much too far on the other. And so it was. He had +quietly a survey made of the premises, and he chuckled with inward joy +to find that he held this winning card in the unfriendly game. With grim +politeness the neighbors exchanged deeds for the two half feet of +ground, and their war ended. The moral of this incident is for him who +hath wit enough to see it. + +For several seasons he came every morning to North Beach to take +sea-baths. Sometimes he rode his well-known white horse, but oftener he +walked. He bathed in the open sea, making, as one expressed it, +twenty-five tents out of the Pacific Ocean, by avoiding the bathhouse. +Was this the charm that drew him forth so early? It not seldom chanced +that we walked downtown together. At times he was quite communicative, +speaking of himself in a way that was peculiar. It seems he had thoughts +of marrying before his episode with the widow. + +"Do you think a young girl of twenty could love an old man like me?" he +asked me one day, as we were walking along the street. + +I looked at his huge and ungainly bulk, and into his animal face, and +made no direct answer. Love! Six millions of dollars is a great sum. +Money may buy youth and beauty, but love does not come at its call. +God's highest gifts are free; only the second-rate things can be bought +with money. Did this sordid old man yearn for pure human love amid his +millions? Did such a dream cast a momentary glamour over a life spent in +raking among the muck-heaps? If so, it passed away, for he never +married. + +He understood his own case. He knew in what estimation he was held by +the public, and did not conceal his scorn for its opinion. + +"My love of money is a disease. My saving and hoarding as I do is +irrational, and I know it. It pains me to pay five cents for a streetcar +ride, or a quarter of a dollar for a dinner. My pleasure in accumulating +property is morbid, but I have felt it from the time I was a foot +peddler in Charlotte, Campbell, and Pittsylvania counties, in Virginia, +until now. It is a sort of insanity, and it is incurable; but it is +about as good a form of madness as any, and all the world is mad in +some, fashion." + +This was the substance of what he said of himself when in one of his +moods of free speech, and it gave me a new idea of human nature--a man +whose keen and penetrating brain could subject his own consciousness to +a cool and correct analysis, seeing clearly the folly which he could not +resist. The autobiography of such a man might furnish a curious +psychological study, and explain the formation and development in +society of those moral monsters called misers. Nowhere in literature has +such a character been fully portrayed, though Shakespeare and George +Eliot have given vivid touches of some of its features. + +He always retained a kind feeling for the South, over whose hills he had +borne his peddler's pack when a youth. After the war, two young +ex-Confederate soldiers came to San Francisco to seek their fortunes. A +small room adjoining my office was vacant, and the brothers requested me +to secure it for them as cheap as possible. I applied to Reese, telling +him who the young men were, and describing their broken and impecunious +condition. + +"Tell them to take the room free of rent--but it ought to bring five +dollars a month." + +It took a mighty effort, and he sighed as he spoke the words. I never +heard of his acting similarly in any other case, and I put this down to +his credit, glad to know that there was a warm spot in that mountain of +mud and ice. A report of this generous act got afloat in the city, and +many were the inquiries I received as to its truth. There was general +incredulity. + +His health failed, and he crossed the seas. Perhaps he wished to visit +his native hills in Germany, which he had last seen when a child. There +he died, leaving all his millions to his kindred, save a bequest of one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the University of California. What +were his last thoughts, what was his final verdict concerning human +life, I know not. Empty-handed he entered the world of spirits, where, +the film fallen from his vision, he saw the Eternal Realities. What +amazement must have followed his awakening! + + + +Uncle Nolan. + +He was black and ugly; but it was an ugliness that did not disgust or +repel you. His face had a touch both of the comic and the pathetic. His +mouth was very wide, his lips very thick and the color of a ripe damson, +blue-black; his nose made up in width what it lacked in elevation; his +ears were big, and bent forward; his eyes were a dull white, on a very +dark ground; his wool was white and thick. His age might be anywhere +along from seventy onward. A black man's age, like that of a horse, +becomes dubious after reaching a certain stage. + +He came to the class-meeting in the Pine-street Church, in San +Francisco, one Sabbath morning. He asked leave to speak, which was +granted. + +"Bredren, I come here sometime ago, from Vicksburg, Mississippi, where I +has lived forty year, or more. I heered dar was a culud church up on de +hill, an' I thought I'd go an' washup wid'em. I went dar three or fo' +Sundays, but I foun' deir ways didn't suit me, an' my ways didn't suit +dem. Dey was Yankees' niggers, an' [proudly] I's a Southern man myself. +Sumbody tole me dar was a Southern Church down here on Pine street, an' +I thought I'd cum an' look in. Soon 's I got inside de church, an' look +roun' a minit, I feels at home. Dey look like home-folks; de preacher +preach like home-folks; de people sing like home-folks. Yer see, +chillan, I'se a Southern man myself [emphatically], and I'se a Southern +Methodis'. Dis is de Church I was borned in, an' dis is de Church I was +rarred in, an' [with great energy] dis is de Church which de Scripter +says de gates ob hell shall not prevail ag'in it! ["Amen!" from Father +Newman and others.] When dey heerd I was comin' to dis Church, some ob +'em got arter me 'bout it. Dey say dis Church was a enemy to de black +people, and dat dey was in favor ob slavery. I tole 'em de Scripter +said, 'Love your enemies,' an' den I took de Bible an' read what it says +about slavery--I can read some, chillun Servants, obey yer masters in +all things, not wid eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as unto de Lord;' +and so on. But, bless yer souls, chillun, dey wouldn't lis'en to dat +--so I foun' out dey was abberlishem niggers, an' I lef' 'em.!" + +Yes, he left them, and came to us. I received him into the Church in due +form, and with no little eclat, he being the only son of Ham on our roll +of members in San Francisco. He stood firm to his Southern Methodist +colors under a great pressure. + +"Yer ought ter be killed fer goin' ter dat Southern Church," said one of +his colored acquaintances one day, as they met in the street. + +"Kill me, den," said Uncle Nolan, with proud humility; "kill me, den; +yer can't cheat me out ob many days, nohow." + +He made a living, and something over, by rag-picking at North Beach and +elsewhere, until the Chinese entered into competition with him, and then +it was hard times for Uncle Nolan. His eyesight partially failed him, +and it was pitiful to see him on the beach, his threadbare garments +fluttering in the wind, groping amid the rubbish for rags, or shuffling +along the streets with a huge sack on his back, and his old felt hat +tied under his nose with a string, picking his way carefully to spare +his swollen feet, which were tied up with bagging and woolens. His +religious fervor never cooled; I never heard him complain. He never +ceased to be joyously thankful for two things--his freedom and his +religion. But, strange as it may seem, he was a pro-slavery man to the +last. Even after the war, he stood to his opinion. + +"Dem niggers in de South thinks dey is free, but dey ain't. 'Fore it's +all ober, all dat ain't dead will be glad to git back to deir masters," +he would say. + +Yet he was very proud of his own freedom, and took the utmost care of +his free-papers. He had no desire to resume his former relation to the +peculiar and patriarchal institution. He was not the first philosopher +who has had one theory for his fellows, and another for himself. + +Uncle Nolan would talk of religion by the hour. He never tired of that +theme. His faith was simple and strong, but, like most of his race, he +had a tinge of superstition. He was a dreamer of dreams, and he believed +in them. Here is one which he recited to me. His weird manner, and low, +chanting tone, I must leave to the imagination of the reader: + +Uncle Nolan's Dream. + +A tall black man came along, an' took me by de arm, an' tole me he had +come for me. I said: + +"What yer want wid me?" + +"I come to carry yer down into de darkness." + +"What for?" + +"Cause you didn't follow de Lord." + +Wid dat, he pulled me 'long de street till he come to a big black house, +de biggest house an' de thickest walls I eber seed. We went in a little +do', an' den he took me down a long sta'rs in de dark, till we come to a +big do'; we went inside, an' den de big black man locked de do' behin' +us. An' so we kep' on, goin' down, an' goin' down, an' goin' down, an' +he kep' lockin' dem big iron do's behin' us, an' all de time it was +pitch dark, so I couldn't see him, but he still hel' on ter me. At las' +we stopped, an' den he started to go 'way. He locked de do' behin' him, +an' I heerd him goin' up de steps de way we come, lockin' all de do's +behin' him as he went. I tell you, dat was dreafful when I heerd dat big +key turn on de outside, an' me 'way down, down, down dar in de dark all +alone, an' no chance eber to git out! An' I knowed it was 'cause I +didn't foller de Lord. I felt roun' de place, an' dar was nothin' but de +thick walls an' de great iron do'. Den I sot down an' cried, 'cause I +knowed I was a los' man. Dat was de same as hell [his voice sinking into +a whisper], an' all de time I knowed I was dar, 'cause I hadn't follered +de Lord. Bymeby somethin' say, "Pray." Somethin' keep sayin', "Pray." +Den I drap on my knees an' prayed. I tell you, no man eber prayed harder +'n I did! I prayed, an' prayed, an' prayed! What's dat? Dar's somebody +a-comin' down dem steps; dey 's unlockin' de do'; an' de fus' thing I +knowed, de place was all lighted up bright as day, an' a white-faced man +stood by me, wid a crown on his head, an' a golden key in his han'. +Somehow, I knowed it was Jesus, an' right den I waked up all of a +tremble, an' knowed it was a warnin' dat I mus' foller de Lord. An', +bless Jesus, I has been follerin' him fifty year since I had dat dream. + +In his prayers, and class-meeting and love-feast talks, Uncle Nolan +showed a depth of spiritual insight truly wonderful, and the effects of +these talks were frequently electrical. Many a time have I seen the +Pine-street brethren and sisters rise from their knees, at the close of +one of his prayers, melted into tears, or thrilled to religious rapture, +by the power of his simple faith, and the vividness of his sanctified +imagination. + +He held to his pro-slavery views and guarded his own freedom-papers to +the last; and when he died, in 1875, the last colored Southern Methodist +in California was transferred from the Church militant to the great +company that no man can number, gathered out of every nation, and tribe, +and kindred, on the earth. + + + +Buffalo Jones. + +That is what the boys called him. His real Christian name was Zachariah. +The way he got the name he went by was this: He was a Methodist, and +prayed in public. He was excitable, and his lungs were of extraordinary +power. When fully aroused, his voice sounded, it was said, like the +bellowing of a whole herd of buffaloes. It had peculiar reverberations +--rumbling, roaring, shaking the very roof of the sanctuary, or echoing +among the hills when let out at its utmost strength at a camp-meeting. +This is why they called him Buffalo Jones. It was his voice. There never +was such another. In Ohio he was a blacksmith and a fighting man. He had +whipped every man who would fight him, in a whole tier of counties. He +was converted after the old way; that is to say, he was "powerfully" +converted. A circuit-rider preached the sermon that converted him. His +anguish was awful. The midnight hour found him in tears. The Ohio forest +resounded with his cries for mercy. When he found peace, it swelled into +rapture. He joined the Church militant among the Methodists, and he +stuck to them, quarreled with them, and loved them, all his life. He had +many troubles, and gave much trouble to many people. The old Adam died +hard in the fighting blacksmith. His pastor, his family, his friends, +his fellow-members in the Church, all got a portion of his wrath in due +season, if they swerved a hair-breadth from the straight-line of duty as +he saw it. I was his pastor, and I never had a truer friend, or a +severer censor. One Sunday morning he electrified my congregation, at +the close of the sermon, by rising in his place and making a personal +application of a portion of it to individuals present, and insisting on +their immediate expulsion from the Church. He had another side to his +character, and at times was as tender as a woman. He acted as +class-leader. In his melting moods he moved every eye to tears, as he +passed round among the brethren and sisters, weeping, exhorting, and +rejoicing. At such times, his great voice softened into a pathos that +none could resist, and swept the chords of sympathy with resistless +power. But when his other mood was upon him, he was fearful. He scourged +the unfaithful with a whip of fire. He would quote with a singular +fluency and aptness every passage of Scripture that blasted hypocrites, +reproved the lukewarm, or threatened damnation to the sinner. At such +times his voice sounded like the shout of a warrior in battle, and the +timid and wondering hearers looked as if they were in the midst of the +thunder and lightning of a tropical storm. I remember the shock he gave +a quiet and timid lady whom I had persuaded to remain for the +class-meeting after service. Fixing his stern and fiery gaze upon her, +and knitting his great bushy eyebrows, he thundered the question: + +"Sister, do you ever pray?" + +The startled woman nearly sprang from her seat in a panic as she +stammered hurriedly, + +"Yes, sir; yes, sir." + +She did not attend his class-meeting again. + +At a camp-meeting he was present, and in one of his bitterest moods. The +meeting was not conducted in a way to suit him. He was grim, critical, +and contemptuous, making no concealment of his dissatisfaction. The +preaching displeased him particularly. He groaned, frowned, and in other +ways showed his feelings. At length he could stand it no longer. A young +brother had just closed a sermon of a mild and persuasive kind, and no +sooner had he taken his seat than the old man arose. Looking forth upon +the vast audience, and then casting a sharp and scornful glance at the +preachers in and around "the stand," he said: + +"You preachers of these days have no gospel in you. You remind me of a +man going into his barnyard early in the morning to feed his stock. He +has a basket on his arm, and here come the horses nickering, the cows +lowing, the calves and sheep bleating, the hogs squealing, the turkeys +gobbling, the hens clucking, and the roosters crowing. They all gather +round him, expecting to be fed, and lo, his basket is empty! You take +texts, and you preach, but you have no gospel. Your baskets are empty." + +Here he darted a defiant glance at the astonished preachers, and then, +turning to one, he added in a milder and patronizing tone: + +"You, Brother Sim, do preach a little gospel in your basket there is one +little nubbin!" + +Down he sat, leaving the brethren to meditate on what he had said. The +silence that followed was deep. + +At one time his conscience became troubled about the use of tobacco, and +he determined to quit. This was the second great struggle of his life. +He was running a sawmill in the foothills at the time, and lodged in a +little cabin near by. + +Suddenly deprived of the stimulant to which it had so long been +accustomed, his nervous system was wrought up to a pitch of frenzy. He +would rush from the cabin, climb along the hill-side, run leaping from +rock to rock, now and then screaming like a maniac. Then he would rush +back to the cabin, seize a plug of tobacco, smell it, rub it against his +lips, and away he would go again. He smelt, but never tasted it again. + +"I was resolved to conquer, and by the grace of God I did," he said. + +That was a great victory for the fighting blacksmith. + +When a melodeon was introduced into the church, he was sorely grieved +and furiously angry. He argued against it, he expostulated, he +protested, he threatened, he staid away from church. He wrote me a +letter, in which he expressed his feelings thus: + +San Jose, 1860. + +Dear Brother:--They have got the devil into the church now! Put your +foot on its tail and it squeals. + +Z. Jones. + +This was his figurative way of putting it. I was told that he had, on a +former occasion, dealt with the question in a more summary way, by +taking his ax and splitting a melodeon to pieces. + +Neutrality in politics was, of course, impossible to such a man. In the +civil war his heart was with the South. He gave up when Stonewall +Jackson was killed. + +"It is all over--the praying man is gone," he said; and he sobbed like +a child. From that day he had no hope for the Confederacy, though once +or twice, when feeling ran high, he expressed a readiness to use carnal +weapons in defense of his political principles. For all his opinions on +the subject he found support from the Bible, which he read and studied +with unwearying diligence. He took its words literally on all occasions, +and the Old Testament history had a wonderful charm for him. He would +have been ready to hew any modern Agag in pieces before the Lord. + +He finally found his way to the Insane Asylum. The reader has already +seen how abnormal was his mind, and will not be surprised that his +storm-tossed soul lost its rudder at last. But mid all its veerings he +never lost sight of the Star that had shed its light upon his checkered +path of life. He raved, and prayed, and wept, by turns. The horrors of +mental despair would be followed by gleams of seraphic joy. When one of +his stormy moods was upon him, his mighty voice could be heard above all +the sounds of that sad and pitiful company of broken and wrecked souls. +The old class-meeting instinct and habit showed itself in his semi-lucid +intervals. He would go round among the patients questioning them as to +their religious feeling and behavior in true class-meeting style. Dr. +Shurtleff one day overheard a colloquy between him and Dr. Rogers, a +freethinker and reformer, whose vagaries had culminated in his shaving +close one side of his immense whiskers, leaving the other side in all +its flowing amplitude. Poor fellow! Pitiable as was his case, he made a +ludicrous figure walking the streets of San Francisco half shaved, and +defiant of the wonder and ridicule he excited. The ex-class-leader's +voice was earnest and loud, as he said: + +"Now, Rogers, you must pray. If you will get down at the feet of Jesus, +and confess your sins, and ask him to bless you, he will hear you, and +give you peace. But if you won't do it," he continued, with growing +excitement and kindling anger at the thought, "you are the most infernal +rascal that ever lived, and I'll beat you into a jelly!" + +The good Doctor had to interfere at this point, for the old man was in +the very act of carrying out his threat to punish Rogers bodily, on the +bare possibility that he would not pray as he was told to do. And so +that extemporized class-meeting came to an abrupt end. + +"Pray with me," he said to me the last time I saw him at the Asylum. +Closing the door of the little private office, we knelt side by side, +and the poor old sufferer, bathed in tears, and docile as a little +child, prayed to the once suffering, once crucified, but risen and +interceding Jesus. When he arose from his knees his eyes were wet, and +his face showed that there was a great calm within. We never met again. +He went home to die. The storms that had swept his soul subsided, the +light of reason was rekindled, and the light of faith burned brightly; +and in a few weeks he died in great peace, and another glad voice joined +in the anthems of the blood-washed millions in the city of God. + + + +Tod Robinson. + +The image of this man of many moods and brilliant genius that rises most +distinctly to my mind is that connected with a little prayer-meeting in +the Minna-street Church, San Francisco, one Thursday night. His thin +silver locks, his dark flashing eye, his graceful pose, and his musical +voice, are before me. His words I have not forgotten, but their electric +effect must forever be lost to all except the few who heard them. + +"I have been taunted with the reproach that it was only after I was a +broken and disappointed man in my worldly hopes and aspirations that I +turned to religion. The taunt is just"--here he bowed his head, and +paused with deep emotion "the taunt is just. I bow my head in shame, and +take the blow. My earthly hopes have faded and fallen one after another. +The prizes that dazzled my imagination have eluded my grasp. I am a +broken, gray-haired man, and I bring to my God only the remnant of a +life. But, brethren, it is this very thought that fills me with joy and +gratitude at this moment--the thought that when all else fails God +takes us up. Just when we need him most, and most feel our need of him, +he lifts us up out of the depths where we had groveled, and presses us +to his Fatherly heart. This is the glory of Christianity. The world +turns from us when we fail and fall; then it is that the Lord draws +higher. Such a religion must be from God, for its principles are +God-like. It does not require much skill or power to steer a ship into +port when her timbers are sound, her masts all rigged, and her crew at +their posts; but the pilot that can take an old hulk, rocking on the +stormy waves, with its masts torn away, its rigging gone, its planks +loose and leaking, and bring it safe to harbor, that is the pilot for +me. Brethren, I am that hulk; and Jesus is that Pilot!" + +"Glory be to Jesus!" exclaimed Father Newman; as the speaker, with +swimming eyes, radiant face, and heaving chest, sunk into his seat. I +never heard any thing finer from mortal lips, but it seems cold to me as +I read it here. Oratory cannot be put on paper. + +He was present once at a camp-meeting, at the famous Toll-gate +Camp-ground, in Santa Clara Valley, near the city of San Jose. It was +Sabbath morning, just such a one as seldom dawns on this earth. The +brethren and sisters were gathered around "the stand" under the +live-oaks for a speaking-meeting. The morning glory was on the summits +of the Santa Cruz Mountains that sloped down to the sacred spot, the +lovely valley smiled under a sapphire sky, the birds hopped from twig to +twig of the overhanging branches that scarcely quivered in the still +air, and seemed to peer inquiringly into the faces of the assembled +worshipers. The bugle-voice of Bailey led in a holy song, and Simmons +led in prayer that touched the eternal throne. One after another, +gray-haired men and saintly women told when and how they began the new +life far away on the old hills they would never see again, and how they +had been led and comforted in their pilgrimage. Young disciples, in the +flush of their first love, and the rapture of newborn hope, were borne +out on a tide of resistless feeling into that ocean whose waters +encircle the universe. The radiance from the heavenly hills was +reflected from the consecrated encampment, and the angels of God hovered +over the spot. Judge Robinson rose to his feet, and stepped into the +altar, the sunlight at that moment falling upon his face. Every voice +was hushed, as, with the orator's indefinable magnetism, he drew every +eye upon him. The pause was thrilling. At length he spoke: + +"This is a mount of transfiguration. The transfiguration is on hill and +valley, on tree and shrub, on grass and flower, on earth and sky. It is +on your faces that shine like the face of Moses when he came down from +the awful mount where be met Jehovah face to face. The same light is on +your faces, for here is God's shekinah. This is the gate of heaven. I +see its shining hosts, I hear the melody of its songs. The angels of God +encamped with us last night, and they linger with us this morning. Tarry +with us, ye sinless ones, for this is heaven on earth!" + +He paused, with extended arm, gazing upward entranced. The scene that, +followed beggars description. By a simultaneous impulse all rose to +their feet and pressed toward the speaker with awestruck faces, and when +Grandmother Bucker, the matriarch of the valley, with luminous face and +uplifted eyes, broke into a shout, it swelled into a melodious hurricane +that shook the very hills. He ought to have been a preacher. So he said +to me once: + +"I felt the impulse and heard the call in my early manhood. I conferred +with flesh and blood, and was disobedient to the heavenly vision. I have +had some little success at the bar, on the hustings, and in legislative +halls, but how paltry has it been in comparison with the true life and +high career that might have been mine!" + +He was from the hill-country of North Carolina, and its flavor clung to +him to the last. He had his gloomy moods, but his heart was fresh as a +Blue Ridge breeze in May, and his wit bubbled forth like a +mountain-spring. There was no bitterness in his satire. The very victim +of his thrust enjoyed the keenness of the stroke, for there was no +poison in the weapon. At times he seemed inspired, and you thrilled, +melted, and soared, under the touches of this Western Coleridge. He came +to my room at the Golden Eagle, in Sacramento City, one night, and left +at two o'clock in the morning. He walked the floor and talked, and it +was the grandest monologue I ever listened to. One part of it I could +not forget. It was with reference to preachers who turn aside from their +holy calling to engage in secular pursuits, or in politics. + +"It is turning away from angels' food to feed on garbage. Think of +spending a whole life in contemplating the grandest things, and working +for the most glorious ends, instructing the ignorant, consoling the +sorrowing, winning the wayward back to duty and to peace, pointing the +dying to Him who is the light and the life of men, animating the living +to seek from the highest motives a holy life and a sublime destiny! O it +is a life that might draw an angel from the skies! If there is a special +hell for fools, it should be kept for the man who turns aside from a +life like this, to trade, or dig the earth, or wrangle in a court of +law, or scramble for an office." + +He looked at me as he spoke, with flashing eyes and curled lip. + +"That is all true and very fine, Judge, but it sounds just a little +peculiar as coming from you." + +"I am the very man to say it, for I am the man who bitterly sees its +truth. Do not make the misstep that I did. A man might well be willing +to live on bread and water, and walk the world afoot, for the privilege +of giving all his thoughts to the grandest themes, and all his service +to the highest objects. As a lawyer, my life has been spent in a +prolonged quarrel about money, land, houses; cattle, thieving, +slandering, murdering, and other villainy. The little episodes of +politics that have given variety to my career have only shown me the +baseness of human nature, and the pettiness of human ambition. There are +men who will fill these places and do this work, and who want and will +choose nothing better. Let them have all the good they can get out of +such things. But the minister of the gospel who comes down from the +height of his high calling to engage in this scramble, does that which +makes devils laugh and angels weep." + +This was the substance of what he said on this point. I have never +forgotten it. I am glad he came to my room that night. What else he +said I cannot write, but the remembrance of it is like to that of a +melody that lingers in my soul when the music has ceased. + +"I thank you for your sermon today--you never told a single lie." + +This was his remark at the close of a service in Minna street one +Sunday. + +"What is the meaning of that remark?" + +That the exaggerations of the pulpit repel thousands from the truth. +Moderation of statement is a rare excellence. A deep spiritual insight +enables a religious teacher to shade his meanings where it is required. +Deep piety is genius for the pulpit. Mediocrity in native endowments, +conjoined with spiritual stolidity in the pulpit, does more harm than +all the open apostles of infidelity combined. They take the divinity out +of religion and kill the faith of those who hear them. None but inspired +men should stand in the pulpit. Religion is not in the intellect merely. +The world by wisdom cannot know God. The attempt to find out God by the +intellect has always been, and always must be, the completest of +failures. Religion is the sphere of the supernatural, and stands not in +the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. It has often happened that +men of the first order of talent and the highest culture have been +converted by the preaching of men of weak intellect and limited +education, but who were directly taught of God, and had drunk deep from +the fount of living truth in personal experience of the blessed power of +Christian faith. It was through the intellect that the devil seduced the +first pair. When we rest in the intellect only, we miss God. With the +heart only can man believe unto righteousness. The evidence that +satisfies is based on consciousness. Consciousness is the satisfying +demonstration. + +"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart +of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But +God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. They can be revealed in no +other way." + +Here was the secret he had learned, and that had brought a new joy and +glory into his life as it neared the sunset. The great change dated from +a dark and rainy night as he walked home in Sacramento City. Not more +tangible to Saul of Tarsus was the vision, or more distinctly audible +the voice that spoke to him on the way to Damascus, than was the +revelation of Jesus Christ to this lawyer of penetrating intellect, +large and varied reading, and sharp perception of human folly and +weakness. It was a case of conversion in the fullest and divinest sense. +He never fell from the wonder-world of grace to which he had been +lifted. His youth seemed to be renewed, and his life had rebloomed, and +its winter was turned into spring, under the touch of Him who maketh all +things new. He was a new man, and he lived in a new world. He never +failed to attend the class-meetings, and in his talks there the flashes +of his genius set religious truths in new lights, and the little band of +Methodists were treated to bursts of fervid eloquence, such as might +kindle the listening thousands of metropolitan churches into admiration, +or melt them into tears. On such occasions I could not help regretting +anew that the world had lost what this man might have wrought had his +path in life taken a different direction at the start. He died suddenly, +and when in the city of Los Angeles I read the telegram announcing his +death, I felt, mingled with the pain at the loss of a friend, exultation +that before there was any reaction in his religious life his mighty soul +had found a congenial home amid the supernal glories and sublime joys of +the world of spirits. The moral of this man's life will be seen by him +for whom this imperfect Sketch has been penciled. + + + +Ah Lee. + +He was the sunniest of Mongolians. The Chinaman, under favorable +conditions, is not without a sly sense of humor of his peculiar sort; +but to American eyes there is nothing very pleasant in his angular and +smileless features. The manner of his contact with many Californians is +not calculated to evoke mirthfulness. The brickbat may be a good +political argument in the hands of a hoodlum, but it does not make its +target playful. To the Chinaman in America the situation is new and +grave, and he looks sober and holds his peace. Even the funny-looking, +be-cued little Chinese children wear a look of solemn inquisitiveness, +as they toddle along the streets of San Francisco by the side of their +queer-looking mothers. In his own land, overpopulated and misgoverned, +the Chinaman has a hard fight for existence. In these United States his +advent is regarded somewhat in the same spirit as that of the seventeen +year locusts, or the cotton-worm. The history of a people may be read in +their physiognomy. The monotony of Chinese life during these thousands +of years is reflected in the dull, monotonous faces of Chinamen. + +Ah Lee was an exception. His skin was almost fair, his features almost +Caucasian in their regularity; his dark eye lighted up with a peculiar +brightness, and there was a remarkable buoyancy and glow about him every +way. He was about twenty years old. How long he had been in California I +know not. When he came into my office to see me the first time, he +rushed forward and impulsively grasped my hand, saying: + +"My name Ah Lee--you Doctor Plitzjellie?" + +That was the way my name sounded as he spoke it. I was glad to see him, +and told him so. + +"You makee Christian newspaper? You talkee Jesus? Mr. Taylor tellee me. +Me Christian--me love Jesus." + +Yes, Ah Lee was a Christian; there could be no doubt about that. I have +seen many happy converts, but none happier than he. He was not merely +happy--he was ecstatic. + +The story of the mighty change was a simple one, but thrilling. Near +Vacaville, the former seat of the Pacific Methodist College, in Solano +county, lived the Rev. Iry Taylor, a member of the Pacific Conference of +the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Taylor was a praying man, and +he had a praying wife. Ah Lee was employed as a domestic in the family. +His curiosity was first excited in regard to family prayers. He wanted +to know what it all meant. The Taylor's explained. The old, old story +took hold of Ah Lee. He was put to thinking and then to praying. The +idea of the forgiveness of sins filled him with wonder and longing. He +hung with breathless interest upon the word of the Lord, opening to him +a world of new thought. The tide of feeling bore him on, and at the foot +of the cross he found what he sought. + +Ah Lee was converted--converted as Paul, as Augustine, as Wesley, were +converted. He was born into a new life that was as real to him as his +consciousness was real. This psychological change will be understood by +some of my readers; others may regard it as they do any other +inexplicable phenomenon in that mysterious inner world of the human +soul, in which are lived the real lives of us all. In Ah Lee's heathen +soul was wrought the gracious wonder that makes joy among the angels of +God. + +The young Chinese disciple, it is to be feared, got little sympathy +outside the Taylor household and a few others. The right-hand of +Christian fellowship was withheld by many, or extended in a cold, +half-reluctant way. But it mattered not to Ah Lee; he had his own +heaven. Coldness was wasted on him. The light within him brightened +every thing without. + +Ah Lee became a frequent visitor to our cottage on the hill. He always +came and went rejoicing. The Gospel of John was his daily study and +delight. To his ardent and receptive nature it was a diamond mine. Two +things he wanted to do. He had a strong desire to translate his favorite +Gospel into Chinese, and to lead his parents to Christ. When he spoke of +his father and mother his voice would soften, his eyes moisten with +tenderness. + +"I go back to China and tellee my fader and mudder allee good news," he +said, with beaming face. + +This peculiar development of filial reverence and affection among the +Chinese is a hopeful feature of their national life. It furnishes a +solid basis for a strong Christian nation. The weakening of this +sentiment weakens religious susceptibility; its destruction is spiritual +death. The worship of ancestors is idolatry, but it is that form of it +nearest akin to the worship of the Heavenly Father. The honoring of the +father and mother on earth is the commandment with promise, and it is +the promise of this life and of life everlasting. + +There is an inter blending of human and divine loves; earth and heaven +are unitary in companionship and destiny. The golden ladder rests on the +earth and reaches up into the heavens. + +About twice a week Ah Lee came to see us at North Beach. These visits +subjected our courtesy and tact to a severe test. He loved little +children, and at each visit he would bring with him a gayly-painted box +filled with Chinese sweetmeats. Such sweetmeats! They were to strong for +the palates of even young Californians. What cannot be relished and +digested by a healthy California boy must be formidable indeed. Those +sweetmeats were--but I give it up, they were indescribable! The boxes +were pretty, and, after being emptied of their contents, they were kept. + +Ah Lee's joy in his new experience did not abate. Under the touch of the +Holy Spirit, his spiritual nature had suddenly blossomed into tropical +luxuriance. To look at him made me think of the second chapter of the +Acts of the Apostles. If I had had any lingering doubts of the +transforming power of the gospel upon all human hearts, this conversion +of Ah Lee would have settled the question forever. The bitter feeling +against the Chinese that just then found expression in California, +through so many channels, did not seem to affect him in the least. He +had his Christianity warm from the heart of the Son of God, and no +caricature of its features or perversion of its spirit could bewilder +him for a moment. He knew whom he had believed. None of these things +moved him. O blessed mystery of God's mercy, that turns the night of +heathen darkness into day, and makes the desert soul bloom with the +flowers of paradise! O cross of the Crucified! Lifted up, it shall draw +all men to their Saviour! And O blind and slow of heart to believe! why +could we not discern that this young Chinaman's conversion was our +Lord's gracious challenge to our faith, and the pledge of success to the +Church that will go into all the world with the news of salvation? + +Ah Lee has vanished from my observation, but I have a persuasion that is +like a burning prophecy that he will be heard from again. To me he types +the blessedness of old China newborn in the life of the Lord, and in his +luminous face I read the prophecy of the redemption of the millions who +have so long bowed before the Great Red Dragon, but who now wait for the +coming of the Deliverer. + + + +The Climate of California. + +Had Shakespeare lived in California, he would not have written of the +"winter of our discontent," but would most probably have found in the +summer of that then undiscovered country a more fitting symbol of the +troublous times referred to; for, with the fogs, winds, and dust, that +accompany the summer, or the "dry season," as it is more appropriately +called in California, it is emphatically a season of discontent. In the +mountains of the State only are these conditions not found. True, you +will find dust even there as the natural consequence of the lack of +rain; but that is not, of course, so bad in the mountains; and with no +persistent, nagging wind to pick it up and fling it spitefully at you, +you soon get not to mind it at all. But of summer in the coast country +it is hard to speak tolerantly. The perfect flower of its unloveliness +flourishes in San Francisco, and, more or less hardily, all along the +coast. From the time the rains cease--generally some time in May +--through the six-months' period of their cessation, the programme for +the day is, with but few exceptions, unvaried. Fog in the morning +--chilling, penetrating fog, which obscures the rays of the morning sun +completely, and, dank and "clinging like cerements," swathes every thing +with its soft, gray folds. On the bay it hangs, heavy and chill, +blotting out everything but the nearest objects, and at a little +distance hardly distinguishable from the water itself. At such times is +heard the warning-cry of the foghorns at Fort Point, Goat Island, and +elsewhere--a sound which probably is more like that popularly supposed +to be produced by an expiring cow in her last agony than any thing else, +but which is not like that or any thing in the world but a foghorn. The +fog of the morning, however, gives way to the wind of the afternoon, +which, complete master of the situation by three o'clock P.M., holds +stormy sway till sunset. No gentle zephyr this, to softly sway the +delicate flower or just lift the fringe on the maiden's brow, but what +seamen call a "spanking breeze," that does not hesitate to knock off the +hat that is not fastened tightly both fore and aft to the underlying +head, or to fling sand and dust into any exposed eye, and which dances +around generally among skirts and coat-tails with untiring energy and +persistency. To venture out on the streets of San Francisco at such +times is really no trifling matter; and to one not accustomed to it, or +to one of a non-combative disposition, the performance is not a pleasant +one. Still the streets are always full of hurrying passengers; for, +whether attributable to the extra amount of vitality and vim that this +bracing climate imparts to its children, or to a more direct and obvious +cause, the desire to get indoors again as soon as possible, the fact +remains the same--that the people of California walk faster than do +those of almost any other country. Not only men either, who with their +coats buttoned up to their chins, and hats jammed tightly over their +half-shut eyes, present a tolerably secure surface to the attacks of the +wind, but their fairer sisters too can be seen, with their fresh cheeks +and bright eyes protected by jaunty veils, scudding along in the face or +the track of the wind, as the case may he, with wonderful skill and +grace, looking as trim and secure as to rigging as the lightest schooner +in full sail on their own bay. + +But it is after the sun has gone down from the cloudless sky, and the +sea has recalled its breezes to slumber for the night, that the +fulfillment of the law of compensation is made evident in this matter. +The nights are of silver, if the days be not of gold. And all over the +State this blessing of cool, comfortable nights is spread. At any +season, one can draw a pair of blankets over him upon retiring, sure of +sound, refreshing slumber, unless assailed by mental or physical +troubles to which even this glorious climate of California cannot +minister. + +The country here during this rainless season does not seem to the +Eastern visitor enough like what he has known as country in the summer +to warrant any outlay in getting there. He must, however, understand +that here people go to the country for precisely opposite reasons to +those which influence Eastern tourists to leave the city and betake +themselves to rural districts. In the East, one leaves the crowded +streets and heated atmosphere of the great city to seek coolness in some +sylvan retreat. Here, we leave the chilling winds and fogs of the city +to try to get warm where they cannot penetrate. Warm it may be; but the +country at this season is not at its best as to looks. The flowers and +the grass have disappeared with the rains, the latter, however, keeping +in its dry, brown roots, that the sun scorches daily, the germ of all +next winter's green. Of the trees, the live-oak alone keeps to the +summer livery of Eastern forests. Farther up in the mountain counties it +is very different. No fairer summer could be wished for than that which +reigns cloudless here; and with the sparkling champagne of that clear, +dry air in his nostrils, our Eastern visitor forgets even to sigh for a +summer shower to lay the dreadful dust. And even in the valleys and +around the bay, we must confess that some advantages arise from the +no-rain-for-six-months policy. Picnickers can set forth any day, with no +fear of the fun of the occasion being wet-blanketed by an unlooked-for +shower; and farmers can dispose of their crops according to convenience, +often leaving their wheat piled up in the field, with no fear of danger +from the elements. + +Still we do get very tired of this long, strange summer, and the first +rains are eagerly looked for and joyously welcomed. The fall of the +first showers after such a long season of bareness and brownness is +almost as immediate in its effects as the waving of a fairy's magic wand +over Cinderella, sitting ragged in the ashes and cinders. The change +thus wrought is well described by a poet of the soil in a few +picturesque lines: + +Week by week the near hills whitened, In their dusty leather cloaks; + +Week by week the far hills darkened, From the fringing plain of oaks; + +Till the rains came, and far breaking, On the fierce south-wester tost, + +Dashed the whole long coast with color, And then vanished and were lost. + +With these rains the grass springs up, the trees put out, and the winds +disappear, leaving in the air a wonderful softness. In a month or two +the flowers appear, and the hills are covered with a mantle of glory. +Bluebells, lupins, buttercups, and hosts of other blossoms, spring up in +profusion; and, illuminating every thing, the wild California poppy +lifts its flaming torch, typifying well, in its dazzling and glowing +color, the brilliant minds and passionate hearts of the people of this +land. All these bloom on through the winter, for this is a winter but in +name. With no frost, ice, or snow, it is more like an Eastern spring, +but for the absence of that feeling of languor and debility which is so +often felt in that season. True it rains a good deal, but by no means +constantly, more often in the night; and it is this season of smiles and +tears, this winter of flowers and budding trees, in which the glory of +the California climate lies. Certainly nothing could be more perfect +than a bright winter day in that State. Still, after all I could say in +its praise, you would not know its full charm till you had felt its +delicious breath on your own brow; for the peculiar freshness and +exhilaration of the air are indescribable. + +Sometimes in March, the dwellers on the bay are treated to a blow or two +from the north, which is about as serious weather as the inhabitant of +that favored clime ever experiences. After a night whose sleep has been +broken by shrieks of the wind and the rattling of doors and windows, I +wake with a dullness of head and sensitiveness of nerve that alone would +be sufficient to tell me that the north wind had risen like a thief in +the night, and had not, according to the manner of that class, stolen +away before morning. On the contrary, he seems to be rushing around with +an energy that betokens a day of it. I dress, and look out of my window. +The bay is a mass of foaming, tossing waves, which, as they break on the +beach just below, cast their spray twenty feet in air. All the little +vessels have come into port, and only a few of the largest ships still +ride heavily at their anchors. The hue separating the shallow water near +the shore from the deeper waters beyond is much farther out than usual, +and is more distinct. Within its boundary, the predominant white is +mixed with a dark, reddish brown; without, the spots of color are +darkest green. The shy has been swept of every particle of cloud and +moisture, and is almost painfully blue. Against it, Mounts Tamalpais and +Diablo stand outlined with startling clearness. The hills and islands +round the bay look as cold and uncomfortable in their robes of bright +green as a young lady who has put on her spring-dress too soon. The +streets and walks are swept bare, but still the air is filled with +flying sand that cuts my face like needles, when, later, overcoated and +gloved to the utmost, I proceed downtown. Such days are Nature's +cleaning days, very necessary to future health and comfort, but, like +all cleaning-days, very unpleasant to go through with. With her +mightiest besom does the old lady sweep all the cobwebs from the sky, +all the dirt and germs of disease from the ground, and remove all specks +and impurities from her air-windows. One or two such "northers" finish +up the season, effectually scaring away all the clouds, thus clearing +the stage for the next act in this annual drama of two acts. + +This climate of California is perfectly epitomized in a stanza of the +same poem before quoted: + +So each year the season shifted, Wet and warm, and drear and dry, + +Half a year-of cloud and flowers, Half a year of dust and sky. + + + +After the Storm. + +(Penciled in the bay-window above the Golden Gate, North Beach, San +Francisco, February 20, 1873.) + +All day the winds the sea had lashed, The fretted waves in anger dashed +Against the rocks in tumult wild Above the surges roughly piled--No blue +above, no peace below, The waves still rage, the winds still blow. + +Dull and muffled the sunset gun Tells that the dreary day is done; The +sea-birds fly with drooping wing--Chill and shadow on every thing--No +blue above, no peace below, The waves still rage, the winds still blow. + +The clouds dispart; the sapphire dye In beauty spreads o'er the western +sky, Cloud-fires blaze o'er the Gate of Gold, Gleaming and glowing, fold +on fold--All blue above, all peace below, Nor waves now rage, nor winds +now blow. + +Souls that are lashed by storms of pain, Eyes that drip with sorrow's +rain; Hearts that burn with passion strong, Bruised and torn, and weary +of wrong--No light above, no peace within, Battling with self, and torn +by sin-- + +Hope on, hold on, the clouds will lift; God's peace will come as his own +sweet gift, The light will shine at evening-time, The reflected beams of +the sunlit clime, The blessed goal of the soul's long quest, Where +storms ne'er beat, and all are blest. + + + +Bishop Kavanaugh in California. + +He came first in 1856. The Californians "took to" him at once. It was +almost as good as a visit to the old home to see and hear this +rosy-faced, benignant, and solid Kentuckian. His power and pathos in the +pulpit were equaled by his humor and magnetic charm in the social +circle. Many consciences were stirred. All hearts were won by him, and +he holds them unto this day. We may hope too that many souls were won +that will be stars in his crown of rejoicing in the day of Jesus Christ. + +At San Jose, his quality as a preacher was developed by an incident that +excited no little popular interest. The (Northern) Methodist Conference +was in session at that place, the venerable and saintly Bishop Scott +presiding. Bishop Kavanaugh was invited to preach, and it so happened +that he was to do so on the night following an appointment for Bishop +Scott. The matter was talked of in the town, and not unnaturally a +spirit of friendly rivalry was excited with regard to the approaching +pulpit performances by the Northern and Southern Bishops respectively. +One enthusiastic but not pious Kentuckian offered to bet a hundred +dollars that Kavanaugh would preach the better sermon. Of course the two +venerable men were unconscious of all this, and nothing of the kind was +in their hearts. The church was thronged to hear Bishop Scott, and his +humility, strong sense, deep earnestness, and holy emotion, made a +profound and happy impression on all present. The church was again +crowded the next night. Among the audience was a considerable number of +Southerners--wild fellows, who were not often seen in such places, +among them the enthusiastic Kentuckian already alluded to. Kavanaugh, +after going through with the preliminary services, announced his text, +and began his discourse. He seemed not to be in a good preaching mood. +His wheels drove heavily. Skirmishing around and around, he seemed to be +reconnoitering his subject, finding no salient point for attack. The +look of eager expectation in the faces of the people gave way to one of +puzzled and painful solicitude. The heads of the expectant Southerners +drooped a little, and the betting Kentuckian betrayed his feelings by a +lowering of the under-jaw and sundry nervous twitchings of the muscles +of his face. The good Bishop kept talking, but the wheels revolved +slowly. It was a solemn and "trying time" to at least a portion of the +audience, as the Bishop, with head bent over the Bible and his broad +chest stooped, kept trying to coax a response from that obstinate text. +It seemed a lost battle. At last a sudden flash of thought seemed to +strike the speaker, irradiating his face and lifting his form as he gave +it utterance, with a characteristic throwing back of his shoulders and +upward sweep of his arms. Those present will never forget what followed. +The afflatus of the true orator had at last fallen upon him; the mighty +ship was launched, and swept out to sea under full canvas. Old Kentucky +was on her feet that night in San Jose. It was indescribable. Flashes of +spiritual illumination, explosive bursts of eloquent declamation, +sparkles of chastened wit, appeals of overwhelming intensity, followed +like the thunder and lightning of a Southern storm. The church seemed +literally to rock. "Amens" burst from the electrified Methodists of all +sorts; these were followed by "hallelujahs" on all sides; and when the +sermon ended with a rapturous flight of imagination, half the +congregation were on their feet, shaking hands, embracing one another, +and shouting. In the tremendous religious impression made, criticism was +not thought of. Even the betting Kentuckian showed by his heaving breast +and tearful eyes how far he was borne out of the ordinary channels of +his thought and feeling. + +He came to Sonora, where I was pastor, to preach to the miners. It was +our second year in California, and the paternal element in his nature +fell on us like a benediction. He preached three noble sermons to full +houses in the little church on the red hillside, but his best discourses +were spoken to the young preacher in the tiny parsonage. Catching the +fire of the old polemics that led to the battles of the giants in the +West, he went over the points of difference between the Arminiau and +Calvinistic schools of theology in a way that left a permanent deposit +in a mind which was just then in its most receptive state. We felt very +lonesome after he had left. It was like a touch of home to have him with +us then, and in his presence we have had the feeling ever since. What a +home will heaven be where all such men will be gathered in one company! + +It was a warm day when he went down to take the stage for Mariposa. The +vehicle seemed to be already full of passengers, mostly Mexicans and +Chinamen. When the portly Bishop presented himself, and essayed to +enter, there were frowns and expressions of dissatisfaction. + +"Mucho malo!" exclaimed a dark-skinned Senorita, with flashing black +eyes. + +"Make room in there--he's got to go," ordered the bluff stage-driver, +in a peremptory tone. + +There were already eight passengers inside, and the top of the coach was +covered as thick as robins on a sumac-bush. The Bishop mounted the step +and surveyed the situation. The seat assigned him was between two +Mexican women, and as he sunk into the apparently insufficient space +there was a look of consternation in their faces--and I was not +surprised at it. But scrouging in, the newcomer smiled, and addressed +first one and then another of his fellow-passengers with so much +friendly pleasantness of manner that the frowns cleared away from their +faces, even the stolid, phlegmatic Chinamen brightening up with the +contagious good humor of the "big Mellican man." When the driver cracked +his whip, and the spirited mustangs struck off in the California gallop +--the early Californians scorned any slower gait--everybody was +smiling. Staging in California in those days was often an exciting +business. There were "opposition" lines on most of the thoroughfares, +and the driving was furious and reckless in the extreme. Accidents were +strangely seldom when we consider the rate of speed, the nature of the +roads, and the quantity of bad whisky consumed by most of the drivers. +Many of these drivers made it a practice to drink at every +stopping-place. Seventeen drinks were counted in one forenoon ride by +one of these thirsty Jehus. The racing between the rival stages was +exciting enough. Lashing the wiry little horses to full speed, there was +but one thought, and that was, to "get in ahead." A driver named White +upset his stage between Montezuma and Knight's Ferry on the Stanislaus, +breaking his right-leg above the knee. Fortunately none of the +passengers were seriously hurt, though some of them were a little +bruised and frightened. The stage was righted, White resumed the reins, +whipped his horses into a run, and, with his broken limb hanging loose, +ran into town ten minutes ahead of his rival, fainting as he was lifted +from the seat. + +"Old man Holden told me to go in ahead or smash everything, and I made +it!" exclaimed White, with professional pride. + +The Bishop was fortunate enough to escape with unbroken bones as he +dashed from point to point over the California hills and valleys, though +that heavy body of his was mightily shaken up on many occasions. + +He came to California on his second visit, in 1863, when the war was +raging. An incident occurred that gave him a very emphatic reminder that +those were troublous times. + +He was at a camp-meeting in the San Joaquin Valley, near Linden--a +place famous for gatherings of this sort. The Bishop was to preach at +eleven o'clock, and a great crowd was there, full of high expectation. A +stranger drove up just before the hour of service--a broad shouldered +man in blue clothes, and wearing a glazed cap. He asked to see Bishop +Kavanaugh privately for a few moments. + +They retired to "the preachers' tent," and the stranger said: + +"My name is Jackson--Colonel Jackson, of the United States Army. I have +a disagreeable duty to perform. By order of General McDowell, I am to +place you under arrest, and take you to San Francisco." + +"Can you wait until I preach my sermon?" asked the Bishop, +good-naturedly; "the people expect it, and I don't want to disappoint +them if it can be helped." + +"How long will it take you?" + +"Well, I am a little uncertain when I get started, but I will try not to +be too long." + +"Very well; go on with your sermon, and if you have no objection I will +be one of your hearers." + +The secret was known only to the Bishop and his captor. The sermon was +one of his best--the vast crowd of people were mightily moved, and the +Colonel's eyes were not dry when it closed. After a prayer, and a song, +and a collection, the Bishop stood up again before the people, and said: + +"I have just received a message which makes it necessary for me to +return to San Francisco immediately. I am sorry that I cannot remain +longer, and participate with you in the hallowed enjoyments of the +occasion. The blessing of God be with you, my brethren and sisters." + +His manner was so bland, and his tone so serene, that nobody had the +faintest suspicion as to what it was that called him away so suddenly. +When he drove off with the stranger, the popular surmise was that it was +a wedding or a funeral that called for such haste. These are two events +in human life that admit of no delays: people must be buried, and they +will be married. + +The Bishop reported to General Mason, Provost-marshal General, and was +told to hold himself as in duress until further orders, and to be ready +to appear at headquarters at short notice when called for. He was put on +parole, as it were. He came down to San Jose and stirred my congregation +with several of his powerful discourses. In the meantime the arrest had +gotten into the newspapers. Nothing that happens escapes the California +journalists, and they have even been known to get hold of things that +never happened at all. It seems that someone in the shape of a man had +made an affidavit that Bishop Kavanaugh had come to the Pacific Coast as +a secret agent of the Southern Confederacy, to intrigue and recruit in +its interest! Five minutes' inquiry would have satisfied General +McDowell of the silliness of such a charge--but it was in war times, +and he did not stop to make the inquiry. In Kentucky the good old Bishop +had the freedom of the whole land, coming and going without hinderance; +but the fact was, he had not been within the Confederate lines since the +war began. To make such an accusation against him was the climax of +absurdity. + +About three weeks after the date of his arrest, I was with the Bishop +one morning on our way to Judge Moore's beautiful country-seat, near San +Jose, situated on the far-famed Alameda. The carriage was driven by a +black man named Henry. Passing the post-office, I found, addressed to +the Bishop in my care, a huge document bearing the official stamp of the +provost-marshal's office, San Francisco. He opened and read it as we +drove slowly along, and as he did so he brightened up, and turning to +Henry, said: + +"Henry, were you ever a slave?" + +"Yes, sah; in Mizzoory," said Henry, showing his white teeth. + +"Did you ever get your free-papers?" + +"Yes, sah--got 'em now." + +"Well, I have got mine--let's shake hands." + +And the Bishop and Henry had quite a handshaking over this mutual +experience. Henry enjoyed it greatly, as his frequent chucklings evinced +while the Judge's fine bays were trotting along the Alameda. + +(I linger on the word Alameda as I write it. It is at least one +beneficent trace of the early Jesuit Fathers who founded the San Jose +and Santa Clara missions a hundred years ago. They planted an avenue of +willows the entire three miles, and in that rich, moist soil the trees +have grown until their trunks are of enormous size, and their branches, +overarching the highway with their dense shade, make a drive of +unequaled beauty and pleasantness. The horse-cars have now taken away +much of its romance, but in the early days it was famous for moonlight +drives and their concomitants and consequences. A long-limbed +four-year-old California colt gave me a romantic touch of a different +sort, nearly the last time I was on the Alameda, by running away with +the buggy, and breaking it and me--almost--to pieces. I am reminded of +it by the pain in my crippled right-shoulder as I write these lines in +July, 1881. But still I say, Blessings on the memory of the Fathers who +planted the willows on the Alameda!) + +An intimation was given the Bishop that if he wanted the name of the +false-swearer who had caused him to be arrested he could have it. + +"No, I don't want to know his name," said he; "it will do me no good to +know it. May God pardon his sin, as I do most heartily!" + +A really strong preacher preaches a great many sermons, each of which +the hearers claim to be the greatest sermon of his life. I have heard of +at least a half dozen "greatest" sermons by Bascom and Pierce, and other +noted pulpit orators. But I heard one sermon by Kavanaugh that was +probably indeed his master-effort. It had a history. When the Bishop +started to Oregon, in 1863, I placed in his hands Bascom's Lectures, +which, strange to say, he had never read. Of these Lectures the elder +Dr. Bond said "they would be the colossal pillars of Bascom's fame when +his printed sermons were forgotten." Those Lectures wonderfully +anticipated the changing phases of the materialistic infidelity +developed since his day, and applied to them the reductio ad absurdum +with relentless and resistless power. On his return from Oregon, +Kavanaugh met and presided over the Annual Conference at San Jose. One +of his old friends, who was troubled with skeptical thoughts of the +materialistic sort, requested him to preach a sermon for his special +benefit. This request, and the previous reading of the Lectures, +directed his mind to the topic suggested with intense earnestness. The +result was, as I shall always think, the sermon of a lifetime. The text +was, There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty +giveth them understanding. (Job xxxii. 