The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 | Page 7

the first sentence of the first letter.
I can easily imagine, dear M., the look of large wonder which gleams
from your astonished eyes when they fall upon the date of this letter.
M. could be astonished but once, but the language used conveys the
idea of wonder arising each time the letter is read; then, again, it is the
place-name, and not the date, that is to cause wonder to gleam from
astonished eyes, as the context shows.
Where reconstruction was not needed to make the meaning clear, and
this could be done by the insertion of a word or phrase, or by some
other simple emendation, changes were generally made. The extract
(post, p. 11) following is printed just as it appeared in the Pioneer.
As a frame to the graceful picture, on one side rose the Buttes, that
group of hills so piquant and saucy; and on the other tossing to Heaven
the everlasting whiteness of their snow wreathed foreheads, stood,
sublime in their very monotony, the glorious Sierra Nevada.

Besides changes in capitalization and punctuation, the words, "the
summits of," are inserted before "the glorious Sierra." Compare Bret
Harte's lines,--
Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting, The river sang below;
The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting Their minarets of snow.
By the word "Sierras" the mountain-range called the Sierra Nevada is
not meant, but merely teeth-like summits thereof, which uplift their
snow-clad peaks, or "minarets." The Spanish word "sierra" means, in
English, a saw, and also a ridge of mountains and craggy rocks.
"Nevada" means here, in connection with "Sierra," snowy. Thus, "the
snowy ridge of mountains and craggy rocks," or, to express the
meaning more clearly in English, the snowy serrated mountain-range.
Bret Harte's capitalization of "Sierras" may be safely challenged. The
lines are from his poem, Dickens in Camp.
The Buttes mentioned by Shirley are the Marysville Buttes. "Butte" is
French, and descriptive, and French trappers bestowed the name.
Shirley sometimes uses an adverb instead of an adjective. Thus on page
332, speaking of a tame frog on the bar at a rancho, she says,--
You cannot think how comically [comic] it looked hopping about the
bar, quite as much at home as a tame squirrel would have been.
An old San Francisco printer once heard a newspaperman say that this
little incident furnished the suggestion to Mark Twain for his Jumping
Frog of Calaveras, but, unfortunately, regarded the remark as of no
more importance than much other gossip current among printers and
newspapermen.
Shirley, like many another writer, used marks of quotation improperly,
when the language of the author cited was altered or adapted. Worse
than this are many instances of gross misquotation. In the former case,
the quotation-marks were deleted; in the latter, accuracy was the aim.
On page 79 quotation-marks are deleted, the language used being

adapted, thus, "clothe themselves with curses as with a garment."
Compare Psalms cix, 18, "He clothed himself with cursing like as with
his garment."
On page 101 a correction is made; thus, "As thy day is, so shall thy
strength be" (Deut. xxxiii, 25). In the Letters this read, "As thy days,
so," etc.
On page 268 quotation-marks are deleted, as the language used is
adapted, and in a strict sense is also inaccurate; thus, "The woman
tempted me, and I did eat." Compare Genesis iii, 12, 13.
12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Blunders and mistakes of all sorts might be set out, but it is not deemed
advisable to pursue this matter any further. It is, however, necessary to
say something further of THE PIONEER itself, and the paper-cover
title of the May, 1855, number is reprinted here, with an outline
drawing of the crude woodcut vignette printed in the original. It was
impossible to secure a satisfactory facsimile of the title. The names of
some of the agents of the magazine are of historical interest.

The PIONEER
or
California Monthly Magazine
[Illustration]

May, 1855

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLISHED by LE COUNT & STRONG Nos.
111 & 113 MONTGOMERY STREET
For SALE at all the BOOKSTORES in the CITY
AGENTS
J. W. JONES, Benicia; CHAS. BINNEY, Sacramento; R. A. EDDY &
CO., Marysville; GEO. VINCENT & CO., Coloma; LANGTON &
BRO., Downieville; A. ROMAN, Shasta; ROMAN & PARKER, Yreka;
NASH & DAVIS, Placerville; ADAMS & CO., Jackson; ADAMS &
CO., Georgetown; ADAMS & CO., Mud Springs; C. O. BURTON,
Stockton; CANNADAY & COOK, Sonora; A. A. HUNNEWELL,
Columbia; J. COFFIN, Mokelumne Hill; MILLER & CO., Chinese
Camp;