The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems

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,
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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Love 319 A Lyric of Life 320 From an Unpublished Poem 321 Nevada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