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The Lectures of Bret Harte 
 
BRET HARTE AS A LECTURER 
 
The Lectures of 
 Bret Harte 
 
 Compiled from various sources 
 
 To which is added 
 The Piracy of Bret Harte s Fables " 
 
 By 
 Charles Meeker Kozlay 
 
 Printed and Published by 
 CHARLES MEEKER KOZLAY 
 
 BROOKLYN -NEW YORK 
 1909 
 
..3BARIAU , 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 Charles Meeker Kozlay 
 
 Entered at Stationer s Hall 
 London, England 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 . 3 1. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 WHIL,E searching for material relative to 
 Bret Harte I came across, from time 
 to time, fragments of the lectures of that pop 
 ular American humorist and writer. These 
 fragments suggested to me the possibility of 
 bringing the complete lectures together in en 
 during book form, an undertaking which had, 
 because of its extreme difficulty, never before 
 been attempted. This little book, containing 
 Harte s two lectures: "The Argonauts of 49," 
 and "American Humor," and in addition, the 
 "Reply to Toast to literature, " is the result 
 of my work along this line. To the lectures 
 I have added an article entitled, "The Piracy 
 of Bret Harte s Fables" giving, as its name im 
 plies, the history of the piracy of these three 
 little parodies on ^Bsop s work, and needing, I 
 believe, no further comment here. The Fables 
 themselves have been pictured, especially for 
 this edition, by the well-known illustrator, 
 MERUS JOHNSON. 
 
 I have attempted to give the lectures in full, 
 an arduous undertaking, requiring compilation 
 from innumerable sources ; the newspaper ac 
 counts of the lectures giving only those parts 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 which had most impressed the reporter. The 
 lectures printed are the only two that Harte 
 delivered; in fact, although " The Argonauts of 
 49 " may be remembered by some the lecture 
 on w American Humor" will probably be a sur 
 prise to many, Harte having here ventured 
 from the field to which he had previously con 
 fined himself. 
 
 As a lecturer, Bret Harte was no more suc 
 cessful than some of our other noted American 
 writers who, like him, attempted this line of 
 work. Tall and slender, a gentleman of dis 
 tinguished bearing, his first appearance was a 
 disappointment to many who had expected to 
 see a typical Californian in dress and manner. 
 His demeanor was quiet and his voice hardly 
 strong enough to fill some of the halls in which 
 he spoke. Harte was no orator ; he lacked 
 dramatic action and expression, his gestures 
 were few and seldom used. The truth is he 
 was without enthusiasm, his heart not being 
 in this work because it was distasteful to him. 
 He had been lured to the lecture platform 
 by the glittering offers advanced from many 
 quarters. 
 
 Yet his lectures, though possessing neither 
 the style nor elaboration of his writings, per- 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 fectly embody in the case of "The Argonauts 
 of 49," the poetry and significance of the won 
 derful era portrayed. The descriptive passages 
 are strong and finely relieved by selections 
 from the inexhaustible wealth of stories and 
 epigrams which Harte possessed. Almost every 
 where his large audiences gave unequivocal 
 signs of a decided appreciation and thorough 
 enjoyment of the lectures, and although, be 
 cause of poor management, the lectures in some 
 cases were a financial disappointment, they 
 were none the less well received and worthy 
 of preservation. 
 
 C. M. K. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Lectures : 
 
 The Argonauts of 49 . . . . . 1 
 
 American Humor . . . 
 
 Reply to "Toast to Literature" . . . . 31 
 
 Fables : 
 
 The Fox and the Grapes . . . . 36 
 
 The Fox and the Stork . . . . .38 
 
 The Wolf and the Lamb ...... 40 
 
 The Piracy of Bret Harte s Fables . . . . 45 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Bret Harte as a Lecturer . . . . Frontispiece 
 
 San Francisco in 1848 . . . . . , 4 
 
 San Francisco in 1849 ....... 8 
 
 Lecture Advertisements ...... 20 
 
 Bret Harte Cartoon . . . . . . .32 
 
 The Fox and the Grapes . . . . . 37 
 
 The Fox and the Stork 39 
 
 The Wolf and the Lamb . 41 
 
The Argonauts of 49 
 
The Argonauts of 49 
 
 California s Golden Age 
 
 Lecture by BRET HARTE, delivered in the Martin Opera 
 House, Albany, N. Y., Dec. 3, 1872; Tremont Temple, 
 Boston, Mass., Dec. 13, 1872; Steinway Hall, New York, 
 Dec. 16, 1872; Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C., Jan. 7, 
 1873; Library Hall, Pittsburg, Pa., Jan. 9, 1873; Ottawa 
 and Montreal, Canada, March, 1873; Mercantile Library 
 Hall, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 17, 1873; Topeka, Atchison, 
 Lawrence, Kansas City, Kan., October, 1873; London, 
 England, January, 1879, and June, 1880, and in other 
 places. Compiled from various sources. 
 
 1 REGARD the story of the Argonauts of 49 
 as an episode in American life as quaint as 
 that of the Greek adventurers ; a kind of cru 
 sade without a cross, an exodus without a 
 prophet. It is not a pretty story ; perhaps it is 
 not even instructive ; it is of a life of which 
 perhaps the best that can be said is that it 
 exists no longer. 
 
 For more than three hundred years California 
 was of all Christian countries the least known. 
 It was set down on old English maps as a very 
 strange locality, and in one instance was named 
 as an island! The history of its discovery was 
 wrapped in Spanish tradition. One Spanish 
 
2 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 discoverer reported that he found it on a voyage 
 from the Pacific to Lake Superior, where he 
 found a Yankee vessel from Boston, whose cap 
 tain informed him that he had come there from 
 the Atlantic only a few days before. 
 
 Along the long line of centuries the old free 
 booters had cruised along its shores and captured 
 their booty and plunder. Only quite recently 
 a band of gold diggers came upon a large piece 
 of wax in the broken ribs of a rotten ship. Cal 
 ifornia heard and was at once fired with the 
 discovery, and in a few weeks they were search 
 ing the ruins for the lost treasure of the Phillip- 
 pine galleon. At last they found a few cutlasses 
 with the British broad -arrow on their blades. 
 These only showed that the enterprising and 
 gallant Sir Francis Drake had been there before 
 them. 
 
 Do Americans ever think that they owe to the 
 Catholic Church and the Morman brotherhood 
 their rights to California ? Yet Father Junipero 
 Serra, ringing his bell in the heathen-wilderness 
 of Upper Cailfornia, and Brigham Young, lead 
 ing his half -famished legions to Salt Lake, were 
 the two great pioneers of the Argonauts of 49. 
 
