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LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PAVIS
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
C/^l
GIFT OF
Jniv of
Clarence King
Memoirs
The
Helmet of Mambrino
Published for the King Memorial Committee of
The Century Association by G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
1904
- /ci
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNA
DAVIS
COPYRGHT, 1904
BY
JAMES D. HAGUE
Published March, 1904
GIFT
Preface
OHORTLY after the death of the
^J late Clarence King, the Board of
Management of the Century Asso-
ciation appointed a Committee to ad-
vise in what manner the Club might
most fitly take due note of the demise
of their distinguished fellow-member.
After some long and disappointing
delays it was at last determined to
recommend the publication of a King
Memorial Book, which should contain
a number of personal memoirs, con-
tributed by some of his more intimate
friends and associates, together with
a reprint of King's short story entitled
" The Helmet of Mambrino," which
was first published in the Century
Magazine, in May, 1886.
These efforts have resulted in the
publication of the volume here pre-
sented, which has been produced under
M870018
IV
Preface
the direction of the King Memorial
Committee, consisting of Edward
Gary, John LaFarge, and the under-
signed.
The thanks of the Committee are
due to Mr. A. F. Jaccaci and Mr. R.
Swain GifTord for their many helpful
suggestions and friendly participation
in the work.
JAMES D. HAGUE,
Chairman.
CENTURY CLUB, March 2, 1904.
Contents
THE HELMET OF MAMBRINO . . i
CLARENCE KING
DON HORACIO 39
JAMES D. HAGUE
CLARENCE KING 117
JOHN HAY
MEETINGS WITH KING .... 133
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
KING 157
HENRY ADAMS
CLARENCE KING 187
JOHN LAFARGE
KING " The Frolic and the Gentle " . 199
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN
KING AT THE CENTURY . . .211
WILLIAM CRARY BROWNELL
CENTURY NECROLOGICAL NOTE . . 227
EDWARD GARY
KING'S " MOUNTAINEERING " . . 237
EDWARD GARY
Contents
PAGE
CLARENCE KING GEOLOGIST . . 253
SAMUEL FRANKLIN EMMONS
CLARENCE KING'S SCHOOL-DAYS . . 295
DANIEL C. OILMAN
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE . . . 303
ROSSITER W. RAYMOND
MEMORABILIA 375
JAMES D. HAGUE
SYNOPTIC INDEX 417
vi
Portraits
PAGE
CLARENCE KING . . Frontispiece
From portrait by George Rowland
KING IN LA MANCHA . . -37
When seeking the Helmet of Mambrino
HORACE F. CUTTER .... 41
DON HORACIO 75
KING IN JOHN HAY'S LIBRARY . . 121
KING AT AGE OF 27 . . . 137
Photographed at Washington about 1868-9
KING IN A MOUNTAIN CAMP . . 247
KING IN THE MARKET PLACE . . 357
Photographed at Sombrerete, Mexico
KING " CROSSING THE BAR " . . 415
The Helmet of Mambrino
Clarence King
NEW YORK, January 10, 1885.
HORACE F. CUTTER, ESQRE.
My dear friend, Two years ago
in Paris after I had returned from a
trip in Spain I wrote you a very long
letter and had it covered with a piece
of silk taken from an old robe of the
time of Cervantes. I put this letter
together with an ancient barber's ba-
sin of brass, and was on the point
of sending them to you. But at
the last moment what I had written
seemed so lacking in local color, so
dull and uninteresting, that I put it
one side.
Now my mother has read it and
bids me forward it to you. I must
only ask you to be gentle with its
literary shortcomings and to be care-
ful that it does not by any misad-
venture get into print.
3
The Helmet of Mambrino
Wishing you the happiest of New
Years and bidding you receive after
this long silence the renewed ex-
pression of my firm friendship for
you, I am
Faithfully yours,
The Helmet of Mambrino*
" How can I be mistaken, thou eternal misbe-
liever? " cried Don Quixote; " dost thou not see that
knight that comes riding up directly towards us upon
a dapple-gray steed, with a helmet of gold on his
head?"
" I see what I see," replied Sancho, " and the devil
of anything can I spy but a fellow on such another
gray ass as mine is, with something that glitters o' top
of his head."
"I tell thee that is Mambrino's helmet," replied
Don Quixote. Cervantes.
DEAR DON HORACIO: You
cannot have forgotten the
morning we turned our backs upon
San Francisco, and slowly rambled
seaward through winding hollows of
park, nor how the mist drooped low
as if to hear the tones of fondness
in our talk of Cervantes and the
Don, nor how the approving sun
seemed to send a benediction through
the riven cloud-rack overhead.
* By courtesy of The Century Company.
5
The Helmet of Mambrino
It was after we had passed the
westward edge of that thin veneer
of polite vegetation which a coquet-
tish art has affixed to the great wind-
made waves of sand, and entered
the waste of naked drift beyond,
that we heard afar a whispered sea-
plaint, and beheld the great Pacific
coming in under cover of a low-lying
fog, and grinding its white teeth on
the beach.
Still discoursing of La Mancha, we
left behind us the last gateway of the
hills, came to the walk's end and the
world's end and the end of the Aryan
migrations.
We were not disturbed by the
restless Aryan who dashed past us
at the rate of 2:20 with an insolent
flinging of sand, a whirling cobweb
of hickory wheel, and all the mad
hurry of the nineteenth century at
his heels.
For what (we asked one another
6
Clarence King
as we paced the Cliff- House veranda)
did this insatiable wanderer leave his
comfortable land of Central Asia and
urge ever westward through forty
centuries of toilsome march? He
started in the world's youth a simple,
pastoral pilgrim, and we saw him pull
up his breathless trotters at the very
Ultima Thule, rush into the barroom,
and demand a cocktail.
Having quenched this ethnic thirst
and apparently satisfied the yearning
of ages, we watched him gather up
his reins and start eastward again, as
if for the sources of the sacred
Ganges, and disappear in the cloud
of his own swift-rushing dirt.
By the fire in our private breakfast-
room we soon forgot him, and you
led me again into the company of the
good knight.
Even Alphonso must have felt the
chivalric presence, for all unbidden he
discreetly hispanized our omelet.
The Helmet of Mambrino
Years have gone since that Cervan-
tean morning of ours, and to-day, my
friend, I am come from our dear
Spain.
As I journeyed in the consecrated
realm of Don Quixote, it happened
to me to pass a night " down in a
village of La Mancha, the name of
which I have no desire to recollect."
Late in the evening, after a long
day in the saddle, we had stopped at
an humble posada on the outskirts of
an old pueblo, too tired to press on
in search of better accommodations,
which we believed the town would
probably afford. We were glad enough
to tie our weary animals to their iron
rings within the posada, and fling
ourselves down to sleep in the door-
way, lulled by the comfortable munch-
ing sound of the beasts, and fanned
by a soft wind which came fitfully
from the south.
The mild, dry night, wherein thin
Clarence King
veils of cloud had tempered the moon
light and overspread the vacant plains
with spectral shadows, was at length
yielding to the more cheerful advance
of dawn.
From the oaken bench on which I
had slept, in the arched entrance of
the posada, I could look back across
the wan swells of plain over which
my companion and I had plodded the
day before, and watch the landscape
brighten cheerfully as the sun rose.
Just in front, overhanging the edge
of a dry, shallow ravine, stood the
ruin of a lone windmill a breach in
its walls rendering visible the gnarled
trunk of an old olive-tree, which
hugged the shade of the ancient mill,
as if safe under the protection of a
veritable giant.
Oaken frames of the mill-arms,
slowly consuming with dry-rot, etched
their broken lines against the soft
gray horizon. A rag or two of
9
The Helmet of Mambrino
stained canvas, all that was left of
the sails, hung yellow, threadbare,
and moldering in the windless air.
The walls of our doorway seemed
visibly to crumble. Here and there
lingering portions of stucco still clung
to a skeleton of bricks ; and over-
head, by the friendly aid of imagin-
ation, one could see that time out
of mind the arch had been white-
washed.
Signs of life one by one appeared.
From a fold somewhere behind the
posada a small flock of gaunt, lately
sheared sheep slowly marched across
my narrow field of view.
Single file, with heads down, they
noiselessly followed a path faintly
traced across the plain, the level sun
touching their thin backs, and casting
a procession of moving shadows on
the gray ground. One or two stopped
to rub against the foundation-stones
of the mill ; and presently all had
10
Clarence King
moved on into a hollow of the empty
land and disappeared.
Later, at the same slow pace, and
without a sound of footfall, followed
a brown and spare old shepherd, with
white, neglected hair falling over a
tattered cloak of coarse homespun.
His face wore a strange expression
of imbecile content. It was a face
from which not only hope but even
despair had faded out under the
burning strength of eternal monotony.
A few short, jerky, tottering steps,
and he too was gone, with his crust
of bread and cow's horn of water, his
oleander-wood staff, and his vacant
smile of senile tranquillity.
Then an old, shriveled parrot of a
woman, the only other inhabitant of
the posada, came from I never knew
where, creeping in through the open
portal, heavily burdened with an
earthen jar of water for our beasts.
" Buenos dias / " fell in a half-whisper
The Helmet of Mambrino
from her lips, which held a burning
cigarette. She too disappeared.
On the other side of the arched
entry, against the opposite wall, on
an oaken bench like mine, his head to
the outer air, asleep on his back, lay
my guide and companion, Salazar,
a poor gentleman, humbled by fate,
yet rich in the qualities of sentiment
which make good men and good
friends.
His arms were crossed on his breast,
after the manner of those pious per-
sonages who lie in their long bronze
and marble slumber in church and
chapel. His delicate constitution,
yielding at last to the wear of time,
and now plainly declining, had de-
creed for him only a narrow margin
of life. In a little while, in a few
short years, he will lie as he lay that
morning in La Mancha, and his
countenance will wear the same ex-
pression of mingled pain and peace.
12
Clarence King
I had chosen him as companion for
this episode of travel because of his
fine, appreciative knowledge of Cer-
vantes, and from his personal resem-
blance to the type of Don Quixote.
He had listened affectionately to my
talk of the Bachelor of San Fran-
cisco, and joined with zest in my
search for a " Helmet of Mambrino,"
which I hoped to send as a gift to
the gentleman by the western sea.
I scanned his sleeping features long
and thought him a perfect Spanish
picture. How sternly simple the ac-
cessories ! Only a wall of time-mel-
lowed brick, barred by lines of yellow
mortar, and patched by a few hand-
breadths of whitened plaster ! Only
a solid, antique bench of oak, weather-
worn into gray harmony with an
earthen floor ! Nothing more !
His ample cloak of dark, olive-col-
ored cloth, reaching from foot to chin,
covered him, save for one exposed
13
The Helmet of Mambrino
hand, completely, and hung in folds
to the ground. There was nothing
to distract from his face, now thrown
into full profile against the rough
wall.
Far back over the bald cranial arch,
a thin coat of mixed gray and brown
wiry hair covered the back of his
head, just where it rested on the blue
handkerchief he had carefully com-
posed over an improvised pillow.
The heavy eyebrow formed a particu-
larly long, high bow, and ended ab-
ruptly against a slightly sunken bony
temple. The orbital hollow, an un-
usually large and cavernous bowl,
showed beneath the brow a tracery
of feeble blue veins ; but the closed
eye domed boldly up, its yellow lids
strongly fringed with long brown
lashes. The hooked beak of a well-
modeled but large aquiline nose
curved down from the brow. Over
his always compressed mouth grew a
14
Clarence King
delicate, grizzled mustache, the ends
of which turned up in the old Span-
ish way. His jaw was refined rather
than strong, and bore on his long
chin a thin tuft of hair, which grew
to a point and completed a singularly
chaste and knightly profile. The
shallow thinness of his figure, the
sunken yellow cheek, and emaciated
throat, were all eloquent of decline.
Age, too, recorded itself in the ex-
posed hand, not so much in its
pallor or slenderness of finger, as in
the prominence of bony framework,
which seemed thrust into the wrinkled
muscular covering as into a glove
which is too large and much out-
worn.
These are but material details, and
only interesting as the seat and found-
ation of a fixed air of gentleman-
liness, which, waking or sleeping,
never left his countenance.
He was, as he slept, the figure of
15
The Helmet of Mambrino
the dead Quixote, a gaunt face soft-
ened by a patient spirit, an iron frame
weakened and refined by lifelong fru-
gality, and now touched by the wintry
frosts of age ; but, above all, the
sleeping mask, with its slightly curled
lip, wore an aspect of chivalric scorn
of all things mean and low. I watched
the early light creep over his bald
forehead, and tinge the sallow cheek
with its copper warmth, and I marked
how the sharp shadow of his nose
lay like a finger of silence across his
lips.
There lay one of those chance
friends, whom to meet is to welcome
from the heart, and from whom I for
one never part without perplexing
wonder whether chance or fate or
Providence will so throw the shuttle
through the strange pattern of life's
fabric, that our two feeble threads
will ever again touch and cross and
interweave.
16
Clarence King
Chocolate is the straw at which
the drowning traveler catches in the
wide ocean of Spanish starvation. Its
spicy aroma, with that of a cigarette,
announced the coming of the old
posadera.
I reluctantly awakened Salazar, and
we began the day by each pouring
water from an earthen jar for the
other's ablutions. From a leathern
wallet my companion produced a few
dry, crumbled little cakes, and my
ulster pocket yielded up a bottle of
olives I had brought from Seville.
The woman squatted by us and
smoked.
While waiting for his boiling bev-
erage to cool, Salazar addressed our
hostess. " This American gentleman
has in his own country a friend of
whom he is exceedingly fond, a certain
Don Horacio, who, it seems, is in the
habit of reading the adventures of
Don Quixote, which you very well
17
The Helmet of Mambrino
know, seftora, happened here in La
Mancha. This Don Horacio has
never seen one of our Spanish bar-
bers' basins, such as the good Don
Quixote wore for a helmet.
" It is to find him an ancient basin
that we have come to La Mancha.
There were plenty of new ones in
Seville and Cordova, but they will
not serve. We must have an an-
cient one, and one from this very
land. Do you by chance remember
where there is such an one ? "
The good woman reflected, while
we sipped the chocolate, and ate the
cakes and the olives. She threw
away the end of the cigarette, and
began rolling another. This little
piece of manipulation, well known as
provocative of thought, was hardly
accomplished when she exclaimed :
" Mira ! I do know the very piece.
Come to the door ! Do you see that
church in ruins? Bueno ! Just be-
18
Clarence King
yond is an old posada. The widow
Barrilera, with her boy Crisanto, lives
there. Poor people put up their
beasts there. It used to be a great
fonda many years ago, and ever since
I was a child an old basin has hung
in the patio. It ought to be there
now." At this we were much glad-
dened ; for our search all the day be-
fore among the villages and hamlets
had been fruitless. The posadera
was so dumb at the silver we gave
her that she forgot to bid us " Go
with God ! " till we were mounted
and moving away from her door
toward the pueblo.
A Spanish town, especially in
wide, half -waste regions between
great cities, sometimes sinks into a
slow decline, and little by little gives
up the ghost of life ; dying, not of
sudden failure in the heart or central
plaza, but wasting away by degrees
around its outskirts, and shrinking
19
The Helmet of Mambrino
by the slow ruin of block after block
inward toward the center of vitality.
This form of decay comes at last to
girdle the whole town with mounds
of fallen wall, vacant squares of roof-
less masonry, fragments of paved
patio, secluded no more by inclosing
corridors, but open and much fre-
quented of drowsy goats, who come
from their feeding-grounds to sleep
on the sun-heated stones.
Here and there a more firmly
founded edifice, like a church or a
posada, resists the unrelenting prog-
ress of destruction, and stands for a
few years in lonely despair among
the leveled dust of the neighbor
buildings.
If a church, it is bereft of its im-
memorial chimes, which are made to
jangle forth the Angelus from some
better-preserved tower on the plaza.
Owls sail through the open door, and
brush with their downy wings the
20
Clarence King
sacred dust from wooden image of
Virgin or Saviour ; till at last the old
towers and walls, yielding to rain and
wind, melt down into the level of
humbler ruin.
The old posadas, while they last,
are tenanted by the poorest of the
poor. Childless widows too old to
work end here in solitary penury their
declining days, sister tenants with
wandering bats and homeless kids.
Past such an old and dying church
Salazar and I rode, following the di-
rections of our hostess and soon
drew rein before an old oaken gate in
a high wall of ancient masonry. Upon
the lintel was rudely cut, as with a
pocket-knife, the sign " Forraje"
Half the double gate, fallen from its
rusty hinges, lay broken and disused
on the ground, its place taken by a
ragged curtain of woolen cloth,
which might once have been a wo-
man's cloak. This, with the half gate
21
The Helmet of Mambrino
still standing, served to suggest that
the ruinous inclosure was to be re-
spected as private ground.
My grave companion alighted from
his horse, folded his cloak, which till
now he had worn against the morn-
ing cold, laid it carefully across his
saddle, and knocked very gently ;
then after a pause, as if to give
misery a time to compose its rags,
he drew aside the curtain an inch or
so, and after peering around the in-
closed yard, turned to me with a
mysterious smile, laid his finger on
his lips, and beckoned to me to look
where he pointed.
I saw a large, square, walled in-
closure bounded on the right by a
one-story house, with a waving, sag-
ging, collapsing roof of red tiles. The
left or eastern wall, which rose to a
height of twenty feet or so, was
pierced by two doorways and sev-
eral second -story window - openings.
22
Clarence King
Through these we looked out upon
the open plain, for the apartments
into which the doorways had once led
were ruined and gone.
Over the eastern door was traced
the half-faded word "Comedor" and
over the other " Barberia" Still
above this latter sign there projected
from the solid masonry an orna-
mental arm of wrought iron, from
which hung a barber's basin of bat-
tered and time-stained brass, the
morning light just touching its disc
of green.
Salazar knocked a little louder,
when a cheery, welcoming woman's
voice called out, " Pasen, senores ! "
We held aside the woolen curtain,
crossed the inclosure, and entered a
little door directly opposite the old
barberia, scenting as we entered a
rich, vigorous odor of onion and
garlic.
There are nerves so degenerate,
23
The Helmet of Mambrino
there are natures so enfeebled, as to
fall short of appreciating, as even to
recoil from, the perfume of these
sturdy esculents ; but such are not
worthy to follow the footsteps of
Don Quixote in La Mancha, where
still, as of old, the breath of the cav-
alier is the savor of onions, and the
very kiss of passion burns with the
mingled fire of love and garlic.
From a dilapidated brick floor
rose the widow Barrilera, a hand-
some, bronzed woman of fifty, with
a low, broad brow, genial, round face,
and stout figure ; who advanced to
meet us, and rolled out in her soft
Andalusian dialect a hearty welcome,
smiling ardently out of sheer good-
nature, and showing her faultless
teeth.
It did not seem to have occurred
to her to ask, or even consider, why
we had come. Our entrance at this
early hour created no surprise, no
24
Clarence King
questioning, not even a glance of cu-
riosity. It was enough for her socia-
ble, affluent good-nature that we had
come at all. She received us as a
godsend, and plainly proposed to en-
joy us, without bothering her amia-
ble old brains about such remote,
intricate conceptions as a cause for
our coming.
To one of us she offered a stool,
to the other a square of sheepskin,
and urged us to huddle down with
her in the very focus of the garlic
pot, which purred and simmered
and steamed over a little fire. She
remarked in the gayest way that it
was still cool of a morning, and
laughed merrily when we assented to
this meteorological truth, adding that
a little fire made it all right, and
then beaming on in silence, while she
stirred the savory contents of the
pot, never varying the open breadth
of her smile, till she pursed up her
25
The Helmet of Mambrino
lips as if about to whistle, and blew
on a ladle full of soup till it was
cool, when she swallowed it slowly,
her soft eyes rolling with delight at
the flavorous compound.
" Seftora," said my hollow-eyed
and hollow -voiced comrade, " the
gentleman is a lover of good Don
Quixote."
The woman flashed on me a look
of curiosity, as who should say, " So
is every one. What of that ? "
" My friend is Americano" con-
tinued Salazar.
" Valgame Dios ! " ejaculated the
now thoroughly interested widow.
" All the way from Buenos Ayres !
No ? Then from Cuba, of course !
Yes, yes ! My father's cousin was a
soldier there, and married a woman
as black as a pot."
" No, senora, my friend is from
another part of America ; and he
has come here to buy from you the
26
Clarence King
old brass basin above the barberia
door.
Curiosity about America suddenly
gave way to compassion.
"Pobrecito!" she said in benevo-
lent accents. " You take care of
him ! He is " making a grimace of
interrogation, arching up her brows,
and touching her head "a little
wrong here."
Salazar, with unbroken gravity,
touched his own head, pointed to
me, and replied, " Perfectly clear ! "
" What in the name of the Blessed
Virgin does he want of that old basin
with a hole in it ? " shrugging her fat,
round shoulders till they touched her
earrings, and turning up the plump,
cushiony palms of her hands to
heaven.
"It seems very droll, my good
woman, does it not ? " I interrupted,
" but I have in my own country a
charming friend whom I love very
27
The Helmet of Mambrino
much. He is called the Bachelor of
San Francisco, and he has never seen
a Spanish barber's basin, so I want to
carry this as a gift to him. We have
no barbers' basins in America."
" Caramba / " she exclaimed, u what
a land ! Full of women as black as
coals, and no barbers ! My father's
cousin had a beard like an English-
man when he came back, and his wife
looked like a black sheep just sheared.
As to the basin, seftor, it is yours."
Then turning to a hitherto un-
noticed roll of rags in a dark corner,
she gave an affectionate shove with
her foot, which called forth a yawn-
ing, smiling lad, who respectfully
bowed to us, while yet half asleep.
" Crisanto, get down the old bar-
ber's basin from the patio, and bring
it here ! "
In a moment the boy returned
with the old relic, but seemed to
hesitate before relinquishing it to his
28
Clarence King
mother, who extended her hand to
receive it.
" What are you waiting for, child ?"
said the woman.
" It is mine. You gave it to me,"
said the boy bashfully.
" My lad," said Salazar, " we shall
give you two silver duros for it."
The boy at once brightened and
consented. His mother seized the
basin in one hand, a wet rag in the
other, and with her toe scraped out
some ashes from the fire, and was
about to fall upon it with housewifely
fury, and in a trice, had I not stopped
her, would have scraped away the
mellow green film, the very writing
and sign-manual of the artist Time.
A few silver duros in the smiling
lad's palm, a bit of gold to the mother,
a shudder of long unknown joy in the
widow's heart, a tear, a quiver of the
lip, then a smile, and the bargain
was made.
29
The Helmet of Mambrino
I was grasping her hand and she,
saying " Adios ! ", was asking the Vir-
gin to give me "a thousand years,"
when Salazar said :
"No, no! it is not yet 'Adios!'
This basin and bargain must be cer-
tified to by the ayuntamiento in a
document stamped with the seal of
the pueblo, and setting forth that
here in La Mancha itself was bought
this barber's basin."
" Seguro / " replied the woman,
who flung over her head a tattered
black shawl, tossing the end over
her left shoulder. We all walked,
Salazar and I leading our beasts, to
the door of the alcalderia.
The group of loungers who sat
around the whitewashed wall of the
chamber of the ayuntamiento showed
no interest in our arrival. To our
story the secretary himself listened
with official indifference, sipped his
morning coffee, only occasionally
30
Clarence King
asking a question of idle curiosity, or
offering objection to the execution of
so trivial a document.
" Ridiculous ! " he exclaimed ; " the
authorities of Spain have not pro-
vided in the Codex for such jesting.
What is this all for?"
" Senor Secretario," I replied, 4 ' I
have conceived this innocent little
caprice of legalizing my purchase of
the basin, to gratify a certain Don
Horacio, known in America as the
Bachelor of San Francisco, a gentle-
man whose fine literary taste has led
him to venerate your great Cer-
vantes, and whose knightly senti-
ments have made him the intimate
friend of Don Quixote."
" But," said the secretary, " no con-
tract of sale with a minor for vendor
can be legalized by me. The Codex
provides He was going on to
explain what the Codex did provide,
when Salazar, who knew more about
31
The Helmet of Mambrino
the legal practice of provincial Spain
than the Codex itself, stepped for-
ward, passed behind the august
judicial table, and made some com-
munication in a whisper, which was
not quite loud enough to drown a cu-
rious metallic clink, as of coins in
collision.
Thus softened, the cold eye of the
secretary warmed perceptibly, and he
resumed : "As I was about to say
when my friend here offered me a
a cigarette, the Codex does not in
terms recognize the right of an infant
to vend, transfer, give over, or re-
linquish real or personal property ;
but on reflection, in a case like this,
I shall not hesitate to celebrate the
act of sale."
A servant was dispatched for some
strong paper, and the softened magis-
trate fell into general conversation.
" You have had a great war in your
country."
32
Clarence King
" Yes," I replied, " very destructive,
very exhausting ; but, thank God,
North and South are now beginning
to be friends again."
" Are you of the North or of the
South?"
" The North."
" Do you not find it very trying to
have those Chilians in your Lima,
senor ? "
Weeks before this I had given up
trying to stretch the Spanish concep-
tion of America to include a country
north of Mexico, for the land of Cor-
te*s is the limit of imagination in that
direction ; so I helplessly assented.
Yes, it was trying.
The boy returned with the paper ;
ink-horns and pens were successfully
searched for, and the document was
executed and sealed.
Salazar and I withdrew after salut-
ing the upright official, mounted our
beasts, received the soft benediction
33
The Helmet of Mambrino
of the smiling widow, and pricked for-
ward down a narrow way which led
to the open plain. We were descend-
ing a gentle slope on the outskirts of
the pueblo when we were overtaken
by the secretary's servant, who charged
down upon us, his donkey nearly up-
setting mine in the collision.
Like a wizard in a show, he drew
from under his jacket an incredibly
bright and brand-new barber's basin.
" The secretary," he said, " remem-
bered, just after you had gone, that
the old Duchess of Molino had de-
posited with him, as security for a
large loan, this basin, which is proved
to have been the authentic and only
one from which Cervantes was shaved
every day while prisoner at Argamo-
sillo. The secretary knew that you
would like to see this valued relic,
and to touch it with your own hand.
The duchess, senor (lowering his eyes
and face), is in gloria. For ten duros
34
Clarence King
you can have this undoubted me-
mento ; and full documents shall fol-
low you to Madrid or Lima by the
next mail."
"Hombre/" I replied, " do me the
favor to present to the secretary my
most respectful compliments, and say
that the supposed death of the duchess
is a curious mistake. The old lady
is living in great luxury in Seville,
and her steward is already on the
way to redeem her favorite relic."
The man, who saw the force of my
pleasantry, laughed explosively, and
shamelessly offered me the basin at
two duros and a half. We shook our
heads, and rode away. Having gone
a hundred yards, we heard a voice,
and looking back beheld the servant,
who brandished aloft the basin and
shouted : " One duro ? " I answered
" Never," and we rode out upon the
brown and sunburnt plain.
Some sheep lay dozing, huddled in
35
The Helmet of Mambrino
the shadow of a few stunted cork-
trees. Brown and dim as if clad in
dusty leather, the Sierra Morena lay
sleeping in the warm light. Away
up among the hazy summits were
pencilings of soft, cool color ; but we
were too far away to discern the rocks
and groves where Don Quixote did
his amorous penance.
After riding long and silently, Sal-
azar addressed me :
" Senor, this friend of yours, this
Don Horacio, will he ever come to
La Mancha ? "
"Quien sabe?" I replied; "but if
he comes you will certainly know him
and love him as he is known and loved
by his friend."
To the Bachelor of San Francisco. K,
36
In La Mancha
King's diess in the above picture is said to be the same he wore in Spain when
seeking the Helmet of Mambrino.
Don Horacio
James D. Hague
39
f.
Don Horacio
HORACIO" was a fa-
vorite name of the Quixotic
friend for love of whom King sought
the precious " Helmet of Mambrino,"
in the province of La Mancha, and
to whom he addressed the delightful
epistle which accompanied his gift
of the barber's basin he found there.
To certain fellow-lovers of roman-
tic literature Don Horacio was also
known as " The Bachelor of San
Francisco." To everyday and com-
monplace acquaintance his matter-
of-fact name was Horace F. Cutter.
He was born in Boston more than
eighty years ago.* In his boyhood
he was a pupil at the Boston Latin
school and, as he always remembered
* July 4, 1821.
43
Don Horacio
with pride, a contemporary scholar
and youthful companion of his life-
long friend Edward Everett Hale.
When he grew to manhood he
drifted westward and, after a brief
stay in St. Louis, landed, not far be-
hind the earliest gold-seeking pio-
neers, in California, where, in the
city of San Francisco, he lived fifty
years and lately died. At the be-
ginning of his career there he ac-
tively engaged with a business partner
in commercial affairs, so-called, con-
sisting mainly in very speculative
ventures in the merchandise market,
such, for example, as " corners " in
whiskey, tobacco, turpentine, oatmeal
or macaroni, or in any of the many
contemporary equivalents of Colonel
Sellers's eyewater, all of which, with
occasional success and ultimate fail-
ure, seem to have left him, at last,
rich only in pleasing illusions of
prospective fortune, the memories
44
James D. Hague
of which, long after, cheered his old
age. He rose superior to the petty
embarrassments of unsuccessful busi-
ness, and never allowed the failures
of the past to overshadow the bright
prospects of the future. His daily
business occupation, during many
years following the collapse of his
firm, was in the office of lifelong
friends,* owners of a large landed
estate, where, in some clerical capa-
city, he earned, or at least received,
money enough to secure his com-
fortable support. He lodged in a
bare and scantily furnished upper
room of the office building and spent
his leisure hours at his club, where
he was a cherished companion and a
familiar figure in his accustomed seats
in the library or dining room, during
nearly forty years. A most welcome
visitor in half a dozen houses where
* The Howard family, of San Mateo
County.
45
Don Horacio
he was an expected guest for dinner
once or twice a week, he enjoyed
the best of everything that devoted
friends could offer, and lived with-
out anxiety concerning his personal
welfare, giving himself wholly to his
favorite pursuits.
He was an insatiable reader of
many sorts of books, old and new,
with a wide range of current litera-
ture, and, while most at home in the
atmosphere of romance, he seemed
to know something of everything
going on in the universe generally,
visible and invisible, anywhere within
the far-reaching domain of psychi-
cal research or of Swedenborgian
philosophy, which was his favorite re-
ligion. The revelations of the tele-
scope in astronomical research, the
transactions of the Microscopical So-
ciety, geographical especially polar
exploration, serial navigation, the
practical applications of electricity to
4 6
James D. Hague
modern inventions, the Keeley Mo-
tor, the extraction of precious metals
from the ocean, everything in heaven,
or in the air from flying machines
to humming-birds and butterflies -
or in the earth, whether the product
of the soil or of the mine, or in the
waters under the earth, including the
sea-serpent, in the existence of which
he died a firm believer, together with
the social and political conditions of
people everywhere, the foreign wars
and revolutions, the international re-
lations of the world at large, bi-met-
allism, the demonetization of silver
and, especially, the Bank of England
rate, engaged his daily attention and
constant solicitude.
Cutter was a phenomenal Ameri-
can, a composite, in characteristic
qualities, of Confucius,* Socrates,
* A noteworthy likeness in the occupations
of their younger days appears in the histori-
cal coincidence that Confucius " in his youth
47
Don Horacio
Swedenborg, Don Quixote, Mr. Mi-
cawber and Colonel Sellers.
He delighted in schemes, projects
and enterprises of every sort, finan-
cial, industrial, scientific, romantic and
sentimental, and was never without
something in hand for promotion.
Many of his undertakings were short-
lived and quickly came to grief ; but
his hopeful spirit never knew the
pang of failure, and none of his most
visionary projects ever wholly van-
ished before he had conceived some
new and better thing. If an unwill-
ing capitalist positively and, perhaps,
rudely refused to engage in some
proposed enterprise today, Cutter al-
ways knew a much richer and every-
was successively keeper of stores and super-
intendent of parks and herds to the chief of
the district in which he lived," while Cutter
was also a storekeeper in early life and subse-
quently a self-appointed, unofficial guardian
of the animals and birds in Golden Gate
Park.
48
James D. Hague
way better man to whom, confident
of success, he would unfold his pro-
ject tomorrow.
His favorite enterprises were world-
wide in their range, sometimes involv-
ing important international relations.
One of his proudest achievements
he accomplished nearly twenty-five
years ago, having been deeply moved
thereto by reading, at his club in
San Francisco, in a current number
of the London Times* a stirring letter
from that paper's correspondent at
Peking, reporting recent events in
China and relating a most pathetic
story of the wretched fate of certain
youthful captives, the children of Ya-
koob Beg, a famous chieftain and
ruler of Eastern Turkistan, Amir of
Kashgar, who, in 1877, was defeated
in war with China and ignominiously
put to death, and whose three young
sons, with one little grandson, all
* London Weekly Times, September 19, 1879.
49
Don Horacio
innocent victims of their father's
misfortune, had been condemned to
imprisonment, with abominable mal-
treatment and, upon reaching the age
of eleven years, to be given over as
slaves to the soldiery in Turkistan or
in the Amoor region.*
* . . . "In consequence of the rebel-
lious attitude of the Mussulmans of Kashgar,
and their openly expressed regrets at the loss
of their beloved Yakoob Beg, the Chinese
authorities ordered the bodies of Yakoob
Beg and of his son, Ishana Beg, to be disin-
terred and publicly burned to cinders. The
ashes of Yakoob Beg were, moreover, sent to
Peking.
" At the time that Eastern Turkistan again
passed into the hands of China, there were
taken prisoners four sons, two grandsons, two
granddaughters, and four wives of Yakoob
Beg. Some of these were executed and
others died; but in 1879 there remained in
prison in Lanchanfoo, the capital of Kan-
suh, Haiti Kuli, aged fourteen; Yima Kuli,
aged ten; K'ati Kuli, aged six; sons of Ya-
koob Beg; and Aisan Ahung, aged five, his
grandson. These wretched little boys were
50
James D. Hague
When Mr. Cutter read with
unspeakable indignation of these
distressful events he immediately
resolved to devote all his energies
and resources to the rescue of the
treated like state criminals. They arrived in
Kan-suh in February, 1879, and were sent on
to the provincial capital to be tried and sen-
tenced by the Judicial Commissioner there
for the awful crime of being sons of their
father. In the course of time the Commis-
sioner made a report of the trial which he
concluded as follows:
" ' In cases of sedition, where the law con-
demns the malefactors to death by the slow
and painful process, the children and grand-
children, if it be shown that they were not
privy to the treasonable designs of their par-
ents, shall be delivered, no matter whether
they have attained full age or not, into the
hands of the imperial household to be made
eunuchs of, and shall be forwarded to Turkis-
tan and given over as slaves to the soldiery.
