Finny.

Otago Witness, Issue 1383, 1 June 1878, Page 18

Finny.

BRET HARTE'S LATEST SKETCH.

I think that the few who were permitted to know and love the. object of this sketch spent the rest of their daye not only in an attitude of apology for having at first failed to recognise her higher nature, but of remorse that they should have ever lent a credulousjear to d priori tradition concerning her family characteristics. She had not escaped that calumny, which she shared with the rest of her sex, for those youthful follies, levities, and indiscretions which belong to immaturity. It is very probable that the firmness that distinguished her maturer will, in youth might have been taken for obstinacy ; that her nice discrimination might at the same time have been taken for adolescent caprice ; and that the positive expression of her quick intellect might have been thought youbhful impertinence before 'her years had won respect for her judgment. She was foaled at Indian Creole, and one month later, when she was brought over to Sawyer's Bar, was considered the smallest donkey ever seen in the foot hills. The legend that she was brought over in one of "Dan the Quartz Crusher's " boots required corroboration from that gentleman ; but his denial being evidently based upon a masculine vanity regarding the size of hia foot, rather than a desire to be historically accurate, it went for nothing. It is certain that for the next two months she occupied the cabin of Dan, until, perhaps incensed at this and other scandals, she one night made her way out. " I hadn't the least idee what woz coming," said Dan, " but about midnight I seemed to | hezir hail onto the roof, and a 4a 4 shower of ! rocks and stones like to a blast started in

the canon. WhenJ got up and strupk * light, thar was suthiri' like. onto a'cord o' kindlin' wood and splinters 'whar she'd stood asleep,. and> a hole. iriutheVside of the shanty, and — no Jinny' luLookiu' at them hoofa o' hern — an' .mighty purty they is to look at, too — you , would; aJUow she could do it !" 1 fear that, this «per-", formance laid the foundation of her ,inf,eli-; citous reputation, and perhaps awakened in her youthful breast a misplaced ambition, and an emulation which might -at, that time have been diverted into a nobler channel. For the- fame of this juvenile performance — and its possible promise ,ia, the future — brought at once upon, her;, the dangerous flattery and attention, of the whole camp. Under intelligently, directed provocation she would repeat her , misguided exercise, until -most , of;, the scanty furniture of the cabin was reduced, to a hopeless wreck, and sprains -and callosities were, developed on, the, .limbs, of her admirers. Yet even at>tbia early , stage of history that penetrating..intellect which was in after years her- dominant quality was evident to all. ...She could not be made to kick at, quartz tailings, at a .barrel ' of Boston crackers, or at the head or shin of " Nigger, Pete." An artistic discrimination economised her surplus energy. a Ef you*ll notice," said Dan, with a large'paternal softness, " she never lets herself out to onct.like., them mules or any jackass, as I've heaaj# of, but kinder holds herself in, and,' m to speak, takes her bearings — sorter,, feels,, round gently with that off- foot/- .takes her distance and her rest, and -. then; with that ar' foot hoverin' round in the air softly, like an angel's wing, and a gentle., . dreamy kind o' look .in them, eyes, . she lites out ! Don't ye, J,iuny ? Thar ! jest as I told ye," continued Dan, .with: an artist's noble forgetfulnesa of self, as he slowly crawled from the splintered, ruins of the barrel on which he had,, been sitting. "Thar! did ye ever. see the like?- Did ye dream that all the while I was talkin' she was a meditatin 1 that?" , , ' The same artistic perception and .noble reticence distinguished her bray. It wat one of which a less sagacious .animal would have been foolishly,' vain or ostentatiously prodigal. It was a contralto of great compass and profundity — reaohing from low C*- to high o—perhaps!0 — perhaps ! a triflestronger in the lower register, and not altogether ' free from a naaal. falsetto in the upper. Daring and brilliant, as it was in the middle notes, it -wad perhaps more musically remarkable ' for its great sustaining power. The element of surprise alwayß entered into ft the ' hearer's enjoyment; long aftep aiiy ordinary strain of human .origin .would have ceased, faint echoes of JinnyV lait note were perpetually recurring. But it was as an intellectual and moral expression that her bray was perfect. As far, beyond her as were her aspirations, it ; 'w,as, a .free , and running commentary of. scorn at all created things extant, with ironic, and sardonic additions that were terrible.... It reviled all human endeavour, it' quenched all sentiment, it suspended frivolity, it scattered reverie, it paralysed action. It was omnipotent. More wonderful and characteristic than all, the very existence of this tremendous organ was unknown, to the camp for six months after the arrival of its modest owner, and only revealed to them under circumstances that seemed ,to point more .conclusively than evpf to her rare discretion. , , , .' It was the, beginning of a warm night ' and the middle of a 1 heated political discussion. Sawyer's Bar .had gathered in force at the Crossing, and, by, ;thq light of ■ flaring pine torches, cheered and applauded the rival speakers, who, from a rude ,plat- , form, addressed the excited multitude. Partisan spirit at that time ran high' in the Foot Hills ; crimination and reprimi- , nation, challenge, reply, accusation, and retort had already inflamed, the- meeting, and Colonel Bungstarter,, after a withering, review of his opponent's .policy, culminated with a personal attack upon the career , and private character of the ejoquenjj a,nd, chivalrous Colonel Culpepper^Starbottle, > of Siskiyou. That eloquent ,and chiv«d»<? rous gentleman was known, to be present^ , and it was rumoured- that the attack was expected to provoke a. challenge from Colonel Starbottle , w,hich w;ould • give Bungstarter the choice; of, weapons, and deprive Starbottle of his .advantage as a dead* shot. It was whispered, ,also that the sagacious Starbottle, aware of. this fact, would retaliate in kind ,so outrageously as to leave Bungstarter, no recourse but to demand satisfaction.; on: the spot. As Colonel Starbottle rose, the eager crowd drew togethery.elbowing each other in rapt and ecstatic expectancy.' "He can't get even on Bungstarter, unless he allows his sister ran off with a nigger, or that he put up his grandmother at draw poker and lost her,!' whispered the Quartz Crusher; ft kin he?". All ears were alert, particularly the very long and hairy ones just rising above the railing of the speaker's platform ; for Jinny, having a feminine distrust of solitude, and a fondness for shadow, followed her master to the meeting, and had insinuated herself upon the platform, -where way was made for her with that .frontier ' courtesy always extended to her; age and i sex.

