900
WEST SHORE.
THE PACIFIC FROM GRAY'S HARBOR.
The surf, like some great, hungry lion, roars,
And flings his angry mane unto the breeze,
And now he laps the beach unceasingly,
Then laz'ly stretches forth his prey to seize.
I wander by the ocean's brink and gaze
Upon its multifarious changes,
Many changes see it take, and follow
Where the dreamer's rhymed fancy ranges.
It touches where quaint, flowery Yeddo blooms,
Where jeweled idols reign and paraquets are seen,-
It passes where lush, mellow fruits hang low
From icy fields to fields forever green.
Now kindly thoughts of kinship I would launch
To every port where washes that calm sea ;
From that way, yet, on favoring wings shall come
Commerce, with its freight of long prosperity.
Yon white-winged ships, like birds of promise, fly
Into the harbor ancT brood in safety there ;
Then, with spread pinions, take their course seaward,
Keeping their way along the ambient air.
Like one great beryl as a jewel set
Within its golden rim of sunset skies, the ocean,
From pole to pole, from continent to continent,
Moves with unceasing motion.
I watch it come, and think and dream and dream
Of that fair time of promise yet to be ;
I watch it go in palpitating tides,
And know it leads out to infinity.
Genii Clark Fomeroy.
A TENDERFOOT LOOSE IN OREGON.
He was a thin, sallow-faced man, with a large, drooping
mustache, a square jaw, bright, restless eyes fringed by thick,
black brows, lie placed his smoothly-brushed silk hat on the
rack, and occupied the place at table opposite me. I was sit
ting at the dining table of the Revera house, in Albany, and
had taken this brief Inventory in the casual glance that is ex
changed by experienced travelers, then returned to my fruit
and quite forgot the fellow's presence.
The trig, little waitress entered, bearing my smoking dinner ;
while she was still hovering about the table, performing her
duties, the man opposite rem irked
14 1 always pick out the hotels that employ lady waiters,
especially pretty ladies."
I lookfld up Ju?t In time to receive the wink which accom
panied the sentiment. From his conceited smirk and from the
sugared intonation of his voice I knew that here was one of
those pests to society a lady killer. The gentleman beside
me and also the portly, absorbed gentleman at the head of the
table looked up with glances of mild interest, then retired be
hind expressions of disgust to their occupations.
Belated gueBts arrived and soon our table was surrounded.
Several suggestive coughs issued from the man opposite, but
there appeared to be no sympathetic spirits in the party. At
length he addressed me
44 Are you in the picture business, too? "
I Informed him 44 No," without any attempt at studied
civility.
44 Torhaps some of the other gentlemen are," he persevered.
A few shakes from as many heads were the only replies he
received, but even thoBe encouraged him, for he continued
44 Those are my samples in the office ; I tell you " f ffusive
ly, he had found a listener at his right 44 the picture business is
the thing there's money in. You'd be surprised to know the
amount of orders I take. You're a traveling man, I suppose? "
The party at his right nodded.
44 Us traveling men should be more sociable," continued the
picture agent. 41 What's life without sociability ? "
By dint of a tenacity which I wai forced to admire the fel
low raised quite a conversational breeze. He was in bve with
his profession. The expression 44 traveling man " had for him
a fascination, and he used it frequently as he related exploits in
which he had participated while on the road.
44 Oh, us traveling men get on to all the snaps that's going,"
he declared, and then related with considerable eiprit an expe
rience of his on the Southern Pacific road.
44 1 took the overland at Roseburg," he said. 44 Sticking on
the back of the seat in front of me was a conductor's check. I
made a bet with a friend also a traveling man that I could
use that check as a pass to my destination. I put the thing in
my hat. The condu tor came through the car, looked at my
check and passed on. I won the bet and also the price of the
ticket, for here it Is, unpunched," and he held aloof the bit of
pasteboard.
At the conclusion of this narrative the portly gentleman
who occupied the head of the table was regarding him with
some attention. This so pleased the fellow that he enquired of
the gentleman If the trick had not been well carried.
44 Admirably," was the anewer. 44 And is that the ticket In
your hand."