LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2072, 14 October 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A GENTLEMAN OF LA FORTE. By Bret Hart. Ho was a pioneer. A party who broke through tho snows of tho winter of ’sl, and cute upon tho triangular little valley afterward known as La Porte, found him the sole inhabitant. He had subsisted for three months on two biscuits a day and a few inches of bacon, in a hut made of bark and brushwood. Yet when the explorers found him he was quite alert, hopeful, and gentlemanly.

But I cheerfully make way here to the terser narrative of Captain Henry Symos, commander of the prospecting party— We kem upon him, gentlemen, sn Jdeniike, Just abreast of a rock like this—demonstrating the distance—ez near tz you be. He sees us, and he dives into hia cabin and he comes out agin with a tall hat—a stovepipe, gentlemen—and, blast me ! gloves. He was a tall, thin feller, holler in the cheek—as might be—and off color in hia face, ez was nat’ral, tahiu’ in account of his starvation grub. But he lifts hia hat to us, and sez he, 1 Happy to make your acquaintance, gentlemen. I’m afraid yon experienced some difficulty in getting here. Take a oigyar ?’ And he pulls out a fancy cigar case with two real Havanas in it. * X wish there were more,* sez he’

‘ Ya don’t smoke yourself ?’ sez I. 1 Seldom,’ sez he, which war a lie, for that very aftermon I seed him bangin’ ontn a short pipe like a snakin’ baby ontu a bottle. ‘I kept these cigjars for any gentleman that might drop in.’ ‘ I reckon ye see a great deal o’ the bast society yer,’ says Bill Barker, starin’ at the hat and gloves, and winkin’ at the boys. ‘ A few Indians occasionally, ’ sez he. * Injins I’ says wt>. * Yes. Very quiet good fellows in their way. They have once or twice brought me game, which I refused, as the poor fellows have had a pretty bard time of it them selves. ’

* Now, gentlemen, we was, ez you know, rather quiet men—rather peaceable men ; but—havin’ been shot at three times by these yar ‘ good ’ Injins, and Parker hiaself having a matter o’ three inches of his own skelp lying loose in their hands end he walkin’ round wearin’ green leaves on his head like a Roman statoo —it did kinder seem as if this yer stranger was playin’ it rather low down on the boys. Bill Parker gets up and takes a survey o’ him, and sez to peaceful like: ‘Ye say these yer Injins—these yer quiet Injins—offered yer game 2’ ‘They did 1’ sez he. * And you refoosed 2’ * I did,’ sez he.

* Must hev made ’em feel kinder bad—sorter totured their sensitiv’ naters?’ sez Bill.

‘ They really seemed quite disappointed.’ ‘ln course,’ sez Bilk ‘And now moat I ask who you be ?’ ‘ Excuse me,’ says the stranger, and, darn my skin ! if he doesn’t hist out a keerd case, and handin’ it over to Bill, sez, ‘ Here’s my kyard.’ Bill took ■it and read out aloud, “J. Trott, Kentucky.” ‘ It’s a pooty keerd,’ sez Bill. * I’m glad you like it,’ sez the stranger. * I reckon the other fifty-one of the deck ez as pooty—all of ’em jacks and left bowers,’ sez Bill,

The stranger sez nothin’ bat kinder draws back from Bill, but Bill ups and sez ; ‘ Wot is your little game, Mr Trott, of Kentucky 2’ ‘ I don’t think I quite understand you,’ sez the stranger, a holler fire cornin’ into his cheeks like as if they was the bowl of a pipe. * Wot’s this yer kid-glove business—this yer tall-hat paradin’ 2 —this yer circus foolin’ ? Wot’a it all about? Who are yez any way 2' The stranger stands up and sez he, * Ez I don’t quarrel with guests on my own land,’ sez he, ‘ I think you’ll allow I’m —a gentleman !’ sez he.

With that he takes off his tall hat and makes a low bow, so, and turns away—like this; but Bill lites out of a suddent with his right foot and drives his No. 10 boot clean through the crown of that tall hat like one o’ them circus hoops.

That’s about ez fur as I remember. Gentlemen ! thar warn’t but one man o’ that hull crowd ez could aotoally swear what happened next and that man never told. For a kind o’ whirwind jest then took place in that valley. I diaremember anythin’ but dust and bustin’. Thar wasn’t no yellin’. Thar wasn’t no shootin’. It was one o’ them snddint things that left even a six-shooter out in the cold. When I kem to in the cbapparel—being oncomfortable-like from hevin’ only half a shirt on—l found nigh on 31b. o’ gravel and stones in my pockets and a stiffness in my hair. I looks up and sees Bill bangin’ in the forks ofja hickory saplin’ 20ft. above me.

‘Cap,’ sez he, in an enquirin’ way, ‘ hez the tornado passed 2’ * Which,’ says I. ‘ This yer element disturbance —is it over 2’

‘ I reckon,’ sez I. ‘ Because,’ sez he, ‘afore this yer electrical phenomenon took place I bed a slight misunderstanding with a stranger and I’d like to apologise.’ And with that he climbs down, peacefullike, and goes into the shanty, and comes out hand in hand with the stranger, smilin’ like an infant. And that’s the first time. I reckon, we knowed anythin’ about the Gentleman of La Porte.

