A Tramp Through the Bret Harte Country

Mr. Maslin is justly jealous for the reputation of the Argonauts. Perhaps Bret Harte’s miner, with his ready pistol, was as far from the mark as Rudyard Kipling’s picture of Tommy Atkins as an absentminded beggar –an imputation the real Tommy hotly resented. At the same time, such stories as The Luck of Roaring Camp and Tennessee’s Partner, not to quote others, prove Bret Harte conceded to the miner, courage, patience, gentleness, generosity and steadfastness in friendship. If Bret Harte really hurt California, it was because, leaving the State for good in February, 1871, he carried with him the atmosphere of the early mining days and never got out of it.