["itemContainer",{"xmlns:xsi":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance","xsi:schemaLocation":"http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd","uri":"https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Newspapers&output=omeka-json","accessDate":"2024-03-28T17:28:28-07:00"},["miscellaneousContainer",["pagination",["pageNumber","1"],["perPage","10"],["totalResults","327"]]],["item",{"itemId":"135569","public":"1","featured":"1"},["fileContainer",["file",{"fileId":"39478"},["src","https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/486b7171640b5a6d1b13072e786159fd.pdf"],["authentication","9b1c36c829f9ac15140699f57a808850"],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"7"},["name","PDF Text"],["description"],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"94"},["name","Text"],["description"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1936186"},["text","Poetry and Commentary of\nAmbrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson,\nDr. Charles William Doyle, and Other\nCritics of Santa Cruz, California:\nChronology of Newspaper Articles and\nDocumentary Evidence of Their Relationship\n“Things Made Immortal by the Kiss of Rhyme”\nCompiled by\nStanley D. Stevens\n\nThe content of this article is the responsibility of the individual author.\nIt is the library’s intent to provide accurate information, however, it is\nnot possible for the library to completely verify the accuracy of all\ninformation. If you believe that factual statements in a local history\narticle are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the\nlibrary.\n1\n\n�Poetry and Commentary of\nAmbrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson, Dr. Charles William Doyle\n& Other Critics of Santa Cruz, California\nChronology of Newspaper Articles and Documentary Evidence of their relationship.\n“Things Made Immortal\nby the Kiss of Rhyme.”\nCompiled by\nStanley D. Stevens\nSanta Cruz, California\nJuly 1, 1988; Revised May 9, 2019\nNotes:\nA correction needs to be made before going further; it's not a major point, but worthy of noting:\nDr. Charles William Doyle died on May 2, 1903, not the 6th as I had earlier noted. This error\ncame to light after reading his obituaries. The Cemetery records book that has been compiled by\nlocal genealogists was done from various sources, apparently wrong in this case. Nevertheless,\nMay 2, 1903, is the correct date.\nR. M. BELL, whose contributions appear herein, was Robert M. Bell, physician, of San\nFrancisco.\nJosephine Clifford McCrackin, who wrote for Overland Monthly, inter alia, and also contributed\nto the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper, as an occasional and later as a hired reporter, was one of\nthe writers whom Bierce visited at her place in the Santa Cruz Mountains on occasion. Her place\nwas called Monte Paraiso. See Stephen Payne’s book A Howling Wilderness: the Summit Road\nof the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906 [Santa Cruz : Loma Prieta Publishing Company, 1978.]\nThat biography of Mrs. McCrackin provides the context for the material that appears in the\nfollowing:\nIn 1913, George Wharton James published The Woman Who Lost Him and Tales of the Army\nFrontier by Josephine Clifford McCrackin, with Introduction by Ambrose Bierce [Pasadena, Cal.\n: George Wharton James, 1913].\nTake notice of the photos which include Bierce, and the photo of McCrackin leaning on the\nfireplace in the middle of the rubble of her burned-out Monte Paraiso; she is draped by Ambrose\nBierce’s cape.\nA November 1973, article which appeared in American West (10:6 34-39, 63), by Dale L\nWalker, was brought to my attention by a colleague (Donald T. Clark) and I thought it is most\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n1\n\n�useful. It provided me with additional context for understanding the Bierce mistique. It also has\nuseful bibliographic information.\n\nChronology of Newspaper Articles and Documentary Evidence of their relationship.\nITEM #1\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nMarch 2, 1894, p. 2, c. 4\n————————\nIN COURT\n————\nBierce in Examiner.\nIn another department of the paper I mentioned last week the litigation of Col. R. H.\nSavage [Dick Savage of Santa Cruz], author, against Mr. F. Tennyson Neeley, publisher. Since\nthen I have received some “documents in the case” showing it to be the most important and\nnotable of its kind that ever came before an American court. In one feature it is, indeed, believed\nto be unique, being the only instance in which an author has gone into court and compelled a\npublisher to make an accounting for royalties withheld, or pay the sum claimed as due. It is not\nlikely to be the last case of the kind—not by many. Several authors—among them Charles\nWarren Stoddard—have signified an intention to go up against this same pirate of the Spanish\nMain and bear a hand at the job of degorging him of his plunder. For four years he has been\npublishing Stoddard’s “Lazy Letters from Low Latitudes,” and has paid him in royalties the\ngorgeous sum of fifty-one dollars and ten cents! As one of the robber barons of the book-writing\nindustry, I extend to Mr. Stoddard the itching palm of fellowship, and declare him a worthy\nmember of our millionaire combine.\n————————\n[NOTE: I believe the bracketed information in the above article was supplied by the Santa Cruz\nDaily Sentinel, Duncan McPherson, Editor/Publisher.]\n[The same article appeared in the Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel (same publisher) on March 3,\n1897, p. 2, c.4]\n[A poem by Richard Henry Savage, “The Little Lady of Lagunitas,” appears in the Santa Cruz\nDaily Sentinel for November 16, 1895, p.2, c.3.]\nITEM # 2\nSanta Cruz Sentinel\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n2\n\n�November 10, 1894, p. 3, c. 3 “Bell to Bierce.”\n————————\n“ED. SENTINEL: — When Mr. Bierce, in criticising Dr. Doyle’s sonnet, objects to the use of\n“doth observe,” a “bastard indicative” made use of by Byron, Shakespeare, Keats, Tenyson,\nMilton (for example), there is borne in upon us with the burst of a revelation the severely\nexclusive character of Mr. Bierce’s critical faculty. How hard it must be for a man of his\nsensitive nature to get any enjoyment out of this poor little world of ours, to whom even “most of\nthe great sonnets of our tongue are illegitimate,” and “the king of them all being quite irritating\nin that way.” Sonnet writers like Keats, Wordsworth and Shakespeare, capable of giving\npleasure to the rest of us ignorant mortals, apparently only irritate poor Mr. Bierce, since in some\nof their sonnets “the octet comprises three rhymes,” or even four occasionally. These latter Mr.\nBierce presumably never reads. To him there is, it seems, but one correct form for the sonnet.\nAs to Orpheus, there are those who would differ from Mr. Bierce even on that point.\nOrpheus did not, as a matter of fact, succeed in finally winning Eurydice from the shades, and it\nis easily supposable, with just a trifle more of imagination than Mr. Bierce is able to throw into\nthe subject, that the hard condition, through the non-fulfilment of which she was obliged to\nreturn, may have been imposed on account of a lack of complete sympathy with Orpheus’ music,\non the part of those who had the matter in charge. This may quite possibly, as Dr. Doyle\nsuggests, have been due to the imperfect character of the instruments of Orpheus’ day.\nWhen Mr. Bierce says that “in our tongue ‘er’ and ‘ur’ have not the same sound,” to what\ntongue does he refer? Does he mean that spoken by the inmates of the Examiner sanctum, or is\nhe modestly making use of the editorial “our” in referring to his own personal pronunciation?