able series of tales of Californian life. He came East "in a sort of triumphal procession," and published many stories and poems in the magazines the best of the tales being The Outcasts of Poker Flat and Tennessee's Partner. Later he went abroad and served as consul in Germany and in Scotland. He died in England. Bret Harte was the originator of the short story of local color and atmosphere, and is ranked with Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne in the development of this typically American literary form. Modern readers, accustomed to the highly-wrought stories of Western life written by modern authors, are perhaps not inclined to do full justice to his work. But he wrote of life as he saw it, and of a time that now has passed away forever. In the opinion of those qualified to judge, his best stories reflect with great skill and with absolute truth the characters and the environment of life in California in the "fifties." His poetry is less known than his prose-writings. At its best, however, it possesses a true and unaffected melody, and is phrased with sincerity and charm. 180. San Francisco. This is the city of the "forty-niners " - the rugged city of the past. Bret Harte stands near her beginning and looks forward to the time when shall be "all fulfilled the vision" seen thus "in the morning of her race." How completely that vision has been fulfilled may be seen in the great city of the present day. 18. specious gifts material. Showy gains of mere wealth. 181, 2. Franciscan Brotherhood. The city took its name from the mission of the Franciscan friars, which was founded on the Golden Gate in 1776. Similar place-names are common in California Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San José, Santa Cruz, etc. 10. Smoky argosies. Fleets of steamers. "Argosy" was an old term for a ship. Why is the city called a lion's whelp"? For other first-hand pictures of San Francisco, see Mark Twain's Roughing It, Chapters XVII and XVIII, and Stevenson's The Wrecker, Chapters VII and VIII. 182. Chicago. The best, perhaps, of many tributes to Chicago after the great fire of October 8 and 9, 1871. The poem expresses the whole country's sympathy and readiness to aid. The date of the Chicago fire is observed as National Fire Prevention Day. How is the national sympathy indicated and emphasized? 7. Aladdin's court. The rapid growth of the city is compared to the magic feats described in the Arabian Nights. 13. Macedon. See Acts XVI, 9. 16. the silver cup. See Genesis, XLIV. Reference is made to the gifts of money and food sent from all over the country. 18. Plain Language from Truthful James describes, in clever and amusing fashion, an incident of the old frontier days in California. It is one of the best known of Bret Harte's poems. How is the humorous element heightened by the manner of telling? 185. Réveille was read before a large audience in a San Francisco theatre on the occasion of President Lincoln's call for more soldiers in 1862. It is a stirring contribution to war poetry. How are the arguments made strong and pertinent? 186. Dickens in Camp is a singularly graceful tribute to the memory of the great English novelist. In 1869, not many months before his death, Dickens read in The Overland Monthly two of Bret Harte's stories The Luck of Roaring Camp and The Outcasts of Poker Flat - and expressed to a friend his warm appreciation of their power and originality. 17. Sierras. Mountains in California. Like so many Californian place-names, the word is of Spanish origin. 187, 4. "Little Nell." The Old Curiosity Shop. 20. Kentish spire. The child heroine in Dickens's novel Dickens died at his home near Rochester, in the county of Kent, England. Comment upon the use of contrast throughout. 188, 6. The Angelus. The chime tolled at evening in Catholic churches, when a prayer is said by the faithful. 7. Mission Dolores. One of the early missions estab lished by the Franciscan friars near San Francisco. 22. Spanish glory. Some excellent pictures of the old Spanish régime are to be found in Gertrude Atherton's The Splendid Idle Forties. 25. Presidio. Headquarters of the military garrison. Picture facing page 189. The Angelus is a picture by Jean Francois Millet, the celebrated painter of Breton peasant life. Here, the peasants are seen bowing their heads as they hear the Angelus sound from a village church in the distance. This and The Man with the Hoe (see page 208) are among Millet's best paintings. 189, 1. jerkin. A jacket, belted at the waist. 2. stole. A white vestment worn by the priest. 