8.) That mighty discourse was a +demonstration of the truth of the affirmation of the text. I will not +attempt to reproduce it here, though many of its passages are still +vivid in my memory. It tore to shreds the sophistries by which it was +sought to sink immortal man to the level of the brutes that perish; it +appealed to the consciousness of his hearers in red-hot logic that +burned its way to the inmost depths of the coldest and hardest hearts; +it scintillated now and then sparkles of wit like the illuminated edges +of an advancing thundercloud; borne, on the wings of his imagination, +whose mighty sweep took him beyond the bounds of earth, through whirling +worlds and burning suns, he found the culmination of human destiny, in +the bosom of eternity, infinity, and God. The peroration was +indescribable. The rapt audience reeled under it. Inspiration! the man +of God was himself its demonstration, for the power of his word was not +his own. + +"O I thank God that be sent me here this day to hear that sermon! I +never heard any thing like it, and I shall never forget it, or cease to +be thankful that I heard it," said the Rev. Dr. Charles Wadsworth, of +Philadelphia, the great Presbyterian preacher--a man of genius, and a +true prose-poet, as any one will concede after reading his published +sermons. As he spoke, the tears were in his eyes, the muscles of his +face quivering, and his chest heaving with irrepressible emotion. Nobody +who heard that discourse will accuse me of too high coloring in this +brief description of it. + +"Don't you wish you were a Kentuckian?" was the enthusiastic exclamation +of a lady who brought from Kentucky a matchless wit and the culture of +Science Hill Academy, which has blessed and brightened so many homes +from the Ohio to the Sacramento. + +I think the Bishop was present on another occasion when the compliment +he received was a left-handed one. It was at the Stone Church in Suisun +Valley. The Bishop and a number of the most prominent ministers of the +Pacific Conference were present at a Saturday-morning preaching +appointment. They had all been engaged in protracted labors, and, +beginning with the Bishop, one after another declined to preach. The lot +fell at last upon a boyish-looking brother of very small stature, who +labored under the double disadvantage of being a very young preacher, +and of having been reared in the immediate vicinity. The people were +disappointed and indignant when they saw the little fellow go into the +pulpit. None showed their displeasure more plainly than Uncle Ben Brown, +a somewhat eccentric old brother, who was one of the founders of that +Society, and one of its best official members. He sat as usual on a +front seat, his thick eyebrows fiercely knit, and his face wearing a +heavy frown. He had expected to hear the Bishop, and this was what it +had come to! He drew his shoulders sullenly down, and, with his eyes +bent upon the floor, nursed his wrath. The little preacher began his +sermon, and soon astonished everybody by the energy with which he spoke. +As he proceeded, the frown on Uncle Ben's face relaxed a little; at +length he lifted his eyes and glanced at the speaker in surprise. He did +not think it was in him. With abnormal fluency and force, the little +preacher went on with the increasing sympathy of his audience, who were +feeling the effects of a generous reaction in his favor. Uncle Ben, +touched a little with honest obstinacy as he was, gradually relaxed in +the sternness of his looks, straightening up by degrees until he sat +upright facing the speaker in a sort of half-reluctant, pleased wonder. +Just at the close of a specially vigorous burst of declamation, the old +man exclaimed, in a loud voice: + +"Bless God! he uses the weak things of this world to confound the +mighty!" casting around a triumphant glance at the Bishop and other +preachers. + +This impromptu remark was more amusing to the hearers than helpful to +the preacher, I fear; but it was away the dear old brother had of +speaking out in meeting. + +I must end this Sketch. I have dipped my pen in my heart in writing it. +The subject of it has been friend, brother, father, to me since the day +he looked in upon us in the little cabin on the hill in Sonora, in 1855. +When I greet him on the hills of heaven, he will not be sorry to be told +that among the many in the far West to whom he was helpful was the +writer of this too imperfect Sketch. + + + +Sanders. + +He belonged to the Church militant. In looks he was a cross between a +grenadier and a Trappist. But there was more soldier than monk in his +nature. He was over six feet high, thin as a bolster, and straight as a +long-leaf pine. His anatomy was strongly conspicuous. He was the boniest +of men. There were as many angles as inches in the lines of his face. +His hair disdained the persuasions of comb or brush, and rose in tangled +masses above a head that would have driven a phrenologist mad. It was a +long head in every sense. His features were strong and stern, his nose +one that would have delighted the great Napoleon--it was a grand organ. +You said at once, on looking at him, Here is a man that fears neither +man nor devil. The face was an honest face. When you looked into those +keen, dark eyes, and read the lines of that stormy countenance, you felt +that it would be equally impossible for him to tell a lie or to fear the +face of man. + +This was John Sanders, one of the early California Methodist preachers. +He went among the first to preach the gospel to the gold-hunters. He got +a hearing where some failed. His sincerity and brainpower commanded +attention, and his pluck enforced respect. In one case it seemed to be +needed. + +He was sent to preach in Placerville, popularly called in the old days, +"Hangtown." It was then a lively and populous place. The mines were +rich, and gold-dust was abundant as good behavior was scarce. The one +church in the town was a "union church," and it was occupied by Sanders +and a preacher of another sect on alternate Sundays. All went well for +many months, and if there were no sinners converted in that camp, the +few saints were at peace. It so happened that Sanders was called away +for a week or two, and on his return he found that a new preacher had +been sent to the place, and that he had made an appointment to preach on +his (Sanders's) regular day. Having no notion of yielding his rights, +Sanders also inserted a notice in the papers of the town that he would +preach at the same time and place. The thing was talked about in the +town and vicinity, and there was a buzz of excitement. The miners, +always ready for a sensation, became interested, and when Sunday came +the church could not hold the crowd. The strange preacher arrived first, +entered the pulpit, knelt a few moments in silent devotion, according to +custom, and then sat and surveyed the audience which was surveying him +with curious interest. He was a tall, fine-looking man, almost the equal +of Sanders in height, and superior to him in height. He was a Kentuckian +originally, but went from Ohio to California, and was a full-grown man, +of the best Western physical type. In a little while Sanders entered the +church, made his way through the dense crowd, ascended the pulpit, cast +a sharp glance at the intruder, and sat down. There was a dead silence. +The two preachers gazed at the congregation; the congregation gazed at +the preachers. A pin might have been heard to fall. Sanders was as +imperturbable as a statue, but his lips were pressed together tightly, +and there was a blaze in his eyes. The strange preacher showed signs of +nervousness, moving his hands and feet, and turning this way and that in +his seat. It was within five minutes of the time for opening the +service. The stranger rose, and was in the act of taking hold of the +Bible that lay on the cushion in front of him, when Sanders rose to his +full height, stepped in front of him, and darting lightning from his +eyes as he looked him full in the face, said: + +"I preach here today, sir!" + +That settled it. There was no mistaking that look or tone. The tall +stranger muttered an inarticulate protest and subsided. Sanders +proceeded with the service, making no allusion to the difficulty until +it was ended. Then he proposed a meeting of the citizens the next +evening to adjudicate the case. The proposal was acceded to. The church +was again crowded; and though ecclesiastically Sanders was in the +minority, with the genuine love for fair-play which is a trait of +Anglo-Saxon character, he was sustained by an overwhelming majority. It +is likely, too, that his plucky bearing the, day before made him some +votes. A preacher who would fight for his rights suited those wild +fellows better than one who would assert a claim that he would not +enforce. Sanders preached to larger audiences after this episode in his +"Hangtown" pastorate. + +It was after this that he went out one day to stake off a lot on which +he proposed to build a house of worship. It was near the Roman Catholic +Church. A zealous Irishman, who was a little more than half drunk, was +standing by. Evidently he did not like any such heretical movements, +and, after Sanders had placed the stake in the earth, the Hibernian +stepped forward and pulled it up. + +"I put the stake back in its place. He pulled it up again. I put it +back. He pulled it up again. I put it back once more. He got fiery mad +by this time, and started at me with an ax in his hand. I had an ax in +my hand, and as its handle was longer than his, I cut him down." + +The poor fellow had waked up the fighting preacher, and fell before the +sweep of Sanders's ax. He dodged as the weapon descended, and saved his +life by doing so. He got an ugly wound on the shoulder, and kept his bed +for many weeks. When he rose from his bed he had a profound regard for +Sanders, whose grit excited his admiration. There was not a particle of +resentment in his generous Irish heart. He became a sober man, and it +was afterward a current pleasantry among the "boys" that he was +converted by the use of the carnal weapon wielded by that spunky parson. +Nobody blamed Sanders for his part in the matter. It was a fair fight, +and he had the right on his side. Had he shown the white feather, that +would have damaged him with a community in whose estimation courage as +the cardinal virtue. Sanders was popular with all classes, and +Placerville remembers him to this day. He was no rose-water divine, but +thundered the terrors of the law into the ears of those wild fellows +with the boldness of a John the Baptist. Many a sinner quaked under his +stern logic and fiery appeals, and some repented. + +I shall never forget a sermon he preached at San Jose. He was in bad +health, and his mind was morbid and gloomy. His text was, Who hath +hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? (Job ix. 4.) The +thought that ran through the discourse was the certainty that +retribution would overtake the guilty. God's law will be upheld. It +protects the righteous, but must crush the disobedient. He swept away +the sophisms by which men persuade themselves that they can escape the +penalty of violated law; and it seemed as if we could almost hear the +crash of the tumbling wrecks of hopes built on false foundations. God +Almighty was visible on the throne of his power, armed with the even +thunders of his wrath. + +"Who hath defied God and escaped?" he demanded, with flashing eyes and +trumpet voice. And then he recited the histories of nations and men that +had made the fatal experiment, and the doom that had whelmed them in +utter ruin. + +"And yet you hope to escape!" he thundered to the silent and awestruck +men and women before him. "You expect that God will abrogate his law to +please you; that he will tear down the pillars of his moral government +that you may be saved in your sins! O fools, fools, fools! there is no +place but hell for such a folly as this!" + +His haggard face, the stern solemnity of his voice, the sweep of his +long arms, the gleam of his deep-set eyes, and the vigor of his +inexorable logic, drove that sermon home to the listeners. + +He was the keenest of critics, and often merciless. He was present at a +camp-meeting near San Jose, but too feeble to preach. I was there, and +disabled from, the effects of the California poison-oak. That deceitful +shrub! Its pink leaves smile at you as pleasantly as sin, and, like sin, +it leaves its sting. The "preachers' tent" was immediately in the rear +of "the stand," and Sanders and I lay inside and listened to the +sermons. He was in one of his caustic moods, and his comments were racy +enough, though not helpful to devotion. + +"There! he yelled, clapped his hands, stamped, and--said nothing!" + +The criticism was just: the brother in the stand was making a great +noise, but there was not much meaning in what he said. + +"He made one point only--a pretty good apology for Lazarus's poverty." + +This was said at the close of an elaborate discourse on "The Rich Man +and Lazarus," by a brother who sometimes got "in the brush." + +"He isn't touching his text--he knows no more theology than a +guinea-pig. Words, words, words!" + +This last criticism was directed against a timid young divine, who was +badly frightened, but who has since shown that there was good metal in +him. If he had known what was going on just behind him, he would have +collapsed entirely in that tentative effort at preaching the gospel. + +Sanders kept up this running fire of criticism at every service, cutting +to the bone, at every blow, and giving me new light on homiletics, if he +did not promote my enjoyment of the preaching. He had read largely and +thought deeply, and his incisive intellect had no patience with what was +feeble or pointless. + +Disease settled upon his lungs, and he rapidly declined. His strong +frame grew thinner and thinner, and his mind alternated between moods of +morbid bitterness and transient buoyancy. As the end approached, his +bitter moods were less frequent, and an unwonted tenderness came into +his words and tones. He went to the Lokonoma Springs, in the hills of +Napa county, and in their solitudes he adjusted himself to the great +change that was drawing near. The capacious blue sky that arched above +him, the sighing of the gentle breeze through the solemn pines, the +repose of the encircling mountains, bright with sunrise, or purpling in +the twilight, distilled the soothing influences of nature into his +spirit, and there was a great calm within. Beyond those California hills +the hills of God rose in their supernal beauty before the vision of his +faith, and when the summons came for him one midnight, his soul leaped +to meet it in a ready and joyous response. On a white marble slab, at +the "Stone Church," in Suisun Valley, is this inscription: + +Rev. John Sanders. + +Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him +out of them all. + +The spring flowers were blooming on the grave when I saw it last. + + + +A Day. + +Ah, that blessed, blessed day! I had gone to the White Sulphur Springs, +in Napa County, to get relief from the effects of the California +poison-oak. Gay deceiver! With its tender green and pink leaves, it +looks as innocent and smiling as sin when it woos youth and ignorance. +Like sin, it is found everywhere in that beautiful land. Many antidotes +are used, but the only sure way of dealing with it is to keep away from +it. Again, there is an analogy: it is easier to keep out of sin than to +get out when caught. These soft, pure white sulphur waters work miracles +of healing, and attract all sorts of people. The weary and broken down +man of business comes here to sleep, and eat, and rest; the woman of +fashion, to dress and flirt; the loudly-dressed and heavily-bejeweled +gambler, to ply his trade; happy bridal couples, to have the world to +themselves; successful and unsuccessful politicians, to plan future +triumphs or brood over defeats; pale and trembling invalids, to seek +healing or a brief respite from the grave; families escaping from the +wind and fog of the bay, to spend a few weeks where they can find +sunshine and quiet--it is a little world in itself. The spot is every +way beautiful, but its chief charm is its isolation. Though within a +few hours' ride of San Francisco, and only two miles from a +railroad-station, you feel as if you were in the very heart of nature +--and so you are. Winding along the banks of a sparkling stream, the +mountains--great masses of leafy green--rise abruptly on either hand; +the road bends this way and that until a sudden turn brings you to a +little valley hemmed in all around by the giant hills. A bold, rocky +projection just above the main hotel gives a touch of ruggedness and +grandeur to the scene. How delicious the feeling of rest that comes over +you at once!--the world shut out, the hills around, and the sky above. + +It was in 1863, when the civil war was at its white heat. Circumstances +had given me undesired notoriety in that connection. I had been thrust +into the very vortex of its passion, and my name made the rallying-cry +of opposing elements in California. The guns of Manassas, Cedar +Mountain, and the Chickahominy, were echoed in the foothills of the +Sierras, and in the peaceful valleys of the far-away Pacific Coast. The +good sense of a practical, people prevented any flagrant outbreak on a +large scale, but here and there a too ardent Southerner said or did +something that gave him a few weeks' or months' duress at Fort Alcatraz, +and the honors of a bloodless martyrdom. I was then living at North +Beach, in full sight of that fortress. It was kindly suggested by +several of my brother editors that it would be a good place for me. +When, as my eye swept over the bay in the early morning, the first sight +that met my gaze was its rocky ramparts and bristling guns, the poet's +line would come to mind: "'T is distance lends enchantment to the view." +I was just as close as I wanted to be. "I have good quarters for you," +said the brave and courteous Captain McDougall, who was in command at +the fort; "and knowing your penchant, I will let you have the freedom of +a sunny corner of the island for fishing in good weather." The true +soldier is sometimes a true gentleman. + +The name and image of another Federal officer rise before me as I write. +It is that of the heroic soldier, General Wright, who went down with the +"Brother Jonathan," on the Oregon coast, in 1865. He was in command of +the Department of the Pacific during this stormy period of which I am +speaking. I had never seen him, and I had no special desire to make his +acquaintance. Somehow Fort Alcatraz had become associated with his name +for reasons already intimated. But, though unsought by me, an interview +did take place. + +"It has come at last!" was my exclamation as I read the note left by an +orderly in uniform notifying me that I was expected to report at the +quarters of the commanding-general the next day at ten o'clock. +Conscious of my innocence of treason or any other crime against the +Government or society, my pugnacity was roused by this summons. Before +the hour set for my appearance at the military headquarters, I was ready +for martyrdom or any thing else except Alcatraz. I didn't like that. The +island was too small, and too foggy and windy, for my taste. I thought +it best to obey the order I had received, and so, punctually at the +hour, I repaired to the headquarters on Washington Street, and ascending +the steps with a firm tread and defiant feeling, I entered the room. +General Mason, provost-marshal, a scholar and polished gentleman, +politely offered me a seat. + +"No; I prefer to stand," I said stiffly. + +"The General will see you in a few minutes," said he, resuming his work, +while I stood nursing my indignation and sense of wrong. + +In a little while General Wright entered--a tall and striking figure, +silver-haired, blue-eyed, ruddy faced, with a mixture of the dash of the +soldier and the benignity of a bishop. + +Declining also his cordial invitation to be seated, I stood and looked +at him, still nursing defiance, and getting ready to wear a martyr's +crown. The General spoke: + +"Did you know, sir, that I am perhaps the most attentive reader of your +paper to be found in California?" + +"No; I was not aware that I had the honor of numbering the +commanding-general of this department among my readers." (This was +spoken with severe dignity.) + +"A lot of hotheads have for sometime been urging me to have you arrested +on the ground that you are editing and publishing a disloyal newspaper. +Not wishing to do any injustice to a fellowman, I have taken means every +week to obtain a copy of your paper, the Pacific Methodist; and allow me +to say, sir, that no paper has ever come into my family which is such a +favorite with all of us." + +I bowed, feeling that the spirit of martyrdom was cooling within me. The +General continued: + +"I have sent for you, sir, that I might say to you, Go on in your +present prudent and manly course, and while I command this department +you are as safe as I am." + +There I stood, a whipped man, my pugnacity all gone, and the martyr's +crown away out of my reach. I walked softly downstairs, after bidding +the General an adieu in a manner in marked contrast to that in which I +had greeted him at the beginning of the interview. Now that it is all +over, and the ocean winds have wailed their dirges for him so many long +years, I would pay a humble tribute to the memory of as brave and +knightly a man as ever wore epaulettes or fought under the stars and +stripes. He was of the type of Sidney Johnston, who fell at Shiloh, and +of McPherson, who fell at Kennesaw--all Californians; all Americans, +true soldiers, who had a sword for the foe in fair fight in the open +field, and a shield for woman, and for the noncombatant, the aged, the +defenseless. They fought on different sides to settle forever a quarrel +that was bequeathed to their generation, but their fame is the common +inheritance of the American people. The reader is beginning to think I +am digressing, but he will better understand what is to come after +getting this glimpse of those stormy days in the sixties. + +The guests at the Springs were about equally divided in their sectional +sympathies. The gentlemen were inclined to avoid all exciting +discussions, but the ladies kept up a fire of small arms. When the mails +came in, and the latest news was read, comments were made with flashing +eyes and flushed cheeks. + +The Sabbath morning dawned without a cloud. I awoke with the earliest +song of the birds, and was out before the first rays of the sun had +touched the mountaintops. The coolness was delicious, and the air was +filled with the sweet odors of aromatic shrubs and flowers, with a hint +of the pine-forests and balsam-thickets from the higher altitudes. +Taking a breakfast solus, pocket-bible in hand I bent my steps up the +gorge, often crossing the brook that wound its way among the thickets or +sung its song at the foot of the great overhanging cliffs. A shining +trout would now and then flash like a silver bar for a moment above the +shaded pools. With light step a doe descending the mountain came upon +me, and, gazing at me a moment or two with its soft eyes, tripped away. +In a narrow pass where the stream rippled over the pebbles between two +great walls of rock, a spotted snake crossed my path, hurrying its +movement in fright. Fear not, humble ophidian. The war declared between +thee and me in the fifteenth verse of the third chapter of Genesis is +suspended for this one day. Let no creature die today but by the act of +God. Here is the lake. How beautiful! how still! A landslide had dammed +the stream where it flowed between steep, lofty banks, backing the +waters over a little valley three or four acres in extent, shut in on +all sides by the wooded hills, the highest of which rose from its +northern margin. Here is my sanctuary, pulpit, choir, and altar. A +gigantic pine had fallen into the lake, and its larger branches served +to keep the trunk above the water as it lay parallel with the shore. +Seated on its trunk, and shaded by some friendly willows that stretch +their graceful branches above, the hours pass in a sort of subdued +ecstasy of enjoyment. It is peace, the peace of God. No echo of the +world's discords reaches me. The only sound I hear is the cooing of a +turtledove away off in a distant gorge of the mountain. It floats down +to me on the Sabbath air with a pathos as if it voiced the pity of +Heaven for the sorrows of a world of sin, and pain, and death. The +shadows of the pines are reflected in the pellucid depths, and ever and +anon the faintest hint of a breeze sighs among their branches overhead. +The lake lies without a ripple below, except when from time to time a +gleaming trout throws himself out of the water, and, falling with a +splash, disturbs the glassy surface, the concentric circles showing +where he went down. Sport on, ye shiny denizens of the deep; no angler +shall cast his deceitful hook into your quiet haunts this day. Through +the foliage of the overhanging boughs the blue sky is spread, a thin, +fleecy cloud at times floating slowly along like a watching angel, and +casting a momentary shadow upon the watery mirror below. That sky, so +deep and so solemn, woos me--lifts my thought till it touches the +Eternal. What mysteries of being lie beyond that sapphire sea? What +wonders shall burst upon the vision when this mortal shall put on +immortality? I open the Book and read. Isaiah's burning song makes new +music to my soul attuned. David's harp sounds a sweeter note. The words +of Jesus stir to diviner depths. And when I read in the twenty-first +chapter of Revelation the Apocalyptic promise of the new heavens and the +new earth, and of the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, +a new glory seems to rest upon sky, mountain forest, and lake, and my +soul is flooded with a mighty joy. I am swimming in the Infinite Ocean. +Not beyond that vast blue canopy is heaven; it is within my own ravished +heart! Thus the hours pass, but I keep no note of their flight, and the +evening shadows are on the water before I come back to myself and the +world. O hallowed day! O hallowed spot! foretaste and prophecy to the +weary and burden-bowed soul of the new heavens and the new earth where +its blessed ideal shall be a more blessed reality! + +It is nearly dark when I get back to the hotel. Supper is over, but I am +not hungry--I have feasted on the bread of angels. + +"Did you know there was quite a quarrel about you this morning?" asks +one of the guests. + +The words jar. In answer to my look of inquiry, he proceeds: + +"There was a dispute about your holding a religious service at the +picnic grounds. They made it a political matter--one party threatened +to leave if you did preach, the other threatened to leave if you did not +preach. There was quite an excitement about it until it was found that +you were gone, and then everybody quieted down." + +There is a silence. I break it by telling them how I spent the day, and +then they are very quiet. + +The next Sabbath every soul at the place united in a request for a +religious service, the list headed by a high-spirited and brilliant +Pennsylvania lady who had led the opposing forces the previous Sunday. + + + +Winter-Blossomed. + +I think I saw him the first Sunday I preached in San Jose, in 1856. He +was a notable-looking man. I felt attracted toward him by that +indefinable sympathy that draws together two souls born to be friends. I +believe in friendship at first sight. Who that ever had a real friend +does not? Love at first sight is a different thing--it may be divine +and eternal, or it may be a whim or a passing fancy. Passion blurs and +blinds in the region of sexual love: friendship is revealed in its own +white light. + +I was introduced after the service to the stranger who had attracted my +attention, and who had given the youthful preacher such a kind and +courteous hearing. + +"This is Major McCoy." + +He was a full head higher than anybody else as he stood in the aisle. He +bowed with courtly grace as he took my hand, and his face lighted with a +smile that had in it something more than a conventional civility. I felt +that there was a soul beneath that dignified and courtly exterior. His +head displayed great elevation of the cranium, and unusual breadth of +forehead. It was what is called an intellectual head; and the lines +around the eyes showed the traces of thought, and, as it seemed to me, a +tinge of that sadness that nearly always lends its charm to the best +faces. + +"I have met a man that I know I shall like," was my gratified +exclamation to the mistress of the parsonage, as I entered. + +And so it turned out. He became one of the select circle to whom I +applied the word friend in the sacredest sense. This inner circle can +never be large. If you unduly enlarge it you dilute the quality of this +wine of life. We are limited. There is only One Heart large enough to +hold all humanity in its inmost depths. + +My new friend lived out among the sycamores on the New Almaden Road, a +mile from the city, and the cottage in which he lived with his cultured +and loving household was one of the social paradises of that beautiful +valley in which the breezes are always cool, and the flowers never fade. + +My friend interested me more and more. He had been a soldier, and in the +Mexican war won distinction by his skill and valor. He was with Joe Lane +and his gallant Indianians at Juamantla, and his name was specially +mentioned among those whose fiery onsets had broken the lines of the +swarthy foe, and won against such heavy odds the bloody field. He was +seldom absent from church on Sunday morning, and now and then his +inquiring, thoughtful face would be seen in my smaller audience at +night. One unwelcome fact about him pained me, while it deepened my +interest in him. + +He was a skeptic. Bred to the profession of medicine and surgery, he +became bogged in the depths of materialistic doubt. The microscope drew +his thoughts downward until he could not see beyond second causes. The +soul, the seat of which the scalpel could not find, he feared did not +exist. The action of the brain, like that of the heart and lungs, seemed +to him to be functional; and when the organ perished did not its +function cease forever? He doubted the fact of immortality, but did not +deny it. This doubt clouded his life. He wanted to believe. His heart +rebelled against the negations of materialism, but his intellect was +entangled in its meshes. The Great Question was ever in his thought, and +the shadow was ever on his path. He read much on both sides, and was +always ready to talk with any from whom he had reason to hope for new +light or a helpful suggestion. Did he also pray? We took many long rides +and had many long talks together. Pausing under the shade of a tree on +the highway, the hours would slip away while we talked of life and +death, and weighed the pros and cons of the mighty hope that we might +live again, until the sun would be sinking into the sea behind the Santa +Cruz Mountains, whose shadows were creeping over the valley. He believed +in a First Cause. The marks of design in Nature left in his mind no room +to doubt that there was a Designer. + +"The structure and adaptations of the horse harnessed to the buggy in +which we sit, exhibit the infinite skill of a Creator." + +On this basis I reasoned with him in behalf of all that is precious to +Christian faith and hope, trying to show (what I earnestly believe) +that, admitting the existence of God, it is illogical to stop short of a +belief in revelation and immortality. + +The rudest workman would not fling The fragments of his work away, If +every useless bit of clay He trod on were a sentient thing. + +And does the Wisest Worker take Quick human hearts, instead of stone, +And hew and carve them one by one, Nor heed the pangs with which they +break? + +And more: if but creation's waste, Would he have given us sense to yearn +For the perfection none can earn, And hope the fuller life to taste? + +I think, if we most cease to be, It is cruelty refined To make the +instincts of our mind Stretch out toward eternity. + +Wherefore I welcome Nature's cry, As earnest of a life again, Where +thought shall never be in vain, And doubt before the light shall fly. + +My talks with him were helpful to me if not to him. In trying to remove +his doubts my own faith was confirmed, and my range of thought enlarged. +His reverent spirit left its impress upon mine. + +"McCoy is a more religious man than either you or I, Doctor," said Tod +Robinson to me one day in reply to a remark in which I had given +expression to my solicitude for my doubting friend. + +Yes, strange as it may seem, this man who wrestled with doubts that +wrung his soul with intense agony, and walked in darkness under the veil +of unbelief; had a healthful influence upon me because the attitude of +his soul was that of a reverent inquirer, not that of a scoffer. + +The admirable little treatise of Bishop McIlvaine, on the "Evidences of +Christianity," cleared away some of his difficulties. A sermon of Bishop +Kavanaugh, preached at his request, was a help to him. (That wonderful +discourse is spoken of elsewhere in this volume.) + +A friend of his lay dying at Redwood City. This friend, like himself; +was a skeptic, and his doubts darkened his way as he neared the border +of the undiscovered country. McCoy went to see him. The sick man, in the +freedom of long friendship, opened his mind to him. The arguments of the +good Bishop were yet fresh in McCoy's mind, and the echoes of his mighty +appeals were still sounding in his heart. Seated by the dying man, he +forgot his own misgivings, and with intense earnestness pointed the +struggling soul to the Saviour of sinners. + +"I did not intend it, but I was impelled by a feeling I could not +resist. I was surprised and strangely thrilled at my own words as I +unfolded to my friend the proofs of the truth of Christianity, +culminating in the incarnation, death, and resurrection, of Jesus +Christ. He seemed to have grasped the truths as presented, a great calm +came over him, and he died a believer. No incident of my life has given +me a purer pleasure than this; but it was a strange thing! Nobody could +have had access to him as I had--I, a doubter and a stumbler all my +life; it looks like the hand of God!" + +His voice was low, and his eyes were wet as he finished the narration. + +Yes, the hand of God was in it--it is in every good thing that takes +place on earth. By the bedside of a dying friend, the undercurrent of +faith in his warily and noble heart swept away for the time the +obstructions that were in his thought, and bore him to the feet of the +blessed, pitying Christ, who never breaks a bruised reed. I think he had +more light, and felt stronger ever after. + +Death twice entered his home-circle--once to convey a budding flower +from the earth-home to the skies, and again like a lightning-stroke +laying young manhood low in a moment. The instinct within him, stronger +than doubt, turned his thought in those dark hours toward God. The ashes +of the earthly hopes that had perished in the fire of fierce calamity, +and the tears of a grief unspeakable, fertilized and watered the seed of +faith which was surely in his heart. The hot furnace-fire did not harden +this finely-tempered soul. But still he walked in darkness, doubting, +doubting, doubting all he most wished to believe. It was the infirmity +of his constitution, and the result of his surroundings. He went into +large business enterprises with mingled success and disappointment. He +went into politics, and though he bore himself nobly and gallantly, it +need not be said that that vortex does not usually draw those who are +within its whirl heavenward. He won some of the prizes that were fought +for in that arena where the noblest are in danger of being soiled, and +where the baser metal sinks surely to the bottom by the inevitable force +of moral gravitation. + +From time to time we were thrown together, and I was glad to know that +the Great Question was still in his thought, and the hunger for truth +was still in his heart. Ill health sometimes made him irritable and +morbid, but the drift of his inner nature was unchanged. His mind was +enveloped in mists, and sometimes tempests of despair raged within him; +but his heart still thirsted for the water of life. + +A painful and almost fatal railway accident befell him. He was taken to +his ranch among the quiet hills of Shasta County. This was the final +crisis in his life. Shut out from the world, and shut in with his own +thoughts and with God, he reviewed his life and the argument that had so +long been going on in his mind. He was now quiet enough to hear +distinctly the Still Small Voice whose tones he could only half discern +amid the clamors of the world when he was a busy actor on its stage. +Nature spoke to him among the hills, and her voice is God's. The great +primal instincts of the soul, repressed in the crowd or driven into the +background by the mob of petty cares and wants, now had free play in the +nature of this man whose soul had so long cried out of the depths for +the living God. He prayed the simple prayer of trust at which the gate +flies open for the believing soul to enter into the peace of God. He was +born into the new life. The flower that had put forth its abortive buds +for so many seasons, burst into full bloom at last. With the mighty joy +in his heart, and the light of the immortal hope beaming upon him, he +passed into the World of Certainties. + + + +A Virginian in California. + +"Hard at it, are you, uncle?" + +"No, sah--I's workin' by de day, an' I an't a-hurtin' myself." + +This answer was given with a jolly laugh as the old man leaned on his +pick and looked at me. + +"You looked so much like home-folks that I felt like speaking to you. +Where are you from?" + +"From Virginny, sah!" (pulling himself up to his full height as he +spoke). "Where's you from, Massa?" + +"I was brought up partly in Virginia too?" + +"Wbar'bouts, in Virginny?" + +"Mostly in Lynchburg." + +"Lynchburg! dat's whar I was fotched up. I belonged to de Widder Tate, +dat lived on de New London Road. Gib me yer han', Massa!" + +He rushed up to the buggy, and taking my extended hand in his huge fist +he shook it heartily, grinning with delight. + +This was Uncle Joe, a perfect specimen of the old Virginia "Uncle," who +had found his way to California in the early days. Yes, he was a perfect +specimen--black as night, his lower limbs crooked, arms long, hands and +feet very large. His mouth was his most striking feature. It was the +orator's mouth in size, being larger than that of Henry Clay--in fact, +it ran almost literally from ear to ear. When he opened it fully, it was +like lifting the lid of a box. + +Uncle Joe and I became good friends at once. He honored my ministry with +his presence on Sundays. There was a touch of dandyism in him that then +and there came out. Clad in a blue broadcloth dress-coat of the olden +cut, vest to match, tight-fitting pantaloons, stove-pipe hat, and yellow +kid gloves, he was a gorgeous object to behold. He knew it, and there +was a pleasant self-consciousness in the way he bore himself in the +sanctuary. + +Uncle Joe was the heartiest laugher I ever knew. He was always as full +of happy life as a frisky colt or a plump pig. When he entered a knot of +idlers on the streets, it was the signal or a humorous uproar. His +quaint sayings, witty repartee, and contagious laughter, never failed. +He was as agile as a monkey, and his dancing was a marvel. For a dime he +would "cut the pigeon wing," or give a "double-shuffle" or "breakdown" +in a way that made the beholder dizzy. + +What was Uncle Joe's age nobody could guess--he had passed the line of +probable surmising. His own version of the matter on a certain occasion +was curious. We had a colored female servant--an old-fashioned aunty +from Mississippi--who, with a bandanna handkerchief on her head, went +about the house singing the old Methodist choruses so naturally that it +gave us a home-feeling to have her about us. Uncle Joe and Aunt Tishy +became good friends, and he got into the habit of dropping in at the +parsonage on Sunday evenings to escort her to church. On this particular +occasion I was in the little study adjoining the dining-room where Aunt +Tishy was engaged in cleaning away the dishes after tea. I was not +eavesdropping, but could not help hearing what they said. My name was +mentioned. + +"O yes," said Uncle Joe; "I knowed Massa Fitchjarals back dar in +Virginny. I use ter hear 'im preach dar when I was a boy." + +There was a silence. Aunt Tishy couldn't swallow that. Uncle Joe's +statement, if true, would have made me more than a hundred years old, or +brought him down to less than forty. The latter was his object; he +wanted to impress Aunt Tishy with the idea that he was young-enough to +be an eligible gallant to any lady. But it failed. That unfortunate +remark ruined Uncle Joe's prospects: Aunt Tishy positively refused to go +with him to church, and just as soon as he had left she went into the +sitting-room in high disgust, saying: + +"What made dat nigger tell me a lie like dat? Tut, tut, tut!" + +She cut him ever after, saying she would n't keep company with a liar, +"even if he was from de Souf." Aunt Tishy was a good woman, and had some +old-time notions. As a cook, she was discounted a little by the fact +that she used tobacco, and when it got into the gravy it was not +improving to its flavor. + +Uncle Joe was in his glory at a dinner-party, where he could wait on the +guests, give droll answers to the remarks made to call him out, and +enliven the feast by his inimitable and "catching" laugh. In a certain +circle no occasion of the sort was considered complete without his +presence There was no such thing as dullness when he was about. His +peculiar wit or his simplicity was brought out at a dinner-party one day +at Dr. Bascom's. There was a large gathering of the leading families of +San Jose and vicinity, and Uncle Joe was there in his jolliest mood. +Mrs. Bascom, whose wit was then the quickest and keenest in all +California, presided, and enough good things were said to have made a +reputation for Sidney Smith or Douglas Jerrold. Mrs. Bascom, herself a +Virginian by extraction, had engaged in a laughing colloquy with Uncle +Joe, who stood near the head of the table waving a bunch of peacock's +feathers to keep off the flies. + +"Missus, who is yer kinfolks back dar in Virginny, any way?" + +The names of several were mentioned. + +"Why, dem's big folks," said Uncle Joe. + +"Yes," said she, laughingly; "I belong to the first families of +Virginia." + +"I don't know 'bout dat, Missus. I was dar 'fore you was, an' I don't +'long to de fus' families!" + +He looked at it from a chronological rather than a genealogical +standpoint, and, strange to say, the familiar phrase had never been +heard by him before. + +Uncle Joe joined the Church. He was sincere in his profession. The proof +was found in the fact that he quit dancing. No more "pigeon wings," +"double-shuffles," or "breakdowns," for him--he was a "perfessor." He +was often tempted by the offer of coin, but he stood firm. + +"No, sah; I's done dancin', an' don't want to be discommunicated from de +Church," he would say, good-naturedly, as he shied off, taking himself +away from temptation. + +A very high degree of spirituality could hardly be expected from Uncle +Joe at that late day; but he was a Christian after a pattern of his own +--kind-hearted, grateful, simple-minded, and full of good humor. His +strength gradually declined, and he was taken to the county hospital, +where his patience and cheerfulness conciliated and elicited kind +treatment from everybody. His memories went back to old Virginia, and +his hopes looked up to the heaven of which his notions were as simple as +those of a little child. In the simplicity of a child's faith he had +come to Jesus, and I doubt not was numbered among his little ones. Among +the innumerable company that shall be gathered on Mount Zion from every +kindred, tribe, and tongue, I hope to meet my humble friend, Uncle Joe. + + + +At the End. + +Among my acquaintances at San Jose, in 1863, was a young Kentuckian who +had come down from the mines in bad health. The exposure of mining-life +had been too severe for him. It took iron constitutions to stand all day +in almost ice-cold water up to the waist with a hot sun pouring down its +burning rays upon the head and upper part of the body. Many a poor +fellow sunk under it at once, and after a few days of fever and delirium +was taken to the top of an adjacent hill and laid to rest by the hands +of strangers. Others, crippled by rheumatic and neuralgic troubles, +drifted into the hospitals of San Francisco, or turned their faces sadly +toward the old homes which they had left with buoyant hopes and elastic +footsteps. Others still, like this young Kentuckian, came down into the +valleys with the hacking cough and hectic flush to make a vain struggle +against the destroyer that had fastened upon their vitals, nursing often +a vain hope of recovery to the very last. Ah, remorseless flatterer! as +I write these lines, the images of your victims crowd before my vision: +the strong men that grew weak, and pale, and thin, but fought to the +last inch for life; the noble youths who were blighted just as they +began to bloom; the beautiful maidens etherealized into almost more than +mortal beauty by the breath of the death-angel, as autumn leaves, +touched by the breath of winter, blush with the beauty of decay. My +young friend indulged no false hopes. He knew he was doomed to early +death, and did not shrink from the thought. One day, as we were +conversing in a store uptown, he said: + +"I know that I have at most but a few months to live, and I want to +spend them in making preparation to die. You will oblige me by advising +me what books to read. I want to get clear views of what I am to do, and +then do it." + +It need scarcely be said that I most readily complied with his request, +and that first and chiefly I advised him to consult the Bible, as the +light to his path and the lamp to his feet. Other books were suggested, +and a word with regard to prayerful reading was given, and kindly +received. + +One day I went over to see my friend. Entering his room, I found him +sitting by the fire with it table by his side, on which was lying a +Bible. There was an unusual flush in his face, and his eye burned with +unusual brightness. + +"How are you today?" I asked. + +"I am annoyed, sir--I am indignant," he said. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Mr. ----, the--preacher, has just left me. He told me that my soul cannot +be saved unless I perform two miracles: I must, he said, think of +nothing but religion, and be baptized by immersion. I am very weak, and +cannot fully control my mental action--my thoughts will wander in spite +of myself. As to being put under the water, that would be immediate +death; it would bring on a hemorrhage of the lungs, and kill me." + +He leaned his head on the table and panted for breath, his thin chest +heaving. I answered: + +"Mr.--is a good man, but narrow. He meant kindly in the foolish words +he spoke to you. No man, sick or well, can so control the action of his +mind as to force his thoughts wholly into one channel. I cannot do it, +neither can any other man. God requires no such absurdity of you or +anybody else. As to being immersed, that seems to be a physical +impossibility, and he surely does not demand what is impossible. My +friend, it really makes little difference what Mr.--says,or what I say, +concerning this matter. What does God say? Let us see." + +I took up the Bible, and he turned a face upon me expressing the most +eager interest. The blessed Book seemed to open of itself to the very +words that were wanted. