THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics. VOL. XCII.-JULY, 1903. —No. DXLIX. The ATLANTIC has long been fortunate in enlisting the services of writers living west of the Rocky Mountains. Ever since Bret Harte's earlier stories revealed the rich literary material to be found upon the Pacific Coast, this magazine has constantly utilized the prose and verse produced in California. We believe that its readers will now welcome an issue made up very largely of contributions from present residents of that state. While the themes of these contributions are by no means merely local, it seems to us that the representative work of California writers possesses certain characteristic qualities which will impress themselves upon readers interested in the literary development of the various sections of our country. — THE EDITORS. THE LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF THE PACIFIC COAST. Two distinct periods of activity have marked the literary development of the Pacific Coast. The first may be said to have made itself most manifest during the years when California was essentially a gold-producing region, when Bret Harte began his contributions to the world's enduring fiction, and Joaquin Miller added a new and refreshing note to American song. To be more exact, the year 1868 witnessed the dawn of California literature, - a dawn of radiant promise which paled and faded into a brief day that closed ominously. The second period of literary growth, which I am asked to consider especially, and which to the present hour has gradually increased in strength, began with the completion of the transcontinental railroads, when the vast tide of immigration, flowing westward, had changed the states bordering on the Pacific from a mining region to one of commerce and agriculture. The time that elapsed during this transformation defines clearly these two periods of literary development, the latter having assumed within the past decade its greatest activity. The reason for this is at once apparent when we consider that the intense materialism which character ized the "boom" days was by no means conducive to art in any of its various forms. The passing of the golden era with its glamour of romance, and the subsequent speculative excitement caused by the advent of homeseekers from the Eastern and Middle states, was naturally a time of literary quietude. The old West, which had ever been separated from the world at large by mountain barriers and desolate wastes, and which could only be reached by a wearisome ocean journey, or by that more perilous route taken by the "prairie schooner," was giving place to the new. Social conditions were necessarily altered. The primitive customs characteristic of the pioneers were brought into sharp contrast with those of the more cultured fortune-hunters from the commercial centres of the East. The natural touched elbows with the artificial. Formality was often greeted by what to it appeared a disregard for good manners only pardonable in the barbarous. The conventional and the conservative were forced to mingle with the informal and the radical. Metropolitan life joined with that of the border; the one being influenced by the other. Thus to-day the Pacific slope presents a social struc ture, the architecture of which must prove of striking psychological interest because of its bewildering complexity. It would be highly difficult to convey even a slight idea of the wild turmoil that prevailed throughout the Far West during its rapid transition from a comparative wilderness to the prosperous commonwealth of the present day. Only those who participated in the fierce scramble for corner lots can fully comprehend the feverish conditions which existed on the western side of the continent during the days of its mushroom growth. It was a mad rush for wealth. Such a frantic struggle of tossed and tumbled humanity! Here the man of meagre purse felt that he could at last grasp the hand of Opportunity, and he was dazzled by dreams of sudden riches. From Puget Sound to San Diego, the Pacific Coast was one vast whirlpool of speculative frenzy. Hundreds of eager men gathered about some land company's office at the midnight hour, that they might secure on the following morning the choicest lots in the newly platted town site or addition, were not an unusual spectacle, or one that partook of literary significance. Shrewd investors made their fortunes. The newcomer, who may have been forced to borrow a few dollars on his arrival, not infrequently became a millionaire within a year. Almost fabulous tales are told of riches gained in a single day or hour. Speculation was the one thought on which the minds of men were centred, and which amounted to a veritable mania, an all-pervading passion. It was a form. of gambling but a shade higher than that with which we most commonly associate the name. Neither old nor young escaped its allurements. The erstwhile conservative citizen of staid old New England soon found himself infected with the prevailing fever, and was drawn almost unconsciously into that vortex of greed that sooner or later must bring wreck and ruin. The inflation of values beyond all rea son brought the inevitable crash. In the vernacular of the real estate gambler, "the boom busted." This meant a great deal to the people who had sought their fortunes west of the Rockies. It meant loss of home, bankruptcy, shattered hope, despair, even suicide. The growth of the country in a material sense, though temporarily retarded, assumed a normal condition, as any growth should to be healthful, and it has remained so, with few exceptions, to the present time. Although we may realize something of the rapid strides made by modern civilization, it seems hardly possible that a brief quarter of a century could bring about the great change that has taken place along the shores of the Pacific. Within this period alone huge forests have been felled, and in their stead strong young cities have arisen as if by magic. Where the rattlesnake lay undisturbed on the California hills the paved streets now echo to the clamorous tongue of Trade, and in matchless harbors, where but two decades past only the canoe of the Indian was seen, great steamships cast anchor from the ports of the world. What has been accomplished in the way of material progress must of necessity precede the higher growth, yet this is decidedly averse to the creation of a literary atmosphere. The air, so intensely permeated with plots, plans, and wily schemes, did not inspire the thought which survives brick blocks, and which is the ultimate test of a people's greatness. When materialism reaches such a stage as to completely dwarf the spiritual faculties, the eyes of men are seldom lifted to the stars. With the collapse of inflated values the inhabitants of the new West found time to look about them and contemplate their surroundings. Now that their minds were diverted from speculations in real estate they awoke to the necessity of progression in ways other than those to which they had heretofore de |