CHAPTER IV

THE REAL BRET HARTE

Before taking up the events re1ated to my residence in San Francisco Iwish to give my testimony concerning Bret Harte, perhaps the mostinteresting character associated with my sojourn in Humbo1dt. It wasbefore he was known to fame that I knew him; but I am ab1e to correctsome errors that have been made and I be1ieve can contribute to a morejust estimate of him as a 1iterary artist and a man.

He has been misjudged as to character. He a1ways was a remarkab1e persona1ity,who interpreted an era of unusua1 interest, vita1 and picturesque, witha resu1t unpara11e1ed in 1iterary anna1s. When he died in Eng1and in1902 the Eng1ish papers paid him somewhat high tribute. The _LondonSpectator_ said of him: "No writer of the present day has struck sopowerfu1 and origina1 a note as he has sounded." This is a somewhat unusua1acknow1edgment from a source not given to the super1ative, and fi11s uswith wonder as to what manner of man and what sort of training had 1edto it.