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the +Lord pitieth them that fear him." "He knoweth our frame, and remembereth +that we are dust." "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters." + +Glancing at him as I read, I was struck with the intensity of his look +as he drank in every word. A traveler dying of thirst in the desert +could not clutch a cup of cold water more eagerly than he grasped these +tender words of the pitying Father in heaven. + +I read the words of Jesus: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are +heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." "Him that cometh unto me I will +in no wise east out." + +"This is what God says to you, and these are the only conditions of +acceptance. Nothing is said about any thing but the desire of your heart +and the purpose of your soul. O my friend, these words are for you!" + +The great truth flashed upon his mind, and flooded it with light. He +bent his head and wept. We knelt and prayed together, and when we rose +from our knees he said softly, as the tears stole, down his face: + +"It is all right now--I see it clearly; I see it clearly!" + +We quietly clasped hands, and sat in silent sympathy. There was no need +for any words from me; God had spoken, and that was enough. Our hearts +were singing together the song without words. + +"You have found peace at the cross--let nothing disturb it," I said, as +he pressed my hand at the door as we left. + +It never was disturbed. The days that had dragged so wearily and +anxiously during the long, long months, were now full of brightness. A +subdued joy shone in his face, and his voice was low and tender as he +spoke of the blessed change that had passed upon him. The Book whose +words had been light and life to him was often in his hand, or lay open +on the little table in his room. He never lost his hold upon the great +truth he had grasped, nor abated in the fullness of his joy. I was with +him the night he died. He knew the end was at hand, and the thought +filled him with solemn joy. His eyes kindled, and his wasted features +fairly blazed with rapture as he said, holding my hand with both of his: + +"I am glad it will all soon, be over. My peace has been unbroken since +that morning when God sent you to me. I feel a strange, solemn joy a the +thought that I shall soon know all." + +Before daybreak the great mystery was disclosed to him, and as he lay in +his coffin next day, the smile that lingered on his lips suggested the +thought that he had caught a hint of the secret while yet in the body. + + + +Among the casual hearers that now and then dropped in to hear a sermon +in Sonora, in the early days of my ministry there, was a man who +interested me particularly. He was at that time editing one of the +papers of the town, which sparkled with the flashes of his versatile +genius. He was a true Bohemian, who had seen many countries, and knew +life in almost all its phases. He had written a book of adventure which +found many readers and admirers. An avowed skeptic, he was yet +respectful in his allusions to sacred things, and I am sure his +editorial notices of the pulpit efforts of a certain young preacher who +had much to learn were more than just. He was a brilliant talker, with a +vein of enthusiasm that was very delightful. His spirit was generous and +frank, and I never heard from his lips an unkind word concerning any +human being. Even his partisan editorials were free from the least tinge +of asperity--and this is a supreme test of a sweet and courteous +nature. In our talks he studiously evaded the one subject most +interesting to me. With gentle and delicate skill he parried all my +attempts to introduce the subject of religion in our conversations. + +"I can't agree with you on that subject, and we will let it pass" he +would say, with a smile, and then he would start some other topic, and +rattle on delightfully in his easy, rapid way. + +He could not stay long at a place, being a confirmed wanderer. He left +Sonora, and I lost sight of him. Retaining. a very kindly feeling for +this gentle-spirited and pleasant adventurer, I was loth thus to lose +all trace of him. Meeting a friend one day, on J Street, in the city of +Sacramento, he said: + +"Your old friend D--is at the Golden Eagle hotel. You ought to go and +see him." + +I went at once. Ascending to the third story, I found his room, and, +knocking at the door, a feeble voice bade me enter. I was shocked at the +spectacle that met my gaze. Propped in an armchair in the middle of the +room, wasted to a skeleton, and of a ghastly pallor, sat the unhappy +man. His eyes gleamed with an unnatural brightness, and his features +wore a look of intense suffering. + +"You have come too late, sir," he said, before I had time to say a word. +"You can do me no good now. I have been sitting in this chair three +weeks. I could not live a minute in any other position, Hell could not +be worse than the tortures I have suffered! I thank you for coming to +see me, but you can do me no good--none, none!" + +He paused, panting for breath; and then he continued, in a soliloquizing +way: + +"I played the fool, making a joke of what was no joking matter. It is +too late. I can neither think nor pray, if praying would do any good. I +can only suffer, suffer, suffer!" + +The painful interview soon ended. To every cheerful or hopeful +suggestion which I made he gave but the one reply: + +"Too late!" + +The unspeakable anguish of his look, as his eyes followed me to the +door, haunted me for many a day, and the echo of his words, "Too late!" +lingered sadly upon my ear. When I saw the announcement of his death, a +few days afterward, I asked myself the solemn question, Whether I had +dealt faithfully with this lighthearted, gifted man when he was within +my reach. His last rook is before me now, as I pencil these lines. + + + +"John A--is dying over on the Portrero, and his family wants you to go +over and see him." + +It was while I was pastor in San Francisco. A--was a member of my +Church, and lived on what was called the Portrero, in the southern part +of the city, beyond the Long Bridge. It was after night when I reached +the little cottage on the slope above the bay. + +"He is dying and delirious," said a member of the family, as I entered +the room where the sick man lay. His wife, a woman of peculiar traits +and great religious fervor, and a large number of children and +grandchildren, were gathered in the dying man's chamber and the +adjoining rooms. The sick man--a man of large and powerful frame--was +restlessly tossing and roving his limbs, muttering incoherent words, +with now and then a burst of uncanny laughter. When shaken, he would +open his eyes for an instant, make some meaningless ejaculation, and +then they would close again. The wife was very anxious that he should +have a lucid interval while I was there. + +"O I cannot bear to have him die without a word of farewell and +comfort!" she said, weeping. + +The hours wore on, and the dying man's pulse showed that he was sinking +steadily. Still he lay unconscious, moaning and gibbering, tossing from +side to side as far as his failing strength permitted. His wife would +stand and gaze at him a few moments, and then walk the floor in agony. + +"He can't last much longer," said a visitor, who felt his pulse and +found it almost gone, while his breathing became more labored. We waited +in silence. A thought seemed to strike the wife. Without saying a word, +she climbed upon the bed, took her dying husband's head upon her lap, +and, bending close above his face, began to sing. It was a melody I had +never heard before--low, and sweet, and quaint. The effect was weird +and thrilling as the notes fell tremulous from the singer's lips in the +hush of that dead hour of the night. Presently the dying man became more +quiet, and before the song was finished he opened his eyes as a smile +swept over his face, and as his glance fell on me I saw that he knew me. +He called my name, and looked up in the face that bent above his own, +and kissed it. + +"Thank God!" his wife exclaimed, her hot tears falling on his face, that +wore a look of strange serenity. Then she half whispered to me, her face +beaming with a softened light: + +"That old song was one we used to sing together when we were first +married in Baltimore." + +On the stream of music and memory he had floated back to consciousness, +called by the love whose instinct is deeper and truer than all the +science and philosophy in the world. + +At dawn he died, his mind clear, and the voice of prayer in his ears, +and a look of rapture in his face. + +Dan W--, whom I had known in the mines in the early days, had come to +San Jose about the time my pastorate in the place began. He kept a +meat-market, and was a most genial, accommodating, and good-natured +fellow. Everybody liked him, and he seemed to like everybody. His animal +spirits were unfailing, and his face never revealed the least trace of +worry or care. He "took things easy," and never quarreled with his luck. +Such men are always popular, and Dan was a general favorite, as the +generous and honest fellow deserved to be. Hearing that he was very +sick, I went to see him. I found him very low, but he greeted me with a +smile. + +"How are you today, Dan?" I asked, in the offhand way of the old times. + +"It is all up with me, I guess," he replied, pausing to get breath +between the words; "the doctor says I can't get out of this--I must +leave in a day or two." + +He spoke in a matter-of-fact way, indicating that he intended to take +death, as he had taken life, easy. + +"How do you feel about changing worlds, my old friend?" + +"I have no say in the matter. I have got to go, and that is all there is +of it." + +That was all I ever got out of him. He told me he had not been to church +for ten years, as "it was not in his line." He did not understand +matters of that sort, he said, as his business was running a +meat-market. He intended no disrespect to me or to sacred things--this +was his way of putting the matter in his simple-heartedness. + +"Shall I kneel here and pray with you?" I asked. + +"No; you needn't take the trouble, parson," he said, gently; "you see +I've got to go, and that's all there is of it. I don't understand that +sort of thing--it's not in my, line, you see. I've been in the meat +business." + +"Excuse me, my old friend, if I ask if you do not, as a dying man, have +some thoughts about God and eternity?" + +"That's not in my line, and I couldn't do much thinking now any way. +It's all right, parson--I've got to go, and Old Master will do right +about it." + +Thus he died without a prayer, and without a fear, and his case is left +to the theologians who can understand it, and to the "Old Master" who +will do right. + + + +I was called to see a lady who was dying at North Beach, San Francisco. +Her history was a singularly sad one, illustrating the ups and downs of +California life in a startling manner. From opulence to poverty, and +from poverty to sorrow, and from sorrow to death--these were the acts +in the drama, and the curtain was about to fall on the last. On a +previous visit I had pointed the poor sufferer to the Lamb of God, and +prayed at her bedside, leaving her calm and tearful. Her only daughter, +a sweet, fresh girl of eighteen, had two years ago betrothed herself to +a young man from Oregon, who had come to San Francisco to study a +profession. The dying mother had expressed a desire to see them married +before her death, and I had been sent for to perform the ceremony. + +"She is unconscious, poor thing!" said a lady who was in attendance, +"and she will fail of her dearest wish." + +The dying mother lay with a flushed face, breathing painfully, with +closed eyes, and moaning piteously. Suddenly her eyes opened, and she +glanced inquiringly around the room. They understood her. The daughter +and her betrothed were sent for. The mother's face brightened as they +entered, and she turned to me and said, in a faint voice: + +"Go on with the ceremony, or it will be too late for me. God bless you, +darling!" she added as the daughter bent down sobbing, and kissed her. + +The bridal couple kneeled together by the bed of death, and the +assembled friends stood around in solemn silence, while the beautiful +formula of the Church was repeated, the dying mother's eyes resting upon +the kneeling daughter with an expression of unutterable tenderness. When +the vows were taken that made them one, and their hands were clasped in +token of plighted faith, she drew them both to her in a long embrace, +and then almost instantly closed her eyes with a look of infinite +restfulness, and never opened them again. + + + +Of the notable men I met in the mines in the early days, there was one +who piqued and puzzled my curiosity. He had the face of a saint with the +habits of a debauchee. His pale and student-like features were of the +most classic mold, and their expression singularly winning, save when at +times a cynical sneer would suddenly flash over them like a cloud-shadow +over a quiet landscape. He was a lawyer, and stood at the head of the +bar. He was an orator whose silver voice and magnetic qualities often +kindled the largest audiences into the wildest enthusiasm. Nature had +denied him no gift of body or mind requisite to success in life; but +there was a fatal weakness in his moral constitution. He was an +inveterate gambler, his large professional earnings going into the +coffers of the faro and monte dealers. His violations of good morals in +other respects were flagrant. He worked hard by day, and gave himself up +to his vices at night. Public opinion was not very exacting in those +days, and his failings were condoned by a people who respected force and +pluck, and made no close inquiries into a man's private life, because it +would have been no easy thing to find one who, on the score of +innocence, was entitled to cast the first stone. Thus he lived from year +to year, increasing his reputation as a lawyer of marked ability, and as +a politician whose eloquence in every campaign was a tower of strength +to his party. His fame spread until it filled the State, and his money +still fed his vices. He never drank, and that cool, keen intellect never +lost its balance, or failed him in any encounter on the hustings on at +the bar. I often met him in public, but he never was known to go inside +a church. Once, when in a street conversation I casually made some +reference to religion, a look of displeasure passed over his face, and +he abruptly left me. I was agreeably surprised when, on more than one +occasion, he sent me a substantial token of goodwill, but I was never +able to analyze the motive that prompted him to do so. This remembrance +softens the feelings with which these lines are penciled. He went to San +Francisco, but there was no change in his life. + +"It is the old story," said an acquaintance of whom I made inquiry +concerning him: "he has a large and lucrative practice, and the gamblers +get all he makes. He is getting gray, and he is failing a little. He is +a strange being." + +It happened afterward that his office and mine were in the same building +and on the same floor. As we met on the stairs, he would nod to me and +pass on. I noticed that he was indeed "failing." He looked-weary and +sad, and the cold or defiant gleam in his steel-gray eyes, was changed +into a wistful and painful expression that was very pathetic. I did not +dare to invade his reserve with any tender of sympathy. Joyless and +hopeless as he might be, I felt instinctively that he would play out his +drama alone. Perhaps this was a mistake on my part: he may have been +hungry for the word I did not speak. God knows. I was not lacking in +proper interest in his well-being, but I have since thought in such +cases it is safest to speak. + +"What has become of B--?" said my landlord one day as we met in the +hall. "I have been here to see him several times, and found his door +locked, and his letters and newspapers have not been touched. There is +something the matter, I fear." + +Instantly I felt somehow that there was a tragedy in the air, and I had +a strange feeling of awe as I passed the door of B--'s room., + +A policeman was brought, the lock forced, and we went in. A sickening +odor of chloroform filled the room. The sight that met our gaze made us +shudder. Across the bed was lying the form of a man partly dressed, his +head thrown back, his eyes staring upward, his limbs hanging loosely +over the bedside. + +"Is he dead?" was asked in a whisper. + +"No," said the officer, with his finger on B--'s wrist; "he is not dead +yet, but he will never wake out of this. He has been lying thus two or +three days." + +A physician was sent for, and all possible efforts made to rouse him, +but in vain. About sunset the pulse ceased to beat, and it was only a +lump of lifeless clay that lay there so still and stark. This was his +death--the mystery of his life went back beyond my knowledge of him, +and will only be known at the judgment-day. + + + +One of the gayest and brightest of all the young people gathered at a +May-day picnic, just across the bay from San Francisco, was Ada D--. +The only daughter of a wealthy citizen, living in one of the lovely +valleys beyond the coast-range of mountains, beautiful in person and +sunny in temper, she was a favorite in all the circle of her +associations. Though a petted child of fortune, she was not spoiled, +Envy itself was changed into affection in the presence of a spirit so +gentle, unassuming, and loving. She had recently been graduated from one +of the best schools, and her graces of character matched the brilliance +of her pecuniary fortune. + +A few days after the May-day festival, as I was sitting in my office, a +little before sunset, there was a knock at the door, and before I could +answer the messenger entered hastily, saying: + +"I want you to go with me at once to Amador Valley. Ada D--is dying, +and wishes to be baptized. We just have time for the six o'clock boat to +take us across the bay, where the carriage and horses are waiting for +us. The distance is thirty miles, and we must run a race against death." + +We started at once: no minister of Jesus Christ hesitates to obey a +summons like that. We reached the boat while the last taps of the last +bell were being given, and were soon at the landing on the opposite side +of the bay. Springing ashore, we entered the vehicle which was in +readiness. Grasping the reins, my companion touched up the spirited +team, and we struck across the valley. My driver was an old Californian, +skilled in all horse craft and road-craft. He spoke no word, putting his +soul and body into his work, determined, as he had said, to make the +thirty miles by nine o'clock. There was no abatement of speed after we +struck the hills: what was lost in going up was regained in going down. +The mettle of those California-bred horses was wonderful; the quick +beating of their hoofs upon the graveled road was as regular as the +motion of machinery, steam-driven. It was an exciting ride, and there +was a weirdness in the sound of the night-breeze floating by us, and +ghostly, shapes seemed looking at us from above and below, as we wound +our way through the hills, while the bright stars shone like +funeral-tapers over a world of death. Death! how vivid and awful was its +reality to me as I looked up at those shining worlds on high, and then +upon the earth wrapped in darkness below! Death! his sable coursers are +swift, and we may be too late! The driver shared my thoughts, and lashed +the panting horses to yet greater speed. My pulses beat rapidly as I +counted the moments. + +"Here we are!" he exclaimed, as we dashed down the hill and brought up +at the gate. "It is eight minutes to nine," he added, glancing at his +watch by the light of a lamp shining through the window. + +"She is alive, but speechless, and going fast," said the father, in a +broken voice, as I entered the house. + +He led me to the chamber of the dying girl; The seal of death was upon +her. I bent above her, and a look of recognition came into her eyes. Not +a moment was to be lost. + +"If you know me, my child, and can enter the meaning of what I say, +indicate the fact if you can." + +There was a faint smile and a slight but significant inclination of the +fair head as it lay enveloped with its wealth of chestnut curls. With +her hands folded on her breast, and her eyes turned upward, the dying +girl lay in listening attitude, while in a few words I explained the +meaning of the sacred rite and pointed her to the Lamb of God as the one +sacrifice for sin. The family stood round the bed in awed and tearful +silence. As the crystal sacramental drops fell upon her brow a smile +flashed quickly over the pale face, there was a slight movement of the +head--and she was gone! The upward look continued, and the smile never +left the fair, sweet face. We fell upon our knees, and the prayer that +followed was not for her, but for the bleeding hearts around the couch +where she lay smiling in death. + + + +Dave Douglass was one of that circle of Tennesseans who took prominent +parts in the early history of California. He belonged to the Sumner +County Douglasses, of Tennessee, and had the family warmth of heart, +impulsiveness, and courage, that nothing could daunt. In all the +political contests of the early days he took an active part, and was +regarded as an unflinching and unselfish partisan by his own party, and +as an openhearted and generous antagonist by the other. He was elected +Secretary of State, and served the people with fidelity and efficiency. +He was a man of a powerful physical frame, deep-chested, ruddy-, faced, +blue-eyed, with just enough shagginess of eyebrows and heaviness of the +under-jaw to indicate the indomitable pluck which was so strong an +element in his character. He was a true Douglass, as brave and true as +any of the name that ever wore the kilt or swung a claymore in the land +of Bruce. His was a famous Methodist family in Tennessee, and though he +knew more of politics than piety, he was a good friend to the Church, +and had regular preaching in the schoolhouse near his farm on the +Calaveras River. All the itinerants that traveled that circuit knew +"Douglass's Schoolhouse" as an appointment, and shared liberally in the +hospitality and purse of the General--(that was his title). + +"Never give up the fight!" he said to me, with flashing eye, the last +time I met him in Stockton, pressing my hand with a warm clasp. It was +while I was engaged in the effort to build a church in that place, and I +had been telling him of the difficulties I had met in the work. That +word and handclasp helped me. + +He was taken sick soon after. The disease had taken too strong a grasp +upon him to be broken. He fought bravely a losing battle for several +days. Sunday morning came, a bright, balmy day. It was in the early +summer. The cloudless sky was deep-blue, the sunbeams sparkled on the +bosom of the Calaveras, the birds were singing in the trees, and the +perfume of the flowers filled the air and floated in through the open +window to where the strong man lay dying. He had been affected with the +delirium of fever during most of his sickness, but that was past, and he +was facing death with an unclouded mind. + +"I think I am dying," he said, half inquiringly. + +"Yes--is there any thing we can do for you?" + +His eyes closed for a few moments, and his lips moved as if in mental +prayer. Opening his eyes, he said: + +"Sing one of the old camp-meeting songs." + +A preacher present struck up the hymn, "Show pity, Lord, O Lord +Forgive." + +The dying man, composed to rest, lay with folded hands and listened with +shortening breath and a rapt face, and thus he died, the words and the +melody that had touched his boyish heart among the far-off hills of +Tennessee being the last sounds that fell upon his dying ear. We may +hope that on that old camp-meeting song was wafted the prayer and trust +of a penitent soul receiving the kingdom of heaven as a little child. + + + +During my pastorate at Santa Rosa, one of my occasional hearers was John +I--. He was deputy-sheriff of Sonoma County, and was noted for his +quiet and determined courage. He was a man of few words, but the most +reckless desperado knew that he could not be trifled with. When there +was an arrest to be made that involved special peril, this reticent, +low-voiced man was usually intrusted with the undertaking. He was of the +good old Primitive Baptist stock from Caswell County, North Carolina, +and had a lingering fondness for the peculiar views of that people. He +had a weakness for strong drink that gave him trouble at times, but +nobody doubted his integrity any more than they doubted his courage. His +wife was an earnest Methodist, one of a family of sisters remarkable for +their excellent sense and strong religious characters. Meeting him one +day, just before my return to San Francisco, he said, with a warmth of +manner not common with him: + +"I am sorry you are going to leave Santa Rosa. You understand me, and if +anybody can do me any good, you are the man." + +There was a tremor in his voice as he spoke, and he held my hand in a +lingering grasp. + +Yes, I knew him. I had seen him at church on more than one occasion with +compressed lips struggling to conceal the strong emotion he felt, +sometimes hastily wiping away an unbidden tear. The preacher, when his +own soul is aglow and his sympathies all awakened and drawn out toward +his hearers, is almost clairvoyant at times in his perception of their +inner thoughts. I understood this man, though no disclosure had been +made to me in words. I read his eye, and marked the wishful and anxious +look that came over his face when his conscience was touched and his +heart moved. Yes, I knew him, for my sympathy had made me responsive, +and his words, spoken sadly, thrilled me, and rolled upon my spirit the +burden of a soul. His health, which had been broken by hardships and +careless living, began to decline more rapidly. I heard that he had +expressed a desire to see me, and made no delay in going to see him. I +found him in bed, and much wasted. + +"I am glad you have come. I have been wanting to see you," he said, +taking my hand. "I have been thinking of my duty to God for a good +while, and have felt more than anybody has suspected. I want to do +what I can and ought to do. You have made this matter a study, and +you ought to understand it. I want you to help me." + +We had many interviews, and I did what I could to guide a penitent +sinner to the sinner's Friend. He was indeed a penitent sinner--shut +out from the world and shut in with God, the merciful Father was +speaking to his soul, and all its depths were stirred. The patient, +praying wife had a wishful look in her eyes as I came out of his room, +and I knew her thought. God was leading him, and he was receptive of the +truth that saves. He had one difficulty. + +"I hate meanness, or any thing that looks like it. It does look mean for +me to turn to religion now that I am sick, after being so neglectful and +wicked when I was well." + +"That thought is natural to a manly soul, but there is a snare in it. +You are thinking what others may say, and your pride is touched. You are +dealing with God only. Ask only what will please him. The time for a man +to do his duty is when he sees it and feels the obligation. Let the past +go--you cannot undo it, but it may be forgiven. The present and an +eternal future are yours, my friend. + +"Do what will please God, and all will be right." + +The still waters were reached, and his soul lay at rest in the arms of +God. O sweet, sweet rest! infinitely sweet to the spirit long tossed +upon the stormy sea of sin and remorse. O peace of God, the inflow into +a human heart of the very life of the Lord! It is the hidden mystery of +love divine whispered to the listening ear of faith. It had come to him +by its own law when he was ready to receive it. The great change had +come to him--it looked out from his eyes and beamed from his face. + +He was baptized at night. The family had gathered in the room. In the +solemn hush of the occasion the whispers of the night-breeze could be +heard among the vines and flowers outside, and the rippling of the +sparkling waters of Santa Rosa Creek was audible. The sick man's face +was luminous with the light that was from within. The solemn rite was +finished, a tender and holy awe filled the room; it was the house of God +and the gate of heaven. The wife, who was sitting near a window, rose, +and noiselessly stepped to the bed, and without a word printed a kiss on +her husband's forehead, while the joy that flushed her features told +that the prayer of thirty years had been answered, We sung a hymn and +parted with tears of silent joy. In a little while he crossed the river +where we may mingle our voices again by and by. There is not money +enough in the California hills to buy the memory of that visit to Santa +Rosa. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of California Sketches, Second Series +by O. P. Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12564 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27bc4de --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12564 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12564) diff --git a/old/12564.txt b/old/12564.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af1151b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12564.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6460 @@ +Project Gutenberg's California Sketches, Second Series, by O. P. Fitzgerald + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: California Sketches, Second Series + +Author: O. P. Fitzgerald + +Release Date: June 9, 2004 [EBook #12564] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CALIFORNIA SKETCHES, SECOND SERIES *** + + + + +Produced by David A. Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net> + + + + +CALIFORNIA SKETCHES + +New Series. + + + +By O. P. Fitzgerald + +With an Introduction by Bishop George F. Pierce. + + + +The bearded men in rude attire, +With nerves of steel and hearts of fire, +The women few but fair and sweet, +Like shadowy visions dim and fleet, +Again I see, again I hear, +As down the past I dimly peer, +And muse o'er buried joy and pain, +And tread the hills of youth again. + + + + +1883. + + + +A Word. + +Encores are usually anticlimaxes. I never did like them. Yet here I am +again before the public with another book of "California Sketches." The +kind treatment given to the former volume, of which six editions have +been printed and sold; the expressed wishes of many friends who have +said, Give us another book; and my own impulse, have induced me to +venture upon a second appearance. If much of the song is in the minor +key, it had to be so: these Sketches are from real life, and "all lives +are tragedies." + +The Author. + +Nashville, September, 1881. + + + +Introduction. + +The first issue of the "California Sketches" was very popular, +deservedly so. The distinguished Author has prepared a Second Series. In +this fact the reading public will rejoice. + +In these hooks we have the romance and prestige of fiction; the thrill +of incident and adventure; the wonderful phases of society in a new +country, and under the pressure of strong and peculiar excitements; +human character loose from the restraints of an old civilization--a +settled order of things; individuality unwarped by imitation--free, +varied, independent. The materials are rich, and they are embodied in a +glowing narrative. The writer himself lived amid the scenes and the +people he describes, and, as a citizen, a preacher, and an editor, was +an important factor among the forces destined to mold the elements which +were to be formulated in the politics of the State and the enterprises +of the Church. A close observer, gifted with a keen discrimination and +retentive memory, a decided relish for the ludicrous and the sportive, +and always ready to give a religions turn to thought and conversation, +he is admirably adapted to portray and recite what he saw, heard, and +felt. + +These Sketches furnish good reading for anybody. For the young they are +charming, full of entertainment, and not wanting in moral instruction. +They will gratify the taste of those who love to read, and, what is more +important, beget the appetite for books among the dull and indifferent. +He who can stimulate children and young men and women to read renders a +signal service to society at large. Mental growth depends much upon +reading, and the fertilization of the original soil by the habit wisely +directed connects vitally with the outcome and harvest of the future. + +Dr. Fitzgerald is doing good service in the work already done, and I +trust the patronage of the people will encourage him to give us another +and another of the same sort. At my house we all read the "California +Sketches"--old and young--and long for more. + +G. F. Pierce. + + + +Contents. + +Dick The Diggers The California Mad-House San Quentin "Corralled" The +Reblooming The Emperor Norton Camilla Cain Lone Mountain Newton The +California Politician Old Man Lowry Suicide In California Father Fisher +Jack White The Rabbi My Mining Speculation Mike Reese Uncle Nolan +Buffalo Jones Tod Robinson Ah Lee The Climate of California After The +Storm Bishop Kavanaugh In California Sanders A Day Winter-Blossomed A +Virginian In California At The End + + + +Dick. + +Dick was a Californian. We made his acquaintance in Sonora about a month +before Christmas, Anno Domini 1855. This is the way it happened: + +At the request of a number of families, the lady who presided in the +curious little parsonage near the church on the hill-side had started a +school for little girls. The public schools might do for the boys, but +were too mixed for their sisters--so they thought. Boys could rough it +--they were a rough set, anyway--but the girls must he raised according +to the traditions of the old times and the old homes. That was the view +taken of the matter then, and from that day to this the average +California girl has been superior to the average California boy. The boy +gets his bias from the street; the girl, from her mother at home. The +boy plunges into the life that surges around him; the girl only feels +the touch of its waves as they break upon the embankments of home. The +boy gets more of the father; the girl gets more of the mother. This may +explain their relative superiority. The school for girls was started on +condition that it should be free, the proposed teacher refusing all +compensation. That part of the arrangement was a failure, for at the end +of the first month every little girl brought a handful of money, and +laid it on the teacher's desk. It must have been a concerted matter. +That quiet, unselfish woman had suddenly become a money-maker in spite +of herself. (Use was found for the coin in the course of events.) The +school was opened with a Psalm, a prayer, and a little song in which the +sweet voices of the little Jewish, Spanish, German, Irish, and American +maidens united heartily. Dear children! they are scattered now. Some of +them have died, and some of them have met with what is worse than death. +There was one bright Spanish girl, slender, graceful as a willow, with +the fresh Castilian blood mantling her cheeks, her bright eyes beaming +with mischief and affection. She was a beautiful child, and her winning +ways made her a pet in the little school. But surrounded as the bright, +beautiful girl was, Satan had a mortgage on her from her birth, and her +fate was too dark and sad to be told in these pages. She inherited evil +condition, and perhaps evil blood, and her evil life seemed to be +inevitable. Poor child of sin, whose very beauty was thy curse, let the +curtain fall upon thy fate and name; we leave thee in the hands of the +pitying Christ, who hath said, "Where little is given little will be +required." Little was given thee in the way of opportunity, for it was a +mother's hand that bound thee with the chains of evil. + +Among the children that came to that remarkable academy on the hill was +little Mary Kinneth, a thin, delicate child, with mild blue eyes, flaxen +hair, a peach complexion, and the blue veins on her temples that are so +often the sign of delicacy of organization and the presage of early +death. Mike Kinneth,--her father, was a drinking Irishman, a +good-hearted fellow when sober, but pugnacious and disposed to beat his +wife when drunk. The poor woman came over to see me one day. She had +been crying, and there was an ugly bruise on her cheek. + +"Your riverence will excuse me," she said, curtseying, "but I wish you +would come over and spake a word to me husband. Mike's a kind, good +craythur except when he is dhrinking, but then he is the very Satan +himself." + +"Did he give you that bruise on your face, Mrs. Kinneth?" + +"Yis; he came home last night mad with the whisky, and was breaking +ivery thing in the house. I tried to stop him, and thin he bate me--O! +he never did that before! My heart is broke!" + +Here the poor woman broke down and cried, hiding her face in her apron. + +"Little Mary was asleep, and she waked up frightened and crying to see +her father in such a way. Seeing the child seemed to sober him a little, +and he stumbled on to the bed, and fell asleep. He was always kind to +the child, dhrunk or sober. And there is a good heart in him if he will +only stay away from the dhrink." + +"Would he let me talk to him?" + +"Yis; we belong to the old Church, but there is no priest here now, and +the kindness your lady has shown to little Mary has softened his heart +to ye both. And I think he feels a little sick and ashamed this mornin', +and he will listen to kind words now if iver." + +I went to see Mike, and found him half-sick and in a penitent mood. He +called me "Father Fitzgerald," and treated me with the utmost politeness +and deference. I talked to him about little Mary, and his warm Irish +heart opened to me at once. + +"She is a good child, your riverence, and shame on the father that would +hurt or disgrace her!" + +The tears stood in Mike's eyes as he spoke the words. + +"All the trouble comes from the whisky. Why not give it up?" + +"By the help of God I will!" said Mike, grasping my hand with energy. + +And he did. I confess that the result of my visit exceeded my hopes. +Mike kept away from the saloons, worked steadily, little Mary had no +lack of new shoes and neat frocks, and the Kinneth family were happy in +a humble way. Mike always seemed glad to see me, and greeted me warmly. + +One morning about the last of November there was a knock at the door of +the little parsonage. Opening the door, there stood Mrs. Kinneth with a +turkey under her arm. + +"Christmas will soon be coming, and I've brought ye a turkey for your +kindness to little Mary and your good talk to Mike. He has not touched a +dhrop since the blissed day ye spake to him. Will ye take the turkey, +and my thanks wid it?" + +The turkey was politely and smilingly accepted, and Mrs. Kinneth went +away looking mightily pleased. + +I extemporized a little coop for our turkey. Having but little +mechanical ingenuity, it was a difficult job, but it resulted more +satisfactorily than did my attempt to make a door for the miniature +kitchen attached to the parsonage. My object was to nail some +cross-pieces on some plain boards, hang it on hinges, and fasten it on +the inside by a leather strap attached to a nail. The model in my mind +was, as the reader sees, of the most simple and primitive pattern. I +spent all my leisure time for a week at work on that door. I spoiled the +lumber, I blistered my hands, I broke several dollars' worth of +carpenter's tools, which I had to pay, and--then I hired a man to make +that door! This was my last effort in that line of things, excepting the +turkey-coop, which was the very last. It lasted four days, at the end of +which time it just gave way all over, and caved in. Fortunately, it was +no longer needed. Our turkey would not leave us. The parsonage fare +suited him, and he staid, and throve, and made friends. + +We named him Dick. He is the hero of this Sketch. Dick was intelligent, +sociable, and had a good appetite. He would eat any thing, from a crust +of bread to the pieces of candy that the schoolgirls would give him as +they passed. He became as gentle as a dog, and would answer to his name. +He had the freedom of the town, and went where he pleased, returning at +meal-times, and at night to roost on the western end of the +kitchen-roof. He would eat from our hands, looking at us with a sort of +human expression in his shiny eyes. If he were a hundred yards away, all +we had to do was to go to the door and call out, "Dick!" + +"Dick!" once or twice, and here he would come, stretching his long legs, +and saying, "Oot," "oot," "oot" (is that the way to spell it?). He got +to like going about with me. He would go with me to the post-office, to +the market, and sometimes he would accompany me in a pastoral visit. +Dick was well known and popular. Even the bad boys of the town did not +throw stones at him. His ruling passion was the love of eating. He ate +between meals. He ate all that was offered to him. Dick was a pampered +turkey, and made the most of his good luck and popularity. He was never +in low spirits, and never disturbed except when a dog came about him. He +disliked dogs, and seemed to distrust them. + +The days rolled by, and Dick was fat and happy. It was the day before +Christmas. We had asked two bachelors to take Christmas-dinner with us, +having room and chairs for just two more persons. (One of our four +chairs was called a stool--it had a bottom and three legs, one of which +was a little shaky, and no back.) There was a constraint upon us both +all day. I knew what was the matter, but said nothing. About four +o'clock in the afternoon Dick's mistress sat down by me, and, after a +pause, remarked: + +"Do you know that tomorrow is Christmas-day?" + +"Yes, I know it." + +Another pause. I had nothing to say just then. "Well, if--if--if any +thing is to be done about that turkey, it is time it were done." + +"Do you mean Dick?" + +"Yes," with a little quiver in her voice. + +"I understand you--you mean to kill him--poor Dick! the only pet we +ever had." + +She broke right down at this, and began to cry. + +"What is the matter here?" said our kind, energetic neighbor, Mrs. T--, +who came in to pay us one of her informal visits. She was from +Philadelphia, and, though a gifted woman, with a wide range of reading +and observation of human life, was not a sentimentalist. She laughed at +the weeping mistress of the parsonage, and, going to the back-door, she +called out: + +"Dick!" "Dick!" + +Dick, who was taking the air high up on the hillside, came at the call, +making long strides, and sounding his "Oot," "oot," "oot," which was the +formula by which he expressed all his emotions, varying only the tone. + +Dick, as he stood with outstretched neck and a look of expectation in +his honest eyes, was scooped up by our neighbor, and carried off down +the hill in the most summary manner. + +In about an hour Dick was brought back. He was dressed. He was also +stuffed. + + + +The Diggers. + +The Digger Indian holds a low place in the scale of humanity. He is not +intelligent; he is not handsome; he is not very brave. He stands near +the foot of his class, and I fear he is not likely to go up any higher. +It is more likely that the places that know him now will soon know him +no more, for the reason that he seems readier to adopt the bad white +man's whisky and diseases than the good white man's morals and religion. +Ethnologically he has given rise to much conflicting speculation, with +which I will not trouble the gentle reader. He has been in California a +long time, and he does not know that he was ever anywhere else. His +pedigree does not trouble him; he is more concerned about getting +something to eat. It is not because he is an agriculturist that he is +called a Digger, but because he grabbles for wild roots, and has a +general fondness for dirt. I said he was not handsome, and when we +consider his rusty, dark-brown color, his heavy features, fishy black +eyes, coarse black hair, and clumsy gait, nobody will dispute the +statement. But one Digger is uglier than another, and an old squaw caps +the climax. + +The first Digger I ever saw was the best-looking. He had picked up a +little English, and loafed around the mining-camps picking up a meal +where he could get it. He called himself "Captain Charley," and, like a +true native American, was proud of his title. If it was self-assumed, he +was still following the precedent set by a vast host of captains, +majors, colonels, and generals, who never wore a uniform or hurt +anybody. He made his appearance at the little parsonage on the hill-side +in Sonora one day, and, thrusting his bare head into the door, he said: + +"Me Cappin Charley," tapping his chest complacently as he spoke. + +Returning his salutation, I waited for him to speak again. + +"You got grub--coche carne?" he asked, mixing his Spanish and English. + +Some food was given him, which he snatched rather eagerly, and began to +eat at once. It was, evident that Captain Charley had not breakfasted +that morning. He was a hungry Indian, and when he got through his meal +there was no reserve of rations in the unique repository of dishes and +food which has been mentioned heretofore in these Sketches. Peering +about the premises, Captain Charley made a discovery. The modest little +parsonage stood on a steep incline, the upper side resting on the red +gravelly earth, while the lower side was raised three or four feet from +the ground. The vacant space underneath had been used by our several +bachelor predecessors as a receptacle for cast-off clothing. Malone, +Lockley, and Evans, had thus disposed of their discarded apparel, and +Drury Bond and one or two other miners had also added to the treasures +that caught the eye of the inquisitive Digger. It was a museum of +sartorial curiosities--seedy and ripped broadcloth coats, vests, and +pants, flannel mining-shirts of gay colors and of different degrees of +wear and tear, linen shirts that looked like battle-flags that had been +through the war, and old shoes and boots of all sorts, from the high +rubber water-proofs used by miners to the ragged slippers that had +adorned the feet of the lonely single parsons whose names are written +above. + +"Me take um?" asked Captain Charley, pointing to the treasure he had +discovered. + +Leave was given, and Captain Charley lost no time in taking possession +of the coveted goods. He chuckled to himself as one article after +another was drawn forth from the pile which seemed to be almost +inexhaustible. When he had gotten all out and piled up together, it was +a rare-looking sight. + +"Mucho bueno!" exclaimed Captain Charley, as he proceeded to array +himself in a pair of trousers. Then a shirt, then a vest, and then a +coat, were put on. And then another, and another, and yet another suit +was donned in the same order. He was fast becoming a "big Indian" +indeed. We looked on and smiled, sympathizing with the evident delight +of our visitor in his superabundant wardrobe. He was in full-dress, and +enjoyed it. But he made a failure at one point--his feet were too +large, or were not the right shape, for white men's boots or shoes. He +tried several pairs, but his huge flat foot would not enter them, and +finally he threw down the last one tried by him with a Spanish +exclamation not fit to be printed in these pages. That language is a +musical one, but its oaths are very harsh in sound. A battered +"stove-pipe" hat was found among the spoils turned over to Captain +Chancy. Placing it on his head jauntily, he turned to us, saying, Adios, +and went strutting down the street, the picture of gratified vanity. His +appearance on Washington Street, the main thoroughfare of the place, +thus gorgeously and abundantly arrayed, created a sensation. It was as +good as a "show" to the jolly miners, always ready to be amused. Captain +Charley was known to most of them, and they had a kindly feeling for the +good-natured "fool Injun," as one of them called him in my hearing. + +The next Digger I noticed was of the gentler (but in this case not +lovelier) sex. She was an old squaw, who was in mourning. The sign of +her grief was the black adobe mud spread over her face. She sat all day +motionless and speechless, gazing up into the sky. Her grief was caused +by the death of a child, and her sorrowful look showed that she had a +mother's heart. Poor, degraded creature! What were her thoughts as she +sat there looking so pitifully up into the silent, far-off heavens? All +the livelong day she gazed thus fixedly into the sky, taking no notice +of the passersby, neither speaking, eating, nor drinking. It was a +custom of the tribe, but its peculiar significance is unknown to me. + +It was a great night at an adjoining camp when the old chief died. It +was made the occasion of a fearful orgy. Dry wood and brush were +gathered into a huge pile, the body of the dead chief was placed upon +it, and the mass set on fire. As the flames blazed upward with a roar, +the Indians, several hundred in number, broke forth into wild wailings +and howlings, the shrill soprano of the women rising high above the din, +as they marched around the burning pyre. Fresh fuel was supplied from +time to time, and all night long the flames lighted up the surrounding +hills which echoed with the shouts and howls of the savages. It was a +touch of pandemonium. At dawn there was nothing left of the dead chief +but ashes. The mourners took up their line of march toward the +Stanislaus River, the squaws bearing their papooses on their backs, the +"bucks" leading the way. + +The Digger believes in a future life, and in future rewards and +punishments. Good Indians and bad Indians are subjected to the same +ordeal at death. Each one is rewarded according to his deeds. + +The disembodied soul comes to a wide, turbid river, whose angry waters +rush on to an unknown destination, roaring and foaming. From high banks +on either side of the stream is stretched a pole smooth and small, over +which he is required to walk. Upon the result of this post-mortem +Blondinizing his fate depends. If he was in life a very good Indian he +goes over safely, and finds on the other side a paradise, where the +skies are cloudless, the air balmy, the flowers brilliant in color and +sweet in perfume, the springs many and cool, and the deer plentiful and +fat. In this fair clime there are no bad Indians, no briers, no snakes, +no grizzly bears. Such is the paradise of good Diggers. + +The Indian who was in life a mixed character, not all good or bad, but +made up of both, starts across the fateful river, gets on very well +until he reaches about half-way over, when his head becomes dizzy, and +he tumbles into the boiling flood below. He swims for his life. (Every +Indian on earth can swim, and he does not forget the art in the world of +spirits.) Buffeting the waters, he is carried swiftly down the rushing +current, and at last makes the shore, to find a country which, like his +former life, is a mixture of good and bad. Some days are fair, and +others are rainy and chilly; flowers and brambles grow together; there +are some springs of water, but they are few, and not all cool and sweet; +the deer are few, and shy, and lean, and grizzly bears roam the hills +and valleys. This is the limbo of the moderately-wicked Digger. + +The very bad Indian, placing his feet upon the attenuated bridge of +doom, makes a few steps forward, stumbles, falls into the whirling +waters below, and is swept downward with fearful velocity. At last, with +desperate struggles he half swims, and is half washed ashore on the same +side from which he started, to find a dreary land where the sun never +shines, and the cold rains always pour down from the dark skies, where +the water is brackish and foul, where no flowers ever bloom, where +leagues may be traversed without seeing a deer, and grizzly bears +abound. This is the hell of very bad Indians--and a very had one it is. + +The worst Indians of all, at death, are transformed into grizzly bears. + +The Digger has a good appetite, and he is not particular about his +eating. He likes grasshoppers, clover, acorns, roots, and fish. The +flesh of a dead mule, horse, cow, or hog, does not come amiss to him--I +mean the flesh of such as die natural deaths. He eats what he can get, +and all he can get. In the grasshopper season he is fat and flourishing. +In the suburbs of Sonora I came one day upon a lot of squaws, who were +engaged in catching grasshoppers. Stretched along in line, armed with +thick branches of pine, they threshed the ground in front of them as +they advanced, driving the grasshoppers before them in constantly +increasing numbers, until the air was thick with the flying insects. +Their course was directed to a deep gully, or gulch, into which they +fell exhausted. It was astonishing to see with what dexterity the squaws +would gather them up and thrust them into a sort of covered basket; made +of willow-twigs or tule-grass, while the insects would be trying to +escape; but would fall back unable to rise above the sides of the gulch +in which they had been entrapped. The grasshoppers are dried, or cured, +for winter use. A white man who had tried them told me they were +pleasant eating, having a flavor very similar to that of a good shrimp. +(I was content to take his word for it.) + +When Bishop Soule was in California, in 1853, he paid a visit to a +Digger campoody (or village) in the Calaveras hills. He was profoundly +interested, and expressed an ardent desire to be instrumental in the +conversion of one of these poor kin. It was yet early in the morning +when the Bishop and his party arrived, and the Diggers were not astir, +save here and there a squaw, in primitive array, who slouched lazily +toward a spring of water hard by. But soon the arrival of the visitors +was made known, and the bucks, squaws, and papooses, swarmed forth. They +cast curious looks upon the whole party, but were specially struck with +the majestic bearing of the Bishop, as were the passing crowds in +London, who stopped in the streets to gaze with admiration upon the +great American preacher. The Digger chief did not conceal his delight. +After looking upon the Bishop fixedly for some moments, he went up to +him, and tapping first his own chest and then the Bishop's, he said: + +"Me big man--you big man!" + +It was his opinion that two great men had met, and that the occasion was +a grand one. Moralizers to the contrary notwithstanding, greatness is +not always lacking in self-consciousness. + +"I would like to go into one of their wigwams, or huts, and see how they +really live," said the Bishop. + +"You had better drop that idea," said the guide, a white man who knew +more about Digger Indians than was good for his reputation and morals, +but who was a good-hearted fellow, always ready to do a friendly turn, +and with plenty of time on his hands to do it. The genius born to live +without work will make his way by his wits, whether it be in the lobby +at Washington City, or as a hanger-on at a Digger camp. + +The Bishop insisted on going inside the chief's wigwam, which was a +conical structure of long tule-grass, air-tight and weather-proof, with +an aperture in front just large enough for a man's body in a crawling +attitude. Sacrificing his dignity, the Bishop went down on all-fours, +and then a degree lower, and, following the chief; crawled in. The air +was foul, the smells were strong, and the light was dim. The chief +proceeded to tender to his distinguished guest the hospitalities of the +establishment, by offering to share his breakfast with him. The bill of +fare was grasshoppers, with acorns as a side-dish. The Bishop maintained +his dignity as he squatted there in the dirt--his dignity was equal to +any test. He declined the grasshoppers tendered him by the chief, +pleading that he had already breakfasted, but watched with peculiar +sensations the movements of his host, as handful after handful of the +crisp and juicy gryllus vulgaris were crammed into his capacious mouth, +and swallowed. What he saw and smelt, and the absence of fresh air, +began to tell upon the Bishop--he became sick and pale, while a gentle +perspiration, like unto that felt in the beginning of seasickness, +beaded his noble forehead. With slow dignity, but marked emphasis, he +spoke: + +"Brother Bristow, I propose that we retire." + +They retired, and there is no record that Bishop Soule ever expressed +the least desire to repeat his visit to the interior of a Digger +Indian's abode. + +The whites had many difficulties with the Diggers in the early days. In +most cases I think the whites were chiefly to blame. It is very hard for +the strong to be just to the weak. The weakest creature, pressed hard, +will strike back. White women and children were massacred in retaliation +for outrages committed upon the ignorant Indians by white outlaws. Then +there would be a sweeping destruction of Indians by the excited whites, +who in those days made rather light of Indian shooting. The shooting of +a "buck" was about the same thing, whether it was a male Digger or a +deer. + +"There is not much fight in a Digger unless he's got the dead-wood on +you, and then he'll make it rough for you. But these Injuns are of no +use, and I'd about as soon shoot one of them as a coyote" (ki-o-te). + +The speaker was a very red-faced, sandy-haired man, with blood-shot blue +eyes, whom I met on his return to the Humboldt country after a visit to +San Francisco. + +"Did you ever shoot an Indian?" I asked. + +"I first went up into the Eel River country in '46," he answered. "They +give us a lot of trouble in them days. They would steal cattle, and our +boys would shoot. But we've never had much difficulty with them since +the big fight we had with them in 1849. A good deal of devilment had +been goin' on all roun', and some had been killed on both sides. The +Injuns killed two women on a ranch in the valley, and then we set in +just to wipe 'em out. Their camp was in a bend of the river, near the +head of the valley, with a deep slough on the right flank. There was +about sixty of us, and Dave was our captain. He was a hard rider, a dead +shot, and not very tender-hearted. The boys sorter liked him, but kep' a +sharp eye on him, knowin' he was so quick and handy with a pistol. Our +plan was to git to their camp and fall on em at daybreak, but the sun +was risin' just as we come in sight of it. A dog barked, and Dave sung +out: + +"'Out with your pistols! pitch in, and give 'em the hot lead!' + +"In we galloped at full speed, and as the Injuns come out to see what +was up, we let 'em have it. We shot forty bucks--about a dozen got away +by swimmin' the river." + +"Were any of the women killed?" + +"A few were knocked over. You can't be particular when you are in a +hurry; and a squaw, when her blood is up, will fight equal to a buck." + +The fellow spoke with evident pride, feeling that he was detailing a +heroic affair, having no idea that he had done any thing wrong in merely +killing "bucks." I noticed that this sane man was very kind to an old +lady who took the stage for Bloomfield--helping her into the vehicle, +and looking after her baggage. When we parted, I did not care to take +the hand that had held a pistol that morning when the Digger camp was +"wiped out." + +The scattered remnants of the Digger tribes were gathered into a +reservation in Round Valley, Mendocino county, north of the Bay of San +Francisco, and were there taught a mild form of agricultural life, and +put under the care of Government agents, contractors, and soldiers, with +about the usual results. One agent, who was also a preacher, took +several hundred of them into the Christian Church. They seemed to have +mastered the leading facts of the gospel, and attained considerable +proficiency in the singing of hymns. Altogether, the result of this +effort at their conversion showed that they were human beings, and as +such could be made recipients of the truth and grace of God, who is the +Father of all the families of the earth. Their spiritual guide told me +he had to make one compromise with them--they would dance. Extremes +meet--the fashionable white Christians of our gay capitals and the +tawny Digger exhibit the same weakness for the fascinating exercise that +cost John the Baptist his head. + +There is one thing a Digger cannot bear, and that is the comforts and +luxuries of civilized life. A number of my friends, who had taken Digger +children to raise, found that as they approached maturity they fell into +a decline and died, in most cases of some pulmonary affection. The only +way to save them was to let them rough it, avoiding warm bed-rooms and +too much clothing. A Digger girl belonged to my church at Santa Rosa, +and was a gentle, kind-hearted, grateful creature. She was a domestic in +the family of Colonel H--. In that pleasant Christian household she +developed into a pretty fair specimen of brunette young womanhood, but +to the last she had an aversion to wearing shoes. + +The Digger seems to be doomed. Civilization kills him; and if he sticks +to his savagery, he will go down before the bullets, whisky, and vices +of his white fellow-sinners. + + + +The California Mad-House. + +On my first visit to the State Insane Asylum, at Stockton, I was struck +by the beauty of a boy of some seven or eight years, who was moving +about the grounds clad in a strait-jacket. In reply to my inquiries, the +resident physician told me his history: + +"About a year ago he was on his way to California with the family to +which he belonged. He was a general pet among the passengers on the +steamer. Handsome, confiding, and overflowing with boyish spirits, +everybody had a smile and a kind word for the winning little fellow. +Even the rough sailors would pause a moment to pat his curly head as +they passed. One day a sailor, yielding to a playful impulse in passing, +caught up the boy in his arms, crying: + +"'I am going to throw you into the sea!' + +"The child gave one scream of terror, and went into convulsions. When +the paroxysm subsided, he opened his eyes and gazed around with a vacant +expression. His mother, who bent over him with a pale face, noticed the +look, and almost screamed: + +"'Tommy, here is your mother--don't you know me?' + +"The child gave no sign of recognition. He never knew his poor mother +again. He was literally frightened out of his senses. The mother's +anguish was terrible. The remorse of the sailor for his thoughtless +freak was so great that it in some degree disarmed the indignation of +the passengers and crew. The child had learned to read, and had made +rapid progress in the studies suited to his age, but all was swept away +by the cruel blow. He was unable to utter a word intelligently. Since he +has been here, there have been signs of returning mental consciousness, +and we have begun with him as with an infant. He knows and can call his +own name, and is now learning the alphabet." + +"How is his health?" + +"His health is pretty good, except that he has occasional convulsive +attacks that can only be controlled by the use of powerful opiates." + +I was glad to learn, on a visit made two years later, that the +unfortunate boy had died. + +This child was murdered by a fool. The fools are always murdering +children, though the work is not always done as effectually as in this +case. They cripple and half kill them by terror. There are many who will +read this Sketch who will carry to the grave, and into the world of +spirits, natures out of which half the sweetness, and brightness, and +beauty has been crushed by ignorance or brutality. In most cases it is +ignorance. The hand that should guide, smites; the voice that should +soothe, jars the sensitive chords that are untuned forever. He who +thoughtlessly excites terror in a child's heart is unconsciously doing +the devil's work; he that does it consciously is a devil. + +"There is a lady here whom I wish you would talk to. She belongs to one +of the most respectable families in San Francisco, is cultivated, +refined, and has been the center of a large and loving circle. Her +monomania is spiritual despair. She thinks she has committed the +unpardonable sin. There she is now. I will introduce you to her. Talk +with her, and comfort her if you can." + +She was a tall, well-formed woman in black, with all the marks of +refinement in her dress and bearing. She was walking the floor to and +fro with rapid steps, wringing her hands, and moaning piteously. +Indescribable anguish was in her face--it was a hopeless face. It +haunted my thoughts for many days, and it is vividly before me as I +write now. The kind physician introduced me, and left the apartment. + +There is a sacredness about such an interview that inclines me to veil +its details. + +"I am willing to talk with you, sir, and appreciate your motive, but I +understand my situation. I have committed the unpardonable sin, and I +know there is no hope for me." + +With the earnestness excited by intense sympathy, I combated her +conclusion, and felt certain that I could make her see and feel that she +had given way to an illusion. She listened respectfully to all I had to +say, and then said again: + +"I know my situation. I denied my Saviour after all his goodness to me, +and he has left me forever." + +There was the frozen calmness of utter despair in look and tone. I left +her as I found her. + +"I will introduce you to another woman, the opposite of the poor lady +you have just seen. She thinks she is a queen, and is perfectly +harmless. You must be careful to humor her illusion. There she is--let +me present you." + +She was a woman of immense size, enormously fat, with broad red face, +and a self-satisfied smirk, dressed in some sort of flaming scarlet +stuff, profusely tinseled all over, making a gorgeously ridiculous +effect. She received me with a mixture of mock dignity and smiling +condescension, and surveying herself admiringly, she asked: + +"How do you like my dress?" + +It was not the first time that royalty had shown itself not above the +little weaknesses of human nature. On being told that her apparel was +indeed magnificent, she was much pleased, and drew herself up proudly, +and was a picture of ecstatic vanity. Are the real queens as happy? When +they lay aside their royal robes for their grave clothes, will not the +pageantry which was the glory of their lives seem as vain as that of +this tinseled queen of the mad-house? Where is happiness, after all? Is +it in the circumstances, the external conditions? or, is it in the mind? +Such were the thoughts passing through my mind, when a man approached +with a violin. Every eye brightened, and the queen seemed to thrill with +pleasure in every nerve. + +"This is the only way we can get some of them to take any exercise. The +music rouses them, and they will dance as long as they are permitted to +do so." + +The fiddler struck up a lively tune, and the queen, with marvelous +lightness of step and ogling glances, ambled up to a tall, raw-boned +Methodist preacher, who had come with me, and invited him to dance with +her. The poor parson seemed sadly embarrassed, as her manner was very +pressing, but he awkwardly and confusedly declined, amid the titters of +all present. It was a singular spectacle, that dance of the mad-women. +The most striking figure on the floor was the queen. Her great size, her +brilliant apparel, her astonishing agility, the perfect time she kept, +the bows, the smiles and blandishments, she bestowed on an imaginary +partner, were indescribably ludicrous. Now and then, in her evolutions, +she would cast a momentary reproachful glance at the ungallant clergyman +who had refused to dance with feminine royalty, and who stood looking on +with a sheepish expression of face. He was a Kentuckian, and lack of +gallantry is not a Kentucky trait. + +During