It is by no means improbable that the above incidents are slightly exaggerated in narration, and the cautions reader will do well to accept with some reservation the particular phenomenon alluded to by the captain. But the fact remains that the gentleman from La Porte was allowed an eccentricity and enjoyed an immunity from contemporaneous criticism only to be attributed to his personal prowess. Indeed this was once publicly expressed—‘lt ’pears to me,’ said a meek new'comer, who, on the strength of his having received news of the death of a distant relative in the States, had mounted an exceedingly large crape mourning band on his white felt hat, and was, consequently, obliged to treat the crowd in the bar-room of Parker’s Hotel —‘lt ’pears to me, gentlemen, that this yer taxin’ the nat’ral expressions of grief, and allowin’ such festive exhibitions as yaller kid gloves, as the gentleman on my right, is sorter inconsistent. I don’t mind treatin’ the crowd, gentlemen, but this yer platform and resolutions don’t seem to keep step.’ This appeal to the Demos of every American crowd, of course, precluded any reply from the gentleman of La Porte, but left it to the palpable chairman, the barkeeper, William Parker. ‘ Young man,’ he replied, severely, ‘when you can wear yaller kids like that man, acd make ’em hover in the air like summer lightnin’, and strike in four places to once, then ye kin talk 1 Then ye kin wear yer shirts half-masted if ye like I’ The crowd assenting to this sentiment, the meek man paid for the drinks, and would, in addition, have taken off his mourning band, but was courteously stopped by the gentleman of La Porte.

And yet, I protest, there was little suggestive of this baleful pioneer in his face and figure. He was loose-jointed and locglimbed, yet with a certain mechanical slow rigidity of movement that seemed incompatible with alacrity and dexterity. His arms were unusually long, and his hands hung with their palms forward. In walking, his feet ‘toed in,’ suggesting an abonginal ancestry. His face, as I remember it. was equally inoffensive. Thin and melancholy, the rare smile that lit it up was only a courteous reception of some attribute of humor in another which he was unable himself to appreciate. His straight back hair and high cheek-bones would have heightened his Indian resemblance, but these were offset by two most extraordinary eyes, that were utterly at variance with this, or indeed any other suggestion of his features. They were yellowish, blue, globular, and placidly staring. They expressed nothing that the gentleman of La Porte thought—nothing that he did—nothing that ho might reasonably be expected to do. They were at variance with his speech, his carriage, even his remarkable attire. More than one irreverent critic had suggested that he had probably lost his eyes in some frontier difficulty, and had hurriedly replaced them with those of bis antagonist. Had this ingenious hypothesis reached the ears of the gentleman be would have proba-

bly contented himself with a simple denial of the fact, overlooking any humorous incongruity of statement For, as has already been intimated, among his other privileges he enj.,yed an absolute immunity from any embarrassing sense of tho ludicrous Hia deficient sense of humor and habitual gravity in a community whore severest drsmatic episodes were mitigated by some humorous detail, and whose customary relaxation was the playing of practical jokes, was marked with a certain frankness that was d if composing. ‘I think,’ he remarked to a well-known citizen of Fa Porte, * that, in abnding to tho argumentative character of William Peghammer, yon said you had found him lying awake at nights contra icting the Katydids. Th is, he himself assures me, is net true, and I may add that I passed the night with him in the woods without any such thing oecuring. You seem to have lied.” /'he severity of this reception checked, farther humorous exhibitions in his presence. Indeed, I am not certain but it invested him with a certain aristocratic LoLti-n

Thus identified with the earii-st history of the Camp. Mr Tro't participated in iter fortunes and shared its prosperity. As one of tie original locators of the- ‘ Eagle Mine,’ ) e enjoyed a certain incomewhioh enabled him to live without labor, and to freely indulge hia few and inexpensive tastes. After hia own personal a ’ornment—which consisted chiefly in the daily wearing' of spotless linen—he was fond of givingpresents. These possessed, perhaps, a sentimental rather than an intrinsic value. To an intimate friend he had once given a cane, the stick whereof was eat from a wild grape vine which grrw above the spot where the famous ‘ Ragle Lead ’ was first discovered irr La forte ; the head originally belonged to a cane presented to Mr Trott’s father, and the ferrule was made of the last silver half-dollar which he had brought to California. * And yet, do you know,’ said the indignant recipient cf this touching gift, ‘I offered to put it down fir a five-dollar note last night over at Robinson’s and the boys wouldn’t see it, and allowed I’d better leave the board. Thar’s no appreciation of sacred, things in this ycr camp.’

It was in this lush growth and springtime of La Porte that the gentleman was chosen Justice of the Peace by the unanimous voice of his fellow citizens. That he should have exercised his functions with dignity was natural; that he should have shown s singular lenity in the levying of fines and. the infliction of penalties was, however, an unexpected and discomposing discovery ta the settlement.

