from babyhood to a splendid womanhood. She contributed freely to
entertainments for charity, by her Shakespearean readings and other
recitations, and happily prepared whole parties for private
theatricals. With such mental strain, she kept herself fit by Saturday
outings, in which were graciously included some of her pupils. At times
we went across the bay, in various directions, but oftenest we strove
through the sand to the ocean beach, stopping here and there to
botanize, and gather the sweet yellow and purple lupin, and to rest on
the limbs of the scrub-oaks. On the beach we roasted potatoes and made
coffee, and then ate ravenously. A happy gipsying it was, and she, the
queen, forgot her cares. Not a pebble at our feet, nor a floating
seaweed, nor a shell, nor a seal on the rock, but opened up an
instructive talk from our teacher, or started Charley Stoddard reciting
a poem, or set a girl singing. Before starting homeward, the whole
party, including Shirley, shoes and stockings off, waded into the surf,
and afterwards rested on the warm beds of sand. A fine comradeship,
that, and one that never died.
Shirley, I should also mention, wrote some respectable poetry. I have
fondly preserved, treasured, and cherished the original manuscript of a
poem written by her at the time Margaret Fuller Ossoli was lost by
shipwreck in 1850. This poem was included in my collection of
California poetry, but was not printed in Outcroppings. I append it to
this paper, of which it can hardly be considered an essential part.
I married and went to the mines, and our home was on the Mariposa
Grant. We lived on a bed of gold. Once, upon a visit to the city, I
found Shirley nervous and worn. Her vacation was about to begin. She
went home with me, and stayed in bed the first three days. Then she was
daily swung in a hammock under an oak. Soon we had horseback-rides, and
up the creek she again panned out gold. Later we set out in the
stage-coach for the hotel at the big Mariposa Grove. Mr. Lawrence put
us in charge of Mr. Galen Clark, a rare scholar, and the guardian of
the Big Tree Grove and of the Yosemite Valley. This charming man was
much interested in Shirley. From the hotel we took daily rides with him
through the great forest, and then made the twenty-five-mile
horseback-ride and found Mr. James M. Hutchings, of the Illustrated
California Magazine, awaiting us at the entrance to the valley. He
escorted us to his picturesque hotel, where he and his interesting wife
made our three weeks' stay most delightful. Down in the meadows we came
upon John Muir sawing logs. He dropped his work, and we three went
botanizing, and soon were learning all about the valley's formation as
he entrancingly talked. We met many tourists of distinction, and
Shirley forgot that she ever had a care, and on our way back she
galloped along recklessly.
At our home in Mariposa we invited friends to come and enjoy Shirley's
Shakespearean readings, chiefly comedy. In these Mr. Lawrence had a
happy part.
In time Shirley went to New York, to her niece, Genevieve Stebbins, who
was successful in a delightful line of art-work. Before leaving San
Francisco, her faithful pupils and other friends gave a musicale and
realized about two thousand dollars, which was presented her as a
loving gift. In the great metropolis her genius was recognized soon
after her arrival, and she was importuned to give lectures on art and
literature. The Field family, who delightedly discovered her, took her
to Europe, where she visited all the art-galleries, a treat that had
been a lifelong heart's desire. In New York she had at once made her
home with Dr. Ewer's widow and children, but, in the end, she went to
Morristown, New Jersey, where, it was said, she again happily met and
renewed her friendship with Bret Harte's accomplished and delightful
wife and her attractive children, while Bret Harte himself was
sojourning in Europe, a successful author. Mrs. John F. Swift, her
long-time appreciative friend, Charley Stoddard, myself, and others,
contributed to her pleasure by letters till the close of her perfect
life at Morristown, New Jersey, on February 9, 1906. No other woman has
left a more lasting impress on the California community. But back to
Rich Bar! Back to the gold-fields! DAME SHIRLEY is abroad, and again
she is weaving her wizard spell!