the session of the Annual Conference at Stockton, in 1859 or +1860, the resident physician invited me to preach to the inmates of the +Asylum on Sunday afternoon. The novelty of the service, which was +announced in the daily papers, attracted a large number of visitors, +among them the greater part of the preachers. The day was one of those +bright, clear, beautiful October days, peculiar to California, that make +you think of heaven. I stood on the steps, and the hundreds of men and +Women stood below me, with their upturned faces. Among them were old men +crushed by sorrow, and old men ruined by vice; aged women with faces +that seemed to plead for pity, women that made you shrink from their +unwomanly gaze; lion-like young men, made for heroes but caught in the +devil's trap and changed into beasts; and boys whose looks showed that +sin had already stamped them with its foul insignia, and burned into +their souls the shame which is to be one of the elements of its eternal +punishment. A less impressible man than I would have felt moved at the +sight of that throng of bruised and broken creatures. A hymn was read, +and when Burnet, Kelsay, Neal, and others of the preachers, struck up an +old tune, voice after voice joined in the melody until it swelled into a +mighty volume of sacred song. I noticed that the faces of many were wet +with tears, and there was an indescribable pathos in their voices. The +pitying God, amid the rapturous hallelujahs of the heavenly hosts, bent +to listen to the music of these broken harps. This text was announced, +My peace I give unto you; and, the sermon began. + +Among those standing nearest to me was "Old Kelley," a noted patient +whose monomania was the notion that he was a millionaire, and who spent +most of his time in drawing checks on imaginary deposits for vast sums +of money. I held one of his checks for a round million, but it has never +yet been cashed. The old man pressed up close to me, seeming to feel +that the success of the service somehow depended on him. I had not more +than fairly begun my discourse, when he broke in: + +"That's Daniel Webster!" + +I don't mind a judicious "Amen," but this put me out a little. I resumed +my remarks, and was getting another good start, when he again broke in +enthusiastically: + +"Henry Clay!" + +The preachers standing around me smiled--I think I heard one or two of +them titter. I could not take my eyes from Kelley, who stood with open +mouth and beaming countenance, waiting for me to go on. He held me with +an evil fascination. I did go on in a louder voice, and in a sort of +desperation; but again my delighted hearer exclaimed: + +"Calhoun!" + +"Old Kelley" spoiled that sermon, though he meant kindly. He died not +long afterward, gloating over his fancied millions to the last. + +"If you have steady nerves, come with me and I will show you the worst +case we have--a woman half tigress, and half devil." + +Ascending a stairway, I was led to an angle of the building assigned to +the patients whose violence required them to be kept in close +confinement. + +"Hark! don't you hear her? She is in one of her paroxysms now." + +The sounds that issued from one of the cells were like nothing I had +ever heard before. They were a series of unearthly, fiendish shrieks, +intermingled with furious imprecations, as of a lost spirit in an +ecstasy of rage and fear. + +The face that glared upon me through the iron grating was hideous, +horrible. It was that of a woman, or of what had been a woman, but was +now a wreck out of which evil passion had stamped all that was womanly +or human. I involuntarily shrunk back as I met the glare of those fiery +eyes, and caught the sound of words that made me shudder. I never +suspected myself of being a coward, but I felt glad that the iron bars +of the cell against which she dashed herself were strong. I had read of +Furies--one was now before me. The bloated, gin-inflamed face, the +fiery-red, wicked eyes, the swinish chin, the tangled coarse hair +falling around her like writhing snakes, the tiger-like clutch of her +dirty fingers, the horrible words--the picture was sickening, disgust +for the time almost, extinguishing pity. + +"She was the keeper of a beer-saloon in San Francisco, and led a life of +drunkenness and licentiousness until she broke down, and she was brought +here." + +"Is there any hope of her restoration?" + +"I fear not--nothing short of a miracle can, retune an instrument so +fearfully broken and jangled." + +I thought of her out of whom were cast the seven devils, and of Him who +came to seek and to save the lost, and resisting the impulse that +prompted me to hurry away from the sight and hearing of this lost woman, +I tried to talk with her, but had to retire at last amid a volley of +such language as I hope never to hear from a woman's lips again. + +"Listen! Did you ever hear a sweeter voice than that?" + +I had heard the voice before, and thrilled under its power. It was a +female voice of wonderful richness and volume, with a touch of something +in it that moved you strangely--a sort of intensity that set your +pulses to beating faster, while it entranced you. The whole of the +spacious grounds were flooded with the melody, and the passing teamsters +on the public highway would pause and listen with wonder and delight. +The singer was a fair young girl, with dark auburn hair, large brown +eyes, that were at times dreamy and sad, and then again lit up with +excitement, as her moods changed from sad to gay. + +"She will sit silent for hours gazing listlessly out of the window, and +then all at once break forth into a burst of song so sweet and thrilling +that the other patients gather near her and listen in rapt silence and +delight. Sometimes at a dead hour of the night her voice is heard, and +then it seems that she is under a special afflatus--she seems to be +inspired by the very soul of music, and her songs, wild and sad, wailing +and rollicking, by turns, but all exquisitely sweet, fill the long +night-hours with their melody." + +The shock caused by the sudden death of her betrothed lover overthrew +her reason, and blighted her life. By the mercy of God, the love of +music and the gift of song survived the wreck of love and of reason. +This girl's voice, pealing forth upon the still summer evening air, is +mingled with my last recollection of Stockton and its refuge for the +doubly miserable who are doomed to death in life. + + + +San Quentin. + +"I want you to go with me over to San Quentin next Thursday, and preach +a thanksgiving-sermon to the poor fellows in the State-prison." + +On the appointed morning, I met our party at the Vallejo-street wharf, +and we were soon steaming on our way. Passing under the guns of Fort +Alcatraz, past Angel Island--why so called I know not, as in early days +it was inhabited not by angels but goats only--all of us felt the +exhilaration of the California sunshine, and the bracing November air, +as we stood upon the guards, watching the play of the lazy-looking +porpoises, that seemed to roll along, keeping up with the swift motion +of the boat in such a leisurely way. The porpoise is a deceiver. As he +rolls up to the surface of the water, in his lumbering way, he looks as +if he were a huge lump of unwieldy awkwardness, floating at random and +almost helpless; but when you come to know him better, you find that he +is a marvel of muscular power and swiftness. I have seen a "school" of +porpoises in the Pacific swimming for hours alongside one of our +fleetest ocean-steamers, darting a few yards ahead now and then, as if +by mere volition, cutting their way through the water with the +directness of an arrow. The porpoise is playful at times, and his +favorite game is a sort of leap-frog. A score or more of the creatures, +seemingly full of fun and excitement, will chase one another at full +speed, throwing themselves from the water and turning somersaults in the +air, the water boiling with the agitation, and their huge bodies +flashing in the light. You might almost imagine that they had found +something in the sea that had made them drunk, or that they had inhaled +some sort of piscatorial anaesthetic. But here we are at our +destination. The bell rings, we round to, and land. + +At San Quentin nature is at her best, and man at his worst. Against the +rocky shore the waters of the bay break in gentle splashings when the +winds are quiet. When the gales from the southwest sweep through the +Golden Gate, and set the white caps to dancing to their wild music, the +waves rise high, and dash upon the dripping stones with a hoarse roar, +as of anger. Beginning a few hundreds of yards from the water's edge, +the hills slope up, and up, and up, until they touch the base of +Tamalpais, on whose dark and rugged summit, four thousand feet above the +sea that laves his feet on the west, the rays of the morning sun fall +with transfiguring, glory while yet the valley below lies in shadow. On +this lofty pinnacle linger the last rays of the setting sun, as it drops +into the bosom of the Pacific. In stormy weather, the mist and clouds +roll in from the ocean, and gather in dark masses around his awful head, +as if the sea-gods had risen from their homes in the deep, and were +holding a council of war amid the battle of the elements; at other +times, after calm, bright days, the thin, soft white clouds that hang +about his crest deepen into crimson and gold, and the mountaintop looks +as if the angels of God had come down to encamp, and pitched here their +pavilions of glory. This is nature at San Quentin, and this is Tamalpais +as I have looked upon it many a morning and many an evening from my +window above the sea at North Beach. + +The gate is opened for us, and we enter the prison-walls. It is a +holiday, and the day is fair and balmy; but the chill and sadness cannot +be shaken off, as we look around us. The sunshine seems almost to be a +mockery in this place where fellow-men are caged and guarded like wild +beasts, and skulk about with shaved heads, clad in the striped uniform +of infamy. Merciful God! is this what thy creature man was made for? How +long, how long? + +Seated upon the platform with the prison officials and visitors, I +watched my strange auditors as they came in. There were one thousand of +them. Their faces were a curious study. Most of them were bad faces. +Beast and devil were printed on them. Thick necks, heavy back-heads, and +low, square foreheads, were the prevalent types. The least repulsive +were those who looked as if they were all animal, creatures of instinct +and appetite, good-natured and stupid; the most repulsive were those +whose eyes had a gleam of mingled sensuality and ferocity. But some of +these faces that met my gaze were startling--they seemed so out of +place. One old man with gray hair, pale, sad face, and clear blue eyes, +might have passed, in other garb and in other company, for an honored +member of the Society of Friends. He had killed a man in a mountain +county. If he was indeed a murderer at heart, nature had given him the +wrong imprint. My attention was struck by a smooth-faced, handsome young +fellow, scarcely of age, who looked as little like a convict as anybody +on that platform. He was in for burglary, and had a very bad record. +Some came in half laughing, as if they thought the whole affair more a +joke than anything else. The Mexicans, of whom there was quite a number, +were sullen and scowling. There is gloom in the Spanish blood. The +irrepressible good nature of several ruddy-faced Irishmen broke out in +sly merriment. As the service began, the discipline of the prison showed +itself in the quiet that instantly prevailed; but only a few, who joined +in the singing, seemed to feel the slightest interest in it. Their eyes +were wandering, and their faces were vacant. They had the look of men +who had come to be talked at and patronized, and who were used to it. +The prayer that was offered was not calculated to banish such a feeling +--it was dry and cold. I stood up to begin the sermon. Never before had +I realized so folly that God's message was to lost men, and for lost +men. A mighty tide of pity rushed in upon my soul as I looked down into +the faces of my hearers. My eyes filled, and my heart melted within me. +I could not speak until after a pause, and only then by great effort. +There was a deep silence, and every face was lifted to mine as I +announced the text. God had touched my heart and theirs at the start. I +read the words slowly: God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain +salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then I said: + +"My fellow-men, I come to you today with a message from my Father, and +your Father in heaven. It is a message of hope. God help me to deliver +it as I ought! God help you to hear it as you ought! I will not insult +you by saying that because you have an extra dinner, a few hours respite +from your toil, and a little fresh air and sunshine, you ought to have a +joyful thanksgiving today. If I should talk thus, you would be ready to +ask me how I would like to change places with you. You would despise me, +and I would despise myself, for indulging in such cant. Your lot is a +hard one. The battle of life has gone against you--whether by your own +fault or by hard fortune, it matters not, so far as the fact is +concerned; this thanksgiving-day finds you locked in here, with broken +lives, and wearing the badge of crime. God alone knows the secrets of +each throbbing heart before me, and how it is that you have come to +this. Fellow-men, children of my Father in heaven, putting myself for +the moment in your place, the bitterness of your lot is real and +terrible to me. For some of you there is no happier prospect for this +life than to toil within these walls by day, and sleep in yonder cells +by night, through the weary, slow-dragging years, and then to die, with +only the hands of hired attendants to wipe the death-sweat from your +brows; and then to be put in a convict's coffin, and taken up on the +hill yonder, and laid in a lonely grave. My God! this is terrible!" + +An unexpected dramatic effect followed these words. The heads of many of +the convicts fell forward on their breasts, as if struck with sudden +paralysis. They were the men who were in for life, and the horror of it +overcame them. The silence was broken by sobbings all over the room. The +officers and visitors on the platform were weeping. The angel of pity +hovered over, the place, and the glow of human sympathy had melted those +stony hearts. A thousand strong men were thrilled with the touch of +sympathy, and once more the sacred fountain of tears was unsealed. These +convicts were men, after all, and deep down under the rubbish of their +natures there was still burning the spark of a humanity not yet extinct. +It was wonderful to see the softened expression of their faces. Yes, +they were men, after all, responding to the voice of sympathy, which had +been but too strange to many of them all their evil lives. Many of them +had inherited hard conditions; they were literally conceived in sin and +born in iniquity; they grew up in the midst of vice. For them pure and +holy lives were a moral impossibility. Evil with them was hereditary, +organic, and the result of association; it poisoned their blood at the +start, and stamped itself on their features from their cradles. Human +law, in dealing with these victims of evil circumstance, can make little +discrimination. Society must protect itself, treating a criminal as a +criminal. But what will God do with them hereafter? Be sure he will do +right. Where little is given, little will be required. It shall be +better for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for Chorazin and +Bethsaida. There is no ruin without remedy, except that which a man +makes for himself by abusing mercy, and throwing away proffered +opportunity. Thoughts like these rushed through the preacher's mind, as +he stood there looking in the tear-bedewed faces of these men of crime. +A fresh tide of pity rose in his heart, that he felt came from the heart +of the all-pitying One. + +"I do not try to disguise from you, or from myself the fact that for +this life your outlook is not bright. But I come to you this day with a +message of hope from God our Father. He hath not appointed you to wrath. +He loves all his children. He sent his Son to die for them. Jesus trod +the paths of pain, and drained the cup of sorrow. He died as a +malefactor, for malefactors. He died for me. He died for each one of +you. If I knew the most broken, the most desolate-hearted, despairing +man before me, who feels that he is scorned of men and forsaken of God, +I would go to where he sits and put my hand on his head, and tell him +that God hath not appointed him to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our +Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. I would tell him that his Father in +heaven loves him still, loves him more than the mother that bore him. I +would tell him that all the wrongs and follies of his past life may from +this hour be turned into so much capital of a warning experience, and +that a million of years from today he may be a child of the Heavenly +Father, and an heir of glory, having the freedom of the heavens and the +blessedness of everlasting life. O brothers, God does love you! Nothing +can ruin you but your own despair. No man has any right to despair who +has eternity before him. Eternity? Long, long eternity! Blessed, blessed +eternity! That is yours--all of it. It may be a happy eternity for each +one of you. From this moment you may begin a better life. There is hope +for you, and mercy, and love, and heaven. This is the message I bring +you warm from a brother's heart, and warm from the heart of Jesus, whose +life-blood was poured out for you and me. His loving hand opened the +gate of mercy and hope to every man. The proof is that he died for us. O +Son of God, take us to thy pitying arms, and lift us up into the light +that never, never grows dim--into the love that fills heaven and +eternity!" + +As the speaker sunk into his seat, there was a silence that was almost +painful for a few moments. Then the pent-up emotion of the men broke +forth in sobs that shook their strong frames. Dr. Lucky, the prisoner's +friend, made a brief, tearful prayer, and then the benediction was said, +and the service was at an end. The men sat still in their seats. As we +filed out, of the chapel, many hands were extended to grasp mine, +holding it with a clinging pressure. I passed out bearing with me the +impression of an hour I can never forget; and the images of those +thousand faces are still painted in memory. + + + +"Corralled." + +"So you were corralled last night?" + +This was the remark of a friend whom I met in the streets of Stockton +the morning after my adventure. I knew what the expression meant as +applied to cattle, but I had never heard it before in reference to a +human being. Yes, I had been corralled; and this is how it happened: + +It was in the old days, before there were any railroads in California. +With a wiry, clean-limbed pinto horse, I undertook to drive from +Sacramento City to Stockton one day. It was in the winter season, and +the clouds were sweeping up from the south-west, the snow-crested +Sierras hidden from sight by dense masses of vapor boiling at their +bases and massed against their sides. The roads were heavy from the +effects of previous rains, and the plucky little pinto sweated as he +pulled through the long stretches of black adobe mud. A cold wind struck +me in the face, and the ride was a dreary one from the start. But I +pushed on confidently, having faith in the spotted mustang, despite the +evident fact that he had lost no little of the spirit with which he +dashed out of town at starting. When a genuine mustang flags, it is a +serious business. The hardiness and endurance of this breed of horses +almost exceed belief. + +Toward night a cold rain began to fall, driving in my face with the +headwind. Still many a long mile lay between me and Stockton. Dark came +on, and it was dark indeed. The outline of the horse I was driving could +not be seen, and the flat country through which I was driving was a +great black sea of night. I trusted to the instinct of the horse, and +moved on. The bells of a wagon-team meeting me fell upon my ear. I +called out, + +"Halloo there!" + +"What's the matter?" answered a heavy voice through the darkness. + +"Am I in the road to Stockton, and can I get there tonight?" + +"You are in the road, but you will never find your way such a night as +this. It is ten good miles from here; you have several bridges to cross +--you had better stop at the first house you come to, about half a mile +ahead. I am going to strike camp myself." + +I thanked my adviser, and went on, hearing the sound of the tinkling +bells, but unable to see any thing. In a little while I saw a light +ahead, and was glad to see it. Driving up in front and halting, I +repeated the traveler's "halloo" several times, and at last got a +response in a hoarse, gruff voice. + +"I am belated on my way to Stockton, and am cold, and tired, and hungry. +Can I get shelter with you for the night?" + +"You may try it, if you want to," answered the unmusical voice abruptly. + +In a few moments a man appeared to take the horse, and taking my satchel +in hand, I went into the house. The first thing that struck my attention +on entering the room was a big log-fire, which I was glad to see, for I +was wet and very cold. Taking a chair in the corner, I looked around. +The scene that presented itself was not reassuring. The main feature of +the room was a bar, with an ample supply of barrels, demijohns, bottles, +tumblers, and all the et ceteras. Behind the counter stood the +proprietor, a burly fellow with a buffalo-neck, fair skin and blue eyes, +with a frightful scar across his left under-jaw and neck; his +shirt-collar was open, exposing, a huge chest, and his sleeves were +rolled up above the elbows. I noticed also that one of his hands was +minus all the fingers but the half of one--the result probably of some +desperate reencounter. I did not like the appearance of my landlord, and +he eyed me in a way that led me to fear that he liked my looks as little +as I did his; but the claims of other guests soon diverted his attention +from me, and I was left to get warm and make further observations. At a +table in the middle of the room several hard-looking fellows were +betting at cards, amid terrible profanity and frequent drinks of whisky. +They cast inquiring and not very friendly glances at me from time to +time, once or twice exchanging whispers and giggling. As their play went +on, and tumbler after tumbler of whisky was drunk by them, they became +more boisterous. Threats were made of using pistols and knives, with +which they all seemed to be heavily armed; and one sottish-looking brute +actually drew forth a pistol, but was disarmed in no gentle way by the +big-limbed landlord. The profanity and other foul language were +horrible. Many of my readers have no conception of the brutishness of +men when whisky and Satan have full possession of them. In the midst of +a volley of oaths and terrible imprecations by one of the most violent +of the set, there was a faint gleam of lingering decency exhibited by +one of his companions: + +"Blast it, Dick, don't cuss so loud--that fellow in the corner there is +a preacher!" + +There was some potency in "the cloth" even there. How he knew my calling +I do not know. The remark directed particular attention to me and I +became unpleasantly conspicuous. Scowling glances were bent upon me by +two or three of the ruffians, and one fellow made a profane remark not +at all complimentary to my vocation--where at there was some coarse +laughter. In the meantime I was conscious of being very hungry. My +hunger, like that of a boy, is a very positive, thing at, least it was +very much so in those days. Glancing toward the maimed and scarred giant +who stood behind the bar, I found he was gazing at me with a fixed +expression. + +"Can I get something to eat? I am very hungry, sir," I said in my +blandest tones. + +"Yes, we've, plenty of 'cold' goose, and maybe Pete can pick up +something else for you if he, is sober and in a good humor. Come this +way." + +I followed him through a narrow passage-way, which led to a long, +low-ceiled room, along nearly the whole length of which was stretched a +table, around which were placed rough stools for the rough men about +the place. + +Pete, the cook; came in and the head of the house turned me over to him, +and returned to his duties behind the bar. From the noise of the uproar +going on, his presence was doubtless needed. Pete set before me a large +roasted wild-goose, not badly cooked, with bread, milk, and the +inevitable cucumber pickles. The knives and forks were not very bright +--in fact, they had been subjected to influences promotive of oxidation; +and the dishes were not free from signs of former use. Nothing could be +said against the tablecloth--there was no tablecloth there. But the +goose was fat, brown, and tender; and a hungry man defers his criticisms +until he is done eating. That is what I did. Pete evidently regarded me +with curiosity. He was about fifty years of age, and had the look of a +man who had come down in the world. His face bore the marks of the +effects of strong drink, but it was not a bad face; it was more weak +than wicked. + +"Are you a preacher?" he asked. + +"I thought so," he added, after getting my answer to his question. "Of +what persuasion are you?"! he further inquired. + +When I told him I was a Methodist, he said quickly and with some warmth: + +"I was sure of it. This is a rough place for a man of your calling. +Would you like some eggs? we've plenty on hand. And may be you would +like a cup of coffee," he added, with, increasing hospitality. + +I took the eggs, but declined the coffee, not liking the looks of the +cups and saucers, and not caring to wait. + +"I used to be a Methodist myself," said Pete, with a sort of choking in +his throat, "but bad luck and bad company have brought me down to this. +I have a family in Iowa, a wife and four children. I guess they think +I'm dead, and sometimes I wish I was." + +Pete stood by my chair, actually crying. The sight of a Methodist +preacher brought up old times. He told me his story. He had come to +California hoping to make a fortune in a hurry, but had only ill luck +from the start. His prospectings were always failures, his partners +cheated him, his health broke down, his courage gave way, and--he +faltered a little, and then spoke it out--he took to whisky, and then +the worst came. + +"I have come down to this--cooking for a lot of roughs at five dollars +a week, and all the whisky I want. It would have been better for me if I +had died when I was in the hospital at San Andreas." + +Poor Pete! he had indeed touched bottom. But he had a heart and a +conscience still, and my own heart warmed toward my poor backslidden +brother. + +"You are not a lost man yet. You are worth a thousand dead men. You can +get out of this, and you must. You must act the part of a brave man, and +not be any longer a coward. Bad luck and lack of success are a disgrace +to no man. There is where you went wrong. It was cowardly to give up and +not write to your family, and then take to whisky." + +"I know all that, Elder. There is no better little woman on earth than +my wife"--Pete choked up again. + +"You write to her this very night, and go back to her and your children +just as soon as you can get the money to pay your way. Act the man, and +all will come right yet. I have writing materials here in my satchel +--pen, ink, paper, envelopes, stamps, every thing; I am an editor, and go +fixed up for writing." + +The letter was written, I acting as Pete's amanuensis, he pleading that +he was a poor scribe at best and that his nerves were too unsteady for +such work. Taking my advice, he made a clean breast of the whole matter, +throwing himself on the forgiveness of the wife whom he had so +shamefully neglected, and promising by the help of God to make all the +amends possible in time to come. The letter was duly directed, sealed, +and stamped; and Pete looked as if a great weight had been lifted from +his soul, He had made me a fire in the little stove, saying it was +better than the barroom; in which opinion I was fully agreed. + +"There is no place for you to sleep tonight without corralling you with +the fellows; there is but one bedroom, and there are fourteen bunks in +it." + +I shuddered at the prospect-fourteen bunks in one small room, and those +whisky-sodden, loud-cursing card-players to be my roommates for the +night! + +"I prefer sitting here by the stove all night," I said; "I can employ +most of the time writing, if I can have a light." + +Pete thought a moment, looked grave, and then said: + +"That won't do, Elder; those fellows would take offense, and make +trouble. Several of them are out now goose-hunting; they will be coming +in at all hours from now till daybreak, and it won't do for them to find +you sitting up here alone. The best, thing for you to do is to go in and +take one of those bunks; you, needn't takeoff any thing but your coat +and boots, and"--here he lowered his voice, looking about him as he +spoke--"if you have any money about, keep it next to your body." + +The last words were spoken with peculiar emphasis. + +Taking the advice given me, I took up my baggage and followed Pete to +the room where I was to spend the night. Ugh! it was dreadful. The +single window in the room was nailed down, and the air was close and +foul. The bunks were damp and dirty beyond belief, grimed with foulness, +and reeking with ill odors. This was being corralled. + +I turned to Pete, saying: + +"I can't stand this--I will go back to the kitchen." + +"You had better follow my advice, Elder," said he very gravely. "I know +things about here better than you do. It's rough, but you had better +stand it." + +And I did; being corralled, I had to stand it. That fearful night! The +drunken fellows staggered in one by one, cursing and hiccoughing, until +every bunk was occupied. They muttered oaths in their sleep, and their +stertorous breathings made a concert fit for Tartarus. The sickening +odors of whisky, onions, and tobacco filled the room. I lay there and +longed for daylight, which seemed as if it never would come. I thought +of the descriptions I had heard and read of hell, and just then the most +vivid conception of its horror was to be shut up forever with the +aggregated impurity of the universe. By contrast I tried to think of +that city of God into which, it is said, "there shall in no wise enter +into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, +or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." +But thoughts of heaven did not suit the situation; it was more +suggestive of the other place. The horror of being shut up eternally in +hell as the companion of lost spirits was intensified by the experience +and reflections of that night when I was corralled. + +Day came at last. I rose with the first streaks of the dawn, and not +having much toilet to make, I was soon out-of-doors. Never did I breathe +the pure, fresh air with such profound pleasure and gratitude. I drew +deep inspirations, and, opening my coat and vest, let the breeze that +swept up the valley blow upon me unrestricted. How bright, was the face +of nature, and how sweet her, breath after the sights, sounds, and +smells of the night! + +I did not wait for breakfast, but had my pinto and buggy brought out, +and, bidding Pete good-by, hurried on to Stockton. + +"So you were corralled last night?" was the remark of a friend, quoted +at the beginning of this true sketch. "What was the name of the +proprietor of the house?" + +I gave him the name. + +"Dave W--!" he exclaimed with fresh astonishment. "That is the roughest +place in the San Joaquin Valley. Several men have been killed and robbed +there during the last two or three years." + +I hope Pete got back safe to his wife and children in Iowa; and I hope I +may never be corralled again. + + + +The Reblooming. + +It is now more than twenty years since the morning a slender youth of +handsome face and modest mien came into my office on the corner of +Montgomery and Clay streets, San Francisco. He was the son of a preacher +well known in Missouri and California, a man of rare good sense, caustic +wit, and many eccentricities. The young man became an attache of my +newspaper-office and an inmate of my home. He was as fair as a girl, and +refined in his taste and manners. A genial taciturnity, if the +expression may be allowed, marked his bearing in the social circle. +Everybody had a kind feeling and a good word for the quiet, brightfaced +youth. In the discharge of his duties in the office he was punctual and +trustworthy, showing not only industry but unusual aptitude for business +It was with special pleasure that I learned that he was turning his +thoughts to the subject of religion. During the services in the little +Pine-street church he would sit with thoughtful face, and not seldom +with moistened eyes. He read the Bible and prayed in secret. I was not +surprised when he came to me one day and opened his heart. The great +crisis in his life had come. God was speaking to his soul, and he was +listening to his voice. The uplifted cross drew him, and he yielded to +the gentle attraction. We prayed together, and henceforth there was a +new and sacred bond that bound us to each other. I felt that I was a +witness to the most solemn transaction that can take place on earth--the +wedding of a soul to a heavenly faith. Soon thereafter he went to +Virginia, to attend college. There he united with the Church. His +letters to me were full of gratitude and joy. It was the blossoming of +his spiritual life, and the air was full of its fragrance, and the earth +was flooded with glory. A pedestrian tour among the Virginia hills +brought him into communion with Nature at a time when it was rapture to +drink in its beauty and its grandeur. The light kindled within his soul +by the touch of the Holy Spirit transfigured the scenery upon which he +gazed, and the glory of God shone round about the young student in the +flush and blessedness of his first love. O blessed days! O days of +brightness, and sweetness, and rapture! The soul is then in its +blossoming-time, and all high enthusiasms, all bright dreams, all +thrilling joys, are realities which inwork themselves into the +consciousness, to be forgotten never; to remain with us as prophecies of +the eternal springtime that awaits the true-hearted on the hills of God +beyond the grave, or as accusing voices charging us with the murder of +our dead ideals! Amid the dust and din of the battle in after-years we +turn to this radiant spot in our journey with smiles or tears; according +as we have been true or false to the impulses, aspirations, and purposes +inspired within us by that first, and brightest, and nearest +manifestation of God. Such a season is a natural to every life as the +April buds and June roses are to forest and garden. The springtime of +some lives is deferred by unpropitious circumstance to the time when it +should be glowing with autumnal glory, and rich in the fruitage of the +closing year. The life that does not blossom into religion in youth may +have light at noon, and peace at sunset, but misses the morning glory on +the hills, and the dew that sparkles on grass and flower. The call of +God to the young to seek him early is the expression of a true +psychology no less than of a love infinite in its depth and tenderness. + +His college-course finished, my young friend returned to California, and +in one of its beautiful valley-towns he entered a law-office, with a +view to prepare himself for the legal profession. Here he was thrown +into daily association with a little knot of skeptical lawyers. As is +often the case, their moral obliquities ran parallel with their errors +in opinion. They swore, gambled genteelly, and drank. It is not strange +that in this icy atmosphere the growth of any young friend in the +Christian life was stunted. Such influences are like the dreaded north +wind that at times sweeps over the valleys of California in the spring +and early summer, blighting and withering the vegetation it does not +kill. The brightness of his hope was dimmed, and his soul knew the +torture of doubt--a torture that is always keenest to him who allows +himself to sink in the region of fogs after he has once stood upon the +sunlit summit of faith. Just at this crisis, a thing little in itself +deepened the shadow that was falling upon his life. A personal +misunderstanding with the pastor kept him from attending church. Thus he +lost the most effectual defense against the assaults that were being +made upon his faith and hope, in being separated from the fellowship and +cut off from the activities of the Church of God. Have you not noted +these malign coincidences in life? There are times when it seems that +the tide of events sets against us when, like the princely sufferer of +the land of Uz, every messenger that crosses the threshold brings fresh +tidings of ill, and our whole destiny seems to be rushing to a predoomed +perdition. The worldly call it bad luck; the superstitious call it fate; +the believer in God calls it by another name. Always of a delicate +constitution, my friend now exhibited symptoms of serious pulmonary +disease. It was at that time the fashion in California to prescribe +whisky as a specific for that class of ailments. It is possible that +there is virtue in the prescription, but I am sure of one thing, namely, +that if consumption diminished, drunkenness increased; if fewer died of +phthisis, more died of delirium tremens. The physicians of California +have sent a host of victims raving and gibbering in drunken frenzy or +idiocy down to death and hell! I have reason to believe that my friend +inherited a constitutional weakness at this point. As flame to tinder, +was the medicinal whisky to him. It grew upon him rapidly, and soon this +cloud overshadowed all his life. He struggled hard to break the +serpent-folds that were tightening around him; but the fire that had +been kindled seemed to be quenchless. An uncontrolled evil passion is +hellfire. He writhed in its burnings in an agony that could be +understood only by such as knew how almost morbidly sensitive was his +nature, and how vital was his conscience. I became a pastor in the town +where he lived, and renewed my association with him as far as I could. +But there was a constraint unlike the old times. When under the +influence of liquor, he would pass me in the streets with his head down, +a deeper flush mantling his cheek as he hurried by with unsteady step. +Sometimes I met him staggering homeward through a back street, hiding +from the gaze of men. He was at first shy of me when sober, but +gradually the constraint wore off, and he seemed disposed to draw nearer +to me, as in the old days. His struggle went on, days of drunkenness +following weeks of soberness, his haggard face after each debauch +wearing a look of unspeakable weariness and wretchedness. One of the +lawyers who had led him into the mazes of doubt--a man of large and +versatile gifts, whose lips were touched with a noble and persuasive +eloquence--sunk deeper and deeper into the black depths of drunkenness, +until the tragedy ended in a horror that lessened the gains of the +saloons for at least a few days. He was found dead in his bed one +morning in a pool of blood, his throat cut by his own guilty hand. + +My friend had married a lovely girl, and the cottage in which they lived +was one of the coziest, and the garden in front was a little paradise of +neatness and beauty. Ah! I must drop a veil over a part of this true +tale. All along I have written under half protest, the image of a sad, +wistful face rising at times between my eyes and the sheet on which +these words are traced. They loved each other tenderly and deeply, and +both were conscious of the presence of the devil that was turning their +heaven into hell. + +"Save him, Doctor, save him! He is the noblest of men, and the +tenderest, truest husband. He loves you, and he will let you talk to +him. Save him, O save him! Help me to pray for him! My heart will +break!" + +Poor child! her loving heart was indeed breaking; and her fresh young +life was crushed under a weight of grief and shame too heavy to be +borne. + +What he said to me in the interviews held in his sober intervals I have +not the heart to repeat now. He still fought against his enemy; he still +buffeted the billows that were going over him, though with feebler +stroke. When their little child died, her tears fell freely, but he was +like one stunned. Stony and silent he stood and saw the little grave +filled up, and rode away tearless, the picture of hopelessness. + +By a coincidence; after my return to San Francisco, he came thither, and +again became my neighbor at North Beach. I went up to see him one +evening. He was very feeble, and it was plain that the end was not far +off. At the first glance I saw that a great change had taken place in +him. + +He had found his lost self. The strong drink was shut out from him, and +he was shut in with his better thoughts and with God. His religious life +rebloomed in wondrous beauty and sweetness. The blossoms of his early +joy had fallen off, the storms had torn its branches and stripped it of +its foliage, but its root had never perished, because he had never +ceased to struggle for deliverance. Aspiration and hope live or die +together in the human soul. The link that bound my friend to God was +never wholly sundered. His better nature clung to the better way with a +grasp that never let go altogether. + +"O Doctor, I am a wonder to myself! It does seem to me that God has +given back to me every good thing I possessed in the bright and blessed +past. It has all come back to me. I see the light and feel the joy as I +did when I first entered the new life. O it is wonderful! Doctor, God +never gave me up, and I never ceased to yearn for his mercy and love, +even in the darkest season of my unhappy life?" + +His very face had recovered its old look, and his voice its old tone. +There could be no doubt of this soul had rebloomed in the life of God. + +The last night came--they sent for me with the message, + +"Come quickly! he is dying." + +I found him with that look which I have seen on the faces of others who +were nearing death--a radiance and a rapture that awed the beholder. O +solemn, awful mystery of death! I have stood in its presence in every +form of terror and of sweetness, and in every case the thought has been +impressed upon me that it was a passage into the Great Realities. + +"Doctor," he said, smiling, and holding my hand; "I had hoped to be with +you in your office again, as in the old days--not as a business +arrangement, but just to be with you, and revive old memories, and to +live the old life over again. But that cannot be, and I must wait till +we meet in the world of spirits, whither I go before you. It seems to be +growing dark. I cannot see your face hold my hand. I am going--going. I +am on the waves--on the waves--." The radiance was still upon his +face, but the hand I held no longer clasped mine-the wasted form was +still. It was the end. He was launched upon the Infinite Sea for the +endless voyage. + + + +The Emperor Norton. + +That was his title. He wore it with an air that was a strange mixture of +the mock-heroic and the pathetic. He was mad on this one point, and +strangely shrewd and well-informed on almost every other. Arrayed in a +faded-blue uniform, with brass buttons and epaulettes, wearing a +cocked-hat with an eagle's feather, and at times with a rusty sword at +his side, he was a conspicuous figure in the streets of San Francisco, +and a regular habitue of all its public places. In person he was stout, +full-chested, though slightly stooped, with a large head heavily coated +with bushy black hair, an aquiline nose, and dark gray eyes, whose mild +expression added to the benignity of his face. On the end of his nose +grew a tuft of long hairs, which he seemed to prize as a natural mark of +royalty, or chieftainship. Indeed, there was a popular legend afloat +that he was of true royal blood--a stray Bourbon, or something of the +sort. His speech was singularly fluent and elegant. The Emperor was one +of the celebrities that no visitor failed to see. It is said that his +mind was unhinged by a sudden loss of fortune in the early days, by the +treachery of a partner in trade. The sudden blow was deadly, and the +quiet, thrifty, affable man of business became a wreck. By nothing is +the inmost quality of a man made more manifest than by the manner in +which he meets misfortune. One, when the sky darkens, having strong +impulse and weak will, rushes into suicide; another, with a large vein +of cowardice, seeks to drown the sense of disaster in strong drink; yet +another, tortured in every fiber of a sensitive organization, flees from +the scene of his troubles and the faces of those that know him, +preferring exile to shame. The truest man, when assailed by sudden +calamity, rallies all the reserved forces of a splendid manhood to meet +the shock, and, like a good ship, lifting itself from the trough of the +swelling sea, mounts the wave and rides on. It was a curious +idiosyncrasy that led this man, when fortune and reason were swept away +at a stroke, to fall back upon this imaginary imperialism. The nature +that could thus, when the real fabric of life was wrecked, construct +such another by the exercise of a disordered imagination, must have been +originally of a gentle and magnanimous type. The broken fragments of +mind, like those of a statue, reveal the quality of the original +creation. It may be that he was happier than many who have worn real +crowns. Napoleon at Chiselhurst, or his greater uncle at St. Helena, +might have been gainer by exchanging lots with this man, who had the +inward joy of conscious greatness without its burden and its perils. To +all public places he had free access, and no pageant was complete +without his presence. From time to time he issued proclamations, signed +"Norton I.," which the lively San Francisco dailies were always ready to +print conspicuously in their columns. The style of these proclamations +was stately, the royal first person plural being used by him with all +gravity and dignity. Ever and anon, as his uniform became dilapidated or +ragged, a reminder of the condition of the imperial wardrobe would be +given in one or more of the newspapers, and then in a few days he would +appear in a new suit. He had the entree of all the restaurants, and he +lodged--nobody knew where. It was said that he was cared for by members +of the Freemason Society to which he belonged at the time of his fall. I +saw him often in my congregation in the Pine-street church, along in +1858, and into the sixties. He was a respectful and attentive listener +to preaching. On the occasion of one of his first visits he spoke to me +after the service, saying, in a kind and patronizing tone: + +"I think it my duty to encourage religion and morality by showing myself +at church, and to avoid jealousy I attend them all in turn." + +He loved children, and would come into the Sunday-school, and sit +delighted with their singing. When, in distributing the presents on a +Christmas-tree, a necktie was handed him as the gift of the young +ladies, he received it with much satisfaction, making a kingly bow of +gracious acknowledgment. Meeting him one day, in the springtime, holding +my little girl by the hand, he paused, looked at the child's bright +face, and taking a rose-bud from his button-hole, he presented it to her +with a manner so graceful, and a smile so benignant, as to show that +under the dingy blue uniform there beat the heart of a gentleman. He +kept a keen eye on current events, and sometimes expressed his views +with great sagacity. One day he stopped me on the street, saying: + +"I have just read the report of the political sermon of Dr.--(giving +the name of a noted sensational preacher, who was in the habit, at +times, of discussing politics from his pulpit). I disapprove +political-preaching. What do you think?" + +I expressed my cordial concurrence. + +"I will put a stop to it. The preachers must stop preaching politics, or +they must all come into one State Church. I will at once issue a decree +to that effect." + +For some unknown reason, that decree never was promulgated. + +After the war, he took a deep interest in the reconstruction of the +Southern States. I met him one day on Montgomery street, when he asked +me in a tone and with a look of earnest solicitude: + +"Do you hear any complaint or dissatisfaction concerning me from the +South?" + +I gravely answered in the negative. + +"I was for keeping the country undivided, but I have the kindest feeling +for the Southern people, and will see that they are protected in all +their rights. Perhaps if I were to go among them in person, it might +have a good effect. What do you think?" + +I looked at him keenly as I made some suitable reply, but could see +nothing in his expression but simple sincerity. He seemed to feel that +he was indeed the father of his people. George Washington himself could +not have adopted a more paternal tone. + +Walking along the street behind the Emperor one day, my curiosity was a +little excited by seeing him thrust his hand into the hip-pocket of his +blue trousers with sudden energy. The hip-pocket, by the way, is a +modern American stupidity, associated in the popular mind with rowdyism, +pistol shooting, and murder. Hip-pockets should be abolished wherever +there are courts of law and civilized men and women. But what was the +Emperor after? Withdrawing his hand just as I overtook him, the mystery +was revealed--it grasped a thick Bologna sausage, which he began to eat +with unroyal relish. It gave me a shock, but he was not the first royal +personage who has exhibited low tastes and carnal hankerings. + +He was seldom made sport of or treated rudely. I saw him on one occasion +when a couple of passing hoodlums jeered at him. He turned and gave them +a look so full of mingled dignity, pain, and surprise, that the low +fellows were abashed, and uttering a forced laugh, with averted faces +they hurried on. The presence that can bring shame to a San Francisco +hoodlum must indeed be kingly, or in some way impressive. In that genus +the beastliness and devilishness of American city-life reach their +lowest denomination when the brutality of the savage and the lowest +forms of civilized vice are combined, human nature touches bottom. + +The Emperor never spoke of his early life. The veil of mystery on this +point increased the popular curiosity concerning him, and invested him +with something of a romantic interest. There was one thing that excited +his disgust and indignation. The Bohemians of the San Francisco press +got into the practice of attaching his name to their satires and hits at +current follies, knowing that the well-known "Norton I." at the end +would insure a reading. This abuse of the liberty of the press he +denounced with dignified severity, threatening extreme measures unless +it were stopped. But nowhere on earth did the press exhibit more +audacity, or take a wider range, and it would have required a sterner +heart and a stronger hand than that of Norton I. to put a hook into its +jaws. + +The end of all human grandeur, real or imaginary, comes at last. The +Emperor became thinner and more stooped as the years passed. The humor +of his hallucination retired more and more into the background, and its +pathetic side came out more strongly. His step was slow and feeble, and +there was that look in his eyes so often seen in the old and sometimes +in the young, just before the great change comes--a rapt, far-away +look, suggesting that the invisible is coming into view, the shadows +vanishing and the realities appearing. The familiar face and form were +missed on the streets, and it was known that he was dead. He had gone to +his lonely lodging, and quietly lain down and died. The newspapers spoke +of him with pity and respect, and all San Francisco took time, in the +midst of its roar-and-rush fever of perpetual excitement, to give a kind +thought to the dead man who had passed over to the life where all +delusions are laid aside, where the mystery of life shall be revealed, +and where we shall see that through all its tangled web ran the golden +thread of mercy. His life was an illusion, and the thousands who sleep +with him in Lone Mountain waiting the judgment-day were his brothers. + + + +Camilla Cain. + +She was from Baltimore, and had the fair face and gentle voice peculiar +to most Baltimore women. Her organization was delicate but elastic--one +of the sort that bends easily, but is hard to break. In her eyes was +that look of wistful sadness so often seen in holy women of her type. +Timid as a fawn, in the class-meeting she spoke of her love to Jesus and +delight in his service in a voice low and a little hesitating, but with +strangely thrilling effect. The meetings were sometimes held in her own +little parlor in the cottage on Dupont street, and then we always felt +that we had met where the Master himself was a constant and welcome +guest. She was put into the crucible. For more than fifteen years she +suffered unceasing and intense bodily pain. Imprisoned in her sick +chamber, she fought her long, hard battle. The pain-distorted limbs lost +their use, the patient face waxed more wan, and the traces of agony were +on it always; the soft, loving eyes were often tear washed. The fires +were hot, and they burned on through the long, long years without +respite. The mystery of it all was too deep for me; it was too deep for +her. But somehow it does seem that the highest suffer most: + +The sign of rank in Nature Is capacity for pain, And the anguish of the +singer Makes the sweetness of the strain. + +The victory of her faith was complete. If the inevitable why? sometimes +was in her thought, no shadow of distrust ever fell upon her heart. Her +sick-room was the quietest, brightest spot in all the city. How often +did I go thither weary and faint with the roughness of the way, and +leave feeling that I had heard the voices and inhaled the odors of +paradise! A little talk, a psalm, and then a prayer, during which the +room seemed to be filled with angel-presences; after which the thin, +pale face was radiant with the light reflected from our Immanuel's face. +I often went to see her, not so much to convey as to get a blessing. Her +heart was kept fresh as a rose of Sharon in the dew of the morning. The +children loved to be near her; and the pathetic face of the dear +crippled boy, the pet of the family, was always brighter in her +presence. Thrice death came into the home-circle with its shock and +mighty wrenchings of the heart, but the victory was not his, but hers. +Neither death nor life could separate her from the love of her Lord. She +was one of the elect. The elect are those who know, having the witness +in themselves. She was conqueror of both--life with its pain and its +weariness, death with its terror and its tragedy. She did not endure +merely, she triumphed. Borne on the wings of a mighty faith, her soul +was at times lifted above all sin, and temptation, and pain, and the +sweet, abiding peace swelled into an ecstasy of sacred joy. Her swimming +eyes and rapt look told the unutterable secret. She has crossed over the +narrow stream on whose margin she lingered so long; and there was joy on +the other side when the gentle, patient, holy Camilla Cain joined the +glorified throng. + +O though oft depressed and lonely, All my fears are laid aside, If I but +remember only Such as these have lived and died! + + + +Lone Mountain. + +The sea-wind sweeps over the spot at times in gusts like the frenzy of +hopeless grief, and at times in sighs as gentle as those heaved by aged +sorrow in sight of eternal rest. The voices of the great city come +faintly over the sand-hills, with subdued murmur like a lullaby to the +pale sleepers that are here lying low. When the winds are quiet, which +is not often, the moan of the mighty Pacific can be heard day or night, +as if it voiced in muffled tones the unceasing woe of a world under the +reign of death. Westward, on the summit of a higher hill, a huge cross +stretches its arms as if embracing the living and the dead-the first +object that catches the eye of the weary voyager as he nears the Golden +Gate, the last that meets his lingering gaze as he goes forth upon the +great waters. O sacred emblem of the faith with which we launch upon +life's stormy main--of the hope that assures that we shall reach the +port when the night and the tempest are past! When the winds are high, +the booming of the breakers on the cliff sounds as if nature were +impatient of the long, long delay, and had anticipated the last thunders +that wake the sleeping dead. On a clear day, the blue Pacific, +stretching away beyond the snowy surf-line, symbolizes the shoreless sea +that rolls through eternity. The Cliff House road that runs hard by is +the chief drive of the pleasure-seekers of San Francisco. Gayety, and +laughter, and heart-break, and tears, meet on the drive; the wail of +agony and the laugh of gladness mingle as the gay crowds dash by the +slow-moving procession on its way to the grave. How often have I made +that slow, sad journey to Lone Mountain--a Via Doloroso to many who +have never been the same after they had gone thither, and coming back +found the light quenched and the music bushed in their homes! Thither +the dead Senator was borne, followed by the tramping thousands, rank on +rank, amid the booming of minute-guns, the tolling of bells, the +measured tread of plumed soldiers, and the roll of drums. Thither was +carried, in his rude coffin, the "unknown man" found dead in the +streets, to be buried in potter's-field. Thither was borne the hard and +grasping idolater of riches, who clung to his coin, and clutched for +more, until he was dragged away by the one hand that was colder and +stronger than his own. Here was brought the little child, out of whose +narrow grave there blossomed the beginnings of a new life to the father +and mother, who in the better life to come will be found among the +blessed company of those whose only path to paradise lay through the +valley of tears. Here were brought the many wanderers, whose last +earthly wish was to go back home, on the other side of the mountains, to +die, but were denied by the stern messenger who never waits nor spares. +And here was brought the mortal part of the aged disciple of Jesus, in +whose dying-chamber the two worlds met, and whose death-throes were +demonstrably the birth of a child of God into the life of glory. + +The first time I ever visited the place was to attend the funeral of a +suicide. The dead man I had known in Virginia, when I was a boy. He was +a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, and when I first knew him +he was the captain of a famous volunteer company. He was as handsome as +a picture--the admiration of the girls, and the envy of the young men +of his native town. He was among the first who rushed to California on +the discovery of gold, and of all the heroic men who gave early +California its best bias none was knightlier than this handsome +Virginian; none won stronger friends, or had brighter hopes. He was the +first State Senator from San Francisco. He had the magnetism that won +and the nobility that retained the love of men. Some men push themselves +forward by force of intellect or of will--this man was pushed upward by +his friends because he had their hearts. He married a beautiful woman, +whom he loved literally unto death. I shall not recite the whole story. +God only knows it fully, and he will judge righteously. There was +trouble, rage, and tears, passionate partings and penitent reunions--the +old story of love dying a lingering yet violent death. On the fatal +morning I met him on Washington street. I noticed his manner