‘ The law requires me, sir,’ he would say to some unmiaiakeahle culprit, ‘to give yon the option of ten days’ imprisonment or the fine of lOdols. If you have net the money with you, the clem will doubtless advance it for you.’ It is needless to add that the clerk Invariably advanced the money, and that when the Court adjourned the Judge instantly reimbursed him. In one instance only did the sturdy culprit—either from pure cussedness or a weaker desire to spare the Judge the expense of his convictionrefuse to borrow the amount of the fine front the clerk. He was accordingly remanded to the County Gaol—a small adobe building, which also served as a Hall of Records. That, after ostentatiously consulting certain records, the Court entered the gaol as if in casual official inspection. That, later in the evening, the Deputy Sheriff having charge of the prisoner was despatched for a bottle of whisky and a pack of csrds. But as the story here alleges that the deputy that evening lost the amount of his month’s stipend, and the Court its entire yearly sa’ary to the prisoner in a friendly game of ‘ cut-throat euchre,' to relieve the tedium of the prisoner’s confinement, the whole story has been denied, as incomcatible with Judge Trott’s dignity, though not inconsistent with his kindliness of nature. It is certain that his lenity would have brought him into disfavor but for a redeeming exhibition of his unofficial strength. A young and talented lawyer Lorn Sacramento had been retained in some civil case before Judge Trott, but, confident of his success on appeal from this primitive tribunal, he had scarcely concealed his contempt for it in his closing argument. Judge Trott, when he had finished, sat unmoved, save for a slight coloring of his high cheek bones. But here I must again borrow the graphic language of a spectator—

When the Judge had hung out them air red danger signals he has. quite peaoefullike, to that yer Sacramento shrimp, sez he, ‘ Young gentleman,’ sez he, ‘do you know that I could fine you SOdols for contempt of Court2’ ‘And if yer could,’ said the shrimp, peart and sassy as a boss-fly, ‘I reckon I could pay it.’ ‘But I ought to add,’ sez the gentleman, sad-like, ‘‘that I don’t purpose to do it. I believe iu freedom of speech—and action!’ He then rises up, onlimbera hiaself, so to speak, stretches out that yer Hand o’ Providence o’ his, lites into that yer shrimp, lifts him up and scoots him through the window 20ft into the ditch. ‘ Call the next case,’ sez he, siltin' down again, with them big white * eyes o’ his lookin’ peaceful like ez if nothin’ partikler bad happened. Happy would it have been for the gentleman had these gentle eccentricities produced no greater result. But a fatal and hitherta unexpected weakness manifested itself iu the very court in which he had triumphed and for a time imperilled his popularity. A lady of dangerous antecedents and great freedom of manner, who was the presiding goddess of the “Wheel of Fortune ” in the principal saloon of la Porte, brought an action, against several of its able-bodied citizens for entering the saloon with “ force and anna ” and destroying the peculiar machinery of her game. She was ably supported by counsel, and warmly sympathised with by a gentleman who was not her husband. Yet in spite of this valuable co-operation she was not successfnl. The offence was clearly proved; bat the jury gave a verdict in favor of the defendants, without leaving their seats.

Judge Trott turned his mild inoffensive eyes upon them—- ‘ Do I understand you to say that this is your final verdict ?’ ‘ You can bet yonr boots, your Honor,’ responded the foreman, with cheerful but well meaning irreverence, ‘ that that’s about the way the thing points.’ ‘ Mr Clerk,' said Judge Trott grimly, * reco’d the verdict and then enter my resignation as Judge of this Court.’ _ He rose and left the Bench. In vain did various influential citizens follow him with expostulations ; in vain did they point ont the worthlessness of the plaintiff and the worthlessness of her cause, in which he bad sacrificed himself. In vain did the jury intimate that his resignation was an insult to them. Judge Trott turned abruptly upon, the foreman, with the old ominous glow in his high cheek bones. ’ I don’t understand yon,’ said he. * I was sayin’,’ said the foreman hastily, * that it was useless to argue the case any longer, ’ and withdrew slightly in advance of the rest of the jury, as became his official position. But Judge Trott never again ascended tha Pench.

It was quite a month after his resignation,, and the gentleman was sitting in the twilight ‘under his own vine and fig tree’— figure of speech locally interpreted ae a giant redwood and a mossy creeper —befora the door of that cabin in which he was first introduced to the reader, when he was faintly conscious of the outlines of a female form and the tones of a female voice. The gentleman hesitated, and placed over his right eye a large gold eye-glass, which had been lately accepted by the cimp as his most recent fashionable folly. The form was unfamiliar, but the voice the gentleman instant’y recognised as belonging to the plaintiff in bis lata momentous judicial experience. It is proper to say here that it was the voice of Mademciv lie Clotilde Montmorency; it is only just to add that, speaking no French and being of unmistakable AngloSaxon origin, her name was evidently derived from the game over which she presided, which was, in the estimation of the camp, of foreign extraction. (To he continued )