\nHe can hardly be thinking of American speech. Webster, it is true, while considering that “the\nmost approved style of pronunciation” of the e in such words as term, mercy, is something\nbetween the e in met and u in urge, admits that “many cultivated speakers both in England and\nAmerica give the e in such words the full sound of u in urge.” Without consulting further\nauthorities it may be said that under these circumstances it will be a difficult task for Mr. Bierce\nto try to disseminate the Examiner sanctum speech among the common people, especially when\namong the poets examples like the following can be easily found:\nReturned ryhming with discerned, (Coleridge); hers with stirs, (J. R. Lowell); her with\nmyrrh, (Edwin Arnold); perverse with curse, (Browning); universe with curse, (Shelley); and so\non ad libitum.\nWhile it may be well occasionally to consult metrical chiropodists if the feet in one’s\nlines need attending to, yet there is one thing that other poets may learn from Dr. Doyle’s\nexperience. That is, not to submit their literary efforts to those who can see in the great masters\nof poetry only metrical defects and faults of phrasing; in other words, not to cast their pearls\nbefore — those who will submit them to a nitric acid test, which never was a fair test for a pearl.\nOne question I should like to ask in closing. Who is this Mr. Ambrose Bierce? Is he\nknown outside of his Examiner writings, or is he merely one of those writers for the press to\nwhom everything is gall that comes to their pen; who willingly sacrifice friendship, truth,\nanything for the sake of a witty paragraph — a class of writers from which American journalism\nis suffering at present. Or is he, on the other hand, a writer of ability led into evil ways by the\nterrible demands made on the paid contributors of a great daily? I ask to enlighten my own\nigfnorance, being a new comer in these parts.\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n3\n\n�R. M. Bell.\n—— . ——\n\nITEM # 3\nSanta Cruz Surf\nNovember 13, 1894, p. 2, c. 2 & 3 \"THE SONNET.'\nIt seems an impertinence for any one so late in the day to try and say anything new about\nthe sonnet. Books and exhaustive articles by scholars and poets and critics have been written\nabout it by the score, and therefore nothing new need be expected here.\nA lamentable lack of knowledge seems to prevail amongst sonneteers and their readers\nabout the form of the sonnet. The great English critic, Mr. Theodore Watts, who was assigned to\nwrite the articles on Poetry and the Sonnet for the Encyclopedia Britannica, and may therefore be\nconsidered an authority, says that there are four classes of sonnets in English literature.\nFirst, the sonnet of Shakespeare consisting of three quatrains of alternate rhymes and a\nconcluding couplet.\nSecondly, the sonnet of Milton in which he blends the octave and the sestet with the\ndaring of a genius that scorns all laws.\nThirdly, the sonnet of Petrarch, which consists of an octave of two rhymes and a sestet of\ntwo or three rhymes. The law regulating the arrangement of the rhymes in the octave is never to\nbe infringed; it requires the first, fourth, fifth and eighth lines to rhyme and the second, third,\nsixth and seventh. The rhymes of the sestet can be arranged as the writer pleases.\nFourthly, the sonnets of irregular form. It is in this class that some of the greatest sonnets\nin the English language have been written, but it is true also that the mere sonneteer as\ndistinguished from the sonnet writer almost invariably uses this form. Mr. Theodore Watts was\nevidently led to admit the claims of this last class of poems to be called sonnets from his personal\naffection for Rossetti, whose troubles and discomforts in his last years Mr. Watts greatly\nameliorated, at whose death bed he was present, and whose memoirs he was assigned to write.\nRossetti was particularly sensitive to hostile criticism. An article that appeared in 1871 in\nthe Contemporary Review, which was written by Mr. Robert Buchanan, against the school of\n\"fleshly poets\" led by Swinburne and Rossetti sank into the very soul of the latter and embittered\nthe last eleven years of his life; he fell into a condition of melancholia, and Rossetti’s friends\nalways claimed that Buchanan’s article was the primary cause of the depression of his spirits that\nended so disastrously.\nRossetti published altogether one hundred and sixty sonnets, of which fifty-four were\nirregular in form, having three rhymes instead of two in the octave, and as Mr. Watts’ article on\nthe Sonnet appeared during Rossetti’s life time, and, as nobody could have known better than\nWatts how morbidiy sensitive Rossetti was to criticism, it is fair to presume he created a fourth\nclass of sonnets to include his friend’s poems and thereby save him any pang that might have\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n4\n\n�resulted from telling him that, however beautiful his poems might be, they were not sonnets.\nWere it not for this consideration of strong personal regard for, and close intimacy with, Mr.\nRossetti, Mr. Watts would doubtless have said that poems--especially the poems of modern\nwriters — claiming to be sonnets must conform to cast-iron laws which may not be set aside by\nanyone, and that poems, however superlatively beautiful, that did not conform to these laws were\nnot sonnets. So that practically there are but two forms of sonnet for modern poets to use: the\nShakesperean and the Petrarchan, and it would be more proper and modest for modern writers to\nwork under the strict limitations of the Petrarchan sonnet than to use the greater freedom allowed\nby the Shakesperean. The heaven-born poet may sing in his own way, but the rank and file of\nthe immense and growing army of poetasters will find, as a critic of much ability lately said,\n“that the best work is done under the strictest limitations.” This is particularly true of the sonnet,\n“whose scanty plot,” as Mr. Ambrose Bierce says, “is made ground.” The sonnet is to poetry\nwhat the diamond is to gems, and a flaw in one is as fatal as a flaw in the other. The ordinary\nwriter is as little qualified to write a sonnet as a bricklayer is to cut and polish a diamond. The\ndifficulties that surround the writing of a sonnet in these days are increased by the severer\ndemands of modern criticism. Mr Theodore Watts says: “As a fine art English poetry is\nreceiving much attention at present. Defective rhymes, once allowable, and make-shift work in\ngeneral, are no longer tolerated. And we believe the time is not far distant when even such a\nsubject as vowel-compoeition (the arrangement of one vowel sound with regard to another) will\nhave to be studied with the care which the Greeks evidently bestowed upon it.”\nThe Sentinel for Nov. 10th had an article, written by Mr. R. M. Bell, complaining of what\nappeared to him to be the needlessly severe criticism by Mr. Ambrose Bierce of such poetry as is\nsubmitted to him. Mr. Bierce can doubtless take care of his own “poem-battered” head, but as he\nis a professed critic and one who thoroughly understands his business he would fail in his duty\nwere he to give the sanction of his approval to inferior work, especially where the sonnet is\nconcerned.\nThe following poem shows the form of the Petrarchan sonnet and exemplifies the\nwholesomeness of sound advice, for it was evoked after three spasms of production from the\npseudo-sonnet that Mr. R. M. Bell seeks to protect from Mr. Bierce and which even now totters\nwith difficulty on its spindle legs.\nA SONNETEER TO HIS ILLEGITIMATE\nSONNET\nHence, bastard bantling, to your sulphurous\ncell\nYour mincing phrases scarce support your\nclaims\nTo be admitted to the tempered flames\nWhere soaring Shelley’s, Wordsworth’s, sonnets\ndwell;\nThat you should jostle them were far from well.\nYour rawness, and your “doths,” and other\nshames,\nWhich every school boy sees, and scorns,\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n5\n\n�and blames,\nDeserve a roasting in the fires of hell.