"ALONE"
A REMINISCENCE OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI
_By_ SHIRLEY LEE
Beneath thy spirit-eyes I stand alone,
Nor deem thee of the dead
As mournfully I gaze, sad-hearted one,
On that calm brow and head.
The starry crown of genius could not save
From woman's gift of grief;
The moaning billows o'er thy breast that have
Emblem thy life too brief.
O Margaret! my weak heart-pulses shiver
In wordless woe for thee,
Thy wasted tenderness, thy love that never
Might its fruition see.
Thou hadst no youth, O wondrous child! no youth
Haloed thy later life;
Sternly thy girl heart sought its solemn truth
In battle and in strife.
In thine own Northern home didst thou not live
"Alone," always "alone"?
What heart to thine uplifted heart could give
Ever an answering tone?
In suffering, labor, strife, we saw thee stand
With lips that would not moan,
While shone thy regal brow and eyes with grand
Aspirings all thine own.
At last among thy Romans thou didst find
A shrine for that large heart;
It understood thee not, the Northern mind,
But coldly shrunk apart,
When those pale lips--from whence, an hour agone,
Flew out, like rifted light,
Winged words of wit--murmured their wailed "Alone"
To the pitying midnight.
And I have read thy life, its mournful story
Of loneliness and blight;
But o'er its close there shines a solemn glory,
A setting star's trailed light.
Margaret! white-robed, thy hair unbound, thy veil,
Most like a bride wert thou
When Ocean clasped thee, and, with lips all pale
And icy, kissed thy brow.
And lovely as a white unfolded blossom
Lay the child Angelo,
Hushed to his dreamless flower-sleep on that bosom
Which would not let him go.
Husband, and wife, and child together flutter
Up to the great white throne,
Where nevermore may Margaret Fuller utter
That piteous "Alone!"
_The_ Contents
_The_ PRINTER'S FOREWORD _to this_ EDITION PAGE v
DAME SHIRLEY PAGE xxvii
BEING _a_ PAPER _prepared by_ MRS. MARY VIOLA TINGLEY LAWRENCE _to be
read before a_ SAN FRANCISCO _literary society_.
LETTER _the_ FIRST PART ONE PAGE 1
THE JOURNEY TO RICH BAR
A thousand people and but one physician. The author's husband seeks
health and business. Journey through deep snow, in midsummer, to reach
Rich Bar. The revivifying effect of mountain atmosphere. Arrival of
twenty-nine physicians in less than three weeks. The author's purpose
to leave San Francisco and join her husband at the mines. Direful
predictions and disapprobation of friends. Indelicacy of her position
among an almost exclusively male population. Indians, ennui, cold.
Leaves for Marysville. Scanty fare on way. Meets husband. Falls from
mule. An exhausting ride. A midnight _petit souper_ at Marysville.
Dr. C. leaves on muleback for Bidwell's Bar. The author follows in
springless wagon. Beautiful scenery. Marysville Buttes. Sierra Nevada.
Indian women, their near-nudity, beautiful limbs and lithe forms,
picturesqueness. Flower-seed gathering. Indian bread. Marvelous
handiwork of basketry. A dangerous precipice. A disclaimer of bravery.
Table Mountain. Arrival at Bidwell's Bar. Rejoins husband. Uninviting
quarters. Proceed to Berry Creek.
LETTER _the_ FIRST PART TWO PAGE 15
THE JOURNEY TO RICH BAR
A moonlit midsummer-night's ride on muleback. Joyous beginning. The
Indian trail lost. Camping out for the night. Attempts in morning to
find the trail. A trying ride in the fierce heat of midday. The trail
found. A digression of thirty miles. Lack of food, and seven more miles
to ride. To rest impossible. Mad joy when within sight of Berry Creek
Rancho. Congratulations upon escape from Indians on the trail.