 The first comes to us toiling over a Southern 
 plain, an old man, weak, emaciated, friendless 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 3 
 
 and alone. He has left his muleteers and acolytes 
 a league behind him, and has wandered on without 
 scrip or wallet, bearing only a crucifix and bell. 
 It is a characteristic plain one that your tourists 
 do not penetrate scorched yet bleak, windswept, 
 blasted, baked to its very foundations, and 
 cracked into gaping chasms. As the pitiless sun 
 goes down, the old man staggers forward and 
 falls utterly exhausted. He lies there all night. 
 Towards morning he is found by some Indians 
 a feeble, simple race who in uncouth kindness 
 offer him food and drink. But before he accepts 
 either he rises to his knees, and there says 
 matins and baptizes them in the Catholic faith. 
 And then it occurs to him to ask them where 
 he is, and he finds that he has penetrated into 
 the unknown land . It was Padre Junipero Serra ; 
 and the sun rose that morning on Christian Cali 
 fornia. Weighed by the usual estimate of suc 
 cess his mission was a failure. The heathen 
 stole his provisions and massacred his acolytes. 
 It is said that the good fathers themselves con 
 founded baptism and bondage and laid the 
 foundation of peonage ; but in the blood-stained 
 and tear-blotted chronicle of the early California 
 there is not a more heroic figure than this travel- 
 
4 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 worn, self -centered, self-denying Franciscan 
 friar. 
 
 All the western emigration that prior to the 
 gold discoveries penetrated the Oregon and Cal 
 ifornia valleys and half Americanized the coast, 
 would have perished by the way but for the 
 providentially created oasis of Salt Lake City. 
 The halting teams of alkali-poisoned oxen, the 
 footsore and despairing teamsters, gathered rest 
 and succor from the Mormon settlement. The 
 British frigate that sailed into the port of Mon 
 terey a day too late, saw the American flag that 
 had crossed the continent flying from the cross 
 of the Cathedral ! A day sooner and an English 
 man might have been telling you this story. 
 
 Those were peaceful, pastoral days for Califor 
 nia, when the Angelus bells rang out peacefully 
 and summoned the good people to prayers and 
 sleep before 9 o clock every night. On the plains 
 simple rancheros led peaceful lives, wax tapers 
 burned in all the cities, and on the hills the 
 Indians roamed, dressed neatly but not expen 
 sively in mud. They were happy tranquil days. 
 
 But a political and social earthquake more 
 powerful than any physical convulsion ever 
 known shook the foundation of the land, and 
 in the disrupted strata the favorite treasure 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 5 
 
 suddenly glittered before their eyes. Then a 
 change, which had been strengthened by a chain 
 of circumstances, came upon them suddenly. It 
 was not the finding of a few grains of gold, but 
 that for years the way had been slowly opening 
 and the doors unlocking for the people who 
 were to profit by the discovery. 
 
 These Argonauts were a lawless, irreligious 
 band of men. They were given to no supersti 
 tious rites, enthused by no high ambition, and, 
 until they saw them, skeptical even of the exist - 
 ance of the gold fields. Embarked in an adven 
 ture, they accepted, in a kind of calm philoso 
 phy, whatever it might bring. 
 
 "if there is no gold, what are you going to do 
 with those sluice boxes," said a newly-arrived 
 fortune-seeker to his friend. "They will make 
 first-class coffins, was the reply of a man who 
 had calculated all his chances. If they did not 
 burn their vessels behind them, they at least left 
 the good ship Argo to lie dismantled and idle at 
 the wharf. Sailors were shipped only for the 
 outward voyage. Nobody expected to return, 
 even if he anticipated failure. Even failure 
 would, by their expediency, be made to show a 
 certain amount of success. Until recently there 
 stood in San Francisco a house of the earlier 
 
6 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 period whose foundations were built entirely of 
 boxes containing plug tobacco. It was expensive, 
 but lumber for foundations was at a tremendous 
 premium. An Argonaut who recognized in the 
 boatman who pulled him ashore (and charged 
 him the modest sum of fifty dollars for the favor) 
 a brother classmate of Oxford, asked him: Were 
 you not senior wrangler in the class of 43?" 
 "Yes, "said the other significantly, "but I was 
 also stroke oar in the regatta." 
 
 At my first breakfast in a restaurant in San 
 Francisco I was attended by a waiter who bore 
 a strong resemblance to a person I had always 
 admired as the model of refined good breeding. 
 Not wishing to wound the feelings of the waiter 
 who carried a revolver I inquired of the 
 proprietor of the hotel whether he was not, in 
 fact, a person who in the East had filled a much 
 higher position. The landlord confirmed the 
 suspicion, and added: "He s mighty handy, and 
 can talk elegantly to a customer as is waiting for 
 his cakes, and can make him forget that he is 
 starving." I asked him if it would be possible 
 to fill his place. "l am afraid not," said the 
 proprietor, with a tone of suspicion, and he 
 added, significantly, "l don t think you would 
 suit." 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 7 
 
 It was wonderful adaptability, perhaps the in 
 fluence of the climate, that produced in them 
 this element of success. Much of this adapta 
 bility was due to the character of the people. 
 What that character was, perhaps it would not 
 be well for me to say ; at least I should prefer to 
 defer criticism until I had arrived at a safe dis 
 tance from the historian. In distant parts of 
 the country they had left families, friends, and 
 in some cases officers of justice, perplexed and 
 bewildered. There were husbands who had de 
 serted their own wives, and, in some extreme 
 cases, the wives of others. 
 
 Nor was it possible to tell from their superficial 
 exterior whether they were or were not named 
 in this general indictment. Some of the best 
 men had the worst record, and some of the worst 
 rejoiced in a spotless Puritan pedigree. "The 
 boys seem to have taken a fresh deal all around, 
 said old John Oakhurst, "and there s no knowing 
 whether a man will turn up jack or king." It 
 may be said of John Oakhurst himself that he 
 came of a family who regarded games of chance 
 as sinful, and who had never believed that a man 
 could be successful by them. "To think," said 
 Mr. Oakhurst, after a game of ten minutes from 
 which he made $5000 "to think as folks believe 
 that keards is a waste of time." 
 
8 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 In San Francisco in those early days every 
 body played. A gambler died at the table, and 
 three doctors who happened to be there examined 
 him and pronounced that the cause of death was 
 disease of the heart: the coroner, who was acci 
 dentally present, empanelled a jury from the 
 other players, who returned a verdict in accord 
 ance with the evidence and went on with the 
 game. 
 
