Bret Harte, "Good Guy".

I don't believe much of the Bible, but it has some darn fine quotes. The following is from Daniel 2:33-45.

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image ... his feet part of iron and part of clay. ... And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken."

The quote has come into common usage, meaning, be careful who you choose as an Idol, because he might have "Feet of Clay", or, a major flaw in his character. It would seem that most of the people, even the "Good People" on the Frontier had many flaws. Bret Harte has been presented many times as one of the good people that tried to get the killing of the Indian people stopped.

Card Sharks and Chinese People were not too popular back in the 1870's. Bret Harte wrote a poem about a confrontation between the two, and the outcome. It seems that the poor "Chinee" ended up getting the worst of the bargain.

The Heathen Chinee, By Bret Harte

Which I wish to remark,
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar,
Which the same I would rise to explain.

Ah Sin was his name;
And I shall not deny,
In regard to the same,
What that name might imply;
But his smile it was pensive and childlike,
As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye.

It was August the third,
And quite soft was the skies;
Which it might be inferred
That Ah Sin was likewise;
Yet he played it that day upon William
And me in a way I despise.

Which we had a small game,
And Ah Sin took a hand:
It was Euchre. The same
He did not understand;
But he smiled as he sat by the table,
With the smile that was childlike and bland.

Yet the cards they were stocked
In a way that I grieve,
And my feelings were shocked
At the state of Nye's sleeve,
Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers,
And the same with intent to deceive.

But the hands that were played
By that heathen Chinee,
And the points that he made,
Were quite frightful to see, --
Till at last he put down a right bower,
Which the same Nye had dealt unto me.

Then I looked up at Nye,
And he gazed upon me;
And he rose with a sigh,
And said, "Can this be?
We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor," --
And he went for that heathen Chinee.

In the scene that ensued
I did not take a hand,
But the floor it was strewed
Like the leaves on the strand
With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding,
In the game "he did not understand."

In his sleeves, which were long,
He had twenty-four packs, --
Which was coming it strong,
Yet I state but the facts;
And we found on his nails, which were taper,
What is frequent in tapers, -- that's wax.

Which is why I remark,
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar, --
Which the same I am free to maintain.

The "Heathen Chinee" shot Bret Harte into fame in the west, he became quite well known after publishing it.

[ The Heathen Chinee, was a satire of racial prejudice in northern California, but was embraced by the American public as a mockery of Chinese immigrants, and shaped anti-Chinese sentiment more than any other work at the time. (From Wikipedia.)]


Taken from Driven out: roundups and resistance of the Chinese in rural California
By: Jean Pfaelzer
"Early Friday evening, February 2, 1885, David Kendall, a city councilman, was caught in the cross fire as two Chinese men shot at each other in Eureka, California, a small fishing and lumber town on the foggy north coast. Kendall died instantly, and a crowd quickly gathered, chanting "Burn Chinatown." In less than twenty minutes, some six hundred white men met in Centennial Hall, a few blocks from Chinatown, and determined that all Chinese had to leave Eureka. A committee of six men was chosen to go to Chinatown and tell the Chinese they had twenty-four hours to leave. That night an effigy of a Chinese man hung from a gallows on the edge of Chinatown. Pinned to the gallows was a sign announcing "Any Chinese seen on the street after three o'clock today will be hung." Two Chinese men fled into the redwoods and were caught; the rest complied. By Saturday morning, twenty-three loads of Chinese people and their clothing and household goods were gathered on the docks. Small skiffs carried the Chinese to two steam ships that happened to be in Humboldt Bay; 135 people were loaded onto the Humboldt, 175 were loaded onto the City of Chester. By nightfall, the tide was out, and the laden ships could not set sail until early Sunday morning. With a strong wind from the north, the ships reached San Francisco early Monday. The Customs House was still closed from the weekend, and the Chinese people disembarked quickly and disappeared into the safety of Chinatown. Meanwhile, in Eureka, the citizens immediately regathered and announced that all remaining Chinese people in Humboldt County would be expelled, that no Chinese could ever again settle in Eureka, and that no one in the county could ever again rent to or hire a Chinese person. In two days the Chinese community in Eureka was erased. But on Monday afternoon, the Chinese who had been expelled from Eureka regathered in San Francisco and announced that they were going to sue Eureka for being the objects of mob violence, for the loss of their property, and for being driven out."

Could, or should, Bret Harte have known that his poem would become the theme for anti-Chinese sentiment in the west? Did his poem have anything to do with the driving away of the entire Chinese population of Humboldt County in 1885? Did the fact that the Eurekans rounded them up and put them on a boat have anything to do with the fact that the world had become more civilized. Or did they ship them out of town instead of killing them because of all of the criticism of killing the Indian People on Indian Island twenty-four years earlier?

There is a character in his poem, Bill Nye. Bill was a well known humorist in the Covelo area, and was known for witty writing and playing practical jokes on people. Was it the same Bill Nye? Or just a coincidence. The following is some of Bill Nyes humor:
"Bill NYE advertises as follows: Owing to ill health I will sell at my residence in town 29, range 18 west, according to the government survey, one crushed raspberry colored cow, aged 6yrs. She is a good milkster and is not afraid of cars - or anything else. She is a cow of undaunted courage and gives milk frequently. To a man who does not fear death in any form, she would be a great boon. She is very much attached to home at present, by means of a trace-chain, but she will be sold to anyone who will agree to treat her right. She is 1/4 shorthorn and 3/4 hyena. Purchaser need not be indentified. I will also throw in a double-barrel shotgun, which goes with her. In May she generally goes away somewhere for a week or two and returns with a tall, red calf with long wobbly legs. Her name is Rose, and I would prefer to sell her to a non-resident."