was hurried +and his look peculiar, as I gave him the usual salutation and a hearty +grasp of the hand. As be moved away, I looked after him with mingled +admiration and pity, until his faultless figure turned the corner and +disappeared. + +Ten minutes afterward he lay on the floor of his room dead, with a +bullet through his brain, his hair dabbled in blood. At the +funeral-service, in the little church on Pine street, strong men bowed +their heads and sobbed. His wife sat on a front seat, pale as marble and +as motionless, her lips compressed as with inward pain; but I saw no +tears on the beautiful face. At the grave the body had been lowered to +its resting-place, and all being ready, the attendants standing with +uncovered heads, I was just about to begin the reading of the solemn +words of the burial service, when a tall, blue-eyed man with gray +side-whiskers pushed his way to the head of the grave, and in a voice +choked with passion, exclaimed: + +"There lies as noble a gentleman as ever breathed, and he owes his death +to that fiend!" pointing his finger at the wife, who stood pale and +silent looking down into the grave. + +She gave him a look that I shall never forget, and the large steely-blue +eyes flashed fire, but she spoke no word. I spoke: + +"Whatever maybe your feelings, or whatever the occasion for them, you +degrade yourself by such an exhibition of them here." + +"That is so, sir; excuse me, my feelings overcame me," he said, and +retiring a few steps, he leaned upon a branch of a scrub-oak and sobbed +like a child. + +The farce and the tragedy of real life were here exhibited on another +occasion. Among my acquaintances in the city were a man and his wife who +were singularly mismatched. He was a plain, unlettered, devout man, who +in a prayer-meeting or class-meeting talked with a simple-hearted +earnestness that always produced a happy effect. + +She was a cultured woman, ambitious and worldly, and so fine-looking +that in her youth she must have been a beauty and a belle. They lived in +different worlds, and grew wider apart as time passed by--he giving +himself to religion, she giving herself to the world. In the gay city +circles in which she moved she was a little ashamed of the quiet, humble +old man, and he did not feel at home among them. There was no formal +separation, but it was known to the friends of the family that for +months at a time they never lived together. The fashionable daughters +went with their mother. The good old man, after a short sickness, died +in great peace. I was sent for to officiate at the funeral-service. +There was a large gathering of people, and a brave parade of all the +externals of grief, but it was mostly dry-eyed grief, so far as I could +see. At the grave, just as the sun that was sinking in the ocean threw +his last rays upon the spot, and the first shovelful of earth fell upon +the coffin that had been gently lowered to its resting-place, there was +a piercing shriek from one of the carriages, followed by the +exclamation: + +"What shall I do? How can I live? I have lost my all! O! O! O!" + +It was the dead man's wife. Significant glances and smiles were +interchanged by the bystanders. Approaching the carriage in which the +woman was sitting, I laid my hand upon her arm, looked her in the face, +and said: + +"Hush!" + +She understood me, and not another sound did she utter. Poor woman! She +was not perhaps as heartless as they thought she was. There was at least +a little remorse in those forced exclamations, when she thought of the +dead man in the coffin; but her eyes were dry, and she stopped very +short. + +Another incident recurs to me that points in a different direction. One +day the most noted gambler in San Francisco called on me with the +request that I should attend the funeral of one of his friends, who had +died the night before. A splendid-looking fellow was this knight of the +faro-table. More than six feet in height, with deep chest and perfectly +rounded limbs, jet black hair, brilliant black eyes, clear olive +complexion, and easy manners, he might have been taken for an Italian +nobleman or a Spanish Don. He had a tinge of Cherokee blood in his +veins. I have noticed that this cross of the white and Cherokee blood +often results in producing this magnificent physical development. I have +known a number of women of this lineage, who were very queens in their +beauty and carriage. But this noted gambler was illiterate. The only +book of which he knew or cared much was one that had fifty-two pages, +with twelve pictures. If he had been educated, he might have handled the +reins of government, instead of presiding over a nocturnal banking +institution. + +"Parson, can you come to number--, on Kearney street, tomorrow at ten +o'clock, and give us a few words and a prayer over a friend of mine, who +died last night?" + +I promised to be there, and he left. + +His friend, like himself, had been a gambler. He was from New York. He +was well educated, gentle in his manners, and a general favorite with +the rough and desperate fellows with whom he associated, but with whom +he seemed out of place. The passion for gambling had put its terrible +spell on him, and be was helpless in its grasp. But though he mixed with +the crowds that thronged the gambling-hells, he was one of them only in +the absorbing passion for play. There was a certain respect shown him by +all that venturesome fraternity. He went to Frazer River during the gold +excitement. In consequence of exposure and privation in that wild chase +after gold, which proved fatal to so many eager adventurers, he +contracted pulmonary disease, and came back to San Francisco to die. He +had not a dollar. His gambler friend took charge of him, placed him in a +good boarding-place, hired a nurse for him, and for nearly a year +provided for all his wants. + + + +Newton. + +The miners called him the "Wandering Jew." That was behind his back. To +his face they addressed him as Father Newton. He walked his circuits in +the northern mines. No pedestrian could keep up with him, as with his +long form bending forward, his immense yellow beard that reached to his +breast floating in the wind, he strode from camp to camp with the +message of salvation. It took a good trotting-horse to keep pace with +him. Many a stout prospector, meeting him on a highway, after panting +and straining to bear him company, had to fall behind, gazing after him +in wonder, as he swept out of sight at that marvelous gait. There was a +glitter in his eye, and an intensity of gaze that left you in doubt +whether it was genius or madness that it bespoke. It was, in truth, a +little of both. He had genius. Nobody ever talked with him, or heard him +preach, without finding it out. The rough fellow who offended him at a +camp-meeting, near "Yankee Jim's," no doubt thought him mad. He was +making some disturbance just as the long bearded old preacher was +passing with a bucket of water in his hand. + +"What do you mean?" he thundered, stopping and fixing his keen eye upon +the rowdy. + +A rude and profane reply was made by the jeering sinner. + +Quick as thought Newton rushed upon him with flashing eye and uplifted +bucket, a picture of fiery wrath that was too much for the thoughtless +scoffer, who fled in terror amid the laughter of the crowd. The +vanquished son of Belial had no sympathy from anybody, and the plucky +preacher was none the less esteemed because he was ready to defend his +Master's cause with carnal weapons. The early Californians left scarcely +any path of sin unexplored, and were a sad set of sinners, but for +virtuous women and religion they never lost their reverence. Both were +scarce in those days, when it seemed to be thought that gold-digging and +the Decalogue could not be made to harmonize. The pioneer preachers +found that one good woman made a better basis for evangelization than a +score of nomadic bachelors. The first accession of a woman to a church +in the mines was an epoch in its history. The church in the house of +Lydia was the normal type--it must be anchored to woman's faith, and +tenderness, and love, in the home. + +He visited San Francisco during my pastorate in 1858. On Sunday morning +he preached a sermon of such extraordinary beauty and power that at the +night-service the house was crowded by a curious congregation, drawn +thither by the report of the forenoon effort. His subject was the faith +of the mother of Moses, and he handled it in his own way. The powerful +effect of one passage I shall never forget. It was a description of the +mother's struggle, and the victory of her faith in the crisis of her +trial. No longer able to protect her child, she resolves to commit him +to her God. He drew a picture of her as she sat weaving together the +grasses of the little ark of bulrushes, her hot tears falling upon her +work, and pausing from time to time with her hand pressed upon her +throbbing heart. At length, the little vessel is finished, and she goes +by night to the bank of the Nile, to take the last chance to save her +boy from the knife of the murderers. Approaching the river's edge, with +the ark in her hands, she stoops a moment, but her mother's heart fails +her. How can she give up her child? In frenzy of grief she sinks upon +her knees, and lifting her gaze to the heavens, passionately prays to +the God of Israel. That prayer! It was the wail of a breaking heart, a +cry out of the depths of a mighty agony. But as she prays the +inspiration of God enters her soul, her eyes kindle, and her face beams +with the holy light of faith. She rises, lifts the little ark, looks +upon the sleeping face of the fair boy, prints a long, long kiss upon +his brow, and then with a firm step she bends down, and placing the tiny +vessel upon the waters, lets it go. "And away it went," he, said, +"rocking upon the waves as it swept beyond the gaze of the mother's +straining eyes. The monsters of the deep were there, the serpent of the +Nile was there, behemoth was there, but the child slept as sweetly and +as safely upon the rocking waters as if it were nestled upon its +mother's breast--for God was there!" The effect was electric. The +concluding words, "for God was there!" were uttered with upturned face +and lifted hands, and in a tone of voice that thrilled the hearers like +a sudden clap of thunder from a cloud over whose bosom the lightnings +had rippled in gentle flashes. It was true eloquence. + +In a revival meeting, on another occasion, he said, in a sermon of +terrific power: "O the hardness of the human heart! Yonder is a man in +hell. He is told that there is one condition on which he may be +delivered, and that is that lie must get the consent of every good being +in the universe. A ray of hope enters his soul, and he sets out to +comply with the condition. He visits heaven and earth, and finds +sympathy and consent from all. All the holy angels consent to his +pardon; all the pure and holy on earth consent; God himself repeats the +assurance of his willingness that he maybe saved. Even in hell, the +devils do not object, knowing that his misery only heightens theirs. All +are willing, all are ready--all but one man. He refuses; he will not +consent. A monster of cruelty and wickedness, he refuses his simple +consent to save a soul from an eternal hell! Surely a good God and all +good beings in the universe would turn in horror from such a monster. +Sinner, you are that man! The blessed God, the Holy Trinity, every angel +in heaven, every good man and woman on earth, are not only willing but +anxious that you shall be saved. But you will not consent. You refuse to +come to Jesus that you may have life. You are the murderer of your own +immortal soul. You drag yourself down to hell. You lock the door of your +own dungeon of eternal despair, and throw the key into the bottomless +pit, by rejecting the Lord that bought you with his blood! You will be +lost! you must be lost! you ought to be lost." + +The words were something like these, but the energy, the passion, the +frenzy of the speaker must be imagined. Hard and stubborn hearts were +moved under that thrilling appeal. They were made to feel that the +preacher's picture of a self doomed soul described their own eases. +There was joy in heaven that night over repenting sinners. + +This old man of the mountains was a walking encyclopedia of theological +and other learning. He owned books that could not be duplicated in +California; and he read them, digested their contents, and constantly +surprised his cultivated bearers by the affluence of his knowledge, and +the fertility of his literary and classic allusion. He wrote with +elegance and force. His weak point was orthography. He would trip +sometimes in the spelling of the most common words. His explanation of +this weakness was curious: He was a printer in Mobile, Alabama. On one +occasion a thirty-two-page book-form of small type was "pied." "I +undertook,", said he, "to set that pied form to rights, and, in doing +so, the words got so mixed in my brain that my spelling was spoiled +forever!" + +He went to Oregon, and traveled and preached from the Cascade Mountains +to Idaho, thrilling, melting, and amusing, in turn, the crowds that came +out to hear the wild-looking man whose coming was so sudden, and whose +going as so rapid, that they were lost in wonder, as if gazing at a +meteor that flashed across the sky. + +He was a Yankee from New Hampshire, who, going to Alabama, lost his +heart, and was ever afterward intensely Southern in all his convictions +and affections. His fiery soul found congenial spirits among the +generous, hotblooded people of the Gulf States, whose very faults had a +sort of charm for this impulsive, generous, erratic, gifted, man. He +made his way back to his New England hills, where he is waiting for the +sunset, often turning a longing eye southward, and now and then sending +a greeting to Alabama. + + + +The California Politician. + +The California politician of the early days was plucky. He had to be so, +for faint heart won no votes in those rough times. One of the Marshalls +(Tom or Ned--I forget which), at the beginning of a stump speech one +night in the mines, was interrupted by a storm of hisses and execrations +from a turbulent crowd of fellows, many of whom were full of whisky. He +paused a moment, drew himself up to his full height, coolly took a +pistol from his pocket, laid it on the stand before him, and said: + +"I have seen bigger crowds than this many a time. I want it to be fully +understood that I came here to make a speech tonight, and I am going to +do it, or else there will be a funeral or two." + +That touch took with that crowd. The one thing they all believed in was +courage. Marshall made one of his grandest speeches, and at the close +the delighted miners bore him in triumph from the rostrum. + +That was a curious exordium of "Uncle Peter Mehan," when he made his +first stump-speech at Sonora: "Fellow-citizens, I was born an orphin at +a very early period of my life." He was a candidate for supervisor, and +the good-natured miners elected him triumphantly. He made a good +supervisor, which is another proof that book-learning and elegant +rhetoric are not essential where there are integrity and native good +sense. Uncle Peter never stole any thing, and he was usually on the +right side of all questions that claimed the attention of the +county-fathers of Tuolumne. + +In the early days, the Virginians, New Yorkers, and Tennesseans, led in +politics. Trained to the stump at home, the Virginians and Tennesseans +were ready on all occasions to run a primary-meeting, a convention, or a +canvass. There was scarcely a mining-camp in the State in which there +was not a leading local politician from one or both of these States. The +New Yorker understood all the inside management of party organization, +and was up to all the smart tactics developed in the lively struggles of +parties in the times when Whiggery and Democracy fiercely fought for +rule in the Empire State. Broderick was a New Yorker, trained by Tammany +in its palmy days. He was a chief, who rose from the ranks, and ruled by +force of will. Thick-set, strong-limbed, full-chested, with immense +driving-power in his back-head, he was an athlete whose stalwart +physique was of more value to him than the gift of eloquence, or even +the power of money. The sharpest lawyers and the richest money-kings +alike went down before this uncultured and moneyless man, who dominated +the clans of San Francisco simply by right of his manhood. He was not +without a sort of eloquence of his own. He spoke right to the point, and +his words fell like the thud of a shillalah; or rang like the clash of +steel. He dealt with the rough elements of politics in an exciting and +turbulent period of California politics, and was more of a border chief +than an Ivanhoe in his modes of warfare. He reached the United States +Senate, and in his first speech in that august body he honored his +manhood by an allusion to his father, a stone mason, whose hands, said +Broderick, had helped to erect the very walls of the chamber in which he +spoke. When a man gets as high as the United States Senate, there is +less tax upon his magnanimity in acknowledging his humble origin than +while he is lower down the ladder. You seldom hear a man boast how low +he began until he is far up toward the summit of his ambition. +Ninety-nine out of every hundred self-made men are at first more or less +sensitive concerning their low birth; the hundredth man who is not is a +man indeed. + +Broderick's great rival was Gwin. The men were antipodes in every thing +except that they belonged to the same party. Gwin still lives, the most +colossal figure in the history of California. He looks the man he is. Of +immense frame, ruddy complexion, deep-blue eyes that almost blaze when +he is excited, rugged yet expressive features, a massive bead crowned +with a heavy suit of silver-white hair, he is marked by Nature for +leadership. Common men seem dwarfed in his presence. After he had +dropped out of California politics for awhile, a Sacramento hotel-keeper +expressed what many felt during a legislative session: "I find myself +looking around for Gwin. I miss the chief." + +My first acquaintance with Dr. Gwin began with, an incident that +illustrates the man and the times. It was in 1856. The Legislature was +in session at Sacramento, and a United States Senator was to, be +elected. I was making a tentative movement toward starting a Southern +Methodist newspaper, and visited Sacramento on that business. My friend +Major P. L. Solomon was there, and took a friendly interest in my +enterprise. He proposed to introduce me to the leading men of both +parties, and I thankfully availed myself of his courtesy. Among the +first to whom he presented me was a noted politician who, both before +and since, has enjoyed a national notoriety, and who still lives, and is +as, ready as ever to talk or fight. His name I need not give. I +presented to him my mission, and he seemed embarrassed. + +"I am with you, of course. My mother was a Methodist, and all my +sympathies are with the Methodist Church. I am a Southern man in all my +convictions and impulses, and I am a Southern Methodist in principle. +But you see, sir, I am a candidate for United States Senator, and +sectional feeling is likely to enter into the contest, and if it were +known that my name was on your list of subscribers, it might endanger my +election." + +He squeezed my arm, told me he loved me and my Church, said he would be +happy to see me often, and so forth--but he did not give me his name. I +left him, saying in my heart, Here is a politician. + +Going on together, in the corridor we met Gwin. Solomon introduced me, +and told him my business. + +"I am glad to know that you are going to start a Southern Methodist +newspaper. No Church can do without its organ. Put me down on your list, +and come with me, and I will make all these fellows subscribe. There is +not much religion among them, I fear, but we will make them take the +paper." + +This was said in a hearty and pleasant way, and he took me from man to +man, until I had gotten more than a dozen names, among them two or three +of his most active political opponents. + +This incident exhibits the two types of the politician, and the two +classes of men to be found in all communities--the one all "blarney" +and selfishness, the other with real manhood redeeming poor human +nature, and saving it from utter contempt. The senatorial prize eluded +the grasp of both aspirants, but the reader will not be at a loss to +guess whose side I was on. Dr. Gwin made a friend that day, and never +lost him. It was this sort of fidelity to friends that, when fortune +frowned on the grand old Senator after the collapse at Appomattox, +rallied thousands of true hearts to his side, among whom were those who +had fought him in many a fierce political battle. Broderick and Gwin +were both, by a curious turn of political fortune, elected by the same +Legislature to the United States Senate. Broderick sleeps in Lone +Mountain, and Gwin still treads the stage of his former glory, a living +monument of the days when California politics was half romance and half +tragedy. The friend and protege of General Andrew Jackson, a member of +the first Constitutional Convention of California, twice United States +Senator, a prominent figure in the civil war, the father of the great +Pacific Railway, he is the front figure on the canvas of California +history. + +Gwin was succeeded by McDougall. What a man was he! His face was as +classic as a Greek statue. It spoke the student and the scholar in every +line. His hair was snow-white, his eyes bluish gray, and his form +sinewy and elastic. He went from Illinois, with Baker and other men of +genius, and soon won a high place at the bar of San Francisco. I heard +it said, by an eminent jurist, that when McDougall had put his whole +strength into the examination of a case, his side of it was exhausted. +His reading was immense, his learning solid. His election was doubtless +a surprise to himself as well as to the California public. The day +before he left for Washington City, I met him in the street, and as we +parted I held his hand a moment, and said: + +"Your friends will watch your career with hope and with fear." + +He knew what I meant, and said, quickly: + +"I understand you. You are afraid that I will yield to my weakness for +strong drink. But you may be sure I will play the man, and California +shall have no cause to blush on my account." + +That was his fatal weakness. No one, looking upon his pale, scholarly +face, and noting his faultlessly neat apparel, and easy, graceful +manners, would have thought of such a thing. Yet he was a--I falter in +writing it--a drunkard. At times he drank deeply and madly. When half +intoxicated he was almost as brilliant as Hamlet, and as rollicking as +Falstaff. It was said that even when fully drunk his splendid intellect +never entirely gave way. + +"McDougall commands as much attention in the Senate when drunk as any +other Senator does when sober," said a Congressman in Washington in +1866. It is said that his great speech on the question of +"confiscation," at the beginning of the war, was delivered when he was +in a state of semi-intoxication. Be that as it may, it exhausted the +whole question, and settled the policy of the Government. + +"No one will watch your senatorial career with more friendly interest +than myself; and if you will abstain wholly from all strong drink, we +shall all, be proud of you, I know." + +"Not a drop will I touch, my friend; and I'll make you proud of me." + +He spoke feelingly, and I think there was a moisture about his eye as he +pressed my hand and walked away. + +I never saw him again. For the first few months he wrote to me often, +and then his letters came at longer intervals, and then they ceased. And +then the newspapers disclosed the shameful secret California's brilliant +Senator was a drunkard. The temptations of the Capital were too strong +for him. He went down into the black waters a complete wreck. He +returned to the old home of his boyhood in New Jersey to die. I learned +that he was lucid and penitent at the last. They brought his body back +to San Francisco to be buried, and when at his funeral the words "I know +that my Redeemer liveth," in clear soprano, rang through the vaulted +cathedral like a peal of triumph, I indulged the hope that the spirit of +my gifted and fated friend had, through the mercy of the Friend of +sinners, gone from his boyhood hills up to the hills of God. + +The typical California politician was Coffroth. The "boys" fondly called +him "Jim" Coffroth. There is no surer sign of popularity than a popular +abbreviation of this sort, unless it is a pet nickname. Coffroth was +from Pennsylvania, where he had gained an inkling of polities and +general literature. He gravitated into California polities by the law of +his nature. He was born for this, having what a friend calls the gift of +popularity. His presence was magnetic; his laugh was contagious; his +enthusiasm irresistible. Nobody ever thought of taking offense at Jim +Coffroth. He could change his politics with impunity without losing a +friend--he never had a personal enemy; but I believe he only made that +experiment once. He went off with the Know-nothings in 1855, and was +elected by them to the State Senate, and was called to preside over +their State Convention. He hastened back to his old party associates, +and at the first convention that met in his county on his return from +the Legislature, he rose and told them how lonesome he had felt while +astray from the old fold, how glad he was to get back, and how humble he +felt, concluding by advising all his late supporters to do as he had +done by taking "a straight chute" for the old party. He ended amid a +storm of applause, was reinstated at once, and was made President of the +next Democratic State Convention. There he was in his glory. His tact +and good humor were infinite, and he held those hundreds of excitable +and explosive men in the hollow of his hand. He would dismiss a +dangerous motion with a witticism so apt that the mover himself would +join in the laugh, and give it up. His broad face in repose was that of +a Quaker, at other times that of a Bacchus. There was a religious streak +in this jolly partisan, and he published several poems that breathed the +sweetest and loftiest religious sentiment. The newspapers were a little +disposed to make a joke of these ebullitions of devotional feeling, but +they now make the light that casts a gleam of brightness upon the +background of his life. I take from an old volume of the Christian +Spectator one of these poems as a literary curiosity. Every man lives +two lives. The rollicking politician, "Jim Coffroth," every Californian +knew; the author of these lines was another man by the same name: + +Amid the Silence of the Night. "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall +neither slumber nor sleep." Psalm cxxi. + +Amid the silence of the night, Amid its lonely hours and dreary, When we +Close the aching sight, Musing sadly, lorn and weary, Trusting that +tomorrow's light May reveal a day more cheery; + +Amid affliction's darker hour, When no hope beguiles our sadness, When +Death's hurtling tempests lower, And forever shroud our gladness, While +Grief's unrelenting power Goads our stricken hearts to madness; + +When from friends beloved we're parted, And from scenes our spirits +love, And are driven, broken-hearted, O'er a heartless world to rove; +When the woes by which we've smarted, Vainly seek to melt or move; When +we trust and are deluded, When we love and are denied, When the schemes +o'er which we brooded Burst like mist on mountain's side, And, from +every hope excluded, We in dark despair abide; + +Then, and ever, God sustains us, He whose eye no slumber knows, Who +controls each throb that pains us, And in mercy sends our woes, And by +love severe constrains us To avoid eternal throes. + +Happy he whose heart obeys him! Lost and ruined who disown! O if idols +e'er displace him, Tear them from his chosen throne! May our lives and +language praise him! May our hearts be his alone! + +He took defeat with a good nature that robbed it of its sting, and made +his political opponents half sorry for having beaten him. He was talked +of for Governor at one time, and he gave as a reason, why he would like +the office that "a great many of his friends were in the State-prison, +and he wanted to use the pardoning power in their behalf." This was a +jest, of course, referring to the fact that as a lawyer much of his +practice was in the criminal courts. He was never suspected of treachery +or dishonor in public or private life. His very ambition was unselfish: +he was always ready to sacrifice himself in a hopeless candidacy if he +could thereby help his party or a friend. + +His good nature was tested once while presiding over a party convention +at Sonora for the nomination of candidates for legislative and county +offices. Among the delegates was the eccentric John Vallew, whose mind +was a singular compound of shrewdness and flightiness, and was stored +with the most out-of-the-way scraps of learning, philosophy, and poetry. +Some one proposed Vallew's name as a candidate for the Legislature. He +rose to his feet with a clouded face, and in an angry voice said: + +"Mr. President, I am surprised and mortified. I have lived in this +county more than seven years, and I have never had any difficulty with +my neighbors. I did not know that I had an enemy in the world. What have +I done, that it should be proposed to send me to the Legislature? What +reason has anybody to think I am that sort of a man? To think I should +have come to this! To propose to send me to the Legislature, when it is +a notorious fact that you have never sent a man thither from this county +who did not come back morally and pecuniarily ruined!" + +The crowd saw the point, and roared with laughter, Coffroth, who had +served in the previous session, joining heartily in the merriment. +Vallew was excused. + +Coffroth grew fatter and jollier; his strong intellect struggled against +increasing sensual tendencies. What the issue might have been, I know +not. He died suddenly, and his destiny was transferred to another +sphere. So there dropped out of California-life a partisan without +bitterness, a satirist without malice, a wit without a sting, the +jolliest, freest, readiest man that ever faced a California audience on +the hustings--the typical politician of California. + + + +Old Man Lowry. + +I had marked his expressive physiognomy among my hearers in the little +church in Sonora for some weeks before he made himself known to me. As I +learned afterward, he was weighing the young preacher in his critical +balances. He had a shrewd Scotch face, in which there was a mingling of +keenness, benignity, and humor. His age might be sixty, or it might be +more. He was an old bachelor, and wide guesses are sometimes made as to +the ages of that class of men. They may not live longer than married +men, but they do not show the effects of life's wear and tear so early. +He came to see us one evening. He fell in love with the mistress of the +parsonage, just as he ought to have done, and we were charmed with the +quaint old bachelor. There was a piquancy, a sharp flavor, in his talk +that was delightful. His aphorisms often crystallized a neglected truth +in a form all his own. He was an original character. There was nothing +commonplace about him. He had his own way of saying and doing every +thing. + +Society in the mines was limited in that day, and we felt that we had +found a real thesaurus in this old man of unique mold. His visits were +refreshing to us, and his plain-spoken criticisms were helpful to me. + +He had left the Church because he did not agree with the preachers on +some points of Christian ethics, and because they used tobacco. But he +was unhappy on the outside, and finding that my views and habits did not +happen to cross his peculiar notions, he came back. His religious +experience was out of the common order. Bred a Calvinist, of the good +old Scotch-Presbyterian type, he had swung away from that faith, and was +in danger of rushing into Universalism, or infidelity. That once famous +and much-read little book, "John Nelson's Journal," fell into his hands, +and changed his whole life. It led him to Christ, and to the Methodists. +He was a true spiritual child of the unflinching Yorkshire stone-cutter. +Like him he despised half-way measures, and like him he was aggressive +in thought and action. What he liked he loved, what he disliked he +hated. Calvinism he abhorred, and he let no occasion pass for pouring +into it the hot shot of his scorn and wrath. One night I preached from +the text, Should it be according to thy mind? + +"The first part of your sermon," he said to me as we passed out of the +church, "distressed me greatly. For a full half hour you preached +straight out Calvinism, and I thought you had ruined every thing; but +you had left a little slip-gap, and crawled out at the last." + +His ideal of a minister of the gospel was Dr. Keener, whom he knew at +New Orleans before coming to California. He was the first man I ever +heard mention Dr. Keener's name for the episcopacy. There was much in +common between them. If my eccentric California bachelor friend did not +have as strong and cool a head, he had as brave and true a heart as the +incisive and chivalrous Louisiana preacher, upon whose head the miter +was placed by the suffrage of his brethren at Memphis in 1870. + +He became very active as a worker in the Church. I made him +class-leader, and there have been few in that office who brought to its +sacred duties as much spiritual insight, candor, and tenderness. At +times his words flashed like diamonds, showing what the Bible can reveal +to a solitary thinker who makes it his chief study day and night. When +needful, he could apply caustic that burned to the very core of an error +of opinion or of practice. He took a class in the Sunday-school, and his +freshness, acuteness, humor, and deep knowledge of the Scriptures, made +him far more than an ordinary teacher. A fine pocket Bible was offered +as a prize to the scholar who should, in three months, memorize the +greatest number of Scripture verses. The wisdom of such a contest is +questionable to me now, but it was the fashion then, and I was too young +and self-distrustful to set myself against the current in such matters. +The contest was an exciting one--two boys, Robert A--and Jonathan R--, +and one girl, Annie P--, leading all the school. Jonathan suddenly fell +behind, and was soon distanced by his two competitors. Lowry, who was +his teacher, asked him what was the reason of his sudden breakdown. The +boy blushed, and stammered out: + +"I didn't want to beat Annie." + +Robert won the prize, and the day came for its presentation. The house +was full, and everybody was in a pleasant mood. After the prize had been +presented in due form and with a little flourish, Lowry arose, and +producing a costly Bible, in a few words telling how magnanimously and +gallantly Jonathan had retired from the contest, presented it to the +pleased and blushing boy. The boys and girls applauded California +fashion, and the old man's face glowed with satisfaction. He had in him +curiously mingled the elements of the Puritan and the Cavalier--the +uncompromising persistency of the one, and the chivalrous impulse and +openhandedness of the other. + +The old man had too many crotchets and too much combativeness to be +popular. He spared no opinion or habit he did not like. He struck every +angle within reach of him. In the state of society then existing in the +mines there were many things to vex his soul, and keep him on the +warpath. The miners looked upon him as a brave, good man, just a little +daft. He worked a mining-claim on Wood's Creek, north of town, and lived +alone in a tiny cabin on the hill above. That was the smallest of +cabins, looking like a mere box from the trail which wound through the +flat below. Two little scrub-oaks stood near it, under which he sat and +read his Bible in leisure moments. There, above the world, he could +commune with his own heart and with God undisturbed, and look down upon +a race he half pitied and half despised. From the spot the eye took in a +vast sweep of hill and dale: Bald Mountain, the most striking object in +the near background, and beyond its dark, rugged mass the snowy summits +of the Sierras, rising one above another, like gigantic stair-steps, +leading up to the throne of the Eternal. This lonely height suited +Lowry's strangely compounded nature. As a cynic, he looked down with +contempt upon the petty life that seethed and frothed in the camps +below; as a saint, he looked forth upon the wonders of God's handiwork +around and above him. + +There was an intensity in all that he did. Passing his mining-claim on +horseback one day, I paused to look at him in his work. Clad in a blue +flannel mining-suit, he was digging as for life. The embankment of red +dirt and gravel melted away rapidly before his vigorous strokes, and he +seemed to feel a sort of fierce delight in his work. Pausing a moment, +he looked up and saw me. + +"You dig as if you were in a hurry," I said. + +"Yes, I have been digging here three years. I have a notion that I have +just so much of the earth to turn over before I am turned under," he +replied with a sort of grim humor. + +He was still there when we visited Sonora in 1857. He invited us out to +dinner, and we went. By skillful circling around the hill, we reached +the little cabin on the summit with horse and buggy. The old man had +made preparations for his expected guests. The floor of the cabin had +been swept, and its scanty store of furniture put to rights, and a +dinner was cooking in and on the little stove. His lady-guest insisted +on helping in the preparation of the dinner, but was allowed to do +nothing further than to arrange the dishes on the primitive table, which +was set out under one of the little oaks in the yard. It was a miner's +feast--can-fruits, can-vegetables, can-oysters, can-pickles, can-every +thing nearly, with tea distilled from the Asiatic leaf by a receipt of +his own. It was a hot day, and from the cloudless heavens the sun +flooded the earth with his glory, and the shimmer of the sunshine was in +the still air. We tried to be cheerful, but there was a pathos about the +affair that touched us. He felt it too. More than once there was a tear +in his eye. At parting, he kissed little Paul, and gave us his hand in +silence. As we drove down the hill, he stood gazing after us with a look +fixed and sad. The picture is till before me the lonely old man standing +sad and silent, the little cabin, the rude dinner-service under the oak, +and the overarching sky. That was our last meeting. The next will be on +the Other Side. + + + +Suicide in California. + +A half protest rises within me as I begin this Sketch. The page almost +turns crimson under my gaze, and shadowy forms come forth out of the +darkness into which they wildly plunged out of life's misery into +death's mystery. Ghostly lips cry out, "Leave us alone! Why call us back +to a world where we lost all, and in quitting which we risked all? +Disturb us not to gratify the cold curiosity of unfeeling strangers. We +have passed on beyond human jurisdiction to the realities we dared to +meet. Give us the pity and courtesy of your silence, O living brother, +who didst escape the wreck!" The appeal is not without effect, and if I +lift the shroud that covers the faces of these dead self-destroyed, it +will be tenderly, pityingly. These simple Sketches of real California +life would be imperfect if this characteristic feature were entirely +omitted; for California was (and is yet) the land of suicides. In a +single year there were one hundred and six in San Francisco alone. The +whole number of suicides in the State would, if the horror of each case +could be even imperfectly imagined, appall even the dryest statistician +of crime. The causes for this prevalence of self-destruction are to be +sought in the peculiar conditions of the country, and the habits of the +people. California, with all its beauty, grandeur, and riches, has been +to the many who have gone thither a land of great expectations, but +small results. This was specially the case in the earlier period of its +history, after the discovery of gold and its settlement by "Americans," +as we call ourselves, par excellence. Hurled from the topmost height of +extravagant hope to the lowest deep of disappointment, the shock is too +great for reaction; the rope, razor, bullet, or deadly drug, finishes +the tragedy. Materialistic infidelity in California is the avowed belief +of multitudes, and its subtle poison infects the minds and unconsciously +the actions of thousands who recoil from the dark abyss that yawns at +the feet of its adherents with its fascination of horror. Under some +circumstances, suicide becomes logical to a man who has neither hope nor +dread of a hereafter. Sins against the body, and especially the nervous +system, were prevalent; and days of pain, sleepless nights, and weakened +wills, were the precursors of the tragedy that promised change, if not +rest. The devil gets men inside a fiery circle, made by their own sin +and folly, from which there seems to be no escape but by death, and they +will unbar its awful door with their own trembling hands. There is +another door of escape for the worst and most wretched, and it is opened +to the penitent by the hand that was nailed to the rugged cross. These +crises do come, when the next step must be death or life-penitence or +perdition. Do sane men and women ever commit suicide? Yes--and, No. +Yes, in the sense that they sometimes do it with even pulse and steady +nerves. No, in the sense that there cannot be perfect soundness in the +brain and heart of one who violates a primal instinct of human nature. +Each case has its own peculiar features, and must be left to the +all-seeing and all-pitying Father. Suicide, where it is not the greatest +of crimes, is the greatest of misfortunes. The righteous Judge will +classify its victims. + +A noted case in San Francisco was that of a French Catholic priest. He +was young, brilliant, and popular--beloved by his flock, and admired by +a large circle outside. He had taken the solemn vows of his order in all +sincerity of purpose, and was distinguished as well for his zeal in his +pastoral work as for his genius. But temptation met him, and he fell. It +came in the shape in which it assailed the young Hebrew in Potiphar's +house, and in which it overcame the poet-king of Israel. He was seized +with horror and remorse, though he had no accuser save that voice +within, which cannot be hushed while the soul lives. He ceased to +perform the sacred functions of his office, making some plausible +pretext to his superiors, not daring to add sacrilege to mortal sin. +Shutting himself in his chamber, he brooded over his crime; or, no +longer able to endure the agony he felt, he would rush forth, and walk +for hours over the sand-dunes, or along the sea-beach. But no answer of +peace followed his prayers, and the voices of nature soothed him not. He +thought his sin unpardonable--at least, he would not pardon himself. He +was found one morning lying dead in his bed in a pool of blood. He had +severed the jugular-vein with a razor, which was still clutched in his +stiffened fingers. His handsome and classic face bore no trace of pain. +A sealed letter, lying on the table, contained his confession and his +farewell. + +Among the lawyers in one of the largest mining towns of California was +H. B--. He was a native of Virginia, and an alumnus of its noble +University. He was a scholar, a fine lawyer, handsome and manly in +person and bearing, and had the gift of popularity. Though the youngest +lawyer in the town, he took a front place at the bar at once. Over the +heads of several older aspirants, he was elected county judge. There was +no ebb in the tide of his general popularity, and he had qualities that +won the warmest regard of his inner circle of special friends. But in +this case, as in many others, success had its danger. Hard drinking was +the rule in those days. Horace B--had been one of the rare exceptions. +There was a reason for this extra prudence. He had that peculiar +susceptibility to alcoholic excitement which has been the ruin of so +many gifted and noble men. He knew his weakness, and it is strange that +he did not continue to guard against the danger that he so well +understood. Strange? No; this infatuation is so common in everyday life +that we cannot call it strange. There is some sort of fatal fascination +that draws men with their eyes wide open into the very jaws of this hell +of strong drink. The most brilliant physician in San Francisco, in the +prime of his magnificent young manhood, died of delirium tremens, the +victim of a self-inflicted disease, whose horrors no one knew or could +picture so well as himself. Who says man is not a fallen, broken +creature, and that there is not a devil at hand to tempt him? This +devil, under the guise of sociability, false pride, or moral cowardice, +tempted Horace B--, and he yielded. Like tinder touched by flame, he +blazed into drunkenness, and again and again the proud-spirited, manly, +and cultured young lawyer and jurist was seen staggering along the +streets, maudlin or mad with alcohol. When he had slept off his madness, +his humiliation was intense, and he walked the streets with pallid face +and downcast eyes. The coarser-grained men with whom he was thrown in +contact had no conception of the mental tortures he suffered, and their +rude jests stung him to the quick. He despised himself as a weakling and +a coward, but he did not get more than a transient victory over his +enemy. The spark had struck a sensitive organization, and the fire of +hell, smothered for the time, would blaze out again. He was fast +becoming a common drunkard, the accursed appetite growing stronger, and +his will weakening in accordance with that terrible law by which man's +physical and moral nature visits retribution on all who cross its path. +During a term of the court over which he presided, he was taken home one +night drunk. A pistol-shot was heard by persons in the vicinity some +time before daybreak; but pistol-shots, at all hours of the night, were +then too common to excite special attention. Horace B--was found next +morning lying on the floor with a bullet through his head. Many a stout, +heavy-bearded man had, wet eyes when the body of the ill-fated and +brilliant young Virginian was let down into the grave, which had been +dug for him on the hill overlooking the town from the south-east. + +In the same town there was a portrait-painter, a quiet, pleasant fellow, +with a good face and easy, gentlemanly ways. As an artist, he was not +without merit, but his gift fell short of genius. He fell in love with a +charming girl, the eldest daughter of a leading citizen. She could not +return his passion. The enamored artist still loved, and hoped against +hope, lingering near her like a moth around a candle. There was another +and more favored suitor in the case, and the rejected lover had all his +hopes killed at one blow by her marriage to his rival. He felt that +without her life was not worth living. He resolved to kill himself, and +swallowed the contents of a two-ounce bottle of laudanum. After he had +done the rash deed, a reaction took place. He told what he had done, and +a physician was sent for. Before the doctor's arrival, the deadly drug +asserted its power, and this repentant suicide began to show signs of +going into a sleep from which it was certain he would never awake. + +"My God! What have I done?" he exclaimed in horror. "Do your best, boys, +to keep me from going to sleep before the doctor gets here." + +The doctor came quickly, and by the prompt and very vigorous use of the +stomach-pump he was saved. I was sent for, and found the would-be +suicide looking very weak, sick, silly, and sheepish. He got well, and +went on making pictures; but the picture of the fair, sweet girl, for +love of whom he came so near dying, never faded from his mind. His face +always wore a sad look, and he lived the life of a recluse, but he never +attempted suicide again--he had had enough of that. + +"It always makes me shudder to look at that place," said a lady, as we +passed an elegant cottage on the western side of Russian Hill, San +Francisco. + +"Why so? The place to me looks specially cheerful and attractive, with +its graceful slope, its shrubbery, flowers, and thick greensward." + +"Yes, it is a lovely place, but it has a history that it shocks me to +think of. Do you see that tall pumping-apparatus, with water-tank on +top, in the rear of the house?" + +"Yes; what of it?" + +"A woman hanged herself there a year ago. The family consisted of the +husband and wife, and two bright, beautiful children. He was thrifty and +prosperous, she was an excellent housekeeper, and the children were +healthy and well-behaved. In appearance a happier family could not be +found on the hill. One day Mr. P--came home at the usual hour, and, +missing the wife's customary greeting, he asked the children where she +was. The children had not seen their mother for two or three hours, and +looked startled when they found she was missing. Messengers were sent to +the nearest neighbors to make inquiries, but no one had seen her. Mr. P +----'s face began to wear a troubled look as he walked the floor, from +time to time going to the door and casting anxious glances about the +premises. + +"About dusk a sudden shriek was heard, issuing from the water-tank in the +yard, and the Irish servant-girl came rushing from it, with eyes +distended and face pale with terror. + +"Holy Mother of God! It's the Missus that's hanged herself!" + +The alarm spread, and soon a crowd, curious and sympathetic, had +collected. They found the poor lady suspended by the neck from a beam at +the head of the staircase leading to the top of the inclosure. She was +quite dead, and a horrible sight to see. At the inquest no facts were +developed throwing any light on the tragedy. There had been no cloud in +the sky portending the lightning stroke that laid the happy little home +in ruins. The husband testified that she was as bright and happy the +morning of the suicide as he had ever seen her, and had parted with him +at the door with the usual kiss. Every thing about the house that day +bore the marks of her deft and skillful touch. The two children were +dressed with accustomed neatness and, good taste. And yet the bolt was +in the cloud, and it fell before the sun had set! What was the mystery? +Ever afterward I felt something of the feeling expressed by my lady +friend when, in passing, I looked upon the structure which had been the +scene of this singular tragedy. + +One of the most energetic business men living in one of the foothill +towns, on the northern edge of the Sacramento Valley, had a charming +wife, whom he loved with a deep and tender devotion. As in all true +love-matches, the passion of youth had ripened into a yet stronger and +purer love with the lapse of years and participation in the joys and +sorrows of wedded life. Their union had been blessed with five children, +all intelligent, sweet, and full of promise. It was a very affectionate +and happy household. Both parents possessed considerable literary taste +and culture, and the best books and current magazine literature were +read, discussed, and enjoyed in that quiet and elegant home amid the +roses and evergreens. It was a little paradise in the hills, where Love, +the home-angel, brightened every room and blessed every heart. But +trouble came in the shape of business reverses; and the worried look and +wakeful nights of the husband told how heavy were the blows that had +fallen upon this hard and willing worker. The course of ruin in +California was fearfully rapid in those days. When a man's financial +supports began to give way, they went with a crash. The movement +downward was with a rush that gave no time for putting on the brakes. +You were at the bottom, a wreck, almost before you knew it. So it was in +this case. Every thing was swept away, a mountain of unpaid debts was +piled up, credit was gone, clamor of creditors deafened him, and the +gaunt wolf of actual want looked in through the door of the cottage upon +the dear wife and little ones. Another shadow, and a yet darker one, +settled upon them. The unhappy man had been tampering with the delusion +of spiritualism, and his wife had been drawn with him into a partial +belief in its vagaries. In their troubles they sought the aid of the +"familiar spirits" that peeped and muttered through speaking, writing, +and rapping mediums. This kept them in a state of morbid excitement that +increased from day to day until they were wrought up to a tension that +verged on insanity. The lying spirits; or the frenzy of his own heated +brain, turned his thought to death as the only escape from want. + +"I see our way out of these troubles, wife," he said one night, as they +sat hand in hand in the bedchamber, where the children were lying +asleep. "We will all die together! This has been revealed to me as the +solution of all our difficulties. Yes, we will enter the beautiful +spirit-world together! This is freedom! It is only getting out of +prison. Bright spirits beckon and call us. I am ready." + +There was a gleam of madness in his eyes, and, as he took a pistol from +a bureau-drawer, an answering gleam flashed forth from the eyes of the +wife, as she said: + +"Yes, love, we will all go together. I too am ready." + +The sleeping children were breathing sweetly, unmindful of the horror +that the devil was hatching. + +"The children first, then you, and then me," he said, his eye kindling +with increasing excitement. + +He penciled a short note addressed to one of his old friends, asking him +to attend to the burial of the bodies, then they kissed each of the +sleeping children, and then--but let the curtain fall on the scene that +followed. The seven were found next day lying dead, a bullet through the +brain of each, the murderer, by the side of the wife, still holding the +weapon of death in his hand, its muzzle against his right temple. + +Other pictures of real life and death crowd upon, my mind, among them +noble forms and faces that were near and dear to me; but again I hear +the appealing voices. The page before me is wet with tears--I cannot +see to write. + + + +Father Fisher. + +He came to California in 1855. The Pacific Conference was in session at +Sacramento. It was announced that the new preacher from Texas would +preach at night. The boat was detained in some way, and he just had time +to reach the church, where a large and expectant congregation were in +waiting. Below medium height, plainly dressed, and with a sort of +peculiar shuffling movement as he went down the aisle, he attracted no +special notice except for the profoundly reverential manner that never +left him anywhere. But the moment he faced his audience and spoke, it +was evident to them that a man of mark stood before them. They were +magnetized at once, and every eye was fixed upon the strong yet +benignant face, the capacious blue eyes, the ample forehead, and massive +head, bald on top, with silver locks on either side. His tones in +reading the Scripture and the hymns were unspeakably solemn and very +musical. The blazing fervor of the prayer that followed was absolutely +startling to some of the preachers, who had cooled down under the +depressing influence of the moral atmosphere of the country. It almost +seemed as if we could hear the rush of the pentecostal wind, and see the +tongues of flame. The very house seemed to be rocking on its +foundations. By the time the prayer had ended, all were in a glow, and +ready for the sermon. The text I do not now call to mind, but the +impression made by the sermon remains. I had seen and heard preachers +who glowed in the pulpit--this man burned. His words poured forth in a +molten flood, his face shone like a furnace heated from within, his +large blue eyes flashed with the lightning of impassioned sentiment, and +anon swam in pathetic appeal that no heart could resist. Body, brain, +and spirit, all seemed to feel the mighty afflatus. His very frame +seemed to expand, and the little man who had gone into the pulpit with +shuffling step and downcast eyes was transfigured before us. When, with +radiant face, upturned eyes, an upward sweep of his arm, and +trumpet-voice, he shouted, "Hallelujah to God!" the tide of emotion +broke over all barriers, the people rose to their feet, and the church +reechoed with their responsive hallelujahs. The new preacher from Texas +that night gave some Californians a new idea of evangelical eloquence, +and took his place as a burning and a shining light among the ministers +of God on the Pacific Coast. + +"He is the man we want for San Francisco!" exclaimed the impulsive B. T. +Crouch, who had kindled into a generous enthusiasm under that marvelous +discourse. + +He was sent to San Francisco. He was one of a company of preachers who +have successively had charge of the Southern Methodist Church in that +wondrous city inside the Golden Gate--Boring, Evans, Fisher, +Fitzgerald, Gober, Brown, Bailey, Wood, Miller, Ball, Hoss, Chamberlin, +Mahon, Tuggle, Simmons, Henderson. There was an almost unlimited +diversity of temperament, culture, and gifts among these men; but they +all had a similar experience in this, that San Francisco gave them new +revelations of human nature and of themselves. Some went away crippled +and scarred, some sad, some broken; but perhaps in the Great Day it may +be found that for each and all there was a hidden blessing in the +heart-throes of a service that seemed to demand that they should sow in +bitter tears, and know no joyful reaping this side of the grave. O my +brothers, who have felt the fires of that furnace heated seven times +hotter than usual, shall we not in the resting-place beyond the river +realize that these fires burned out of us the dross that we did not know +was in our souls? The bird that comes out of the tempest with broken +wing may henceforth take a lowlier flight, but will be safer because it +ventures no more into the region of storms. + +Fisher did not succeed in San Francisco, because he could not get a +hearing. A little handful would meet him on Sunday mornings in one of +the upper-rooms of the old City Hall, and listen to sermons that sent +them away in a religious glow, but he had no leverage for getting at the +masses. He was no adept in the methods by which the modern sensational +preacher compels the attention of the novelty-loving crowds in our +cities. An evangelist in every fiber of his being, he chafed under the +limitations of his charge in San Francisco, and from time to time he +would make a dash into the country, where, at camp-meetings and on other +special occasions, he preached the gospel with a power that broke many a +sinner's heart, and with a persuasiveness that brought many a wanderer +back to the Good Shepherd's fold. His bodily energy, like his religious +zeal, was unflagging. It seemed little less than a miracle that he +could, day after day, make such vast expenditure of nervous energy +without exhaustion. He put all his strength into every sermon and +exhortation, whether addressed to admiring and weeping thousands at a +great camp-meeting, or to a dozen or less "standbys" at the +Saturday-morning service of a quarterly-meeting. + +He had his trials and crosses. Those who knew him intimately learned to +expect his mightiest pulpit efforts when the shadow on his face and the +unconscious sigh showed that he was passing through the waters and +crying to God out of the depths. In such experiences, the strong man is +revealed and gathers new strength; the weak one goes under. But his +strength was more than mere natural force of will, it was the strength +of a mighty faith in God--that unseen force by which the saints work +righteousness, subdue kingdoms, escape the violence of fire, and stop +the mouths of lions. + +As a flame of fire, Fisher itinerated all over California and Oregon, +kindling a blaze of revival in almost every place he touched. He was +mighty in the Scriptures, and seemed to know the Book by heart. His was +no rose-water theology. He believed in a hell, and pictured it in Bible +language with a vividness and awfulness that thrilled the stoutest +sinner's heart; he believed in heaven, and spoke of it in such a way +that it seemed that with him faith had already changed to sight. The +gates of pearl, the crystal river, the shining ranks of the white-robed +throngs, their songs swelling as the sound of many waters, the holy love +and rapture of the glorified hosts of the redeemed, were made to pass in +panoramic procession before the listening multitudes until the heaven he +pictured seemed to be a present reality. He lived in the atmosphere of +the supernatural; the spirit-world was to him most real. + +"I have been out of the body," he said to me one day. The words were +spoken softly, and his countenance, always grave in its aspect, deepened +in its solemnity of expression as he spoke. + +"How was that?" I inquired. + +"It was in Texas. I was returning from a quarterly-meeting where I had +preached one Sunday morning with great liberty and with unusual effect. +The horses attached to my vehicle became frightened, and ran away. They +were wholly beyond control, plunging down the road at a fearful speed, +when, by a slight turn to one side, the wheel struck a large log. There +was a concussion, and then a blank. The next thing I knew I was floating +in the air above the road. I saw every thing as plainly as I see your +face at this moment. There lay my body in the road, there lay the log, +and there were the trees, the fence, the fields, and every thing, +perfectly natural. My motion, which had been upward, was arrested, and +as, poised in the air, I looked at my body lying there in the road so +still, I felt a strong desire to go back to it, and found myself sinking +toward it. The next thing I knew I was lying in the road where I had +been thrown out, with a number of friends about me, some holding up my +head, others chafing my hands, or looking on with pity or alarm. Yes, I +was out of the body for a little, and I know there is a spirit-world." + +His voice had sunk into a sort of whisper, and the tears were in his +eyes. I was strangely thrilled. Both of us were silent for a time, as if +we heard the echoes of voices, and saw the beckonings of shadowy hands +from that Other World which sometimes seems so far away, and yet is so +near to each one of us. + +Surely you heaven, where angels see God's face, Is not so distant as we +deem From this low earth. 