The Project Gutenberg eBook, Port O' Gold, by Louis John Stellman

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Title: Port O' Gold

Author: Louis John Stellman

Release Date: June 8, 2004 [eBook #12560]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

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PORT O' GOLD

A History-Romance of the San Francisco Argonauts

LOUIS J. STELLMAN

1922

[Illustration: As they looked the sunlight triumphed, scattering
the fog into queer floating shapes, luminous and fraught with weird
suggestions.... One might have thought a splendid city lay before
them, ... impalpable, yet triumphant, with its hint of destiny.]

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