Frenchman and wife murdered. The journey resumed. Arrival at the "Wild
Yankee's". A breakfast with fresh butter and cream. Indian bucks,
squaws, and papooses. Their curiosity. Pride of an Indian on his
ability to repeat one line of a song. Indian women. Extreme beauty of
their limbs; slender ankles and statuesque feet; haggardness of
expression and ugliness of features. Girl of sixteen, a "wildwood
Cleopatra," an exception to the general hideousness. The California
Indian not the Indian of the Leatherstocking tales. A stop at the
Buckeye Rancho. Start for Pleasant Valley Rancho. The trail again lost.
Camping out for the night. Growling bears. Arrive at Pleasant Valley
Rancho. Flea-haunted shanty. Beauty of the wilderness. Quail and deer.
The chaparrals, and their difficulty of penetration by the mules.
Escape from a rattlesnake. Descending precipitous hill on muleback.
Saddle-girth breaks. Harmless fall from the saddle. Triumphant entry
into Rich Bar. Tribute to mulekind. The Empire Hotel. "A huge shingle
palace."
LETTER _the_ SECOND PAGE 33
RICH BAR--ITS HOTELS AND PIONEER FAMILIES
The Empire Hotel, _the_ hotel of Rich Bar. The author safely
ensconced therein. California might be called the "Hotel State," from
the plenitude of its taverns, etc. The Empire the only two-story
building in Rich Bar, and the only one there having glass windows.
Built by gamblers for immoral purposes. The speculation a failure, its
occupants being treated with contempt or pity. Building sold for a few
hundred dollars. The new landlord of the Empire. The landlady, an
example of the wear and tear of crossing the plains. Left behind her
two children and an eight-months-old baby. Cooking for six people, her
two-weeks-old baby kicking and screaming in champagne-basket cradle.
"The sublime martyrdom of maternity". Left alone immediately after
infant's birth. Husband dangerously ill, and cannot help. A kindly
miner. Three other women at the Bar. The "Indiana girl". "Girl" a
misnomer. "A gigantic piece of humanity". "Dainty" habits and herculean
feats. A log-cabin family. Pretty and interesting children. "The
Miners' Home". Its petite landlady tends bar. "Splendid material for
social parties this winter."
LETTER _the_ THIRD PAGE 43
LIFE AND FORTUNE AT THE BAR-DIGGINGS
Flashy shops and showy houses of San Francisco. Rich Bar charmingly
fresh and original. A diminutive valley. Rio de las Plumas, or Feather
River. Rich Bar, the Barra Rica of the Spaniards. An acknowledgment of
"a most humiliating consciousness of geological deficiencies". Palatial
splendor of the Empire Hotel. Round tents, square tents, plank hovels,
log cabins, etc. "Local habitations" formed of pine boughs, and
covered with old calico shirts. The "office" of Dr. C. excites the
risibilities of the author. One of the "finders" of Rich Bar. Had not
spoken to a woman for two years. Honors the occasion by an "investment"
in champagne. The author assists in drinking to the honor of her
arrival at the Bar. Nothing done in California without the sanctifying
influence of the "spirit". History of the discovery of gold at Rich
Bar. Thirty-three pounds of gold in eight hours. Fifteen hundred
dollars from a panful of "dirt". Five hundred miners arrive at Rich Bar
in about a week. Smith Bar, Indian Bar, Missouri Bar, and other bars.
Miners extremely fortunate. Absolute wealth in a few weeks. Drunken
gamblers in less than a year. Suffering for necessaries of life. A mild
winter. A stormy spring. Impassable trails. No pack-mule trains arrive.
Miners pack flour on their backs for over forty miles. Flour sells at
over three dollars a pound. Subsistence on feed-barley. A voracious
miner. An abundance placed in storage.
LETTER _the_ FOURTH PAGE 55
ACCIDENTS--SURGERY--DEATH--FESTIVITY
Frightful accidents to which the gold-seeker is constantly liable.
Futile attempts of physician to save crushed leg of young miner.
Universal outcry against amputation. Dr. C, however, uses the knife.
Professional reputation at stake. Success attends the operation. Death
of another young miner, who fell into mining-shaft. His funeral.