 I would not have it inferred that there was no 
 respectability in morals among the people of that 
 time; but their character grew, and the strongest 
 was not always the best. Let me bring them 
 nearer to you and sketch for you two pictures 
 one in their city by the sea and one in their little 
 cabins in the camps of the Sierras. 
 
 In the San Francisco of 1852 flour was worth 
 $50. a barrel, and a glimpse of a woman s face 
 was one of the comforts for which the hardy ad 
 venturers sighed. The gambling saloon was the 
 central point of interest in the history of the 
 Argonauts. It was approached by no mysterious 
 passage or guarded entrance, and frequently 
 opened from the street, with every invitation of 
 gilding, lights and music. And yet they were 
 the quietest halls in San Francisco : there was no 
 drunkenness, no quarreling, scarcely an exulta- 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 9 
 
 tion or disappointment. Business men who had 
 gambled all day in other enterprises found nothing 
 here to unduly excite them, and in the intervals 
 of music a beautiful calm pervaded the room. 
 People moved around noiselessly from table to 
 table as if fortune were nervous as well as fickle. 
 A cane falling upon the floor caused everyone to 
 look up, and a loud laugh excited indignation. 
 There was a Western man who, having made a 
 few thousands in the mines, came to San Francisco 
 to take a steamer home. On the night before he 
 was to sail he entered the Argo saloon, seated 
 himself at the table in sheer listlessness, staked 
 $20. and won. He won again. In two hours he 
 won a fortune. An hour later he rose from the 
 table a ruined man. The steamer sailed without 
 him. He was a simple man, knowing little of 
 the world, and the sudden winning and losing of 
 a fortune crazed him. 
 
 He went again to his work and regularly took 
 his seat at the table and spent the earnings he had 
 saved. So a year passed. If he had forgotten 
 a waiting wife, she had not forgotten him and 
 one evening she landed, with her child, upon 
 the pier at San Francisco, penniless and alone. 
 She told her story to John Oakhurst, who quietly 
 provided for her wants. Two or three evenings 
 
10 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 after, the Western man won some trifle, and then 
 gained other plays in succession and it really 
 seemed as though fortune had come again. John 
 Oakhurst saw his joy and said: "l will give you 
 three thousand dollars for your next deal." He 
 hesitated. "Your wife is at the door: Will you 
 take it? " The man accepted : but the spirit of the 
 gambler was strong within him and, as Mr. Oak- 
 hurst fully expected, he waited to see the result 
 of the play. Well, John Oakhurst lost, and, 
 with a look of gratitude the man turned, aghast, 
 seized the money and hurried away as if he feared 
 he might be enchained by the spell which bound 
 him. 
 
 "That was a bad spirit of your n, Jack," said 
 his friend. "Yes, "said Jack, "but I got so tired 
 of seeing that fellow around. It was a put-up 
 game between the dealer and me. It is the first 
 time," he added, with an oath which I think 
 the recording angel placed to his credit "it is 
 the first time I ever played a game that was not 
 on the square." 
 
 The social life of that day was peculiar. The 
 best dressed men were gamblers, and the best 
 dressed ladies had no right to the title. Gentle 
 men young in years had wives much their seniors 
 and considerably larger in their physical persons, 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 11 
 
 and often one lady had a troop of gallants to do 
 escort duty of an evening. A married captain s 
 wife was escorted home from a ball by every 
 officer in the garrison, and observed that now at 
 length she understood the meaning of the expres 
 sion, (^ the pleasure of your company .") Surely 
 in the multiplicity of such attention there was 
 safety, and especially so when each gentleman 
 wore his revolver. 
 
 A wife of an old pioneer used to show a chair 
 with a hole through the cushion made by a gentle 
 man caller who sat down in bashful confusion 
 and exploded his revolver. 
 
 In domestic life the highest excellence in 
 woman was to keep a boarding-house, and to be 
 the wife of an aristocratic Argonaut was to be 
 able to take in washing. 
 
 When a baby cried in a theatre the people cried 
 
 "encore. 
 
 Such was the refined life of the Argonauts in 
 the city by the sea. But with a change of affairs 
 a corresponding change took place in morals and 
 manners, and people began to put locks on their 
 doors, and portable property was no longer left 
 out at night. Fine houses were built ; and 
 dealers were convicted of forgery and deceit. 
 
 California is a country unlike any other. 
 
12 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 Nature here is rude and unfinished as the life it 
 self. The people seem to have come here a 
 thousand years too soon, and before the great 
 hostess was ready to receive them. Everything 
 is new, crude and strange. There is nothing 
 soft, tender or pastoral in the whole landscape. 
 Nature invites to Homerics rather than to Bu 
 colics. 
 
 The miners in the hills lived a wilder life than 
 their brother Argonauts of the cities. Happily, 
 their wants were few and infrequent. They left 
 behind with regret the chimneys of their shanties, 
 for the simple reason that they could not carry 
 them away with the cabins, which were made 
 movable. For clothes his chief reliance was in 
 the meal sack, that robed his outer after it had 
 nourished his inner man, his track was marked 
 with empty oyster cans, he met the native upon 
 the common footing of beans. 
 
 It was often that the diversity of amendments 
 to the miner s clothes were a serious perplexity 
 to the recognition of the person wearing them. 
 In the earlier days, two gentlemen of respecta 
 bility lost their identity entirely in the labels of 
 the flour sacks which had been added to their 
 clothing, so that one of them came to be called 
 "Genesee Mills" and the other "Eagle Brand." 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 13 
 
 The miners were generous to a fault. The 
 " Sanitary" subscription, by which north and 
 south benefited alike, was started in a California 
 barn, "it is rough upon those poor fellows; I 
 am sorry for them." "How much are you 
 sorry?" "Four hundred dollars." The next 
 man gave $1000.; in half an hour donations of 
 $15,000. were telegraphed to Washington, and 
 the total subscription of California was $3,000,- 
 000 gold. 
 
 The miners were, above all, faithful to their 
 partners and loved them with a love passing 
 women. It was dangerous to interfere in part 
 ner s quarrels. Once a stranger at a bar who 
 had not, so far as he knew, given offense to any 
 person present, suddenly found himself upon the 
 floor and a tall Kentuckian standing over him 
 with his revolver out. When the tall gentleman 
 was courteously asked for an explanation, he 
 said: "I ain t nothing against the stranger my 
 self, but he said something just now against 
 Quakers, and I want him to understand that my 
 partner is a Quaker and a peaceful man." 
 