\nYou know the moods of love and mirth and\ngrief,\nAnd o’er emotion’s realms hold ample sway?\nWhat, you a singer with that piping voice?\nO, cease your shrillings, give us some relief!\nI’ll have you criticised ! yes that’s the way —\nIt’s worse than hell, and will my friends\nrejoice.\nC. W. DOYLE\n\nITEM # 4\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nNovember 28, 1894, p. 2, c. 2\n————————\nAmbrose Bierce in the Examiner.\nR. M. Bell, of Santa Cruz, has struck a streak of hard luck. Dr. C. W. Doyle, of his town,\na clever man with a neatish knack at rhyming, sent me a manuscript sonnet, asking me to print it\nif it seemed good enough, and point out it[s] faults. The sonnet was printed and what I\nconceived to be its faults duly pointed out. Thereupon ensued the Bell, stirring his long clapper\nin the SENTINEL in championship of the injured poet and fierce denunciation of the\npresumptious critic. Straightway appears the smiling Dr. Doyle, in the Surf, gracefully\nacknowledging the justice of my criticism, saying pleasant things about me and tranquilly\nrepudiating the brazen slambanging of the Bell. After this amusing incident who shall say that\nthe rough and thorny path of the luckless satirist has not, here and again, short reaches ordered\nwith meadowsweet and gallingale. Occasionally, too, it proffers something soft and warm to sit\nupon and rest when wayweary—Mr. Bell, for example.\n————————\nAmong other objections to Dr. Doyle’s sonnet, I based one upon the “illegitimacy of its\nform.” That roused the sleeping swine in Mr. Bell’s upper entrail and evoked from the heart of\nDr. Doyle the following ingenious lines in proof that he can write a legitimate sonnet if he\nchoose:\nA SONNETEER TO AN ILLEGITIMATE\nSONNET.\nHence, bastard bantling, to your sulphurous cell !\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n6\n\n�Your mincing phrases scarce support\nyour claims\nTo be admitted to the tempered flames\nWhere soaring Shelley’s, Wordsworth’s,\nsonnets dwell;\nThat you should jostle them were far from\nwell.\nYour rawness, and your “doths,” and\nother shames,\nWhich every school boy sees, and scorns,\nand blames,\nDeserve a roasting in the fires of hell.\nYou know the moods of love and mirth\nand grief,\nAnd o’er emotion’s realms hold ample\nsway?\nWhat, you a singer with that piping\nvoice?\nO, cease your shrillings — give us some relief!\nI’ll have you criticised ! — yes that’s the\nway —\nIt’s worse than hell and will my\nfriends rejoice.\n—————— ... ——————\nITEM # 5\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nNovember 28, 1894, p. 2, c. 4\n[Written for the Sentinel.]\n“SONNET.”\n————\nWhen the gods gave us, pitying man’s sad\nplight.\nThe gift of wit, they said, “O man, behold\nAn influence mightier than fear or gold.\nSee that thou use this weapon for the\nright!”\nSince then, what wrongs have fallen by\nits might?\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n7\n\n�Foul superstition flees the conqueror\nbold;\nCorruption’s walls are leveled, falsehoods old\nAre slain; long prisoned worth is brought\nto light.\nYet ‘gainst things high and holy when it\nis turned,\nTheir pure light, glinting on the blade\nof wit,\nSmites him who wields; each time by\neyes thus burned\nLess clearly the heights of truth can be\ndiscerned,\nBuft poisoned with coarse vulgarity, ‘tis\nfit\nThat he’s most injured who has struck\nwith it.\nR. M. BELL.\n————————\nITEM # 6\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nNovember 12, 1895, p. 2, c.2\n“Ambrose Bierce, the hired critic of the Examiner, was at his post in that sheet last Sunday. This\nfact proves the falsity of the statement that he had been discharged. It may be that his name got\nmixed up with some discharged Bierce. Possibly, the absence of the Bierce stuff from the\ncolumns of the Examiner for a number of Sundays led some one to conclude that the Monarh of\nmetropolitan dailies had given him the grand bounce. Not so, no so. Hearst has money, and the\nmen who write for him and want to get it will not criticise in the direction he wants to throw\ntaffy.”\nITEM # 7\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nNovember 14, 1895, p. 2, c. 1 [no head] “It is said that the intellectual powers of Ambrose\nBierce, the hired critic of the Examiner, are waning. This is unfortunate. The country needs a\ndyspeptic scold, and he is a good one, Shakespear [sic, no \"e\" printed in original. sds], Byron,\nBurns, Longfellow, all had their critics, and smaller writers must have theirs, some one to bite\n’em, “fleas ad infinitum.””\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n8\n\n�ITEM # 8\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nNovember 27, 1895, p. 2, c. 1: [no head] “Mr. Bierce has run afoul of a victim who will not stay\ncrushed. The victim’s name is William Greer Harrison, who criticizes the writings of the satirist\nwith much acumen, if not with the bitterness that Bierce criticizes his. The fact seems to be that\nBierce is no longer a Bogie Man to people who write, act, think, do business and mind their own.\nHe has played that role for years, but he has lost his power to scare. — Alameda Argus.\nAnd yet Bierce has apes and admirers among a class of men who think the power to\nabuse the best evidence of genius. If this is genius, genius he has.”\n[The latter comment is typical of McPherson’s style. He frequently ran clips from other\nnewspapers and then added his own comment. sds]\n[PREFACE TO ITEM # 9:]\n[It seems that R. M. Bell was not the only critic of Bierce in Santa Cruz.]\nMark Tapley wrote for the Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel from his location in the Santa Cruz\nMountains, Highland. He wrote a regular column called: “Sense & Nonsense”, as well as poetry\nand criticism. For an example, on November 28, 1895 (p. 3, c.4) he published a poem directed\nagainst Phil Francis, author/editor of a book about Santa Cruz County, [Beautiful ] Santa Cruz\nCounty (San Francisco : H. S. Crocker Co., 1896). Again, on December 21, 1895 (p.2,c.3\nSCDS) he followed a poem written about “Bonita May” with this: “And now mark tapley has a\nfew words to say to Phil Francis (the cheerful idiot)”, — a poem for Francis. I do not know the\nchronological span of his association with SCDS. On November 13, 1895 (p.3, c.4) he wrote “A\nFarewell Social...” in which he said that “This will be the last letter I can write from this place\n[Highland, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 15 miles from Santa Cruz, and very near the\nhome of Josephine Clifford McCrackin and the Hotel Bohemia where Bierce stayed when he\nvisited the latter.], as my vacation is at an end and I must now travel, but I shall continue to write\nfor the Sentinel from the places I visit on my tour around the world....” And, on November 19th\n(p. 2, c.3) he wrote “Good-Bye to Highland”and a poem “Santa Cruz, the Beautiful City by the\nSea.”\nITEM # 9\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nDecember 5, 1895, p. 1, c. 5 & 6\n“Sense and Nonsense by Mark Tapley.”\nEditor Bowman of the Los Gatos Mail has a temper of such sweetness that comb honey is used\nin Los Gatos for pickling cucumbers. Two weeks ago I referred to his paper inadvertently as The\nTimes, and that heavenly man did not resent it! Small wonder that he is imposed on by the\nmountain love-poets. However, he has taken action for his relief by appointing me to guard his\npeace; and I if I do not clean the whole Santa Cruz range of the sighers and dreamers that infact\nits junggles I’m Dunc. Macpherson, the Upward Oswump of the Mount of Song!\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n9\n\n�So writes the once brilliant wit and famous journalist, Ambrose Bierce, in last Sunday’s\nExaminer.