If under the age of ten, they shall be con-
fined in prison until they have reached the
age of eleven, whereupon they shall be handed
over to the imperial household, to be dealt
Don Horacio
innocent sufferers, in whose behalf he
promptly took the first initiative steps
to engage public attention and sym-
pathy in this country,* which, through
with according to law. In the present case,
. . . as Yakoob Beg's sons ... are
rebels from Turkistan, it is requested that
they may, instead, be sent to the Amoor
region, to be given as slaves to the soldiery-
there.
' * As Maiti Kuli is fourteen, it is requested
that he may be delivered over to the imperial
household as soon as the reply of the Board
is received. Yima Kuli is just ten; K'ati
Kuli and Aisan Ahung are under ten; they
have therefore, to be confined in prison until
they attain the age of eleven, when they will
be delivered over to the imperial household
to be dealt with according to law.' " (Apple-
ton's Annual Cyclopadia, New Series, Vol.
iv., 1879, page 145.)
* One of Mr. Cutter's first efforts was an
appeal to the New York Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children, whose presi-
dent, Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry, addressed and
published an urgent letter on the subject to
the President of the United States.
52
James D. Hague
his persistent and untiring efforts,
ultimately led to Congressional ac-
tion, resulting in the successful in-
tercession by the United States,
in concert, it is said, with England,
France and, perhaps, other Govern-
ments of Europe, for the justification
and liberation of the unfortunate chil-
dren, with suitable provision by the
Chinese Government for their subse-
quent welfare.
More than thirty years ago Cutter
sent as a gift to His Imperial Majesty
the Tenno of Japan, a beautifully
bound copy of a book entitled " The
Tales of Old Japan " (Mitford's), the
first of its kind published in the Eng-
lish language. In due time he re-
ceived through His Majesty's consul
for California a highly appreciative
letter, written by instruction of the
Japanese minister for foreign affairs,
expressing his majesty's pleasure and
thanks, together with an accompany-
53
Don Horacio
ing case of royal gold-lacquered ware,
" sent to Mr. Cutter as a token of re-
quital for his kindness." In his let-
ter of transmittal accompanying the
book, Mr. Cutter had expressed a
wish to obtain his majesty's photo-
graph, referring to which he was ad-
vised, in reply, that " As to the desire
of Mr. Cutter to possess H. I. M.'s
photographic likeness, we regret to
express that as no photographic like-
ness of His Majesty is as yet taken,
it is unable to fulfill the desire."
Japan again received the personal
attention of Mr. Cutter, about fifteen
years ago, when he strove persist-
ently, as no one else would have
done, and finally succeeded in obtain-
ing from the United States Govern-
ment, in the interest of humanity,
due recognition of the great kindness
shown by certain native villagers and
fishermen, on the Japanese island of
Tanegashima, to a company of ship-
54
James D. Hague
wrecked American seamen who, in ex-
treme distress, narrowly escaping fatal
disaster, landed on their shore. Mr.
Cutter labored long and assiduously
with senators and representatives until
Congress passed appropriate resolu-
tions, acknowledging and duly appre-
ciating the kind deed and benevolence
of the Japanese villagers. Gold
medals were sent to the principal res-
cuers ; and the sum of $5000 was
transmitted to the Japanese Govern-
ment to be used as might be deemed
most advisable for the benefit of the
two villages, Anjio and Isaki. This
money was invested for the support
of the schools in these two villages,
in each of which a memorial school-
house was built by the Japanese. A
stone monument was erected, also by
the Japanese, in the yard of each of
the two schoolhouses, " to commemo-
rate the goodness of the United
States " ; and each stone bears an
55
Don Horacio
inscription, in Japanese, relating the
story of the wreck of the lost vessel,
the Cashmere, and concluding with a
poem, written for the occasion, by a
Japanese poet of high distinction, ex-
pressing appropriate sentiments in
acceptance of the gift and dedicating
it to the education of the native chil-
dren. Photographs of these school-
houses were made and sent to Mr.
Cutter in compliance with his request*
These distinguished services, thus
rendered by Mr. Cutter, received also
the highest official acknowledgment
in the presentation to him of the
" Decoration of Merits with Blue
Ribbon," which was granted by His
Majesty the Emperor of Japan and
* A narrative relating some of these inter-
esting events was published in the St. Nicho-
las Magazine, September, 1894. Mr. Cutter
has also made further reference thereto in a
brief article, entitled "Two Monuments,"
printed in the Century Magazine (March,
1891).
56
James D. Hague
conferred by the Government upon
Mr. Cutter (October 22d, 1894), for
his " noble endeavors relating to the
establishment of the schools on the
Island of Tanegashima."
Mr. Cutter's relations with Spain
were apparently very pleasant, having
begun many years ago (1879) m a
correspondence with Senor Castelar,
when, in response to a public appeal
for aid in behalf of many sufferers
from disastrous floods in the province
of Murcia, he sent to Castelar a gift
of one thousand francs as the " con-
tribution of an American who remem-
bers that the discovery of his native
land was owing to the generosity of
Spain." Castelar personally acknowl-
edged this gift in a very gracious let-
ter and sent his photograph, bearing
his own inscription of greeting and
friendly regard, " A mi amigo Hora-
cio F. Cutter, en prueba de entran-
able afecto, Emilio Castelar"
57
Don Horacio
Not long thereafter, Mr. Cutter
submitted to the prime minister a
plan for the capture of Gibraltar by
means of balloons, from which explo-
sive bombs were to be dropped upon
the British occupants. Castelar re-
sponded with thanks in an autograph
letter, expressing his appreciation
with the intention to give the matter
due consideration and to reply further
at some more convenient moment.
It was probably his love of Spanish
romance that led Mr. Cutter, some
years later, to engage actively, though
unsuccessfully, in the financial promo-
tion of a project for raising from the
bottom of the bay of Vigo the Span-
ish galleons, sunk there in 1 702, which
were supposed to be laden with twen-
ty-five millions of treasure, but proved,
so far as exploited, to contain little or
nothing of available value.
In 1892, Mr. Cutter was appointed
by authority of the Spanish Govern-
58
James D. Hague
ment to serve on a commission or-
ganized to promote and manage an
International Exhibition at Madrid,
in celebration of the Four Hundredth
Anniversary of the Discovery of Am-
erica by Christopher Columbus.
The attitude of Portugal on the
question of slavery and the slave trade
attracted Mr. Cutter's ever-watchful
eye, some years since, and led to cer-
tain manifestations of his interest in
the matter through the press of the
time (1889-1890).
The friendly relations of Russia
with the United States during the
war of the rebellion, forty years ago,
gave Mr. Cutter much satisfaction,
and he made it the subject of an in-
teresting contribution to history in a
magazine article,* which attracted at-
tention both in America and Europe.
In the western hemisphere one of
Mr. Cutter's most absorbing interests
* Overland Monthly, September, 1892.
59
Don Horacio
was arctic exploration, which he never
ceased to follow closely, from year to
year. He had long-cherished projects
in Bering's Sea. One of his favorite
schemes was the purchase of British
Columbia by the United States, for
which he proposed to pay $100,000,-
ooo, in gold if need be, but preferably
in silver bars, with the double bi-
metallic purpose of acquiring our
neighbor's coveted territory and pay-
ing for it in the unjustly depreciated
metal.
He was greatly interested in active-
ly promoting the project of the Drake
Monument, with which it was proposed
to mark the point on the California
coast, now known as Drake's Bay, near
Point Reyes, not far from San Fran-
cisco, where Sir Francis Drake landed
in 1579, and where his much-abused
chaplain, Francis Fletcher, read for
the first time in California the service
of the Church of England.
60
James D. Hague
This project was partly realized in
the erection of a wooden cross at a
point said to be the one referred to ;
but a more easily accessible and en-
during monument, in recognition of
the interesting event, has since been
more conspicuously established in
Golden Gate Park, in the city of San
Francisco, overlooking the sea.
On the Mexican coast of Lower
California an enterprise of magnifi-
cent proportions was projected by
Mr. Cutter, based, as he affirmed, on
the largest private landed estate in
the world, for the gathering and util-
ization of seaweed as well as the cul-
tivation and production of orchilla,
a vegetable substitute for cochineal.
Another great scheme of inter-
national importance, in which our
lamented friend King was also con-
cerned, designed to reclaim and de-
velop a large, unutilized tract of
Mexican territory, near our boundary
61
Don Horacio
and lying along the Colorado River,
for the cultivation of cotton by Jap-
anese colonists to be imported for
the purpose, engaged to the time of
his death the constant attention of
Mr. Cutter, in whose far-reaching
vision the capitalists of Japan, Mexi-
co, the United States and Europe
were to participate jointly.
The South Seas and all thereto
pertaining, especially, the royal family
of Tahiti, the surviving descendants
of the mutineers of the Bounty on
Pitcairn, the coral islanders and the
mysterious graven images of Easter
Island, were always for Mr. Cutter
unfailing sources 9f interesting ro-
mance and curious speculation.
His last international effort, in
which he successfully sought the finan-
cial and sympathetic co-operation of
his friends, was an undertaking to send
slates, slate-pencils, and spelling-books
to primary schools in the Philippines.
62
James D. Hague
With all his devotion to foreign
interests, he was a most patriotic citi-
zen, thoroughly American in spirit
and purpose and a firm believer in
the high vocation and destiny of the
American people among the nations
of the earth. He labored persistently
to accomplish some desired measures
of reform, notably in the Jury laws,
of which, it is said, that certain legis-
lative amendments, made in several
States, have been largely due to his
efforts. He was an active though
not a leading member of the cele-
brated Vigilance Committee in San
Francisco (1856) and liked to tell in
later years of his participation in that
public service.
One object of his constant atten-
tion at home was the Golden Gate
Park, between the city and the sea,
or, more particularly, the aviary there,
which was created and maintained by
the Park commissioners mainly by
6 3
Don Horacio
Mr. Cutter's persuasive influence and
action. It was his habit to visit the
aviary almost every day. He knew
all the birds in it and many more out-
side. He was a sort of bird-charmer
in his way, and he liked to tell of
friendly humming-birds that would
sometimes alight upon his hand or
head. He caused the introduction
to the park and to California of the
J apanese bulbul. * He was personally
acquainted with the black swans on
the lake, and constantly visited and
fed, during their season, his migra-
tory friends, the coots. He was on
familiar terms with the rainbow trout.
He also maintained more or less in-
timate relations with the elks, the
moose, the buffaloes, and the big griz-
* It has been asserted that the " ten pairs "
of bulbuls, first imported from Japan, proved
to be all males, without a single mother-bird
in the lot; but this may be the cynical inven-
tion of some " eternal misbeliever."
64
James D. Hague
zly bear, and was a particular friend
of the ruffled moufflon of North
Africa.
He believed in the great and far-
distant future of San Francisco, and
the only real property of which he
died possessed is a still deeply sub-
merged and wholly invisible water-lot
on the north beach, which can only
become valuable to generations yet
unborn.
One of Mr. Cutter's most notable
achievements was the fortuitous in-
vention (about 1870) of a literary
hoax, which attracted world-wide at-
tention, purporting to answer certain
inquiries which were just then in cur-
rent circulation through the literary
journals of the period, touching the
authorship of the familiar quotation,
" Though lost to sight, to memory
dear," the origin of which had then
long been, as it still is, a puzzle past
finding out, the inquiry having begun
65
Don Horacio
more, than fifty years ago (1851) in
Notes and Queries, in which peri-
odical the subject has since been
again and again discussed by many
correspondents." *
Mr. Cutter's first conception of his
hoax was apparently quite impromptu,
intended only as a passing joke at the
expense of a fellow member of his
club, and probably without any ex-
pectation that it would be carried
further, still less that his little squib
would be heard around the world.
It appears that, somehow, there
had come to be a popular impression
that an eccentric individual had of-
fered a large reward for such infor-
mation concerning the quotation in
* According to Bartlett, the much-quoted
line in question originated in a song, written
and composed by George Linley for Mr. Au-
gustus Braham, and sung by him in London,
probably about 1830; but certain correspon-
dents of Notes and Queries show that it was a
" familiar quotation " long before then.
66
James D. Hague
question as might lead to the convic-
tion of its original author ; and this
so stimulated further search that the
matter was much talked of, far and
wide, largely increasing the number
of active inquirers, among whom was
one in San Francisco, who so persis-
tently bored certain Union Club
companions that his unceasing im-
portunities naturally encouraged any-
body so disposed to trifle with his
credulity.
About this time, also, there ap-
peared in the New Orleans Sunday
Times, a communication from a liter-
ary correspondent, purporting to give
the original source of the familiar
line in "verses written in an old
memorandum book, the author not
recollected," beginning with the words
" Sweetheart, goodbye ! the fluttering
sail," and ending aptly with the
quotation " Though lost to sight, to
memory dear," to embody which the
67
Don Horacio
accompanying poem had been com-
posed.
When this publication met Mr.
Cutter's eye, he promptly announced
to his inquiring friend not only the
alleged discovery of the verses but,
moreover, the further information,
invented by himself, that the author
of the lines was " Ruthven Jenkyns,"
whose poem first appeared in the
Greenwich Magazine for Marines in
1701.
The joke was taken seriously and
communicated in good faith by its
credulous victim to the press, im-
mediately provoking further discus-
sion of the subject, which, during
many following years, was often re-
vived both in America and England.
Mr. Edward Everett Hale, in Old
and New, intimated that the marines
at Greenwich had hardly attained in
1701 such development of literary
culture as to require a magazine of
68
James D. Hague
their own ; and one of the leading
literary periodicals in England said,
in effect, that inquiry at the Library
of the British Museum confirmed the
shrewd suspicion that no such mag-
azine ever existed.
In 1880, a London publisher
brought out the bogus song in sheet
music, concerning which Bartlett, in
his Familiar Quotations (1891), after
saying that the composer of the music
acknowledged, in a private letter,
that he had copied the song from an
American newspaper, makes a per-
sonal reference to Mr. Cutter as " the
reputed author, Ruthven Jenkyns."
An amusing sequel to the story of
this invented name appeared when a
distinguished member of the Jenkins
family in the United States, a man
eminent in the naval service, seri-
ously claimed Cutter's fictitious au-
thor as an ancestral relative.
It seems, moreover, something like
Don Horacio
a touch of poetic justice in the mor-
tuary notice printed in a San Fran-
cisco newspaper, announcing the
death of Mr. Cutter and briefly re-
viewing his career, that the creator of
Ruthven Jenkyns, a wholly imaginary
character, should be presented as first
cousin of another purely fictitious
person, who is there made to appear
as the nearest bereaved relative and
chief mourner of the deceased. The
obituary writer, after making due
mention of Mr. Cutter's pedigree and
his relation to the well-known Coo-
lidge family of Boston, says that his
first cousin and nearest surviving re-
lative is " Susan Coolidge, the au-
thor," a name familiar to story readers
as the wholly fictitious nom-de-plume
of Miss Sarah Chauncey Woolsey.
Another significant example of
hasty editorial misapprehension oc-
curs in the same obituary notice,
wherein the deceased, by ridiculous
70
James D. Hague
misnomer, is pathetically alluded to
as the " Hermit of Mambrino."
In his later years Cutter seemed to
his daily companions to be neither
rich nor poor, well known to be im-
pecunious, yet lacking nothing neces-
sary to his comfort. He was, in fact,
both poor and rich, with hardly a
dollar that he could really and truly
call his own, yet rich and happy, not
only in his favorite illusions but in
the resources of personal friendship
and in the possession of devoted
friends who never failed to provide
him with all desired means of living,
in such a gracious way that he could
not have felt, if he ever knew, his
obligation to others. His wants were
few and he required little for personal
subsistence. He used to say, " I have
enough already for my necessities.
What I wish for now is enough for
my eccentricities." He really desired
wealth for the benefit of others. On
71
Don Horacio
a certain occasion, when he had ex-
pressed to an acquaintance his pro-
found sympathy for their mutual
friend Clarence King in a recent mis-
fortune which, he said, had cost King
a loss of $400,000, he explained, upon
cross-examination, that the alleged
loss, which he thus deplored on King's
account, consisted really in a construc-
tive loss which he himself had lately
made in failing to realize a hoped-for
profit of $400,000, in a negotiation
for the sale of mining property, which
had just then finally resulted in com-
plete disappointment, but on the suc-
cess of which he had till then reckoned
so confidently that he had already
made a will, bequeathing to Clarence
King a fortune of $400,000, which,
under existing circumstances, could
now never be realized, and his only
regret was for King's misfortune, in
the loss of so much money.
It appears from another character-
72
James D. Hague
istic anecdote of Mr. Cutter that this
imaginary fortune of $400,000 af-
forded him not only the illusory de-
light of acquiring it, as he thought he
had done at the time, with the real
pleasure of giving it to King, as he
actually did in his will, but, moreover,
the great satisfaction of saving it from
loss, as he believed he had, by a very
rare streak of good luck.
About the time when he was daily
expecting to realize his profit of $400,-
ooo, the trusted friend and private
banker with whom he intended to
deposit the whole sum came to grief
in a disastrous failure, which swept
away everything in his possession ;
and Mr. Cutter's money, had it been
realized and so deposited, would thus
have been wholly lost. "It was the
narrowest escape of my life," he after-
wards said, " the closest shave I ever
had." It made him shudder to think
how nearly he had accomplished the
73
Don Horacio
making of a fortune, only to lose it
again in the mishap of a moment.
The situation seemed still more sig-
nificant when among the bankrupt's
worthless assets there was found an
outlawed note of his friend Cutter
for $150.
In personal appearance Don Ho-
racio was moderately tall, rather
slender, sometimes almost gaunt, al-
though always of kindly countenance,
with thin gray hair and scanty beard.
But for the picturesque drapery of the
long cloak he might have posed for
the Century Magazines artistic draw-
ing of the guide and companion of
King's journey in La Mancha, " Sal-
azar, a poor gentleman, humbled by
fate, yet rich in the qualities of senti-
ment which make good men and good
friends." There was no suggestion
of Spanish romance in Don Horacio's
dress, which was invariably a plain
dark suit, with short sack coat and
74
The above picture, a snap-shot, shows Don Horacio in the act of telling
the story of his marvelous escape from drowning in the Oakland railway-
bridge disaster, pointing with his stick, as lie had done at the moment ol
danger, to a fellow passenger then struggling in the water, and shouting to
the rescuers in a boat to " Save that man! "
James D. Hague
high silk hat, more or less worn out,
according to the interval occurring
between successful election bets, al-
ways on the Republican candidate,
the source from which all his hats
were derived.
Mr. Cutter's high hat, a character-
istic and familiar feature of his out-
door dress, curiously recalls one of
the most extraordinary events of his
career, when, being a passenger in
a suburban (Oakland) railway train
which had plunged through an open
draw from a trestle bridge into the
water (an accident which involved
some loss of life by drowning, in May,
1891), he climbed through the broken
window next his seat, badly lacerating
his hands and arms and drenching
his body nearly up to his neck, and
with great difficulty managed to reach
the roof of the car and thence the
track on the trestle, narrowly escap-
ing with his life but saving spotless
77
Don Horacio
and unruffled his high silk hat, which
he most carefully protected at the
moment of extreme danger and kept
thereafter as an evidence of his im-
perturbable equanimity under the
most trying circumstances.
This adventure was also the occa-
sion of another noteworthy incident,
in which Mr. Cutter seemed pleased
to perceive something of psychical
mystery, especially in its relation to
his favorite ghost story, which he had
known by heart since first reading it
in All the Year Round, brought out
by Charles Dickens in 1861, purport-
ing to be the truthful narrative of
Thomas Heaphy, a well-known Eng-
lish artist, who relates the rare ex-
perience of painting a portrait, at
least in part, from the visible appari-
tion of a young lady who had shortly
before departed this life. The facts
and incidents of this narrative had
long been the subject of much dis-
78
James D. Hague
cussion among- truth-seekers in the
o
field of psychical research, in all of
which Mr. Cutter was deeply inter-
ested. On the occasion of his rail-
way disaster, as he reached dry land,
walking from the shore-end of the
trestle along the railway line, he pres-
ently met, near the door of their cot-
tage, two ladies, who insisted on
giving him aid and comfort. They
bound up his bleeding wounds with
such solicitude that Mr. Cutter could
not do less than return, a few days
later, to make his grateful acknowl-
edgments, on which occasion he was
surprised and pleased to find that the
elder lady was the daughter of the
artist who had painted the mysterious
portrait and who had thereafter re-
lated the " wonderful ghost story" to
Charles Dickens, who printed it in
his magazine. The lady herself had
somehow participated in at least one
incident of the story, when she with
7Q
Don Horacio
her own eyes had seen the apparition
leaving her father's house, and she
was able to add some interesting and
unrelated details to the written narra-
tive. She also gave to Mr. Cutter,
or at least promised to obtain for
him, from one of her family, a photo-
graph of the portrait made by her
father of the " phantom ladye."
Mr. Cutter delighted in ghost
stories and psychical mysteries of
every kind. Sir Edward Lytton's
story of a haunted house, The House
and the Brain, was one of his prime
favorites. His reading generally
covered a wide range, from fairy
tales and juvenile literature, espe-
cially of the grown-up variety, like
Alice in Wonderland, Babb Ballads,
The Adventures of Brer Fox and
Brer Rabbit and the primitive folk-
lore of Uncle Remus, on the one
hand, to the latest reports of current
astronomical research, on the other.
so
James D. Hague
He had been interested in star-gaz-
ing from his youth up, and one of
the favorite recollections of his early
life in Boston was a story he liked
to tell concerning Alvah Clark, the
afterwards famous lens-maker, who,
he said, at that time, used to stand
with his telescope on Boston Com-
mon, during fine evenings, to give
the passers-by a peep at the moon or
stars, at popular prices. The youth-
ful Cutter spent many a dime in these
observations and became personally
acquainted with Clark, who so highly
appreciated the zeal of the young ob-
server that he often gave him a free
show as a compliment. On one oc-
casion, when it was about time to go
home, Clark invited Cutter to take one
more look, without pay, at something
of his choice. "Don't be in a hurry,"
he said, " take your time ; let 's have
another whack at Zeta Cancri any-
way, before we go."
6 81
Don Horacio
Among the carefully kept papers
and personal belongings of Don
Horacio, which his executor has
kindly placed at my disposal for the
purpose of this memoir, are many
letters, notes, manuscripts and printed
papers, referring to various matters
and events in which he had been
an interested participant. Notable
among these are some long-pre-
served epistles from Edward Everett
Hale, commenting on the current
events of their time. In one of
these (1888), addressed to " My
dear guide, philosopher and friend,"
Mr. Hale writes: " I regard you as
the prophet of the Politics and social
order of the 2Oth century. This
is to be an order based not on
Adam Smith's separate and informal
doctrine of 'the D 1 take the
hindmost ' but on Jesus Christ's di-
rection that we should bear each
other's burdens." . . . " You and
82
James D. Hague
I are lingerers on the borders of
the i Qth century, let us push our
ideas over the frontier, into the 2Oth
century." And in another letter of
earlier date: " When I write to you
I step off my rather Gradgrind daily
path to the romantic and poetic and
Pacific world. The Damsel of Den-
mark, Amadis, Esplandian and Ori-
ana enter at the open door, and to
them follow Thorwaldsen, Hamlet
and Horacio."
Responding to Mr. Cutter's re-
quest for a personal autograph, Cas-
telar enclosed to him in a letter,
dated at Madrid, January i, 1880,
a separate page, which is reproduced
here in fac-simile : *
* " Does it not seem to you that Faith is
necessary to inspire sublime actions or to
console one in extreme sorrows ? It is im-
possible to cross the Ocean of life without
Faith. In that vessel Columbus embarked,
and he found at the end of his voyage a
83
Don Horacio
The London Times correspondent*
in China, with whom Mr. Cutter ex-
changed several letters concerning the
unhappy fate of Yakoob Beg's chil-
dren, wrote in 1881 :
11 You might send me your photo-
graph. I confess to a curiosity to
see the features of a phenomenal
American who can find time, in the
midst of bustling 'Frisco, to take an
interest in the fate of two young
barbarians in Central Asia. If there
is much of this pure philanthropy
in California there is hope for you
yet."
The cordial friendship of King
and Cutter began with their first ac-
quaintance, more than thirty years
ago. In Cutter's eyes King was, be-
New World. Had that world not existed
God would have created it in the solitude
of the Ocean, were it only to reward the
Faith and constancy of that man."
* William Donald Spence.
84
^,Jo fl j^^yfe^
S9
1
* *>
fr^/frZo <&s Z&JL^
Don Horacio
yond compare, a man after his own
heart ; and King, himself a life-long
lover of Cervantes, saw in Cutter the
modern Don Quixote of California.
Several letters written at sundry
times by King to Cutter, show so
well some characteristic traits of both
men, that I venture to transcribe here
certain passages of special interest :
(Date noted November n/ 88).
" En route to El Paso.
" MY DEAR DON HORACIO
" I owe you, as is alas too often
the case with me, a full and humble
lamentation for so long neglecting
your letter.
" Since my last visit to California
I have been nearly all the time a sick
man and when the life and buoyancy
of good health depart from a man's
body the poor mind grows weary and
the thousand and one duties of daily
life lie like heavy burdens which
86
James D. Hague
must be again and again lifted by an
effort of tired will.
" Thus with me the duties of the
days and weeks seem like an insur-
mountable wall always in front of me.
Perhaps in some flush of strength
some day I may clear the wall and
land in the green pastures beyond,
where the heart may find utterance
and joy again.
" But all these long months past,
in spite of my silence and my general
nonproductiveness, I never passed a
day without my thoughts wandering
to you, my old and valued friend.
" I am happier for knowing you
and your unclouded soul.
" Before very long I want to make
a pilgrimage to California if it is only
to take our classic walk through the
fresh greenery of park, the gray mono-
tone of our beloved sand-dunes and
reach the lips of the Pacific and hear
him whisper to us of far lands and
87
Don Horacio
infinite horizons. It breaks my heart
to think that the day will come when
our happy feet cannot wander together
thither, that one of us will tread the
sands alone, and then a little later no
footfall of either will leave its print
by the foamy edge of our sea.
" But God grant that where the
waters of Paradise ebb and flow in
the sunshine of Eternal Peace, there
together we may wander with hearts
still warmer, thoughts still loftier,
souls more transparent. Amen."
"DEAR FRIEND, Men are such
mute undemonstrative creatures that
I do not know if I ever said in words
how greatly I value our friendship.
If I have not, no matter, you have
felt my meaning. . . . Ever yours
" CLARENCE."
88
James D. Hague
(Stamped 1893.)
" NEWPORT, October 24.
" DEAR AMIGO HORACIO :
" I just came home from a month's
journey in Canada and my mind was
full of annexation already when I
found your letter with the two news-
paper extracts on the Drake Monu-
ment and the British Columbia idea.
At the same time I found the letter
of Aug. 28 with your copy of the
Critic note on the two heroes of
Spain.
" I always sympathize, you know,
with all your projects and ideas be-
cause they are always high-minded
and good and for the real inspiring
of man. You ought to be a sort of
general autocrat of the spiritual and
aesthetic destinies of America, with
full power to carry out your good and
admirable plans. Yet with all the
disadvantages of being a private in-
dividual you have really carried into
8 9
Don Horacio
execution more than any idealist I
ever knew. You saved the Kashgar-
ian children, you made a stupid nation
reward the good Japanese. You will
mark the landing of Drake and you
will see British Columbia ours, and I
believe you will see Gibraltar under
the flag of Spain. This latter if not
with mortal eyes, yet with those clearer
seeing orbs when we see no longer
with dimness of human imperfection
' through a glass darkly ' you will be-
hold from the slopes of Heaven the
fulfilment of your lofty and worthy
dreams.
" I am impatient to see you and
hold converse with you, and see the
enthusiasm kindle your eye again and
feel the warmth of your faith and your
humanity. Soon may it be. ...
I have a feeling in my bones that
something will take me to California
before long. It is just one of those
vague presentiments that always come
QO
James D. Hague
true with me. Either I shall come
there or you will come here. So I
will keep my heart up on that hope.
Oh dear Don Horacio how deeply I
wish we might live under the same
skies and talk together daily instead
of with the dull silence of years be-
tween our meetings.
" Ever yours
" CLARENCE."
" December 10, '93.
" MY DEAR DON HORACIO :
" At last I am able to write you a
few lines. Hague has told me of
your affectionate anxiety about me.
It will I am sure comfort you to know
that my condition daily improves,
that my difficulty is not organic, that
it will pass away in a few months
leaving me as well as ever. The
whole nervous system will have to be
given a complete rest for several
91
Don Horacio
months. The doctors say that a very
long railway journey may not be un-
dertaken by me under a year. I had
a dream of coming to California in
the spring but that must be given up.
" Do write me of your feelings and
doings : you know nothing gives me
greater pleasure than to breathe the
same intellectual atmosphere with
you, for am I not also of the family
of Quixote ? . . .
" Ever affectionately
" CLARENCE."
Of much earlier date than the pre-
ceding letters is the long-treasured
note of introduction which follows :
"23 FIFTH AVENUE, January, 1878.
" DEAR MR. CUTTER,
" Life is so short and uncertain
that I find myself in haste for you
and my friend Mr. Thomas Sturgis,
92
James D. Hague
who will * serve this notice ' on you
to know each other. I have felt it a
privilege to know in you the intimate
companion of Socrates. My friend
who is like yourself somewhat divided
between the hot pursuit of modern
things, and the contemplation of the
too-much-forgotten glories of the past,
will be I know a welcome acquaint-
ance to my dear philosopher, my
valued anachronism, my friend of the
book and owl. Perhaps the dust still
lingers on some solitary glass cylinder
known only to you in the secret re-
cesses of the Union Club cellar and
that you will draw out the cork and
my friend at the same sitting.
" Socrato-memorabilially yours
" CLARENCE KING."
H. F. CUTTER, Esq.
And here are two characteristic
notes, addressed many years ago by
93
Don Horacio
King to his friends, W. D. Howells
and John Hay, introducing Mr. Cut-
ter to their personal acquaintance, and
ever since carefully kept, awaiting
opportunities which never came :
" SAN FRANCISCO.
" My DEAR HOWELLS,
11 You made a great mistake in not
coming to California with Pres't
Hayes. Not in missing the Yosemite,
not in failing to pour out a libational
cocktail at (that Ultima Thule of the
Aryan migration) the Cliff House,
but in losing the chance to meet
some choice spirits at table with me.
I had five or six good men and true to
lie in wait for you and drag you away
from royalty and make a dinner.
" However I love you and will
partly make it up to you. The best
of all my symposium is the good
friend Mr. Horace F. Cutter who will
94
James D. Hague
present you this. He is salt which
hath not lost its savour. Verb. sap.
" Yours ever,
" CLARENCE KING."
" SAN FRANCISCO.
" MY DEAR JOHN,
" My friend Mr. Horace F. Cutter
in the next geological period will go
east. It would be a catastrophy if
he did not know you. You will
' swarm in,' as the Germans say, when
you meet. Lest I should not be
there to expose Mr. Cutter's alias I
take this opportunity to divulge to
you that the police are divided in
opinion as to whether he is Socrates
or Don Quixote. I know better he
is both.
" Ever yours,
" CLARENCE KING."
It was for love of this Quixotic
friend that King went, in 1882, to
95
Don Horacio
seek the Helmet of Mambrino, in
the province of La Mancha. In 1885
he sent to Mr. Cutter the barber's
basin he found there, together with
the formal letter accompanying his
gift. This letter, not originally in-
tended for publication, was printed
in the Century Magazine the follow-
ing year, in May, 1886, addressed to
" Don Horacio." The originally fin-
ished manuscript, engrossed on large
paper and bound in silk which was
cut from a robe of the period of Cer-
vantes, was kept as a precious treasure
by Don Horacio during his lifetime,
and was found by friends after his
death among his most valued effects
in the barely furnished upper-room
in which he lodged.
But perhaps the most precious thing
on earth to Don Horacio was the Hel-
met of Mambrino, the barber's basin.
He kept it carefully in his room, to
be seen occasionally by rare visitors,
9 6
James D. Hague
for whose entertainment he some-
times set it on his head, to show
how it might have appeared to Don
Quixote and to that " eternal misbe-
liever" Sancho Panza, when worn
by the approaching barber. An ac-
quaintance who visited Don Hora-
cio in his room, about six months
before his death, relates that Mr.
Cutter called his attention to a
paper-wrapped parcel, saying " Do
you see this box ? It contains the
most precious treasure in San Fran-
cisco. It is the Helmet of Mambrino."
When Don Horacio was stricken
with his last illness he was taken by
his nearest friends from his lodging,
where proper care and nursing were
impossible, first to his club and thence,
a few days later, to the hospital where
he shortly after died. One of the
ladies of his most intimate family ac-
quaintance gave him her constant
care as nurse. This lady relates that
97
Don Horacio
shortly before his death, Don Hora-
cio made a request (with which it
was then impracticable to comply)
that certain favorite books, among
them, doubtless, Amadis of Gaul
and Palmerin of England (1540 and
1547), and with them, especially, the
" helmet," be brought from his lodg-
ings to his bedside, where he could
see them during his illness. At the
last moment she supported his reclin-
ing head, which fell upon her shoul-
der as he died. His last intelligible
words were " Love to Clarencio," his
favorite name for King, who, first of
all, had named him " Don Horacio."
His mortal remains are now in re-
pose, sharing in silent companionship
the final rest of lifelong friends,* in
whose family tomb, a stately mauso-
leum, overlooking the sea from his
favorite point of view, Don Horacio's
memorial tablet bears the inscription,
* The Bourn family.
Q 8
James D. Hague
HORACE F. CUTTER
* * * *
Sometime known as
The Bachelor of San Francisco "
HELMET OF MAMBRINO
Nearly eighteen months intervened
between Don Horacio's death at San
Francisco, July 13, 1900, and the
death of King at Phoenix, Arizona,
December 24, 1901. Shortly after
the last-named event I determined
to obtain, if possible, the original en-
grossed manuscript and silk-bound
copy of King's letter to Don Hora-
cio, together with its accompanying
99
Don Horacio
barber's basin, to be preserved as
fitting souvenirs of King in the Cen-
tury Club ; and on my next visit to
California, in May, 1902, I made my
wish known to Don Horacio's close
friend and principal legatee, who was
also his duly appointed executor.*
He said: "You can easily get the
manuscript. My wife has it and will
be pleased to give it for your pur-
pose. As for the basin, I know noth-
ing about it. I have not seen it for
years, nor thought of it since Cutter's
death. My sister, who was with Cut-
ter when he died, may know what
became of the basin. I will ask her."