 The Argonauts were not prone to sentimental- 
 isms, although the3 r knew what homesickness 
 was. When they dealt in sarcasm it was grim 
 and striking. Lynch law determined that horse 
 
14 THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 
 
 stealing should be punished by death; but once 
 a jury took several minutes after retiring to con 
 sider their verdict, perhaps from humanity, per 
 haps because there had, in consequence of the 
 rigor of the law, been a great mortality among 
 the male population. The leader of the crowd 
 put his head into the jury room and said he did 
 not wish to hurry the gentlemen but they wanted 
 that room to lay out the corpse in. 
 
 From California came such, now world-wide, 
 slang as\"dry up," played oiit," "take stock" 
 and "passing in your cheques." A miner said of 
 a forcible sermon that the preacher seemed to him 
 "to have taken every trick." On the other hand, 
 a teamster, blamed for his intemperate language, 
 said : "I don t call that swearing. You should 
 hear Bill Jones exhort the impenitent mule." 
 
 A barman, after a night in which pistol-shots 
 had freely punctuated the village revelry, ap 
 peared in the morning with his face bound up, 
 but with a very happy expression, and observed 
 that the bar was new, and that it was only on 
 the previous evening "that the boys seemed to 
 be getting really acquainted." 
 
 The hardly musical names given by the Argo 
 nauts to places in California are fast superceding 
 the names left there by the Spaniards as an only 
 legacy. 
 
THE ARGONAUTS OF 49 15 
 
 The "Heathen Chinee" suffers many injuries 
 in California but he nevertheless persistently 
 attains his ends. He will chat affably to a cus 
 tom-house officer from his seat on a chair, the 
 hollow legs of which are stuffed with smuggled 
 opium, and will assume the name and expression 
 of a brother celestial to cheat the collectors of 
 the poll-tax. In spite of the indignation of the 
 Calif ornian the Chinaman practices all their vices. 
 
 I once more refer to the Argonauts of 49. In 
 the rank and file there may be many known per 
 sonally to some of this audience. There may be 
 gaps which the memory of others may supply. 
 There are homes all through America whose va 
 cant places can never be filled. There are graves 
 all over California on whose nameless mounds 
 none shall weep. I should like to end this picture 
 with a flourish, but the trumpets and the 
 bands have gone on before and the mountains 
 are beginning to hide the Argonauts from our 
 view. They are marching to the city by the sea; 
 they are marching for the sail of the last Argo, 
 and when the last Argonaut shall have passed 
 in, she too will spread her white wings and slip 
 unnoticed through the golden gate to the haven 
 that opens in the distance. 
 
American Humor 
 
gg 
 
 American Humor 
 
 Lecture by BRET HARTE, delivered in Farwell Hall, 
 Chicago, Ills., on December 10, 1874, and in Association 
 Hall, New York, January 26, 1875. Compiled from various 
 sources. 
 
 1AM aware that the magnitude of my title may 
 seem somewhat ambitious for both performer 
 and performance. I therefore hasten to say that I 
 will assume at the outset that it is doubtful if 
 there is any such thing as American humor as a 
 nationally distinct intellectual quality. I fear, 
 however, that I must borrow so much of that 
 which has of late years been recognized as a 
 form of national humor as to say that it "re 
 minds me of a little story." 
 
 Some years ago I was riding on the box of a 
 California stage-coach with a friend and the 
 driver. As my fellow passenger was a man of 
 some literary attainment our conversation fell 
 upon some of the early English humorists. After 
 my friend had departed, the driver, who had 
 taken no part in the conversation, asked me : 
 "What were you talking about, sir, that made 
 
20 AMERICAN HUMOR 
 
 you laugh so much?" I informed him that the 
 early English humorists had been the topic of 
 conversation. "Well," said the driver, "judging 
 by the way you laughed, I should have thought 
 you were talking about some funny men." It 
 was probable that my friend, the driver, occu 
 pied the position of a good many American and 
 English writers who are inclined to accept mod 
 ern extravagance, which is sufficiently character 
 istic of our people to be called national, as the 
 true, genuine humor. 
 
 I will try to prove that our later American 
 humorists are not so much purely American as 
 they are modern; that they stand in legitimate 
 succession to their early English brethren, and 
 that what is called the humor of a geographical 
 section, is only the form or method of to-day. 
 Sir Richard Steele had he been born in the 
 United States would have developed into a 
 Danbury Newsman and had Bailey been born in 
 London and educated at Temple Bar in the time 
 of Sir Richard Steele he would have described 
 the humorous peculiarities of London just in the 
 manner that that humorist did. This is an 
 epoch of curt speech, and magnetic telegraphs 
 and independent thought, and wherever these 
 conditions exist most powerfully humorous 
 
^!^:. ,. 
 
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 ttVAY~Sr -- - 
 
 served ... " *9 
 
 jSSSS&fe^ 
 
 The American Lecture Bureau 
 
 announce that a lecture will be delivered 
 MT.r.1. o D= EVENING of thia 
 
 BRET HARTE 
 
 The Argonauts of Forty-Nine." 
 
 red seats at 50 cents, may be 
 
 ter Tuesday morning. 
 
 
 o 
 
 G 
 
 r 
 
 21 
 
 v . M. A. lecture Course 
 
 BRET HARTE ! 
 
 Subject, The Argonauts of 49 
 
 Tuesday Evening, Dec. 8d 
 
 AT 
 
 Martin Opera House 
 Single Tickets, 60 Cent* 
 Doora open at 7^ o clock 
 
 \/lR. BRET HARTE wilt deliver his FIRST LEC- 
 LVl TURE in London (The Argonauts of -49) in AID of 
 the FUNDS of the VICTORIA HOSPITAL for CHILDREN 
 (nnder Royal and distinguished Patronage), at Steinway-hall on 
 Monday evening, zist June, at 8 o clock. Tickets, numbered and re 
 served los. 6d. and 55; unreserved, 2s. 6d. and is. may be obtained 
 at Steinway-hall, Lo wer Seymour-street, Portman-square;and of 
 
 he Secretary, at the Hospital, Queens-road, CheUea, S. W. 
 
AMERICAN HUMOR 21 
 
 literature will be found most embarrassed by 
 them. But the humorist remains intact ; he 
 is simply an observer. I will go further and 
 say that it is because the humorist is intact, 
 because he is old fashioned, because even in a 
 republican country he is the most tremendous 
 conservative and aristocrat that it is because 
 he is all this he is an observer. 
 
 Before the birth of its characteristic humor, 
 American literature was even more ancient than 
 contemporaneous literature in England. Even 
 Irving tried to introduce the old fashioned style 
 of the Spectator in his "Salmagundi." 
 