Colonel Starbottle, stertorous . and pur* pie, advanced to the railing. , There he unbuttoned his collar, and laid, his, neck* cloth aside ; then, with his eye fixed on his antagonist, he drew off hia blue frockcoat, and thrusting one hand into hiu ruffled shirt front, and raising the other to the dark canopy above him, he opened •■ his vindictive lipa. The action,, the atti-t, . tude, were Starbjottle's, but the voice wq« •

not. For, at that supreme moment, a bray— so profound, so appalling, so utterly soul-subduing, so paralysing, that everything else sank to mere insignificance beside it — filled woods, and sky, and air. For a moment only the multitude gasped in speechless astonishment — it was a moment only — and then the welkin roared with their shouts. In vain silence was, commanded ; in vain Colonel Starbottle, with a' ghastly smile, remarked that he recognised in the interruption the voice and the intellect of the opposition ; the laugh continued, the more as it was discovered that Jinny had not yet finished, and was still recurring to her original theme. " Gentlemen," any attempt by (hee-haw ! from Jinny) brutal buffoonery to restrict the right of free Bpeech to all (a prolonged assent from Jinny) is worthy only the dastardly "—but here, a diminuendo, so long drawn as to appear a striking imitation of the Colonel's own apoplectic sentences, drowned his voice with shrieks of laughter. It must not be supposed that, during this performance, a vigorous attempt was not made to oust Jinny from the platform. But all in vain. Equally demoralising in either extremity, Jinny speedily cleared a oirole with her flying hoofs, smashed the speaker's table and water-pitcher, sent the railing flying in fragments over the cheering crowd, and only succumbed to two blankets, in which, with her head concealed, she was finally dragged, half captive, half victor, from the field. Even then a muffled and supplemental bray that came from the woods at intervals drew half the crowd away and reduced the other half to mere perfunctory hearers. The demoralised meeting was adjourned ; Colonel Starbottle's withering reply remained unuttered, and the Bungstarter party remained triumphant. — New York Sun.