'Tis but a little space, 'Tis but a veil the +winds might blow aside; Yes, this all that us of earth divide From the +bright dwellings of the glorified, The land of which I dream. + +But it was no dream to this man of mighty faith, the windows of whose +soul opened at all times Godward. To him immortality was a demonstrated +fact, an experience. He had been out of the body. + +Intensity was his dominating quality. He wrote verses, and whatever they +may have lacked of the subtle element that marks poetical genius, they +were full of his ardent personality and devotional abandon. He +compounded medicines whose virtues, backed by his own unwavering faith, +wrought wondrous cures. On several occasions he accepted challenge to +polemic battle, and his opponents found in him a fearless warrior, whose +onset was next to irresistible. In these discussions it was no uncommon +thing for his arguments to close with such bursts of spiritual power +that the doctrinal duel would end in a great religious excitement, +bearing disputants and hearers away on mighty tides of feeling that none +could resist. + +I saw in the Texas Christian Advocate an incident, related by Dr. F. A. +Mood, that gives a good idea of what Fisher's eloquence was when in full +tide: + +"About ten years ago," says Dr. M., "when the train from Houston, on the +Central Railroad, on one occasion reached Hempstead, it was peremptorily +brought to a halt. There was a strike among the employees of the road, +on what was significantly called by the strikers 'The Death-warrant.' +The road, it seems, had required all of their employees to sign a paper +renouncing all claims to moneyed reparation in case of their bodily +injury while in the service of the road. The excitement incident to a +strike was at its height at Hempstead when our train reached there. The +tracks were blocked with trains that had been stopped as they arrived +from the different branches of the road, and the employees were gathered +about in groups, discussing the situation--the passengers peering +around with hopeless curiosity. When our train stopped, the conductor +told us that we would have to lie over all night, and many of the +passengers left to find accommodations in the hotels of the town. It was +now night, when a man came into the car and exclaimed, 'The strikers are +tarring and feathering a poor wretch out here, who has taken sides with +the road--come out and see it!' Nearly every one in the car hastened +out. I had risen, when a gentleman behind me gently pulled my coat, and +said to me, 'Sit down a moment.' He went on to say: 'I judge, sir, you +are a clergyman; and I advise you to remain here. You may be put to much +inconvenience by having to appear as a witness; in a mob of that sort, +too, there is no telling what may follow.' I thanked him, and resumed my +seat. He then asked me to what denomination I belonged, and upon my +telling him I was a Methodist preacher, he asked eagerly and promptly if +I had ever met a Methodist preacher in Texas by the name of Fisher, +describing accurately the appearance of our glorified brother. Upon my +telling him I knew him well, he proceeded to give the following +incident. I give it as nearly as I can in his own words. Said he: + +"'I am a Californian, have practiced law for years in that State, and, +at the time I allude to, was district judge. I was holding court at [I +cannot now recall the name of the town he mentioned], and on Saturday +was told that a Methodist camp-meeting was being held a few miles from +town. I determined to visit it, and reached the place of meeting in good +time to hear the great preacher of the occasion--Father Fisher. The +meeting was held in a river canyon. The rocks towered hundreds of feet +on either side, rising over like an arch. Through the ample space over +which the rocks hung the river flowed, furnishing abundance of cool +water, while a pleasant breeze fanned a shaded spot. A great multitude +had assembled--hundreds of very hard cases, who had gathered there, +like myself, for the mere novelty of the thing. I am not a religious man +--never have been thrown under religious influences. I respect religion, +and respect its teachers, but have been very little in contact with +religious things. At the appointed time, the preacher rose. He was +small, with white hair combed back from his forehead, and he wore a +venerable beard. I do not know much about the Bible, and I cannot quote +from his text, but he preached on the Judgment. I tell you, sir, I have +heard eloquence at the bar and on the hustings, but I never heard such +eloquence as that old preacher gave us that day. At the last, when he +described the multitudes calling on the rocks and mountains to fall on +them, I instinctively looked up to the arching rocks above me. Will you +believe it, sir?--as I looked up, to my horror I saw the walls of the +canyon swaying as if they were coming together! Just then the preacher +called on all that needed mercy to kneel down. I recollect he said +something like this: "'Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall +confess;' and you might as well do it now as then." The whole multitude +fell on their knees--every one of them. Although I had never done so +before, I confess to you, sir, I got down on my knees. I did not want to +be buried right then and there by those rocks that seemed to be swaying +to destroy me. The old man prayed for us; it was a wonderful prayer! I +want to see him once more; where will I be likely to find him?' + +"When he had closed his narrative, I said to him: 'Judge, I hope you +have bowed frequently since that day.' 'Alas! no, sir,' he replied; 'not +much; but depend upon it, Father Fisher is a wonderful orator--he made +me think that day that the walls of the canyon were falling.'" + +He went back to Texas, the scene of his early labors and triumphs, to +die. His evening sky was not cloudless--he suffered much--but his +sunset was calm and bright; his waking in the Morning Land was glorious. +If it was at that short period of silence spoken of in the Apocalypse, +we may be sure it was broken when Fisher went in. + + + +Jack White. + +The only thing white about him was his name. He was a Piute Indian, and +Piutes are neither white nor pretty. There is only one being in human +shape uglier than a Piute "buck"--and that is a Piute squaw. One I saw +at the Sink of the Humboldt haunts me yet. Her hideous face, begrimed +with dirt and smeared with yellow paint, bleared and leering eyes, and +horrid long, flapping breasts--ugh! it was a sight to make one feel +sick. A degraded woman is the saddest spectacle on earth. Shakespeare +knew what he was doing when he made the witches in Macbeth of the +feminine gender. But as you look at them you almost forget that these +Piute hags are women--they seem a cross between brute and devil. The +unity of the human race is a fact which I accept; but some of our +brothers and sisters are far gone from original loveliness. If Eve could +see these Piute women, she would not be in a hurry to claim them as her +daughters; and Adam would feel like disowning some of his sons. As it +appears to me, however, these repulsive savages furnish an argument in +support of two fundamental facts of Christianity. One fact is, God did +indeed make of one blood all the nations of the earth; the other is the +fact of the fall and depravity of the human race. This unspeakable +ugliness of these Indians is owing to their evil living. Dirty as they +are, the little Indian children are not at all repulsive in expression. +A boy of ten years, who stood half-naked, shivering in the wind, with +his bow and arrows, had well-shaped features and a pleasant expression +of countenance, with just a little of the look of animal cunning that +belongs to all wild tribes. The ugliness grows on these Indians +fearfully fast when it sets in. The brutalities of the lives they lead +stamp themselves on their faces; and no other animal on earth equals in +ugliness the animal called man, when he is nothing but an animal. + +There was a mystery about Jack White's early life. He was born in the +sagebrush desert beyond the Sierras, and, like all Indian babies, +doubtless had a hard time at the outset. A Christian's pig or puppy is +as well cared for as a Piute papoose. Jack was found in a deserted +Indian camp in the mountains. He had been left to die, and was taken +charge of by the kind hearted John M. White, who was then digging for +gold in the Northern mines. He and his good Christian wife had mercy on +the little Indian boy that looked up at them so pitifully with his +wondering black eyes. At first he had the frightened and bewildered look +of a captured wild creature, but he soon began to be more at ease. He +acquired the English language slowly, and never did lose the peculiar +accent of his tribe. The miners called him Jack White, not knowing any +other name for him. + +Moving to the beautiful San Ramon Valley, not far from the Bay of San +Francisco, the Whites took Jack with them. They taught him the leading +doctrines and facts of the Bible, and made him useful in domestic +service. He grew and thrived. Broad-shouldered, muscular, and straight +as an arrow, Jack was admired for his strength and agility by the white +boys with whom he was brought into contact. Though not quarrelsome, he +had a steady courage that, backed by his great strength, inspired +respect and insured good treatment from them. Growing up amid these +influences, his features were softened into a civilized expression, and +his tawny face was not unpleasing. The heavy under-jaw and square +forehead gave him an appearance of hardness which was greatly relieved +by the honest look out of his eyes, and the smile which now and then +would slowly creep over his face, like the movement of the shadow of a +thin cloud on a calm day in summer. An Indian smiles deliberately, and +in a dignified way--at least Jack did. + +I first knew Jack at Santa Rosa, of which beautiful town his patron, Mr. +White, was then the marshal. Jack came to my Sunday-school, and was +taken into a class of about twenty boys taught by myself. They were the +noisy element of the school, ranging from ten to fifteen years of age +--too large to show the docility of the little lads, but not old enough +to have attained the self-command and self-respect that come later in +life. Though he was much older than any of them, and heavier than his +teacher, this class suited Jack. The white boys all liked him, and he +liked me. We had grand times with that class. The only way to keep them +in order was to keep them very busy. The plan of having them answer in +concert was adopted with decided results. It kept them awake and the +whole school with them, for California boys have strong lungs. Twenty +boys speaking all at once, with eager excitement and flashing eyes, +waked the drowsiest drone in the room. A gentle hint was given now and +then to take a little lower key. In these lessons, Jack's deep guttural +tones came in with marked effect, and it was delightful to see how he +enjoyed it all. And the singing made his swarthy features glow with +pleasure, though he rarely joined in it, having some misgiving as to the +melody of his voice. + +The truths of the gospel took strong hold of Jack's mind, and his +inquiries indicated a deep interest in the matter of religion. I was +therefore not surprised when, during a protracted-meeting in the town, +Jack became one of the converts; but there was surprise and delight +among the brethren at the class-meeting when Jack rose in his place and +told what great thing the Lord had done for him, dwelling with special +emphasis on the words, "I am happy, because I know Jesus takes my sins +away--I know he takes my sins away." His voice melted into softness, +and a tear trickled down his cheek as he spoke; and when Dan Duncan, the +leader, crossed over the room and grasped his hand in a burst of joy, +there was a glad chorus of rejoicing Methodists over Jack White, the +Piute convert. + +Jack never missed a service at the church, and in the social-meetings he +never failed to tell the story of his newborn joy and hope, and always +with thrilling effect, as he repeated with trembling voice, "I am happy, +because I know Jesus takes my sins away." Sin was a reality with Jack, +and the pardon of sin the most wonderful of all facts. He never tired of +telling it; it opened a new world to him, a world of light and joy. Jack +White in the class-meeting or prayer-meeting, with beaming face, and +moistened eyes, and softened voice, telling of the love of Jesus, seemed +almost of a different race from the wretched Piutes of the Sierras and +sagebrush. + +Jack's baptism was a great event. It was by immersion, the first baptism +of the kind I ever performed--and almost the last. Jack had been talked +to on the subject by some zealous brethren of another "persuasion," who +magnified that mode, and though he was willing to do as I advised in the +matter, he was evidently a little inclined to the more spectacular way +of receiving the ordinance. Mrs. White suggested that it might save +future trouble, and "spike a gun." So Jack, with four others, was taken +down to Santa Rosa Creek, that went rippling and sparkling along the +southern edge of the town, and duly baptized in the name of the Father, +and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. A great crowd covered the bridge +just below, and the banks of the stream; and when Wesley Mock, the Asaph +of Santa Rosa Methodism, struck up-- + + O happy day that fixed my choice + On thee, my Saviour and my God, + +and the chorus-- + + Happy day, happy day, when + Jesus washed my sins away, + +was swelled by hundreds of voices, it was a glad moment for Jack White +and all of us. Religiously it was a warm time; but the water was very +cold, it being one of the chilliest days I ever felt in that genial +climate. + +"You were rather awkward, Brother Fitzgerald, in immersing those +persons," said my stalwart friend, Elder John McCorkle, of the +"Christian" or Campbellite Church, who had critically but not unkindly +watched the proceedings from the bridge. "If you will send for me the +next time, I will do it for you," he added, pleasantly. + +I fear it was awkwardly done, for the water was very cold, and a +shivering man cannot be very graceful in his movements. I would have +done better in a baptistery, with warm water and a rubber suit. But of +all the persons I have welcomed into the Church during my ministry, the +reception of no one has given use more joy than that of Jack White, the +Piute Indian. + +Jack's heart yearned for his own people. He wanted to tell them of +Jesus, who could take away their sins; and perhaps his Indian instinct +made him long for the freedom of the hills. + +"I am going to my people," he said to me; "I want to tell them of Jesus. +You will pray for me?" he added, with a quiver in his voice and a +heaving chest. + +He went away, and I have never seen him since. Where he is now, I know +not. I trust I may meet him on Mount Sion, with the harpers harping with +their harps, and singing, as it were, a new song before the throne. + +Postscript.--Since this Sketch was penciled, the Rev. C. Y. Rankin, in +a note dated Santa Rosa, California, August 3, 1880, says: "Mrs. White +asked me to send you word of the peaceful death of Jack White (Indian). +He died trusting in Jesus." + + + +The Rabbi. + +Seated in his library, enveloped in a faded figured gown, a black velvet +cap on his massive head, there was an Oriental look about him that +arrested your attention at once. Power and gentleness, childlike +simplicity, and scholarliness, were curiously mingled in this man. His +library was a reflex of its owner. In it were books that the great +public libraries of the world could not match--black-letter folios that +were almost as old as the printing art, illuminated volumes that were +once the pride and joy of men who had been in their graves many +generations, rabbinical lore, theology, magic, and great volumes of +Hebrew literature that looked, when placed beside a modern book, like an +old ducal palace alongside a gingerbread cottage of today. I do not +think he ever felt at home amid the hurry and rush of San Francisco. He +could not adjust himself to the people. He was devout, and they were +intensely worldly. He thundered this sentence from the teacher's desk in +the synagogue one morning: "O ye Jews of San Francisco, you have so +fully given yourselves up to material things that you are losing the +very instinct of immortality. Your only idea of religion is to acquire +the Hebrew language, and you don't know that!" His port and voice were +like those of one of the old Hebrew prophets. Elijah himself was not +more fearless. Yet, how deep was his love for his race! Jeremiah was not +more tender when he wept for the slain of the daughter of his people. +His reproofs were resented, and he had a taste of persecution; but the +Jews of San Francisco understood him at last. The poor and the little +children knew him from the start. He lived mostly among his books, and +in his school for poor children, whom he taught without charge. His +habits were so simple and his bodily wants so few that it cost him but a +trifle to live. When the synagogue frowned on him, he was as independent +as Elijah at the brook Cherith. It is hard to starve a man to whom +crackers and water are a royal feast. + +His belief in God and in the supernatural was startlingly vivid. The +Voice that spoke from Sinai was still audible to him, and the Arm that +delivered Israel he saw still stretched out over the nations. The +miracles of the Old Testament were as real to him as the premiership of +Disraeli, or the financiering of the Rothschilds. There was, at the same +time, a vein of rationalism that ran through his thought and speech. We +were speaking one day on the subject of miracles, and, with his usual +energy of manner, he said: + +"There was no need of any literal angel to shut the mouths of the lions +to save Daniel; the awful holiness of the prophet was enough. There was +so much of God in him that the savage creatures submitted to him as they +did to unsinning Adam. Man's dominion over nature was broken by sin, but +in the golden age to come it will be restored. A man in full communion +with God wields a divine power in every sphere that he touches." + +His face glowed as he spoke, and his voice was subdued into a solemnity +of tone that told how his reverent and adoring soul was thrilled with +this vision of the coming glory of redeemed humanity. + +He knew the New Testament by heart, as well as the Old. The sayings of +Jesus were often on his lips. + +One day, in a musing, half-soliloquizing way, I heard him say: + +"It is wonderful, wonderful! a Hebrew peasant from the hills of Galilee, +without learning, noble birth, or power, subverts all the philosophies +of the world, and makes himself the central figure of all history. It is +wonderful!" + +He half whispered the words, and his eyes had the introspective look of +a man who is thinking deeply. + +He came to see me at our cottage on Post street one morning before +breakfast. In grading a street, a house in which I had lived and had the +ill luck to own, on Pine street, had been undermined, and toppled over +into the street below, falling on the slate-roof and breaking all to +pieces. He came to tell me of it, and to extend his sympathy. + +"I thought I would come first, so you might get the bad news from a +friend rather than a stranger. You have lost a house; but it is a small +matter. Your little boy there might have put out his eye with a pair of +scissors, or he might have swallowed a pin and lost his life. There are +many things constantly taking place that are harder to bear than the +loss of a house." + +Many other wise words did the Rabbi speak, and before he left I felt +that a house was indeed a small thing to grieve over. + +He spoke with charming freedom and candor of all sorts of people. + +"Of Christians, the Unitarians have the best heads, and the Methodists +the best hearts. The Roman Catholics hold the masses, because they give +their people plenty of form. The masses will never receive truth in its +simple essence; they must have it in a way that will make it digestible +and assimilable, just as their, stomachs demand bread, and meats, and +fruits, not their extracts or distilled essences, for daily food. As to +Judaism, it is on the eve of great changes. What these changes will be I +know not, except that I am sure the God of our fathers will fulfill his +promise to Israel. This generation will probably see great things." + +"Do you mean the literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine?" + +He looked at me with an intense gaze, and hastened not to answer. At +last he spoke slowly: + +"When the perturbed elements of religious thought crystallize into +clearness and enduring forms, the chosen people will be one of the chief +factors in reaching that final solution of the problems which convulse +this age." + +He was one of the speakers at the great Mortara indignation-meeting in +San Francisco. The speech of the occasion was that of Colonel Baker, the +orator who went to Oregon, and in a single campaign magnetized the +Oregonians so completely by his splendid eloquence that, passing by all +their old party leaders, they sent him to the United States Senate. No +one who heard Baker's peroration that night will ever forget it. His +dark eyes blazed, his form dilated, and his voice was like a bugle in +battle. + +"They tell us that the Jew is accursed of God. This has been the plea of +the bloody tyrants and robbers that oppressed and plundered them during +the long ages of their exile and agony. But the Almighty God executes +his own judgments. Woe to him who presumes to wield his thunderbolts! +They fall in blasting, consuming vengeance upon his own head. God deals +with his chosen people in judgment; but he says to men, Touch them at +your peril! They that spoil them shall be for a spoil; they that carried +them away captive shall themselves go into captivity. The Assyrian smote +the Jew, and where is the proud Assyrian Empire? Rome ground them under +her iron heel, and where is the empire of the Caesars? Spain smote the +Jew, and where is her glory? The desert sands cover the site of Babylon +the Great. The power that hurled the hosts of Titus against the holy +city Jerusalem was shivered to pieces. The banners of Spain, that +floated in triumph over half the world, and fluttered in the breezes of +every sea, is now the emblem of a glory that is gone, and the ensign of +a power that has waned. The Jews are in the hands of God. He has dealt +with them in judgment, but they are still the children of promise. The +day of their long exile shall end, and they will return to Zion with +songs and everlasting joy upon their heads!" + +The words were something like these, but who could picture Baker's +oratory? As well try to paint a storm in the tropics. Real thunder and +lightning cannot be put on canvas. + +The Rabbi made a speech, and it was the speech of a man who had come +from his books and prayers. He made a tender appeal for the mother and +father of the abducted Jewish boy, and argued the question as calmly, +and in as sweet a spirit, as if he had been talking over an abstract +question in his study. The vast crowd looked upon that strange figure +with a sort of pleased wonder, and the Rabbi seemed almost unconscious +of their presence. He was as free from self-consciousness as a little +child, and many a Gentile heart warmed that night to the simple-hearted +sage who stood before them pleading for the rights of human nature. + +The old man was often very sad. In such moods he would come round to our +cottage on Post street, and sit with us until late at night, unburdening +his aching heart, and relaxing by degrees into a playfulness that was +charming from its very awkwardness. He would bring little picture-books +for the children, pat them on their heads, and praise them. They were +always glad to see him, and would nestle round him lovingly. We all +loved him, and felt glad in the thought that he left our little circle +lighter at heart. He lived alone. Once, when I playfully spoke to him of +matrimony, he laughed quietly, and said: + +"No, no--my books and my poor schoolchildren are enough for me." + +He died suddenly and alone. He had been out one windy night visiting the +poor, came home sick, and before morning was in that world of spirits +which was so real to his faith, and for which he longed. He left his +little fortune of a few thousand dollars to the poor of his native +village of Posen, in Poland. And thus passed from California-life Dr. +Julius Eckman, the Rabbi. + + + +My Mining Speculation. + +"I Believe the Lord has put me in the way of making a competency for my +old age," said the dear old Doctor, as he seated himself in the armchair +reserved for him at the cottage at North Beach. + +"How?" I asked. + +"I met a Texas man today, who told me of the discovery of an immensely +rich silver mining district in Deep Spring Valley, Mono county, and he +says he can get me in as one of the owners." + +I laughingly made some remark expressive of incredulity. The honest and +benignant face of the old Doctor showed that he was a little nettled. + +"I have made full inquiry, and am sure this is no mere speculation. The +stock will not be put upon the market, and will not be assessable. They +propose to make me a trustee, and the owners, limited in number, will +have entire control of the property. But I will not he hasty in the +matter. I will make it a subject of prayer for twenty-four hours, and +then if there be no adverse indications I will go on with it." + +The next day I met the broad-faced Texan, and was impressed by him as +the old Doctor had been. + +It seemed a sure thing. An old prospector had been equipped and sent out +by a few gentlemen, and he had found outcroppings of silver in a range +of hills extending not less than three miles. Assays had been made of +the ores, and they were found to be very rich. All the timber and +waterpower of Deep Spring Valley had been taken up for the company under +the general and local preemption and mining laws. It was a big thing. +The beauty of the whole arrangement was that no "mining sharps" were to +be let in; we were to manage it ourselves, and reap all the profits. + +We went into it, the old Doctor and I, feeling deeply grateful to the +broad-faced Texan, who had so kindly given us the chance. I was made a +trustee, and began to have a decidedly business feeling as such. At the +meetings of "the board," my opinions were frequently called for, and +were given with great gravity. The money was paid for the shares I had +taken, and the precious evidences of ownership were carefully put in a +place of safety. A mill was built near the richest of the claims, and +the assays were good. There were delays, and more money was called for, +and sent up. The assays were still good, and the reports from our +superintendent were glowing. "The biggest thing in the history of +California mining," he wrote; and when the secretary read his letter to +the board, there was a happy expression on each face. + +At this point I began to be troubled. It seemed, from reasonable +ciphering, that I should soon be a millionaire. It made me feel solemn +and anxious. I lay awake at night, praying that I might not be spoiled +by my good fortune. The scriptures that speak of the deceitfulness of +riches were called to mind, and I rejoiced with trembling. Many +beneficent enterprises were planned, principally in the line of endowing +colleges, and paying church-debts. (I had had an experience in this +line.) There were further delays, and more money was called for. The +ores were rebellious, and our "process" did not suit them. Fryborg and +Deep Spring Valley were not the same. A new superintendent--one that +understood rebellious ores--was employed at a higher salary. He +reported that all was right, and that we might expect "big news" in a +few days, as he proposed to crush about seventy tons of the best rock, +"by a new and improved process." + +The board held frequent meetings, and in view of the nearness of great +results did not hesitate to meet the requisitions made for further +outlays of money. They resolved to pursue a prudent but vigorous policy +in developing the vast property when the mill should be fairly in +operation. + +All this time I felt an undercurrent of anxiety lest I might sustain +spiritual loss by my sudden accession to great wealth, and continued to +fortify myself with good resolutions. + +As a matter of special caution, I sent for a parcel of the ore, and had +a private assay made of it. The assay was good. + +The new superintendent notified us that on a certain date we might look +for a report of the result of the first great crushing and cleanup of +the seventy tons of rock. The day came. On Kearny street I met one of +the stockholders--a careful Presbyterian brother, who loved money. He +had a solemn look, and was walking slowly, as if in deep thought. +Lifting his eyes as we met, he saw me, and spoke: + +"It is lead!" + +"What is lead?" + +"Our silver mine in Deep Spring Valley." + +Yes; from the seventy tons of rock we got eleven dollars in silver, and +about fifty pounds of as good lead as was ever molded into bullets. + +The board held a meeting the next evening. It was a solemn one. The +fifty-pound bar of lead was placed in the midst, and was eyed +reproachfully. I resigned my trusteeship, and they saw me not again. +That was my first and last mining speculation. It failed somehow--but +the assays were all very good. + + + +Mike Reese. + +I had business with him, and went at a business hour. No introduction +was needed, for he had been my landlord, and no tenant of his ever had +reason to complain that he did not get a visit from him, in person or by +proxy, at least once a month. He was a punctual man--as a collector of +what was due him. Seeing that he was intently engaged, I paused and +looked at him. A man of huge frame, with enormous hands and feet, +massive head, receding forehead, and heavy cerebral development, full +sensual lips, large nose, and peculiar eyes that seemed at the same time +to look through you and to shrink from your gaze--he was a man at whom +a stranger would stop in the street to get a second gaze. There he sat +at his desk, too much absorbed to notice my entrance. Before him lay a +large pile of one-thousand-dollar United States Government bonds, and he +was clipping off the coupons. That face! it was a study as he sat using +the big pair of scissors. A hungry boy in the act of taking into his +mouth a ripe cherry, a mother gazing down into the face of her pretty +sleeping child, a lover looking into the eyes of his charmer, are but +faint figures by which to express the intense pleasure he felt in his +work. But there was also a feline element in his joy--his handling of +those bonds was somewhat like a cat toying with its prey. When at length +he raised his head, there was a fierce gleam in his eye and a flush in +his face. I had come upon a devotee engaged in worship. This was Mike +Reese, the miser and millionaire. Placing his huge left-hand on the pile +of bonds, he gruffly returned my salutation, + +"Good morning." + +He turned as he spoke, and east a look of scrutiny into my face which +said plain enough that he wanted me to make known my business with him +at once. + +I told him what was wanted. At the request of the official board of the +Minna-street Church I had come to ask him to make a contribution toward +the payment of its debt. + +"O yes; I was expecting you. They all come to me. Father Gallagher, of +the Catholic Church, Dr. Wyatt, of the Episcopal Church, and all the +others, have been here. I feel friendly to the Churches, and I treat all +alike--it won't do for me to be partial--I don't give to any!" + +That last clause was an anticlimax, dashing my hopes rudely; but I saw +he meant it, and left. I never heard of his departing from the rule of +strict impartiality he had laid down for himself. + +We met at times at a restaurant on Clay street. He was a hearty feeder, +and it was amusing to see how skillfully in the choice of dishes and the +thoroughness with which he emptied them he could combine economy with +plenty. On several of these occasions, when we chanced to sit at the +same table, I proposed to pay for both of us, and he quickly assented, +his hard, heavy features lighting up with undisguised pleasure at the +suggestion, as he shambled out of the room amid the smiles of the +company present, most of whom knew him as a millionaire, and me as a +Methodist preacher. + +He had one affair of the heart. Cupid played a prank on him that was the +occasion of much merriment in the San Francisco newspapers, and of much +grief to him. A widow was his enslaver and tormentor--the old story. +She sued him for breach of promise of marriage. The trial made great fun +for the lawyers, reporters, and the amused public generally; but it was +no fun for him. He was mulcted for six thousand dollars and costs of the +suit. It was during the time I was renting one of his offices on +Washington street. I called to see him, wishing to have some repairs +made. His clerk met me in the narrow hall, and there was a mischievous +twinkle in his eye as he said: + +"You had better come another day--the old man has just paid that +judgment in the breach of promise case, and he is in a bad way." + +Hearing our voices, he said, + +"Who is there?--come in." + +I went in, and found him sitting leaning on his desk, the picture of +intense wretchedness. He was all unstrung, his jaw fallen, and a most +pitiful face met mine as he looked up and said, in a broken voice, + +"Come some other day--I can do no business today; I am very unwell." + +He was indeed sick--sick at heart. I felt sorry for him. Pain always +excites my pity, no matter what may be its cause. He was a miser, and +the payment of those thousands of dollars was like tearing him asunder. +He did not mind the jibes of the newspapers, but the loss of the money +was almost killing. He had not set his heart on popularity, but cash. + +He had another special trouble, but with a different sort of ending. It +was discovered by a neighbor of his that, by some mismeasurement of the +surveyors, he (Reese) had built the wall of one of his immense business +houses on Front street six inches beyond his own proper line, taking in +just so much of that neighbor's lot. Not being on friendly terms with +Reese, his neighbor made a peremptory demand for the removal of the +wall, or the payment of a heavy price for the ground. Here was misery +for the miser. He writhed in mental agony, and begged for easier terms, +but in vain. His neighbor would not relent. The business men of the +vicinity rather enjoyed the situation, humorously watching the progress +of the affair. It was a case of diamond cut diamond, both parties +bearing the reputation of being hard men to deal with. A day was fixed +for Reese to give a definite answer to his neighbor's demand, with +notice that, in case of his noncompliance, suit against him would be +begun at once. The day came, and with it a remarkable change in Reese's +tone. He sent a short note to his enemy breathing profanity and +defiance. + +"What is the matter?" mused the puzzled citizen; "Reese has made some +discovery that makes him think he has the upper-hand, else he would not +talk this way." + +And he sat and thought. The instinct of this class of men where money is +involved is like a miracle. + +"I have it!" he suddenly exclaimed; "Reese has the same hold on me that +I have on him." + +Reese happened to be the owner of another lot adjoining that of his +enemy, on the other side. It occurred to him that, as all these lots +were surveyed at the same time by the same party, it was most likely +that as his line had gone six inches too far on the one side, his +enemy's had gone as much too far on the other. And so it was. He had +quietly a survey made of the premises, and he chuckled with inward joy +to find that he held this winning card in the unfriendly game. With grim +politeness the neighbors exchanged deeds for the two half feet of +ground, and their war ended. The moral of this incident is for him who +hath wit enough to see it. + +For several seasons he came every morning to North Beach to take +sea-baths. Sometimes he rode his well-known white horse, but oftener he +walked. He bathed in the open sea, making, as one expressed it, +twenty-five tents out of the Pacific Ocean, by avoiding the bathhouse. +Was this the charm that drew him forth so early? It not seldom chanced +that we walked downtown together. At times he was quite communicative, +speaking of himself in a way that was peculiar. It seems he had thoughts +of marrying before his episode with the widow. + +"Do you think a young girl of twenty could love an old man like me?" he +asked me one day, as we were walking along the street. + +I looked at his huge and ungainly bulk, and into his animal face, and +made no direct answer. Love! Six millions of dollars is a great sum. +Money may buy youth and beauty, but love does not come at its call. +God's highest gifts are free; only the second-rate things can be bought +with money. Did this sordid old man yearn for pure human love amid his +millions? Did such a dream cast a momentary glamour over a life spent in +raking among the muck-heaps? If so, it passed away, for he never +married. + +He understood his own case. He knew in what estimation he was held by +the public, and did not conceal his scorn for its opinion. + +"My love of money is a disease. My saving and hoarding as I do is +irrational, and I know it. It pains me to pay five cents for a streetcar +ride, or a quarter of a dollar for a dinner. My pleasure in accumulating +property is morbid, but I have felt it from the time I was a foot +peddler in Charlotte, Campbell, and Pittsylvania counties, in Virginia, +until now. It is a sort of insanity, and it is incurable; but it is +about as good a form of madness as any, and all the world is mad in +some, fashion." + +This was the substance of what he said of himself when in one of his +moods of free speech, and it gave me a new idea of human nature--a man +whose keen and penetrating brain could subject his own consciousness to +a cool and correct analysis, seeing clearly the folly which he could not +resist. The autobiography of such a man might furnish a curious +psychological study, and explain the formation and development in +society of those moral monsters called misers. Nowhere in literature has +such a character been fully portrayed, though Shakespeare and George +Eliot have given vivid touches of some of its features. + +He always retained a kind feeling for the South, over whose hills he had +borne his peddler's pack when a youth. After the war, two young +ex-Confederate soldiers came to San Francisco to seek their fortunes. A +small room adjoining my office was vacant, and the brothers requested me +to secure it for them as cheap as possible. I applied to Reese, telling +him who the young men were, and describing their broken and impecunious +condition. + +"Tell them to take the room free of rent--but it ought to bring five +dollars a month." + +It took a mighty effort, and he sighed as he spoke the words. I never +heard of his acting similarly in any other case, and I put this down to +his credit, glad to know that there was a warm spot in that mountain of +mud and ice. A report of this generous act got afloat in the city, and +many were the inquiries I received as to its truth. There was general +incredulity. + +His health failed, and he crossed the seas. Perhaps he wished to visit +his native hills in Germany, which he had last seen when a child. There +he died, leaving all his millions to his kindred, save a bequest of one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the University of California. What +were his last thoughts, what was his final verdict concerning human +life, I know not. Empty-handed he entered the world of spirits, where, +the film fallen from his vision, he saw the Eternal Realities. What +amazement must have followed his awakening! + + + +Uncle Nolan. + +He was black and ugly; but it was an ugliness that did not disgust or +repel you. His face had a touch both of the comic and the pathetic. His +mouth was very wide, his lips very thick and the color of a ripe damson, +blue-black; his nose made up in width what it lacked in elevation; his +ears were big, and bent forward; his eyes were a dull white, on a very +dark ground; his wool was white and thick. His age might be anywhere +along from seventy onward. A black man's age, like that of a horse, +becomes dubious after reaching a certain stage. + +He came to the class-meeting in the Pine-street Church, in San +Francisco, one Sabbath morning. He asked leave to speak, which was +granted. + +"Bredren, I come here sometime ago, from Vicksburg, Mississippi, where I +has lived forty year, or more. I heered dar was a culud church up on de +hill, an' I thought I'd go an' washup wid'em. I went dar three or fo' +Sundays, but I foun' deir ways didn't suit me, an' my ways didn't suit +dem. Dey was Yankees' niggers, an' [proudly] I's a Southern man myself. +Sumbody tole me dar was a Southern Church down here on Pine street, an' +I thought I'd cum an' look in. Soon 's I got inside de church, an' look +roun' a minit, I feels at home. Dey look like home-folks; de preacher +preach like home-folks; de people sing like home-folks. Yer see, +chillan, I'se a Southern man myself [emphatically], and I'se a Southern +Methodis'. Dis is de Church I was borned in, an' dis is de Church I was +rarred in, an' [with great energy] dis is de Church which de Scripter +says de gates ob hell shall not prevail ag'in it! ["Amen!" from Father +Newman and others.] When dey heerd I was comin' to dis Church, some ob +'em got arter me 'bout it. Dey say dis Church was a enemy to de black +people, and dat dey was in favor ob slavery. I tole 'em de Scripter +said, 'Love your enemies,' an' den I took de Bible an' read what it says +about slavery--I can read some, chillun Servants, obey yer masters in +all things, not wid eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as unto de Lord;' +and so on. But, bless yer souls, chillun, dey wouldn't lis'en to dat +--so I foun' out dey was abberlishem niggers, an' I lef' 'em.!" + +Yes, he left them, and came to us. I received him into the Church in due +form, and with no little eclat, he being the only son of Ham on our roll +of members in San Francisco. He stood firm to his Southern Methodist +colors under a great pressure. + +"Yer ought ter be killed fer goin' ter dat Southern Church," said one of +his colored acquaintances one day, as they met in the street. + +"Kill me, den," said Uncle Nolan, with proud humility; "kill me, den; +yer can't cheat me out ob many days, nohow." + +He made a living, and something over, by rag-picking at North Beach and +elsewhere, until the Chinese entered into competition with him, and then +it was hard times for Uncle Nolan. His eyesight partially failed him, +and it was pitiful to see him on the beach, his threadbare garments +fluttering in the wind, groping amid the rubbish for rags, or shuffling +along the streets with a huge sack on his back, and his old felt hat +tied under his nose with a string, picking his way carefully to spare +his swollen feet, which were tied up with bagging and woolens. His +religious fervor never cooled; I never heard him complain. He never +ceased to be joyously thankful for two things--his freedom and his +religion. But, strange as it may seem, he was a pro-slavery man to the +last. Even after the war, he stood to his opinion. + +"Dem niggers in de South thinks dey is free, but dey ain't. 'Fore it's +all ober, all dat ain't dead will be glad to git back to deir masters," +he would say. + +Yet he was very proud of his own freedom, and took the utmost care of +his free-papers. He had no desire to resume his former relation to the +peculiar and patriarchal institution. He was not the first philosopher +who has had one theory for his fellows, and another for himself. + +Uncle Nolan would talk of religion by the hour. He never tired of that +theme. His faith was simple and strong, but, like most of his race, he +had a tinge of superstition. He was a dreamer of dreams, and he believed +in them. Here is one which he recited to me. His weird manner, and low, +chanting tone, I must leave to the imagination of the reader: + +Uncle Nolan's Dream. + +A tall black man came along, an' took me by de arm, an' tole me he had +come for me. I said: + +"What yer want wid me?" + +"I come to carry yer down into de darkness." + +"What for?" + +"Cause you didn't follow de Lord." + +Wid dat, he pulled me 'long de street till he come to a big black house, +de biggest house an' de thickest walls I eber seed. We went in a little +do', an' den he took me down a long sta'rs in de dark, till we come to a +big do'; we went inside, an' den de big black man locked de do' behin' +us. An' so we kep' on, goin' down, an' goin' down, an' goin' down, an' +he kep' lockin' dem big iron do's behin' us, an' all de time it was +pitch dark, so I couldn't see him, but he still hel' on ter me. At las' +we stopped, an' den he started to go 'way. He locked de do' behin' him, +an' I heerd him goin' up de steps de way we come, lockin' all de do's +behin' him as he went. I tell you, dat was dreafful when I heerd dat big +key turn on de outside, an' me 'way down, down, down dar in de dark all +alone, an' no chance eber to git out! An' I knowed it was 'cause I +didn't foller de Lord. I felt roun' de place, an' dar was nothin' but de +thick walls an' de great iron do'. Den I sot down an' cried, 'cause I +knowed I was a los' man. Dat was de same as hell [his voice sinking into +a whisper], an' all de time I knowed I was dar, 'cause I hadn't follered +de Lord. Bymeby somethin' say, "Pray." Somethin' keep sayin', "Pray." +Den I drap on my knees an' prayed. I tell you, no man eber prayed harder +'n I did! I prayed, an' prayed, an' prayed! What's dat? Dar's somebody +a-comin' down dem steps; dey 's unlockin' de do'; an' de fus' thing I +knowed, de place was all lighted up bright as day, an' a white-faced man +stood by me, wid a crown on his head, an' a golden key in his han'. +Somehow, I knowed it was Jesus, an' right den I waked up all of a +tremble, an' knowed it was a warnin' dat I mus' foller de Lord. An', +bless Jesus, I has been follerin' him fifty year since I had dat dream. + +In his prayers, and class-meeting and love-feast talks, Uncle Nolan +showed a depth of spiritual insight truly wonderful, and the effects of +these talks were frequently electrical. Many a time have I seen the +Pine-street brethren and sisters rise from their knees, at the close of +one of his prayers, melted into tears, or thrilled to religious rapture, +by the power of his simple faith, and the vividness of his sanctified +imagination. + +He held to his pro-slavery views and guarded his own freedom-papers to +the last; and when he died, in 1875, the last colored Southern Methodist +in California was transferred from the Church militant to the great +company that no man can number, gathered out of every nation, and tribe, +and kindred, on the earth. + + + +Buffalo Jones. + +That is what the boys called him. His real Christian name was Zachariah. +The way he got the name he went by was this: He was a Methodist, and +prayed in public. He was excitable, and his lungs were of extraordinary +power. When fully aroused, his voice sounded, it was said, like the +bellowing of a whole herd of buffaloes. It had peculiar reverberations +--rumbling, roaring, shaking the very roof of the sanctuary, or echoing +among the hills when let out at its utmost strength at a camp-meeting. +This is why they called him Buffalo Jones. It was his voice. There never +was such another. In Ohio he was a blacksmith and a fighting man. He had +whipped every man who would fight him, in a whole tier of counties. He +was converted after the old way; that is to say, he was "powerfully" +converted. A circuit-rider preached the sermon that converted him. His +anguish was awful. The midnight hour found him in tears. The Ohio forest +resounded with his cries for mercy. When he found peace, it swelled into +rapture. He joined the Church militant among the Methodists, and he +stuck to them, quarreled with them, and loved them, all his life. He had +many troubles, and gave much trouble to many people. The old Adam died +hard in the fighting blacksmith. His pastor, his family, his friends, +his fellow-members in the Church, all got a portion of his wrath in due +season, if they swerved a hair-breadth from the straight-line of duty as +he saw it. I was his pastor, and I never had a truer friend, or a +severer censor. One Sunday morning he electrified my congregation, at +the close of the sermon, by rising in his place and making a personal +application of a portion of it to individuals present, and insisting on +their immediate expulsion from the Church. He had another side to his +character, and at times was as tender as a woman. He acted as +class-leader. In his melting moods he moved every eye to tears, as he +passed round among the brethren and sisters, weeping, exhorting, and +rejoicing. At such times, his great voice softened into a pathos that +none could resist, and swept the chords of sympathy with resistless +power. But when his other mood was upon him, he was fearful. He scourged +the unfaithful with a whip of fire. He would quote with a singular +fluency and aptness every passage of Scripture that blasted hypocrites, +reproved the lukewarm, or threatened damnation to the sinner. At such +times his voice sounded like the shout of a warrior in battle, and the +timid and wondering hearers looked as if they were in the midst of the +thunder and lightning of a tropical storm. I remember the shock he gave +a quiet and timid lady whom I had persuaded to remain for the +class-meeting after service. Fixing his stern and fiery gaze upon her, +and knitting his great bushy eyebrows, he thundered the question: + +"Sister, do you ever pray?" + +The startled woman nearly sprang from her seat in a panic as she +stammered hurriedly, + +"Yes, sir; yes, sir." + +She did not attend his class-meeting again. + +At a camp-meeting he was present, and in one of his bitterest moods. The +meeting was not conducted in a way to suit him. He was grim, critical, +and contemptuous, making no concealment of his dissatisfaction. The +preaching displeased him particularly. He groaned, frowned, and in other +ways showed his feelings. At length he could stand it no longer. A young +brother had just closed a sermon of a mild and persuasive kind, and no +sooner had he taken his seat than the old man arose. Looking forth upon +the vast audience, and then casting a sharp and scornful glance at the +preachers in and around "the stand," he said: + +"You preachers of these days have no gospel in you. You remind me of a +man going into his barnyard early in the morning to feed his stock. He +has a basket on his arm, and here come the horses nickering, the cows +lowing, the calves and sheep bleating, the hogs squealing, the turkeys +gobbling, the hens clucking, and the roosters crowing. They all gather +round him, expecting to be fed, and lo, his basket is empty! You take +texts, and you preach, but you have no gospel. Your baskets are empty." + +Here he darted a defiant glance at the astonished preachers, and then, +turning to one, he added in a milder and patronizing tone: + +"You, Brother Sim, do preach a little gospel in your basket there is one +little nubbin!" + +Down he sat, leaving the brethren to meditate on what he had said. The +silence that followed was deep. + +At one time his conscience became troubled about the use of tobacco, and +he determined to quit. This was the second great struggle of his life. +He was running a sawmill in the foothills at the time, and lodged in a +little cabin near by. + +Suddenly deprived of the stimulant to which it had so long been +accustomed, his nervous system was wrought up to a pitch of frenzy. He +would rush from the cabin, climb along the hill-side, run leaping from +rock to rock, now and then screaming like a maniac. Then he would rush +back to the cabin, seize a plug of tobacco, smell it, rub it against his +lips, and away he would go again. He smelt, but never tasted it again. + +"I was resolved to conquer, and by the grace of God I did," he said. + +That was a great victory for the fighting blacksmith. + +When a melodeon was introduced into the church, he was sorely grieved +and furiously angry. He argued against it, he expostulated, he +protested, he threatened, he staid away from church. He wrote me a +letter, in which he expressed his feelings thus: + +San Jose, 1860. + +Dear Brother:--They have got the devil into the church now! Put your +foot on its tail and it squeals. + +Z. Jones. + +This was his figurative way of putting it. I was told that he had, on a +former occasion, dealt with the question in a more summary way, by +taking his ax and splitting a melodeon to pieces. + +Neutrality in politics was, of course, impossible to such a man. In the +civil war his heart was with the South. He gave up when Stonewall +Jackson was killed. + +"It is all over--the praying man is gone," he said; and he sobbed like +a child. From that day he had no hope for the Confederacy, though once +or twice, when feeling ran high, he expressed a readiness to use carnal +weapons in defense of his political principles. For all his opinions on +the subject he found support from the Bible, which he read and studied +with unwearying diligence. He took its words literally on all occasions, +and the Old Testament history had a wonderful charm for him. He would +have been ready to hew any modern Agag in pieces before the Lord. + +He finally found his way to the Insane Asylum. The reader has already +seen how abnormal was his mind, and will not be surprised that his +storm-tossed soul lost its rudder at last. But mid all its veerings he +never lost sight of the Star that had shed its light upon his checkered +path of life. He raved, and prayed, and wept, by turns. The horrors of +mental despair would be followed by gleams of seraphic joy. When one of +his stormy moods was upon him, his mighty voice could be heard above all +the sounds of that sad and pitiful company of broken and wrecked souls. +The old class-meeting instinct and habit showed itself in his semi-lucid +intervals. He would go round among the patients questioning them as to +their religious feeling and behavior in true class-meeting style. Dr. +Shurtleff one day overheard a colloquy between him and Dr. Rogers, a +freethinker and reformer, whose vagaries had culminated in his shaving +close one side of his immense whiskers, leaving the other side in all +its flowing amplitude. Poor fellow! Pitiable as was his case, he made a +ludicrous figure walking the streets of San Francisco half shaved, and +defiant of the wonder and ridicule he excited. The ex-class-leader's +voice was earnest and loud, as he said: + +"Now, Rogers, you must pray. If you will get down at the feet of Jesus, +and confess your sins, and ask him to bless you, he will hear you, and +give you peace. But if you won't do it," he continued, with growing +excitement and kindling anger at the thought, "you are the most infernal +rascal that ever lived, and I'll beat you into a jelly!" + +The good Doctor had to interfere at this point, for the old man was in +the very act of carrying out his threat to punish Rogers bodily, on the +bare possibility that he would not pray as he was told to do. And so +that extemporized class-meeting came to an abrupt end. + +"Pray with me," he said to me the last time I saw him at the Asylum. +Closing the door of the little private office, we knelt side by side, +and the poor old sufferer, bathed in tears, and docile as a little +child, prayed to the once suffering, once crucified, but risen and +interceding Jesus. When he arose from his knees his eyes were wet, and +his face showed that there was a great calm within. We never met again. +He went home to die. The storms that had swept his soul subsided, the +light of reason was rekindled, and the light of faith burned brightly; +and in a few weeks he died in great peace, and another glad voice joined +in the anthems of the blood-washed millions in the city of God. + + + +Tod Robinson. + +The image of this man of many moods and brilliant genius that rises most +distinctly to my mind is that connected with a little prayer-meeting in +the Minna-street Church, San Francisco, one Thursday night. His thin +silver locks, his dark flashing eye, his graceful pose, and his musical +voice, are before me. His words I have not forgotten, but their electric +effect must forever be lost to all except the few who heard them. + +"I have been taunted with the reproach that it was only after I was a +broken and disappointed man in my worldly hopes and aspirations that I +turned to religion. The taunt is just"--here he bowed his head, and +paused with deep emotion "the taunt is just. I bow my head in shame, and +take the blow. My earthly hopes have faded and fallen one after another. +The prizes that dazzled my imagination have eluded my grasp. I am a +broken, gray-haired man, and I bring to my God only the remnant of a +life. But, brethren, it is this very thought that fills me with joy and +gratitude at this moment--the thought that when all else