E-text prepared by Charlie Kirschner
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
As they looked the sunlight triumphed, scattering the fog intoqueer floating shapes, luminous and fraught with weirdsuggestions.... One might have thought a splendid city lay beforethem, ... impalpable, yet triumphant, with its hint ofdestiny.
PORT O' GOLD
A HISTORY-ROMANCE OF THE
SAN FRANCISCO ARGONAUTS
LOUIS J. STELLMAN
1922
TO THE CITY OF MY ADOPTION AND REBIRTH
SAN FRANCISCO
Oft from my window have I seen the day
Break o'er thy roofs and towers like a dream
In mystic silver, mirrored by the Bay,
Bedecked with shadow craft ... and then a gleam
Of golden sunlight cleaving swiftly sure
Some narrow cloud-rift--limning hill or plain
With flecks of gypsy-radiance that endure
But for the moment and are gone again.
Then I have ventured on thy strident streets,
Mid whir of traffic in the vibrant hour
When Commerce with its clashing cymbal greets
The mighty Mammon in his pomp of power....
And in the quiet dusk of eventide,
As wearied toilers quit the marts of Trade,
Have I been of their pageant--or allied
With Passion's revel in the Night Parade.
Oh, I have known thee in a thousand moods
And lived a thousand lives within thy bounds;
Adventured with the throng that laughs or broods,
Trod all thy cloisters and thy pleasure grounds,
Seen thee, in travail from the fiery torch,
Betrayed by Greed, smirched by thy sons' disgrace--
Rise with a spirit that no flame can scorch
To make thyself a new and honored place.
Ah, Good Gray City! Let me sing thy song
Of western splendor, vigorous and bold;
In vice or virtue unashamed and strong--
Stormy of mien but with a heart of gold!
I love thee, San Francisco; I am proud
Of all thy scars and trophies, praise or blame
And from thy wind-swept hills I cry aloud
The everlasting glory of thy name.
PREFACE
This is the story of San Francisco. When a newspaper editorsummoned me from the mountains to write a serial he said:
"I've sent for you because I believe you love this city morethan any other writer of my acquaintance or knowledge. And Ibelieve the true story of San Francisco will make a more dramatic,vivid, human narrative than any fiction I've ever read.
"Take all the time you want. Get everything straight, and putall you've got into this story. I'm going to wake up the townwith it."
To the best of my ability, I followed the editor's instructions.He declared himself satisfied. The public responded generously. Theserial was a success.
But, ah! I wish I might have written it much better ... or thatRobert Louis Stevenson, for instance, might have done it in mystead.
"Port O' Gold" is histor