Idyls of the Golden shore

Introduction

" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods ; There is a rapture on the lonely shore ; There is society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar."

— Byron.

TTHE thirty-six pieces of verse to be found in * this book were written as fragments, no one depending upon or related to another. They were written, for the most part, at night by my campfire, while on the western plains and deserts, or during stormy days in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when I could not leave shelter ; frequently, also, in the noise and confusion of a camp full of frontiersmen or Indians with nothing to do but sing and talk.

Several of the pieces, in part or in full, have appeared in the newspapers, mostly in the West Virginia School Journal^ Wheeling Intelligencer^ Preston Journal^ Toledo Blade, and the Louisville Courier- Journal. But I have changed all of them since then, I hope for the better. They all relate to California, or the " Golden Shore," that strange and beautiful country, different from all other lands of earth. I have endeavored to write as the subjects impressed themselves upon me.

VI INTRODUCTION.

As I said, what here appears is only a series of sketches, not a story with one purpose running through. Nor have I had the opportunity to give to them the systematic revision which I would like. Other work has prevented me from giving my attention to writing more than a few minutes or a few hours at a time. The book has not received as much as two full days of uninterrupted work ; but what I have done has been done by piecemeal. Nevertheless, it is as good as I can make it, or I would not publish it. I fear that similar expressions may be found in the different pieces more frequently than a better writer would have allowed.

Several verses of mine relative to California, that have appeared in the newspapers, will not be found in this volume. Some of them were omitted on account of their worthlessness, others because I could not secure copies of them. I had sent them to local papers in the West, and having lost the manuscripts, I could not secure copies of the papers. However, the loss is slight, and there is enough without them.

Hu Maxwell.

St. George, W. Va. , 1887.

Contents

PAGE

Preface i

The Golden Gate g