 I am quite ready to believe that the quick 
 apprehension of some of my auditors will antici 
 pate me with the suggestion that the Yankee 
 dialect and character are the earliest expression 
 of American humor. Unfortunately, however, 
 for the theory of national humor, it was not a 
 Yankee or American who first invented it or gave 
 it a place in American literature. Even as we 
 owe the characteristic title of Yankee to the 
 cheap badinage of an English officer, so we are 
 indebted to an Englishman for the first respect 
 able figure that our Yankee cuts in American 
 humor. It was to Judge Haliburton, of her 
 Britannic Majesty s North American Colonies, 
 
22 AMERICAN HUMOR 
 
 who first detected how much sagacity, dry humor 
 and poetry were hidden under the grotesque 
 cover of Sam Slick of Slickville, that the world 
 first owed the birth of true American humor. 
 Later on James Russell Lowell took up the work, 
 but, at best, he only reproduced a type of life 
 of a small section of the great American Union. 
 It is to the South and West that we really owe 
 the creation and expression of that humor which 
 is perhaps most characteristic of our lives and 
 habits as a people. It was in the South, and 
 among conditions of servitude and the habits of 
 an inferior race, that there sprang up a humor 
 and pathos as distinct, as original, as perfect and 
 rare as any that ever flowered under the most 
 beneficent circumstances of race and culture. It 
 is a humor whose expression took a most ephem 
 eral form oral, rather than written. It abode 
 with us, making us tolerant of a grievous wrong, 
 and it will abide with us even when the condi 
 tions have passed away. It is singularly free 
 from satire and unkind lines. It was simplicity 
 itself. It touched all classes and conditions of 
 men. Its simple pathos was recognized by the 
 greatest English humorist that the world had 
 known, and yet it has no place in enduring 
 American literature. Even Topsy and Uncle 
 
AMERICAN HUMOR 23 
 
 Tom are dead. They were too much imbued 
 with a political purpose to retain their place as 
 a humorist creation. 
 
 Yet there are a few songs that will live when 
 ambition s characters are dead. A few years ago 
 there lived and died too obscurely I am afraid 
 for our reputation as critics a young man who, 
 more than any other American, seemed to have 
 caught the characteristic quality of negro pathos 
 and humor. Perhaps posterity will be more 
 appreciative of his worth, and future generations 
 who think of "The Old Folks at Home" will 
 feel some touch of kindliness for the memory of 
 Stephen C. Foster. 
 
 Now, as we approach our contemporary humor 
 ists, let us pause for an examination of the forces 
 which for the last twenty years have been shap 
 ing the humorous literature of the land. The 
 character of these forces has entirely changed. 
 The character of the press is different; all its 
 pompous dignity and most of its acrimony are 
 gone. The exigencies of news have stopped the 
 stilted editorials, and the sagacious modern editor 
 is well aware of the fact that it is a much easier 
 and neater thing to stilleto a man with a line of 
 solid minion than to knock him down with a 
 column of leaded long primer. 
 
24 AMERICAN HUMOR 
 
 One of the strongest points of modern journal 
 ism is its humorous local sallies. A young man, 
 graduated perhaps from the case, writes humor 
 ous items in the local column of his paper, which 
 are read more and are better appreciated than 
 all the rest of it, and the readers wonder who 
 the rising humorist is who has appeared among 
 them. 
 
 I Brevity especially is the soul of California wit. 
 For instance, the reply of "you bet," made by a 
 San Francisco burglar to the "you get" of the 
 householder who held a cocked "six-shooter" at 
 his head. I might also add here the story of a no 
 torious Calif ornian gambler. During the funeral 
 service the hearse-horses became restive and start 
 ed off prematurely with the rest of the mourners in 
 pursuit. When the horses had been stopped and 
 the last sad rites were concluded, the friends of 
 the deceased wrote his widow a letter acquaint 
 ing her with the fact that they had given her 
 dead husband a good send-off, and that although 
 the unpleasant occurrence, which they described, 
 somewhat marred the solemnity of the occasion, 
 it gave them a melancholy satisfaction to inform 
 her that "the corpse won." This illustrates the 
 humorous but irreverent style in which California 
 newspaper men described events of the most 
 serious nature. 
 
AMERICAN HUMOR 25 
 
 If we are to take the criticisms of our English 
 friends, American humor has at last blossomed 
 on the dry stalk of our national life, and Artemus 
 Ward is its perfect flower. Personally, I fear 
 there is a want of purpose in him. He never 
 leads and is always on a line of popular senti 
 ment or satire. The form of his spelling is purely/ 
 mechanical. He gives the half-humorist slang 
 of the people, the kind of expressions used ii 
 the stage-coach, the railway carriage, the bar 
 room, or the village tap. If he did not gather, 
 he at least gave public voice to them. He con 
 tributes no single figure to American literature 
 but his own character of showman, and it is very 
 doubtful if even that figure, respectable as it is, 
 bears any real resemblance to any known Amer 
 ican type. 
 
 The Civil War, which found him in the sum 
 mit of his popularity, did not help him to any 
 better results. To his nature the War was only 
 an unpleasant and unnecessary bother. In 
 fact during this time his genius seems to have 
 left him and fallen upon Orpheus C. Kerr and 
 Petroleum V. Nasby, whose pictures of South 
 western life are unequaled for force and fidelity. 
 Artemus Ward had the good-fellow humor of 
 the story-teller, to whom a sympathizing audi- 
 
26 AMERICAN HUMOR 
 
 ence and an absence of any moral questioning 
 were essential to success. His success in Eng 
 land was a surprise to even his most ardent 
 admirers. The personality of the man as a 
 lecturer had much to do with his reception in 
 England. He captivated average Englishmen 
 by his cool disregard of them, his quiet audacity, 
 and his complete ignoring of the traditions of 
 the lecture-room. He wrote to me to say that 
 the first night of his appearance it was a toss-up 
 whether he would be arrested after the lecture 
 or invited to dinner. 
 
 It would be hardly fair to look too closely into 
 the secret of his popularity in England, yet if 
 they were to settle the question of American 
 humor, perhaps it would be well if we did. It 
 was after the war. Englishmen were inclined to 
 be friendly, and their good feeling had taken the 
 form which tneir good feeling takes toward every 
 thing that is not British condescending patron 
 age. Criticism was blandly waived. Ward made 
 many personal friends, and he was followed to 
 his grave in Kensal Green by some of the most 
 distinguished men in the country. 
 