On inquiry, his sister said that she,
too, had, unfortunately, forgotten all
about the basin. She had been un-
able, after Don Horacio's death, to
visit his lodging or give attention to
the disposition of his effects, and if
the basin were missing she would not
* Mr. William B. Bourn,
100
James D. Hague
know where to look for it now. The
manager and janitor of the office
building where Cutter had lodged
were equally ignorant concerning the
matter inquired of, although one of
them had seen the paper-wrapped
parcel, said to contain the helmet, in
Cutter's hands not long before his
death ; and Don Horacio's request
that the helmet be brought from his
lodgings to his bedside was remem-
bered as a certain indication that the
basin had been there among his per-
sonal effects when he left his lodging
for the last time. They gave the
further information that when certain
books and other chosen articles had
been removed from the room shortly
after Cutter's death, the remaining
effects had been sold to a second-
hand furniture dealer who, some
weeks thereafter, took everything
away, including, possibly the missing
basin ; but this possibility proved
Don Horacio
disappointing, for the dealer affirmed,
on careful inquiry, that nothing like
the thing described had ever come
into his possession. Thereupon it
was determined to employ a detective
to prosecute the search and also to
seek further light by advertisements
in the papers, whereof in one, sand-
wiched between the announcements
of a very liberal reward for the re-
covery of a lost dog, and of a hygienic
remedy for restoring lost hair, there
presently appeared the offer of a valu-
able consideration for the return of a
Spanish barber's basin, an heirloom,
of no value except to the owner.*
INFORMATION WANTED.
INFORMATION wanted that will help find an
old Spanish-made babers' brass basin, an heir-
loom, only valuable to advertiser. Suitable re-
ward paid. Address W., 401 California St.,
room 14.
LOST.
LOST White bull terrier, brindle patch over
both eyes, spiked collar aud having uaine and
address of owner on it. Very liberal reward
~.ion 1049 Maxket st.
102
James D. Hague
Pending hoped-for results I re-
turned to New York, where, shortly
after, I received the desired manu-
script with the discouraging informa-
tion that no sign of the basin had
yet appeared. I wrote in response,
urging that no effort or expense be
spared in continuing the search until
the basin should be found ; and, about
a fortnight later I had the great
pleasure of receiving a telegram from
Don Horacio's executor, reading
" Helmet found will be forwarded
to-morrow."
The morrow and several following
days passed, however, without further
advice until, about the end of June,
the expected parcel arrived, contain-
ing the promised basin, with a note
explaining that the delay had been
occasioned by the time required
for the proper identification of the
" Helmet," which, it appeared, had
at last turned up in a well-known
103
Don Horacio
pawnbroker's shop, without any sat-
isfactory information as to where it
came from or how it got there and
with a plainly implied suggestion of
" No questions asked or answered."
Under these circumstances it was
thought desirable that the helmet
should be identified before accept-
ance, for which purpose it was sent
to the country home of the friends
most competent to judge, who recog-
nized it positively as the missing
basin of Don Horacio, otherwise
known as the " Helmet of Mam-
brino," whereupon its purchase from
the dealer for the price of seven dol-
lars was completed and the basin was
forwarded to New York.
With it came also sundry bills of
incidental expenses, notably that of
the detective agent who rendered an
account for his professional services
in recovering what, by queer mis-
nomer, he erroneously describes as
104
James D. Hague
the " Helmet of Sombrino." These
expenses amounted, in all, to about
forty dollars, notwithstanding the
very liberal discount of 33-^ per cent,
which the detective made on purely
sentimental and friendly considera-
tions, being himself a man of strongly
sympathetic temperament, a constant
reader of the Century Magazine and
the proud possessor of a long line of
back numbers, in the proper one of
which (May, 1886), he had promptly
found the story of the " Helmet " and
the picture of the basin, all of which
he was able to place at the disposal
of those who were called upon to
identify the property of Don Horacio,
before concluding its purchase at the
pawnbroker's.
The actual possession of the basin
gave great satisfaction to all con-
cerned in looking for it, but still
left unsatisfied a lasting curiosity
touching its mysterious disappear-
107
Don Horacio
ance from Don Horacio's lodging
and its whereabouts thereafter until
it reappeared in the hands of the
pawnbroker.
My wish to know these things was
so strong that on visiting San Fran-
cisco again in August (1902), I called
at the pawnbroker's in pursuit of the
desired information. I found him an
Israelite indeed in whom there was
no guile perceptible. He seemed
perfectly frank in this matter. When
I told him my errand he smiled and
said " I don't know anything about
that barber's basin. I had it here
only a week. It came to me from
another dealer. The parties who
bought it took it away to see first if
it was what they wanted. They had
it several days. When they came
back they bought it for seven dollars.
I just sold it on commission. I kept
two dollars and paid five to the other
dealer. I don't know how or where
108
James D. Hague
he got it. He might tell you. His
name is Benguiat. He is a dealer in
rugs, very expensive ones, and he
buys all sorts of curiosities and has a
large collection, worth many thou-
sands of dollars. Here is his address.
You better see him."
This seemed to confirm the sus-
picion that some person had taken
the basin from Cutter's lodging after
his departure, and sold it to a known
buyer of curiosities.
Next day I called at the establish-
ment of the Benguiats, Hadji Eph-
raim and Mordecai, father and son,
dealers in rugs, curios and antiques,
belonging to a family of famous col-
lectors well known not only at San
Francisco but in New York, Lon-
don, Paris and the Orient. I found
Mordecai, the son, alone, who also
smiled when I mentioned my errand.
He said, " I can tell you all about
the barber's basin I sold to Joe Stern
109
Don Horacio
(the pawnbroker), but I don't know
anything about the basin that be-
longed to the old gentleman who
died here awhile ago. My basin was
not that basin. My father brought
my basin from Smyrna a few months
ago. He bought it there for me,
packed it with other things in a box
which I myself unpacked here. I
have had it in my room at home
ever since it came until I let Stern
have it."
" How did you come to let Stern
have it?"
" I was in his place one day, a lit-
tle while ago, when, knowing me to
be a buyer of curiosities, he said that
he was looking for a Spanish barber's
brass basin that had disappeared some
time before and was now wanted and
advertised for by friends of the owner,
who had died. He thought I might
have bought it from some one who
had offered it as a curiosity. I told
no
James D. Hague
him I had never heard of the basin
he spoke of, but that I had one like
it, which he might have if it would
answer the purpose. I told him if
he could sell it for seven dollars he
might make two on it. My father
bought it in Smyrna for half a dollar.
Stern said he would show it to the
parties who were looking for the
other basin and sell it to them if
they wanted it. It was sent, on ap-
proval, to see if it would do, and the
parties bought it for seven dollars.
I made no pretence that my basin
was the missing one, which it could
not possibly be if that is made of
brass, because mine is made of cop-
per ; and it is absolutely certain that
my basin came from Smyrna."
Further conference with the detec-
tive brought out the fact that he had
not learned from the pawnbroker, at
the time of purchase, the name of the
" other dealer," whom he then still
in
Don Horacio
supposed to be some mysterious per-
son, concerning whom no questions
were to be asked, and it was not un-
til after the basin had been mistak-
enly identified, paid for and sent to
New York, that he heard Benguiat's
story, the truth of which he does not
question in any particular.
Mordecai earnestly assured me that
if he had known the buyer's purpose,
he would have gladly given his basin
when he sold it, through the pawn-
broker, for seven dollars ; but it is
obvious that in such case the buyer
would also have known that Morde-
cai's basin was not the missing one
and, for that reason, he would not
have wanted it.
It also became evident that a bar-
ber's basin is not such a unique
curiosity as Don Horacio's friends
supposed when they made their mis-
taken identification in the firm belief
112
James D. Hague
that no other basin like the missing
one could possibly be found in Cali-
fornia. On the contrary, not less than
thirteen such basins were declared or
reported as extant in the near neigh-
borhood. One well-known dealer in
bric-a-brac, when interviewed by tele-
phone, responded that he had half
a dozen then in stock, lately brought
up from Mexico.
" What do you sell them for ? " was
asked.
" Three and a half," he replied.
" Yes, but for what purpose ? What
are they used for ? "
" Oh, anything you like gener-
ally to put flowers in."
When these facts became known
to the friends who, at my request,
had taken so much trouble to seek
the missing "helmet" of Don Ho-
racio, they were very sorry that I had
been led to buy another basin through
Don Horacio
their mistake ; but I strongly assured
them that in the absence of the genu-
ine thing the mistaken substitute
would be very acceptable, especially
because it is quite consistent with the
spirit of the original story that they
who seek the " Helmet of Mambrino,"
whether in gold or brass, may find
the thing they are not looking for.
Don Quixote sought a helmet of gold
and found a brazen basin ; and we,
seeking brass, have found copper.
Moreover, it is said that the en-
chanted golden helmet of Mambrino
made its wearer invisible ; and it
seems most fit that the brass basin
of Don Horacio should mysteriously
vanish with its departing owner, who
might, indeed, have wished it to be
buried with him.
The search for the helmet may still
go on ; and while awaiting the return
of Don Horacio's elusive basin, we
may as well, perhaps, adopt for its
114
James D. Hague
present substitute the name suggested
by the sympathetic detective in his
bill of sale and services,
Clarence King
John Hay
117
Clarence King
WE sometimes, though most
rarely, meet a man of a
nature 50 genial, of qualities so
radiant, so instinct with vitality, that
in connection with him the thought
of mortality seems incongruous.
Such men appear as exempt from
the ordinary lethal fate of the rest
of us as the "happy gods" of the
Greek poets. They are not neces-
sarily fortunate or prosperous, but
whatever their luck or their accidents
they seem as independent of them
as actors are of their momentary
disguises. The law of their nature
is to be radiant ; clouds are to them
a transient and negligible condition.
While they live they are surrounded
by an atmosphere of universal regard
119
Clarence King
and admiration, and when the end
comes, though the mourning of their
friends is deep and sincere, it is
tinged with something exquisite and
splendid, like the luxury of purple
and gold that attends the close of
a troubled and electric day.
Such a man was Clarence King.
While he lived, it was our habit to
believe that no real evil could be-
fall him ; and now that he is dead,
although we know we have lost
something from life which made it
especially precious and desirable, yet
there remains a souvenir so delight-
ful, so filled with tenderness and
inspiration, that there are few pleas-
ures the world contains so valuable
as his memory in the hearts of his
friends.
He possessed to an extraordinary
degree the power of attracting and
attaching to himself friends of every
sort and condition. The cowboys
120
In John Hay's Library
John Hay
and packers of the plains and the
hills ; the employes of railroads and
hotels ; men of science and men
of commerce ; the Senate and the
clergy in all these ways of life
his friends were numerous and de-
voted, bound to him by a singular
sympathy and mutual comprehen-
sion. When in middle life if we
may use this expression in reference
to one who was always young he
went to Europe, he continued the
same facile conquest of hearts. In
this he was aided by a remarkable
ease in acquiring a colloquial com-
mand of languages. Having occa-
sion to go to Mexico, he put in his
pocket a small Spanish Dictionary
and without the aid of a grammar
got by heart some thousand nouns
and verbs in the infinitive, so that
on arriving at Guaymas he was
master of a highly effective and
picturesque jargon which delighted
123
Clarence King
the Mexicans and carried him tri-
umphantly to the mines of Culiacan.
Afterwards he acquired a correct and
grammatical knowledge of the Cas-
tilian. It was the same in France.
He had read French from child-
hood, but had never spoken it. On
arriving in Paris, where he was con-
ducting some important business,
he did not pause to gain famil-
iarity with the spoken idiom. He
attacked it with the energy of a
cavalry charge, and though at first
he made havoc of genders, moods
and tenses, he took it as we are told
the Kingdom of Heaven is taken,
by violence. In a few weeks he was
speaking the language with perfect
ease, and was an equally welcome
guest in financial, artistic and literary
circles. In England nothing de-
scribes his success but the well-worn
phrase of Dickens. He was " the
delight of the nobility and gentry"
124
John Hay
and not of them only, but he made
friends also i n Whitechapel and
Soho, and even to some in the sub-
merged fraction, the most wretched
derelicts of civilization, he brought
the ineffable light of his keen com-
prehension and generous sympathy.
I introduced him once to a woman of
eminent distinction, one of the first
writers of our time. After he had
gone, she said : " I understand now
the secret of his charm. It is his
kindness."
It is not for me to speak of his com-
manding place in the world of science:
his associates and colleagues will
keep that phase of his life in remem-
brance. I think his reputation as a
great physicist suffered somewhat
from the dazzling attractiveness of
his personality. It was hard to re-
member that this polished trifler, this
exquisite wit, who diffused over every
conversation in which he was engaged
125
Clarence King
an iridescent mist of epigram and per-
siflage, was one of the greatest savants
of his time. It was hard to take seri-
ously a man who was so deliciously
agreeable. Yet his work on System-
atic Geology is a masterpiece of prac-
tical and ordered learning, and his
treatise on The Age of the Earth has
been accepted as the profoundest and
most authoritative utterance on the
subject yet made.
If he had given himself to litera-
ture, he would have been a great
writer. The range of his knowledge,
both of man and nature, was enor-
mous ; his sympathy was universal ;
his mastery of the word, his power
of phrase, was almost unlimited.
His literary product is considerable
and will keep his name alive ; but it
bears no appreciable proportion to
the literary treasures he squandered
in his daily and nightly conversation.
I recall with the sharpest regret of
126
John Hay
my own incapacity of memory the
evenings by my fireside, when he
poured out in inexhaustible profusion
his stores of fancy and invention.
There were scores of short stories
full of color and life, sketches of thrill-
ing adventure, not less than half a
dozen complete novels, boldly planned
and brilliantly wrought out, all ready
for the type or the pen ; which now
an infinite pity ! are only of the stuff
that dreams are made of.
Few men had so quick and so sure
an eye for art. In that first visit to
Europe, to which I have alluded, he
seemed like one to whom all the scenes
he visited had been familiar in some
antecedent state. His time was lim-
ited, and his pace, therefore, amaz-
ingly rapid. He swept through Spain
like a breeze. He had apparently no
preferences. In the space of a few
weeks, he covered the whole field ; he
knew the masterpieces of classic and
127
Clarence King
modern painting ; he was familiar
with the syncopated melodies of Cuba
and Malaga and Andalusia ; he was
an aficionado in fans, embroideries
and bronzes. Nobody has felt more
keenly the melancholy charm of Cas-
tile ; the proof is in that exquisite
idyll of the Helmet of Mambrino.
Fastidious as he was, he was yet
easily pleased by whatever was natu-
ral and genuine. I remember his
horror in the midst of his enthu-
siasm over Spain at meeting an
eminent man of letters from New
England who had found nothing in
the Peninsula to suit him, and who
wound up by expressing his disgust
that " from Salamanca to Cadiz you
could not get a fishball."
All over Europe he scampered with
the same vertiginous speed, and the
same serene and genial appearance
of leisure, and perfect satisfaction
and delight with all he saw. The
128
John Hay
art of Holland was as enchanting to
him as that of Spain and Italy. His
admiration of the great men of the
past never rendered him unjust to
the men of the present. His wide
sympathies comprehended Velasquez
and Fortuny in a kindred apprecia-
tion. He became at sight the friend
of Mesdag and Israels. I took him
to the studio of Gustave Dore, and
in five minutes they were brothers
and were planning an excursion to
Arizona to sketch the war dances of
the Apaches. A few days later the
robust Alsatian, who seemed built to
last a hundred years, was dead, stricken
down by the terrible pneumonia of
those years.
In England while as I have said
his success was universal with all
classes, his closest intimacies were
with men who were occupied with
the things of the spirit Ruskin took
him to his heart, entertained him at
Clarence King
Coniston, and offered him his choice
of his two greatest water-colors by
Turner. " One good Turner," said
King, " deserves another," and took
both.
Few men ever can have lived who
loved knowingly and ardently so many
things. All the arts gave him joy ;
his mind was hospitable to every in-
tellectual delight, the simplest as well
as the most complex. In music he
enjoyed Beethoven and the latest
rag-time ; in painting he revelled in
the masterpieces of all the schools ;
in poetry his taste was as keen as it
was catholic ; in literature he liked all
styles except the tiresome ; for years
he read a chapter of higher mathe-
matics every night before going to
bed. He had the passionate love
of nature which only the highest
culture gives the sky, the rock, and
the river spoke to him as familiar
friends.
130
John Hay
I imagine that in comparing our
impressions of him, the thought which
comes uppermost in the minds of all
of us, is that Clarence King resembled
no one else whom we have ever
known. The rest of our friends we
divide into classes ; King belonged
to a class of his own. He was inimita-
ble in many ways : in his inexhausti-
ble fund of wise and witty speech ;
in his learning, about which his mar-
vellous humor played like summer
lightning over far horizons ; in his
quick and intelligent sympathy which
saw the good and the amusing in the
most unpromising subjects ; in the
ease and the airy lightness with which
he scattered his jewelled phrases ; but
above all in his astonishing power of
diffusing happiness wherever he went.
Years ago, in a well-known drawing-
room in Washington, when we were
mourning his departure from the
Capital, one of his friends expressed
Clarence King
the opinion of all when he said, " It
is strange that the Creator, when it
would have been so easy to make
more Kings, should have made only
one."
132
Meetings with King
William Dean Howells
133
Meetings with Clarence King
THOSE who knew Clarence King
better than I must have more
varied impressions of him, for no one
presents at all times the same moral
and mental aspect to his familiar ac-
quaintance, though he is apt to wear
it to such as have no claim to his in-
timacy. For his intimates his moods
vary and his looks, while he shows
one physiognomy to those standing
farther from him, whatever his mood
may be. I say this not to establish a
truism, but to let the reader under-
stand how little right I should have,
if I were of a mind to urge any, to
speak of King with authority, or any
sort of finality. What I could chiefly
wish besides would be to impart the
sense of a certain sunny gayety in
135
Meetings with King
him which was the repeated effect of
all our meetings, and which I still
have from every portrait of him.
Our first meeting was in the proof-
reader's room of the old University
Press at Cambridge, where one was
apt to meet all sorts of casual and
habitual literary celebrities. He was
then a young man well under the
thirties, whose blondness was affirmed
rather by his blithe blue eyes and
fresh tint than by the light hair which
was cropped close on the head where
it early grew sparser and sparser.
He was of a slightness which his fig-
ure did not afterwards keep, and he
was altogether of a very charmingly
boyish presence, heightened in effect
by his interest in explaining the pith
hat which he had by him on the desk
where he was reading the proofs of
one of his papers on Mountaineering
in the Sierra Nevada. The time was
the hot heart of the Cambridge sum-
136
King at age of 27
William Dean Howells
mer, when a pith hat was as desirable
as in the California heats which he
described in their relation to it. He
advised one in my own case, but he
met me even more sympathetically
on the ground of literature, where
he professed to envy me my associa-
tions.
I was then a very ardent young
assistant editor, and I shared all my
chief's admiration of those vivid and
graphic papers of King's which he
had got for the Atlantic Monthly.
In my perfectly contented ignorance
of every intellectual or moral interest
outside of literature, I regarded the
brilliant and beaming creature before
me simply as a promise of more and
more literature of the vivid and gra-
phic kind, and of a peculiar quality
unequaled in the performances of
the new California school with which
I classed him. Of his scientific value,
then already fully attested, I had no
139
Meetings with King
just conception ; it was a trait the
more in the character of a young au-
thor who afforded to have it in a mag-
nificent superfluity along with his
artistic gifts. It made him more pic-
turesque, though it could not make
him more pictorial than he was.
Later, I found that it had rather
the first place in his self-estimate, and
he amused himself in meeting my
reproaches for not having done some-
thing more in literature with the an-
swer that he was writing a book which
just three people in the United States
would care to read. This reply may
have been first made by letter in re-
sponse to my editorial entreaties for
more papers like the Mountaineering
series, for the magazine having fallen
solely to me, I knew I could not do
better for it. Perhaps, however, it
may have been personally urged at
my second meeting with him, which
was at Washington, where he was
140
William Dean Howells
pretending to some scientific place
in the government, in the intervals of
actual scientific work in the West,
and was putting lightly by all tra-
ditions of his literary achievement.
We met at the White House, to the
occupant of which, in those pleasant
eighteen-seventies when everybody
was reasonably young, I had been
the means of introducing him with
an enthusiasm which he deprecated
as " din."
He was above everything indifferent
to literary repute. He would have
preferred not to own the things he
wrote, and kept only for his reward
the aesthetic delight he had in doing
them. I think he had the greatest
delight in them ; a man who could so
fit incident and character with phrases,
must have had ; and I believe that he
always vaguely meant to write a great
work of fiction, though I do not be-
lieve he would ever have done it. He
141
Meetings with King
was supposed to have by him the
beginning of a novel, and perhaps he
had, but it was rather something to
bluff his inquiring literary friends
with, to dream over and fancy finish-
ing, than ever really to expect or
intend finishing.
There was doubtless something in
the exactness of science which formed
a pull on his poetic nature strong
enough to draw him to the perform-
ance from which the vagueness of
aesthetic motives and impulses relaxed
him. It was easy to put these off
with the self-promise of fulfilment
some other time when he should feel
more like it ; but with a scientific prob-
lem or task before him he had to act
promptly. In life, I believe, he was
much controlled by what we may call
the literary side of him.
I next met him in London in the
crucial moment when he was trying
to go down to a friend's country
142
William Dean Howells
house in Scotland, and buying his
railroad ticket day after day, and then
telegraphing his host that he would
come the next day. He was delight-
ful, in this, at least to the witness, and
he was delightful in all his talk about
London, from which he had been
long endeavoring to tear himself for
a more protracted period with the
same impossibility he found in a brief
absence. He told, with the sunnily
smiling eyes of our interviews at
the University Press and the White
House, of the fascination London had
for him, in the mirky purlieus of the
poorest, where you could buy for a
penny a slice of wonderful pie which
included the courses of a whole dinner
in its stratification, not less than in
the circles of the Prince of Wales set,
where the young archworldlings went
ingenuously about showing their vac-
cinations to one another, and ex-
changing boyish congratulations and
143
Meetings with King
condolences. He was having the
good time which he seemed always to
carry with him, and to one so ignorant
of the English as myself he might
well have appeared intelligently criti-
cal, though not censorious, of them.
They amused him, by their novelty of
type and their frank naturalness, in
the same degree if not the same kind
as the wild or wilding children of the
Pacific Slope and of the intervening
alkaline regions. No American of his
intellectual gifts and wide human
experience ever got more, I should
think, of the good of a sojourn among
the English, which was finally ex-
tended almost to the despair of the
friends wishing him home again. It
was charming to hear his philosophy
of them, as shrewd and penetrating
as it was humorous and unfinal.
It was early in his visit, I believe,
that I met him at a dinner, given by
an American publisher, which was re-
144
William Dean Howells
markable for having at it, in the heart
of London, only one Englishman, and
he by birth a foreigner. The rest of
us were Americans, and King surely
the most American of all in a certain
fine expansiveness of good fellow-
ship. He had been in Spain, and
Southern Europe generally, and had
come up by way of Paris, where he
had stopped and bought pictures -
several Fortuny watercolors among
others. "Ah," I said, hearing his
joyous brags of their beauty, " what
a fortunate man, to own Fortunys ! "
" Why, I will give you one," he re-
turned ; and I thought that a good
bluff, and he let me laugh. But the
next morning the Fortuny showed
itself at my lodgings, and that is how
I am still able to say to people,
" Have you seen my Fortuny ? Of
course, I don't buy Fortunys; Clarence
King gave it me," and then tell when
and how.
IO
145
Meetings with King
I never can tell why, except that it
was from a princely impulse which
he must often have indulged towards
others.no more worthy its effect than
I. He had much of the Arabian
Nights in him, and liked to shine in
a surprising munificence, if he could
choose its object ; and I suppose he
enjoyed launching such a challenge
at my imagination. If he might no
longer write poet he could live poet,
and now and again do a thing that
was noble literature. He was not
rich, as rich men go, and that was
why he could afford pleasures that
rich men, as they go, cannot or will
not permit themselves. His generos-
ity was not merely in gifts that could
not wax poor through any after un-
kindness of his, but in recognitions
that go farther yet with one in the
numerous solitude where an author is
always apt to find himself. His rec-
ognition was more than a nod ; it
146
William Dean Howells
was a stretto di mano, something bor-
dering on an embrace in its cordial
properties, if your current story had
the good luck to please his good
taste. Then he would write not only
to say so, but to say why, with close r
yet clear reasons, in which the most
evasive, the most elusive of acquaint-
ance became the most open and im-
mediate of friends. One such letter
of his goes with that Fortuny of his,
which it outvalues in very intrinsic
qualities.
If I seem to be celebrating his
friendship as in unusual sort an inti-
macy, let me say again that it never
was. It was something that could be
resumed wherever it was left, with a
sense of common ground under the
feet, in which there could be no mis-
understanding.
There was somewhere a breakfast
before or in between our London
meeting and the next, but I cannot
147
Meetings with King
securely date it, though a vivid sense
remains from it of King's sweet satis-
faction in bringing two persons to-
gether who tasted the pleasure he
meant in making them acquainted.
It might have been then that he
talked of some of the people in his
Western sketches, and especially of
that frontier artist with the New
York ambitions and longings, whose
likeness he had caught but too per-
fectly, and who would have been
willing to " take it out of him/' if he
had not been disarmed by King's
frank bonhomie when they met. He
liked and valued all those grotesque
and rude figures, these strong and
fibrous human textures of the West,
but he had a sense as subtle as its
own of the silken Latin and meridi-
onal temperament, and it was measur-
ably to imagine Cuba to hear him
tell of his Cuban cousins and ac-
quaintance, who flashed and glistened
148
William Dean Howells
and darkled in his talk as they must
have done in life.
But I am leaving him standing
where I next met him, in Boston
Common, namely, two years after our
parting in London. It was pending
that presidential election of 1884,
when friends hardly knew where to
find each other, or knew whether they
were quite friends when they did so.
But we instantly and instinctively
came together on Blaine, for whom
we were going to vote, in a wide
literary and social isolation, because
" in our bones " we felt it the right
thing, rather than from any reasons
better than those of our friends who
were going to vote against him. King
had a personal kindness to remember
of him, such as his leaving a sick bed
to come to the Senate and help
through a bill in which King was in-
terested, and " He stands by his
friends," he said with that fine close
149
Meetings with King
smile of his, which implied a gust for
the quality the phrase had taken from
its common politicianal use.
It was this smile which keeps his
image before me as I write, which I
find delicately intimated in Mr. How-
land's portrait of him an admirable
likeness, I think and which implied
his gentleness and sweetness together
with a kindly irony not unseldom
going with such traits. The smile
broadened as we left the public in-
terest and looked at each other, to
find that we had no more fallen away
physically than politically. I asked
if there were anything to be done
about that constancy of weight, and
he said " No. The fact is we like to
overeat," in all philosophical if not
scientific answer to the anti-obesity
hopes which still lure and mock con-
fiding middle age.
He had, as I remember him, a
pleasure in the joys of the table as
150
William Dean Howells
generous as his other pleasures, but
depersonalized by the interest he took
in certain branches of the culinary
technique. We next met at dinner
in New York over a very specific
beef-steak, in company with a poet
now more venerable but not yet too
old to recall his sympathy with King's
zeal in concurrently compiling a gravy
of which he had the knowledge and
inspiration, while the talk went on of
things both humane and literary, till
the steak came up to have that won-
derful sauce poured over it. King
spoke then of that romance of his,
begun as ever, but somewhat more
advanced, he owned, though he owned
the fact cryptically, as if he might still
never suffer the cypher of its secret
to be interpreted in mortal print. He
talked also of things millennial, of
which the air was then momentarily
full, and by which his heart was
moved. He confessed a feeling for
151
Meetings with King
those who do the hard work of the
world, that others may enjoy their
ease, so great that as he further con-
fessed, he had stayed most of that
summer in town not to let an old
retainer of his be left friendless
there in sickness.
It was not a boast of his goodness,
and I suspect that he did not like
bringing up very serious things in a
casual talk lest they should be too
serious. The sad side of life he would
keep turned inward, or at least he did
to my knowledge. But there was yet
one more feast at which we foregath-
ered where the shades of melancholy
and pathetic experience hovered too
palpably to be dispersed by the gayety
of his talk, subsiding oftener into the
easier gayety of that most winning
smile of his.
I did not see him again, but in the
church where the words of farewell
were said over him, coffined under
152
William Dean Howells
the chilly flowers, I had the sense of
his smiling presence, with a sort of
grief, which I shall not be able to ex-
plain, for the unfitness of the intense
cold of the day, and of the piercing
bleakness of the sunshine from which
we had escaped, and into which we
issued and suffered again when the
words were all said. I promised my-
self then to try sometime and say
about him the things that were in my
heart, but these " trivial fond records "
are not they, and I doubt if I could
ever get them out. They concern
what is deepest in me if not in him,
for they touch that old, great, high
affair of literature, and his own contri-
bution to the vocabulary of his race
and place.
What he could do was proven in
the Mountaineering in the Sierra
Nevada papers, which will remain his
monument, and what he might fur-
ther have done is attested in that
153
Meetings with King
sketch of Spanish character and cir-
cumstance, Mambrinds Helmet, which
is almost as little companioned as it
is paralleled. The power of uniting
himself by sympathy with an alien
life while remaining humorously and
critically detached from it, which he
evinced in this and the earlier studies,
approved him to my thinking an im-
aginative talent of the first potential-
ity ; and I have to accuse myself of
using the wrong word in calling that
or any life alien to him. As an artist,
as a realistic observer, every kind of
life appealed to him for report ; and
he was one with it, if I may trust my
reading of his work, and my conjec-
ture of his nature. He was first of all
most tolerant, which is the wisest and
best thing any man can be ; but he
was not trammeled by his kindness
in any helpless complicity. He liked
the thing he laughed at, and yet he
laughed, for he was both humorous
154
William Dean Howells
arid humane ; and could lose his poise
no more in the presence of the gro-
tesque than in the presence of the
beautiful. He felt, or so his literature
says to me, his unity with all men.
From some men, from most, he was
of course intellectually parted by im-
mense distances of culture, but essen-
tially he was the neighbor of mankind.
He knew the " world " of his time far
beyond all other American literary
men save one, but he was not awed
by it, or estranged by it from his fel-
low-beings outside of it. The greater
the pity, therefore, that he could not
have had the time or the will to write
the American novel which we are so
persistently expecting both of the fit
and the unfit ; but it is not essential
to his remembrance as an American
author that he should have done so.
He has brilliantly fixed forever a
phase of the Great West already van-
ished from actuality ; in one glowing
155
Meetings with King
picture he has portrayed a sublime
mood of nature, with all those varying
moods of human nature which best
give it relief. The picture is none
the less striking for being of a pano-
ramic virtue ; that is the American
virtue, as far as we have yet got at it
in our literature.
156
King
Henry Adams
157
King
DOZENS of men in this Club,*
and hundreds outside of it,
could give material for a little poem
on the theme, " How I first knew
King," with a motive quite as original
and perhaps more dramatic than that
of Browning's " When I last saw
Waring." Every one who met him
thirty years ago remembers how he
bubbled with life and energy, and
how his talk rippled with humor and
thought quite new to our rather
academic life in the East. Traces of
it still hang about our book-shelves.
One can recall the odor of it, and
of the delight it gave us, by read-
ing a page of his Mountaineering
* This paper, presented here as originally
written, was intended to be read at a proposed
King Memorial Meeting at the Century Club.
King
in the Sierras, or by only open-
ing a volume of Bret Harte. No
other place except the Sierras has
produced in our time the same sense
of freshness, and no one else had its
whole charm except King. At least, so
thought most of those who knew him.
We would, at any time and always,
have left the most agreeable man in
Europe or America to go with him.
We were his slaves, and he was good
to us. He was the ideal companion
of our lives.
Perhaps, like the rest, I too might
try my hand on the little poem we
all have the material to compose, but
with your permission I will spare
you ; not so much because it might
not bear comparison with Brown-
ing's, for that would matter little
since it is not for sale ; but because,
when I come to think about it, I
fear that the motive would cut too
deep into King's life, not to mention
1 60
Henry Adams
my own ; and because, after all, the
odor of youth and the pine forests is
a little sacred, like the incense of the
mass. We had ideals then, ambi-
tions, and a few passions, which
faded with time, and are dead, even
though they may not be buried ; and
his are not mine to handle. They
were as fresh and exciting as the air
of the Rocky Mountains, and the
smell of the camp-fires in which we
talked till the night grew tired of us.
All that had long vanished, and both
of us were elderly and not very gay
fragments of the past, when we took
our last vacation, which shall serve
for a picture of him, or the back-
ground of one, for he always seemed
to make his background alive, and a
part of himself.
On the first day of January, 1894,
I received the following letter in
King's handwriting, always a rare
thing to receive, and just then par-
161
King
ticularly welcome. The letter runs
thus:
" BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM
" December 31
" MY DEAR HENRY
" I refrained from boring you with
the miseries of my months of torture
here, and I don't think I should ever
have broken the silence were I not
at last convinced that the progress of
recovery, though of geological slow-
ness, is really going to arrive at a
cure.
" Early next week the Doctors are
to have another consultation over my
damned spine (how I reverence a
polyp) and I am assured in advance
that they will sanction and even com-
mand my going somewhere in the
south. . . . Everything favoring I
shall go. South I must go, and next
week is to be my last in this house
of madness. I shant like it so well
a few months hence when Columbia
162
Henry Adams
College moves in here and displaces
these open, frank lunatics with Seth
Low and his faculty of incurables, so
I better go now.
" What do you say to taking the
island trip with me ? . . . I have
read up a little on the Caribbees, and
if any trust can be put in human
testimony they must be splendid for
scenery and absorbing for geology.
A light opera-bouffe effect is evi-
dently given by the extremely char-
acteristic darkeys with their chatter
and bandannas, with something seri-
ous and orchestral in the way of
gumbo and pepper-pot. Rum is the
agent of erosion, from all accounts.
Antigua makes a celebrated dish of
turtle, and grows the finest pine-
apples in the solar system.
" You need 'have no fear of my suf-
fering a recurrence of disability, and
even if I do, you could cut my ac-
quaintance and leave me to Alex-
163
King
ander who is a trained nurse and a
monument of medical wisdom. . . .
Common honesty demands that I
confess that I am likely to be rather
dull company for a little while, but
in a few days I shall be gay enough.
If my back goes up to the tempera-
ture of melted diabase, and moral
viscosity sets in, I promise not to
bore you with it." . . .
You all remember how King broke
down in 1893, and how he went to
Bloomingdale, as most of us would
have liked to do, to recover from the
nervous strain which prostrated the
whole country, and cost hundreds of
valuable lives in that disastrous year.