fails God +takes us up. Just when we need him most, and most feel our need of him, +he lifts us up out of the depths where we had groveled, and presses us +to his Fatherly heart. This is the glory of Christianity. The world +turns from us when we fail and fall; then it is that the Lord draws +higher. Such a religion must be from God, for its principles are +God-like. It does not require much skill or power to steer a ship into +port when her timbers are sound, her masts all rigged, and her crew at +their posts; but the pilot that can take an old hulk, rocking on the +stormy waves, with its masts torn away, its rigging gone, its planks +loose and leaking, and bring it safe to harbor, that is the pilot for +me. Brethren, I am that hulk; and Jesus is that Pilot!" + +"Glory be to Jesus!" exclaimed Father Newman; as the speaker, with +swimming eyes, radiant face, and heaving chest, sunk into his seat. I +never heard any thing finer from mortal lips, but it seems cold to me as +I read it here. Oratory cannot be put on paper. + +He was present once at a camp-meeting, at the famous Toll-gate +Camp-ground, in Santa Clara Valley, near the city of San Jose. It was +Sabbath morning, just such a one as seldom dawns on this earth. The +brethren and sisters were gathered around "the stand" under the +live-oaks for a speaking-meeting. The morning glory was on the summits +of the Santa Cruz Mountains that sloped down to the sacred spot, the +lovely valley smiled under a sapphire sky, the birds hopped from twig to +twig of the overhanging branches that scarcely quivered in the still +air, and seemed to peer inquiringly into the faces of the assembled +worshipers. The bugle-voice of Bailey led in a holy song, and Simmons +led in prayer that touched the eternal throne. One after another, +gray-haired men and saintly women told when and how they began the new +life far away on the old hills they would never see again, and how they +had been led and comforted in their pilgrimage. Young disciples, in the +flush of their first love, and the rapture of newborn hope, were borne +out on a tide of resistless feeling into that ocean whose waters +encircle the universe. The radiance from the heavenly hills was +reflected from the consecrated encampment, and the angels of God hovered +over the spot. Judge Robinson rose to his feet, and stepped into the +altar, the sunlight at that moment falling upon his face. Every voice +was hushed, as, with the orator's indefinable magnetism, he drew every +eye upon him. The pause was thrilling. At length he spoke: + +"This is a mount of transfiguration. The transfiguration is on hill and +valley, on tree and shrub, on grass and flower, on earth and sky. It is +on your faces that shine like the face of Moses when he came down from +the awful mount where be met Jehovah face to face. The same light is on +your faces, for here is God's shekinah. This is the gate of heaven. I +see its shining hosts, I hear the melody of its songs. The angels of God +encamped with us last night, and they linger with us this morning. Tarry +with us, ye sinless ones, for this is heaven on earth!" + +He paused, with extended arm, gazing upward entranced. The scene that, +followed beggars description. By a simultaneous impulse all rose to +their feet and pressed toward the speaker with awestruck faces, and when +Grandmother Bucker, the matriarch of the valley, with luminous face and +uplifted eyes, broke into a shout, it swelled into a melodious hurricane +that shook the very hills. He ought to have been a preacher. So he said +to me once: + +"I felt the impulse and heard the call in my early manhood. I conferred +with flesh and blood, and was disobedient to the heavenly vision. I have +had some little success at the bar, on the hustings, and in legislative +halls, but how paltry has it been in comparison with the true life and +high career that might have been mine!" + +He was from the hill-country of North Carolina, and its flavor clung to +him to the last. He had his gloomy moods, but his heart was fresh as a +Blue Ridge breeze in May, and his wit bubbled forth like a +mountain-spring. There was no bitterness in his satire. The very victim +of his thrust enjoyed the keenness of the stroke, for there was no +poison in the weapon. At times he seemed inspired, and you thrilled, +melted, and soared, under the touches of this Western Coleridge. He came +to my room at the Golden Eagle, in Sacramento City, one night, and left +at two o'clock in the morning. He walked the floor and talked, and it +was the grandest monologue I ever listened to. One part of it I could +not forget. It was with reference to preachers who turn aside from their +holy calling to engage in secular pursuits, or in politics. + +"It is turning away from angels' food to feed on garbage. Think of +spending a whole life in contemplating the grandest things, and working +for the most glorious ends, instructing the ignorant, consoling the +sorrowing, winning the wayward back to duty and to peace, pointing the +dying to Him who is the light and the life of men, animating the living +to seek from the highest motives a holy life and a sublime destiny! O it +is a life that might draw an angel from the skies! If there is a special +hell for fools, it should be kept for the man who turns aside from a +life like this, to trade, or dig the earth, or wrangle in a court of +law, or scramble for an office." + +He looked at me as he spoke, with flashing eyes and curled lip. + +"That is all true and very fine, Judge, but it sounds just a little +peculiar as coming from you." + +"I am the very man to say it, for I am the man who bitterly sees its +truth. Do not make the misstep that I did. A man might well be willing +to live on bread and water, and walk the world afoot, for the privilege +of giving all his thoughts to the grandest themes, and all his service +to the highest objects. As a lawyer, my life has been spent in a +prolonged quarrel about money, land, houses; cattle, thieving, +slandering, murdering, and other villainy. The little episodes of +politics that have given variety to my career have only shown me the +baseness of human nature, and the pettiness of human ambition. There are +men who will fill these places and do this work, and who want and will +choose nothing better. Let them have all the good they can get out of +such things. But the minister of the gospel who comes down from the +height of his high calling to engage in this scramble, does that which +makes devils laugh and angels weep." + +This was the substance of what he said on this point. I have never +forgotten it. I am glad he came to my room that night. What else he +said I cannot write, but the remembrance of it is like to that of a +melody that lingers in my soul when the music has ceased. + +"I thank you for your sermon today--you never told a single lie." + +This was his remark at the close of a service in Minna street one +Sunday. + +"What is the meaning of that remark?" + +That the exaggerations of the pulpit repel thousands from the truth. +Moderation of statement is a rare excellence. A deep spiritual insight +enables a religious teacher to shade his meanings where it is required. +Deep piety is genius for the pulpit. Mediocrity in native endowments, +conjoined with spiritual stolidity in the pulpit, does more harm than +all the open apostles of infidelity combined. They take the divinity out +of religion and kill the faith of those who hear them. None but inspired +men should stand in the pulpit. Religion is not in the intellect merely. +The world by wisdom cannot know God. The attempt to find out God by the +intellect has always been, and always must be, the completest of +failures. Religion is the sphere of the supernatural, and stands not in +the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. It has often happened that +men of the first order of talent and the highest culture have been +converted by the preaching of men of weak intellect and limited +education, but who were directly taught of God, and had drunk deep from +the fount of living truth in personal experience of the blessed power of +Christian faith. It was through the intellect that the devil seduced the +first pair. When we rest in the intellect only, we miss God. With the +heart only can man believe unto righteousness. The evidence that +satisfies is based on consciousness. Consciousness is the satisfying +demonstration. + +"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart +of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But +God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. They can be revealed in no +other way." + +Here was the secret he had learned, and that had brought a new joy and +glory into his life as it neared the sunset. The great change dated from +a dark and rainy night as he walked home in Sacramento City. Not more +tangible to Saul of Tarsus was the vision, or more distinctly audible +the voice that spoke to him on the way to Damascus, than was the +revelation of Jesus Christ to this lawyer of penetrating intellect, +large and varied reading, and sharp perception of human folly and +weakness. It was a case of conversion in the fullest and divinest sense. +He never fell from the wonder-world of grace to which he had been +lifted. His youth seemed to be renewed, and his life had rebloomed, and +its winter was turned into spring, under the touch of Him who maketh all +things new. He was a new man, and he lived in a new world. He never +failed to attend the class-meetings, and in his talks there the flashes +of his genius set religious truths in new lights, and the little band of +Methodists were treated to bursts of fervid eloquence, such as might +kindle the listening thousands of metropolitan churches into admiration, +or melt them into tears. On such occasions I could not help regretting +anew that the world had lost what this man might have wrought had his +path in life taken a different direction at the start. He died suddenly, +and when in the city of Los Angeles I read the telegram announcing his +death, I felt, mingled with the pain at the loss of a friend, exultation +that before there was any reaction in his religious life his mighty soul +had found a congenial home amid the supernal glories and sublime joys of +the world of spirits. The moral of this man's life will be seen by him +for whom this imperfect Sketch has been penciled. + + + +Ah Lee. + +He was the sunniest of Mongolians. The Chinaman, under favorable +conditions, is not without a sly sense of humor of his peculiar sort; +but to American eyes there is nothing very pleasant in his angular and +smileless features. The manner of his contact with many Californians is +not calculated to evoke mirthfulness. The brickbat may be a good +political argument in the hands of a hoodlum, but it does not make its +target playful. To the Chinaman in America the situation is new and +grave, and he looks sober and holds his peace. Even the funny-looking, +be-cued little Chinese children wear a look of solemn inquisitiveness, +as they toddle along the streets of San Francisco by the side of their +queer-looking mothers. In his own land, overpopulated and misgoverned, +the Chinaman has a hard fight for existence. In these United States his +advent is regarded somewhat in the same spirit as that of the seventeen +year locusts, or the cotton-worm. The history of a people may be read in +their physiognomy. The monotony of Chinese life during these thousands +of years is reflected in the dull, monotonous faces of Chinamen. + +Ah Lee was an exception. His skin was almost fair, his features almost +Caucasian in their regularity; his dark eye lighted up with a peculiar +brightness, and there was a remarkable buoyancy and glow about him every +way. He was about twenty years old. How long he had been in California I +know not. When he came into my office to see me the first time, he +rushed forward and impulsively grasped my hand, saying: + +"My name Ah Lee--you Doctor Plitzjellie?" + +That was the way my name sounded as he spoke it. I was glad to see him, +and told him so. + +"You makee Christian newspaper? You talkee Jesus? Mr. Taylor tellee me. +Me Christian--me love Jesus." + +Yes, Ah Lee was a Christian; there could be no doubt about that. I have +seen many happy converts, but none happier than he. He was not merely +happy--he was ecstatic. + +The story of the mighty change was a simple one, but thrilling. Near +Vacaville, the former seat of the Pacific Methodist College, in Solano +county, lived the Rev. Iry Taylor, a member of the Pacific Conference of +the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Taylor was a praying man, and +he had a praying wife. Ah Lee was employed as a domestic in the family. +His curiosity was first excited in regard to family prayers. He wanted +to know what it all meant. The Taylor's explained. The old, old story +took hold of Ah Lee. He was put to thinking and then to praying. The +idea of the forgiveness of sins filled him with wonder and longing. He +hung with breathless interest upon the word of the Lord, opening to him +a world of new thought. The tide of feeling bore him on, and at the foot +of the cross he found what he sought. + +Ah Lee was converted--converted as Paul, as Augustine, as Wesley, were +converted. He was born into a new life that was as real to him as his +consciousness was real. This psychological change will be understood by +some of my readers; others may regard it as they do any other +inexplicable phenomenon in that mysterious inner world of the human +soul, in which are lived the real lives of us all. In Ah Lee's heathen +soul was wrought the gracious wonder that makes joy among the angels of +God. + +The young Chinese disciple, it is to be feared, got little sympathy +outside the Taylor household and a few others. The right-hand of +Christian fellowship was withheld by many, or extended in a cold, +half-reluctant way. But it mattered not to Ah Lee; he had his own +heaven. Coldness was wasted on him. The light within him brightened +every thing without. + +Ah Lee became a frequent visitor to our cottage on the hill. He always +came and went rejoicing. The Gospel of John was his daily study and +delight. To his ardent and receptive nature it was a diamond mine. Two +things he wanted to do. He had a strong desire to translate his favorite +Gospel into Chinese, and to lead his parents to Christ. When he spoke of +his father and mother his voice would soften, his eyes moisten with +tenderness. + +"I go back to China and tellee my fader and mudder allee good news," he +said, with beaming face. + +This peculiar development of filial reverence and affection among the +Chinese is a hopeful feature of their national life. It furnishes a +solid basis for a strong Christian nation. The weakening of this +sentiment weakens religious susceptibility; its destruction is spiritual +death. The worship of ancestors is idolatry, but it is that form of it +nearest akin to the worship of the Heavenly Father. The honoring of the +father and mother on earth is the commandment with promise, and it is +the promise of this life and of life everlasting. + +There is an inter blending of human and divine loves; earth and heaven +are unitary in companionship and destiny. The golden ladder rests on the +earth and reaches up into the heavens. + +About twice a week Ah Lee came to see us at North Beach. These visits +subjected our courtesy and tact to a severe test. He loved little +children, and at each visit he would bring with him a gayly-painted box +filled with Chinese sweetmeats. Such sweetmeats! They were to strong for +the palates of even young Californians. What cannot be relished and +digested by a healthy California boy must be formidable indeed. Those +sweetmeats were--but I give it up, they were indescribable! The boxes +were pretty, and, after being emptied of their contents, they were kept. + +Ah Lee's joy in his new experience did not abate. Under the touch of the +Holy Spirit, his spiritual nature had suddenly blossomed into tropical +luxuriance. To look at him made me think of the second chapter of the +Acts of the Apostles. If I had had any lingering doubts of the +transforming power of the gospel upon all human hearts, this conversion +of Ah Lee would have settled the question forever. The bitter feeling +against the Chinese that just then found expression in California, +through so many channels, did not seem to affect him in the least. He +had his Christianity warm from the heart of the Son of God, and no +caricature of its features or perversion of its spirit could bewilder +him for a moment. He knew whom he had believed. None of these things +moved him. O blessed mystery of God's mercy, that turns the night of +heathen darkness into day, and makes the desert soul bloom with the +flowers of paradise! O cross of the Crucified! Lifted up, it shall draw +all men to their Saviour! And O blind and slow of heart to believe! why +could we not discern that this young Chinaman's conversion was our +Lord's gracious challenge to our faith, and the pledge of success to the +Church that will go into all the world with the news of salvation? + +Ah Lee has vanished from my observation, but I have a persuasion that is +like a burning prophecy that he will be heard from again. To me he types +the blessedness of old China newborn in the life of the Lord, and in his +luminous face I read the prophecy of the redemption of the millions who +have so long bowed before the Great Red Dragon, but who now wait for the +coming of the Deliverer. + + + +The Climate of California. + +Had Shakespeare lived in California, he would not have written of the +"winter of our discontent," but would most probably have found in the +summer of that then undiscovered country a more fitting symbol of the +troublous times referred to; for, with the fogs, winds, and dust, that +accompany the summer, or the "dry season," as it is more appropriately +called in California, it is emphatically a season of discontent. In the +mountains of the State only are these conditions not found. True, you +will find dust even there as the natural consequence of the lack of +rain; but that is not, of course, so bad in the mountains; and with no +persistent, nagging wind to pick it up and fling it spitefully at you, +you soon get not to mind it at all. But of summer in the coast country +it is hard to speak tolerantly. The perfect flower of its unloveliness +flourishes in San Francisco, and, more or less hardily, all along the +coast. From the time the rains cease--generally some time in May +--through the six-months' period of their cessation, the programme for +the day is, with but few exceptions, unvaried. Fog in the morning +--chilling, penetrating fog, which obscures the rays of the morning sun +completely, and, dank and "clinging like cerements," swathes every thing +with its soft, gray folds. On the bay it hangs, heavy and chill, +blotting out everything but the nearest objects, and at a little +distance hardly distinguishable from the water itself. At such times is +heard the warning-cry of the foghorns at Fort Point, Goat Island, and +elsewhere--a sound which probably is more like that popularly supposed +to be produced by an expiring cow in her last agony than any thing else, +but which is not like that or any thing in the world but a foghorn. The +fog of the morning, however, gives way to the wind of the afternoon, +which, complete master of the situation by three o'clock P.M., holds +stormy sway till sunset. No gentle zephyr this, to softly sway the +delicate flower or just lift the fringe on the maiden's brow, but what +seamen call a "spanking breeze," that does not hesitate to knock off the +hat that is not fastened tightly both fore and aft to the underlying +head, or to fling sand and dust into any exposed eye, and which dances +around generally among skirts and coat-tails with untiring energy and +persistency. To venture out on the streets of San Francisco at such +times is really no trifling matter; and to one not accustomed to it, or +to one of a non-combative disposition, the performance is not a pleasant +one. Still the streets are always full of hurrying passengers; for, +whether attributable to the extra amount of vitality and vim that this +bracing climate imparts to its children, or to a more direct and obvious +cause, the desire to get indoors again as soon as possible, the fact +remains the same--that the people of California walk faster than do +those of almost any other country. Not only men either, who with their +coats buttoned up to their chins, and hats jammed tightly over their +half-shut eyes, present a tolerably secure surface to the attacks of the +wind, but their fairer sisters too can be seen, with their fresh cheeks +and bright eyes protected by jaunty veils, scudding along in the face or +the track of the wind, as the case may he, with wonderful skill and +grace, looking as trim and secure as to rigging as the lightest schooner +in full sail on their own bay. + +But it is after the sun has gone down from the cloudless sky, and the +sea has recalled its breezes to slumber for the night, that the +fulfillment of the law of compensation is made evident in this matter. +The nights are of silver, if the days be not of gold. And all over the +State this blessing of cool, comfortable nights is spread. At any +season, one can draw a pair of blankets over him upon retiring, sure of +sound, refreshing slumber, unless assailed by mental or physical +troubles to which even this glorious climate of California cannot +minister. + +The country here during this rainless season does not seem to the +Eastern visitor enough like what he has known as country in the summer +to warrant any outlay in getting there. He must, however, understand +that here people go to the country for precisely opposite reasons to +those which influence Eastern tourists to leave the city and betake +themselves to rural districts. In the East, one leaves the crowded +streets and heated atmosphere of the great city to seek coolness in some +sylvan retreat. Here, we leave the chilling winds and fogs of the city +to try to get warm where they cannot penetrate. Warm it may be; but the +country at this season is not at its best as to looks. The flowers and +the grass have disappeared with the rains, the latter, however, keeping +in its dry, brown roots, that the sun scorches daily, the germ of all +next winter's green. Of the trees, the live-oak alone keeps to the +summer livery of Eastern forests. Farther up in the mountain counties it +is very different. No fairer summer could be wished for than that which +reigns cloudless here; and with the sparkling champagne of that clear, +dry air in his nostrils, our Eastern visitor forgets even to sigh for a +summer shower to lay the dreadful dust. And even in the valleys and +around the bay, we must confess that some advantages arise from the +no-rain-for-six-months policy. Picnickers can set forth any day, with no +fear of the fun of the occasion being wet-blanketed by an unlooked-for +shower; and farmers can dispose of their crops according to convenience, +often leaving their wheat piled up in the field, with no fear of danger +from the elements. + +Still we do get very tired of this long, strange summer, and the first +rains are eagerly looked for and joyously welcomed. The fall of the +first showers after such a long season of bareness and brownness is +almost as immediate in its effects as the waving of a fairy's magic wand +over Cinderella, sitting ragged in the ashes and cinders. The change +thus wrought is well described by a poet of the soil in a few +picturesque lines: + +Week by week the near hills whitened, In their dusty leather cloaks; + +Week by week the far hills darkened, From the fringing plain of oaks; + +Till the rains came, and far breaking, On the fierce south-wester tost, + +Dashed the whole long coast with color, And then vanished and were lost. + +With these rains the grass springs up, the trees put out, and the winds +disappear, leaving in the air a wonderful softness. In a month or two +the flowers appear, and the hills are covered with a mantle of glory. +Bluebells, lupins, buttercups, and hosts of other blossoms, spring up in +profusion; and, illuminating every thing, the wild California poppy +lifts its flaming torch, typifying well, in its dazzling and glowing +color, the brilliant minds and passionate hearts of the people of this +land. All these bloom on through the winter, for this is a winter but in +name. With no frost, ice, or snow, it is more like an Eastern spring, +but for the absence of that feeling of languor and debility which is so +often felt in that season. True it rains a good deal, but by no means +constantly, more often in the night; and it is this season of smiles and +tears, this winter of flowers and budding trees, in which the glory of +the California climate lies. Certainly nothing could be more perfect +than a bright winter day in that State. Still, after all I could say in +its praise, you would not know its full charm till you had felt its +delicious breath on your own brow; for the peculiar freshness and +exhilaration of the air are indescribable. + +Sometimes in March, the dwellers on the bay are treated to a blow or two +from the north, which is about as serious weather as the inhabitant of +that favored clime ever experiences. After a night whose sleep has been +broken by shrieks of the wind and the rattling of doors and windows, I +wake with a dullness of head and sensitiveness of nerve that alone would +be sufficient to tell me that the north wind had risen like a thief in +the night, and had not, according to the manner of that class, stolen +away before morning. On the contrary, he seems to be rushing around with +an energy that betokens a day of it. I dress, and look out of my window. +The bay is a mass of foaming, tossing waves, which, as they break on the +beach just below, cast their spray twenty feet in air. All the little +vessels have come into port, and only a few of the largest ships still +ride heavily at their anchors. The hue separating the shallow water near +the shore from the deeper waters beyond is much farther out than usual, +and is more distinct. Within its boundary, the predominant white is +mixed with a dark, reddish brown; without, the spots of color are +darkest green. The shy has been swept of every particle of cloud and +moisture, and is almost painfully blue. Against it, Mounts Tamalpais and +Diablo stand outlined with startling clearness. The hills and islands +round the bay look as cold and uncomfortable in their robes of bright +green as a young lady who has put on her spring-dress too soon. The +streets and walks are swept bare, but still the air is filled with +flying sand that cuts my face like needles, when, later, overcoated and +gloved to the utmost, I proceed downtown. Such days are Nature's +cleaning days, very necessary to future health and comfort, but, like +all cleaning-days, very unpleasant to go through with. With her +mightiest besom does the old lady sweep all the cobwebs from the sky, +all the dirt and germs of disease from the ground, and remove all specks +and impurities from her air-windows. One or two such "northers" finish +up the season, effectually scaring away all the clouds, thus clearing +the stage for the next act in this annual drama of two acts. + +This climate of California is perfectly epitomized in a stanza of the +same poem before quoted: + +So each year the season shifted, Wet and warm, and drear and dry, + +Half a year-of cloud and flowers, Half a year of dust and sky. + + + +After the Storm. + +(Penciled in the bay-window above the Golden Gate, North Beach, San +Francisco, February 20, 1873.) + +All day the winds the sea had lashed, The fretted waves in anger dashed +Against the rocks in tumult wild Above the surges roughly piled--No blue +above, no peace below, The waves still rage, the winds still blow. + +Dull and muffled the sunset gun Tells that the dreary day is done; The +sea-birds fly with drooping wing--Chill and shadow on every thing--No +blue above, no peace below, The waves still rage, the winds still blow. + +The clouds dispart; the sapphire dye In beauty spreads o'er the western +sky, Cloud-fires blaze o'er the Gate of Gold, Gleaming and glowing, fold +on fold--All blue above, all peace below, Nor waves now rage, nor winds +now blow. + +Souls that are lashed by storms of pain, Eyes that drip with sorrow's +rain; Hearts that burn with passion strong, Bruised and torn, and weary +of wrong--No light above, no peace within, Battling with self, and torn +by sin-- + +Hope on, hold on, the clouds will lift; God's peace will come as his own +sweet gift, The light will shine at evening-time, The reflected beams of +the sunlit clime, The blessed goal of the soul's long quest, Where +storms ne'er beat, and all are blest. + + + +Bishop Kavanaugh in California. + +He came first in 1856. The Californians "took to" him at once. It was +almost as good as a visit to the old home to see and hear this +rosy-faced, benignant, and solid Kentuckian. His power and pathos in the +pulpit were equaled by his humor and magnetic charm in the social +circle. Many consciences were stirred. All hearts were won by him, and +he holds them unto this day. We may hope too that many souls were won +that will be stars in his crown of rejoicing in the day of Jesus Christ. + +At San Jose, his quality as a preacher was developed by an incident that +excited no little popular interest. The (Northern) Methodist Conference +was in session at that place, the venerable and saintly Bishop Scott +presiding. Bishop Kavanaugh was invited to preach, and it so happened +that he was to do so on the night following an appointment for Bishop +Scott. The matter was talked of in the town, and not unnaturally a +spirit of friendly rivalry was excited with regard to the approaching +pulpit performances by the Northern and Southern Bishops respectively. +One enthusiastic but not pious Kentuckian offered to bet a hundred +dollars that Kavanaugh would preach the better sermon. Of course the two +venerable men were unconscious of all this, and nothing of the kind was +in their hearts. The church was thronged to hear Bishop Scott, and his +humility, strong sense, deep earnestness, and holy emotion, made a +profound and happy impression on all present. The church was again +crowded the next night. Among the audience was a considerable number of +Southerners--wild fellows, who were not often seen in such places, +among them the enthusiastic Kentuckian already alluded to. Kavanaugh, +after going through with the preliminary services, announced his text, +and began his discourse. He seemed not to be in a good preaching mood. +His wheels drove heavily. Skirmishing around and around, he seemed to be +reconnoitering his subject, finding no salient point for attack. The +look of eager expectation in the faces of the people gave way to one of +puzzled and painful solicitude. The heads of the expectant Southerners +drooped a little, and the betting Kentuckian betrayed his feelings by a +lowering of the under-jaw and sundry nervous twitchings of the muscles +of his face. The good Bishop kept talking, but the wheels revolved +slowly. It was a solemn and "trying time" to at least a portion of the +audience, as the Bishop, with head bent over the Bible and his broad +chest stooped, kept trying to coax a response from that obstinate text. +It seemed a lost battle. At last a sudden flash of thought seemed to +strike the speaker, irradiating his face and lifting his form as he gave +it utterance, with a characteristic throwing back of his shoulders and +upward sweep of his arms. Those present will never forget what followed. +The afflatus of the true orator had at last fallen upon him; the mighty +ship was launched, and swept out to sea under full canvas. Old Kentucky +was on her feet that night in San Jose. It was indescribable. Flashes of +spiritual illumination, explosive bursts of eloquent declamation, +sparkles of chastened wit, appeals of overwhelming intensity, followed +like the thunder and lightning of a Southern storm. The church seemed +literally to rock. "Amens" burst from the electrified Methodists of all +sorts; these were followed by "hallelujahs" on all sides; and when the +sermon ended with a rapturous flight of imagination, half the +congregation were on their feet, shaking hands, embracing one another, +and shouting. In the tremendous religious impression made, criticism was +not thought of. Even the betting Kentuckian showed by his heaving breast +and tearful eyes how far he was borne out of the ordinary channels of +his thought and feeling. + +He came to Sonora, where I was pastor, to preach to the miners. It was +our second year in California, and the paternal element in his nature +fell on us like a benediction. He preached three noble sermons to full +houses in the little church on the red hillside, but his best discourses +were spoken to the young preacher in the tiny parsonage. Catching the +fire of the old polemics that led to the battles of the giants in the +West, he went over the points of difference between the Arminiau and +Calvinistic schools of theology in a way that left a permanent deposit +in a mind which was just then in its most receptive state. We felt very +lonesome after he had left. It was like a touch of home to have him with +us then, and in his presence we have had the feeling ever since. What a +home will heaven be where all such men will be gathered in one company! + +It was a warm day when he went down to take the stage for Mariposa. The +vehicle seemed to be already full of passengers, mostly Mexicans and +Chinamen. When the portly Bishop presented himself, and essayed to +enter, there were frowns and expressions of dissatisfaction. + +"Mucho malo!" exclaimed a dark-skinned Senorita, with flashing black +eyes. + +"Make room in there--he's got to go," ordered the bluff stage-driver, +in a peremptory tone. + +There were already eight passengers inside, and the top of the coach was +covered as thick as robins on a sumac-bush. The Bishop mounted the step +and surveyed the situation. The seat assigned him was between two +Mexican women, and as he sunk into the apparently insufficient space +there was a look of consternation in their faces--and I was not +surprised at it. But scrouging in, the newcomer smiled, and addressed +first one and then another of his fellow-passengers with so much +friendly pleasantness of manner that the frowns cleared away from their +faces, even the stolid, phlegmatic Chinamen brightening up with the +contagious good humor of the "big Mellican man." When the driver cracked +his whip, and the spirited mustangs struck off in the California gallop +--the early Californians scorned any slower gait--everybody was +smiling. Staging in California in those days was often an exciting +business. There were "opposition" lines on most of the thoroughfares, +and the driving was furious and reckless in the extreme. Accidents were +strangely seldom when we consider the rate of speed, the nature of the +roads, and the quantity of bad whisky consumed by most of the drivers. +Many of these drivers made it a practice to drink at every +stopping-place. Seventeen drinks were counted in one forenoon ride by +one of these thirsty Jehus. The racing between the rival stages was +exciting enough. Lashing the wiry little horses to full speed, there was +but one thought, and that was, to "get in ahead." A driver named White +upset his stage between Montezuma and Knight's Ferry on the Stanislaus, +breaking his right-leg above the knee. Fortunately none of the +passengers were seriously hurt, though some of them were a little +bruised and frightened. The stage was righted, White resumed the reins, +whipped his horses into a run, and, with his broken limb hanging loose, +ran into town ten minutes ahead of his rival, fainting as he was lifted +from the seat. + +"Old man Holden told me to go in ahead or smash everything, and I made +it!" exclaimed White, with professional pride. + +The Bishop was fortunate enough to escape with unbroken bones as he +dashed from point to point over the California hills and valleys, though +that heavy body of his was mightily shaken up on many occasions. + +He came to California on his second visit, in 1863, when the war was +raging. An incident occurred that gave him a very emphatic reminder that +those were troublous times. + +He was at a camp-meeting in the San Joaquin Valley, near Linden--a +place famous for gatherings of this sort. The Bishop was to preach at +eleven o'clock, and a great crowd was there, full of high expectation. A +stranger drove up just before the hour of service--a broad shouldered +man in blue clothes, and wearing a glazed cap. He asked to see Bishop +Kavanaugh privately for a few moments. + +They retired to "the preachers' tent," and the stranger said: + +"My name is Jackson--Colonel Jackson, of the United States Army. I have +a disagreeable duty to perform. By order of General McDowell, I am to +place you under arrest, and take you to San Francisco." + +"Can you wait until I preach my sermon?" asked the Bishop, +good-naturedly; "the people expect it, and I don't want to disappoint +them if it can be helped." + +"How long will it take you?" + +"Well, I am a little uncertain when I get started, but I will try not to +be too long." + +"Very well; go on with your sermon, and if you have no objection I will +be one of your hearers." + +The secret was known only to the Bishop and his captor. The sermon was +one of his best--the vast crowd of people were mightily moved, and the +Colonel's eyes were not dry when it closed. After a prayer, and a song, +and a collection, the Bishop stood up again before the people, and said: + +"I have just received a message which makes it necessary for me to +return to San Francisco immediately. I am sorry that I cannot remain +longer, and participate with you in the hallowed enjoyments of the +occasion. The blessing of God be with you, my brethren and sisters." + +His manner was so bland, and his tone so serene, that nobody had the +faintest suspicion as to what it was that called him away so suddenly. +When he drove off with the stranger, the popular surmise was that it was +a wedding or a funeral that called for such haste. These are two events +in human life that admit of no delays: people must be buried, and they +will be married. + +The Bishop reported to General Mason, Provost-marshal General, and was +told to hold himself as in duress until further orders, and to be ready +to appear at headquarters at short notice when called for. He was put on +parole, as it were. He came down to San Jose and stirred my congregation +with several of his powerful discourses. In the meantime the arrest had +gotten into the newspapers. Nothing that happens escapes the California +journalists, and they have even been known to get hold of things that +never happened at all. It seems that someone in the shape of a man had +made an affidavit that Bishop Kavanaugh had come to the Pacific Coast as +a secret agent of the Southern Confederacy, to intrigue and recruit in +its interest! Five minutes' inquiry would have satisfied General +McDowell of the silliness of such a charge--but it was in war times, +and he did not stop to make the inquiry. In Kentucky the good old Bishop +had the freedom of the whole land, coming and going without hinderance; +but the fact was, he had not been within the Confederate lines since the +war began. To make such an accusation against him was the climax of +absurdity. + +About three weeks after the date of his arrest, I was with the Bishop +one morning on our way to Judge Moore's beautiful country-seat, near San +Jose, situated on the far-famed Alameda. The carriage was driven by a +black man named Henry. Passing the post-office, I found, addressed to +the Bishop in my care, a huge document bearing the official stamp of the +provost-marshal's office, San Francisco. He opened and read it as we +drove slowly along, and as he did so he brightened up, and turning to +Henry, said: + +"Henry, were you ever a slave?" + +"Yes, sah; in Mizzoory," said Henry, showing his white teeth. + +"Did you ever get your free-papers?" + +"Yes, sah--got 'em now." + +"Well, I have got mine--let's shake hands." + +And the Bishop and Henry had quite a handshaking over this mutual +experience. Henry enjoyed it greatly, as his frequent chucklings evinced +while the Judge's fine bays were trotting along the Alameda. + +(I linger on the word Alameda as I write it. It is at least one +beneficent trace of the early Jesuit Fathers who founded the San Jose +and Santa Clara missions a hundred years ago. They planted an avenue of +willows the entire three miles, and in that rich, moist soil the trees +have grown until their trunks are of enormous size, and their branches, +overarching the highway with their dense shade, make a drive of +unequaled beauty and pleasantness. The horse-cars have now taken away +much of its romance, but in the early days it was famous for moonlight +drives and their concomitants and consequences. A long-limbed +four-year-old California colt gave me a romantic touch of a different +sort, nearly the last time I was on the Alameda, by running away with +the buggy, and breaking it and me--almost--to pieces. I am reminded of +it by the pain in my crippled right-shoulder as I write these lines in +July, 1881. But still I say, Blessings on the memory of the Fathers who +planted the willows on the Alameda!) + +An intimation was given the Bishop that if he wanted the name of the +false-swearer who had caused him to be arrested he could have it. + +"No, I don't want to know his name," said he; "it will do me no good to +know it. May God pardon his sin, as I do most heartily!" + +A really strong preacher preaches a great many sermons, each of which +the hearers claim to be the greatest sermon of his life. I have heard of +at least a half dozen "greatest" sermons by Bascom and Pierce, and other +noted pulpit orators. But I heard one sermon by Kavanaugh that was +probably indeed his master-effort. It had a history. When the Bishop +started to Oregon, in 1863, I placed in his hands Bascom's Lectures, +which, strange to say, he had never read. Of these Lectures the elder +Dr. Bond said "they would be the colossal pillars of Bascom's fame when +his printed sermons were forgotten." Those Lectures wonderfully +anticipated the changing phases of the materialistic infidelity +developed since his day, and applied to them the reductio ad absurdum +with relentless and resistless power. On his return from Oregon, +Kavanaugh met and presided over the Annual Conference at San Jose. One +of his old friends, who was troubled with skeptical thoughts of the +materialistic sort, requested him to preach a sermon for his special +benefit. This request, and the previous reading of the Lectures, +directed his mind to the topic suggested with intense earnestness. The +result was, as I shall always think, the sermon of a lifetime. The text +was, There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty +giveth them understanding. (Job xxxii. 8.) That mighty discourse was a +demonstration of the truth of the affirmation of the text. I will not +attempt to reproduce it here, though many of its passages are still +vivid in my memory. It tore to shreds the sophistries by which it was +sought to sink immortal man to the level of the brutes that perish; it +appealed to the consciousness of his hearers in red-hot logic that +burned its way to the inmost depths of the coldest and hardest hearts; +it scintillated now and then sparkles of wit like the illuminated edges +of an advancing thundercloud; borne, on the wings of his imagination, +whose mighty sweep took him beyond the bounds of earth, through whirling +worlds and burning suns, he found the culmination of human destiny, in +the bosom of eternity, infinity, and God. The peroration was +indescribable. The rapt audience reeled under it. Inspiration! the man +of God was himself its demonstration, for the power of his word was not +his own. + +"O I thank God that be sent me here this day to hear that sermon! I +never heard any thing like it, and I shall never forget it, or cease to +be thankful that I heard it," said the Rev. Dr. Charles Wadsworth, of +Philadelphia, the great Presbyterian preacher--a man of genius, and a +true prose-poet, as any one will concede after reading his published +sermons. As he spoke, the tears were in his eyes, the muscles of his +face quivering, and his chest heaving with irrepressible emotion. Nobody +who heard that discourse will accuse me of too high coloring in this +brief description of it. + +"Don't you wish you were a Kentuckian?" was the enthusiastic exclamation +of a lady who brought from Kentucky a matchless wit and the culture of +Science Hill Academy, which has blessed and brightened so many homes +from the Ohio to the Sacramento. + +I think the Bishop was present on another occasion when the compliment +he received was a left-handed one. It was at the Stone Church in Suisun +Valley. The Bishop and a number of the most prominent ministers of the +Pacific Conference were present at a Saturday-morning preaching +appointment. They had all been engaged in protracted labors, and, +beginning with the Bishop, one after another declined to preach. The lot +fell at last upon a boyish-looking brother of very small stature, who +labored under the double disadvantage of being a very young preacher, +and of having been reared in the immediate vicinity. The people were +disappointed and indignant when they saw the little fellow go into the +pulpit. None showed their displeasure more plainly than Uncle Ben Brown, +a somewhat eccentric old brother, who was one of the founders of that +Society, and one of its best official members. He sat as usual on a +front seat, his thick eyebrows fiercely knit, and his face wearing a +heavy frown. He had expected to hear the Bishop, and this was what it +had come to! He drew his shoulders sullenly down, and, with his eyes +bent upon the floor, nursed his wrath. The little preacher began his +sermon, and soon astonished everybody by the energy with which he spoke. +As he proceeded, the frown on Uncle Ben's face relaxed a little; at +length he lifted his eyes and glanced at the speaker in surprise. He did +not think it was in him. With abnormal fluency and force, the little +preacher went on with the increasing sympathy of his audience, who were +feeling the effects of a generous reaction in his favor. Uncle Ben, +touched a little with honest obstinacy as he was, gradually relaxed in +the sternness of his looks, straightening up by degrees until he sat +upright facing the speaker in a sort of half-reluctant, pleased wonder. +Just at the close of a specially vigorous burst of declamation, the old +man exclaimed, in a loud voice: + +"Bless God! he uses the weak things of this world to confound the +mighty!" casting around a triumphant glance at the Bishop and other +preachers. + +This impromptu remark was more amusing to the hearers than helpful to +the preacher, I fear; but it was away the dear old brother had of +speaking out in meeting. + +I must end this Sketch. I have dipped my pen in my heart in writing it. +The subject of it has been friend, brother, father, to me since the day +he looked in upon us in the little cabin on the hill in Sonora, in 1855. +When I greet him on the hills of heaven, he will not be sorry to be told +that among the many in the far West to whom he was helpful was the +writer of this too imperfect Sketch. + + + +Sanders. + +He belonged to the Church militant. In looks he was a cross between a +grenadier and a Trappist. But there was more soldier than monk in his +nature. He was over six feet high, thin as a bolster, and straight as a +long-leaf pine. His anatomy was strongly conspicuous. He was the boniest +of men. There were as many angles as inches in the lines of his face. +His hair disdained the persuasions of comb or brush, and rose in tangled +masses above a head that would have driven a phrenologist mad. It was a +long head in every sense. His features were strong and stern, his nose +one that would have delighted the great Napoleon--it was a grand organ. +You said at once, on looking at him, Here is a man that fears neither +man nor devil. The face was an honest face. When you looked into those +keen, dark eyes, and read the lines of that stormy countenance, you felt +that it would be equally impossible for him to tell a lie or to fear the +face of man. + +This was John Sanders, one of the early California Methodist preachers. +He went among the first to preach the gospel to the gold-hunters. He got +a hearing where some failed. His sincerity and brainpower commanded +attention, and his pluck enforced respect. In one case it seemed to be +needed. + +He was sent to preach in Placerville, popularly called in the old days, +"Hangtown." It was then a lively and populous place. The mines were +rich, and gold-dust was abundant as good behavior was scarce. The one +church in the town was a "union church," and it was occupied by Sanders +and a preacher of another sect on alternate Sundays. All went well for +many months, and if there were no sinners converted in that camp, the +few saints were at peace. It so happened that Sanders was called away +for a week or two, and on his return he found that a new preacher had +been sent to the place, and that he had made an appointment to preach on +his (Sanders's) regular day. Having no notion of yielding his rights, +Sanders also inserted a notice in the papers of the town that he would +preach at the same time and place. The thing was talked about in the +town and vicinity, and there was a buzz of excitement. The miners, +always ready for a sensation, became interested, and when Sunday came +the church could not hold the crowd. The strange preacher arrived first, +entered the pulpit, knelt a few moments in silent devotion, according to +custom, and then sat and surveyed the audience which was surveying him +with curious interest. He was a tall, fine-looking man, almost the equal +of Sanders in height, and superior to him in height. He was a Kentuckian +originally, but went from Ohio to California, and was a full-grown man, +of the best Western physical type. In a little while Sanders entered the +church, made his way through the dense crowd, ascended the pulpit, cast +a sharp glance at the intruder, and sat down. There was a dead silence. +The two preachers gazed at the congregation; the congregation gazed at +the preachers. A pin might have been heard to fall. Sanders was as +imperturbable as a statue, but his lips were pressed together tightly, +and there was a blaze in his eyes. The strange preacher showed signs of +nervousness, moving his hands and feet, and turning this way and that in +his seat. It was within five minutes of the time for opening the +service. The stranger rose, and was in the act of taking hold of the +Bible that lay on the cushion in front of him, when Sanders rose to his +full height, stepped in front of him, and darting lightning from his +eyes as he looked him full in the face, said: + +"I preach here today, sir!" + +That settled it. There was no mistaking that look or tone. The tall +stranger muttered an inarticulate protest and subsided. Sanders +proceeded with the service, making no allusion to the difficulty until +it was ended. Then he proposed a meeting of the citizens the next +evening to adjudicate the case. The proposal was acceded to. The church +was again crowded; and though ecclesiastically Sanders was in the +minority, with the genuine love for fair-play which is a trait of +Anglo-Saxon character, he was sustained by an overwhelming majority. It +is likely, too, that his plucky bearing the, day before made him some +votes. A preacher who would fight for his rights suited those wild +fellows better than one who would assert a claim that he would not +enforce. Sanders preached to larger audiences after this episode in his +"Hangtown" pastorate. + +It was after this that he went out one day to stake off a lot on which +he proposed to build a house of worship. It was near the Roman Catholic +Church. A zealous Irishman, who was a little more than half drunk, was +standing by. Evidently he did not like any such heretical movements, +and, after Sanders had placed the stake in the earth, the Hibernian +stepped forward and pulled it up. + +"I put the stake back in its place. He pulled it up again. I put it +back. He pulled it up again. I put it back once more. He got fiery mad +by this time, and started at me with an ax in his hand. I had an ax in +my hand, and as its handle was longer than his, I cut him down." + +The poor fellow had waked up the fighting preacher, and fell before the +sweep of Sanders's ax. He dodged as the weapon descended, and saved his +life by doing so. He got an ugly wound on the shoulder, and kept his bed +for many weeks. When he rose from his bed he had a profound regard for +Sanders, whose grit excited his admiration. There was not a particle of +resentment in his generous Irish heart. He became a sober man, and it +was afterward a current pleasantry among the "boys" that he was +converted by the use of the carnal weapon wielded by that spunky parson. +Nobody blamed Sanders for his part in the matter. It was a fair fight, +and he had the right on his side. Had he shown the white feather, that +would have damaged him with a community in whose estimation courage as +the cardinal virtue. Sanders was popular with all classes, and +Placerville remembers him to this day. He was no rose-water divine, but +thundered the terrors of the law into the ears of those wild fellows +with the boldness of a John the Baptist. Many a sinner quaked under his +stern logic and fiery appeals, and some repented. + +I shall never forget a sermon he preached at San Jose. He was in bad +health, and his mind was morbid and gloomy. His text was, Who hath +hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? (Job ix. 4.) The +thought that ran through the discourse was the certainty that +retribution would overtake the guilty. God's law will be upheld. It +protects the righteous, but must crush the disobedient. He swept away +the sophisms by which men persuade themselves that they can escape the +penalty of violated law; and it seemed as if we could almost hear the +crash of the tumbling wrecks of hopes built on false foundations. God +Almighty was visible on the throne of his power, armed with the even +thunders of his wrath. + +"Who hath defied God and escaped?" he demanded, with flashing eyes and +trumpet voice. And then he recited the histories of nations and men that +had made the fatal experiment, and the doom that had whelmed them in +utter ruin. + +"And yet you hope to escape!" he thundered to the silent and awestruck +men and women before him. "You expect that God will abrogate his law to +please you; that he will tear down the pillars of his moral government +that you may be saved in your sins! O fools, fools, fools! there is no +place but hell for such a folly as this!" + +His haggard face, the stern solemnity of his voice, the sweep of his +long arms, the gleam of his deep-set eyes, and the vigor of his +inexorable logic, drove that sermon home to the listeners. + +He was the keenest of critics, and often merciless. He was present at a +camp-meeting near San Jose, but too feeble to preach. I was there, and +disabled from, the effects of the California poison-oak. That deceitful +shrub! Its pink leaves smile at you as pleasantly as sin, and, like sin, +it leaves its sting. The "preachers' tent" was immediately in the rear +of "the stand," and Sanders and I lay inside and listened to the +sermons. He was in one of his caustic moods, and his comments were racy +enough, though not helpful to devotion. + +"There! he yelled, clapped his hands, stamped, and--said nothing!" + +The criticism was just: the brother in the stand was making a great +noise, but there was not much meaning in what he said. + +"He made one point only--a pretty good apology for Lazarus's poverty." + +This was said at the close of an elaborate discourse on "The Rich Man +and Lazarus," by a brother who sometimes got "in the brush." + +"He isn't touching his text--he knows no more theology than a +guinea-pig. Words, words, words!" + +This last criticism was directed against a timid young divine, who was +badly frightened, but who has since shown that there was good metal in +him. If he had known what was going on just behind him, he would have +collapsed entirely in that tentative effort at preaching the gospel. + +Sanders kept up this running fire of criticism at every service, cutting +to the bone, at every blow, and giving me new light on homiletics, if he +did not promote my enjoyment of the preaching. He had read largely and +thought deeply, and his incisive intellect had no patience with what was +feeble or pointless. + +Disease settled upon his lungs, and he rapidly declined. His strong +frame grew thinner and thinner, and his mind alternated between moods of +morbid bitterness and transient buoyancy. As the end approached, his +bitter moods were less frequent, and an unwonted tenderness came into +his words and tones. He went to the Lokonoma Springs, in the hills of +Napa county, and in their solitudes he adjusted himself to the great +change that was drawing near. The capacious blue sky that arched above +him, the sighing of the gentle breeze through the solemn pines, the +repose of the encircling mountains, bright with sunrise, or purpling in +the twilight, distilled the soothing influences of nature into his +spirit, and there was a great calm within. Beyond those California hills +the hills of God rose in their supernal beauty before the vision of his +faith, and when the summons came for him one midnight, his soul leaped +to meet it in a ready and joyous response. On a white marble slab, at +the "Stone Church," in Suisun Valley, is this inscription: + +Rev. John Sanders. + +Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him +out of them all. + +The spring flowers were blooming on the grave when I saw it last. + + + +A Day. + +Ah, that blessed, blessed day! I had gone to the White Sulphur Springs, +in Napa County, to get relief from the effects of the California +poison-oak. Gay deceiver! With its tender green and pink leaves, it +looks as innocent and smiling as sin when it woos youth and ignorance. +Like sin, it is found everywhere in that beautiful land. Many antidotes +are used, but the only sure way of dealing with it is to keep away from +it. Again, there is an analogy: it is easier to keep out of sin than to +get out when caught. These soft, pure white sulphur waters work miracles +of healing, and attract all sorts of people. The weary and broken down +man of business comes here to sleep, and eat, and rest; the woman of +fashion, to dress and flirt; the loudly-dressed and heavily-bejeweled +gambler, to ply his trade; happy bridal couples, to have the world to +themselves; successful and unsuccessful politicians, to plan future +triumphs or brood over defeats; pale and trembling invalids, to seek +healing or a brief respite from the grave; families escaping from the +wind and fog of the bay, to spend a few weeks where they can find +sunshine and quiet--it is a little world in itself. The spot is every +way beautiful, but its chief charm is its isolation. Though within a +few hours' ride of San Francisco, and only two miles from a +railroad-station, you feel as if you were in the very heart of nature +--and so you are. Winding along the banks of a sparkling stream, the +mountains--great masses of leafy green--rise abruptly on either hand; +the road bends this way and that until a sudden turn brings you to a +little valley hemmed in all around by the giant hills. A bold, rocky +projection just above the main hotel gives a touch of ruggedness and +grandeur to the scene. How delicious the feeling of rest that comes over +you at once!