Picturesque appearance of the miners thereat. Of what the miner's
costume consists. Horror of the author aroused in contemplation of the
lonely mountain-top graveyard. Jostling of life and death. Celebration
of the anniversary of Chilian independence. Participation of a certain
class of Yankees therein. The procession. A Falstaffian leader. The
feast. A twenty-gallon keg of brandy on the table, gracefully encircled
by quart dippers. The Chilenos reel with a better grace, the Americans
more naturally.
LETTER _the_ FIFTH PAGE 67
DEATH OF A MOTHER--LIFE OF PIONEER WOMEN
Death of one of the four pioneer women of Rich Bar. The funeral from
the log-cabin residence. Sickly ten-months-old baby moans piteously for
its mother. A handsome girl of six years, unconscious of her
bereavement, shocks the author by her actions. A monte-table cover as a
funeral pall. Painful feelings when nails are driven into coffin. The
extempore prayer. Every observance possible surrounded the funeral.
Visit to a canvas house of three "apartments". Barroom, dining-room,
kitchen with bed-closet. A sixty-eight-pound woman. "A magnificent
woman, a wife of the right sort". "Earnt her 'old man' nine hundred
dollars in nine weeks, by washing". The "manglers" and the "mangled".
Fortitude of refined California women pioneers. The orphaned girl a
"cold-blooded little wretch". Remorse of the author. "Baby decanters".
The gayety and fearlessness of the orphaned girl.
LETTER _the_ SIXTH PAGE 77
USE OF PROFANITY--UNCERTAINTY OF MINING
Prevalence of profanity in California. Excuses for its use. A mere slip
of the tongue, etc. Grotesqueness of some blasphemous expressions.
Sleep-killing mining machinery. What a flume is. Project to flume the
river for many miles. The California mining system a gambling or
lottery transaction. Miner who works his own claim the more successful.
Dr. C. a loser in his mining ventures. Another sleep-killer.
Bowling-alleys. Bizarre cant phrases and slang used by the miners.
"Honest Indian?" "Talk enough when horses fight". "Talk enough between
gentlemen". "I've got the dead-wood on him". "I'm going nary cent" (on
person mistrusted). All carry the freshness of originality to the ear
of the author.
LETTER _the_ SEVENTH PAGE 87
THE NEW LOG-CABIN HOME AT INDIAN BAR
Change of residence to Indian Bar. Whether to go to the new camp on
muleback over the hill, or on foot by crossing the river. The
water-passage decided upon. An escort of Indian Barians. Magnificence
of scenery on the way. Gold-miners at work. Their implements. "The
color". The Stars and Stripes on a lofty treetop. A camp of tents and
cabins. Some of calico shirts and pine boughs. Indian Bar described.
Mountains shut out the sun. The "Humbolt" (spelled without the _d_ on
the sign) the only hotel in the camp. A barroom with a dancing-floor. A
cook who plays the violin. A popular place. Clinking glasses and
swaggering drinkers. "No place for a lady". The log-cabin residence.
Its primitive, makeshift furnishings. The library. No churches,
society, etc. "No vegetables but potatoes and onions, no milk, no eggs,
no _nothing_."
LETTER _the_ EIGHTH PAGE 103
LIFE AND CHARACTERS AT INDIAN BAR
Ned, the mulatto cook and the Paganini of the Humboldt Hotel. A naval
character. His ecstasy upon hearing of the coming of the author to the
Bar. Suggestion of a strait-jacket for him. "The only petticoated
astonishment on this Bar". First dinner at the log cabin. Ned's
pretentious setting of the pine dining-table. The Bar ransacked for
viands. The bill of fare. Ned an accomplished violinist. "Chock," his
white accompanist. The author serenaded. An unappreciated "artistic"
gift. A guide of the Fremont expedition camps at Indian Bar. A
linguist, and former chief of the Crow Indians. Cold-blooded recitals
of Indian fights. The Indians near the Bar expected to make a murderous
attack upon the miners. The guide's council with them. Flowery reply of
the Indians. A studious Quaker. His merciless frankness and regard for
truth. "The Squire," and how he was elected justice of the peace. The
miners prefer to rule themselves.