That all one's acquaintance should
retreat into asylums seemed at one
time the only way to escape hopeless
ruin and collapse ; but at any time
King might have written from any-
where without disturbing the natural
164
Henry Adams
order of his unexpectedness. We
were accustomed only to the unusual
from him. For my own part, I would
always have joined him, whether in
an asylum or out of it, rather than
any one else, and to that effect I
must have written him. He was de-
layed longer than he expected in
New York, but we joined company
at Tampa at last, and reached Ha-
vana together before the first of
February.
He had fitted himself out for a
small geological exploration of the
Windward Islands, but we soon found
that the Windward Islands main-
tained a rigid quarantine against
the Spanish islands, and so we had
to give up the Caribbees. We could
not stay long in Havana which was
perfectly familiar ground. After a
few days there, not caring much
where we went, we crossed to Bata-
bano, and took the coasting-steamer
165
King
along the south shore. The scenery,
the movement, the pilotage, the pas-
sengers, and the appropriate bull-
fighter, with his circle of worshippers,
quieted our nerves for a day or two,
until we turned the point of Cabo
Cruz and ran into the trade-wind,
which King liked as little as I
did, but which a good many of our
friends were to enjoy at their leisure
four years afterwards ; and, in the
moonlight, King defied it enough to
prove to me that the coast, with its
volcanic peak Turquino, was to be
compared for beauty with no other
coast in the world except that of Cen-
tral America ; and so, before dawn,
we ran into the harbor of Santiago.
There, too, King was at home ;
Where was he ever a stranger? He
seemed quite happy as we tramped
in the dark up the streets, and
pounded on the doors of inns which
would not open, and which, when
166
Henry Adams
they did open, showed quarters more
Spanish than I liked. He loved
everything Spanish, even the Spanish
inn. That was his nature. When he
liked anything, he liked it all. One
felt colorless by his side, and, what
was not altogether pleasant, one felt
the truth. One's energies relaxed ;
one felt oneself a drag on him. In
this case I was put there to serve as
a drag, perhaps even as a drug,
and conscience did not mortify me
too much ; but the relation was al-
ways the same, and the nervous
restlessness of 1894 was, if anything,
weaker than the exuberant energy of
1870. He loved the Spaniard as he
loved the negro and the Indian and
all the primitives, because they were
not academic. Above all he loved
a paradox a thing, he said, that
alone excused thought. No one,
in our time, ever talked paradox so
brilliant.
167
King
You can see, therefore, how little
chance I had of keeping him amused.
Had I been a Cuban negro, it would
have been easy, or a Carib or a brig-
and ; but unless I could find some
way of reverting, step by step, through
all the stages of human change, back
to a pithecanthropes, or much better,
a pithecgunai, I could not keep King
occupied for twenty-four hours. I
could not even handle a machete, or
herd a bull, or dance the culebra. He
had to get the priest to show me
how. For such eccentric types, the
little town of Santiago was then a
marvellous garden of survival. No-
where in the world had I ever seen
anything more amusing, and I thought
it a Heaven-sent harbor for us two
worn-out craft to rest in. Four years
later all America rang with the fame
of Santiago, and especially with the
name of Ramsden, the British Consul,
but at that time King alone knew
168
Henry Adams
him, as he knew everyone ; and of
course Ramsden loved King, and re-
ceived him with open arms. I will
not stop to tell you how kind the
Ramsdens were, for that has nothing
to do with the story, except that it
was through Ramsden that his part-
ner, Mr. Brooks, was interested in
King, and offered him his country
house at Dos Bocas. You may guess
how eager I was to accept the offer.
Of all havens of rest for the old and
weary of all bits of earthly Paradise
Dos Bocas was my dream ; and, if
I tell you the dream, it is only to
show what became of havens of rest
when King lighted there.
Many of you know Dos Bocas, a
few miles by the little railroad from
Santiago to Cristo, near the top of
the valley. The woods come close
down to it ; a small stream, not so
very common in Cuba, runs through
it ; and the trade-wind draws down
169
King
the valley with a passion for the palm
trees such as only tropic winds feel.
Dos Bocas was far more Spanish
than Spain, and the mule-trains ram-
bled up and down the trail, defying
the railroad to compete, while, as far
as I know, there was not a cart-wheel
nearer than Santiago, but there were
plenty of interesting people and some
of the most beautiful scenery in the
world. It seemed to me that we
could do no better than stay there
forever, or till we were forcibly re-
moved. As a background for King
it was better than the South Seas ; it
was better than Mexico ; indeed, I
was the only serpent in it ; harmless
enough, but, as of old in the Garden
of Eden, a predestined victim.
At first all went well. Every morn-
ing we rose with the sun and rambled
out over the hills, after the usual
manner of the geologist ; and returned
before the sun grew too hot, to break-
170
Henry Adams
fast and doze in the shade till it grew
cool again ; but within very few days
King showed signs of coming to the
end of his interest in science and land-
scape. Even paradox failed to stim-
ulate him. Alarmed for fear of being
turned out on the hot world again, I
began to take a profound interest in
geology and to dispute every view he
held. Unluckily, he knew only too
well that I could not tell the differ-
ence between a trilobite and a land-
crab, and we disagreed entirely in re-
gard to a favorite theory of mine
that if we could get deep enough
down into the archaean rocks, we
should find President Eliot and the
whole Faculty of Harvard College,
besides all the geologists there ; but,
when at last I went to the length of
asserting with much temper that a
lump of coral was obviously a recent
lava, he lost interest even in dispute,
and threw me over. In fact King's
171
King
real interest was not in science, but in
man, as he often said, meaning chiefly
woman. You remember his fam-
ous aphorism : " Nature never made
more than one mistake, but that was
fatal ; it was when she differentiated
the sexes." In his instincts I think
he regarded the male as a sort of de-
fence thrown off by the female, much
like the shell of a crab, endowed with
no original energy of his own ; but it
was not the modern woman that
interested him ; it was the archaic
female, with instincts and without in-
tellect. At best King had but a poor
opinion of intellect, chiefly because
he found it so defective an instru-
ment, but he admitted that it was all
the male had to live upon ; while the
female was rich in the inheritance of
every animated energy back to the
polyps and the crystals. If he had a
choice among women, it was in favor
of Indians and negroes, but if a wo-
172
Henry Adams
man was only old enough and ugly
enough, and wore a red bandanna
round her head, King was sure to
be in her cabin, drinking coffee, and
talking negro-Cuban dialect that was
invented for the occasion, and getting
from her all the views of creation
in which she was rich.
This sort of social dissipation was
not so safe in Cuba then as it may
now be. In the province of Santi-
ago in those days, among the coun-
try-people, one was sure of finding
only two settled principles, rebel-
lion and brigandage. King did not
object to rebellion, but he adored
brigandage. Within ten days he
knew all the old negroes in the dis-
trict, and began to go off at night to
their dances, and bring back tales of
the old rebellion, and mutterings
of the coming one, besides stories
of the brigands who still held out
against the government, and arrests
173
King
constantly being made, and visits to
patriots in gaol and out, until I pon-
dered in silence, with more doubt
than ever, whether Bloomingdale was
to become the last refuge of sanity,
since, outside of Bloomingdale, the
world was obviously more insane than
within it.
The situation was really not un-
like one of Frank Stockton's novels.
There were two elderly men ; bald-
headed ; gray-haired, or at least sable-
silvered, like Hamlet's father; literary
and scientific gentlemen of a respecta-
bility that appalled even the Knicker-
bocker Club and themselves ; persons
who had never even been in gaol or
the police-court, and who carried a
sort of aureole of title-pages round
their heads to protect them from vul-
gar sunshine ; and these two profes-
sors were plunged suddenly up to
their necks in a seething caldron of
barbarous passion as though they
174
Henry Adams
were missionaries in the Fiji Islands or
New Guinea. Carelessly, as though
we were hanging about this Club, we
were inviting, every day, accidents of
a kind that were every day occurring.
At any moment a file of Spanish sol-
diers might walk in, and not bid us
goodbye until we were safely on board
the steamer for Nassau and New
York ; and the only obvious reason
for not locking us up, or sending us
off, was that, if the governor began,
he could never stop, for, as far as
King could see, every man, woman,
or child in the entire province was a
rebel or brigand or both.
For myself I saw the humor of the
situation rather acutely. Sticking
to the habit of wandering off, every
morning, across the mountain ridges,
and through the by-paths of the for-
est, it was always sure that some of
King's friends of the night before
were not far off ; and their reputa-
175
King
tion and appearance warranted me in
thinking that, as I walked by their
huts, they were making a fairly cor-
rect estimate of my money-value to
King, and of his to me, by way of
ransom. They had every means of
reaching the best sources of informa-
tion while King was practising the
danza under their instruction ; and
there were among them a certain num-
ber of gentlemen on whose heads the
Spaniards had set a price. I thought
the situation mixed, especially when
connected with the exploits of a very
celebrated bandit named Daniele
who owned the whole country, except
where the Spanish patrol rode. King
himself was a little at a loss to know
how he stood in relation to this neigh-
bor. Senor Portuondo invited him
to ride one day some thirty miles into
the interior to examine a coal-seam,
and King was somewhat surprised
when their party was joined on the
176
Henry Adams
way, in an interval between coffee-
drinking, by a stranger on horseback
whose name and business were not
mentioned, but whom King believed
to be Daniele. He remarked on his
return, for a patient just released
from Bloomingdale, he thought a
sixty-mile ride in a tropical sun, on a
diet of the strongest coffee-and-brig-
ands, might suggest new views to his
doctors.
We were told afterwards that the
gentleman known as Daniele was
caught at a festival, by the Span-
iards, of course by money, and shot
where he stood ; but we heard only
of his exploits, and of certain dra-
matic murders he committed. I
thought it all the more interesting
that he left us alone. I took for
granted that we were under some
one's protection ; probably that of
Mr. Brooks ; but there are black
sheep even among brigands, and it
177
King
was by no means always that Mr.
Brooks could protect himself. I have
been curious to know whether King's
rebel-friends had a share in our com-
forts ; but however that may have
been, nothing happened. Everyone
was kind and hospitable. Of a Sun-
day morning the neighbors brought
a brace or two of fighting-cocks over,
to let us have a cock-fight in our own
court. With Ramsden we rode up
to the Gran Piedra and passed the
night under the stars. No one ever
so much as asked a question, Span-
iard, Cuban, mulatto or negro, but
every man, woman and child ex-
pected the revolution that was com-
ing, and counted on King for a friend.
We stayed at Dos Bocas a month,
and then King became restless again
and insisted on going to Nassau.
Of our subsequent wanderings it
would be easy to make a story, but I
am not telling a story ; I am only
178
Henry Adams
drawing a moral, and to make it
stand out more distinctly I have
ventured to use Santiago for a back-
ground. Much greater persons have
done it before me, as you know, with
more success than King and I then
dreamed of ; but when that man
Daniele, if it really was Daniele, told
King that the rebellion was coming,
it seemed to me that I had better
offer no obstacle to leaving our Para-
dise. My business was, if I had any
business at all, to keep him quiet,
away from excitement, out of mis-
chief. Remember that King took
his companion with him for that pur-
pose ; and certainly you do not need
to be told that he could not have
selected, even among his enormous
acquaintance, a more quieting influ-
ence than he chose. It stands to
reason that if he could have found
another peripatetic literary man older
than himself, of quieter habits, with
179
King
more respect for conventions, more
deference to authority especially when
unreasonable, more devotion to all
Administrations and Constitutions,
in short, with more admiration for
principles and powers of every sort,
and society in all its dogmatic forms,
he would not have chosen the man
he did. You may take it for certain
that in all America there was no per-
son on whom his restless energy was
likely to have so little effect as on
me. Now, my moral belongs here,
and it is the measure of King's na-
ture. To him it mattered little that,
a year after our stay at Dos Bocas,
Maceo and Gomez raised the stan-
dard of rebellion, and our Cuban
friends were swept into it. He found
it natural and easy to follow them,
and he flung himself into it, as you
remember, with all his old energy of
feeling. When I saw him the next
winter, he was already deep in it. I
1 80
Henry Adams
tried mildly to show him that the
cost even of success would be too
awful to warrant encouraging a hope
of it ; and that, with Wall Street
against, and Boston to a man, and
Grover Cleveland, and the Century
Club, and only he and I for it, suc-
cess was altogether out of sight. To
him that sort of desperate odds was
an amusement, and alone gave suffi-
cient play to his energies. This was
well enough for him ; the trouble
was that of all great energies, that
the influence never ended with him-
self, but dragged his friends into its
vortex ; and in this particular instance
converted a harmless and respectful
servant of all established authority
particularly of despotisms into the
patient ally of the most uneasy and
persistent conspirator your Club ever
nourished in its bosom.
He won that stake, in spite of my
prophecies, as he had won many
181
King
others, almost as desperate ; but that
was not the point to us who were
his friends. The point was his sin-
gularly sympathetic energy which
carried us with him whether we would
or no. To do us justice, I do not
think we greatly cared whether he
was right or wrong. As he put it,
only one thing is certain Nothing
is right! His only ultimate truth
was the action, not the thought. To
him, all science and all life were in
that law, which, after all, is the only
result of his generation the law of
Energy. Those of us who gladly
and carelessly gave ourselves up to
his influence and let him swing us as
he liked, those he loved, and his
gayety and humor played about them
to the last, when gayety was the very
last of emotions either in his mind or
in ours. The last letter I have from
him was written in the spring of 1897 ;
he wrote about a trip to Mexico which
182
Henry Adams
I could not take because I was obliged
to go to Europe. Not but that I
would have instantly thrown Europe
over to go with him to Mexico ; and
this last chance is now one of the
regrets of my life :
" I grieve that you cannot go to
Mexico with me," he said; "all I
lack is a pessimist addicted to water-
colors and capable of a humorous
view of the infinite. It is hard lines
to go alone, for the only real fun is to
watch the other fellow. Come along,
and I will, in the secrecy of the
primeval woods admit the truth of
all your geological criticisms of me ;
and I will even execute in advance
an assignment of half the brown girls
we meet. Moreover I will be a sec-
ond La Farge, and never tell. Dear
me ! I will do anything you like. I
will read your complete works ; go
to England with you in June, and
help sustain Hay under the sodden
183
King
weight of British aristocracy ; or
in short anything, if you will sing
that little Cuban song : ' Yo me soy
contigo ! ' ;
We were touching sixty years old
when he wrote this. He was strug-
gling desperately under a load which
was sure to break him down ; and as
for girls, brown, black or yellow, they
had about as much interest for us
as a phonograph. If he wanted me
with him it was because he knew
that I was anything but a gay com-
panion, and that with me he need
make no effort. Yet it was instinc-
tive with him to call for companion-
ship on his own youth, and he was
really thinking not of me, but of the
pine woods of 1870; the Sierras;
the Rockies ; and the brown girls.
We both knew that it was all over ;
that thenceforward his energies were
to be thrown away ; that the particu-
lar stake in life for which he had
184
Henry Adams
played was lost, by no fault of his,
but by those strokes of financial bad
luck which broke down fully half of
the strongest men of our time ; we
both knew that the struggle was too
desperate to be kept up much longer ;
but he remained the best companion
in the world to the end.
185
Clarence King
John LaFarge
187
Clarence King
IN my early acquaintance with Clar-
ence King, I fancied a resem-
blance between him and Dante
Gabriel Rossetti. I still think there
was something, perhaps merely in
the shape of the head, which justi-
fied the impression. And notwith-
standing the very distinct New Eng-
land side of King, there was some-
thing, the mark of which seemed
to connect him with such South-
ern terms as might belong to a
Spaniard or a descendant of a Span-
iard. In his picturesque accounts
of dealings with the people whom
we think of as belonging to Spain,
there seemed to be always a subtle
appreciation of their character, a
manner of fitting into it which took
away from the appearance of a
189
Clarence King
stranger talking about strangers.
Not that he was not amused, and
perpetually so, by the differing char-
acteristics of the other race. Indeed
those of us who remember the
wondrous anecdotes beginning in
the middle and ending nowhere, con-
cerning various characters of dif-
ferent persons, partook also of the
keen representation of far-away
manners of thought and living. This
appreciation of a charm in certain
strange characters was probably the
expression of what we call the
artistic temperament. The artist
certainly trains himself in the faculty
of putting himself into another's
place. However free his judgment
may be, his imagination builds for
him the circumstances of the other
form of life, or manners, or mind.
And the mind can be that of an
artist without the training of the
eye and hand that is professional.
190
John LaFarge
Clarence King fitted naturally into
the ways of thinking of artists. He
knew many of them. He was an
early appreciator of many. He may
be said to have been one of the
early discoverers of certain men, and
there remained in him this manner
of discovering what he liked, of
inventing his own enjoyment, not
taking it ready-made from others.
When he described his likings there
was a freshness to the apprecia-
tions which was specially his own.
It seemed quite natural that he
should have made the accidental
acquaintance of Mr. Ruskin through
sudden remarks uttered at some
picture dealer's, when King, not
knowing with whom he was discuss-
ing, argued upon a number of sub-
tle points which to him were evident.
The famous writer appears to have
been delighted by the value and
form of these sayings or criticisms
191
Clarence King
and the ensuing acquaintance was
one of the many gracious episodes
in Clarence King's European ex-
perience.
King's collecting of paintings and
drawings began somewhere about
this time, and we can all who knew
him remember how remarkable was
the choice of what he gathered and
how unexpected. The little dark
room in the old Studio Building in
Tenth Street held paintings and
drawings and stuff of all kinds fit for
museums. He might say to a friend,
as he has to me, " By the bye I have
a Turner or a Millet somewhere here,"
and then bring out from behind trunks
and the other deposits, which his no-
madic life obliged him to warehouse,
some example of the artists. Then,
we remember also that he liked to
lend. It pleased him to have others
enjoy what he had not the time and
the place for. There remained in his
192
John LaFarge
mind a wish to find an abiding home
for all these things, and many times
he described to me the manner of
place where he might rest with these
treasures about him. But they were
not referred to in his talk. The place
was built by his imagination for its
beauty. When he described to me
what he proposed to do, there was
usually some reference to the forms
of art which were familiar to me. As
an instance : he had planned, if I may
so describe a mere figment of the
imagination, one great room in this
dream-building, where, high up, above
windows and doors, a manner of frieze
should run around a large space filled
with the most beautiful of stained
glass, and continuing mentally the
memories of his visits to Mr. Ruskin,
and his seeing the drawings of Botti-
celli, he suggested that stories from
Dante's Divine Comedy give the mo-
tive for this decoration. We had
193
Clarence King
many improbable devisings for this
dream, both of us united in the memo-
ries of the wonderful drawings. This
delight in the imaginary use of the
splendor of glass in some way practi-
cable but novel or unknown, brought
him at once to propose with me a
scheme, which I still think worthy of
our having worked it out together.
This was when the project of the
tomb of General Grant had been
proposed to the public. Our notion
was to have filled the drum, or per-
haps even the curves of the dome,
with the richest and deepest of figured
glass, built, if I may so express it,
into the walls or the structure, and
not a mere fitting in as windows.
This was on his part, as also on mine,
a looking forward to a future which
is certain to come. The experience
of the last few years in the develop-
ment of that wonderful material has
pointed out how rational would be the
194
John LaFarge
use of glass combined with the struc-
ture. This imaginary tower would
then have been like the glory of the
interior of a great jewel in the day,
but at night would have sent out a
far radiance over the entire city, mak-
ing as it were a pharos, a light-house,
to be seen from afar by night, as well
as by day, and dominating the river
as well as the land. Of course this
was too poetic and ideal a structure
to be accepted at the date we pro-
posed it, but I cite it as one of the
manners through which King's many-
sided nature found employment.
I keep, naturally, to these relations
with Clarence King on the side of
art. Others beside myself have en-
joyed the wonderful way through
which he would expound scientific
theories, and give to them all the
charm of a story, and leave his hearer
believing that he, too, understood
quite well the scientific basis of the
195
Clarence King
elucidation. Others, better than my-
self, could describe the charm of his
stories, of his recitals of adventure,
the poetic completeness of these re-
citals. Whenever he came back from
any trip, things had happened to him
which only the mind and eye of a con-
stant enjoyer of human nature could
have met with. I f only he had written
them out ! They will probably have
perished ; and yet even the very
names of the tales, as we have chris-
tened them, contained the proposition
of picturesque and strange amuse-
ment. Who that has heard the story
of the Hen and the Gondolier but has
wished to see it written out to give
an example of the curious chances of
Western life ?
Behind this there was a great mir-
age of a possible future of some mine,
the very record of which was in itself
romantic. When the resulting for-
tune should come, the artists were to
196
John LaFarge
have a chance, were to help make use
of it for beautiful things.
I have kept to these few words
which connect our friend and myself
with the ideas of art, with the mani-
fold interests which belong to that
side of the intellect. It will be for
others to talk of him in the ways
through which they knew him more
intimately than I did. It is difficult
to believe that the brilliant, anxious,
many-sided mind has passed away
and has left so little of a record for
those sides in which some of us knew
him, but which to the great public
were unknown.
197
King "The Frolic and the
Gentle"
Edmund Clarence Stedman
199
King " The Frolic and the
Gentle "
FROM the first he had the grace
to put me on close terms with
him, although we seldom met when
he had not just come from a distant
region or was departing for some
other point as far. In this wise, I
could not free myself from the illu-
sion that he was a kind of Martian
a planetary visitor, of a texture dif-
fering from that of ordinary Earth-
dwellers. It seemed quite natural
that he should map out the globe,
and bore through it to see of what
it was made. Now that he is gone,
I am still looking for his casual
return.
There was one occasion which I
did not share with others of his pres-
201
11 The Frolic and the Gentle "
ent celebrants : a period when I had
him to myself, and when he began
an episode eventful in even his own
full life. This was nothing less than
that of his initial visit to the Old
World. By chance, with a son in his
first year out from Yale, I left New
York, in the spring of 1882, on the
same steamer which numbered on
its passenger-roll Clarence King, and
another mining-expert, at that time
his partner. Of course I had read
with admiration, a decade earlier,
the Mountaineering in the Sierra
Nevada, and often had wondered
why its luminous author had not
shone continuously in our literature.
I should have wondered the more that
I had never met him, had I not seen
his name figuring in those society
lists that were quite alien to my quiet
round of life. But at dinner we were
at the same table. He was good
enough to make the advance, and to
Edmund Clarence Stedman
claim a whimsical consanguinity on
the score of our Clarentian prenom-
ina. Now, I knew that he was a
famous government geodeticist, but
had no conception of his temper-
ament. Perhaps he took me with
equal seriousness. At all events, he
was more on his dignity, or gravity,
than I ever afterward saw him. In
the starry evening we walked the
deck together, and talked of public
affairs, books, etc., soon wandering
to scientific research and discovery,
concerning which I eagerly listened to
his theories of matter, vortex rings,
the Earth's structure, the chances of a
future life. I doubt if there was a
laugh between us, and am sure that I
never again found him so long in one
humor. Nor was there anything in
this thorough -bred, travel-dressed,
cosmopolitan to suggest that he had
not spent repeated seasons upon the
hemisphere to which we were bound.
203
" The Frolic and the Gentle "
Out on the blue, the next morn-
ing, what a transformation ! As I
have said, it was in fact King's first
opportunity to visit Europe, strictly
off duty, and with means that seemed
to him beyond the dreams of avarice.
He broke out into a thousand pranks
and paradoxes. Freedom was what
we both needed, and my own reserve
was at an end the moment I saw him
changed from the dignitary to a ver-
itable Prince Florizel with the tray
of tarts, offering lollipops right and
left. He and his comrade, I was
speedily made to know, had " struck
it rich " in a mine and were indepen-
dent for life. His motto for one
summer at least was "Vive la baga-
telle'' His frolic was incessant and
contagious. Here was my overnight
philosopher with double-eagles in his
pocket, one of which he periodically
flipped in the air to decide wagers
made upon every possible pretext
204
Edmund Clarence Stedman
between himself and his decidedly
less buoyant colleague. He jested,
fabled, sparkled, scorned concealment
of his delight. Indeed, I verily
believe that I then had the rare
fortune, at the beginning of our
friendship, first, to learn the resources
and conviction of his noble mind,
and in a trice to enjoy the ebul-
lition of his mirth and fancy on
some of the happiest days of his
existence.
He had with him a Gargantuan
letter of credit. From a slip in his
wallet he took and showed me a
single draft for a thousand pounds, a
very sacred special fund, which was
to be piously expended for some one
work of art, his roc's egg, his su-
preme trophy in fine, the most beau-
teous and essential thing he might
come upon in this tour. All this as
gravely as if he were a Knight of the
Grail, or meditating in the end to
205
" The Frolic and the Gentle "
shift to America the Hotel Cluny or
a court of the Alhambra.
Among the many wagers which he
forced his staid comrade to accept
was one that compelled the loser to
take the four of us, young and old,
to Epsom on the Derby Day that
would occur soon after our arrival in
London. King lost this bet, plainly
by his own intent. Everything was
to come off in the traditional style
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled
to the uttermost, as indeed they were.
From the White Horse Inn, Picca-
dilly, a fortnight later, we took the
road and shared its carnival, on
the finest tallyho obtainable ; whip,
guard, lackey, hampers and all.
Nothing was omitted in the going
and coming. It was a brilliant day ;
our coach rounded to in the center
of the field, as in Frith's picture, and
there were the gypsy tumblers on
the green, the lunchers, the Prince
206
Edmund Clarence Stedman
of Wales, the race with the Duke
of Westminster's colors to the fore.
Yes, and we saw a welcher mobbed,
and everything else was accom-
plished ; and I still cherish a fading
tin-type exhibit of our group on the
tallyho, lifting our cups, with King as
toastmaster.
Our Prince of paradox would not
bide another day in London, but
sped to France, leaving me a bearer
of ill tidings to those who knew he
was coming, and whose desire to
welcome him taught me that he was
an international character. When I
overtook him in Paris he was on the
eve of going to his longed-for Spain ;
not, indeed, to tarry even there, but
to push right through to Morocco or
Algeria, upon the trail of a certain
unique shawl, or curtain, or tapestry,
which he alone must possess. Of
his return to Spain, his social life in
France, his conquest of England, his
207
" The Frolic and the Gentle "
blood-brotherhood with Ferdinand
Rothschild, and of the spolia opima
brought back to America, are they
not all written in the book of the
hearts that held him dear ?
Thus have I told how Pantagruel
found Panurge, whom he loved all
his life thereafter. I do not know
whether it was on this ornamental
journey that Clarence King's genius
led him to the imperishable Helmet
of Mambrino, now hung (by proxy)
from its arm of wrought iron in the
upper chambers of the Century.
Whether it was then or afterward
that he conceived his epistle to Don
Horacio, and therewith imprisoned
the very soul of Spain in the flask of
his translucent English, the feat was
equally enduring. Nothing compara-
ble to the flavor of his style is to be
found elsewhere, unless in the fantasy
of his fellow-Centurion to whose loi-
terings in Mexico we owe San An-
208
Edmund Clarence Stedman
tonio of the Gardens and successive
companion-pieces. King's speech and
writ were iridescent with the imagi-
nation of the born romancer. Judge
of the statue by the fragment, and
think of what was lost to -literature
by the fact that it was not his voca-
tion, but his accomplishment. Nor
was it his lot to escape enrollment
with the inheritors of unfulfilled re-
nown by winning, like the most dis-
tinguished of his poet friends, a place
in history as one of the arbiters of
civilization, and one of those who
shape the destinies of their own
lands. None the less, the by-play of
some men has a quality unattained
by a host of devotees who make its
acquisition the labor of their worka-
day lives.
Quis desiderio sit pudor ! As I
humbly stood on one side, that arc-
tic morning when the choice and true
followed his remains down the aisle,
" The Frolic and the Gentle "
I knew that deep in the souls of all,
however freezing the bitter wind, the
memory of King was enshrined for-
ever, and that his Manes would have
no cause to make complaint of bene-
fits forgot.
210
King at the Century
William Crary Brownell
211
King at the Century
T FIRST met King in the old club-
* house of the Century Association
in Fifteenth Street and rarely saw
him outside of our club surround-
ings save on occasions that were
for the most part but a projection
of Century comradery. It is there-
fore only as a fellow habitue not
quite the same thing as a member,
merely of the Century, that I may
venture to speak of him in the
companionship of his older and
closer friends. We had, indeed, in
familiarity with Newport, a common
tie of which it would be difficult
for any one without these associa-
tions to appreciate the force. But
in every other respect which is to
say in a great many other respects
213
King at the Century
the debt I am conscious of owing
to King I owe to the Century also
for an acquaintance that began there
and there ripened into a friend-
ship of which, like his other friends,
I was destined to receive proofs
that were not only substantial but
touching as well. And I think it
is interesting witness of the scope
of this Association's influence and
the character of its atmosphere, that
a sentiment of such vivacity and
such substance as that with which
King's memory is there cherished
by so many who did not know him
elsewhere, can be born and fostered
in its friendly and familiar environ-
ment.
It is an environment to which he
was evidently and exquisitely at-
tuned, and which framed and set off
both his lighter and his graver ac-
tivities of mind to harmonious ad-
vantage. Of every group of which
214
William Crary Brownell
he formed a part he was extraor-
dinarily apt to be the centre, and
a society where " superiorities " are,
though not perhaps " discounte-
nanced," at least rather thoroughly
tested, was often cordially content
to figure as a background for the
relief of his shining sprightliness.
He was the ideal clubman because
he illustrated in an ideal degree the
Epicurean ideal. He was so con-
stituted as fastidiously to desire to
make the most of the Epicurean
principle, to get the best out of its
practice. Hence his luxuriousness
itself and he had this quality in
an eminent degree was charged
with energy. No one ever saw him
lounge or loll or doze except ex-
pressly. He did not know what
enervation was. His movements
were rapid ; his step was quick ;
he never strolled. His enjoyment
was invariably marked by zest rather
215
King at the Century
than tranquillity, though it never lost
equipoise in exuberance. Even his
invalidism was characterized by ac-
tivity. It left him essentially un-
touched. For his energy, in spite
of what he accomplished with it,
was essentially a state of mind even
more markedly than it was an agent
of accomplishment. And to us in
the Century it was exhibited mainly,
perhaps, in the guise of an extraor-
dinary alertness.
He was alertness incarnate. His
senses seemed sharpened to a degree
seldom exemplified in persons con-
fined largely as was necessarily his
lot to the society of their inferiors
in interest, experience and capacity.
Any material served him to file the
edge of an appreciation that little
escaped and nothing dulled. His per-
ceptions seemed never to sleep. It
was interesting to observe him ob-
serve. He always detected your do-
216
William Crary Brownell
ing so, and always amusedly played
the game with you. Part of his
genius, to which all of his friends
testify, for friendship (which has been
defined as rien que s entendre) re-
sided in this alertness, in virtue of
which he " always understood." Of-
ten before you had completed your
communication a demi-mot he had
been there everywhere before; but
he was none the less alive to the
nuances of your report of the coun-
try. He simply could not be bored.
His faculties were in a constant
state of functioning and one excuse
seemed as good as another for their
exercise. He saw "good in every-
thing " when it was kind to see it, but
his acuteness preserved him from il-
lusions. Such as he had he cherished,
rather wittingly, one guesses, and they
were the mirage of his fancy, which
was prodigious, and never due to
defective vision.
217
King at the Century
Was there ever so good a talker ?
And why was he so good ? I fancy
because, for one reason, he never
forgot himself in his subject. He
never, in fact, forgot anything. Every-
thing in the environment, whatever
the environment might be, lay cosily
in his mind in a state of the most
complete realization. Nothing ever
possessed him ; so far as his own
purposes went he was master of all
his material. Inattention was impos-
sible in his presence. He noted it
with the quickness of the predatory
eye and charmed it into interest at
once. To quote words applied to a
different spirit : " He was a man to
whom the ball of conversation was
really a ball, and not an anvil or a bar-
rel of flour." But though he loathed
the didactic, he loved discussion ; in
fact, one of his fondnesses was to start
a topic. Whatever your mood, some-
thing penetrating from him would
218
William Crary Brownell
awaken reverie into active thought,
or something paradoxical electrify
lethargy itself.
Paradox perhaps enjoyed the he-
gemony of his mental states. If he
can be said ever to have leaned on
anything among the multitude of
phenomena that he touched, paradox
may be called his reliance. He had
an undoubted predilection for its un-
doubted stimulus and indeed it is
not an anodyne ; but his distinction
in this respect was that he never
pressed it. To have succeeded in per-
suading you to share it would have
sapped his interest in it. He never
expected discussion to lead to any-
thing. Sometimes indeed he would
not permit it to. It was its art that
attracted him. He enjoyed " travel,
not arriving." I fancy he thought
that things capable of settlement had
been settled long since. Conclusions
might have had an anterior evolution,
219
King at the Century
but its stages doubtless seemed to
him of almost geologic length and
ancientness. Those he reached were
satisfactorily airy. Such as his de-
cision, after long reflection, that " a
painter should always paint in his
third manner." The deeper ones he
never, in general talk at least, touched
upon. His tact was unfailing here.
His religion, for example, he said,
was like his teeth, both were in-
herited and both, so far as he knew,
were sound. Nor was he one of
those talkers who will listen with
pleasure, but if you are silent talk
themselves unremittingly the neces-
sity of talk by some one being their
subconscious major premise. He
made you talk. If you had no sub-
ject he supplied one and made you
interested in it. On the other hand,
he would not only quite as readily
talk about your subject, but contrive
to give you the notion that he was
220
William Crary Brownell
eliciting what you had to say. It
was a part of his inexhaustible en-
tertainingness that he made you
feel comfortable and copious, as if
you were a real contributor to the
conversation.
One fancied him tingling with con-
sciousness, so thoroughly aware of
himself and what he was doing, how
he was appearing, as to produce the
happiest possible effect. Inspired by
native tact and educated taste and a
large social experience he marshaled
his forces and conducted his cam-
paign with an easy vigilance that ran
no risks and made no blunders. Of
course this implied complete freedom
from the embarrassment of ^^/"-con-
sciousness on one side and from any
pose or other exhibition of vanity on
the other. If he took an interest
in surprising, even in startling, you,
as undeniably he did, it was an in-
terest quite impersonal and artistic.
221
King at the Century
Nor, I think, did he expect you to
experience any other certainly not
to be led very far astray by any in-
tensity of interest or to be perma-
nently disoriented by credulity pushed
to the point of nawett. To his alert-
ness and agility of mind any open-
mouthed contemplative resting in the
mere fact whatever the marvel he
was divulging must have seemed
stagnant, rather than active, apprecia-
tion. In proof of which one has only
to recall the fact that the phenomena
he was fond of relating were always
of an illustrative rather than of a final
character. Occasionally, perhaps, he
left you to divine their bearings, their
ulterior significance. But that they
had such was the source of their in-
terest for him.