\nWhat a task for a man whose articles need to be a household word, but who for the last\nfew years has substituted blasphemy for logic, personal abuse for criticism, and vulgar and\nunmeaning words for the beautiful sentences that used to flow from his masterly pen.\nThe man who in days gone by dared to expose wrong, ridicule folly and champion the\nright is now going to bring some of the remaining force of his critical abilities to bear upon the\nsimple utterances of love-sick swains or ambitious school boys, who write their little rhymes or\nunpretentious essays to their county paper for the pleasure of seeing their names in print, or to\ngain an approving smile from their mother or sweetheart.\nVerily whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. But simple as this task may\nappear to the Goliath of journalism, I hope that I shall live to see him succeed in awakening a\nfearless young David who, trusting for guidance in the all-wise and omnipotent Creator whom\nhis boasting opponent defies and blasphemes, will boldly stand out and give him battle, and\nperhaps even find a pebble of truth that will enter the supposed invulnerable armor of his\nhaughty antagonist.\nFor the Santa Cruz mountains are infested with poets and dreamers, as Mr. Bierce puts it,\nbut they no longer live in jungles, for the hills and valleys are now dotted with Christian homes\noccupied by manly man and pure and devoted women, and blessed and brightened by the merry\nlaughter and innocent prattle of loving and happy children, and the very air they breathe instills\nthe love of all that is good and beautiful into their grateful hearts.\nThey are nature’s true poets, peculiar to the romantic spot in which they have chosen to\ndwell, and the great critic might as well try to hush the countless feathered songsters that sing\nfrom the branches of the soaring redwood trees upon which they love to cluster as to drown with\nthe discordant croaking of his ground-out rhyme and prose the happy songs that swell from the\ntoneful souls of the poetical mountainers.\n————\nWith all his bitter disdain for the poetry that other people write, Mr. Bierce ventures to\nattempt to warble occasionally himself, and as he has been so unmerciful to our poets and\ndreamers let us see what kind of a song-bird he is. Here is a sample of the melodious manner in\nwhich he sings, and which he must consider to be one of his master-pieces, as he inflicts it for\nthe second time on his readers:\nNo doubt, McAllister, you can explain\nHow honorable ‘tis to lie for gain.\nProvided only that the jury’s made\nTo understand that lying is your trade.\nA hundred thousand volumnes, broad and\nflat.\n(The Bible not include) prove that\nHave been put forth, but still the doubt\nremains\nIf God has read them with befitting pains,\nNo Morrow could get justice, you’ll declare,\nIf none who knew him foul affirmed him\nfair.\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n10\n\n�Ingenious man! how easy ‘tis to raise\nAn argument to justify the course that pays!\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\nThe Bible not include. Great Scott!\nSurely this is a compositor’s mistake; he never could have been guilty of writing such stuff.\nUpon my word, there is scarcely a bright school boy living on the Santa Cruz mountains but\nwould be ashamed of fathering such silly twaddle, and though most of our boys could excel him\nin rhyme, and metre, I am proud to say it would be a difficult matter to find one who would be\nguilty of attempting to compose such as lot of muddled-up, obscure, blasphemous trash. To read\nit over is, figurately speaking, like riding in an empty, springless dust cart over the rough cobblestones that disfigure the streets of this city. Still he sings, and we must call him some kind of a\nbird, and I think I can find an appropriate one for him.\nSome years ago when I was in a concert hall in New York a vocalist appeared upon the\nstage and commenced, out of time and tune, to sing, “Oh, would I were a bird.” She got no\nfurther, for an indignant and disgusted English sailor (half seas over) arose from his seat and in a\nloud tone of voice cried, “Which you are mum; you are aye hold howl.”\nYes, yes, he is a bird, but, poets of the mountains, he is one whose discordant croaking\nyou should drown with the simple little songs with which your hearts are overflowing.\nAnd dreamers, it is time for you to wake and put your thoughts into words. Too long\nhave the Ambrose Bierces of journalism held their pernicious sway; too long unrebuked have\nthey defied our great Creator, ridiculed eternal truth, and sneered at religious patriotism and\nmanhood. Up and at them, all of you, and cause them to think they struck a hornet’s nest when\nthey disturbed your peaceful slumbers.\n—————\nIn heaven’s name, what will that class of men attempt to deprive us of next? Not\nsatisfied with trying by their silly sneers and ridicule to turn our hearts from the love and\nreverence of the kind and merciful Giver of all good, that our fathers and mothers taught us to\nworship, they now would, if they could, prevent us from attempting to describe the beauties of\nnature, the love we feel for our native land or the admiration we entertain for the loss that has\nwon our affection.\n——————\nHow strange it is that critics are so fond of asses. The following is from Ambrose\nBierce’s article:\n“No man,” says ex-Secretary Whitney,\n“can truthfuly say he would not like to\nbe President.”\nLo! the wild rabbit, happy in the pride\nOf qualities to meaner beasts denied,\nSurveys the jackass with respect and fear,\nAdoring his superior length of ear,\nAnd says: “No living creature, lean or fat,\nBut wishes in his heart to be like That!”\nIf that means anything it means that the man is a jackass who gains the highest office a\nfree people in a great and glorious land can confer, and as it is said that all men would like to\nattain that exalted position, all men are (in the critic’s opinion) asses.\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n11\n\n�“Mr. Bierce not include” perhaps he forgot to add, but with true mountain\nopenheartedness we will not only include him but his little Prattler also and try to do it in his\nown style of asinine rhyme:\nA FREAK.\nOn reading Balaam had an ass,\nAnd was by it instructed,\nOur Ambrose gazing in a glass,\nA bright idea deducted,\nI’ll mount, one too, and ride to fame,\nWith braying, noise and rattle,\nAnd as my ass must have a name\nI’ll call it “Weekly Prattle.”\nSo on he rode and brayed aloud\nIn most discordant measure,\nAnd for his master drew a crowd\n(He proved indeed a treasure).\nFor people crowded ’round to see\nOne ass another straddle,\nAnd shouted with approving glee,\nGee, woo, there. Weakly Twaddle.\n——————————————————————\nITEM # 10\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nDecember 13, 1895, p. 2, c.1:\n“It is said that Ambrose Bierce, the Prattle editor of the Sunday issue of the Examiner, is to go to\nNew York to work on Hearst’s Journal. Being about played out in San Francisco he should go\nsomewhere — anywhere. His stuff, entirely Bierceonian, will undoubtedly take well in the East\nwhile its newness lasts.”\n\nITEM # 11\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nJanuary 1, 1896, p. 2, c.2 & 3 & 4\nSense and Nonsense by Mark Tapley.\n[Written for the SENTINEL.]\n———\nSome few weeks ago, when replying to an article written by Ambrose Bierce, ridiculing\nthe poets and dreamers of Santa Cruz, amongst other things I said:\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n12\n\n�Verily whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. But simple as this task may\napper to the Goliath of journalism, I hope that I shall live to see him succeed in awakening a\nfearless young David who, trusting for guidance in all-wise and omnipotent Creator whom his\nboasting opponent defies and blasphemes, will boldly stand out and give him battle, and perhaps\neven find a pebble of truth that will enter the supposed invulnerable armor of his haughty\nantagonist.