LETTER _the_ NINTH PAGE 117
THEFT OF GOLD-DUST--TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT
The "Squire's" first opportunity to exercise his judicial power.
Holding court in a barroom. The jury "treated" by the Squire. Theft of
gold-dust, and arrest of suspect. A miners' meeting. Fears that they
would hang the prisoner. A regular trial decided upon, at the Empire,
Rich Bar, where the gold-dust was stolen. Suggestion of thrift.
Landlords to profit by trial, wherever held. Mock respect of the miners
for the Squire. Elect a president at the trial. The Squire allowed to
play at judge. Lay counsel for prosecution and defense. Ingenious
defense of the accused. Verdict of guilty. Light sentence, on account
of previous popularity and inoffensive conduct. Thirty-nine lashes, and
to leave the river. Owner of gold-dust indemnified by transfer of
thief's interest in a mine. A visit to Smith's Bar. Crossing the river
on log bridges Missouri Bar. Smith's a sunny camp, unlike Indian.
Frenchman's Bar, another sunny spot. "Yank," the owner of a log-cabin
store. Shrewdness and simplicity. Hopeless ambition to be "cute and
smart". The "Indiana girl" impossible to Yank. "A superior and splendid
woman, but no polish". Yank's "olla podrida of heterogeneous
merchandise". The author meets the banished gold-dust thief.
Subscription by the miners on his banishment. A fool's errand to
establish his innocence. An oyster-supper bet. The thief's statements
totally incompatible with innocence.
LETTER _the_ TENTH PAGE 133
AMATEUR MINING--HAIRBREADTH 'SCAPES, &C.
Three dollars and twenty-five cents in gold-dust. Sorry she learned the
trade. The resulting losses and suffering. Secret of the brilliant
successes of former gold-washeresses. Salting the ground by miners in
order to deceive their fair visitors. Erroneous ideas of the richness
of auriferous dirt resulting therefrom. Rarity of lucky strikes. Claim
yielding ten dollars a day considered valuable. Consternation and
near-disaster in the author's cabin. Trunk of forest giant rolls down
hill. Force broken by rock near cabin. Terror of careless woodman.
Another narrow escape at Smith's Bar. Pursuit and escape of woodman.
Two sudden deaths at Indian Bar. Inquest in the open. Cosmopolitan
gathering thereat. Wife of one of the deceased an advanced bloomer.
Animadversions on strong-minded bloomers seeking their rights.
California pheasant, the gallina del campo of the Spaniards. Pines and
dies in captivity. Smart, harmless earthquake-shocks.
LETTER _the_ ELEVENTH PAGE 149
ROBBERY, TRIAL, EXECUTION--MORE TRAGEDY
Theft of gold-dust. Arrest of two suspected miners. Trial and acquittal
at miners' meeting. Robbed persons still believe the accused guilty.
Suspects leave mountains. One returns, and plan for his detection
proves successful. Confronted with evidence of guilt, discloses, on
promise of immunity from prosecution, hiding-place of gold-dust.
Miners, however, try him, and on conviction he is sentenced to be
hanged one hour thereafter. Miners' mode of trial. Respite of three
hours. Bungling execution. Drunken miner's proposal for sign of guilt
or innocence. Corpse "enwrapped in white shroud of feathery
snowflakes". Execution the work of the more reckless. Not generally
approved. The Squire, disregarded, protested. Miners' procedure
compared with the moderation of the first Vigilance Committee of San
Francisco. Singular disappearance of body of miner. Returning to the
States with his savings, his two companions report their leaving him in
dying condition. Arrest and fruitless investigation. An unlikely
bequest of money. Trial and acquittal of the miner's companions. Their
story improbable, their actions like actual murder.