For, after all, his extraordinary ac-
tivity of mind was something more
constructive than mere alertness -
however multifariously exhibited -
222
William Crary Brownell
implies. His alertness insensibly
passed over into the realm of the
imagination and blended beautifully
with this rarest of faculties. His
imagination was, as Mr. Gary has
discriminatingly pointed out, " his
dominant, at moments his dominat-
ing, quality." At moments assuredly
it held him quite enthralled within
an almost hypnotic control, and he
followed its beckoning with the con-
fident eagerness of ecstasy. But for
the most part he was on terms of
complete understanding with it and
checked and tested its suggestions
with the sagacity that gave its pro-
nounced scientific turn to his mind.
It was largely a matter of the material
on which his imagination the con-
stant factor in his equation worked.
At work it always was. And, ex-
ercised on serious and important
substance, it reached commanding
heights. It led him to very solid
223
King at the Century
achievements in science. And in the
field of letters it was the inspiration of
one of the very few books that have
a clear title to be called unique. The
Helmet of Mambrino is a charming,
an original, thing, and a striking illus-
tration of his versatility. But it is a
trifle compared with his Mountaineer-
ing in the Sierra Nevada, which is,
in its way and considering its propor-
tions and necessary limits, a work of
imagination of a very high order. It
is the portrait of a period and place
and people painted with the firmest
strokes, the individual impressions on
which it is based generalized into
typical interest and focussed into vi-
tality by the writer's imagination as
by a sun-glass. It is a book of which
it is difficult to speak without ex-
aggeration. It stands so completely
by itself that it is hard to find the
comparison that fits it. And it is a
significant thing, I think, that the
224
William Crary Brownell
qualities which naturally and unaf-
fectedly produced an imaginative mas-
terpiece in a field merely collateral to
the field of its author's specific work
in life, should be the same qualities
which attached and endeared him in
an extraordinary degree to the varied
and appreciative but not unexacting
membership of the Century Associa-
tion. It is indirectly a demonstration
that he gave us his best, and what
that was has, since his untimely death,
been already too poignantly missed
ever to be forgotten.
15
Century Necrological Note
Edward Gary
227
Century Necrological Note*
/CLARENCE KING was born in
> ' Newport, R. I., January 6th,
1842, his father being James King, of
the old China firm of King, Olyphant,
& Co. He was prepared for the
classical course at Yale, but chose
the Scientific School and was gradu-
ated in 1862. Almost from the por-
tals of college, he and his college
mate, James T. Gardiner, par no-
bile, set out, in the spring of 1863,
to cross the Plains with an emigrant
train for the purpose of seeing the
whole interior of the continent, King
making, during the four months' jour-
ney on horseback, careful geological
* Reprinted from the Report of the Board
of Management of the Century Association
for the year 1901.
229
Century Necrological Note
observations and notes. The experi-
ence probably shaped the course of
his scientific career. During the next
three years he was engaged on the
geological survey of California under
Prof. J. D. Whitney, with Prof.
William H. Brewer in charge of the
field work. He was an assistant to
Prof. Brewer in the exploration of
the Northern Sierras and the region
about Mount Shasta ; in an explora-
tion of the southern part of Sierra
Nevada, in which King discovered
and named Mount Whitney and
Mount Tyndall ; and with Gardiner
made a geological and topographical
survey of the Yosemite Valley. With
the same companion he undertook
and partially completed a survey of
Arizona, but the party was obliged
to give up the work on account of
the attacks of the Apaches. The
next summer, 1866, King and Gar-
diner made a survey of the Sierra
230
Edward Gary
Nevada east and southeast of the
Yosemite Valley.
It was during this trip that they
discussed the idea of creating, under
the United States Government, a
geological and topographical sur-
vey, crossing the country from Cali-
fornia to the eastern slope of the
Rocky Mountains, and making a
geological and topographical cross-
section of the whole system of the
Cordillera of Western America. The
winter of 1866-67 King spent at
Washington, and succeeded in inter-
esting General Humphreys, Chief of
Engineers, and the Government offi-
cers and members of Congress in his
plans to such an extent that the
Geological Survey of the Fortieth
Parallel was authorized and he was
placed in charge, reporting to Gen-
eral Humphreys. The work was be-
gun in 1867 and completed in 1872.
and several years were spent in the
231
Century Necrological Note
study of the facts and in the prepara-
tion of the report, which remains the
record of the most important scien-
tific work of its kind up to that time
undertaken and the foundation of
much that has followed. In 1878
the United States Geological Survey
was organized, and King was made
its first Chief, serving until the close
of 1 88 1. In the eighteen years since
he had entered on his work on the
Pacific Slope, years of untiring activity
and study, he had made brilliant and
substantial contributions to science.
He had also found time for some
notable work as a geological and
mining expert in the famous Mari-
posa mines, in the Comstock mines,
and in the exposure, made with
singular acuteness and swiftness, of
the " salted " diamond fields of Wyo-
ming. The rest of his life was
devoted to the exercise of his pro-
fession, in which he attained emi-
232
Edward Gary
nence. But he cherished the hope
of completing an authoritative study
of the physics of the early globe,
on which he spent much time and
labor and money. He undertook a
series of difficult and elaborate ex-
periments to determine the action of
the primal constituents of the early
globe under the conditions of heat
and pressure assumed to exist, when
the material of the earth was sepa-
rated from the sun. These were
interrupted by business reverses and
ill health some eight years since :
but he had gone far enough in his
investigations to make a reasoned
estimate of the age of the earth,
which was accepted by physicists
in England and Europe, Lord Kelvin
among them, as more nearly defin-
itive than any other.
What King might have been had
he turned to literature is shown in
his scientific studies and reports,
233
Century Necrological Note
models of clear statement of clear
thinking on difficult subjects ; in his
youthful sketches of Mountaineering
in the Sierra Nevada, and in a few
fugitive articles such as The Helmet
of Mambrino, of which Mr. Stedman
conclusively says that " any writer
might be glad to be judged by it."
Had he lived a few days longer,
King would have been threescore ;
but we think of him, so vigorous,
when last he was with us, was his
bearing, so bright his winning glance,
so swift and kindling his unique
intelligence, as Milton thought of
his friend King :
" Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer."
It is more than a quarter of a
century ago that he joined the Club ;
a little while since he described it
to an enquiring foreign visitor as
" the rag, tag and bobtail of all there
234
Edward Gary
is best in our country." The phrase
is instinct with his gay veracity of
paradox. He was himself a blend
of varied qualities and gifts, that
were not always ready to keep the
peace one with another, but the col-
lective manifestation of which was to
his fellows a constant joy. The talk
he made or evoked may be equalled
by those who are to come after ; it
can never be matched. Its range
was literally incalculable. It was
impossible to foresee at what point
his tangential fancy would change its
course. From the true rhythm of
Creole gumbo to the verse of Theoc-
ritus, from the origin of the latest
mot to the age of the globe, from
the soar or slump of the day's market
to the method of Lippo Lippi, from
the lightest play on words to the
subtlest philosophy, he passed with
buoyant step and head erect, some-
times with audacity that invited
235
Century Necrological Note
disaster, often with profound penetra-
tion and with the informing flash
of genius. It is but a suggestion of
his rare equipment to say that in
his talk, as in his work, his imagina-
tion was his dominant, at moments
his dominating, quality. Intense,
restless, wide-reaching, nourished by
much reading, trained in the exercise
of an exact and exacting profession,
stimulated by commerce with many
lands and races, it played incessantly
on the topic of the moment and on
the remotest and most complex pro-
blems of the earth and the dwellers
thereon. And within a nature bril-
liant and efficient beyond all common
limits, glowed the modest and steady
light of a kindness the most unfail-
ing and delicate. The good one
hand did he let not the other know ;
both were always busy, laying in
many lives the foundations of tender
and lasting remembrance.
236
King's "Mountaineering
Edward Gary
237
King's " Mountaineering " *
CLARENCE KING'S Mountain-
V- ^ eering in the Sierra Nevada
is the single volume of literary work
which this strong and gifted man
permitted himself in his active career
as a scientist. Most of the sketches,
fourteen in number, were originally
published in the Atlantic Monthly in
the sixties, and four editions of the
book were brought out by James R.
Osgood & Co., then publishers of
that magazine, previous to 1874.
Nine of the sketches bear date pre-
vious to 1866, when King was in his
* Reprinted from The New York Times,
Saturday Supplement, January 10, 1903. A
review of the fifth edition of Mountaineering
in the Sierra Nevada, by Clarence King.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 1902.
$1.50.
239
King's " Mountaineering "
twenty-fifth year, and one gets a bet-
ter notion of the writer by keeping
this fact in mind. It is revealing to
remember that the intercourse of the
reader is with a lad but two years
out of the Sheffield School at Yale.
It is significant, too, of the reach
and energy of his remarkable nature
that he so early had sought the scene
of his work and study on the Pacific
Slope with the purpose of making
himself acquainted with the geog-
raphy and the geology of the route
across the continent and had trav-
ersed that route in an emigrant train.
On the journey he gathered the in-
formation on which was based the
plan, afterward carried out under his
guidance, for a geologic and topo-
graphic survey of the fortieth paral-
allel, a cross section of the whole
system of the Cordillera of Western
America, probably the most impor-
tant single contribution ever made to
240
Edward Gary
the scientific knowledge of the conti-
nent. And this in turn was the basis
of the formation of the United States
Geological Survey, organized in 1878,
of which he was for four years the
Chief. In these papers, then, we
have the first fruits of King's pecul-
iarly rich and variously endowed in-
tellect.
The first paper, The Range^ was
probably written latest as an intro-
duction to the others : at least, the
first half of it, which is a succinct
statement of the geologic history of
the western part of the continent
from the base of the Sierra Nevada
to the Pacific. We wish it were prac-
ticable to quote these dozen pages,
they are so satisfactory as the pre-
sentation in lucid form and logical
order of a mighty chapter in the
records of the planet. The reader
with the slightest equipment of sci-
entific imagination rises from their
16
241
King's " Mountaineering"
perusal with the progressive changes
in the vast dynamic drama clearly
and impressively portrayed on the
tablets of his memory. The region
to which they relate ceases to be a
mere stretch of the earth's surface,
varied with mountain and plain. It
becomes the present stage of the re-
sults of forces more than world-old,
forces that were not new even when
the planet had not yet been gathered
from the nebulae, and which are still
working their tireless will toward fur-
ther results that may not be imagined.
The vivid interest and the splendid
scope of the impression thus be-
stowed on the mind of the reader are
enhanced by and, in no small de-
gree, are due to, King's remarkable
literary gift.
There is in these pages a vital har-
mony between the subject matter and
the form. It cannot be analyzed ;
much less can it be described or ac-
242
Edward Gary
counted for ; least of all can it be re-
sisted. It stimulates and energizes
while it charms the mind. It gives,
in its own way and in its field, an in-
tellectual reaction akin to that given
by certain passages of Shakespeare
in which he explores the depths of
human consciousness, and every in-
flection, every cadence thrills with the
solemnity and the vastness of the sub-
ject. If any of our readers think that
this is an extravagant suggestion, we
invite them and if they accept the
invitation they will thank us for it
to read the paper we refer to, and,
after reading the whole of the little
volume, to return to this chapter and
test the renewed impression.
Quotation is possible only in limited
amount, and it must necessarily be
somewhat misleading, since it cannot
give the effect of the whole. But
we venture a brief passage describ-
ing the volcanic period intervening
243
King's "Mountaineering"
between the uplifting of the Sierra at
the ocean's edge and the glacial pe-
riod, including the appearance of the
Coast Ranges :
" In the late tertiary period a chap-
ter of very remarkable events oc-
curred. For a second time the evenly
laid beds of the sea-bottom were
crumpled by the sinking of the earth,
The ocean flowed back into deeper
and narrower limits, . and, fronting
the Sierra Nevada, appeared the pres-
ent system of Coast Ranges. The
intermediate depression, or sea-trough
as I like to call it, is the valley of
California, and therefore a more re-
cent continental feature than the
Sierra Nevada. At once, then, from
the folded rocks of the Coast Ranges,
from the Sierra summits and the in-
land plateaus, and from numberless
vents caused by the fierce dynamical
action, there poured out a general
244
Edward Gary
deluge of melted rock. From the
bottom of the sea sprang up those
fountains of lava whose cooled mate-
rial forms many of the islands of the
Pacific, and all along the coast of
America, like a system of answering
beacons, blazed up volcanic chimneys.
The rent mountains glowed with out-
pourings of molten stone. Sheets of
lava poured down the slopes of the
Sierra, covering an immense propor-
tion of its surface ; only the high
granites and metamorphic peaks
reaching above the deluge. Rivers
and lakes floated up in a cloud of
steam and were gone for ever. The
misty sky of these volcanic days
glowed with innumerable lurid reflec-
tions, and at intervals along the crest
of the range great cones arose, black-
ening the sky with their plumes of
mineral smoke. At length, having
exhausted themselves, the volcanoes
burned lower and lower, and at last
245
King's " Mountaineering*'
by far the greater number went out
altogether. With a tendency to ex-
tremes which ' development ' geolo-
gists would hesitate to admit, nature
passed under the dominion of ice and
snow."
As an example of style of King in
quite a distinct direction, we allow
ourselves one other short quotation,
a description of the effect of the view
from the top of Mount Whitney :
" The day was cloudless and the
sky, milder than is common over these
extreme heights, warmed to a mellow
glow and rested in softening beauty
over minaret and dome. Air and
light seemed melted together, even
the wild rocks springing up all about
us wore an aspect of aerial delicacy.
Around the wide panorama, half low
desert, half rugged granite moun-
tains, each detail was observable, but
246
In a Mountain Camp
Edward Gary
a uniform luminous medium toned
without obscuring the field of vision.
That fearful sense of wreck and deso-
lation, of a world crushed into frag-
ments, of the ice chisel which, unseen,
has wrought this strange mountain
sculpture, all the sensations of power
and tragedy I have invariably felt be-
fore on high peaks were totally forgot-
ten. Now it was like an opal world,
submerged in a sea of dreamy light,
down through whose motionless,
transparent depths I became con-
scious of sunken ranges, great hollows
of undiscernible depth, reefs of pearly
granite, as clear and delicate as the
coral banks in a tropical ocean. It
was not like a haze in the lower world,
which veils away distance into a soft
vanishing perspective ; there was no
mist, no vagueness, no loss of form or
fading of outline only a strange
harmonizing of earth and air. Shad-
ows were faint, yet defined, lights
249
King's " Mountaineering "
visible, but most exquisitely mod-
ulated. The hollow blue which over
Mount Tyndall led the eye up into
vacant solitudes was here replaced by
a sense of sheltering nearness, a cer-
tain dove-colored obscurity in the
atmosphere which seemed to filter
the sunlight of all its harsher proper-
ties."
The reader can gather from these
imperfect examples what is the charm
of King's descriptive writing. His
narrative is not less attractive. We
know of no writing devoted to climb-
ing that is more satisfying, that brings
the thing more clearly to the view or
enlists more closely the sympathetic
interest. A considerable part of the
book is occupied with personal adven-
ture and with character sketches,
which are excellent in their way. No
tale of escape from robbers was ever
more thrillingly and compellingly told
250
Edward Gary
than " Kaweah's Run." Few more
realizable pictures of strange human
life were ever painted than those of
the Newtys of Pike and the artist of
Cut-off Copples's. Indeed, quite apart
from its rare literary merit which jus-
tifies its claim as an American classic,
and the peculiar vividness and scope
of scientific statement, the book has
a unique value for the light it throws
on a vanished life in a region at once
important and picturesque.
251
Clarence King Geologist
Samuel Franklin Emmons
253
Clarence King Geologist *
CLARENCE KING was born at
V-^ Newport, Rhode Island, on
the 6th day of January, 1842. He
was the only son of James Rivers
and Florence Little King. His an-
cestors were among the early settlers
of New England, and all, as far
as known, of English extraction.
Among them were an unusual num-
ber of cultivated men, graduates
of colleges, or distinguished in the
learned professions, in whom can be
found traces of the many and varied
accomplishments in science, litera-
ture and the arts that were so
happily combined in their brilliant
descendant.
*A partial reprint of an article published in
the American Journal of Science, March, 1902.
255
Clarence King Geologist
Daniel King, the emigrant, who
came to Lynn, Massachusetts, in
1637, was a younger son of Ralphe
Kinge of Watford, Hertfordshire,
England. His great-grandson, Ben-
jamin, moved from Salem, Massa-
chusetts, to Newport, Rhode Island,
and, according to family tradition,
was a man of scientific tastes, who
occupied himself with philosophical
instruments and assisted Benjamin
Franklin in his early experiments in
electricity. Samuel King of Newport,
son of the latter and great-grand-
father of Clarence, was a portrait-
painter of merit, who numbered
among his pupils Washington All-
ston, and Malbone, the miniaturist.
On his mother's side, one of King's
great-grandfathers, William Little,
was a graduate of Yale in 1777, and
received an honorary degree from
Harvard in 1786. Another, Ashur
Robbins, graduated from Yale in
256
Samuel Franklin Emmons
1772, was United States Senator
from Rhode Island 1825-39, and
received the degree of LL.D. from
Brown in 1835. His grandfather,
William Little, Jr., who died early
in life, was noted as a linguist and
a scholar. His grandmother, Mrs.
Sophia Little, poet and philanthro-
pist, was a woman of remarkable
public spirit, energy and decision of
character, who retained her mental
and physical vigor in a most remark-
able degree up to the time of her
death in 1893, in her ninety-fifth
year.
His immediate King ancestors
were pioneer merchants in the then
highly remunerative China trade, his
grandfather, Samuel Vernon King,
having been as early as 1803 a part-
ner in the commercial house of Tal-
bot, Olyphant & King. Four of the
latter's sons succeeded him in that
business, the house later becoming
257
Clarence King Geologist
known as King & Company. James,
the second son, married at the early
age of twenty-one, and was obliged to
leave his young wife before the birth
of his first child, Clarence, in order
to take the place of his elder brother
in China. By a singular fatality,
three out of the four brothers died in
the far East, and the house of King
& Company became bankrupt during
the crisis of 1857 through the loss of
one of the company's steamers, which,
under the charge of a confidential
English clerk (also named King) was
carrying a large amount of specie to
meet their liabilities at another port.
In this disaster was involved the
property of James, which had re-
mained in the firm since his death at
Amoy, China, in 1848.
The young mother, left a widow at
twenty-two, devoted herself to the
education of her only son, learning
with an inherited facility both classical
258
Samuel Franklin Emmons
and modern languages that she might
teach them in turn to him, and thus
was founded a close intellectual com-
panionship which lasted until his
death.
King's early boyhood days were
spent at Newport, but he received
his principal school education in the
endowed high-school at Hartford.
As a very young child he showed
symptoms of a decided bent toward
the study of natural phenomena,
which was further developed during
long summer vacations, spent in fish-
ing, hunting and botanizing in the
Green Mountains.
In 1859 ^ e became a member of
the Sheffield Scientific School, and
during the two following years ac-
quired a systematic grounding in the
sciences of geology and mineralogy
under the inspiring teachings of James
D. Dana and George J. Brush, at
that time their foremost exponents.
259
Clarence King Geologist
Among his fellow-students who have
since become eminent in their respec-
tive professions were O. C. Marsh,
Arnold Hague and Samuel Parsons.
He graduated in 1862 with the de-
gree of B.S., being among the first
students of the Scientific School to
receive a degree from the faculty of
Yale College.
During his college course, he was
a leader among his mates in athletic
sports, as well as in study of nature,
being captain of a baseball team and
stroke oar of a racing crew.
During the winter following his
graduation, he was, for a time, a stu-
dent of glaciology under Agassiz, and
later became a devotee of the Rus-
kinian schools of art study under the
leadership of Russell Sturgis.
In May, 1863, in company with
his lifelong friend, James T. Gardiner,
whose health had broken down under
too close devotion to his studies,
260
Samuel Franklin Emmons
King started on a horseback trip
across the continent. Upon reaching
St. Joseph, Missouri, then the west-
ern limit of railroad communications,
they were invited to join the party
of a well-to-do emigrant family, whose
favor King had unconsciously gained
by his characteristically tender care
for their children during the latter
part of the railroad journey. Their
line of march followed, in general,
what was known as the Old Fremont
route, up the North Platte river and
the Humboldt river in Nevada. The
rate of travel of such a party was
necessarily very slow, and the young
explorers, being mounted on good
horses of their own, were able to
make excursions into the neighboring
mountains for the purposes of ex-
ploration and study, which, owing to
the hostility of the Indians, were not
always without danger.
After having crossed the deserts of
261
Clarence King Geologist
Nevada, they left the party to visit
the then famous Comstock Lode. On
the night of their arrival in Virginia
City, the house in which they were
staying caught fire, and all their be-
longings were lost. Nothing daunted,
King went to work at days' wages in
a quartz mill to earn sufficient funds
to enable them to continue their
journey. In a few weeks they started
again, crossing the Sierra Nevada on
foot, and proceeding by boat from
Sacramento to San Francisco. On
this trip an incident which led to
their making the acquaintance of
Prof. William H. Brewer, then as-
sistant on the Geological Survey of
California, proved to be the turning-
point in their careers.
King's professional work as a ge-
ologist may be said to have com-
menced with his acceptance of the
position of volunteer assistant ge-
ologist on the Geological Survey of
262
Samuel Franklin Emmons
California under Prof. J. D. Whitney.
During the three years that this con-
nection lasted the work was largely
exploratory, for as yet even the ge-
ography of the country was but imper-
fectly known. It thus gave full scope
to the enterprise, energy and powers
of endurance that characterized him
during his whole life. In spite of
his youth, he soon became a leader,
especially in the exploration of the
high mountain mass of the southern
Sierras discovered by him, whose
highest peak, Mount Whitney, still
holds the palm as the highest point
within the United States (excluding
Alaska). During the winter of 1865-
66 he also made an exploration of the
desert regions of southern California
and Arizona as scientific aide to
General McDowell, which involved
much hardship and no little danger.
Of even more importance for
his future work was the familiar
263
Clarence King Geologist
knowledge of the different varieties of
volcanic rocks, acquired during field
studies around the extinct volcanoes
of the northern Sierras and in associ-
ation with his friend Baron von Richt-
hofen, and in which for many years
he stood pre-eminent among geolo-
gists of his time.
King's earliest scientific achieve-
ment on the Survey was the discov-
ery, during the study of the gold
mines of the Mariposa estate in 1863,
of fossils in the highly metamor-
phosed slates of the gold belt of Cali.
fornia, a discovery that solved the
problem of their age which had long
puzzled Western geologists.
In the autumn of 1866, after his
return to the east, he judged that
political conditions were then most
favorable for the realization of a plan
that had gradually been shaping itself
in his mind ever since he first crossed
the continent, viz.: that of connecting
264
Samuel Franklin Emmons
the geology of the East with that
of the West by making, under Gov-
ernment auspices, a survey across the
whole Cordilleran system at its wid-
est point.
There had been considerable appre-
hension during the dark days of the
Civil War lest California, physically
isolated as she was at that time, should
separate from the other States and set
up an independent government. The
subsidizing of the transcontinental
railroads was the first step towards
overcoming this isolation and bind-
ing her more closely to the East. In
King's judgment a second, hardly less
important one, would be the develop-
ment of the mineral resources of the
country thus to be opened up ; and
this could best be accomplished by
making a thorough geological survey
of that region.
During the winter of 1 866-67, which
he spent at Washington, he was so
265
Clarence King Geologist
successful in impressing this view
upon Congress, that not only was
an ample provision made for the
geological exploration planned, but
King himself was placed in abso-
lute charge of it, subject only to
the administrative control of Gen-
eral A. A. Humphreys, Chief of En-
gineers.
In these days, when the West is
covered by a network of railways, it
is difficult to conceive the obstacles
that had to be encountered at that
time in carrying out so ambitious
and, as some then thought, so chi-
merical a plan as that which King
had conceived. Of the transconti-
nental roads, but a few miles at either
end had yet been constructed. The
territories of Utah and Nevada were
represented on most maps of the
day as one broad desert, and it was
doubted whether sufficient water and
grass could be found there to sup-
266
Samuel Franklin Emmons
port a camping party. Everything
had to be specially created for the
purpose, and, after the party had
reached California over the Panama
route, it took three months to pre-
pare the necessary camp outfit and
to carry them to their field of work.
Even after this work was well under
way there were times when it seemed
that obstacles ahead were almost too
great to be overcome, but King's
energy and resourcefulness were
equal to every emergency, and he
soon succeeded in inspiring all the
members of his party with such
confidence in his leadership and in
imparting to them such measure of
his own enthusiasm that they never
faltered in their devotion to the
work, even though the three years
originally planned were subsequently
extended, by the unsolicited action of
Congress, to seven.
In recognition of the legitimacy of
267
Clarence King Geologist
the public demand for a direct appli-
cation of the results of government
geological work, King pushed first to
completion a scientific study of the
ore deposits of the region surveyed ;
more particularly of the great Corn-
stock Lode, whose enormous silver
product was then disturbing the
monetary system of the country.
This work, written conjointly by
himself and James D. Hague, ap-
peared late in 1870 under the title
of Mining Industry. It was de-
scribed by one of its most capa-
ble critics as " by itself a scientific
manual of American precious metal
mining and metallurgy." It is con-
sidered classic among the works in
its line and has served as a model for
similar monographs which have since
been published under Government au-
spices and done so much to raise the
mining industry of America to its
present high position.
268
Samuel Franklin Emmons
In 1870 he discovered on the slopes
of Mt. Shasta the first actual glaciers
known to exist in the United States ;
and in their study made observations
that are credited with first suggesting
the true origin of the kettle-holes and
kames of New England. His later
discovery in the summer of 1874, that
a line of islands along the southern
coast of New England formed a part of
its terminal moraine, had much influ-
ence in inducing the later systematic
studies of the continental glacier.
The field-work of the Survey was
completed in 1873, but it was 1877
before the respective specialists had
been able to work up the amount of
material gathered, for it was one of
King's fundamental principles that
abundant collections should be made
in the field to illustrate all the natural
phenomena observed, and the litho-
logical collections alone numbered
about five thousand specimens.
269
Clarence King Geologist
In 1874, he sent one member of his
corps to Europe to study the methods
of European geological surveys and
to obtain the best and latest geological
literature, with which at that time
American libraries were but scantily
provided. He, also, instructed him
to confer with Prof. Zirkel, then the
greatest microscopical petrographer
of the day, and to induce him, if pos-
sible, to visit America and study in
the presence of the collectors their
collection of rock specimens, for at
that time no American geologist had
any practical knowledge of this new
branch of geology. From this visit
resulted Zirkel's volume on micro-
scopical petrography, which marked
the opening of a new era in geolog-
ical study in the United States.
King reserved for himself the final
summarizing of the work of his assist-
ants and the drawing of general con-
clusions and theoretical deductions
270
Samuel Franklin Emmons
therefrom. This he wrote in the
winter of 1877-78, and published in
a quarto volume of more than eight
hundred pages under the title of
Systematic Geology. It has been
characterized as the most masterly
summary of a great piece of geologi-
cal field-work that has ever been
written, and is used to this day by
university professors of geology as a
model for their advanced students.
King's crowning service to geo-
logical science in America followed
shortly after the completion of the
Fortieth Parallel work. After two
of his field seasons had demonstrated
the practicability of geological map-
making in the West, the Wheeler
Survey was inaugurated under the
Engineer Department of the Army,
and the already existing Hayden
Survey later adopted his example in
making topographical maps as a basis
for its geology, employing for this
271
Clarence King Geologist
purpose the Fortieth Parallel topog-
raphers after their term of service in
the latter Survey had expired. The
work of these two organizations be-
came so popular that each desired to
cover the whole of the unsurveyed
area in the West, and their rivalry in
time became so intense that the influ-
ence of either party with Congress
was used to curtail the appropriation
allotted to the other. As a final result
of this rivalry the time came when
there was serious danger that all
government aid for geological work
would be cut off. It was mainly
through King's influence among the
leading scientific men of the country
and his tactful management of affairs
in Congress that this crisis was
averted. The question was referred
to the National Academy of Sciences,
and their recommendations, which
were on lines laid down by him, were
finally adopted by Congress, and on
272
Samuel Franklin Emmons
March 3, 1879, a ^ aw was passed
establishing the United States Ge-
ological Survey as a bureau of
the Interior Department. President
Hayes, after consultation with the
best scientists of the country, ap-
pointed Clarence .King as the first
director of the new Bureau. King
accepted the appointment with the
distinct understanding that he should
remain at its head only long enough
to appoint its staff, organize its work,
and guide its forces into full activity.
At the close of Hayes's term, he
offered his resignation, but at the
President's request, he held over until
after the inauguration of Garfield.
The latter accepted it, on March 1 2th,
1 88 1, in an autograph letter, express-
ing in the warmest terms his apprecia-
tion of the efficiency of King's service
and his regret that he did not find it
possible to remain longer in charge
of the Geological Bureau.
18
273
Clarence King Geologist
Brief as was the duration of his ad-
ministration, his influence, being ex-
ercised at the critical period of the
Survey's existence, left a lasting im-
press upon it. He outlined the broad,
general principles upon which its work
should be conducted ; and its subse-
quent success has been in a great
measure dependent upon the faithful-
ness with which these principles have
been followed by his successors.
Foreseeing the important part that
the development of its mineral re-
sources was destined to play in the
future progress of the country, he
judged that, while not neglecting
the more purely scientific side, its
work should be primarily devoted to
the direct application of geological
results to the development of these
resources. It has been because the
people at large have realized its prac-
tical success in this line that the Sur-
vey has been more richly endowed,
274
Samuel Franklin Emmons
and thus better able to carry on its
purely scientific work, than any or-
ganization of its kind in the world.
King set the very highest standard
for its work, and showed remarkable
judgment and knowledge of character
in his selection of the men who, in
their respective branches, were best
fitted to keep it up, as nearly as pos-
sible, to this standard. In his estab-
lishment of a physical laboratory for
the determination of the physical con-
stants of rocks, he took a step in the
direction of the application of methods
of exact science to geological problems
so far in advance of the average stand-
ards of the day that its importance was
not generally realized until long after.
In all his after-life, he maintained
a lively interest in the work of the
Survey, and kept closely in touch
with his successors in office, who fre-
quently consulted him on important
questions of policy.
275
Clarence King Geologist
After his retirement from govern-
ment service, he came much less fre-
quently into personal contact with
scientific men, for he had little sym-
pathy with that phase of scientific
activity which is represented by acad-
emies and societies.
He had been elected a fellow of
the Geological Society of London in
1874, and of the National Academy
of Sciences in 1876. He was, also,
a life member of the American Insti-
tute of Mining Engineers, but he
rarely attended the meetings of any
of these associations and never con-
tributed to their proceedings. He
found his recreation from business
occupations rather in social inter-
course with his many friends and
admirers in the literary and artistic
world, yet he was not forgetful of his
chosen profession, and through all
the varied occupations of an intensely
busy life he still continued his inves-
276
Samuel Franklin Emmons
tigations into the deeper problems of
geology, to carry on which had been
one of his motives for giving up ad-
ministrative duties on the Geological
Survey.
In his financial affairs, King had
difficulties to contend with that few
of his friends realized, and which
would have completely discouraged
a man of less sanguine and buoyant
temperament.
At two successive periods in his
youth, those to whom he would natu-
rally have looked for financial support
were overwhelmed by commercial dis-
aster, leaving him to provide not only
for his own wants but for those of
other members of his family. In his
later life circumstances entirely be-
yond his control more than once baf-
fled or annulled the efforts he was
making to establish himself on such
a financial basis that he would feel
justified in applying his entire time
277
Clarence King Geologist
to his chosen pursuits in science and
literature. He was consequently
obliged to devote more of his time
and energy to the directly remunera-
tive side of his profession that of
the mining engineer than he other-
wise would have done. This was es-
pecially true of his later years, though
even in earlier life his services had
been not infrequently sought in cases
of great moment.
He owed his prominent position in
this profession not alone to his ability
and experience as a geologist, which
exceeded that of most of his fellow-
workers, but to his high standard
of personal integrity and the rapid-
ity and acuteness of his judgment.
These qualities were early illustrated
in an incident which gave him per-
haps greater prominence in the finan-
cial world than any other act of his life
his exposure of the diamond fraud
of 1872. An apparently well authen-
278
Samuel Franklin Emmons
ticated discovery had been made
of diamonds in sufficient quantity to
affect the diamond markets of the
world. Although its position was
kept carefully concealed, through the
intimate knowledge of the country
possessed by his assistants, King
was enabled to determine that it
must be located in an area already
surveyed by them, and at once fitted
out a party to examine it. When
this examination, undertaken prima-
rily in the interest of science, had
proved that the alleged discovery was
an elaborate and skillfully planned
fraud, it was his prompt action and un-
shakable integrity alone that averted
a financial disaster which threatened
to rival that of the Mississippi Bubble
of Law.
In the many important mining
suits in which he served as scientific
adviser, and which involved most
difficult and complicated problems of
279
Clarence King Geologist
geological structure, combined with
their still more difficult interpreta-
tion under the terms of the United
States mining laws, he was generally
intrusted with the legal as well as the
scientific management of the case. As
he made it a practice to never trust
the eye of another, but to verify every
fact by his own personal observation,
he obtained such a thorough know-
ledge of his subject that the most skill-
ful lawyers were unable to shake his
testimony by their cross-examination.
In his examination of mines, he vis-
ited almost every part of the Ameri-
can continent, and thus acquired a
personal familiarity with deep-seated
phenomena that it seldom falls to the
lot of a geologist to obtain. Hence
he was exceptionally well equipped
in this, as in other respects, to carry
on the investigations he had under-
taken into the problems of the inte-
rior of the earth.
280
Samuel Franklin Emmons
In 1890, Brown University con-
ferred upon him the honorary degree
of LL. D. That he received no pub-
lic recognition of his later scientific
work may perhaps be ascribed to
its peculiarly unobtrusive character
which gave rise to the erroneous im-
pression that he had abandoned sci-
ence altogether.
It is difficult to fairly judge King's
scientific publications in the light of
the present day, for they were writ-
ten just before the opening of an
era of great change in the methods
of geological investigation, a change
which has thus far proved destructive
rather than constructive in its re-
sults. Many of the fundamental theo-
ries of geology which prevailed at
that time have been disproved or
abandoned, while as yet there is
no general acceptance of those which
have been put forward to replace
them.