\nAnd on reading my mail to-day I find that in part my hope has been realized. The\nGoliath of skeptical and personal journalism has been attacked and defeated. But it was not by\none of the Santa Cruz poets, whom I had learned to love and admire so much during my short\nstay amongst them, but by Wm. Greer Harrison, the famous poet, dramatist and journalist, a man\nfuly Mr. Bierce’s equal in intellectual stature and a popular, generous-hearted Christian\ngentleman.\nGlancing over the account of the battle is very much like reading the story of the\nengagement betwixt David and Goliath, as recorded in Holy Writ, a story with which no doubt\nmost of our readers are familiar.\nAmbrose Bierce appeared as usual in his customary place (Weekly Examiner, Dec. 5th),\ndefying and ridiculing all that is pure and sacred; pouring forth his usual mass of blasphemous\nand vulgarly-worded challenge. To his surprise a champion stood up before him.\nGoliath ridiculed David because he was a stripling; and the haughty critic sneeringly\nreferred to Mr. Harrison as a “prentice hand.” David made a modest yet manly reply, and Mr.\nHarrison answered in these words:\nLet me explain myself to Mr. Bierce. He has been the Bogie Man of San Francisco for\nquite a number of years; he has frightened a great many people; he has destroyed some people;\nhe has brought tears to many a woman’s eyes, and he has brought the indignant oath to many an\nhonest man’s lips, and so he has been a terror. I have discovered him to be a stuffed man.\nGoliath retorted with foul words and threats. Mr. Ambrose Bierce hurled the following\nlanguage at his undaunted foe: “Rogue, ignoramus, amusing impostor, mutton-head, unearthly\nperson, niggeramus, scalawag, toggle jointed, blood wump, plantigrades,” etc.\nA volley of abuse like this had often demoralized and disheartened a less corageous\nantagonist, but had no effect on this “prentice hand,” who aptly replied:\nHe utters and mutters and sputters\nThe filth that belongs to the gutters.\nDaniel O‘Connell, the Liberator, thought it necessary to silence a notorious scold—a\ncoarse, vulgar fish wife of Dublin—and he did so by calling her a rectangular hypotenuse. Mr.\nBierce is a vulgar fraction.\nGoaded to fury by the calmness and daring of our champion, the critical giant with a\ngreat flourish attempted to make an end of his tormentor by charging him with falsehood. He\nsaid:\nHere are some of the things which this remarkable scholar, poet, critic and wit has\nuttered, for our virtues.\nHe says that Shakespeare frequently begins a blank verse passage with a couplet—which\nis, of course, false.\nThen like David Mr. Harison picked up the pebble of truth and hurled it right home. He\nreplied:\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n13\n\n�Mr. Bierce proclaims his gross ignorance in charging me with falsehood when I said that\nShakespeare frequently opened a passage of blank verse with a rhyming couplet. Apparently he\nhas never read Shakespeare, but doubtless his readers have. The following passages will be of\ninterest to them, and in reading them they will see how utterly false Ambrose Bierce is.\nIn all the quoted passages Shakespeare uses a rhyming couplet introducing his blank\nverse:\n“Two Gentlemen of Verona,” act 2, scene 7, Julia begins a blank-verse passage with a\ncouplet:\n“Counsel, Lucetta: gentle girl, assist me.\nAnd even in kind love I do conjure thee.”\n“The Comedy of Errors,” act 4, scene 1, opens with a couplet preceding blank verse:\n“You know since Pentecost the sum is due,\nAnd since I have not much importuned\nyou.”\n“Richard the II,” act 2, scene 1, King Richard opens blank passage with a couplet, and is\nimmediately followed by York, who does the same thing:\n“The ripest fruit first falls land so doth he;\nHis time is spent, our pilgrimage must be.”\n“How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long,\nShall tender duty make me suffer wrong?”\nIn act 4, same play, scene 1, King Richard again opens a blank verse-passage with a\ncouplet:\n“Ay, no! No, ay! For I must nothing be;\nTherefore, no, no, for I resign to thee.\n“Henry the VI,” part 1, act 3, scene 3, La Pucelle opens a blank-verse passage with a\ncouplet:\n“Besides, all French and France exclaims on\nthee,\nDoubting thy birth and lawful progeny.”\n“Henry the VI,” part 2, act 3, scene 2, Warwick begins a blank-verse passage with a\ncouplet:\n“But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee\nAnd I should rob the deathsman of his fee.”\n“Julius Ceasar,” act 1, scene 1, Marullus opens a blank-verse passage with couplet:\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n14\n\n�“Wherefore rejoice, what conquest brings\nhe home?\nWhat tributaries follow him to Rome?\n“Pericles,” scene 1, act 1, opens blank-verse passage with couplet:\n“See where she comes appareled like the\nspring,\nGraces her subjects, and her thoughts the\nKing.”\nIn the same play, act 2, scene 4, Helicanus opens blank-verse passage with couplet:\n“No, Escanes, know this of me,\nAntiohus from incest lived not free.”\nAnd these are only a few of a large number of instances where Shakespeare employs this\nmethod of introducing blank verse.\nMr. Bierce may object to Shakespeare. Let him turn to Ben Jonson, and there he will find\nnumerous instances of a similar use of the couplet.\nThis exposure of Bierce’s ignorance clearly indicates his illiteracy.\nAfter this he proceeded to cut the fallen giant to pieces, and the skillful manner in which\nhe did it was a treat to every one who read Wm. Greer Harrison’s article criticizing Ambrose\nBierce in the Sunday Call, Dec. 8th.\nI was very well pleased to see that the battle had taken place, and yet I feel almost sorry\nfor the poor giant—he was so easily beaten, but as Mr. Harrison says that he discovered he was a\nstuffed man, I hope that it was only the stuffing that was destroyed, and that in future he will be\nwhat he was in the days gone by, the clean, caustic, fearless critic and gentleman—Ambrose\nBierce. Mr. Bierce gave to me (unintentionally, it is true) good cause for self-congratulations,\nfor he fell into the mistake of thinking the simple little songs and articles that were written and\ncomposed by me were the work of Duncan McPherson, the able and successful journalist and\norator of Santa Cruz.\nHe could not have flattered me more if he had used the choicest words even his pen could\ninscribe.\nI see my friend, the enemy, Phil Francis, is chafing under the little trick I played upon\nhim in my last article. Poor young man. I confess that I was rather hard upon him, and do not\nwonder at his display of feeling, and so I intend to have mercy on him this week and let him off\nlightly.\nThere is one thing in his article, however, I must notice. He doubts the truth of the story\n(as I told it) of the very pert young man, but if he will ask any of his German friends they will (I\nfeel sure) tell him that such tricks are often played on would-be linguists.\nI have seen it done not only in Germany, but also in New York, New Orleans and San\nFrancisco. Mr. Francis charges me with falsehood for saying that I was in Germany. Once more\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n15\n\n�he has thrown a boomerang, for I have been not only in Germany, but also in very many different\nparts of the world, among the others Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Wales,\nthe West India Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Sandwich Islands, Ceylon, Java, India,\nBrazil and Mexico, in addition to having visited and resided for short or long periods in very\nmany of the principal cities in our country, both on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes.