Stained with expressed juices of the weed Nicotian,
Came these hollow accents, blent with softer murmurs
Of expectoration:
“Which my name is Bowers, and my crust was busted
Falling down a shaft in Calaveras county,
But I’d take it kindly if you’d send the pieces
Home to old Missouri!”
Pioneering in the West marked a distinct epoch in American humor. Bret Harte owed his meteoric success largely to the fact of his utilizing the background of the Golden West. And so did Joaquin Miller, John Hay and Edward Rowland Sill.
The Pike County Ballads of John Hay were national favorites.