as the day wore on and the level rays of the sun began to pierce the
adjacent thicket, they sought out and discovered an anxious ambushed
figure drawn up beside the editor's window,--a figure that had sat
there motionless for hours. Within, the editor worked on as steadily and
impassively as Fate. And without, the born poet of Sierra Flat sat and
watched him as waiting its decree.

The effect of the poem on Sierra Flat was remarkable and unprecedented.
The absolute vileness of its doggerel, the gratuitous imbecility of its
thought, and above all the crowning audacity of the fact that it was
the work of a citizen and published in the county paper, brought it
instantly into popularity. For many months Calaveras had languished for
a sensation; since the last vigilance committee nothing had transpired
to dispel the listless ennui begotten of stagnant business and growing
civilization. In more prosperous moments the office of the "Record"
would have been simply gutted and the editor deported; at present the
paper was in such demand that the edition was speedily exhausted. In
brief, the poem of Mr. Milton Chubbuck came like a special providence
to Sierra Flat. It was read by camp-fires, in lonely cabins, in
flaring bar-rooms and noisy saloons, and declaimed from the boxes of
stagecoaches. It was sung in Poker Flat with the addition of a local
chorus, and danced as an unhallowed rhythmic dance by the Pyrrhic
phalanx of One Horse Gulch, known as "The Festive Stags of Calaveras."
Some unhappy ambiguities of expression gave rise to many new readings,
notes, and commentaries, which, I regret to state, were more often
marked by ingenuity than delicacy of thought or expression.

Never before did poet acquire such sudden local reputation. From the
seclusion of McCorkle's cabin and the obscurity of culinary labors, he
was haled forth into the glowing sunshine of Fame. The name of Chubbuck
was written in letters of chalk on unpainted walls, and carved with a
pick on the sides of tunnels. A drink known variously as "The Chubbuck
Tranquillizer," or "The Chubbuck Exalter," was dispensed at the
bars. For some weeks a rude design for a Chubbuck statue, made up of
illustrations from circus and melodeon posters, representing the genius
of Calaveras in brief skirts on a flying steed in the act of crowning
the poet Chubbuck, was visible at Keeler's Ferry. The poet himself was
overborne with invitations to drink and extravagant congratulation