\nLet me add that the sentence in German was written as it is pronounced on purpose to\ndraw attention to it, though I confess that all the credit for this “respectable old trick” is not due\nto me, for the gentleman that set up the type aided me charmingly by improving on my\n“mistake.” A very foxy trick to play on such a verdant youth as you are, was it not, Phil? You\ndon’t know me yet, my cheerful friend. I am not the kind of bird you think I am. You are a little\ntoo green, as you term it, for me to play with, but as you say you want to have lots of fun with\nme, I want to accommodate you, and perhaps occasionally have just a quiet little laugh to myself.\nJust think of it, mark tapley laughing at Mr. Phil Francis, the real, live, funny man, with a\ncircus (in his head?). “Oh fillip, fillip, it is a sight at which the hevens should drop.”\nOh, by the by, you want to know what Bonita’s doll was laying. Chestnuts, chestnuts,\nshe was laying chestnuts. My poor innocent, you had better lay in a fresh supply as your present\nstock is in need of reorganizing. They are strong, fitly, very strong. Your present supply of\nchestnuts has long, grey whiskers on the, my poor boy.\nWhen you can grow a crop of whiskers like that which is upon your poor dear old\nchestnuts, you will perhaps be able to poke fun at mark tapley, but at present you are “not in it”.\nI admit that in the use of vulgar language and insulting remarks you can far outshine me,\nbut to tell you the truth I do not desire to either acquire that habit or have anything to say to the\nman that has acquired it, for like every other foul disease, it is “catching,” and so I now, for the\nlast time, refer to or notice you, unless you can write like a gentleman. If you do that I will do\nmy best to amuse yolu, but I don’t want to get into the habit of calling a fellow creature out of his\nname. It is one that only an ignorant blackguard should be found guilty of, and is an insult to the\nreaders of any respectable newspaper.\n————— . ————\nITEM # 12\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nFebruary 23, 1896, p. 2, c.2\n[Here is a good example of obscurity: The Santa Cruz Sentinel is quoting the Fresno Expositor,\nwho was quoting the Stockton Record]:\n“Bierce , as the ambassador of the Examiner, never knew how really great he was until now.\nThe newspapers are dissecting him in an attempt to find a vulnerable spot in his flesh, and in\nspeaking of this the Stockton Record says: “His mantle of egotism is wrapped so tightly around\nhim that it protects him from all the world, including himself, for the ordinary man sometimes\ndoes realize he has made an ass of himself.””\n[Also in this issue (p. 2, c. 4) “Mark Tapley, Highland” [I thought he departed in 1895, maybe he\nreturned — as so many do return to Santa Cruz after roaming the world ] has a poem:\n“Remember You’ve Faults of Your Own.”]\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n16\n\n�——————————————\nITEM # 13\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\n\nFebruary 6, 1897, p. 1, c. 2\n“The Surf‘s Appreciation.”\n—————\nAdvance sheets of a literary work now in press have been forwarded to the Surf office.\nThe publication of this work will mark the invasion of a new force into literature, one that is\ndestined to dim the fame for humor of Artemus Ward, Josh Billings and Bill Nye, and to prove\nthat the weapon used so effectively by Samson may also propel the pen.\nThe title page of this new brochure reads:\n\nPOEMS\n— BY —\nDUNCAN M’PHERSON\n—\nA Choice Bibelot of verse Gleaned\nfrom a Daily Record of Mundane Things Made Immortal\nby the Kiss of Rhyme.\n—\nCopyright Not Wanted.\nSANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA.\nFebruary, 1897.\nNo description or review could do adequate justice to the contents. A few extracts will\nillustrate sufficiently, for many of our readers are becoming familiar with this literature as it\nappeared from time to time in the paper of the author. —Surf.\n[NOTE: The style used by the Surf above reads: M’PHERSON. The actual publication reads:\nDuncan McPherson. It also has a phrase not used above: “First Edition limited to One thousand\ncopies on handsome linen paper.”]\n———————————\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n17\n\n�ITEM # 14\nNote: “Corbett” was Jim Corbett, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion who was in the\nnews during this period.\nFebruary 13, 1897, p. 2, c.4: “And if I Can’t I’ll Cuff” by A.J.W. , in Fresno Republican\n“So lend your ears—God knows that\nyou’ve enough! —\nI mean to teach, and if I can’t I’ll cuff,\n—Ambrose Bierce.\n—————\nE’en so, my Ambrose, and ‘tis clear,\nindeed.\nWith such a choice you’re certain to\nsucceed.\nYou will not teach—the reason’s plain\nenough—\nBut e‘en my cat is able, quite, to cuff.\nAnd shall I therefore marvel at her\nskill\nAnd deem the feline is a wonder still?\nNot so, Sir Critic, she but cuffs and\nwelts\nBecause her brutish mind doth know\nnaught else.\nBut you, my Ambrose, of the human\nkind,\nMight once have had a more than feline mind;\nMight once have dreamed of using\npower to bless,\nAnd not alone to harrow and distress.\nThe day is past—the truth is sad\nenough—\nYou now retain alone the will to cuff.\nYou warred on women. Why, a man\nwould scorn—\nMan who is still of weaker woman\nborn—\nTo do a deed so rank. And yet no\nshame\nWithheld your pen your foulness to\nproclaim.\nI beg my cat’s good pardon, valiant\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n18\n\n�sir;\nTo war on women still denotes the cur.\nAnd some there wer who sung, not\nloud or clear,\nA simple strain which still to them was\ndear;\nA halting lay which all too vaguely\ntold\nThat dream of music which the heart\nmost hold.\nYou cuffed them, Ambrose. If it honor\nbe,\nWhy, hug it closely; it belongs to thee.\nYet some there be to whom the thought\nmust cling\n‘Twere better far to say, “God bless\nyou! Sing.”\nBut let it pass. You’re made of sterner\nstuff,\nAnd he must be who joys in power to\ncuff.\nAnd then, my Ambrose, still on ill intent,\nYour cuffing mind to other deeds you\nbent.\nSome names there were to humble millions dear,\nNames that the masses dared to love,\nrevere.\nYou slimed them o’er with malice from\nyour pen,\nFouled them with mire from out your\nmental fen\nAnd trebly proved your dastardly unworth\nBy thus attacking men of nobler birth\nThere is no petty deed but it shall\nclaim\nYou as the one to do its mite of sham;\nThere is no power of words at grace to\nsneer\nBut when it summons, you shall answer, “Here.”\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n19\n\n�So go your way, monarch of kicks and\ncuffs,\nA mental Corbett in a world of\n“toughs.”\nSo go your way; lay unction to your\nsoul\nThat it is good to be a cat termed\n“pole;”\nDeem, if you will, the public on its\nbench\nYour might admires, the while it\ndamns your stench.\nBut know this truth: Your strong, malicious pen\nRecords of you but this: “It might\nhave been.”\nYou might have been a man—Ah, well!\nEnough!\nYou’ve told the tale: “And if I can’t\nI’ll cuff.’\n—A. J. W., in Fresno Republican.\n——————————————————————\nITEM # 15\nOn Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1897, p. 2, c. 2 Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel [without a head, but in\nMcPherson’s usual column of commentary] appears the following:\n“Sunday last Ambrose Bierce,\nIn the Examiner fierce,\nTried our pen to pierce,\nAs follows:\nEh? Duncan?\nO, yes, he’s a person —\nA poet — they call him a bird.\nBut devil a linnet\nWith Duncan is in it\nWhenever his spirit is stirred\nAnd the blare of his larynx is heard.\nIf every person,\nLike Dunk McPherson,\nWere singing in Santa Cruz,\nIn such a Babel\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n20\n\n�None would be able\nTo hear him ripped out of his shoes\nBy his lungs — as now none choose.”