281
Clarence King Geologist
In June, 1877, he delivered the ad-
dress at the thirty-first anniversary
of the Sheffield Scientific School on
" Catastrophism and the Evolution
of Environment." It was a protest
against the extreme uniformitarian-
ism of that day, based largely on
the geological history of the Cor-
dilleran System as developed during
the work of the Fortieth Parallel
Survey. This uniformitarianism he
characteristically described as "the
harmless undestructive rate (of geo-
logical change) of to-day, prolonged
backward into the deep past." He
contended that while the old belief
in catastrophic changes had properly
disappeared, yet geological history,
as he read it, showed that the rate of
change had not been so uniform as
was claimed by the later school.
While a given amount of energy
must evidently be expended, he rea-
soned, to produce a given effect, yet
282
Samuel Franklin Emmons
the expenditure of this energy might
be extended over a very long time, or
crowded into a comparatively short
one ; and his observations showed
him that at certain periods in geo-
logical history, the rate of change was
accelerated to such a degree that the
effect upon life produced was some-
what catastrophic in its nature.
Of his great work upon systematic
geology, the larger part that which
outlines the geological history of the
Cordilleran System stands as firmly
to-day as it did when written, as
a correct and authoritative exposi-
tion. In view of the circumstances
under which the field-work was origi-
nally done, its essential correctness,
even in matters of minor detail, is
considered surprising by those who
have since had occasion to make de-
tailed studies of portions of the area
covered.
In the more theoretical sections,
283
Clarence King Geologist
while he necessarily did not take into
account the great number of new facts
which have been established by more
recent work, especially in the domain
of microscopic petrography, he showed
such grasp of his subjects, and such
originality and power of thought, that
his views constituted not only an im-
portant advance over those of the
day, but they were suggestive of the
lines of investigation that have been
most fruitful in the modern advance
of geological science.
For instance, in his discussion of
the reason for the changes from acid
to basic eruptives within the indi-
vidual groups, which he proposed as
a variation from the natural order in
age of volcanic rocks, as laid down
by Richthofen, he advanced views
very suggestive of the modern con-
ception of differentiation in eruptive
magmas.
Again, in endeavoring to account
284
Samuel Franklin Emmons
for the formation of those types of
granite that pass into gneiss and crys-
talline schists of essentially the same
chemical composition, but which show
no evidence of having been subjected
to such excessive heat as would pro-
duce liquefaction, he called in the
agency of the immense pressure to
which such rocks would necessarily
have been subjected. While the
long years of combined field-work
and microscopic study of modern pe-
trographers, made since King's theory
was enunciated, have proved that the
structure of crystalline schists is due
to pressure, they do not go so far
as he did in assuming that the end
product of such mechanical pressure
might be granite.
Perhaps his most enduring theo-
retical discussion of that time was
that on hypogeal fusion, in which,
accepting the validity of the physical
arguments against the fluid interior
285
Clarence King Geologist
of the earth, he discusses and rejects
Hopkins' theory of residual lakes
and Mallet's conception of local lakes
produced by mechanical crushing.
He then advances an hypothesis of
his own which may be called that of a
critical shell, or couche, between the
permanently solid interior and the
outer crust of the earth, which is
above the temperature of fusion but
restrained from fusion by pressure.
In this, therefore, the opposing forces
of pressure and temperature hold
themselves reciprocally in equilibrium,
but when this equilibrium is disturbed,
as for instance, by a sudden change
of the relative position of isobars and
isotherms say by local erosion and
rapid transfer of load within limited
areas local lakes of fusion would be
created. Iddings, in his Origin of
Igneous Rocks, says of King's treat-
ment of this subject : " By the breadth
of his treatment and by better and
286
Samuel Franklin Emmons
fuller data he advanced the problem
of the origin of the various kinds of
volcanic rocks far beyond the point
reached by any of his predecessors."
In his chapter on Orography, King
says, in speaking of the causes of
crust motion : " I can plainly see that
were the critical shell established its
reactions might thread the tangled
maze of phenomena successfully, but
I prefer to build no farther until the
underlying physics are worked out."
He was at that time already very
strongly impressed with the imperfec-
tion of the then existing knowledge
of terrestrial thermo-dynamics and
the indispensability of more exact
data in this branch of science for a
rational discussion of the fundamental
problems of geology.
This idea found a practical out-
come a few years later in the estab-
lishment of a physical laboratory,
immediately after his assumption of
287
Clarence King Geologist
the Directorship of the United States
Geological Survey. His earnestness
and energy is shown by the fact that
instead of waiting for the slow action
of Congress, he defrayed the cost of
the delicate apparatus necessary for
this work out of his own pocket. The
credit of the brilliant physical in-
vestigations carried on in that labora-
tory is naturally due to Professors
Barus and Hallock, who conducted
them, but it was King's acumen and
good judgment that was responsible
for their selection, and his action
that made it possible for them to
carry on their work. To himself, as
he says ten years later in his paper
on "The Age of the Earth,"* he re-
served the privilege of " making geo-
logical applications of the laboratory
results." The experiments on the
physical constants of rocks contem-
* The American Journal of Science, vol.
xlv., Jan., 1893.
288
Samuel Franklin Emmons
plated were to be directed to the
determination (a) of the phenomena
of fusion, (^) of those of elasticity
and viscosity, and (c) of those of
heat conductivity, each considered
with special reference to their depend-
ence on temperature and pressure.
The paper on " The Age of the
Earth," mentioned above, is his only
published result, and was but an ear-
nest of what he had planned to do,
This was an attempt to advance to
new precision Kelvin's estimate of
the Earth's age deduced from terres-
trial refrigeration. It consists mainly
of a mathematical discussion of the
Earth's thermal age as determined
from various postulates presented by
Laplace, Geo. H. Darwin and Lord
Kelvin, and based on Barus' deter-
minations of the latent heat of fusion,
specific heat, melted and solid, and
volume of expansion between the
solid and melted state, of the rock
Clarence King Geologist
diabase. This is followed by a criti-
cal examination of other methods of
determining the Earth's age by tidal
retardation, by sun-age and by varia-
tions of eccentricity. After a careful
scrutiny of all the data on the effect
of pressure on the temperature of
consolidation, King concluded that,
without further experimental data,
"we have no warrant for extending
the Earth's age beyond 24 millions of
years," an estimate which, as the re-
sult of a somewhat more extended
discussion, was afterwards confirmed
by Lord Kelvin himself. (Smith-
sonian Report, 1897, p. 345.)
His further investigations along
the same general lines on the funda-
mental principles of upheaval and
subsidence were in an advanced stage
of completion when they were cut off
by his untimely death.
It is practically impossible to ade-
quately characterize King's literary
290
Samuel Franklin Emmons
work, for the greater part of what
he did was never published, and
very likely never even written. It
was his habit to work out in his
head any subject which interested
him, even down to its minutest de-
tails, before putting a pen to paper ;
once this was accomplished to his
satisfaction, he wrote with such ease
and rapidity that the words actually
flowed from his pen. Probably one
reason that he did not write more
was that his own literary taste was
so refined and exacting that he was
never thoroughly satisfied with his
own conceptions. In his scientific
writing, there was generally some
imperious necessity that made it
urgent upon him to give his results
to the public in spite of the imper-
fections he might still see in them,
but in literature such necessity rarely
appeared. What he did publish he
himself held in comparatively light
291
Clarence King Geologist
esteem, but in the opinion of the
best literary writers of the day, with
most of whom he was on terms of
friendly and intimate intercourse, his
writings, and even more his affluent
and delightful talks, disclosed a liter-
ary quality that might have given
him a foremost place among Ameri-
can men of letters.
He was a man of remarkable in-
tellectual versatility, and has been
probably as widely known and ap-
preciated for his literary as for his
scientific ability, though his published
literary writings have been singularly
few in number. The recollection of
his consummate art as a conversation-
alist and raconteur, of the delicate
wit and irrepressible humor that
showed itself at times even in his
scientific writings, of the kindly spirit
and refined courtesy that character-
ized his every action, and of his
irresistibly attractive smile, has left
292
Samuel Franklin Emmons
behind a mingled feeling of pleasure
and regret among all who had the
privilege of knowing him.
King was a man of remarkably ro-
bust physique, and showed through-
out his physically arduous life powers
of endurance that are rarely equaled;
yet it was one of the penalties of
the highly sensitive and nervous
organization, which rendered possi-
ble his marvelously acute and delicate
perception, that he was subject to
sudden and almost unaccountable
break-downs in which he suffered
intensely. His last severe illness
was an attack of pneumonia in the
early part of 1901, which followed
an examination of a mining property
during very inclement weather.
From this he recovered, but tuber-
culosis, the seeds of which were
supposed to have been sown during
a trip to the Klondike during the
previous summer, made such rapid
293
Clarence King Geologist
progress during the following months
that, after several changes of climate
in the vain hope of ameliorating his
condition, he finally passed away,
quietly and without suffering, on the
24th day of December in the year
1901.
It was part of his characteristic
unselfishness that he effectually dis-
couraged all offers on the part of
friends and relations to visit him
visits which might have cheered his
last lonely days in that far distant
region.
294
Clarence King's School-days
Daniel C. Gilman
295
Clarence King's School-days
/CLARENCE KING was brought
*-** to New Haven by his widowed
mother some years before he entered
college, and they dwelt on Church
Street opposite the house of President
Woolsey and close by the house of
Dr. Bacon. His appearance at that
time I recall distinctly. He had the
same bright face, winning smile, agile
movement, that we knew in later life.
Soon the two, then and always a de-
voted pair, went to Hartford, where,
if I am not mistaken, Clarence was a
pupil in the historic grammar school
founded by Edward Hopkins. Al-
though his aptitude for letters was
inborn and inbred, he chose the
scientific courses at Yale, in place of
the academic, and he entered the
Sheffield Scientific School in 1859.
297
Clarence King's School-days
That department of the college was
just emerging from its cradle and
beginning the remarkable progress
for which it has been in later years
so highly distinguished. The number
of students was not large and they
had easy and familiar access to the
professors. The name of James D.-
Dana gave prestige to the faculty,
and he exerted a powerful influence,
though not by the process of method-
ical instruction. William D. Whitney,
the eminent philologist (with whose
brother, Josiah D. Whitney, the dis-
tinguished geologist, King was after-
wards associated on the Pacific
Coast), was then teaching French
and German at the Sheffield. George
J. Brush, already distinguished as a
mineralogist, was the life of the
school, and his superb collection of
minerals was freely opened to all
qualified inquirers. The chemist was
Samuel W. Johnson. Chester S.
298
Daniel C. Oilman
Lyman taught practical astronomy,
and introduced his students to the
art of making observations in the
field. William A. Norton taught sur-
veying. William H. Brewer, who
had a great deal to do with King at
a later period, did not join the faculty
until two years after King had re-
ceived (in 1862) the diploma of a
Bachelor of Arts. These names are
thus recalled in order that some of
the influences may be remembered
under which this promising scholar
was trained. He did well in his
studies, but, after all, King would have
risen to distinction without the aid of
pedagogics. He was alert, indepen-
dent, quick to receive impressions,
ready to act on his own impulses, fond
of literature and of science, with that
token of genius which is said to be
" the art of lighting one's own fires."
In short, he graduated one of the
most promising, as he became one of
299
Clarence King's School-days
the most brilliant, of the Sheffield
graduates.
Not long after his courses were
finished he set out for California by
the overland journey, before the rail-
road was built, expecting there to be-
come acquainted with J. D. Whitney,
to whom he carried an introduction.
James T. Gardiner, his life-long
friend, went with him. I well re-
member the letters that came from
the young geologist describing the
incidents of his long journey, and I
hope that their fresh and characteris-
tic sketches are not lost beyond re-
covery.
This record of his boyish days may
end here. Others will tell the story
of his active career, which included a
survey (with Gardiner) of the Yo-
semite Valley; mountaineering in the
Sierras and the ascent of Mount
Whitney ; the organization and direc-
tion of the Fortieth Parallel Survey,
300
Daniel C. Gilman
and his contributions to its publica-
tions ; the remarkable detection of
the diamond fraud ; and finally his
appointment as the first Director of
the United States Geological Survey,
-a remarkable record achieved by
one whose boyhood was full of prom-
ise, whose education was as good as
the country could afford, and whose
manly energy, enthusiasm, and good
sense enabled him to overcome great
difficulties, win encouragement and
support, and hold a station of respon-
sibility and influence with credit and
renown.
301
Biographical Notice
Rossiter W. Raymond
303
Biographical Notice*
CLARENCE KING was born
^-^ January 6, 1842, at Newport,
R. I. His ancestors on both sides
were New Englanders, of English
blood, and among them not a few dis-
tinguished themselves in art, science,
politics or commerce. . . .
His father died in 1848. The
young mother, widowed in her twen-
ty-third year, devoted herself to the
education of her only son, pursuing
for herself many studies, that she
might teach him ; and becoming at
the outset, as she remained always,
*A partial reprint from the Transactions
of the American Institute of Mining En-
gineers. Certain portions of Dr. Raymond's
original paper have been omitted because
dealing with matters already covered by other
contributors to this volume.
20
305
Biographical Notice
his sympathetic and competent in-
tellectual companion. On his part,
he began as a "mother's boy"- best
of all beginnings ! and as a mother's
boy, maintaining still in undiminished
fervor and unstained purity the filial
reverence and affection of childhood,
he ended best of all endings !
His early years were spent at New-
port. At about thirteen he entered
the High School at Hartford, Conn.
He had already shown the character-
istic qualities of physical strength and
activity ; love of nature and the nat-
ural sciences (exercised in hunting,
fishing and botanizing during summer
vacations in the Green Mountains) ;
an almost equal passion and appre-
ciation for literature and art ; great
powers of entertaining conversation ;
singularly quick observation and won-
derful memory, and (as the poet Sted-
man lately said of him) " the gift of
friendship" a gift which Mr. Gard-
306
Rossiter W. Raymond
iner, his schoolmate at Hartford, de-
clares to have been as marked in him
at fifteen as at fifty. I cannot do
better in this connection than quote
his friend's summary description of
King at that period :
" On Saturday, we usually spent
the whole day walking in the country.
If any question arose as to any object
seen during the day, whether we had
particularly noticed it or not, King
could always describe it from memory
with great minuteness. He seemed
to photograph unconsciously every-
thing that passed before his eyes, and
to be able to recall the picture at will.
He studied enthusiastically the bot-
any, the bird and animal life, and the
rocks, of the regions over which we
rambled.
" Already at fifteen, he wrote beau-
tifully, having been trained in literary
judgment and skill by his mother,
who possessed in high degree both
307
Biographical Notice
the faculty of expression and power
to inspire enthusiasm. From her he
received also, besides his literary and
artistic tastes and critical perceptions,
an ardent hatred of slavery, and a
clear foresight of the impending * ir-
repressible conflict ' of the Civil War."
In May, 1863, together with his
friend Gardiner, whose health had
been somewhat impaired by over-
study, he started for California, in-
tending to make the journey on
horseback from St. Joseph, Mo., then
the most western railway-terminus.
This adventurous journey, taken in
connection with King's subsequent
career, reminds me irresistibly of a
feature in the life of General William
T. Sherman a man possessed of
the same tireless activity, hunger
for new knowledge and faculty of
perceiving, comprehending, retaining
308
Rossiter W. Raymond
and, at need, effectively utilizing, any
facts he had encountered, however
casually. When asked, in his old age,
how he had dared to cut loose from
his base of supplies and risk his whole
army in the bold march from Atlanta
to the sea, Sherman replied that he
would not have dared it, in the ab-
sence of detailed maps and other in-
formation, but for the circumstance
that many years before, as a young
Lieutenant of the Engineer Corps,
serving in the South, he had studied
every stream, hill and road in that
region, and learned, never to forget,
the difficulties and resources of the
country ; so that in undertaking what
seemed to others a blind and hazard-
ous venture, he " knew what he was
about." We shall see that King's
great scientific exploration from the
Missouri to the Sierra was rendered
practicable, at the particular period
of its execution, by reason of the
309
Biographical Notice
early reconnaissance which he had
made in person.
On their way to the Golden Gate,
the two friends accidentally made
the acquaintance of Prof. William H.
Brewer (an assistant in the Geological
Survey of California); and both were
drawn into the service of that survey,
then recently organized under Prof.
J. D. Whitney.
From a private letter of Prof. Brew-
er's, I make the following interesting
quotation :
" I first met Clarence King and his
intimate friend, James T. Gardiner,
on Aug. 30, 1863. I had been mak-
ing, that summer, a reconnaissance in
the Sierra Nevada, beginning in the
extreme southern part, at Tejon, and
zigzagging six or eight times across
the divide, my last crossing having
been from the northern end of Lake
Tahoe to Forest Hill. My party had
310
Rossiter W. Raymond
been reduced by sickness and other
causes until, during the last four
crossings, I had with me my packer
only. It was my desire to continue
the reconnaissance northward as far
as Lassen peak ; but another man, at
least, was needed especially as the
Indians were reported to have broken
out from Lassen peak to the Shasta
valley. So I had left my animals
with my packer at Forest Hill and
started for San Francisco to see my
chief, Prof. J. D. Whitney, with re-
gard to the necessary assistance, and
to interview the Indian agent and
the military authorities concerning
the reported Indian war.
" On the Sacramento river steamer
I noticed two young men conversing
together in low tones, and curiously
glancing from time to time at me,
attracted, no doubt, by my costume
and appearance, which indicated that
I was engaged in rough mountain- or
Biographical Notice
forest-work of some kind, yet not
that of the hunter or the miner. Pres-
ently they drew near, and the younger
one (King) asked, * Is your name
Brewer ? ' ' Yes,' I replied. ' Be-
long to the California Geological Sur-
vey ? ' ' Yes.' ' Well ; I had a letter
of introduction to you from Prof.
Brush ; but it was burned up the
other day ! ' He went on to say that
he had been for three years at the
Yale Scientific School (as it was
called when he entered it); and that
he and his friend had crossed the
plains, the interior basin and the
Sierra, since leaving New Haven.
Of course we began at once an ac-
quaintance which soon became, and
always remained, a cordial friendship.
Many years after, he wrote on the
fly-leaf of the second edition of his
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada
(the most brilliant and fascinating of
books on mountain-climbing), these
312
Rossiter W. Raymond
words, which I treasure with affec-
tionate pride: 'To Professor W. H.
Brewer, my earliest and kindest Sierra
friend, to whose friendly guidance I
owe my first and my most charming
mountaineering, with the unchanging
regard of the Author.'
" I may be permitted to introduce
here a reminiscence which is likewise
most gratifying to me, as showing
the part which I unconsciously took
in bringing Clarence King to Cali-
fornia, and thus initiating the career
which was to make him illustrious.
" Both during our earliest confer-
ences and on several later occasions,
King told me that Mount Shasta
was the magnet that had drawn
him irresistibly to the Pacific coast.
This magnificent mountain then pos-
sessed a pre-eminence in popular
estimation which it no longer pos-
sesses. It was believed to be the
highest peak in North America. Its
313
Biographical Notice
altitude had been variously reported
at from 14,000 to 18,000 feet. From
the first, the members of the Cali-
fornia Survey looked forward with
eager anticipation to a thorough
examination of it. We had two
barometers made with scales which
would show an altitude of 18,000 feet,
and after collecting all available in-
formation, I was expecting to ascend
Shasta in September, 1862. It was
a very malarial year, and nearly all
my party came down with fever. Of
those who were able to work, some
had to be distributed to observe sta-
tion-barometers, for the subsequent
comparison with the summit-readings.
The rest, accompanied by Prof. Whit-
ney, who came from San Francisco
for the same purpose, proceeded to
the western base of Shasta, and made
the ascent to the summit Sept. 2, 1862.
It was the first time that the altitude
of a mountain in the United States,
314
Rossiter W. Raymond
more than 14,000 feet high, had been
accurately measured ; and we were
naturally proud of the achievement.
A few days later I wrote to a very
old friend and classmate, Professor
George J. Brush, an enthusiastic ac-
count of our adventure, emphasizing
not only the scientific interest, but
also the sublime and majestic scenery
connected with it. To Clarence King,
who happened to call upon him soon
after the receipt, Prof. Brush read this
letter ; and, as King told me many
times, 'that settled it.' He resolved
to see California, and, in particular,
Mount Shasta.
" To return to my narrative : I liked
King from the first ; he gave me
much comparatively recent informa-
tion concerning my old friends at
Yale ; I told him my plans ; and we
arranged to meet in San Francisco.
And, at my invitation, he called sev-
eral times at the office of the Survey
315
Biographical Notice
in that city, deepening on each occa-
sion my growing affection and esteem
for him. I was intensely anxious to
get into the Lassen peak region.
The year before, I had passed it, go-
ing up and down the great valley
west of it, and had traced the Cre-
taceous formation, finding it, at one
point, overlain with lava. I now
wished to get into some of the canons
which cut through both the lava and
auriferous series. All this could be
done with safety ; but the Indian
agent said it would be madness to
try to go through, north of Lassen
peak, to Shasta Valley. I decided to
start anyhow, and go as far as I
could. King wanted to go with me,
as a volunteer without pay. The
possible danger of the trip was an
additional temptation to him. And
Prof. Whitney (who was likewise
captivated by his light and ardent
nature) authorized me to engage him.
316
Rossiter W. Raymond
" Clarence King was then in his
22d year, but looked much younger.
Of course, he was not so thoroughly
informed or so deeply interested in
geological problems as he afterwards
became. In fact, he stood on the
threshold of that fascinating study,
saturated chiefly with Ruskin and
Tyndall. The remarks of the latter
on the glaciers of the Alps were con-
stantly upon his lips. *
"The trip was notable in many
respects, and suggested many topics
of inquiry which afterwards bore fruit
in King's receptive, retentive and in-
tensely active mind. Lassen peak
was reported to have been, only a
* EDITORIAL NOTE. A recent correspon-
dent writes to say, on the authority of Pro-
fessor Brewer, that King, when he joined in
the field-work of the Geological Survey of
California, had with him, as part of his
camp outfit, " a Bible, a Table of Loga-
rithms, and a volume of Robertson's ser-
mons." J. D. H.
Biographical Notice
few years before, an active volcano,
and offered an opportunity for the
study of recent eruptive rocks. The
possible glaciers upon Shasta were
discussed, as was also the age of the
gold-bearing rock-zone of the Sierra,
and the desirability of a geological
section across the range. Incident-
ally, the larger scheme of a transcon-
tinental section was mentioned. This
had been the dream of Whitney in
1862, when the construction of the
Pacific railways was actively begun.
He thought that when once a section
across California had been completed
the railroad companies might be in-
clined to pay for making one along
their lines, across the interior basin
and the Rocky Mountains, to the
great plains.
" We ascended Lassen peak twice,
on the 26th and 2Qth of September,
1863. The first time the day was un-
propitious for good barometric work.
318
Rossiter W. Raymond
There was a fierce wind on the sum-
mit ; a storm was approaching, and
the barometer was falling rapidly ;
and the whole Pitt river valley was
filled with clouds, hiding everything
below the altitude of 8000 or 9000 feet.
But all was clear above, and Shasta,
eighty miles away, with the tops of the
adjacent mountains only, rose from
the white mountain of cloud, projected
against an intensely blue sky. King's
exclamation was, * What would Rus-
kin have said, if he had seen this ! '
" On the way back he wanted to
try a glissade down one of the snow-
slopes. I objected strongly, being
uncertain whether it would be prac-
ticable for him to stop before reach-
ing the rocks at the bottom. But he
had read Tyndall ; and what was a
mountain climb without a glissade ?
So he had his way, and came out of
the adventure with only a few unim-
portant bruises.
319
Biographical Notice
" Three days later, after the end
of an uncomfortable storm of rain,
snow and sleet, we made a second
ascent of the peak, going up in the
night, by bright moonlight, and ar-
riving before sunrise at the summit,
where we spent ten hours. The sky
was cloudless, and the atmosphere
transparent in the highest degree.
For a short time after sunrise we could
see Mount Hamilton in the south
normally below the horizon, but
' looming up ' long enough and plainly
enough for satisfactory identification.
This is the longest distance at which,
so far as I know, I have ever seen a
terrestrial object. Another spectacle
of unique perfection and grandeur
observed on that occasion was the
shadow of the peak projected on the
western sky. Although I have often
reached greater altitudes, that day
stands out in my memory as one of
the most impressive of my life.
320
Rossiter W. Raymond
" It will easily be imagined with
what satisfaction and delight these
experiences were shared with such
a companion as Clarence King, to
whose glowing enthusiasm they were
new as well as grand. Again, he
was fascinated by Shasta. Three
days before, the snow upon it had
been in patches and streaks ; now
the snow had covered with un-
broken white save here and there
a protruding rock the upper 4000
or 5000 feet of the mountain. The
lower limit of this cap was a
sharply -defined 'snow -line.' The
great white cone standing upon the
dark base, against a background of
intense blue, was a memorable pic-
ture, and deserved King's rhapsodies
of admiration.
" It was in the earlier part of this
expedition that the first discovery
of the Jurassic and Triassic fossils
in place in the auriferous zone of
21
321
Biographical Notice
California was made in the Genesee
Valley, Plumas County. *
" The next year, King and I passed
around the eastern base of Shasta.
The reconnaissance of this mountain
had been made by the California
Survey in 1862, after a winter noted
for the heaviest rains and snows since
the acquisition of California. And
we had then announced that, while
there was much snow on the moun-
tain, there were no glaciers. King
had never seen glaciers ; I had seen
them only in Switzerland.
" We forded one day at the base
of Shasta a small stream, turbid with
ash-colored mud, which came from a
snow-field far above. I said that, if
we were in Switzerland, I should con-
sider it a typical, glacier-fed stream.
* See American Journal of Science, 2d
series, vol. xli., p. 353 ; also Geological Sur-
vey of California, " Geology," vol. i., pp. 308,
462.
322
Rossiter W. Raymond
* Why is it not ? ' insisted King. I told
him I had been, only a year before,
on the upper part of that very snow-
field, and that it showed neither ice nor
crevasses. I thought the turbidity of
the water was due to volcanic dust.
"Six years later, in 1870, King
discovered actual glaciers on Shasta,
and in 1871 described them in the
Atlantic Monthly and in the Ameri-
can Journal of Science. Two years
later, or ten years after our fording
the turbid stream, he said to me,
* That stream haunted me for years,
until I got on Mount Shasta and
found the glaciers ! '
" That was an illustration of the
way in which his retentive as well as
perceptive mind stored up, and ulti-
mately used, the facts and suggestions
it had once received. Another occurs
to me. On our trip, in 1863, I talked
much about the value of large photo-
graphs in geological surveys. I had
323
Biographical Notice
taken a fancy to stereoptical views
especially ; and I thought the broken
country about Lassen peak should
be photographed, and could not be
shown satisfactorily by drawings. In
later years King was the first to carry
out these ideas on a grand scale ; and
now the camera is an indispensable
part of the apparatus of field-work in
such surveys. Many similar instances
might be given in which King did the
things of which others had dreamed."
The foregoing reminiscences of
his friend and, at that time, his im-
mediate chief, abundantly indicate
the qualities of ambition, energy
and endurance which soon won for
the young athlete of Yale recog-
nized leadership in the field. The
story of his ascent of Mount Whit-
ney (14,898 feet above tide), the
highest peak in the United States,
outside of Alaska, affords an inter-
324
Rossiter W. Raymond
esting and, in some respects, amusing
illustration.
The whole somewhat complicated
story is told in an article by Mr.
Hague in the Overland Monthly for
Nov., 1873, from which it appears :
That the name of Mount Whitney
was given in 1864 to the highest of a
noble cluster of peaks at the head-
waters of the Kern and King rivers
by a party of the California Geologi-
cal Survey, under the direction of
Prof. Brewer, and including Clar-
ence King, which was at work in
that region during the summer of
that year, and some of whom (in-
cluding King, of course when was
he ever left out, if an adventure was
on the programme ?) ascended a peak
which they called Mount Tyndall,
from which they saw two others,
still higher, to the loftier of which
they gave the name of Whitney,
their distinguished chief ; that later
325
Biographical Notice
in the same year, after the party had
been withdrawn, King made an un-
successful attempt to reach this top-
most summit; that in 1871 (when no
longer connected with the California
Survey) he returned, with character-
istic pertinacity, to this endeavor, and
climbed to what he supposed to be the
top of Mount Whitney, but was pre-
vented from identifying his position
by " dense, impenetrable clouds " * ;
that in July, 1873, Mr. W. A. Good-
year, formerly of the California Sur-
vey, with a companion, ascended the
summit last named, and clearly saw
another and higher one, which was the
true Mount Whitney, already located
by observations from other mountain
stations, and located upon official
maps. This truly highest summit
has since been reached by many
parties.
* This ascent is described in King's book,
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.
326
Rossiter W. Raymond
Whoever cares to unravel the in-
tricacies of this narrative will find in
Mr. Hague's article, already cited,
an efficient guide. To me, I must
confess, the only important and in-
teresting item in the series is the
circumstance that in 1873, as soon as
he had heard of the observations
of Mr. Goodyear, Clarence King,
though no longer connected with any
public work requiring from him
further attention to the matter, left
New York, and, at his own expense,
traveled without a moment's delay to
the locality concerned, and ascended
the true Mount Whitney, simply to
settle, for his own satisfaction, the
question which (to use the felicitous
phrase quoted above by Prof. Brewer)
would otherwise have " haunted him."
Another incident of his work
in California deserves mention -
namely, his discovery in January,
1864, on tne Mariposa estate, of
327
Biographical Notice
fossils determining the Jurassic age of
the gold-bearing slates of California.
There was at the time a controversy
over the question of " priority " in
this settlement of a scientific question.
Prof. W. P. Blake had undoubtedly
found paleontological evidence tend-
ing to the same conclusion. After
a laborious study of the contem-
poraneous documents, I am led to
believe that the discovery in place,
in 1863, of Jurassic and Triassic
fossils in the Genesee Valley, in
Plumas County, was the earliest well-
authenticated and decisive one, and
that the credit of this discovery
belongs to Prof. Brewer, though it
was, in Whitney's subsequent official
reports, attributed to him and his
assistant King jointly. But it was
not regarded as decisive by Whitney,
because it did not include the observa-
tion of actual gold-bearing veins in
the same rock. The Mariposa dis-
328
Rossiter W. Raymond
coveries made by Blake and King in
the country-rock of known gold-mines
were conclusive. The question of
priority as to these discoveries, involv-
ing, as it does, the date not only of
the discovery, but also of the first
public announcement and the first
publication thereof, is really trivial ;
at least, it will not be discussed here.
The record of science is not that of a
patent law-suit, in which mere priority
governs important rights of property ;
and neither Blake nor King needed
to rest his claims to scientific recog-
nition upon a controversy so unim-
portant.
His connection with the California
Survey lasted until near the end of
1866 ; but during that period he was
twice loaned, so to speak, for other
service once to the Mariposa Mining
Company and once to the United
States. The latter episode occurred in
the winter of 1865-66, when he acted
329
Biographical Notice
as scientific assistant of General Mc-
Dowell in a reconnaissance of the
desert regions of Southern California
and part of Arizona. His friend
Gardiner was detailed to the same
expedition. That it was not free
from danger, no one acquainted with
the condition of Arizona and the tem-
per of the Apache tribes at that time
need be told, and others may learn
from the following anecdote, which I
heard from Mr. King himself, and
which Mr. Gardiner confirms :
One day, on the road to Prescott,
Arizona, the two friends, absorbed in
their work, had ridden ahead, beyond
sight of their cavalry escort, when
suddenly a couple of Apaches sprang
from the bushes, under the very noses
of their horses, with arrows aimed at
their breasts, drawn to the head, and
each held from fatal flight by a single
hand. Gardiner's first impulse was
to draw his revolver ; but King re-
330
Rossiter W. Raymond
strained him, divining instantly that
the two visible assailants were not
alone, and that resistance would be
useless. Sure enough, at a signal
given, some fifty Apaches emerged
from the chapparal and surrounded
them. They were ordered by signs
to dismount and disrobe. Intent on
saving precious time, during which
the cavalry might come to their
rescue, King distracted the attention
of the savages for several minutes by
exhibiting to them his cistern-barom-
eter, and explaining, in Spanish and
by signs, that it was a new-fangled
gun of very long range. The delay
thus gained, however, did not prevent
their captors from preparing thongs
for their captives, and lighting a fire
to be placed upon their breasts, Ap-
ache fashion, after they should have
been laid, naked and bound, upon the
earth. Indeed, they were already
half-stripped when the cavalry became
331
Biographical Notice
visible, and, perceiving the situation
at a glance, charged the Indians with
such vigor and speed as to capture
two of them and scatter the rest.
(The two thus taken were released,
because the troops were not strong
enough to fight the whole Wallapai
tribe, as they would have had to do
if they had attempted to hold their
prisoners.) There is no doubt that
King's presence of mind, coolness and
ingenuity saved the lives of his friend
and himself.
In 1866, circumstances led him to
resign from the California survey,
and to attempt a larger undertaking
on his own account. Concerning the
reflections and considerations which
preceded this step, Mr. Gardiner
contributes the following interesting
reminiscence :
" In the summer of 1866 King and
I were working together on a survey
332
Rossiter W. Raymond
of the region east of the Yosemite
Valley. I had previously developed
and tested methods of topographical
work, based on triangulation from
peak to peak without signals, and
gradually expanding the scale of the
triangles, until I believed that the
system could be applied to very large
areas in a country where peaks were
sharp, so that the closure of the tri-
angles could be made very accurate,
compared with what had been done
in reconnaisance-work. During that
summer we discussed the possibility
of carrying across the whole Rocky
Mountain system a survey based on
rapid triangulation without signals,
checked with astronomical work, and
with topographical work following
the methods which were used in the
Yosemite Valley survey and field-
work of 1866. We believed that by
the application of these improved
methods in topography a geological
333
Biographical Notice
survey was possible which would be
far in advance of anything done in
the geological survey of California,
or any other geological work previ-
ously done in the western mountain-
system.
" Sitting on the high peaks of the
Sierra, overlooking the deserts and
ranges of Nevada to the eastward,
we worked out the general outlines
of the 4Oth-parallel survey-work. It
was the natural outgrowth of our
journey across the plains, our experi-
ence on the California survey, and
our exploration of Arizona, coupled
with King's great aggressive energy
and consciousness of power to per-
suade men to do the thing that he
thought ought to be done.
" Our study of the structure of the
continent in our journey of 1863
across the plains, and in our Arizona
trip of 1865, led us to feel that the
survey of California and the prob-
334
Rossiter W. Raymond
lems to be solved there were but a
part, and possibly a minor part, of
the great problems of the structure,
topographical and geological, of the
whole mountain-system of western
America from the plains to the Pa-
cific, and it was from this point of
view that the great continental cross-
section on the 4<Dth parallel was
planned. If King had taken charge
of the department of economic geol-
ogy in the California survey, the exe-
cution of this wider plan might have
been delayed ; but the plan itself was
conceived without reference to our
temporary California work."