LETTER _the_ TWELFTH PAGE 163
A STORMY WINTER--HOLIDAY SATURNALIAS
Saturnalia in camp. Temptations of riches. Tribute to the miners.
Dreariness of camp-life during stormy winter weather. Christmas and
change of proprietors at the Humboldt. Preparations for a double
celebration. Muleback loads of brandy-casks and champagne-baskets.
Noisy procession of revelers. Oyster-and-champagne supper. Three days
of revelry. Trial by mock vigilance committee. Judgment to "treat the
crowd". Revels resumed on larger scale at New Year's. Boat-loads of
drunken miners fall into river. Saved by being drunk. Boat-load of
bread falls into river and floats down-stream. Pulley-and-rope device
for hauling boat across river. Fiddlers "nearly fiddled themselves into
the grave". Liquors "beginning to look scarce". Subdued and
sheepish-looking bacchanals. Nothing extenuated, nor aught set down in
malice. Boating on river. Aquatic plants. Bridge swept away in torrent.
Loss of canoe. Branch from moss-grown fir-tree "a cornice wreathed with
purple-starred tapestry". A New Year's present from the river. A
two-inch spotted trout. No fresh meat for a month. "Dark and ominous
rumors". Dark hams, rusty pork, etc., stored.
LETTER _the_ THIRTEENTH PAGE 177
SOCIABILITY AND EXCITEMENTS OF MINING-LIFE
Departure from Indian Bar of the mulatto Ned. His birthday-celebration
dinner, at which the New Year's piscatory phenomenon figures in the
bill of fare. A total disregard of dry laws at the dinner. Excitement
over reported discovery of quartz-mines. A complete humbug. Charges of
salting. Excitement renewed upon report of other new quartz-mines. Even
if rich, lack of proper machinery would render the working thereof
impossible. Prediction that quartz-mining eventually will be the most
profitable. Miners leave the river without paying their debts. Pursued
and captured. Miners' court orders settlement in full. Celebration, by
French miners on the river, of the Revolution of 1848. Invitation to
dine at best-built log cabin on the river. The habitation of five or
six young miners. A perfect marvel of a fireplace. Huge unsplit logs as
firewood. Window of glass jars. Possibilities in the use of empty glass
containers. Unthrift of some miners. The cabin, its furniture, store of
staple provisions, chinaware, cutlery. The dinner in the cabin. A cow
kept. Wonderful variety of makeshift candlesticks in use among the
miners. Dearth of butter, potatoes, onions, fresh meat, in camp.
Indian-summer weather at Indian Bar. A cozy retreat in the hills. A
present of feathered denizens of the mountains. Roasted for dinner.
LETTER _the_ FOURTEENTH PAGE 191
SPRINGTIDE--LINGUISTICS--STORMS--ACCIDENTS
The splendor of a March morning in the mountains of California. The
first bird of the season. Blue and red shirted miners a feature of the
landscape. "Wanderers from the whole broad earth". The languages of
many nations heard. How the Americans attempt to converse with the
Spanish-speaking population. "Sabe," "vamos," "poco tiempo," "si," and
"bueno," a complete lexicon of la lengua castellana, in the minds of
the Americans. An "ugly disposition" manifested when the speaker is not
understood. The Spaniards "ain't kinder like our folks," nor "folksy".
Mistakes not all on one side. Spanish proverb regarding certain
languages. Not complimentary to English. Stormy weather. Storm king a
perfect Proteus. River on a rampage. Sawmill carried away. Pastimes of
the miners during the storm. MS. account of storm sent in keg via river
to Marysville newspaper. Silversmith makes gold rings during storm.
Raffling and reraffling of same as pastime. Some natural gold rings.
Nugget in shape of eagle's head presented to author. Miners buried up
to neck in cave-in. Escape with but slight injury. Miner stabbed
without provocation in drunken frolic. Life despaired of at first. No
notice taken of affair.
LETTER _the_ FIFTEENTH PAGE 205
MINING METHODS--MINERS, GAMBLERS, &C.