\n\nITEM # 16\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nFebruary 23, 1897 p. 2, c. 2\nPROMINENCE UNSOUGHT, BUT\nHIGHLY APPRECIATED.\n\n————\nBy the Examiner Bierce.\nThe spectacle of two harmonious newspapers in one small town is sufficiently rare to\nchallenge attention. This pnenomenon is inferable in the instance of the “Sentinel” and The\nPenny Press of Santa Cruz, the editor of the latter being the local agent for a book of poems by\nthe editor of the former, and apparently scorning delights and living laborious days in promotion\nof its sale. It must be confessed that the merit of the poems is such as almost to justify this\nreversal of traditional relations between two of a trade. “Poems by Duncan McPherson” is\nindeed an epoch-making book. For once we may “hail the dawn of a new era” with a reasonable\nassurance that it will stay hailed— wherein it has a distinct advantage of any new era that has\ndawned within a month.\nFrom fthe preface of Mr. McPherson’s book one learns that the poems appeared in his\npaper “during the years 1893-4-5 and -6,” and is therefore encouraged to hope that others are\nnow apearing. “Their elemental design,” it seems, “was the expression of opinion upon current\nhappenings, which in the course of transmutation into words was subsequently subordinated to\nthe requirements of rhyme.” This, I take it, means that their author, who is locally known as the\nBird of the Avenue, “sang because he could not choose but sing,” as in the olden days when his\nwho-haw-gee was heard in all the region round. For be it known that Mr McPherson was once\nthe most distinguished bosopomp in the county of the Holy Cross.\nA few of the Bird’s “wood-notes wild” are hereunto appended:\nSunday the President put in the day at Buzzard’s Bay. Any cause is sufficient Congress\nto get away, thereby legislation to delay.\nThose who to-day partake of Jo Ball’s barbecued beef, from pinching hunger will get\nrelief, and only by eating too much will they come to grief.\nWood and hay from forest and field on the way are sold on the street every day.\nWilliam Spencer was up from Aptos Thursday, where everything is as still as a summer\ndream, and a contented people are feeding on richest cream, speckled beauties jumping in the\nstream and the prosperous wood owner hauling with his team.\nThese few nameless lyrics are quoted for their brevity; when the McPherson soul soars\ninto the breathless altitudes of epic poetry I can no more follow it than a fish can follow a cat.\nNothing but continuous study, with occasional prayer, will get all the good out of such noble\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n21\n\n�works as “The Sprung Spring,” “Day’s Unclouded Lengthiness,” “The Coldness of Weight,”\n“Fish Mouths” and—incomparable in strength, vivacity and splendor!—“Death’s Wormy Rake.”\nWhen these shall have been generally perused, considered, gobbled up and digested a cry of\ndelight will go up from all the land!\nITEM #17\nSanta Cruz Surf\nFebruary 23, 1897, p. 2, c. 2 \"COMPLIMENTS OF A CRITIC.'\n———\nThe recently republished [N.B.] book of poetry entitled, Verses of an Ox-Goad or Poems\nby Duncan McPherson, is reviewed at some length by Ambrose Bierce in his Sunday Prattle in\nthe San Francisco Examiner. This is an honor, the like of which has never been paid before to\nany local publication, and which Santa Cruzans will duly appreciate. After acknowledging\nreceipt of a copy of the work and noted the circumstances attending its publication, Mr. Bierce\nsays:\n“Poems by Duncan McPherson” is indeed an epoch-making book. For once we may\n“hail the dawn of a new era” with a reasonable assurance that it will stay hailed—wherein it has\na distinct advantage of any new era that has dawned within a month.\nFrom the preface of Mr. McPherson’s book one learns that the poems appeared in his\npaper ‘during the years 1893 4 5 and 6,’ and is therefore encouraged to hope that others are now\nappearing. ”Their elemental design,” it seems, “was the expression of opinion upon current\nhappenings, which in the course of transmutation into words was subsequently subordinated to\nthe requirements of rhyme.” This, I take it, means that their author, who is locally known as the\nBird of the Avenue, “sang because he could but choose but sing,” as in the olden golden days\nwhen his whoa-haw-gee was heard in all the region round.\n———\nThe Editor of the Santa Cruz Surf was Arthur A. Taylor. The Editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel\nwas Duncan McPherson. [In fact, the McPherson family still runs the Santa Cruz Sentinel,\nalthough it has been sold to the Dow-Jones Company.] They had a continuing battle of words in\ntheir respective newspapers, and Duncan McPherson was also battling continuously with the\nEditor of The Penny Press, another Santa Cruz paper. References to Duncan McPherson as\nbeing “a poet” should only be taken within the context of what he wrote in his Santa Cruz\nSentinel as its Editor/Publisher, and now we have discovered, his “Poems by Duncan\nMcPherson” I believe Taylor delighted in printing Bierce’s criticism of McPherson, and adding\nhis own jab: i.e., “Verses of an Ox-Goad.”\n{McPherson’s general attitude about these other newspaper commentators, and I am certain\nBierce could be included here, is reflected in the following comment that appeared in\nMcPherson’s Santa Cruz Sentinel on February 6, 1897, p. 2, c. 1: [sds]\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n22\n\n�“We are a thousand times obliged to the many people who are writing for the “Sentinel,”\ntheir homes being located in different parts of the county, and even one of them is a resident of\nfar Los Angeles. These contributions are devoted to news and general literature, some prose,\nothers poetry. The “Sentinel” contains more contributed articles and newsletters than all of the\nother papers of the county combined, some of the writers being personally unknown to us. The\nfew communications that are appearing in other local journals are devoted largely to the abuse of\nmen in office and citizens in private life, the writers seemingly taking their cues from the tone of\nthe sheets in which their fulminations appear. A hog knows a mud-hole when he sees it, and a\nmud-hole accepts a hog when he wallows in it.”}\nI believe Bierce means a book of republished poetry , rather than the republication of a book, as\nthe existence of another book is doubtful; the title page indicates that it is the “First Edition”.\nThe work itself was published in 1,000 copies, of which I have located only one copy, in the\npossession of the Granddaughter of Duncan McPherson (Lillian McPherson Rouse, who is now\neighty). It includes a note that its content was first published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1893,\n94, 95, and 96.\nMcPherson’s “book” is thirty-two pages, 6\" high x 4 3/4\" wide, tied with string in gutter. It’s\ntitle page contains the following information: “POEMS | — BY — | Duncan | McPherson | —\n—— | A Choice Bibelot of Verse Gleaned from | a Daily Record of Mundane Things | Made\nImmortal by the Kiss | of Rhyme. | ——— | First Edition limited to One thousand | copies on\nhandsome linen paper. | ——— | Copyright Not Wanted. | SANTA CRUZ, CAL. | February,\n1897. ”\nMcPherson’s PREFACE confirms Bierce’s statement that: “The following poems appeared\noriginally in the SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL during the years of 1893-4-5 and 6. Their\nelemental design was the expression of an opinion upon current happenings, which, in the course\nof transmution into words, was subsequently subordinated to the requirements of rhyme. Whereever rhyme and reason might have clashed, rhyme has invariably been given the preference, as\nwas only meet where poetry and not prose was the lofty aim to be attained. In fact, nothing\nwhatever has been suffered to interfere with or impede the glorious progress of the muse.”