The new scheme was nothing less
than a transcontinental topographical
and geological survey, for which, with
sublime audacity, King undertook to
obtain, from the Executive and from
Congress, the authority and the
means.
335
Biographical Notice
The result, surprising then, and sur-
prising still, was a generous provision
by Congress for the geological survey
of a strip of 100 miles on each side
of the 4Oth parallel of latitude ; in
other words, of the belt containing
the first Pacific railroad. The work
was to continue three years, and was
placed expressly under the charge of
Clarence King (then 25 years old),
subject only to the administrative
control of Gen. A. A. Humphreys,
Chief of Engineers of the U. S.
Army a brilliant topographical en-
gineer as well as military commander,
who appreciated the young explorer
too thoroughly to interfere with his
plans and methods.*
The difficulties and dangers of this
work were not small. King's party,
*The first legislation of Congress did not
cover all this. It was simply a brief provision
in an appropriation bill, authorizing the ap-
plication of certain unexpended remainders
336
Rossiter W. Raymond
reaching California by way of Panama,
spent three months in preparing its
outfit and reaching its field. Many
times it seemed as if portions of the
scheme must be abandoned ; but the
leader's enthusiasm, energy and re-
source inspired his associates, and
made them invincible. At the end
of three years the work was not fin-
ished ; but its success and value had
been so brilliantly demonstrated that
the period was extended to seven
years, by the unsolicited action of
Congress.
An incident reported by Mr. Em-
mons illustrates the courage and de-
cision which belonged to King as one
"born to command."
In 1868, during his field-work in
of former appropriations in the continuance
of surveys for a transcontinental wagon-road.
Upon this modest beginning, King won both
popular and legislative recognition of his
great enterprise.
22
337
Biographical Notice
Nevada, annoyed by frequent deser-
tions from his cavalry escort a small
detail, under the charge of a sergeant
King resolved to make an example
of the next case of the kind. The
occasion was provided by a specially
44 bad man," who, while the party, en-
gaged in their day's work, were ab-
sent from the camp, fitted himself
out with equipments belonging to
the Survey, and " struck " for the
Pacific coast, nearly twelve hours be-
fore he was missed. King and the
sergeant started at once in pursuit.
At about sunset of the next day the
trail was seen to be heading for a nat-
ural pass in the next range (one of
the short meridional ranges charac-
teristic of Nevada). Leaving the
trail, King and his companion, by a
hard night-ride, made a detour over
the mountain, and reached at sunrise
the western outlet of the pass. Here
he saw the fugitive's horse picketed
338
Rossiter W. Raymond
near a willow thicket, which sur-
rounded a spring, and in the middle
of which the man himself was pre-
paring his breakfast. King left his
horse in the sergeant's charge and
entered the thicket alone, with his
" hair-trigger " Colt revolver. He
afterward confessed that the situa-
tion required all his " nerve." The
man, who was known as a desperate
character, might have heard him coin-
ing and made preparation to shoot
him at sight. But, after a minute
of suspense, the climax was tame
enough. The deserter, taken by sur-
prise, was marched at the muzzle of
King's pistol back to camp, and
thence sent under guard to the mili-
tary prison at Alcatraz and there
were no more desertions from that
party. As for King's " nerve," it must
have been little, if at all, disturbed;
for a man cannot long keep his finger
still on a hair-trigger, if he is agitated !
339
Biographical Notice
The following account of another
of King's adventures is given by Mr.
Emmons, an eye-witness and a par-
ticipant.
" At the close of the field-work of
1871, King joined my party, which
had been engaged through the sum-
mer in the Uinta Mountains, for a
tour of inspection along the northern
frontier of that range. One day, as
we were starting on an untried route
across a piece of * bad-land ' country,
we spied, soon after breaking camp, a
grizzly bear in the distance ; and all
hands at once gave chase. The bear
at first disappeared in a region of
sand-dunes, where the party got scat-
tered. After some hours' trailing,
King, Wilson and I, with a couple of
soldiers, ran the trail into a typical
net-work of bad-land ravines a se-
ries of narrow gullies with perpen-'
dicular walls, quite inaccessible for
340
Rossiter W. Raymond
horses. Tying the heads of our five
animals together (for there was n't a
bush big enough to hitch them to),
we followed the huge, human-looking
tracks down one ravine and up an-
other on foot, each with rifle in hand,
and King in the lead. (There was a
pretended, but not thoroughly heart-
felt, emulation to occupy this place !)
Not only were we constantly turning
sharp corners, but the trail would run
into caves made by changes in the
course of the dry stream-bed, which
would continue for some distance
under a bend in the wall of a gully.
The bear evidently ran into many of
these caves, passing out of each at
the other end. Finally, four hours
after starting, we had run him to
ground. We had found a cave with
his track going in at one end and
not coming out at the other ; and,
by putting our ears against the bank,
we could hear his labored breathing.
341
Biographical Notice
The cave was unusually long per-
haps 30 or 40 feet. Its upper end,
by which the bear had entered, was
hardly more than a foot high ; the
other opening was high enough to
be entered on hands and knees.
The grizzly could be only heard, not
seen ; but the sound indicated that
he was nearer the upper end. Va-
rious attempts at dislodgment by
smoking, etc., were unsuccessful ; and
finally King, who had poked his head
far enough in at the upper end to
see in the dark, said he could dis-
tinguish the animal's eyes, and would
go in and shoot him. So I was sta-
tioned at the lower opening in case
the bear should come out that way,
and King wriggled himself into the
little hole at the upper end, until he
was far enough in to raise his body
on one elbow and put his rifle to his
shoulder. Even then he could not
distinguish the form of the bear in
342
Rossiter W. Raymond
the darkness ; but he could see the
gleam of its two eyes and feel its
hot breath. Nor could he, at first,
distinguish the sights of his rifle ;
but, after accustoming himself some-
what to the darkness, he aimed as
best he could between the eyes, and
fired. The big soldier who had been
stationed for that purpose behind
him, at once dragged him out by the
heels, and, in his excitement, kept on
dragging long after he had got his
man out. As a result, King's face
was badly scratched in the sand.
We were not absolutely sure that
the bear was dead ; but, as there was
no sound, I went into my end of the
cave, and succeeded in getting a strap
round its neck, by means of which
and the combined slow tugging of
all hands we succeeded in dragging
it into daylight. We then saw that
King's ball had struck true, and pene-
trated the brain."
343
Biographical Notice
Mr. Hague contributes another
reminiscence of King's self-posses-
sion under exciting circumstances.
He was pursuing an elk, which finally
turned and charged upon him. For
a moment he was in considerable
personal danger; but he came out
victor, as usual. Listening, some
time after, to King's story of the
adventure, Hague said, " King, how
did that elk look to you at the
critical moment ? " " Like a first-class
hat-rack on a mule ! " was the in-
stant reply.
It was in the first or second year
of my field-work as United States
Commissioner of Mining Statistics
that I made the acquaintance of
Clarence King. He was at that
time camped with a small party on
a terrace overlooking the Salt Lake
Valley, and invited me to dine with
him in his camp. I had just come
from a very rapid examination of
344
Rossiter W. Raymond
some of the canons in the Wahsatch
range, and he had been traversing
the Uinta Mountains farther east.
I remember the surprise with which
I found him maintaining in the field,
as far as possible, the decencies and
elegancies of city life. Knowing of
him as an explorer, hunter and ath-
lete already famous, I could scarcely
recognize my own expectation in the
polished gentleman who, in immacu-
late linen, silk stockings, low shoes,
and clothing without a wrinkle, re-
ceived me at a dinner, simple enough
in its material constituents, but served
in a style which I had not found
west of the Missouri. When I at-
tempted to make fun of him for
" roughing it " in this ^ay, he re-
plied seriously : " It is all very well
for you, who lead a civilized life nine
or ten months in the year, and only
get into the field for a few weeks
at a time, to let yourself down to
345
Biographical Notice
the pioneer level, and disregard the
small elegancies of dress and man-
ners which you can afterwards easily
resume, because you have not laid
them aside long enough to forget
them. But I, who have been for
years constantly in the field, would
have lost my good habits altogether
if I had not taken every possible
opportunity to practice them. We
don't dine this way every day, but
we do so whenever we can." I had
abundant opportunity in after years
to see King at work as well as at
rest ; and I never knew a man more
eager, tireless and reckless in field-
work above or underground, while
at the same time he maintained
always the instinct and practice of
refined manners. It was, indeed,
almost invariably his custom to have
with him a personal attendant, who
looked after his clothing, etc. One
such, who was with him for years,
346
Rossiter W. Raymond
came to be an invaluable assistant
in geological underground work, ob-
serving with great acuteness, although
without scientific knowledge, indica-
tions which more learned men might
have overlooked. I cannot forbear
an anecdote told me by King of
another valet of his, whose life was
in his work, and who judged of all
things in the world by their relations
to it. At a gentleman's country-
seat, with good servants' accommo-
dations, ample facilities for blacking
boots and brushing clothing, well-
trimmed lawns and genteel society,
he was in Paradise ; but experience
in the muddy or dusty wilderness
half paralyzed his usefulness and
wholly quenched his enjoyment. On
one occasion, attended by this man
only, King made his way to the
Grand Canon of the Colorado, and
stood for a time dumb upon its brink,
overwhelmed with the vastness and
347
Biographical Notice
the glory of the scene. At last it
seemed to him that he must speak ;
and, as he turned away, he said :
" Well, Joe, how does it strike you ? "
" It is no place for a gentleman,
sir ! " was the reply.*
* EDITORIAL NOTE. The above-named
" Joe " might well have been the same long-
time manservant (Alexander), of whom a
story was told some twenty years ago, which
well exemplifies his gentlemanly instincts and
cultivated manners.
On a certain occasion when Mr. Abram S.
Hewitt and Mr. King were together in Paris,
it became necessary for Mr. Hewitt to cross
over to London at a time when he was so far
from well that his attempt to make the jour-
ney alone would have been very imprudent.
On Mr. King's urgent insistence Mr. Hewitt
consented to take Alexander with him as his
personal attendant. When they arrived at
the Paris station of departure, Mr. Hewitt
and Alexander were both surprised and
amused at meeting the most courteous of
railway officials, who, evidently awaiting the
coming of expected travelers, immediately
began to render every possible service, re-
348
Rossiter W. Raymond
The most famous incident of the
Fortieth Parallel Survey was the ex-
posure by King of the " Diamond
Having them of all hand-luggage and per-
sonal impedimenta, and escorting them to
a specially reserved railway carriage, into
which the travelers were unhesitatingly as-
sisted, Alexander, much against his will, pre-
ceding Mr. Hewitt, under the irresistible
guidance of their escorting officials.
These extraordinary attentions were con-
tinued throughout the journey, and were
only clearly understood when it became
known, later on, that the officials of the rail-
way company at Paris had been requested to
show their most respectful attentions to a
certain Oriental Prince, who, attended by an
English companion, was expected to leave
Paris for London by the same train which
Mr. Hewitt had also chosen for his journey,
with the result that Alexander was mistaken
for the expected Prince and Mr. Hewitt for
his gentleman-in-waiting. It is said that
Alexander bore with becoming dignity the
honors thus unwittingly thrust upon him,
while, at the same time, he failed in no re-
respect in his duties to Mr. Hewitt. J. D. H.
349
Biographical Notice
Swindle" of 1872. A full account of
this episode will be found in the Engin-
eering and Mining Journal of Dec. i o,
1872, together with my own editorial
comments, based upon private know-
ledge as well as published reports.
The whole affair reflected the greatest
credit upon King's personal honor and
loyal friendship its most creditable
feature being the way in which he
managed the exposure so as to prevent
further loss by innocent investors, and,
at the same time, to avert unmerited
disgrace from equally innocent pro-
moters and experts. By a sudden and
sensational disclosure he might have
won cheap distinction for himself, at the
cost of cruel injustice to others. . . .
The great success and popularity
of the United States Geological Sur-
vey has been due, without doubt, not
only to the liberal support of Con-
gress, which King, more than any
other one man, was able to influence,
350
Rossiter W. Raymond
and to the wise organization and far-
reaching plans which he impressed
upon this institution in its creation,
but also to the ability, loyalty, ac-
tivity and intelligent enthusiasm of
the young men who received their
training under him during the For-
tieth Parallel Survey, and many of
whom have since won high reputa-
tion by their independent researches.
The recent volume on " Ore De-
posits," published by this Institute,
bears testimony to the extraordinary
advance in that department of geo-
logical science in which American
observers may fairly be said to have
taken the lead. No doubt they have
won this distinction largely by reason
of three exceptionally favorable con-
ditions, namely : the vast and rich
field for investigation offered by the
territory of the United States ; the
active development of this field by
mining ; and the liberal expenditures,
351
Biographical Notice
both State and Federal, which have
been made for the study of economic
geology. But these favorable con-
ditions would have amounted to noth-
ing without the men competent to
take advantage of them, and the wise
provision made for such investiga-
tions by the first Director of the
U. S. Geological Survey.
King's important contributions to
scientific literature, apart from his
work on public surveys, were very
few. Probably the most important
were his address at the Sheffield Sci-
entific School, in June, 1877, on " Ca-
tastrophism and the Evolution of
Environment," and his paper on " The
Age of the Earth," published Jan-
uary, 1893, in the American Journal
of Science.
I know that King considered the
praise of this work by Lord Kelvin
as one of the greatest honors ever
bestowed upon him.
352
Rossiter W. Raymond
To general literature he contrib-
uted one delightful book, Mountain-
eering in the Sierra Nevada, and a
few magazine articles. The book de-
scribes the scenery and the people
encountered by him in his early Cali-
fornia experiences, and has never
been surpassed as a gallery of vivid,
graceful, and imaginative yet accur-
ate sketches of nature and men. Bret
Harte's admirable work is more ro-
mantic, more artificial, less delicately
humorous, and less perfect in style.
Indeed, considering the relatively
small amount of King's literary work,
his mastery of style was wonderful.
Perhaps the most perfect specimen
of it was his fanciful sketch, The
Helmet of Mambrino, published in
the Century.
Doubtless one reason why he did
not publish more was, as Mr. Em-
mons suggests, his fastidious taste,
which led him to be dissatisfied with
2 3 353
Biographical Notice
anything less than the best work.
But this is not, to me, a full explana-
tion. The possessor of such a gift of
expression, and so rich a repertory
of knowledge, and suggestions wait-
ing for utterance, usually feels, also,
the spontaneous impulse to make use
of them. King was not an exception.
He talked often of things he would
like to write, and intended to write,
some day. But he never found time
for such labors, partly because of the
exigent social demands made upon
him ; partly because of the necessity
for more active and arduous occupa-
tion, to which he was repeatedly, if
not continuously, subject. A man
can do literary work in his stolen
leisure, and yet be a darling of soci-
ety, shining brightly in the club and
at the dinner-table ; or he may be
active in business and professional
engagements, and still keep enough
time and strength for quieter pur-
354
Rossiter W. Raymond
suits. But he cannot be and do all
three. King, especially, could not do
this, because his brilliant talk exer-
cised and fatigued the same faculties
as if it had been pen-work. If he felt
the impulse of utterance he wore it
out in talking, and often threw away
upon the transitory entertainment of
a few what might have been the en-
during delight of a multitude. An
instance was furnished by a dinner-
party in Washington, just before the
outbreak of the late Spanish war, at
which King was present, and ex-
pressed with vivacity his views and
expectations. He had lived in Cuba,
was intimate with some of the patriot
leaders there, and was thoroughly ac-
quainted with their plans and cam-
paigns.* But he had also sailed the
Pacific, and had an intelligent notion
of the situation in the far East, of
* See his Forum articles, " Shall Cuba be
Free ? " and " Fire and Sword in Cuba."
355
Biographical Notice
which few of us were specially think-
ing at that time. And his prediction
was this : "If war is declared with
Spain, the first thing to happen will
be that George Dewey will go into
Manila harbor and sink the whole
Spanish fleet ! " If he had put that
day's talk in print, with what prophet's
glory it would have crowned him !
Long after, he said to me, " I was a
little startled to have the thing so
quickly and completely come to pass ;
yet I made the remark upon good
reasons. I had lived with Dewey,
and knew him well ; I knew where he
was, and that he could not stay there
after a declaration of war ; if he had
to go somewhere, he would be sure
to go where the Spanish fleet was ;
and if he found it, he would sink
it ! You see, the argument was
complete ! "
After all, the chief hindrance to
King's literary activity was the neces-
356
O)
X ,
'
Rossiter W. Raymond
sity of earning money in his profes-
sion. Several times in the course of
his life he suffered financial reverses,
which forced him practically to begin
over again, and to work as a mining
engineer in the field sometimes di-
recting or advising, sometimes valu-
ing, sometimes buying and selling.
Of three companies which opened, re-
spectively, the Las Prietas mine, in
Sonora, the Las Yedras, in Sinaloa,
and the Sombrerete, in Zacatecas,
he was the president ; and he was
actively connected with the Rich-
mond, at Eureka, Nevada, and other
American mines.
On many occasions he was engaged
as an expert witness in mining law-
suits. I need hardly say that, while
he was in the service of the United
States, he gave no such assistance to
private interests. Indeed, he was
quick to perceive that the members
of the public scientific surveys must
359
Biographical Notice
be kept free from any suspicion of
utilizing, for the benefit of any party
smaller than the whole of a mining
community, the knowledge gained in
that capacity ; and he exacted from
every subordinate a pledge in this
particular, corresponding with his own
practice. But when not thus honor-
ably bound, he repeatedly acted as
adviser, or gave expert testimony, for
clients. In this line, having both
encountered Mr. King as an opponent
and benefited by his assistance as a
colleague, I may claim to be qualified
as a critic of his work or rather of
his character as shown by his work.
In the first place, he was, as I think
an expert witness ought to be, an
honest partisan. He did not carry to
the witness stand the doubts or un-
certainties which he might have felt
during his previous study of the case.
He came forward with a theory al-
ready deliberately adopted, and for
360
Rossiter W. Raymond
that theory (in the absence of new
evidence disproving it) he was pre-
pared to fight.
But this final temper and attitude
had the indispensable safeguard of an
inexhaustible curiosity and candor in
previous inquiry. I have known, in
my time, many mining experts, and
their personal methods of studying
mining cases. But I never met King's
equal in insatiable desire to find out
beforehand anything that anybody
else knew or could know, whether it
were relevant and important to the
case in hand or not. I can remember
him as going into a mine at early
morning, taking his lunch with him ;
coming out late in the afternoon ;
bathing and dressing for dinner ; then,
aroused by some casual table-talk,
putting on his underground clothes
again, and spending the greater part
of the night in the mine, just to
" settle the point" though the point
361
Biographical Notice
was not perceptibly pertinent to the
immediate case in which he was
engaged.
In general, his exhaustive prep-
aration and wonderful general
knowledge, reinforced by his alert
self-possession, ready wit and unfail-
ing good-nature, made him a most
effective expert witness and a terror
to cross-examiners.
After retiring from the U. S. Geo-
logical Survey, King spent three
years (1882, '83 and '84) studying the
geology of Scotland, Switzerland and
Central Europe, occasionally visiting
a mining district, like Bilbao, Rio
Tinto or Almaden, and enjoying the
social courtesies eagerly extended
to him by the leaders of scientific
thought, to whom his work had al-
ready made him known and his charm-
ing personality soon endeared him.
At a later period, after recovery
from a severe illness, he spent a win-
362
Rossiter W. Raymond
ter in Cuba, at the country-house of
an American friend, and became
deeply interested not only in the
politics, but also in the general and
economic geology of that island,
examining particularly some of the
important iron and manganese de-
posits of the Santiago district. He
conceived a high opinion of the min-
eral wealth of Cuba ; and it was at
least his dream, if not his definite
intention and hope, that some day,
when Cuba should be free, he would
organize for that field, as he had done
for a greater, a national geological
survey.
I notice that Mr. Emmons * dates
the final illness of Clarence King from
an attack of pneumonia in 1901.
From personal knowledge, I would
put the beginning further back.
During the spring of 1900 I was
* In his foregoing memoir quoted from the
American Journal of Science.
363
Biographical Notice
associated with King in the long trial
of a case at Butte, Montana. The
season was unusually mild and the
atmosphere of Butte unusually clear.
Perhaps these balmy conditions
tempted people to imprudent expos-
ure. At all events, the town was
afflicted with a veritable pestilence of
pneumonia. In popular rumor the fa-
tality was 90 per cent.; in actual statis-
tics it was 54 per cent, of all the victims
attacked. Among the counsel, par-
ties and witnesses in our case, or in
their families, eleven died during the
trial. King prepared himself with
his usual pertinacity and industry,
spending many hours underground
and taking prudent precautions
against chills ; but he had an annoy-
ing hoarseness, which he could not
shake off. After giving his testimony
he made a rapid trip to Salt Lake,
for -change of air and altitude, and
in a couple of weeks returned, still
364
Rossiter W. Raymond
uncomfortable, though not alarmed.
But by that time the rest of us were
anxious for him, and, against his will,
made him consult a physician, who
put him to bed instantly. This
prompt measure saved him from a
serious illness ; but the escape was a
narrow one, as he was willing to ac-
knowledge after a few days' confine-
ment. He was not allowed to take
further part in the trial, and it was
over before he was able to leave his
room. When he told me that he ex-
pected to go to the Klondike that
summer, I felt a thrill of apprehen-
sion, and ventured a remonstrance.
But, like all habitually healthy peo-
ple, he thought nothing more of a
temporary illness, once it was over ;
and to the Klondike he went, with
the seeds of pulmonary trouble al-
ready sown in him. After the ex-
posures of the Klondike trip he
had a second and severe attack of
365
Biographical Notice
pneumonia, brought on in 1901 by a
fresh exposure during the examina-
tion of a mining property in inclem-
ent weather. From that time the
progress of tuberculosis was rapid
and irresistible. With superb cour-
age and calmness he fought to the
end the hopeless battle, seeking in
vain, at Prescott and Los Angeles,
cure of his malady, and finally re-
turning from Southern California to
Phoenix, Arizona, where he died with-
out pain, December 24, 1901. With
characteristic unselfishness he had
refused all offers of companionship
from friends or relatives, and made
his last brave fight alone.
Many, no doubt, have had ampler
and more continuous association with
Clarence King than I enjoyed during
the one third of a century covered
by our unbroken friendship. He
was one who could pick up, after any
lapse of time, however long, the asso-
366
Rossiter W. Raymond
ciations and reciprocities of the past,
and make the intervening separation
seem not to have been at all. How-
ever one might have been offended
by his neglect to answer letters, or let
himself be heard from in any way,
five minutes of his presence was
enough to show that the old friend,
unchanged, had come to see the old
friend, expecting an unchanged wel-
come. And what he expected, he
received. I never heard of anybody
who refused to forgive Clarence King
for neglect of conventional obliga-
tions and I fancy all who knew him
had occasion for such forgiveness.
My own theory of the matter is, that
he was so universally beloved, and
responded so easily to congenial com-
panions, as to make it impossible for
him to keep up, by the usual means
of visits, letters, etc., the innumerable
ties which he thus formed, without
sacrificing all the more serious labors
367
Biographical Notice
and ambitions of his life. A man
can forswear society altogether and
do his life's work ; or he can give
himself up to society and let his work
go. King took a middle course, con-
tinuing to study and to labor, while
he freely gave and received social en-
joyment, but defied the engrossing
demands of formal etiquette. And
" society " forgave him, because it
could not have him on any other
terms.
But perhaps it was given to me, in
hours of unconstrained communion,
to gain a deeper glimpse into his
character than many days of mere su-
perficial association could have given.
And I found him clean to the bot-
tom ; full of noble scorn for things
trivial, vile and selfish ; alive to the
highest ideals ; ready for the service
of human needs.
It was in such an hour that he told
me (veiling with a transparent whim-
368
Rossiter W. Raymond
sical humor of narration his earnest
feeling) of his " Sunday-school " in
London, where he used to meet,
on Sunday afternoons, the girls em-
ployed in Cross & Blackwell's famous
pickle-factory, and talk to them in
fashion " not quite orthodox, perhaps,
but then, again, not so awfully heter-
odox either ! " and how, finding
his Sunday-school utterly ignorant of
the beauties and joys of green grass
and flowers, he organized an excur-
sion for them, securing, by unlimited
use of his aristocratic acquaintances,
unprecedented privileges for it, so
that his delighted proteges, conveyed
and convoyed by him on a special
train, not only had afternoon tea on
the lawn in Windsor Park, but the
dear old Queen herself came out of
the palace, walked among them, and
accepted a cup of tea from a proud
member of the company ! King's wit-
ty account of his " happy hen-party"
369
Biographical Notice
I cannot undertake to reproduce.
But there was for me something
dearer and deeper in it than its spark-
ling surface.
Few among those who have
achieved distinction in the labors
or the literature of science have
also impressed upon their generation
a vivid sense of their own person-
ality. In the majority of instances,
I think, such men have hid them-
selves in their work, sacrificing to it
the varied enjoyments and associa-
tions through which they might have
become better known to their con-
temporaries. Perhaps we might say
that, in this age, scientific distinction
must be won, as a rule, in some spe-
cialty, and at the cost of an exclusive
devotion to that one department ;
so that the great specialist, however
versatile he might have become, if all
his original endowments had been
utilized, is at last, to the eyes of men,
370
Rossiter W. Raymond
simply the impersonal representative
of one idea or sphere. On this point
we have the frank, pathetic confes-
sion of Darwin, that many aesthetic
faculties and tastes, once his, became
atrophied in the course of years de-
voted to a single study. After the
death of such a man, a sympathetic
biographer may lift the veil and show
to all what had been known before to
few, his personal traits and charms ;
thus filling up with detail and color
the hard, meager outline of him pre-
sented by his special work alone.
Clarence King did not thus sacri-
fice himself to his work. His buoy-
ant personality dominated his whole
career. Gay, versatile, debonair, irre-
sistible, gentle, honorable, " tender
and true," he was greater and dearer
than his work. We shall have, as
we have had, many prophets and
pioneers of science ; but the King is
dead and there is no King to follow !
371
Biographical Notice
The following list comprises the
principal published works of Clarence
King:
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada , Bos-
ton, 1870.
Mining Industry (by James D. Hague, with
geological contributions by Clarence King^
vol. iii. of the Fortieth Parallel Reports
Government Printing Office, Washington,
1870.
" Active Glaciers within the United States,"
Atlantic Monthly, March, 1871.
" On the Discovery of Actual Glaciers on
the Mountains of the Pacific Slope," Am.
Jour. Set., 3d ser., vol. i., p. 157, 1871.
" Notes on Observed Glacial Phenomena
and the Terminal Moraine of the N. E.
Glacier," Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol.
xix., p. 60, 1876.
" Paleozoic Subdivisions of the Fortieth
Parallel," Am. your. Set., $d ser., vol. xi.,
p. 475, 1876.
372
Rossiter W. Raymond
" Notes on the Uinta and Wahsatch
Ranges," Ibid., p. 494.
" Catastrophism and Evolution," Am. Nat.,
vol. ii., p. 449, l8 77-
Systematic Geology, vol. i. of the Fortieth
Parallel Reports, Government Printing Office,
Washington, 1878.
First Annual Report of the U. S. Geological
Survey, Government Printing Office, Wash-
ington, 1880.
" On the Physical Constants of Rocks," U.
S. Geol. Survey, 3d Ann. Report, p. 3, Gov-
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 1883.
" Style and the Monument," North Am.
Review, Nov., 1885. (An article on the
proposed Grant monument anonymous, but
known by friends of Mr. King to have been
written by him.)
"Artium Magister," North Am. Review,
Oct., 1888.
" The Age of the Earth," Amer. Jour. Sci-
ence, vol. xlv., Jan., 1893.
" The Helmet of Mambrino," Century, p.
154, May, 1886.
" The Biographers of Lincoln," Century, p.
861, Oct., 1886.
"The Education of the Future," Forum,
p. 20, March, 1892.
373
Biographical Notice
"Shall Cuba be Free?" Forum, p. 50,
Sept., 1895.
" Fire and Sword in Cuba," Forum, p. 31,
Sept., 1896.
374
Memorabilia
James D. Hague
375
Memorabilia
MY personal acquaintance with
Clarence King began in 1862,
when, at the age of twenty, he was
studying at the Yale Scientific School.
He was my junior by several years
and we were not intimately associated
there as fellow-students ; but I well
remember him as he was then, an
active, sprightly youth, quick to ob-
serve and apprehend, full of joyous
animation and lively energy, which
always made him a leader of the front
rank, whether in the daily exercises
of the classroom and laboratory or in
an impromptu raid by night on Hill-
house Avenue front fences, with the
mischievous purpose of lifting off and
swapping around in neighborly ex-
change the door-yard gates of lawns
377
Memorabilia
and gardens. "Off fences must come,"
he sometimes said of the gates, " but
woe unto him by whom they come
if found out."
In the following year, 1863, King
left Yale and went with his school-
mate, Gardiner, to California, cross-
ing the plains on horseback, with the
emigrant party referred to in already
recorded memoirs which plainly show
how the important experiences of this
journey essentially determined King's
subsequent career and the character
of his scientific life-work.
One of the personally interesting
incidents of that expedition, hitherto
unrecorded, so far as I know, which
King, many years ago, used to relate
with thrilling effect, was an exciting
experience in buffalo hunting, which
occurred not far from Fort Kearney,
where, hearing of large herds of buf-
falo in the vicinity, King determined
to try his luck in getting one. He
378
James D. Hague
engaged as guide and companion of
his sport a locally well-known hunter
and bought a superior horse, said to
have been especially trained for buf-
falo. They set out early one morn-
ing and soon came up with a large
grazing herd, scattered widely over
the plains, as far as they could see.
As the men rode in among them the
guide told King to pick out the buf-
falo of his choice and go for him. A
minute or two later King was in full
chase of the best-looking bull in sight,
dashing along, nearly side by side,
King with revolver in hand, ready to
fire at the first chance. After run-
ning about two miles they descended
into a shallow basin-like depression,
in the bottom of which King fired an
effective shot, whereupon the bull
made a stand to attack the horse and
rider, who had by this time turned
about, facing the charging buffalo and
looking back in the direction whence
379
Memorabilia
they had come. Just at this instant
there appeared in view, swiftly de-
scending into the depressed arena
which was, for the moment, the field
of action, the madly pursuing herd,
which had been stampeded, partly by
King's chase and partly by his slowly
following companion. The sight of
this so disconcerted King's horse, at
the critical moment of attack, that
he failed to escape the fatal thrust of
the wounded and dying bull, so that
buffalo, horse and rider went down
together in a heap, King unfortun-
ately jammed to the ground by the
weight of the horse, lying on his leg.
Although suffering from the severe
physical strain and in mortal fear of
being trampled to death by the flying
herd, King remained conscious while,
as he said, a mile and a half of solid
buffalo galloped past, more than ever
alarmed and terrified by what they
saw, and wildly rushing by him on
380
James D. Hague
both sides of the narrow field of bat-
tle, crowding and leaping upon and
over each other in their mad efforts
to get away from the visible cause of
their panic. When the hunter ar-
rived, after the rush and danger had
passed, he found the bull and the
horse quite dead and very nearly so
poor King, who was with difficulty
relieved from his painful position and
taken to Kearney for medical care
and recovery.
It was after more than three years
of geological campaigning and moun-
taineering in California and Arizona
that King appeared in Washington,
early in 1867, as the advocate and
promoter of his newly conceived pro-
ject, the organization and conduct of
the United States Geological Ex-
ploration of the Fortieth Parallel. He
came furnished with the best of social
introductions, letters of scientific com-
mendation and political endorsement;
381
Memorabilia
but it was his personal charm and
captivating speech that won for him
an immediate and enduring success.
Senators, representatives and govern-
ment officials of every grade became
at once his admiring friends. Fes-
senden, of Maine, after an evening's
companionship with King at Sam
Hooper's genial dinner -table, was
himself almost persuaded to be a sci-
entist, and professed his conversion in
saying, " If I were not United States
Senator I would be United States
Geologist." Another senator, on the
same occasion, was so charmed by
King's descriptive powers that he
confessed a strong desire to actually
see with his own eyes " those marvel-
ous isothermal lines " which King had
pictured to him with the fascinating
effect of an Aurora Borealis. Con-
ness, of California, was King's ardent
advocate and a most zealous worker
for his interests in all matters de-
382
James D. Hague
manding senatorial action. As long
as John Conness remained in the
Senate he was a faithful supporter
of the Fortieth Parallel Survey. On
one occasion, when legislative author-
ity and appropriation of money be-
came necessary for the work of the
Survey and, especially in the case re-
ferred to, for the publication of the
report, Mr. Conness, being just then
absent from Washington, on being
advised that the then pending bill,
containing the vitally important item,
would probably come up for action
next morning, hastily returned by
night and took his place in the Senate
Chamber at the opening of the ses-
sion. The attendance of senators
was very small when the measure was
finally brought to a vote, fortunately,
in the hands of a friendly presiding
officer. The call for " ayes," not-
withstanding the encouraging voice
of Mr. Conness, was met with what
383
Memorabilia
seemed like deadly silence to King,
anxiously watching and listening in
the gallery. The call for "noes"
passed, happily, with still less note-
worthy response. " The ayes seem
to have it," said the presiding officer
tentatively "the ayes have it," he
continued decisively " 't is a vote,"
he announced in conclusion, and the
thing was done, much to King's relief
and satisfaction.
On another occasion, when the
maintenance of the Fortieth Parallel
Exploration depended upon the adop-
tion of a certain amendment in an
Appropriation Bill, then pending in
the House, King sought to engage
the favorable attention and interest
of General "Ben" Butler, chairman,
I believe, of the all-important com-
mittee, and set forth the character
of the work and of the men em-
ployed in it. " Do you mean to
say" inquired Butler, "that there are
384
James D. Hague
no regular officers no West Pointers
in this thing?" " Not one " said
King. " Are you all all civilians ? "
Butler insisted. " Every one," King
again assured him. " Then " said the
General, with unquotable emphasis,
" it shall go through ! " and so it did.
When the Secretary of War handed
King his letter of appointment, im-
mediately after the accomplishment
of the first necessary legislation, au-
thorizing the work, he said, " Now,
Mr. King, the sooner you get out of
Washington, the better you are too
young a man to be seen about town
with this appointment in your pocket
there are four major-generals who
want your place."
King's party was organized early
in 1867 and nearly all of its mem-
bers left New York for California,
via Panama, by the steamer of May
i st. King started by the following
ship, unaccompanied by any of his
385
Memorabilia
intimate associates, and with few, if
any, companions of his acquaintance.
