Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1908 — The Discovery of Bret Harte. [ARTICLE]

The Discovery of Bret Harte.

A copy of the Overland Monthly had fallen into my hands, and I was exceedingly interested In a sketch, “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” by an author whose name I had never before heard. I asked Mr. Fields to read it, and he cared more for it even than I, being much older and wiser, and be very soon dictated a letter to Mr. Harte, begging him to send something to the Atlantic. The reply, which came in due time, I think, not only expressed a willingness to become a contributor, but spoke of the writer’s probable departure from California. I cannot say how long it was before the Harte family reached Poston and became the guests of Mr. Howells in Cambridge. I only know that it was the time when every man was quoting from “The Heathen Chinee” and generally carrying...the verses in bls pocketbook. There was, I thought, a good deal of curiosity felt about the office as to the sort of man the suddenly popular author Would prove to be. He was found good looking and exceedingly well dressed, extremely self possessed, with a gracefully friendly and even affectionate manner to the new business and literary acquaintances of his Own age in the establishment, with whom be speedily became intimate.—Atlantic \ • --i- - —_