 To-day, among our latest American humorists, 
 such as Josh Billings, "The Danbury Newsman" 
 and Opheus C. Kerr, Mark Twain stands alone 
 
AMERICAN HUMOR 27 
 
 as the most original humorist that America has 
 yet produced. He alone is inimitable. Our line 
 of humorists, it may be remarked, is a long 
 one, but we cannot spare any of them yet. 
 We need not however lessen our admiration for 
 Lowell, Holmes, Irving or Curtis. I do not 
 think a perusal of "innocents Abroad" would 
 endanger the security of the "Sketch Book." 
 Perhaps, after all ; there was a little too much 
 fun. Laughter makes us doubly serious after 
 ward, and we do not want to be humorists 
 always, turning up like a prize-fighter at each 
 round, still smiling. 
 
 If anything, the Americans are too prone to 
 laugh, even over their misfortunes: they must 
 not be serious no matter how grave the occasion. 
 I will relate a story which is a good instance 
 of this. 
 
 Some years ago, while riding alone through 
 the Sierras, I lost my way. Suddenly I came 
 across a dark-browed, heavily- armed, suspicious- 
 looking stranger, whom I would have avoided if 
 possible, but as that was not to be done, I ap 
 proached him and asked him the road to camp. 
 The heavily -armed stranger guided me to the 
 spot, and beguiled the road with one or two very 
 amusing stories, one of which he had just begun 
 
AMERICAN HUMOR 
 
 when the cross-road leading to the camp came 
 into view. My guide accompanied me in order 
 to finish his story, which was extremely humor 
 ous in its nature, to within a short distance of 
 the camp, and then departed. On arriving 
 among my friends I was astonished to find a 
 sheriff s posse was on hand in search of a noted 
 desperado, whose description furnished by them 
 identified him undoubtedly with the man who 
 had, in order to finish his story, placed himself 
 within one hundred yards of his deadly enemies. 
 Such was the American extreme. Perhaps 
 our true humorist is yet to come : when he does 
 come he will show that a nation which laughs so 
 easily has still a great capacity for deep feeling, 
 and he will, I think, be a little more serious than 
 our present day humorists. 
 
Reply to " Toast to Literature " 
 
Reply to "Toast to Literature" 
 at the Royal Academy 
 
 On Saturday evening, May 1, 1880, to inaugurate the 
 exhibition which opened that day, the President and Council 
 of the Royal Academy gave the accustomed entertainment, 
 at Burlington House, to a distinguished company, including 
 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, His Royal High 
 ness the Duke of Cambridge, and other members of the 
 Royal Family ; Her Majesty s Ministers, many of the ex- 
 Ministers, foreign Ambassadors, Members of both Houses of 
 Parliament, and other gentlemen of position and influence. 
 
 Sir FREDERICK LEIGHTON, the President, said: "I have 
 now to ask you to drink to the interest of Science and Liter 
 ature. "*** In coupling a name with Literature I propose to 
 take a rather unusual course: for I shall call upon a writer 
 who owes us no allegiance save that of friendship to the coun 
 try in which he is now a guest. [Cheers.] An English 
 writer, nevertheless, for English is the tongue in which he 
 delights the innumerable host of his readers; English is the 
 tongue in which he has clothed a humor, racy and delicate 
 at once, and has married to it a most subtle pathos a pathos 
 so deep, so tender, and so penetrating that we rise from his 
 pages half believing that wrong is an untoward accident in 
 the world, and goodness the one abiding, inextinguishable 
 thing. [Cheers.] This company will be glad, I am confi 
 dent, of the opportunity thus offered to it of welcoming in its 
 midst the great American humorist, BRET HARTE. [Loud 
 cheers.] 
 
 I PRESUME I am selected to answer to 
 this toast as a native of a country which 
 reads more English books and pays less for them 
 than any other nation. [Laughter.] Certainly, 
 representing as I do a free people who of their 
 
32 REPLY TO "TOAST TO LITERATURE" 
 
 own accord read four volumes of Tennyson to 
 one of I^ongfellow, [laughter] I might claim 
 a hearing here. [Daughter.] But I recognize 
 in your kindly greeting the same welcome ex 
 tended to Hosea Biglow, Hans Breitmann, Arte- 
 mus Ward, and Mark Twain. [Cheers.] I recog 
 nize your appreciation of what is said to be 
 distinctive American literature a literature that 
 laughs with the American skies, and is by turns 
 as surprising and as extravagant as the American 
 weather. [Laughter.] Indeed, I am not certain 
 that these cyclones of American humor that cross 
 the Atlantic are not as providential as the Amer- 
 can storms that mitigate the austere monotony 
 of the English climate. [Laughter.] For it has 
 been settled by your reviewers that American 
 literature is American humor, and that this 
 American humor is a kind of laughable impro 
 priety, more or less scantily clothed in words. 
 It has been settled that you are a sober people, 
 and that nobody in America takes life seriously 
 not even a highwayman and that our litera 
 ture is a reflex of our life. But I think that a 
 majority of this Academy are kind enough to 
 recognize some principles of Art underlying this 
 characteristic. And I consider that no higher 
 
BRET HARTE 
 
 CARTOON BY "SPY" (LESLIE WARD) IN FANITY F4IR, 1879 
 
REPLY TO "TOAST TO LITERATURE" 33 
 
 compliment has been paid American humor than 
 that the type of American drawn by your great 
 est English humorist has been supplanted by 
 types drawn by Lowell, Artemus Ward, and 
 Mark Twain. 
 
 [Mr. Bret Harte concluded by thanking the 
 President for the toast.] 
 
The Improved /Esop 
 
 For Intelligent Modern Children 
 By Bret Harte 
 
Fable I 
 The Fox and the Grapes 
 
 A thirsty fox one day, in passing through a 
 vineyard, noticed that the grapes were hang 
 ing in clusters from vines which were trained 
 to such a height as to be out of his reach. 
 
 "Ah," said the fox, with a supercilious 
 smile, "I ve heard of this before. In the 
 twelfth century an ordinary fox of average 
 culture would have wasted his energy and 
 strength in the vain attempt to reach yonder 
 sour grapes. Thanks to my knowledge of vine 
 culture, however, I at once observe that the 
 great height and extent of the vine, the drain 
 upon the sap through the increased number of 
 tendrils and leaves must, of necessity, impov 
 erish the grape, and render it unworthy the 
 consideration of an intelligent animal. Not 
 any for me thank you." With these words he 
 coughed slightly, and withdrew. 
 
 MORAL This fable teaches us that an intel 
 ligent discretion and some botanical know 
 ledge are of the greatest importance in grape 
 culture. 
 
 36 
 
Fable II 
 The Fox and the Stork 
 
 A fox one day invited a stork to dinner, but 
 provided for the entertainment only the first 
 course, soup. This being in a shallow dish, 
 of course the fox lapped up readily, but the 
 stork, by means of his long bill, was unable 
 to gain a mouthful. 
 
