The New Penelope, and Other Stories and Poems. Frances Fuller Victor
tion>
Frances Fuller Victor
The New Penelope, and Other Stories and Poems
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066132750
Table of Contents
The New Penelope and Other Stories And Poems.
PREFACE.
This collection consists of sketches of Pacific Coast life, most of which have appeared, from time to time, in the Overland Monthly, and other Western magazines. If they have a merit, it is because they picture scenes and characters having the charm of newness and originality, such as belong to border life.
The poems embraced in the collection, have been written at all periods of my life, and therefore cannot be called peculiarly Western. But they embody feelings and emotions common to all hearts, East or West; and as such, I dedicate them to my friends on the Pacific Coast, but most especially in Oregon.
Portland, August, 1877.
STORIES.
Page
A Curious Interview80
Mr. Ela's Story96
On the Sands112
An Old Fool132
How Jack Hastings Sold His Mine180
What They Told Me at Wilson's Bar197
Miss Jorgensen212
Sam Rice's Romance231
El Tesoro247
POEMS.
Passing by Helicon272
Lost at Sea275
'Twas June, Not I276
Lines to a Lump of Virgin Gold281
Magdalena284
Repose289
Aspasia291
A Reprimand296
To Mrs. ——297
Moonlight Memories299
Verses for M——301
Autumnalia303
Palo Santo305
A Summer Day306
He and She308
O Wild November Wind308
By the Sea309
Polk County Hills310
Waiting312
Palma314
Making Moan316
Childhood317
A Little Bird that Every One Knows318
Wayward Love319
A Lyric of Life320
From an Unpublished Poem321
Nevada324
The Vine326
What the Sea Said to Me327
Hymn328
Do You Hear the Women Praying?329
Our Life is Twofold331
Souvenir334
I Only Wished to Know335
Lines Written in an Album335
Love's Footsteps336
The Poet's Ministers336
Sunset at the Mouth of the Columbia340
The Passing of the Year342
STORIES.
The New Penelope and Other Stories And Poems.
THE NEW PENELOPE.
I may as well avow myself in the beginning of my story as that anomalous creature—a woman who loves her own sex, and naturally inclines to the study of their individual peculiarities and histories, in order to get at their collective qualities. If I were to lay before the reader all the good and bad I know about them by actual discovery, and all the mean, and heroic, attributes this habit I have of studying people has revealed to me, I should meet with incredulity, perhaps with opprobrium. However that may be, I have derived great enjoyment from having been made the recipient of the confidences of many women, and by learning therefrom to respect the moral greatness that is so often coupled with delicate physical structure, and almost perfect social helplessness. Pioneer life brings to light striking characteristics in a remarkable manner; because, in the absence of conventionalities and in the presence of absolute and imminent necessities, all real qualities come to the surface as they never would have done under different circumstances. In the early life of the Greeks, Homer found his Penelope; in the pioneer days of the Pacific Coast, I discovered mine.
My wanderings, up and down among the majestic mountains and the sunny valleys of California and Oregon, had made me acquainted with many persons, some of whom were to me, from the interest they inspired me with, like the friends of my girlhood. Among this select number was Mrs. Anna Greyfield, at whose home among the foot-hills of the Sierras in Northern California, I had spent one of the most delightful summers of my life. Intellectual and intelligent without being learned or particularly bookish; quick in her perceptions and nearly faultless in her judgment of others; broadly charitable, not through any laxity of principle on her own part, but through knowledge of the stumbling-blocks of which the world is full for the unwary, she was a constant surprise and pleasure to me. For, among the vices of women I had long counted uncharitableness; and among their disadvantages want of actual knowledge of things—the latter accounting for the former.
I had several times heard it mentioned that