"Till at last he led off the right bower,
That Nye had just hid on his knee."
As changed on the proof it read:
"Till at last he put down a right bower,
Which the same Nye had dealt unto me."
It was a happy second thought that suggested the most quoted line in this famous poem. The fifth line of the seventh verse originally read:
"Or is civilization a failure?"
On the margin of the proof-sheet he substituted the ringing line:
"We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor,"
—an immense improvement—the verse reading:
"Then I looked up at Nye,
And he gazed unto 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."
The corrected proof, one of the treasures of the University of California, with which Harte was for a time nominally connected, bears convincing testimony to the painstaking methods by which he sought the highest degree of literary perfection. This poem was not intended as a serious addition to contemporary verse. Harte disclaimed any purpose whatever; but there seems just a touch of political satire. "The Chinese must go" was becoming the popular political slogan, and he always enjoyed rowing against the tide. The poem greatly extended his name and fame. It was reprinted in Punch, it was liberally quoted on the floors of Congress, and it "caught on" everywhere. Perhaps it is today the one thing by which Harte is best known.