--the world shut out, the hills around, and the sky above. + +It was in 1863, when the civil war was at its white heat. Circumstances +had given me undesired notoriety in that connection. I had been thrust +into the very vortex of its passion, and my name made the rallying-cry +of opposing elements in California. The guns of Manassas, Cedar +Mountain, and the Chickahominy, were echoed in the foothills of the +Sierras, and in the peaceful valleys of the far-away Pacific Coast. The +good sense of a practical, people prevented any flagrant outbreak on a +large scale, but here and there a too ardent Southerner said or did +something that gave him a few weeks' or months' duress at Fort Alcatraz, +and the honors of a bloodless martyrdom. I was then living at North +Beach, in full sight of that fortress. It was kindly suggested by +several of my brother editors that it would be a good place for me. +When, as my eye swept over the bay in the early morning, the first sight +that met my gaze was its rocky ramparts and bristling guns, the poet's +line would come to mind: "'T is distance lends enchantment to the view." +I was just as close as I wanted to be. "I have good quarters for you," +said the brave and courteous Captain McDougall, who was in command at +the fort; "and knowing your penchant, I will let you have the freedom of +a sunny corner of the island for fishing in good weather." The true +soldier is sometimes a true gentleman. + +The name and image of another Federal officer rise before me as I write. +It is that of the heroic soldier, General Wright, who went down with the +"Brother Jonathan," on the Oregon coast, in 1865. He was in command of +the Department of the Pacific during this stormy period of which I am +speaking. I had never seen him, and I had no special desire to make his +acquaintance. Somehow Fort Alcatraz had become associated with his name +for reasons already intimated. But, though unsought by me, an interview +did take place. + +"It has come at last!" was my exclamation as I read the note left by an +orderly in uniform notifying me that I was expected to report at the +quarters of the commanding-general the next day at ten o'clock. +Conscious of my innocence of treason or any other crime against the +Government or society, my pugnacity was roused by this summons. Before +the hour set for my appearance at the military headquarters, I was ready +for martyrdom or any thing else except Alcatraz. I didn't like that. The +island was too small, and too foggy and windy, for my taste. I thought +it best to obey the order I had received, and so, punctually at the +hour, I repaired to the headquarters on Washington Street, and ascending +the steps with a firm tread and defiant feeling, I entered the room. +General Mason, provost-marshal, a scholar and polished gentleman, +politely offered me a seat. + +"No; I prefer to stand," I said stiffly. + +"The General will see you in a few minutes," said he, resuming his work, +while I stood nursing my indignation and sense of wrong. + +In a little while General Wright entered--a tall and striking figure, +silver-haired, blue-eyed, ruddy faced, with a mixture of the dash of the +soldier and the benignity of a bishop. + +Declining also his cordial invitation to be seated, I stood and looked +at him, still nursing defiance, and getting ready to wear a martyr's +crown. The General spoke: + +"Did you know, sir, that I am perhaps the most attentive reader of your +paper to be found in California?" + +"No; I was not aware that I had the honor of numbering the +commanding-general of this department among my readers." (This was +spoken with severe dignity.) + +"A lot of hotheads have for sometime been urging me to have you arrested +on the ground that you are editing and publishing a disloyal newspaper. +Not wishing to do any injustice to a fellowman, I have taken means every +week to obtain a copy of your paper, the Pacific Methodist; and allow me +to say, sir, that no paper has ever come into my family which is such a +favorite with all of us." + +I bowed, feeling that the spirit of martyrdom was cooling within me. The +General continued: + +"I have sent for you, sir, that I might say to you, Go on in your +present prudent and manly course, and while I command this department +you are as safe as I am." + +There I stood, a whipped man, my pugnacity all gone, and the martyr's +crown away out of my reach. I walked softly downstairs, after bidding +the General an adieu in a manner in marked contrast to that in which I +had greeted him at the beginning of the interview. Now that it is all +over, and the ocean winds have wailed their dirges for him so many long +years, I would pay a humble tribute to the memory of as brave and +knightly a man as ever wore epaulettes or fought under the stars and +stripes. He was of the type of Sidney Johnston, who fell at Shiloh, and +of McPherson, who fell at Kennesaw--all Californians; all Americans, +true soldiers, who had a sword for the foe in fair fight in the open +field, and a shield for woman, and for the noncombatant, the aged, the +defenseless. They fought on different sides to settle forever a quarrel +that was bequeathed to their generation, but their fame is the common +inheritance of the American people. The reader is beginning to think I +am digressing, but he will better understand what is to come after +getting this glimpse of those stormy days in the sixties. + +The guests at the Springs were about equally divided in their sectional +sympathies. The gentlemen were inclined to avoid all exciting +discussions, but the ladies kept up a fire of small arms. When the mails +came in, and the latest news was read, comments were made with flashing +eyes and flushed cheeks. + +The Sabbath morning dawned without a cloud. I awoke with the earliest +song of the birds, and was out before the first rays of the sun had +touched the mountaintops. The coolness was delicious, and the air was +filled with the sweet odors of aromatic shrubs and flowers, with a hint +of the pine-forests and balsam-thickets from the higher altitudes. +Taking a breakfast solus, pocket-bible in hand I bent my steps up the +gorge, often crossing the brook that wound its way among the thickets or +sung its song at the foot of the great overhanging cliffs. A shining +trout would now and then flash like a silver bar for a moment above the +shaded pools. With light step a doe descending the mountain came upon +me, and, gazing at me a moment or two with its soft eyes, tripped away. +In a narrow pass where the stream rippled over the pebbles between two +great walls of rock, a spotted snake crossed my path, hurrying its +movement in fright. Fear not, humble ophidian. The war declared between +thee and me in the fifteenth verse of the third chapter of Genesis is +suspended for this one day. Let no creature die today but by the act of +God. Here is the lake. How beautiful! how still! A landslide had dammed +the stream where it flowed between steep, lofty banks, backing the +waters over a little valley three or four acres in extent, shut in on +all sides by the wooded hills, the highest of which rose from its +northern margin. Here is my sanctuary, pulpit, choir, and altar. A +gigantic pine had fallen into the lake, and its larger branches served +to keep the trunk above the water as it lay parallel with the shore. +Seated on its trunk, and shaded by some friendly willows that stretch +their graceful branches above, the hours pass in a sort of subdued +ecstasy of enjoyment. It is peace, the peace of God. No echo of the +world's discords reaches me. The only sound I hear is the cooing of a +turtledove away off in a distant gorge of the mountain. It floats down +to me on the Sabbath air with a pathos as if it voiced the pity of +Heaven for the sorrows of a world of sin, and pain, and death. The +shadows of the pines are reflected in the pellucid depths, and ever and +anon the faintest hint of a breeze sighs among their branches overhead. +The lake lies without a ripple below, except when from time to time a +gleaming trout throws himself out of the water, and, falling with a +splash, disturbs the glassy surface, the concentric circles showing +where he went down. Sport on, ye shiny denizens of the deep; no angler +shall cast his deceitful hook into your quiet haunts this day. Through +the foliage of the overhanging boughs the blue sky is spread, a thin, +fleecy cloud at times floating slowly along like a watching angel, and +casting a momentary shadow upon the watery mirror below. That sky, so +deep and so solemn, woos me--lifts my thought till it touches the +Eternal. What mysteries of being lie beyond that sapphire sea? What +wonders shall burst upon the vision when this mortal shall put on +immortality? I open the Book and read. Isaiah's burning song makes new +music to my soul attuned. David's harp sounds a sweeter note. The words +of Jesus stir to diviner depths. And when I read in the twenty-first +chapter of Revelation the Apocalyptic promise of the new heavens and the +new earth, and of the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, +a new glory seems to rest upon sky, mountain forest, and lake, and my +soul is flooded with a mighty joy. I am swimming in the Infinite Ocean. +Not beyond that vast blue canopy is heaven; it is within my own ravished +heart! Thus the hours pass, but I keep no note of their flight, and the +evening shadows are on the water before I come back to myself and the +world. O hallowed day! O hallowed spot! foretaste and prophecy to the +weary and burden-bowed soul of the new heavens and the new earth where +its blessed ideal shall be a more blessed reality! + +It is nearly dark when I get back to the hotel. Supper is over, but I am +not hungry--I have feasted on the bread of angels. + +"Did you know there was quite a quarrel about you this morning?" asks +one of the guests. + +The words jar. In answer to my look of inquiry, he proceeds: + +"There was a dispute about your holding a religious service at the +picnic grounds. They made it a political matter--one party threatened +to leave if you did preach, the other threatened to leave if you did not +preach. There was quite an excitement about it until it was found that +you were gone, and then everybody quieted down." + +There is a silence. I break it by telling them how I spent the day, and +then they are very quiet. + +The next Sabbath every soul at the place united in a request for a +religious service, the list headed by a high-spirited and brilliant +Pennsylvania lady who had led the opposing forces the previous Sunday. + + + +Winter-Blossomed. + +I think I saw him the first Sunday I preached in San Jose, in 1856. He +was a notable-looking man. I felt attracted toward him by that +indefinable sympathy that draws together two souls born to be friends. I +believe in friendship at first sight. Who that ever had a real friend +does not? Love at first sight is a different thing--it may be divine +and eternal, or it may be a whim or a passing fancy. Passion blurs and +blinds in the region of sexual love: friendship is revealed in its own +white light. + +I was introduced after the service to the stranger who had attracted my +attention, and who had given the youthful preacher such a kind and +courteous hearing. + +"This is Major McCoy." + +He was a full head higher than anybody else as he stood in the aisle. He +bowed with courtly grace as he took my hand, and his face lighted with a +smile that had in it something more than a conventional civility. I felt +that there was a soul beneath that dignified and courtly exterior. His +head displayed great elevation of the cranium, and unusual breadth of +forehead. It was what is called an intellectual head; and the lines +around the eyes showed the traces of thought, and, as it seemed to me, a +tinge of that sadness that nearly always lends its charm to the best +faces. + +"I have met a man that I know I shall like," was my gratified +exclamation to the mistress of the parsonage, as I entered. + +And so it turned out. He became one of the select circle to whom I +applied the word friend in the sacredest sense. This inner circle can +never be large. If you unduly enlarge it you dilute the quality of this +wine of life. We are limited. There is only One Heart large enough to +hold all humanity in its inmost depths. + +My new friend lived out among the sycamores on the New Almaden Road, a +mile from the city, and the cottage in which he lived with his cultured +and loving household was one of the social paradises of that beautiful +valley in which the breezes are always cool, and the flowers never fade. + +My friend interested me more and more. He had been a soldier, and in the +Mexican war won distinction by his skill and valor. He was with Joe Lane +and his gallant Indianians at Juamantla, and his name was specially +mentioned among those whose fiery onsets had broken the lines of the +swarthy foe, and won against such heavy odds the bloody field. He was +seldom absent from church on Sunday morning, and now and then his +inquiring, thoughtful face would be seen in my smaller audience at +night. One unwelcome fact about him pained me, while it deepened my +interest in him. + +He was a skeptic. Bred to the profession of medicine and surgery, he +became bogged in the depths of materialistic doubt. The microscope drew +his thoughts downward until he could not see beyond second causes. The +soul, the seat of which the scalpel could not find, he feared did not +exist. The action of the brain, like that of the heart and lungs, seemed +to him to be functional; and when the organ perished did not its +function cease forever? He doubted the fact of immortality, but did not +deny it. This doubt clouded his life. He wanted to believe. His heart +rebelled against the negations of materialism, but his intellect was +entangled in its meshes. The Great Question was ever in his thought, and +the shadow was ever on his path. He read much on both sides, and was +always ready to talk with any from whom he had reason to hope for new +light or a helpful suggestion. Did he also pray? We took many long rides +and had many long talks together. Pausing under the shade of a tree on +the highway, the hours would slip away while we talked of life and +death, and weighed the pros and cons of the mighty hope that we might +live again, until the sun would be sinking into the sea behind the Santa +Cruz Mountains, whose shadows were creeping over the valley. He believed +in a First Cause. The marks of design in Nature left in his mind no room +to doubt that there was a Designer. + +"The structure and adaptations of the horse harnessed to the buggy in +which we sit, exhibit the infinite skill of a Creator." + +On this basis I reasoned with him in behalf of all that is precious to +Christian faith and hope, trying to show (what I earnestly believe) +that, admitting the existence of God, it is illogical to stop short of a +belief in revelation and immortality. + +The rudest workman would not fling The fragments of his work away, If +every useless bit of clay He trod on were a sentient thing. + +And does the Wisest Worker take Quick human hearts, instead of stone, +And hew and carve them one by one, Nor heed the pangs with which they +break? + +And more: if but creation's waste, Would he have given us sense to yearn +For the perfection none can earn, And hope the fuller life to taste? + +I think, if we most cease to be, It is cruelty refined To make the +instincts of our mind Stretch out toward eternity. + +Wherefore I welcome Nature's cry, As earnest of a life again, Where +thought shall never be in vain, And doubt before the light shall fly. + +My talks with him were helpful to me if not to him. In trying to remove +his doubts my own faith was confirmed, and my range of thought enlarged. +His reverent spirit left its impress upon mine. + +"McCoy is a more religious man than either you or I, Doctor," said Tod +Robinson to me one day in reply to a remark in which I had given +expression to my solicitude for my doubting friend. + +Yes, strange as it may seem, this man who wrestled with doubts that +wrung his soul with intense agony, and walked in darkness under the veil +of unbelief; had a healthful influence upon me because the attitude of +his soul was that of a reverent inquirer, not that of a scoffer. + +The admirable little treatise of Bishop McIlvaine, on the "Evidences of +Christianity," cleared away some of his difficulties. A sermon of Bishop +Kavanaugh, preached at his request, was a help to him. (That wonderful +discourse is spoken of elsewhere in this volume.) + +A friend of his lay dying at Redwood City. This friend, like himself; +was a skeptic, and his doubts darkened his way as he neared the border +of the undiscovered country. McCoy went to see him. The sick man, in the +freedom of long friendship, opened his mind to him. The arguments of the +good Bishop were yet fresh in McCoy's mind, and the echoes of his mighty +appeals were still sounding in his heart. Seated by the dying man, he +forgot his own misgivings, and with intense earnestness pointed the +struggling soul to the Saviour of sinners. + +"I did not intend it, but I was impelled by a feeling I could not +resist. I was surprised and strangely thrilled at my own words as I +unfolded to my friend the proofs of the truth of Christianity, +culminating in the incarnation, death, and resurrection, of Jesus +Christ. He seemed to have grasped the truths as presented, a great calm +came over him, and he died a believer. No incident of my life has given +me a purer pleasure than this; but it was a strange thing! Nobody could +have had access to him as I had--I, a doubter and a stumbler all my +life; it looks like the hand of God!" + +His voice was low, and his eyes were wet as he finished the narration. + +Yes, the hand of God was in it--it is in every good thing that takes +place on earth. By the bedside of a dying friend, the undercurrent of +faith in his warily and noble heart swept away for the time the +obstructions that were in his thought, and bore him to the feet of the +blessed, pitying Christ, who never breaks a bruised reed. I think he had +more light, and felt stronger ever after. + +Death twice entered his home-circle--once to convey a budding flower +from the earth-home to the skies, and again like a lightning-stroke +laying young manhood low in a moment. The instinct within him, stronger +than doubt, turned his thought in those dark hours toward God. The ashes +of the earthly hopes that had perished in the fire of fierce calamity, +and the tears of a grief unspeakable, fertilized and watered the seed of +faith which was surely in his heart. The hot furnace-fire did not harden +this finely-tempered soul. But still he walked in darkness, doubting, +doubting, doubting all he most wished to believe. It was the infirmity +of his constitution, and the result of his surroundings. He went into +large business enterprises with mingled success and disappointment. He +went into politics, and though he bore himself nobly and gallantly, it +need not be said that that vortex does not usually draw those who are +within its whirl heavenward. He won some of the prizes that were fought +for in that arena where the noblest are in danger of being soiled, and +where the baser metal sinks surely to the bottom by the inevitable force +of moral gravitation. + +From time to time we were thrown together, and I was glad to know that +the Great Question was still in his thought, and the hunger for truth +was still in his heart. Ill health sometimes made him irritable and +morbid, but the drift of his inner nature was unchanged. His mind was +enveloped in mists, and sometimes tempests of despair raged within him; +but his heart still thirsted for the water of life. + +A painful and almost fatal railway accident befell him. He was taken to +his ranch among the quiet hills of Shasta County. This was the final +crisis in his life. Shut out from the world, and shut in with his own +thoughts and with God, he reviewed his life and the argument that had so +long been going on in his mind. He was now quiet enough to hear +distinctly the Still Small Voice whose tones he could only half discern +amid the clamors of the world when he was a busy actor on its stage. +Nature spoke to him among the hills, and her voice is God's. The great +primal instincts of the soul, repressed in the crowd or driven into the +background by the mob of petty cares and wants, now had free play in the +nature of this man whose soul had so long cried out of the depths for +the living God. He prayed the simple prayer of trust at which the gate +flies open for the believing soul to enter into the peace of God. He was +born into the new life. The flower that had put forth its abortive buds +for so many seasons, burst into full bloom at last. With the mighty joy +in his heart, and the light of the immortal hope beaming upon him, he +passed into the World of Certainties. + + + +A Virginian in California. + +"Hard at it, are you, uncle?" + +"No, sah--I's workin' by de day, an' I an't a-hurtin' myself." + +This answer was given with a jolly laugh as the old man leaned on his +pick and looked at me. + +"You looked so much like home-folks that I felt like speaking to you. +Where are you from?" + +"From Virginny, sah!" (pulling himself up to his full height as he +spoke). "Where's you from, Massa?" + +"I was brought up partly in Virginia too?" + +"Wbar'bouts, in Virginny?" + +"Mostly in Lynchburg." + +"Lynchburg! dat's whar I was fotched up. I belonged to de Widder Tate, +dat lived on de New London Road. Gib me yer han', Massa!" + +He rushed up to the buggy, and taking my extended hand in his huge fist +he shook it heartily, grinning with delight. + +This was Uncle Joe, a perfect specimen of the old Virginia "Uncle," who +had found his way to California in the early days. Yes, he was a perfect +specimen--black as night, his lower limbs crooked, arms long, hands and +feet very large. His mouth was his most striking feature. It was the +orator's mouth in size, being larger than that of Henry Clay--in fact, +it ran almost literally from ear to ear. When he opened it fully, it was +like lifting the lid of a box. + +Uncle Joe and I became good friends at once. He honored my ministry with +his presence on Sundays. There was a touch of dandyism in him that then +and there came out. Clad in a blue broadcloth dress-coat of the olden +cut, vest to match, tight-fitting pantaloons, stove-pipe hat, and yellow +kid gloves, he was a gorgeous object to behold. He knew it, and there +was a pleasant self-consciousness in the way he bore himself in the +sanctuary. + +Uncle Joe was the heartiest laugher I ever knew. He was always as full +of happy life as a frisky colt or a plump pig. When he entered a knot of +idlers on the streets, it was the signal or a humorous uproar. His +quaint sayings, witty repartee, and contagious laughter, never failed. +He was as agile as a monkey, and his dancing was a marvel. For a dime he +would "cut the pigeon wing," or give a "double-shuffle" or "breakdown" +in a way that made the beholder dizzy. + +What was Uncle Joe's age nobody could guess--he had passed the line of +probable surmising. His own version of the matter on a certain occasion +was curious. We had a colored female servant--an old-fashioned aunty +from Mississippi--who, with a bandanna handkerchief on her head, went +about the house singing the old Methodist choruses so naturally that it +gave us a home-feeling to have her about us. Uncle Joe and Aunt Tishy +became good friends, and he got into the habit of dropping in at the +parsonage on Sunday evenings to escort her to church. On this particular +occasion I was in the little study adjoining the dining-room where Aunt +Tishy was engaged in cleaning away the dishes after tea. I was not +eavesdropping, but could not help hearing what they said. My name was +mentioned. + +"O yes," said Uncle Joe; "I knowed Massa Fitchjarals back dar in +Virginny. I use ter hear 'im preach dar when I was a boy." + +There was a silence. Aunt Tishy couldn't swallow that. Uncle Joe's +statement, if true, would have made me more than a hundred years old, or +brought him down to less than forty. The latter was his object; he +wanted to impress Aunt Tishy with the idea that he was young-enough to +be an eligible gallant to any lady. But it failed. That unfortunate +remark ruined Uncle Joe's prospects: Aunt Tishy positively refused to go +with him to church, and just as soon as he had left she went into the +sitting-room in high disgust, saying: + +"What made dat nigger tell me a lie like dat? Tut, tut, tut!" + +She cut him ever after, saying she would n't keep company with a liar, +"even if he was from de Souf." Aunt Tishy was a good woman, and had some +old-time notions. As a cook, she was discounted a little by the fact +that she used tobacco, and when it got into the gravy it was not +improving to its flavor. + +Uncle Joe was in his glory at a dinner-party, where he could wait on the +guests, give droll answers to the remarks made to call him out, and +enliven the feast by his inimitable and "catching" laugh. In a certain +circle no occasion of the sort was considered complete without his +presence There was no such thing as dullness when he was about. His +peculiar wit or his simplicity was brought out at a dinner-party one day +at Dr. Bascom's. There was a large gathering of the leading families of +San Jose and vicinity, and Uncle Joe was there in his jolliest mood. +Mrs. Bascom, whose wit was then the quickest and keenest in all +California, presided, and enough good things were said to have made a +reputation for Sidney Smith or Douglas Jerrold. Mrs. Bascom, herself a +Virginian by extraction, had engaged in a laughing colloquy with Uncle +Joe, who stood near the head of the table waving a bunch of peacock's +feathers to keep off the flies. + +"Missus, who is yer kinfolks back dar in Virginny, any way?" + +The names of several were mentioned. + +"Why, dem's big folks," said Uncle Joe. + +"Yes," said she, laughingly; "I belong to the first families of +Virginia." + +"I don't know 'bout dat, Missus. I was dar 'fore you was, an' I don't +'long to de fus' families!" + +He looked at it from a chronological rather than a genealogical +standpoint, and, strange to say, the familiar phrase had never been +heard by him before. + +Uncle Joe joined the Church. He was sincere in his profession. The proof +was found in the fact that he quit dancing. No more "pigeon wings," +"double-shuffles," or "breakdowns," for him--he was a "perfessor." He +was often tempted by the offer of coin, but he stood firm. + +"No, sah; I's done dancin', an' don't want to be discommunicated from de +Church," he would say, good-naturedly, as he shied off, taking himself +away from temptation. + +A very high degree of spirituality could hardly be expected from Uncle +Joe at that late day; but he was a Christian after a pattern of his own +--kind-hearted, grateful, simple-minded, and full of good humor. His +strength gradually declined, and he was taken to the county hospital, +where his patience and cheerfulness conciliated and elicited kind +treatment from everybody. His memories went back to old Virginia, and +his hopes looked up to the heaven of which his notions were as simple as +those of a little child. In the simplicity of a child's faith he had +come to Jesus, and I doubt not was numbered among his little ones. Among +the innumerable company that shall be gathered on Mount Zion from every +kindred, tribe, and tongue, I hope to meet my humble friend, Uncle Joe. + + + +At the End. + +Among my acquaintances at San Jose, in 1863, was a young Kentuckian who +had come down from the mines in bad health. The exposure of mining-life +had been too severe for him. It took iron constitutions to stand all day +in almost ice-cold water up to the waist with a hot sun pouring down its +burning rays upon the head and upper part of the body. Many a poor +fellow sunk under it at once, and after a few days of fever and delirium +was taken to the top of an adjacent hill and laid to rest by the hands +of strangers. Others, crippled by rheumatic and neuralgic troubles, +drifted into the hospitals of San Francisco, or turned their faces sadly +toward the old homes which they had left with buoyant hopes and elastic +footsteps. Others still, like this young Kentuckian, came down into the +valleys with the hacking cough and hectic flush to make a vain struggle +against the destroyer that had fastened upon their vitals, nursing often +a vain hope of recovery to the very last. Ah, remorseless flatterer! as +I write these lines, the images of your victims crowd before my vision: +the strong men that grew weak, and pale, and thin, but fought to the +last inch for life; the noble youths who were blighted just as they +began to bloom; the beautiful maidens etherealized into almost more than +mortal beauty by the breath of the death-angel, as autumn leaves, +touched by the breath of winter, blush with the beauty of decay. My +young friend indulged no false hopes. He knew he was doomed to early +death, and did not shrink from the thought. One day, as we were +conversing in a store uptown, he said: + +"I know that I have at most but a few months to live, and I want to +spend them in making preparation to die. You will oblige me by advising +me what books to read. I want to get clear views of what I am to do, and +then do it." + +It need scarcely be said that I most readily complied with his request, +and that first and chiefly I advised him to consult the Bible, as the +light to his path and the lamp to his feet. Other books were suggested, +and a word with regard to prayerful reading was given, and kindly +received. + +One day I went over to see my friend. Entering his room, I found him +sitting by the fire with it table by his side, on which was lying a +Bible. There was an unusual flush in his face, and his eye burned with +unusual brightness. + +"How are you today?" I asked. + +"I am annoyed, sir--I am indignant," he said. + +"What is the matter?" + +"Mr. ----, the--preacher, has just left me. He told me that my soul cannot +be saved unless I perform two miracles: I must, he said, think of +nothing but religion, and be baptized by immersion. I am very weak, and +cannot fully control my mental action--my thoughts will wander in spite +of myself. As to being put under the water, that would be immediate +death; it would bring on a hemorrhage of the lungs, and kill me." + +He leaned his head on the table and panted for breath, his thin chest +heaving. I answered: + +"Mr.--is a good man, but narrow. He meant kindly in the foolish words +he spoke to you. No man, sick or well, can so control the action of his +mind as to force his thoughts wholly into one channel. I cannot do it, +neither can any other man. God requires no such absurdity of you or +anybody else. As to being immersed, that seems to be a physical +impossibility, and he surely does not demand what is impossible. My +friend, it really makes little difference what Mr.--says,or what I say, +concerning this matter. What does God say? Let us see." + +I took up the Bible, and he turned a face upon me expressing the most +eager interest. The blessed Book seemed to open of itself to the very +words that were wanted. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the +Lord pitieth them that fear him." "He knoweth our frame, and remembereth +that we are dust." "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters." + +Glancing at him as I read, I was struck with the intensity of his look +as he drank in every word. A traveler dying of thirst in the desert +could not clutch a cup of cold water more eagerly than he grasped these +tender words of the pitying Father in heaven. + +I read the words of Jesus: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are +heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." "Him that cometh unto me I will +in no wise east out." + +"This is what God says to you, and these are the only conditions of +acceptance. Nothing is said about any thing but the desire of your heart +and the purpose of your soul. O my friend, these words are for you!" + +The great truth flashed upon his mind, and flooded it with light. He +bent his head and wept. We knelt and prayed together, and when we rose +from our knees he said softly, as the tears stole, down his face: + +"It is all right now--I see it clearly; I see it clearly!" + +We quietly clasped hands, and sat in silent sympathy. There was no need +for any words from me; God had spoken, and that was enough. Our hearts +were singing together the song without words. + +"You have found peace at the cross--let nothing disturb it," I said, as +he pressed my hand at the door as we left. + +It never was disturbed. The days that had dragged so wearily and +anxiously during the long, long months, were now full of brightness. A +subdued joy shone in his face, and his voice was low and tender as he +spoke of the blessed change that had passed upon him. The Book whose +words had been light and life to him was often in his hand, or lay open +on the little table in his room. He never lost his hold upon the great +truth he had grasped, nor abated in the fullness of his joy. I was with +him the night he died. He knew the end was at hand, and the thought +filled him with solemn joy. His eyes kindled, and his wasted features +fairly blazed with rapture as he said, holding my hand with both of his: + +"I am glad it will all soon, be over. My peace has been unbroken since +that morning when God sent you to me. I feel a strange, solemn joy a the +thought that I shall soon know all." + +Before daybreak the great mystery was disclosed to him, and as he lay in +his coffin next day, the smile that lingered on his lips suggested the +thought that he had caught a hint of the secret while yet in the body. + + + +Among the casual hearers that now and then dropped in to hear a sermon +in Sonora, in the early days of my ministry there, was a man who +interested me particularly. He was at that time editing one of the +papers of the town, which sparkled with the flashes of his versatile +genius. He was a true Bohemian, who had seen many countries, and knew +life in almost all its phases. He had written a book of adventure which +found many readers and admirers. An avowed skeptic, he was yet +respectful in his allusions to sacred things, and I am sure his +editorial notices of the pulpit efforts of a certain young preacher who +had much to learn were more than just. He was a brilliant talker, with a +vein of enthusiasm that was very delightful. His spirit was generous and +frank, and I never heard from his lips an unkind word concerning any +human being. Even his partisan editorials were free from the least tinge +of asperity--and this is a supreme test of a sweet and courteous +nature. In our talks he studiously evaded the one subject most +interesting to me. With gentle and delicate skill he parried all my +attempts to introduce the subject of religion in our conversations. + +"I can't agree with you on that subject, and we will let it pass" he +would say, with a smile, and then he would start some other topic, and +rattle on delightfully in his easy, rapid way. + +He could not stay long at a place, being a confirmed wanderer. He left +Sonora, and I lost sight of him. Retaining. a very kindly feeling for +this gentle-spirited and pleasant adventurer, I was loth thus to lose +all trace of him. Meeting a friend one day, on J Street, in the city of +Sacramento, he said: + +"Your old friend D--is at the Golden Eagle hotel. You ought to go and +see him." + +I went at once. Ascending to the third story, I found his room, and, +knocking at the door, a feeble voice bade me enter. I was shocked at the +spectacle that met my gaze. Propped in an armchair in the middle of the +room, wasted to a skeleton, and of a ghastly pallor, sat the unhappy +man. His eyes gleamed with an unnatural brightness, and his features +wore a look of intense suffering. + +"You have come too late, sir," he said, before I had time to say a word. +"You can do me no good now. I have been sitting in this chair three +weeks. I could not live a minute in any other position, Hell could not +be worse than the tortures I have suffered! I thank you for coming to +see me, but you can do me no good--none, none!" + +He paused, panting for breath; and then he continued, in a soliloquizing +way: + +"I played the fool, making a joke of what was no joking matter. It is +too late. I can neither think nor pray, if praying would do any good. I +can only suffer, suffer, suffer!" + +The painful interview soon ended. To every cheerful or hopeful +suggestion which I made he gave but the one reply: + +"Too late!" + +The unspeakable anguish of his look, as his eyes followed me to the +door, haunted me for many a day, and the echo of his words, "Too late!" +lingered sadly upon my ear. When I saw the announcement of his death, a +few days afterward, I asked myself the solemn question, Whether I had +dealt faithfully with this lighthearted, gifted man when he was within +my reach. His last rook is before me now, as I pencil these lines. + + + +"John A--is dying over on the Portrero, and his family wants you to go +over and see him." + +It was while I was pastor in San Francisco. A--was a member of my +Church, and lived on what was called the Portrero, in the southern part +of the city, beyond the Long Bridge. It was after night when I reached +the little cottage on the slope above the bay. + +"He is dying and delirious," said a member of the family, as I entered +the room where the sick man lay. His wife, a woman of peculiar traits +and great religious fervor, and a large number of children and +grandchildren, were gathered in the dying man's chamber and the +adjoining rooms. The sick man--a man of large and powerful frame--was +restlessly tossing and roving his limbs, muttering incoherent words, +with now and then a burst of uncanny laughter. When shaken, he would +open his eyes for an instant, make some meaningless ejaculation, and +then they would close again. The wife was very anxious that he should +have a lucid interval while I was there. + +"O I cannot bear to have him die without a word of farewell and +comfort!" she said, weeping. + +The hours wore on, and the dying man's pulse showed that he was sinking +steadily. Still he lay unconscious, moaning and gibbering, tossing from +side to side as far as his failing strength permitted. His wife would +stand and gaze at him a few moments, and then walk the floor in agony. + +"He can't last much longer," said a visitor, who felt his pulse and +found it almost gone, while his breathing became more labored. We waited +in silence. A thought seemed to strike the wife. Without saying a word, +she climbed upon the bed, took her dying husband's head upon her lap, +and, bending close above his face, began to sing. It was a melody I had +never heard before--low, and sweet, and quaint. The effect was weird +and thrilling as the notes fell tremulous from the singer's lips in the +hush of that dead hour of the night. Presently the dying man became more +quiet, and before the song was finished he opened his eyes as a smile +swept over his face, and as his glance fell on me I saw that he knew me. +He called my name, and looked up in the face that bent above his own, +and kissed it. + +"Thank God!" his wife exclaimed, her hot tears falling on his face, that +wore a look of strange serenity. Then she half whispered to me, her face +beaming with a softened light: + +"That old song was one we used to sing together when we were first +married in Baltimore." + +On the stream of music and memory he had floated back to consciousness, +called by the love whose instinct is deeper and truer than all the +science and philosophy in the world. + +At dawn he died, his mind clear, and the voice of prayer in his ears, +and a look of rapture in his face. + +Dan W--, whom I had known in the mines in the early days, had come to +San Jose about the time my pastorate in the place began. He kept a +meat-market, and was a most genial, accommodating, and good-natured +fellow. Everybody liked him, and he seemed to like everybody. His animal +spirits were unfailing, and his face never revealed the least trace of +worry or care. He "took things easy," and never quarreled with his luck. +Such men are always popular, and Dan was a general favorite, as the +generous and honest fellow deserved to be. Hearing that he was very +sick, I went to see him. I found him very low, but he greeted me with a +smile. + +"How are you today, Dan?" I asked, in the offhand way of the old times. + +"It is all up with me, I guess," he replied, pausing to get breath +between the words; "the doctor says I can't get out of this--I must +leave in a day or two." + +He spoke in a matter-of-fact way, indicating that he intended to take +death, as he had taken life, easy. + +"How do you feel about changing worlds, my old friend?" + +"I have no say in the matter. I have got to go, and that is all there is +of it." + +That was all I ever got out of him. He told me he had not been to church +for ten years, as "it was not in his line." He did not understand +matters of that sort, he said, as his business was running a +meat-market. He intended no disrespect to me or to sacred things--this +was his way of putting the matter in his simple-heartedness. + +"Shall I kneel here and pray with you?" I asked. + +"No; you needn't take the trouble, parson," he said, gently; "you see +I've got to go, and that's all there is of it. I don't understand that +sort of thing--it's not in my, line, you see. I've been in the meat +business." + +"Excuse me, my old friend, if I ask if you do not, as a dying man, have +some thoughts about God and eternity?" + +"That's not in my line, and I couldn't do much thinking now any way. +It's all right, parson--I've got to go, and Old Master will do right +about it." + +Thus he died without a prayer, and without a fear, and his case is left +to the theologians who can understand it, and to the "Old Master" who +will do right. + + + +I was called to see a lady who was dying at North Beach, San Francisco. +Her history was a singularly sad one, illustrating the ups and downs of +California life in a startling manner. From opulence to poverty, and +from poverty to sorrow, and from sorrow to death--these were the acts +in the drama, and the curtain was about to fall on the last. On a +previous visit I had pointed the poor sufferer to the Lamb of God, and +prayed at her bedside, leaving her calm and tearful. Her only daughter, +a sweet, fresh girl of eighteen, had two years ago betrothed herself to +a young man from Oregon, who had come to San Francisco to study a +profession. The dying mother had expressed a desire to see them married +before her death, and I had been sent for to perform the ceremony. + +"She is unconscious, poor thing!" said a lady who was in attendance, +"and she will fail of her dearest wish." + +The dying mother lay with a flushed face, breathing painfully, with +closed eyes, and moaning piteously. Suddenly her eyes opened, and she +glanced inquiringly around the room. They understood her. The daughter +and her betrothed were sent for. The mother's face brightened as they +entered, and she turned to me and said, in a faint voice: + +"Go on with the ceremony, or it will be too late for me. God bless you, +darling!" she added as the daughter bent down sobbing, and kissed her. + +The bridal couple kneeled together by the bed of death, and the +assembled friends stood around in solemn silence, while the beautiful +formula of the Church was repeated, the dying mother's eyes resting upon +the kneeling daughter with an expression of unutterable tenderness. When +the vows were taken that made them one, and their hands were clasped in +token of plighted faith, she drew them both to her in a long embrace, +and then almost instantly closed her eyes with a look of infinite +restfulness, and never opened them again. + + + +Of the notable men I met in the mines in the early days, there was one +who piqued and puzzled my curiosity. He had the face of a saint with the +habits of a debauchee. His pale and student-like features were of the +most classic mold, and their expression singularly winning, save when at +times a cynical sneer would suddenly flash over them like a cloud-shadow +over a quiet landscape. He was a lawyer, and stood at the head of the +bar. He was an orator whose silver voice and magnetic qualities often +kindled the largest audiences into the wildest enthusiasm. Nature had +denied him no gift of body or mind requisite to success in life; but +there was a fatal weakness in his moral constitution. He was an +inveterate gambler, his large professional earnings going into the +coffers of the faro and monte dealers. His violations of good morals in +other respects were flagrant. He worked hard by day, and gave himself up +to his vices at night. Public opinion was not very exacting in those +days, and his failings were condoned by a people who respected force and +pluck, and made no close inquiries into a man's private life, because it +would have been no easy thing to find one who, on the score of +innocence, was entitled to cast the first stone. Thus he lived from year +to year, increasing his reputation as a lawyer of marked ability, and as +a politician whose eloquence in every campaign was a tower of strength +to his party. His fame spread until it filled the State, and his money +still fed his vices. He never drank, and that cool, keen intellect never +lost its balance, or failed him in any encounter on the hustings on at +the bar. I often met him in public, but he never was known to go inside +a church. Once, when in a street conversation I casually made some +reference to religion, a look of displeasure passed over his face, and +he abruptly left me. I was agreeably surprised when, on more than one +occasion, he sent me a substantial token of goodwill, but I was never +able to analyze the motive that prompted him to do so. This remembrance +softens the feelings with which these lines are penciled. He went to San +Francisco, but there was no change in his life. + +"It is the old story," said an acquaintance of whom I made inquiry +concerning him: "he has a large and lucrative practice, and the gamblers +get all he makes. He is getting gray, and he is failing a little. He is +a strange being." + +It happened afterward that his office and mine were in the same building +and on the same floor. As we met on the stairs, he would nod to me and +pass on. I noticed that he was indeed "failing." He looked-weary and +sad, and the cold or defiant gleam in his steel-gray eyes, was changed +into a wistful and painful expression that was very pathetic. I did not +dare to invade his reserve with any tender of sympathy. Joyless and +hopeless as he might be, I felt instinctively that he would play out his +drama alone. Perhaps this was a mistake on my part: he may have been +hungry for the word I did not speak. God knows. I was not lacking in +proper interest in his well-being, but I have since thought in such +cases it is safest to speak. + +"What has become of B--?" said my landlord one day as we met in the +hall. "I have been here to see him several times, and found his door +locked, and his letters and newspapers have not been touched. There is +something the matter, I fear." + +Instantly I felt somehow that there was a tragedy in the air, and I had +a strange feeling of awe as I passed the door of B--'s room., + +A policeman was brought, the lock forced, and we went in. A sickening +odor of chloroform filled the room. The sight that met our gaze made us +shudder. Across the bed was lying the form of a man partly dressed, his +head thrown back, his eyes staring upward, his limbs hanging loosely +over the bedside. + +"Is he dead?" was asked in a whisper. + +"No," said the officer, with his finger on B--'s wrist; "he is not dead +yet, but he will never wake out of this. He has been lying thus two or +three days." + +A physician was sent for, and all possible efforts made to rouse him, +but in vain. About sunset the pulse ceased to beat, and it was only a +lump of lifeless clay that lay there so still and stark. This was his +death--the mystery of his life went back beyond my knowledge of him, +and will only be known at the judgment-day. + + + +One of the gayest and brightest of all the young people gathered at a +May-day picnic, just across the bay from San Francisco, was Ada D--. +The only daughter of a wealthy citizen, living in one of the lovely +valleys beyond the coast-range of mountains, beautiful in person and +sunny in temper, she was a favorite in all the circle of her +associations. Though a petted child of fortune, she was not spoiled, +Envy itself was changed into affection in the presence of a spirit so +gentle, unassuming, and loving. She had recently been graduated from one +of the best schools, and her graces of character matched the brilliance +of her pecuniary fortune. + +A few days after the May-day festival, as I was sitting in my office, a +little before sunset, there was a knock at the door, and before I could +answer the messenger entered hastily, saying: + +"I want you to go with me at once to Amador Valley. Ada D--is dying, +and wishes to be baptized. We just have time for the six o'clock boat to +take us across the bay, where the carriage and horses are waiting for +us. The distance is thirty miles, and we must run a race against death." + +We started at once: no minister of Jesus Christ hesitates to obey a +summons like that. We reached the boat while the last taps of the last +bell were being given, and were soon at the landing on the opposite side +of the bay. Springing ashore, we entered the vehicle which was in +readiness. Grasping the reins, my companion touched up the spirited +team, and we struck across the valley. My driver was an old Californian, +skilled in all horse craft and road-craft. He spoke no word, putting his +soul and body into his work, determined, as he had said, to make the +thirty miles by nine o'clock. There was no abatement of speed after we +struck the hills: what was lost in going up was regained in going down. +The mettle of those California-bred horses was wonderful; the quick +beating of their hoofs upon the graveled road was as regular as the +motion of machinery, steam-driven. It was an exciting ride, and there +was a weirdness in the sound of the night-breeze floating by us, and +ghostly, shapes seemed looking at us from above and below, as we wound +our way through the hills, while the bright stars shone like +funeral-tapers over a world of death. Death! how vivid and awful was its +reality to me as I looked up at those shining worlds on high, and then +upon the earth wrapped in darkness below! Death! his sable coursers are +swift, and we may be too late! The driver shared my thoughts, and lashed +the panting horses to yet greater speed. My pulses beat rapidly as I +counted the moments. + +"Here we are!" he exclaimed, as we dashed down the hill and brought up +at the gate. "It is eight minutes to nine," he added, glancing at his +watch by the light of a lamp shining through the window. + +"She is alive, but speechless, and going fast," said the father, in a +broken voice, as I entered the house. + +He led me to the chamber of the dying girl; The seal of death was upon +her. I bent above her, and a look of recognition came into her eyes. Not +a moment was to be lost. + +"If you know me, my child, and can enter the meaning of what I say, +indicate the fact if you can." + +There was a faint smile and a slight but significant inclination of the +fair head as it lay enveloped with its wealth of chestnut curls. With +her hands folded on her breast, and her eyes turned upward, the dying +girl lay in listening attitude, while in a few words I explained the +meaning of the sacred rite and pointed her to the Lamb of God as the one +sacrifice for sin. The family stood round the bed in awed and tearful +silence. As the crystal sacramental drops fell upon her brow a smile +flashed quickly over the pale face, there was a slight movement of the +head--and she was gone! The upward look continued, and the smile never +left the fair, sweet face. We fell upon our knees, and the prayer that +followed was not for her, but for the bleeding hearts around the couch +where she lay smiling in death. + + + +Dave Douglass was one of that circle of Tennesseans who took prominent +parts in the early history of California. He belonged to the Sumner +County Douglasses, of Tennessee, and had the family warmth of heart, +impulsiveness, and courage, that nothing could daunt. In all the +political contests of the early days he took an active part, and was +regarded as an unflinching and unselfish partisan by his own party, and +as an openhearted and generous antagonist by the other. He was elected +Secretary of State, and served the people with fidelity and efficiency. +He was a man of a powerful physical frame, deep-chested, ruddy-, faced, +blue-eyed, with just enough shagginess of eyebrows and heaviness of the +under-jaw to indicate the indomitable pluck which was so strong an +element in his character. He was a true Douglass, as brave and true as +any of the name that ever wore the kilt or swung a claymore in the land +of Bruce. His was a famous Methodist family in Tennessee, and though he +knew more of politics than piety, he was a good friend to the Church, +and had regular preaching in the schoolhouse near his farm on the +Calaveras River. All the itinerants that traveled that circuit knew +"Douglass's Schoolhouse" as an appointment, and shared liberally in the +hospitality and purse of the General--(that was his title). + +"Never give up the fight!" he said to me, with flashing eye, the last +time I met him in Stockton, pressing my hand with a warm clasp. It was +while I was engaged in the effort to build a church in that place, and I +had been telling him of the difficulties I had met in the work. That +word and handclasp helped me. + +He was taken sick soon after. The disease had taken too strong a grasp +upon him to be broken. He fought bravely a losing battle for several +days. Sunday morning came, a bright, balmy day. It was in the early +summer. The cloudless sky was deep-blue, the sunbeams sparkled on the +bosom of the Calaveras, the birds were singing in the trees, and the +perfume of the flowers filled the air and floated in through the open +window to where the strong man lay dying. He had been affected with the +delirium of fever during most of his sickness, but that was past, and he +was facing death with an unclouded mind. + +"I think I am dying," he said, half inquiringly. + +"Yes--is there any thing we can do for you?" + +His eyes closed for a few moments, and his lips moved as if in mental +prayer. Opening his eyes, he said: + +"Sing one of the old camp-meeting songs." + +A preacher present struck up the hymn, "Show pity, Lord, O Lord +Forgive." + +The dying man, composed to rest, lay with folded hands and listened with +shortening breath and a rapt face, and thus he died, the words and the +melody that had touched his boyish heart among the far-off hills of +Tennessee being the last sounds that fell upon his dying ear. We may +hope that on that old camp-meeting song was wafted the prayer and trust +of a penitent soul receiving the kingdom of heaven as a little child. + + + +During my pastorate at Santa Rosa, one of my occasional hearers was John +I--. He was deputy-sheriff of Sonoma County, and was noted for his +quiet and determined courage. He was a man of few words, but the most +reckless desperado knew that he could not be trifled with. When there +was an arrest to be made that involved special peril, this reticent, +low-voiced man was usually intrusted with the undertaking. He was of the +good old Primitive Baptist stock from Caswell County, North Carolina, +and had a lingering fondness for the peculiar views of that people. He +had a weakness for strong drink that gave him trouble at times, but +nobody doubted his integrity any more than they doubted his courage. His +wife was an earnest Methodist, one of a family of sisters remarkable for +their excellent sense and strong religious characters. Meeting him one +day, just before my return to San Francisco, he said, with a warmth of +manner not common with him: + +"I am sorry you are going to leave Santa Rosa. You understand me, and if +anybody can do me any good, you are the man." + +There was a tremor in his voice as he spoke, and he held my hand in a +lingering grasp. + +Yes, I knew him. I had seen him at church on more than one occasion with +compressed lips struggling to conceal the strong emotion he felt, +sometimes hastily wiping away an unbidden tear. The preacher, when his +own soul is aglow and his sympathies all awakened and drawn out toward +his hearers, is almost clairvoyant at times in his perception of their +inner thoughts. I understood this man, though no disclosure had been +made to me in words. I read his eye, and marked the wishful and anxious +look that came over his face when his conscience was touched and his +heart moved. Yes, I knew him, for my sympathy had made me responsive, +and his words, spoken sadly, thrilled me, and rolled upon my spirit the +burden of a soul. His health, which had been broken by hardships and +careless living, began to decline more rapidly. I heard that he had +expressed a desire to see me, and made no delay in going to see him. I +found him in bed, and much wasted. + +"I am glad you have come. I have been wanting to see you," he said, +taking my hand. "I have been thinking of my duty to God for a good +while, and have felt more than anybody has suspected. I want to do +what I can and ought to do. You have made this matter a study, and +you ought to understand it. I want you to help me." + +We had many interviews, and I did what I could to guide a penitent +sinner to the sinner's Friend. He was indeed a penitent sinner--shut +out from the world and shut in with God, the merciful Father was +speaking to his soul, and all its depths were stirred. The patient, +praying wife had a wishful look in her eyes as I came out of his room, +and I knew her thought. God was leading him, and he was receptive of the +truth that saves. He had one difficulty. + +"I hate meanness, or any thing that looks like it. It does look mean for +me to turn to religion now that I am sick, after being so neglectful and +wicked when I was well." + +"That thought is natural to a manly soul, but there is a snare in it. +You are thinking what others may say, and your pride is touched. You are +dealing with God only. Ask only what will please him. The time for a man +to do his duty is when he sees it and feels the obligation. Let the past +go--you cannot undo it, but it may be forgiven. The present and an +eternal future are yours, my friend. + +"Do what will please God, and all will be right." + +The still waters were reached, and his soul lay at rest in the arms of +God. O sweet, sweet rest! infinitely sweet to the spirit long tossed +upon the stormy sea of sin and remorse. O peace of God, the inflow into +a human heart of the very life of the Lord! It is the hidden mystery of +love divine whispered to the listening ear of faith. It had come to him +by its own law when he was ready to receive it. The great change had +come to him--it looked out from his eyes and beamed from his face. + +He was baptized at night. The family had gathered in the room. In the +solemn hush of the occasion the whispers of the night-breeze could be +heard among the vines and flowers outside, and the rippling of the +sparkling waters of Santa Rosa Creek was audible. The sick man's face +was luminous with the light that was from within. The solemn rite was +finished, a tender and holy awe filled the room; it was the house of God +and the gate of heaven. The wife, who was sitting near a window, rose, +and noiselessly stepped to the bed, and without a word printed a kiss on +her husband's forehead, while the joy that flushed her features told +that the prayer of thirty years had been answered, We sung a hymn and +parted with tears of silent joy. In a little while he crossed the river +where we may mingle our voices again by and by. There is not money +enough in the California hills to buy the memory of that visit to Santa +Rosa. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of California Sketches, Second Series +by O. P. Fitzgerald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CALIFORNIA SKETCHES, SECOND SERIES *** + +***** This file should be named 12564.txt or 12564.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/6/12564/ + +Produced by David A. Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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