The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems

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The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems, by

Frances Fuller Victor This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems
Author: Frances Fuller Victor
Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19357]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE NEW PENELOPE
AND
OTHER STORIES AND POEMS.

BY
Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor.

San Francisco: A. L. BANCROFT & COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1877.
Copyright, 1877, by MRS. FRANCES FULLER VICTOR.

PREFACE.
This collection consists of sketches of Pacific Coast life, most of which have appeared, from time to time, in the Overland Monthly, and other Western magazines. If they have a merit, it is because they picture scenes and characters having the charm of newness and originality, such as belong to border life.
The poems embraced in the collection, have been written at all periods of my life, and therefore cannot be called peculiarly Western. But they embody feelings and emotions common to all hearts, East or West; and as such, I dedicate them to my friends on the Pacific Coast, but most especially in Oregon.
Portland, August, 1877.

CONTENTS.
STORIES. PAGE
The New Penelope 9 A Curious Interview 80 Mr. Ela's Story 96 On the Sands 112 An Old Fool 132 How Jack Hastings Sold His Mine 180 What They Told Me at Wilson's Bar 197 Miss Jorgensen 212 Sam Rice's Romance 231 El Tesoro 247
POEMS.
A Pagan Reverie 269 Passing by Helicon 272 Lost at Sea 275 'Twas June, Not I 276 Lines to a Lump of Virgin Gold 281 Magdalena 284 Repose 289 Aspasia 291 A Reprimand 296 To Mrs. ---- 297 Moonlight Memories 299 Verses for M---- 301 Autumnalia 303 Palo Santo 305 A Summer Day 306 He and She 308 O Wild November Wind 308 By the Sea 309 Polk County Hills 310 Waiting 312 Palma 314 Making Moan 316 Childhood 317 A Little Bird that Every One Knows 318 Wayward Love 319 A Lyric of Life 320 From an Unpublished Poem 321 Nevada 324 The Vine 326 What the Sea Said to Me 327 Hymn 328 Do You Hear the Women Praying? 329 Our Life is Twofold 331 Souvenir 334 I Only Wished to Know 335 Lines Written in an Album 335 Love's Footsteps 336 The Poet's Ministers 336 Sunset at the Mouth of the Columbia 340 The Passing of the Year 342

STORIES.
The New Penelope and Other Stories And Poems.

THE NEW PENELOPE.
I may as well avow myself in the beginning of my story as that anomalous creature--a woman who loves her own sex, and naturally inclines to the study of their individual peculiarities and histories, in order to get at their collective qualities. If I were to lay before the reader all the good and bad I know about them by actual discovery, and all the mean, and heroic, attributes this habit I have of studying people has revealed to me, I should meet with incredulity, perhaps with opprobrium. However that may be, I have derived great enjoyment from having been made the recipient of the confidences of many women, and by learning therefrom to respect the moral greatness that is so often coupled with delicate physical structure, and almost perfect social helplessness. Pioneer life brings to light striking characteristics in a remarkable manner; because, in the absence of conventionalities and in the presence of absolute and imminent necessities, all real qualities come to the surface as they never would have done under different circumstances. In the early life of the Greeks, Homer found his Penelope; in the pioneer days of the Pacific Coast, I discovered mine.
My wanderings, up and down among the majestic mountains and the sunny valleys of California and Oregon, had made me acquainted with many persons, some of whom were to me, from the interest they inspired me with, like the friends of my girlhood. Among this select number was Mrs. Anna Greyfield, at whose home among the foot-hills of the Sierras in Northern California, I had spent one of the most delightful summers of my life. Intellectual and intelligent without being learned or particularly bookish; quick in her perceptions and nearly faultless in her judgment of others; broadly charitable, not through any laxity of principle on her own part, but through knowledge of the stumbling-blocks of which the world is full for the unwary, she was a constant surprise and pleasure to me. For, among the vices of women I had long counted uncharitableness; and among their disadvantages want of actual knowledge of things--the latter