 "You do not seem fond of soup," said the 
 fox, concealing a smile in his napkin. "Now 
 it is one of my greatest weaknesses." 
 
 You certainly seem to project yourself out 
 side of a large quantity, said the stork, rising 
 with some dignity, and examining his watch 
 with considerable empressement; "but I have an 
 appointment at eight o clock, which I had 
 forgotten. I must ask to be excused. Au revoir. 
 By the way, dine with me to-morrow." 
 
 The fox assented, arrived at the appointed 
 time, but found, as he fully expected, nothing 
 on the table but a single long-necked bottle, 
 containing olives, which the stork was com 
 placently extracting by the aid of his long bill. 
 
 "Why, you do not seem to eat anything," 
 said the stork, with great nai vette, when he 
 had finished the bottle. 
 
 "No," said the fox, significantly, "l am 
 waiting for the second course." 
 
 I What is that? " asked the stork, blandly. 
 
 "Stork, stuffed with olives," shrieked the 
 fox in a very pronounced manner, and in 
 stantly dispatched him. 
 
 MORAL True hospitality obliges the host 
 to sacrifice himself for his guests. 
 
 38 
 
Fable III 
 
 The W^olf and the Lamb 
 
 A wolf one day, drinking from a running 
 stream, observed a lamb also drinking from 
 the same stream at some distance from him. 
 
 I have yet to learn, said the wolf, address 
 ing the lamb with dignified severity," what 
 right you have to muddy the stream from 
 which I am drinking." 
 
 "Your premises are incorrect, " replied the 
 lamb with bland politeness, "for if you will 
 take the trouble to examine the current criti 
 cally you will observe that it flows from you 
 to me, and that any disturbance of sediment 
 here would be, so far as you are concerned, 
 entirely local." 
 
 Possibly you are right, returned the wolf, 
 "but, if I am not mistaken, you are the person 
 who, two years ago, used some influence against 
 me at the primaries." 
 
 Impossible, replied the lamb; two years 
 ago I was not born." 
 
 Ah ! well, added the wolf, composedly, "I 
 am wrong again. But it must convince every 
 intelligent person who has listened to this con 
 versation that I am altogether insane, and 
 consequently not responsible for my actions." 
 
 With this remark, he at once dispatched the 
 lamb, and was triumphantly acquitted. 
 
 MORAL This fable teaches us how errone 
 ous may be the popular impression in regard 
 to the distribution of alluvium and the forma 
 tion of river deltas. 
 
 40 
 
The Piracy of Bret Harte s 
 Fables 
 
XX 
 
 The Piracy of Bret Harte s 
 Fables 
 
 Bret Harte ever essayed to emulate 
 the example of immortal ^Bsop is not 
 generally known, even among those who are 
 fairly familiar with his work. It is certain, 
 however, that he wrote and published at least 
 three fables. And, what is more, it is equally 
 certain that these inoffensive and not very am 
 bitious ventures into a difficult literary field, 
 brought him an experience humorous to look 
 back upon, but which must have been exas 
 perating at the time. 
 
 He was charged with "literary piracy." At 
 first glance the charge seemed not without 
 foundation. The humor of the situation de 
 velops however, when it becomes evident that 
 Harte was not only innocent of flying the liter 
 ary Black Flag, but was himself the victim of 
 piratical enterprise. The three fables were not 
 stolen by him but from him. 
 
 In the columns of the New York Tribune, early 
 in the year 1882, there appeared the following 
 arraignment : 
 
46 THE PIRACY OF BRBT HARTE S FABLES 
 
 IS THIS A CASE OF PIRACY? 
 
 To the Editor of The Tribune: 
 
 SIR : I notice in your paper of to-day an ar 
 ticle copied from The London Echo headed, "Bret 
 Harte s New Book A Collection of Fables." 
 Of the five, four have been stolen verbatim et litera 
 tim from my volumes, "Out of the World," pub 
 lished five years ago and favorably noticed in The 
 Tribune, if I mistake not, and the fifth has been 
 expanded and spoiled. Mr. Harte seems to have 
 gone to the length of appropriating the illustra 
 tions of my friend, Mr. F. K. Church. I have 
 heard of wholesale literary piracies, but there is 
 a sweet, luscious largeness about Mr. Harte s 
 work which reminds one of nothing so much as 
 a mammoth California fruit, ripened in an Eng 
 lish hothouse. Yours truly, 
 
 G. T. LANIGAN. 
 New York, Jan. 8, 1882. 
 
 The newspaper article to which Mr. Lanigan 
 refers was a reprint by the New York Tribune of 
 a book review first published in the London Echo. 
 The work under review was called "Bret Harte s 
 New Book," and the publishers neglected to 
 state that only a part of the book s contents 
 was from the pen of Bret Harte. The reviewer 
 said : 
 
THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 47 
 
 "Mr. Bret Harte has gone to the author, 
 whom that popular lecturer, the Rev. Jackson 
 Wray, aptly describes as "Rare Old ^Esop," 
 and has produced a new book of Fables whose 
 chief fault is that it is so small, but though 
 the volume is thin the fun is not so by any 
 means." 
 
 After particularizing concerning certain of 
 the fables, not choosing, as it happened, any 
 of the genuine Harte products, the reviewer 
 continued : Some of the fables in the book 
 seem to have been written with an eye to 
 passing events. Take, for instance, the follow 
 ing and read it in connection with the extra 
 ordinary incidents of the trial of Guiteau." 
 Then follows The Wolf and the Lamb," 
 which was one of the fables that Harte really 
 did write. 
 
 Bret Harte *s state of mind upon having his 
 attention called to Mr. L,anigan s accusation 
 may be better imagined when his opinion as to 
 the piracy of an author s writings is more clearly 
 known. 
 
 In the early days of Harte s career as an 
 author there was no international copyright law, 
 and many English publishers reaped a rich har 
 vest by placing on the market the writings of 
 
48 THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 
 
 American authors. And I may remark in pass 
 ing with shame for my fellow-countrymen, 
 the pirates were not all on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, for not a few American publishers took 
 advantage of opportunities to make money in 
 this manner. Harte, like many other American 
 authors, was a sufferer from this abuse. 
 
 His attitude toward the flagrant piracy by 
 English publishers was shown when in 1873 he 
 brought suit, through his American publishers, 
 for an injunction to restrain the importation and 
 sale of pirated editions of his works. The articles 
 in question were published in The Overland Monthly 
 and other magazines. The injunction was sus 
 tained, and the books then in the custom house 
 were not allowed to enter here. 
 