\nA careful reading of thirty-one pages, I failed to discover any reference to Ambrose Bierce,\nunless it is obscured in a reference I do not comprehend. Unfortunately for this purpose, the\nthirty-second page is not capable of being read; it is pasted down to an opaque leaf of Duncan\nMcPherson’s granddaughter’s scrapbook. [i.e., Lillian McPherson Rouse]\nITEM # 18\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nMarch 30, 1897, p. 2 c. 5\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n23\n\n�—————————\nWritten for the “Sentinel.”\nAT THE VAN NUYS.\n———\nThere is a wondrous rise\nAt the new Hotel Van Nuys\nIn the temperature.\nThe heat is something fierce,\nFor it radiates from Bierce\nScorching and sure;\nAnd it spreads all around.\nIt zig-zags from the ground—\nIt wavers to the skies.\nThe whole town is enerrate\nIn a wilted down state,\nFor Bierce is at the Van Nuys.\nM. N. O.\nLos Angeles, March 24th.\n————————\n\n[M. N. O. unidentified]\n\nITEM # 19\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nMay 3, 1903, 4:1\n“Death of Dr. Doyle”\nDied at 2 pm Saturday [May 2, 1903]. His death is attributed to apoplexy. This obit includes\nsome biography of Dr. Doyle.\n\nITEM # 20\nSanta Cruz Surf,\nMonday Evening, May 4, 1903, p. 2:\na three column Editorial — “Dr. Doyle is dead” with Doyle‘s signature reproduced at top of 1st\ncolumn.\n“Many of his best bits of verse were voluntary contributions to the Surf, ...”\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n24\n\n�Mentions [without citations] other publications in which Doyle‘s works appear: Harper’s\nMagazine, San Francisco Examiner, Sacramento Bee.\nIt is noted in this Editorial that Dr. Doyle “... arrived in Santa Cruz in 1888 bringing the most\nvaluable library that had at that date reached Santa Cruz...”\n\nITEM # 21\nSanta Cruz Daily Sentinel\nMay 7, 1903, 3:3\nLetter to Ed: “Mrs. M’Crackin’s Tribute to Dr. Doyle” by Josephine Clifford McCrackin\nMonte Paraiso Ranch, Santa Cruz Mountains, May 4, 1903.\n\nITEM # 22\nSanta Cruz Surf,\nMay 8, 1903, 2:2\n“In Memorium — Dr. C. W. Doyle”\n[a poem by] Herman Scheffauer [colleague of Bierce and McCrackin at Monte Paraiso Ranch]\n\nReferences:\nMcCrackin, Josephine Clifford\nThe woman who lost him and tales of the army frontier. Pasadena : George Warton\nJames, 1913. pp. title-page, table-of-contents, illustrations, and Introduction by\nAmbrose Bierce. (total 7 pages)\nPayne, Stephen Michael\nA howling wilderness. Santa Cruz : Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978. pp. 121-27, 136-37.\nWalker, Dale L.\n“A last laugh for Ambrose Bierce.” American West. v. X, # 6 (Nov. 1973) 34-39, 63.\n\nRE: Ambrose Bierce, Duncan McPherson & Dr. Charles William Doyle\n\npage\npage\n\n25\n\n�"]]]]]]]]],["collection",{"collectionId":"8"},["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264220"},["text","It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264216"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries\r\n"]]]]]]]],["itemType",{"itemTypeId":"1"},["name","Document"],["description","A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"7"},["name","Original Format"],["description","If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911500"},["text","Paper"]]]]]],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911483"},["text","The Mountain Echo"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"49"},["name","Subject"],["description","The topic of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911484"},["text","Newspapers"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911485"},["text","Mountain Echo"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911486"},["text","Rodgers, Charles"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"39"},["name","Creator"],["description","An entity primarily responsible for making the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911487"},["text","Stevens, Stanley"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"48"},["name","Source"],["description","A related resource from which the described resource is derived"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911488"},["text","Index to the Mountain Echo, published by the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, 1999"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911489"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"40"},["name","Date"],["description","A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911490"},["text","1999"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"42"},["name","Format"],["description","The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911491"},["text","Text"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"44"},["name","Language"],["description","A language of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911492"},["text","En"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"51"},["name","Type"],["description","The nature or genre of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911493"},["text","ARTICLE"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"43"},["name","Identifier"],["description","An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911494"},["text","AR-223"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"38"},["name","Coverage"],["description","The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911495"},["text","San Lorenzo Valley"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911496"},["text","1890s"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911497"},["text","1900s"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911498"},["text","1910s"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"47"},["name","Rights"],["description","Information about rights held in and over the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911499"},["text","Reproduced with permission of the author."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"46"},["name","Relation"],["description","A related resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1911502"},["text","Local News Index"]]]]]]],["tagContainer",["tag",{"tagId":"19"},["name","Arts and Entertainment"]],["tag",{"tagId":"7"},["name","Business"]]]],["item",{"itemId":"130664","public":"1","featured":"1"},["collection",{"collectionId":"3"},["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"109713"},["text","Local News Index"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"41"},["name","Description"],["description","An account of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"109714"},["text","An index to newspaper and periodical articles from a variety of Santa Cruz publications.\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1840006"},["text","It is a collection of over 87,000 articles, primarily from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, that have been clipped and filed in subject folders. While these articles of local interest range in date from the early 1900's to the present, most of the collection and clipped articles are after roughly 1960. There is an ongoing project to scan the complete articles and include them in this collection.
Also included are more than 350 full-text local newspaper articles on films and movie-making and on the Japanese-American internment.
In addition, this is an online index for births, deaths, and personal names from The Mountain Echo. The complete print index is available at the library. For more information see The Mountain Echo."]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1840007"},["text","Most of the indexed articles are available on microfilm in the Californiana Room or in the clipping files in the Local History Room at the Downtown branch. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the Reference Department - Ask Us.
\n