3. Portala, or Portola, a Spanish missionary priest and explorer who is said to have discovered the site of San Francisco in 1769. In what way is the past made to appeal to our sympathies? Which of the poems in the group from Bret Harte's writings should you select as having the highest poetic merit? Why? EDWARD ROWLAND SILL Windsor, Conn., 1841 1887, Cleveland, Ohio Sill graduated from Yale and, after some years of educational work in Ohio, became professor of English literature at the University of California. He was a man of unusual literary gifts, produced some excellent poetry, and seemed on the verge of still greater attainment at the time of his death. 189. The Fool's Prayer. There is a definite lesson embodied in this little poem. See if you understand it. 21. doffed. Took off. JOAQUIN MILLER Wabash, Ind., 1841 1913, Oakland, Cal. Cincinnatus Heine Miller was born in Indiana, but passed most of his life in California. He adopted the name of "Joa quin in memory of a Mexican outlaw of whom he wrote a defense. During the course of a picturesque life he was a miner in California, a judge in Oregon, an editor in Washington, D. C. He travelled in Europe in 1870 and visited the Klondike in 1898. Miller has been called the "laureate of bearded, stalwart, westmost men a phrase which indicates his scope and his limitations. His earlier work was his most characteristic; the titles of his published volumes of poetry Songs of the Sierras, Songs of the Desert, etc., show his love of the open. 191. Columbus. The virile quality of this well-known poem has won for it an enduring popularity. You should read another famous poem about Columbus, by Arthur Hugh Clough. 11. Azores. Gibraltar. A group of islands in the Atlantic, west of 12. Gates of Hercules. The Straits of Gibraltar. There was an ancient legend that Hercules opened with his club a way from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. How do you account for the popularity of Columbus? Do you think the last stanza is in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the poem? Is the thought conventional, or original? Picture facing page 192. From the collection in the American' Museum of Natural History, New York. Columbus left the port of Palos, Spain, on August 3, 1492, with three small ships and about 100 men. He landed on one of the Bahama Islands on October 12. 192. Westward Ho! This is a strong memorial to the brave men who formed the vanguard of civilization, and left for us a goodly heritage in the vast spaces which they subdued. Kipling has a poem somewhat similar in thought. It is called The Explorer. Comment upon the value of the last three lines. EUGENE FITCH WARE Hartford, 1841 - 1911, Kansas City Ware made his literary reputation under the pseudonym of Ironquill"; the Rhymes of Ironquill went through several editions. He was born at Hartford, Connecticut, served through the Civil War with the Northern Army, and moved to Kansas, where he spent most of his life. He was twice elected to the Senate of the State. His poetry was of the vigorous Western type, in the vein of Bret Harte, John Hay, and Joaquin Miller. 194. Quivera - Kansas. The region of which Kansas now forms a part was named Quivera by the Indian tribes who inhabited that section of the continent. This poem was written to commemorate the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first appearance of the Europeans. The Spaniards, who came from Mexico "for glory or for gold," are contrasted with the "blue-eyed Saxon race who came and made the desert waken." The poem expresses in a vigorous way the unconquerable spirit of the sturdy West. 66 17. the restless Coronado. A Spanish soldier who led an expedition north from Mexico in 1540, looking for the seven cities of Cibola," which were supposed to be rich in gold and diamonds. His travels took him as far as what is now Kansas, where instead of rich cities he found plains filled with herds of buffalo. 195, 24. with plows besieged the sky. i.e., by dauntless perseverance in the face of unfavorable climatic conditions, the early settlers made the soil productive. State briefly the contrast expressed in the poem between "the restless Coronado " and the "blue-eyed Saxon race." SIDNEY LANIER Macon, Ga., 1842 — 1881, Lynn, S. C. As regards both his theories of poetry and the fine quality of his writings, Lanier is considered the most important poet of the South since the death of Poe. Born in Macon, Georgia, he graduated from Southern College and was one of the earliest volunteers in the Confederate army when the Civil War broke out. Towards its close he was taken prisoner while serving on a blockade-runner; the hardships undergone in this and other military experiences caused a weakness of health from which he never |