 The following characteristic letter of Mark 
 Twain will serve to make clearer a contemporary 
 author s feelings on the subject. I give the 
 letter in full because it contains much of 
 Twain s humor and has never before, so far as 
 I am able to learn, been published in book form. 
 
 To the Editor of The Spectator: 
 
 SIR: I only venture to intrude upon you be 
 cause I come, in some sense, in the interest of 
 public morality, and this makes my mission res- 
 
THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 49 
 
 pectable. Mr. John Camden Hotten, of London, 
 has, of his own individual motion, republished 
 several of my books in England. I do not pro- 
 test against this, for there is no law that could 
 give effect to the protest ; and, besides, publishers 
 are not accountable to the laws of/heaven and 
 earth in any country, as I understand it. But 
 my grievance is this : My books are bad enough 
 just as they are written, then what must they be 
 after Mr. John Camden Hotten has composed 
 half-a-dozen chapters and added the same to 
 them ? I feel that all true hearts will bleed for 
 an author whose volumes have fallen under such 
 a dispensation as this. If a friend of yours, or 
 even if you yourself, were to write a book and 
 send it adrift among the people, with the gravest 
 apprehensions that it was not up to what it ought 
 to be intellectually, how would you like to have 
 John Camden Hotten sit down and stimulate his 
 powers, and drool two or three original chapters 
 on to the end of that book? Would not the 
 world seem cold and hollow to you ? Would you 
 not feel that you wanted to die and be at rest ? 
 Little the world knows of true suffering. And 
 suppose he should entitle these chapters, "Holi- 
 iday Literature," "True Stories of Chicago," 
 4 On Children," "Train Up a Child, and Away 
 He Goes," and "Vengeance," and then, on the 
 strength of having evolved these marvels from 
 his own consciousness, go and "Copyright" the 
 entire book, and put on the title-page a picture 
 
50 THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 
 
 of a man with his hand in another man s pocket 
 and the legend "All Rights Reserved," (I only 
 suppose the picture ; still it would be rather a 
 neat thing). And, further, suppose that in the 
 kindness of his heart and the exuberance of his 
 untaught fancy, this thoroughly well-meaning 
 innocent should expunge the modest title which 
 you had given your book, and replace it with so 
 foul an invention as this, "Screamers and Eye- 
 Openers, " and went and got that copyrighted, 
 too. And suppose that on top of all this, he 
 continually and persistently forgot to offer you 
 a single penny or even send you a copy of your 
 mutilated book to burn. Let us suppose all 
 this. L,et him suppose it with strength enough, 
 and then he will know something about woe. 
 Sometimes when I read one of those additional 
 chapters constructed by John Camden Hotten, 
 I feel as if I wanted to take a broom-straw and 
 go and knock that man s brains out. Not in 
 anger, for I feel none. Oh! not in anger; but 
 only to see, that is all. Mere idle curiosity. 
 And Mr. Hotten says that one nom de plume of 
 mine is "Carl Byng." I hold that there is no 
 affliction in this world that makes a man feel so 
 downtrodden and abused as the giving him a 
 name that does not belong to him. How would 
 this sinful aborigine feel if I were to call him 
 John Camden Hottentot, and come out in the 
 papers and say he was entitled to it by divine 
 right? I do honestly believe it would throw 
 
THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTB S FABLES 51 
 
 him into a brain fever, if there were not an in 
 superable obstacle in the way. 
 
 Yes to come to the original subject, which is 
 the sorrow that is slowly but surely undermin 
 ing my health Mr. Hotten prints unrevised, 
 uncorrected, and in some respects, spurious 
 books, with my name to them as author, and 
 thus embitters his customers against one of the 
 most innocent of men. Messrs. George Rout- 
 ledge and Sons are the only English publishers 
 who pay me any copyright, and therefore if my 
 books are to disseminate either suffering or 
 crime among the readers of our language, I 
 would ever so much rather they did it through 
 that house, and then I could contemplate the 
 spectacle calmly as the dividends came in. 
 
 I am sir, etc., 
 SAMUEL T. CLEMENS ("Mark Twain"). 
 
 L,ondon, September 20, 1872. 
 
 Bret Harte, though in Glasgow at the time 
 Mr. Lanigan s accusation was printed in the 
 New York Tribune, immediately made reply to 
 the same through the columns of that paper. 
 Mr. L,anigan we hope considered the answer 
 sufficiently full and explicit. 
 
 To the Editor of the Tribune: 
 
 SIR: I find in the columns of The Tribune a 
 communication from a Mr. Lanigan claiming the 
 
52 THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 
 
 authorship of certain fables contained in a book 
 published in London, bearing upon its cover the 
 inscription, "Fables by G. Washington Jsop" 
 and upon its title page, "Fables by G. Washing 
 ton ^Esop and Bret Harte." Three of these 
 fables I recognize as my own, but where and 
 when written I cannot now recall. 
 
 As Mr. L,anigan has seen fit to abuse me for 
 instigating the publication of the book, and 
 claiming its authorship, it may be necessary for 
 me to state that I neither authorized its publica 
 tion nor knew of its existence until it was pub 
 licly sold. When I read it, I wrote the publisher, 
 who apologized, but at the same time pointed 
 out the obvious fact which seems to have es 
 caped the attention of Mr. L,anigan that he 
 had, neither on title page or cover, claimed the 
 work as wholly mine. And it is only just to 
 him to say he admitted a certain wrong done to 
 me, in so far as to voluntarily offer to "consider" 
 any pecuniary damage I might have sustained. 
 That damage I am not "considering" here. 
 But if I have been wantonly or accidentally 
 used as an advertisement for a book, which is 
 amusing, I do not see that it follows that I 
 should suffer myself to be made an advertise 
 ment for Mr. Lanigan, who is certainly not. 
 
 BRET HARTE. 
 
 Glasgow, Jan. 28, 1882. 
 
 Bret Harte says in this letter that he cannot 
 recall when and where he wrote the fables, but 
 
THE PIRACY OF BRET HARTE S FABLES 53 
 
 some may remember the Homoeopathic Hospital 
 Fair, held in the hall at 112 to 116 Lake Street, 
 Chicago, November 19-26, 1874, and Harte s 
 contribution to "The Chicago Hospital Bazaar," 
 published in the interests of the Fair at that 
 time. It was here his three fables first ap 
 peared. The reason for their not being more 
 widely known, and inserted by the publishers 
 in his collected works, may perhaps be that, 
 coming through the channels in which they did, 
 they escaped notice. They are certainly, as a 
 reading will show, well worthy of preservation. 
 
-,. 
 
DEC191997