While crossing the Isthmus he met
with an unusual experience which,
some years thereafter, formed a part of
one of his favorite stories, hitherto un-
recorded, so far as I know, although
he sometimes said he had been asked
to make a written statement of the
facts, in the interest of psychical re-
search. As I now recall the story it
so happened that after the ship's
passengers had disembarked at As-
pinwall and had taken their places
in the train for Panama, there oc-
curred a long delay before departure,
during which many of the travelers
left the cars and wandered about the
station premises, regardless of the
risk of being left behind in the event
of a sudden start. Presently the train
moved without notice, leaving many
passengers to get aboard as best they
might, while King, standing by chance
386
James D. Hague
on the rear platform, suddenly found
a little baby in his arms, placed there
by its mother, who, crying aloud, was
already running as fast as she could
in pursuit of her other child, a little
boy, then playing at the distant end
of the platform, so far away that the
unhappy and almost frantic woman
was quite unable to capture him and
again overtake the rapidly moving
train, from the receding end of which,
King could only wave the baby, as a
sign of accepting the charge thus
suddenly thrust upon him.
This new responsibility proved
most embarrassing. His unheeded
appeals for assistance met only with
derision. Much to his surprise and
disappointment he found no one,
man or woman, among all his unsym-
pathetic fellow-passengers, willing to
offer aid or comfort or to share, in
any way, the duties of a baby's nurse,
wet or dry. Moreover there were
387
Memorabilia
many imaginable but unspeakable
difficulties to be dealt with on arrival
at Panama, a parting of the ways,
where King, a northbound passenger
for California, would need somehow
to be rid of the baby, whose mother,
he knew, was to go on the south-
bound steamer to Peru. He was
much relieved, after long suspense,
by the official announcement that a
following train from Aspinwall would
reach Panama a few hours later,
bringing all left-over passengers, and
that all connecting steamers would
await that arrival. It only remained,
therefore, for King, while at Panama,
to find the ways and means of sup-
plying the crying needs of the baby,
who by this time was in want of
everything a baby ever does want.
His plan was soon conceived and
promptly carried into execution.
Holding the baby on one hand and
his parasol-umbrella in the other, he
James D. Hague
set out to walk the streets and by-
ways of Panama, seeking some house
of inviting aspect, with outward and
visible signs of babes and sucklings
within, where he might get his baby
washed, dressed and nourished by
some willing mother. This intel-
ligent scheme was completely suc-
cessful. In a neat and tidy cabin,
containing a small family of English-
speaking, " light-complected " colored
women, one of whom was the health-
ful - looking mother of a nursing
child, King quickly found the whole-
some succor he was looking for. He
told his story to a sympathetic and
promptly responsive audience, who
immediately took the baby into
camp, telling King to take a walk
for an hour or two, when he might
return to find his charge refreshed
within and without. When he came
back he waited at the cabin, talking
with the friendly women, while the
389
Memorabilia
baby slept until train-time, when,
having liberally rewarded his hos-
pitable benefactresses, he returned
to the railway-station, restored the
child to its anxious mother and went
on his way rejoicing in the happy
issue out of all his troubles, and with-
out the smallest expectation of ever
again seeing any of the participants
in the strange adventure.
A few weeks later, King, who had,
in the meantime, fitted out his ex-
expedition at Sacramento, California,
was moving with his train of army
wagons and mounted scientists across
the Sierra towards Nevada, the field
of his first summer's campaign. He
camped for Sunday near the little
town of Alta, on the western slope
of the range, whose curious inhab-
itants, mistaking the strange outfit
for a circus, came around during the
day to inquire when the show would
begin. Among these visitors was
390
James D. Hague
a mulatto-like young man, large,
strong, well-built and pleasing in
look and manner, who, when he had
heard from King what it was, seemed
to conceive an irresistible desire to
join the party ; and his services,
offered for any possible duty, were
promptly accepted for the oppor-
tunely created place of cook's mate.
This engagement proved to be the
beginning of a most important chap-
ter in the young man's life.
His name was " Jim." According
to his own story he was born in
Jamaica, in the West Indies. He
ran away from home when he was
seven years old, went to sea as cabin-
boy, continued going to and fro in
the world and sailing up and down
in it until he landed in California
and found his way to Alta, where
he was in service as a cook when
favoring fortune brought him into
King's camp. Since his first escape
391
Memorabilia
from home he had heard nothing of
his mother. He had learned some-
how that she was no longer living
in Jamaica ; whether dead, or alive
elsewhere, he did not know.
Jim's tenure of office soon became
permanent, outlasting the service of
all the other camp-men. When the
field-work had been completed he
went with King to Washington as
his personal servant and office-man.
The Fortieth Parallel Exploration
party had working quarters in an
otherwise unoccupied and wholly un-
furnished house, hired for the pur-
pose. All members of the corps
lived elsewhere, excepting' King and
Jim, who lodged in the house. Some
of Jim's colored friends told him
that the house was haunted ; and
their ghost stories, apparently con-
firmed by strange and, for a time,
unexplained noises, in the dead of
night, due, in fact, to the drying
392
James D. Hague
of unseasoned wood in the new of-
fice-tables and large draughting-
boards, which cracked and split with
fearfully loud reports, developed in
Jim's unscientific mind an extreme
susceptibility to spiritualistic mani-
festations. After some time the
party moved to New Haven, occupy-
ing another house, where King also
lodged in one of the main sleeping-
rooms, while Jim's bed was in the
attic. One night, King was suddenly
aroused from sound sleep by Jim's
precipitate descent of the attic stairs
and startling entrance into his room,
too terrified for speech.
" What s the matter, Jim ? " King
asked repeatedly, "What's the
matter ? "
" I 've seen my mother!" Jim gasped
at length.
" Nonsense! " said King, " You 're
dreaming, Jim! Go back to bed!"
But Jim protested and refused to
393
Memorabilia
go back to his attic, under any
circumstances.
" Did you speak to her ? " in-
quired King.
"No, indeed!" said Jim, "I was
too scared to speak."
" Did you touch her?"
" I came down stairs right through
her right through her," he repeated,
" as she stood on the stairs."
When Jim had regained his com-
posure sufficiently, he lay down on
the floor in King's room and waited
for morning.
A few hours later, while King was
taking his breakfast, served, as usual,
by J im, a telegram arrived, addressed
to King and signed with the name
of a colored clergyman in San Fran-
cisco, well known to King, stating,
in effect, that a certain woman was
then in San Francisco, seeking her
long-lost son, James Marryatt, who,
when last heard from, was known
394
James D. Hague
to be in Mr. King's employ, and
asking for any further information
concerning him.
To this dispatch an answer was
promptly returned, giving the desired
information concerning Jim and say-
ing that he would start that evening
for San Francisco, to see his mother
there.
It so happened that King was then
preparing and expecting to go to
California within a few days. On re-
ceipt of the above-mentioned tele-
gram, he determined to send Jim
immediately and to follow in person
a little later. He accordingly arrived
in San Francisco not many days there-
after and went to his hotel, where Jim
was his earliest visitor, bringing his
mother with him. As she entered
the room and met King face to face,
recognizing and greeting him imme-
diately with vigorous expressions of
surprise and pleasure, she exclaimed
395
Memorabilia
abruptly: "Well! I declare! And
how 's that baby ? "
The woman who had cared for
King's baby in her cabin at Panama
was Jim's mother !
One very notable and highly sensa-
tional result of Mr. King's work on
the Fortieth Parallel Exploration, and
one which gave him much fame both
in this country and elsewhere, was his
startling discovery of the great swindle
in the " salted " diamond fields of
Wyoming, late in 1872. Early in
that year it had been noised abroad
that a great find of diamonds and
other precious stones had been dis-
covered somewhere in the far West,
presumably in Arizona, although the
precise locality was most carefully
concealed. A large number of the
gems, of unquestionably considerable
value, had been carried, it was said,
from the alleged fields to San Fran-
cisco and New York, where the most
396
James D. Hague
influential capitalists, who had been
led to believe the favorable reports
thus far presented, had invested large
sums of money in the purchase of
the ground said to be diamond-bear-
ing, and were preparing for the in-
tended operation of the so-called
mines on a large scale, which would
soon have caused a rush of fortune-
hunters and adventurers comparable
to the California immigration in '49
and '50. Through information gained
by one or more of his assistants, it
suddenly came to Mr. King's knowl-
edge that the locality of the alleged
diamond find was not in Arizona, but
in Wyoming and really within the
region of his own field-work of the
Fortieth Parallel survey. Not then
suspecting a fraud, but, on the con-
trary, having good reason to regard
as trustworthy the favorable reports
of the well-known engineer who,
shortly before, had visited the fields
397
Memorabilia
with the leading promoters of the
enterprise, King hastened to the des-
ignated locality, not with the ex-
pectation of unearthing a swindle,
but for the purpose of studying the
new diamond field, and making his
official report on what then seemed
to be a discovery of great national
importance.
He set out promptly with two or
three assistants, and duly reached his
destination, following the trail with-
out difficulty from Bridger, a station
of the Union Pacific Railroad in
Wyoming. He soon found diamonds
and rubies in abundance, but his sus-
picions were quickly aroused by the
observation that the plainly visible
precious stones lay directly upon the
hard surface of rock, where Nature
alone could never have placed or left
them, and that none could be found
in the earth or on the underlying bed-
rock, where, had the occurrence been
398
James D. Hague
genuine, the inevitable laws of Nature
must have carried them ; with the
further observation that the ant-hills,
built of small pebbles mined by the
ants, which were found to bear rubies
on their surfaces or in penetrating
holes (artificially made with a small
stick), invariably showed in close
proximity the storm-worn footprints
of mankind, while other anthills, with-
out such sign of human tracks and
not pierced by any artificial holes,
were also without rubies or precious
stones of any sort. Thorough in-
vestigation, following the lines indi-
cated by these suspicions, soon proved
beyond any doubt that some design-
ing hand had " salted " the ground
with deliberate fraudulent intent.
This disclosure created a great
sensation in this country and in Eu-
rope, whence evidence was soon forth-
coming that the stones used in the
salting had been bought in large
399
Memorabilia
quantities at London and Paris dur-
ing the preceding winter, presumably
by the originators of the swindle.
The practical result of Mr. King's
disclosure of the facts in this case
was one of inestimable value, possi-
bly more in money than the whole
cost of the entire exploration of the
Fortieth Parallel Expedition. Had
the fraud remained undisclosed till
the following spring, large sums of
money would have been wasted in
the costly purchase of worthless prop-
erty and in fruitless prospecting, not
only by capitalists, but by thousands
of disappointed and ruined fortune-
seekers.
The leading and most active, even
though wholly innocent, promoter of
the diamond-mining enterprise, by no
means necessarily a participant in the
original swindle, or cognizant of the
fraud until disclosed by King, was
an old and very well-known Cali-
400
James D. Hague
fornian, one of the earliest gold-
seekers, and a lifelong projector and
operator of mining schemes, whose
name has ever since been more or
less intimately associated with this
celebrated case of diamond-salting.
It is a notably curious coincidence
that these two men Roberts, who
helped blow the bubble, and King,
at whose touch it vanished should
depart this life on the same day and
at nearly the same time, twenty-nine
years after the events in which they
were thus concerned, and so strangely
related. Within two or three hours
after King's death in Arizona, Roberts
died in New York City. Their names
and their death announcements, with
obituary notices, stand closely side
by side in parallel and adjoining col-
umns of the Times newspaper of Wed-
nesday, Christmas morning, 1901.
King, always a delightful compan-
ion, was especially so in camp.
26
401
Memorabilia
Everybody missed him when he
went away and was glad when he
came back. If any discontenting
grievances, dissensions or difficulties
had arisen during King's absence,
they all vanished before his genial
presence and cheerful spirit as soon
as he returned. Many a scanty meal
has been made good cheer by his en-
couraging pleasantries. " What do
you want outside of that ? " he once
said to me, in view of an avowedly
meager repast. " Nothing," I re-
plied, with some affectation of con-
tentment, " Nothing except my
jacket." " Good for you " he re-
turned ; and seeing that there was
really nothing to eat but beans, he
added, " Pitch in, my boy, pitch in !
Sow the wind ! Reap the whirl-
wind ! "
It was his mental habit to touch
with playful humor almost any sub-
ject, grave or gay, with which he had
402
James D. Hague
to deal. On one occasion, when I
had repeatedly written to him, in se-
rious mood, asking for a much-needed
remittance of money, he replied, at
last, in an otherwise empty but very
gracious and amiable letter, briefly
explaining why he could not possibly
send the desired funds, and subscrib-
ing himself, in good faith, " Unremit-
tingly yours, C. K."
Many years ago when King was in
the West and near a then very im-
portant mine, in which some of his
Eastern friends were largely inter-
ested, he received from one of these
owners a telegram, asking him to
visit the mine immediately and wire
the results of his examination, espe-
cially with regard to an alarming
rumor that the value of the vein had
been much impaired by finding in it
a very large " horse," which is a
miner's term for a body of worth-
less rock that sometimes displaces
403
Memorabilia
the ore and makes a rich vein poor.
When King had come out of the
mine after inspection he found an-
other telegram waiting for him from
his impatient friend, asking in effect,
" Is it true that there is a horse in
the mine ? " to which he promptly
replied, " The mine is a perfect livery
stable."
A nervous old lady once found him
much too obliging when, having en-
tered a crowded railway car, she was
about to take the only available
vacant seat alongside of King, but,
having suddenly spied his gun stand-
ing in the corner, she walked the
whole length of the car, forth and
back, repeatedly, looking for some
other seat, and, finding none, re-
turned again to King's place, saying
severely, " Young man, is that gun
loaded?" to which King instantly
replied, with a charming smile, his
eye twinkling with merriment at the
404
James D. Hague
thought of the old lady going a-
gunning for somebody, " No, ma'am,
but I can load it for you in a
minute."
On another journey from Newport
to New York King happened to en-
ter an ordinary railway car which
was wholly vacant except for a single
passenger, an elderly lady, a stranger
of interesting and companionable ap-
pearance, who was sitting quite alone
in one of the usual double seats,
much hampered with bundles, parcels
and a large bird-cage. King, ad-
vancing as though the car were full
and crowded, paused opposite the
seat only partly occupied by the lady,
saying, u Madam, is this place en-
gaged ? " and on being assured that
it was not, with prompt removal of
all encumbrances, he took his seat
there and thus completed the jour-
ney, in doubtless mutually agreeable
companionship.
405
Memorabilia
King possessed unlimited capacity
for adapting himself with natural
facility to every sort of social condi-
tion. I remember, somewhat vaguely,
a story, in effect, that he was once
a visitor at a certain country-house
in England when the Prince of
Wales, now King Edward, was a
guest there. After dinner, while the
men were still smoking, the host com-
plained of some indisposition, where-
upon the Prince begged him to retire
and leave his guests to themselves
and their own resources, saying as-
suringly, " King and I will get on
well enough together."
King seemed to have a natural
liking for the African race. In ear-
liest infancy his nurse was a colored
woman, an old family servant, for
whom he ever after cherished a life-
long regard and affectionate sym-
pathy. He had many friends among
the negro people and often sought
406
James D. Hague
their companionship when opportu-
nity offered. On one occasion, when
he was on a visit in Georgia, during
very cold weather, he attended a re-
ligious meeting of a colored congre-
gation, assembled in a large barn-like
and frigid meeting-house, without any
heating facilities whatever, except-
ing the large hot stones and bowl-
ders which many of the old women
brought with them, rolled up in
flannel petticoats or other comforting
wrappers, that they might sit or place
their shivering limbs upon. King
took an active part in the proceedings
and addressed the meeting. Not-
withstanding the bitter cold, which
might well have made unquenchable
fire an everlasting pleasure, he much
enjoyed the fervent spirit of the
prayers and hymns and soul-saving
exhortations, and he promised the
chattering congregation that, as soon
as possible, he would buy the biggest
407
Memorabilia
stove he could find in Dahlonega,
and send it to them to save their
bodies from freezing. This promise
was promptly performed and a large
four-foot stove, with ample lengths
of circumflecting stove-pipe, sufficient
to carry warmth to every part of the
room, was soon installed in the meet-
ing-house, much to the delight of the
worshipers there, who made good
use of their benefactor's gift.
Two or three years later King had
occasion to revisit the same neigh-
borhood. As he journeyed from the
railway station to his destination, a
few miles distant, he talked with the
driver of the conveyance, a white
man, concerning various matters of
local interest, and inquired especially
about the colored church and whether
the stove he had sent, in accordance
with his promise, was still doing
well. "Are you the man that sent
that stove down here ? " inquired the
408
James D. Hague
driver somewhat reproachfully. " Do-
ing well ! " he continued, " I should
say so ! There ain't a fence-rail left
in this neighborhood within two mile
of that meetin'-house."
King's cheerful spirit remained with
him to the end. His latest remem-
bered intelligible words were spoken
in pleasantry the day before he died,
to his doctor, who, having, shortly
before, given him a remedy known as
" heroin," which, as it sometimes does,
caused a temporary wandering of the
mind, had said to King in explana-
tion of this result, " I think the heroin
must have gone to your head." "Very
likely," King replied, "many a heroine
has gone to a better head than mine
is now."
King possessed an inexhaustible
fund of anecdote, from which he drew
and has told in print many stories
and incidents of his own experiences.
Some skeptical hearers or readers
409
Memorabilia
have occasionally thought he "drew
the long bow " in these stories, which
they also said were too good to be
true. King, however, rarely dis-
counted the drafts he drew on the
credulity of his audience, just because
of their unbelief, although, in one in-
stance, when I had intimated that his
story of the slopes of Mount Tyndall
might well seem pretty steep to an
unimaginative reader, he offered to
throw off five degrees for my flat ac-
ceptance, or, otherwise, to conduct
me personally to the not easily ac-
cessible scene of his extraordinary
adventure.
With his keen and far-reaching per-
ceptive faculties and vivid imagina-
tion, King sometimes perceived things
which others might see without per-
ceiving or hear without understand-
ing ; and many things, the truth of
which has been questioned by the
skeptical, were nevertheless true to
410
James D. Hague
him at the time and from his point
of view. In his vivifying mind many
a commonplace conception became
brilliant, as a scrap of iron, dull and
lifeless in common air, when immersed
in oxygen, becomes a coruscating fire.
Such tendencies in thought or speech
were only part of the natural, glowing
enthusiasm which was often a most
potent factor in the accomplishment
of his purposes. " If you want to
get a man red-hot, you must go at
him white-hot," he sometimes said in
justification of an apparently exces-
sive zeal.
King has often been called to ac-
count by many friends for neglected
obligations in unanswered letters, un-
kept engagements, broken promises
and similar offences, concerning which
another writer has already said that
five minutes of King's personal pres-
ence was enough to insure complete
forgiveness. One reason why he left
411
Memorabilia
many letters unanswered, at least
when in camp, was because he left
them unopened, having many other
preventing occupations, and he thus
unknowingly neglected due response
to certain communications which he
had not consciously received. Many
of his promises and engagements re-
mained unperformed because it was
a physical impossibility to keep them.
In his friendly and obliging way he
recklessly made many conflicting and
interfering appointments, which, with-
out the gift of ubiquity, he could not
possibly keep. In the long run, how-
ever, he usually more than made up
for his failures ; and it may be truly
said that if he could not always be as
good as his word, he was almost al-
ways, sooner or later, a great deal
better. Moreover, he held a some-
what unusual view concerning one's
obligation to perform certain prom-
ises, especially marriage engagements,
412
James D. Hague
of which, in a somewhat earnest dis-
cussion of the matter, he once said,
" I would never marry a woman any-
how, just because I said I would. That
is the poorest possible reason men or
women can ever have for marrying
each other. People who marry with-
out any better reason than that must
surely come to grief."
Although King gained his highest
distinction in scientific pursuits, he
would undoubtedly have achieved
great eminence in any other vocation
which he might have chosen. He
possessed marvelous intellectual ver-
satility, with great facility in thought
and rare felicity in expression. He
excelled especially as a critic, both in
literature and art, and seemed to be
endowed with the gift of genius in
the aesthetic faculty. As connoisseur
he expended large sums of money in
buying objects of art for wealthy
friends in America and England. He
413
Memorabilia
spent a modest fortune of his own in
pictures, embroideries, bric-ci-brac and
beautiful things he valued more than
the money they cost. He had little
use for money except for what he
could do or get with it. He could
have spent millions wisely and beau-
tifully but never could have hoarded
it. " Why do you suppose the streets
of Heaven are paved with gold, as
some say ? " I once asked him. " Just
to show how little they think of it
there," he replied.
His charming personality, his noble
and gentle spirit, his great kindness,
generosity and constant friendship,
have left a precious memory, which
will long be cherished by many of all
sorts and conditions of men, both in
the very highest and the very hum-
blest walks of life, who will mourn for
him sincerely as one upon whose like
they may never look again.
414
fl
a ^
n
?
00
Synoptic Index.
PAGE
King Memorial Committee iv
King's letter to Cutter accompanying the gift of
the Helmet of Mambrino 3
Ramble in Golden Gate Park 5
Journey in La Mancha 8
Early morning in the posada 9
Salazar, guide and companion 12
The posadera 17
Morning chocolate 17
A Spanish town 19
The " Barberia" 23
The widow Barrilera 24
The barber's basin 27
The widow's son " Crisanto " 28
Certificate of the ayuntamiento 30
The Secretario 31
The Secretary's valued relic 34
"Don Horacio" 43
A phenomenal American 47
The children of Yakoob Beg 49
An exchange of gifts with H. I. M. the Tenno of
Japan 53
Kindness of the natives of Tanegashima to the
survivors of the Cashmere 54
Act of recognition by the U. S. Government . . 55
Japanese schoolhouses built in commemoration . 55
44 Decoration of Merits with Blue Ribbon" con-
ferred by Japanese Government upon Horace
F. Cutter 56
Relations with Spain 57
Correspondence with Castelar 57
Gibraltar to be captured by bombs dropped from
balloons 58
The sunken treasure galleons in the bay of Vigo 58
417
Synoptic Index
PAGE
International Exhibition at Madrid 59
The attitude of Portugal 59
Relations with Russia 59
British Columbia 60
Drake Monument 60
Lower California 61
Japanese colonists to cultivate cotton in Mexico
for international capitalists 62
The South Seas 62
Spelling-books for primary schools in the Philip-
pines 62
Jury law reforms 63
San Francisco Vigilance Committee 63
Golden Gate Park 63
The aviary 63
Japanese bulbuls 64
Birds, fish, and the larger animals 64
North Beach water-lots 65
A literary hoax 65
4t Though lost to sight, to memory dear" ... 65
44 Sweetheart, goodbye ! the fluttering sail " . . 67
" Ruthven Jenkyns " 68
Greenwich Magazine for Marines 68
Publication in London of the bogus song ... 69
A fictitious ancestral relative 69
44 Susan Coolidge," a fictitious chief mourner . . 70
44 Hermit of Mambrino " 71
Necessities and eccentricities 7 1
A constructive loss of $400,000 72
King's loss of a contingent legacy 72
A fortune saved from loss 73
Don Horacio's usual dress 74
His high hat in a railway wreck 77
His strange meeting with a participant in the
'wonderful ghost-story" of All the Year
Round 78
.Story of Alvah Clark and " Zeta Cancri" ... 81
Letters of Edward Everett Hale 82
Letter from the London Times correspondent in
China (1881) 84
Autographic letter of Emilio Castelar .... 85
Letters from Clarence King 86
418
Synoptic Index
PAGE
Note introducing Mr. Thomas Sturgis .... 92
Note addressed to Mr. W. D. Howells ... 94
Note addressed to Mr. John Hay 95
Socrates or Don Quixote ? 95
The Helmet of Mambrino, the most precious
treasure of Don Horacio 97
His last illness 97
Final resting-place of ' * The Bachelor of San
Francisco " 98
Search for the helmet which vanished after Don
Horacio's death 99
An advertisement 102
Supposed discovery of the helmet at the pawn-
broker's 103
Its purchase for seven dollars 104
A sympathetic detective 104
His bill of sale and services 105
Subsequent investigation ........ 108
The pawnbroker's statement 109
Mordecai Benguiat's story no
A copper basin from Smyrna in
A mistaken identification 114
" THE HELMET OF SOMBRINO " 115
Memoir by John Hay 117
King's genial nature 119
His facility in acquiring command of languages . 123
His universal sympathy 125
His place in science 125
What he might have been in literature . . . . 126
His eye for art 127
Visit to Gustave Dore 129
Visit to Ruskin 129
His intellectual versatility 130
His power of diffusing happiness 131
Only one King 132
Memoir by William D. Howells 133
Varied impressions of King 135
His sunny gayety 135
First meeting in proof-reader's room of the Uni-
versity Press at Cambridge, about 1869 . . 136
419
Synoptic Index
His "Mountaineering" papers 138
At the White House, Washington 141
His indifference to literary repute 141
Meeting in London 142
A Fortuny watercolor 145
King's princely generosity 146
His frank bonhomie 148
Meeting in Boston Common 149
Voting for Elaine 149
King's characteristic smile, delicately intimated
in his portrait by George Howland . . . 150
Sympathetic anti-obesity hopes 150
Pleasures of the table 151
A noteworthy beefsteak and sauce at a dinner in
New York 151
King's friendly sympathies 152
King's work in American literature 153
Memoir by Henry Adams 157
" How I first knew King " 159
His bubbling life and energy 159
His charming companionship 160
Our last vacation 161
King's letter from Bloomingdale 162
At Havana 165
At Santiago 166
His love of paradox the only excuse for thought 167
Dos Bocas a dream of Paradise 169
Paradoxical geology 171
The archaic female 172
Rebellion and brigandage 173
A critical situation 174
Fate of a bandit-friend 177
Cuban rebellion 180
King's letter proposing trip to Mexico . . . . 183
The best companion in the world 185
Memoir by John LaFarge 187
A fancied resemblance between King and Dante
Gabriel Rossetti 189.
King's artistic temperament 190
His acquaintance with Ruskin 191
420
Synoptic Index
PAGE
His collection of paintings and beautiful things . 192
His artistic conception of a dream-building . . 193
Project for the tomb of General Grant .... 194
His picturesque and charming stories .... 196
A vanishing mirage of fortune for the benefit of
art and artists 196
Memoir by Edmund Clarence Stedman . . . 199
King a kind of Martian visitor 201
An eventful episode in his life 202
A transatlantic voyage 202
An overnight philosopher 203
An incessant frolic 204
A sporting wager 206
A Derby day at Epsom 206
King's quest of spolia opima 208
His matchless style and translucent English . . 208
His speech and writ iridescent with romantic
imagination 209
A loss to literature 209
A place in history 209
King's memory enshrined 2IO
Memoir by William Crary Brownell . . . . 211
King at the Century Club 213
An ideal clubman in harmonious environment . 215
His intellectual alertness 216
His capacity for conversation 218
His love of paradox 219
His extraordinary mental activity 222
His dominating imagination, a constant factor in
scientific achievement and in the field of
letters 223
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, a work of
imagination of a very high order .... 224
Memoir by Edward Gary 227
King's school and college days 229
Crossing the plains with Gardiner in 1863 . . . 229
Service on the Geological Survey of California . 230
Undertaking of the Fortieth Parallel Survey
(1866) 231
421
Synoptic Index
Completion of this work in 1872 231
Organization of the United States Geological
Survey in 1878 232
Subsequent activities in scientific work .... 232
His study of the physics of the Earth .... 233
His literary work 234
The Century Club "the rag, tag and bobtail
of all there is best in our country "... 234
King's matchless talk 235
His intense imagination 236
His brilliant nature 236
His unfailing kindness 236
Edward Gary's review of King's Mountaineering
in the Sierra Nevada 237
Sketches, fourteen in number, originally published
in Atlantic Monthly about 1869 .... 239
Four editions of the book brought out by James
R. Osgood & Co., previous to 1874 . . . 239
His earliest crossing of the continent .... 239
A succinct statement of geologic history . . . 241
An intellectual effect akin to that given by certain
passages of Shakespeare in the expression of
human consciousness 243
View from the top of Mount Whitney .... 246
King's charming narrative of personal adventure . 250
" Kaweah's Run " 251
The Newtys of Pike 251
The artist of Cut-off Copples's 251
An American classic 251
Memoir by Samuel Franklin Emmons .... 253
Clarence King Geologist 255
King's ancestry 256
His father's death in China (1848) 258
His mother a widow at twenty-two 258
King's boyhood days at Newport and Hartford . 259
At the Yale Scientific School (1859) 259
Subsequent studies in science and art 1862-63 2DO
Journey across the continent in company with his
friend James T. Gardiner 261
Burnt out at Virginia City 262
422
Synoptic Index
Crossing the Sierra Nevada afoot 262
Meeting with Professor William H. Brewer of
the Geological Survey of California . . . 262
King's work on that Survey 263
Exploration in Arizona, accompanying General
McDowell 263
Field studies abound extinct volcanoes in associa-
tion with Baron von Richthofen .... 264
King's important discovery of significant fossils
on the Mariposa estate (1863) 264
Initiative efforts at Washington to organize the
Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Par-
allel, 1866-67 ..... 265
Conduct of that Survey 266
Mining Industry, the earliest publication of the
Report (1870) 268
Subsequent publications 269
Glaciers on Mount Shasta 269
Islands along southern coast of New England . 269
Systematic Geology (1878) 271
Establishment of the United States Geological
Survey 273
King's work as United States Geologist . . . 275
Fellowship in scientific societies 276
Geological Society of London (1874) .... 276
National Academy of Sciences (1876) .... 276
American Institute Mining Engineers .... 276
King's financial affairs 277
Time and attention which he might otherwise
have given to science and literature absorbed
by necessity of earning money 278
His quick perception and acute judgment illus-
trated in his discovery of the "diamond
swindle " ., 278
Service as scientific adviser in important mining
litigations 279
Honorary degree of LL.D. conferred by Brown
University (1890) 281
King's scientific writings discussed 281
" Catastrophism and the Evolution of Environ-
ment" 282
Systematic Geology 283
423
Synoptic Index
PAGE
His establishment of a physical laboratory for in-
vestigations conducted by Professors Barus
and Hallock 287
His paper on the " Age of the Earth " . . . . 289
His estimate confirmed by Lord Kelvin . . . 290
King's literary work .... 291
His remarkable intellectual versatility .... 292
His last illness 293
Memoir by Daniel C. Oilman 295
Clarence King's boyhood at New Haven . . . 297
School-days at Hartford 297
At the Sheffield School 298
His graduation there in 1862 299
His subsequent career 300
Biographical Notice by Rossiter W. Raymond . 303
Clarence King a " mother's boy " 306
His schoolboy days 306
" The gift of friendship," a characteristic from his
earliest youth . . . . 306
James T. Gardiner's note descriptive of that
period 307
King's crossing of the continent in 1863, suggestive
of General Sherman's experience .... 308
Letter of Professor Brewer quoted .... 310
His meeting with King and Gardiner on Sacra-
mento River steamer 311
Brewer's first ascent of Mount Shasta .... 314
His descriptive letter to Professor Brush . . . 315
King's resolution inspired thereby 315
King's 'engagement on the Geological Survey of
California 316
His literary camp outfit (footnote) 317
Ascent of Lassen Peak 318
King's glissade 3*9
Discovery of Jurassic and Triassic fossils in the
auriferous zone of California at Genesee
Valley, Plumas County 321
King's discovery of glaciers on Mount Shasta in
1870 . . 323
Mount Whitney 324
424
Synoptic Index
King's ascent of mistaken peak in 1871 . . . 325
Mr. W. A. Goodyear's discovery of King's mis-
take (1873) 326
King's hasty journey from New York and ascent
of the true Mount Whitney 327
Discovery on Mariposa estate of Jurassic fossils . 327
Question of priority in this discovery .... 328
King's scientific errand to Arizona with General
McDowell 330
An adventure with Apaches 331
Reminiscences contributed by James T. Gardiner,
touching the considerations which led to the
undertaking of the Fortieth Parallel Survey 332
Field work of the Survey 335
King's courage and nerve under trying circum-
stances 338
Capture of a deserting soldier 339
Close quarters with a grizzly 340
An elk's resemblance to " a first-class hat-rack on
a mule " 344
A dinner in camp with King 344
" Roughing it " in soft raiment 345
A valet's view of the Grand Canon of the Colo-
rado, " no place for a gentleman " . . . . 347
King's valet mistaken in Paris for an Oriental
Prince (footnote) 348
The diamond swindle 349
King's work as Director of the U. S. Geological
Survey 350
King's contributions to scientific literature . . 352
His " Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada " . 353
King's many social and professional engagements
a hindrance to literary activity 354
His Mexican enterprises 359
An expert witness in mining litigations . . . . 359
Travels in Europe 362
Visit in Cuba 363
His final illness 364
King's constancy in friendship 367
His " Sunday School" in London 369
His "afternoon tea" in Windsor Park by royal
favor 369
425
Synoptic Index
PAGE
King's impressive personality 370
List of published works by Clarence King . . 372
Memorabilia, James D. Hague 375
King at Yale in 1862 377
Hillhouse Avenue garden gates 377
Crossing the plains (1863) 378
Buffalo hunting 378
At Washington (1867) 381
Senator Fessenden almost persuaded to be a
scientist 382
Some marvellous isothermal lines 382
Senator Conness, a faithful supporter of the
Fortieth Parallel Survey 383
General Butler's pro-civilian sympathies . . . 384
Secretary of War's admonition to King to get out
of Washington without delay 385
King's departure for California (1867) .... 385
An unusual experience with a baby on the
isthmus 386
A Sunday camp at Alta 390
Engagement of " Jim " as cook's mate . . . . 391
A case for the Society for Psychical Research . 393
The diamond swindle 396
A strange coincidence in the simultaneous death
of Roberts and King 401
King in camp a delightful companion . . . 401
A feast of beans 402
" Unremittingly yours " 403
' ' A horse in the mine " 404
" Young man, is that gun loaded ?" .... 404
A companionable stranger in an otherwise vacant
car 405
The Prince of Wales and King in agreeable com-
panionship . . 406
King's gift of a stove to a colored church in
Georgia 407
King's cheerful spirit at the last 409
King's alleged tendencies to exaggeration . . . 410
His natural glowing enthusiasm 411
" To get a man red-hot, you must go at him
white-hot" 411
426
Synoptic Index
PAGE
King's unanswered letters and neglected engage-
ments more than atoned for 411
His unusual view of marriage engagements . .412
King's love of beautiful things more valuable
than money 4H
Why the streets of heaven are paved with gold . 414
A cherished memory 4*4
427
MOUNTAINEERING IN THE
SIERRA NEVADA.
A new edition of this book has recently been
published by Messrs. Charles Scribner* s Sons,
*53 Fifth Avenue, New York.
429
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Book Slip-Series 458
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Century association,
New York. King memoria
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