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The Luck of Roaring Camp (v. 1); And Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers
The Luck of Roaring Camp And Other Tales With Condensed Novels Spanish and American Legends and Earlier Papers - v. 1 Author:Bret Harte Volume: v. 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1906 Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin Subjects: Fiction / Historical Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Fiction / Westerns Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing ... more »text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: TENNESSEE'S PARTNER I Do not think that we ever knew his real name. Oui ignorance of it certainly never gave us any social inconvenience, for at Sandy Bar in 1854 most men were christened anew. Sometimes these appellatives were derived from some distinctiveness of dress, as in the case of " Dungaree Jack ;" or from some peculiarity of habit, as shown in " Saleratus Bill," so called from an undue proportion of that chemical in his daily hread ; or from some unlucky slip, as exhibited in " The Iron Pirate," a mild, inoffensive man, who earned that baleful title by his unfortunate mispronunciation of the term "iron pyrites." Perhaps this may have been the beginning of a rude heraldry; but I am constrained to think that it was because a man's real name in that day rested solely upon his own unsupported statement. " Call yourself Clifford, do you ?" said Boston, addressing a timid newcomer with infinite scorn ; " hell is full of such Cliffords ! " He then introduced the unfortunate man, whose name happened to be really Clifford, as " Jaybird Charley," -- an unhallowed inspiration of the moment that clung to him ever after. But to return to Tennessee's Partner, whom we never knew by say other than this relative title. That he had ever, xisted as a separate and distinct individuality we only 'gned later. It seems that in 1853 he left Poker Flat to 'to San Francisco, ostensibly to procure a wife. He er got any farther than Stockton. At that place he was iracted by...« less