Chapter 4

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Jan. 30.

Peebles out of town have written him

PIXLEY & SUTTON. (D.H. 919.)

DOCUMENT NO. 23.

_Letter from Tite W. Peebles, delegate to the California Constitutional Convention, Sacramento, to Messrs. Pixley and Sutton, 98 California Street, San Francisco, California._

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 2, '79.

Messrs. PIXLEY & SUTTON: San Francisco.

GENTLEMEN: Your favor of the 31st ult., forwarded me from San Francisco, has been duly rec'd, and contents thereof noted.

My time is at present so fully occupied by my duties as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention that I can only jot down a brief report of my recollections on this head. When I return to S.F., I shall be happy to give you any further information that may be in my possession.

The person concerning whom you inquire was my fellow passenger on my first voyage to this State on board the _Mercy G. Tarbox_, in the latter part of the year. He was then known as Mr. William Beauvoir. I was acquainted with his history, of which the details escape me at this writing. He was a countryman of mine; a member of an important county family--Devonian, I believe--and had left England on account of large gambling debts, of which he confided to me the exact figure. I believe they totted up something like £14,500.

I had at no time a very intimate acquaintance with Mr. Beauvoir; during our sojourn on the _Tarbox_, he was the chosen associate of a depraved and vicious character named Phoenix. I am not averse from saying that I was then a member of a profession rather different to my present one, being, in fact, professor of metallurgy, and I saw much less, at that period, of Mr. B. than I probably should now.

Directly we landed at S.F., the object of your inquiries set out for the gold region, without adequate preparation, like so many others did at that time, and, I heard, fared very ill.

I encountered him some six months later; I have forgotten precisely in what locality, though I have a faint impression that his then habitat was some canon or ravine, deriving its name from certain osseous deposits. Here he had engaged in the business of gold-mining, without, perhaps, sufficient grounds for any confident hope of ultimate success. I have his I.O.U. for the amount of my fee for assaying several specimens from his claim, said specimens being all iron pyrites.

This is all I am able to call to mind at present in the matter of Mr. Beauvoir. I trust his subsequent career was of a nature better calculated to be satisfactory to himself; but his mineralogical knowledge was but superficial; and his character was sadly deformed by a fatal taste for low associates.

I remain, gentlemen, your very humble and obd't servant, TITUS W. PEEBLES.

P.S.--Private.

MY DEAR PIX: If you don't feel inclined to pony up that little sum you are out on the bay gelding, drop down to my place when I get back and I'll give you another chance for your life at the pasteboards. Constitution going through.

Yours, TITE.

PART FOURTH:

DOCUMENT NO. 24.

_Extract from the New Centreville [late Dead Horse] "Gazette and Courier of Civilization," December 20th, 1878:_

"Miss Nina Saville appeared last night at the Mendocino Grand Opera House, in her unrivalled specialty of _Winona the Child of the Prairies;_ supported by Tompkins and Frobisher's Grand Stellar Constellation. Although Miss Saville has long been known as one of the most promising of California's younger tragediennes, we feel safe in saying that the impression she produced upon the large and cultured audience gathered to greet her last night stamped her as one of the greatest and most phenomenal geniuses of our own or other times. Her marvellous beauty of form and feature, added to her wonderful artistic power, and her perfect mastery of the difficult science of clog-dancing, won her an immediate place in the hearts of our citizens, and confirmed the belief that California need no longer look to Europe or Chicago for dramatic talent of the highest order. The sylph-like beauty, the harmonious and ever-varying grace, the vivacity and the power of the young artist who made her maiden effort among us last night, prove conclusively that the virgin soil of California teems with yet undiscovered fires of genius. The drama of _Winona, the Child of the Prairies,_ is a pure, refined, and thoroughly absorbing entertainment, and has been pronounced by the entire press of the country equal to if not superior to the fascinating _Lady of Lyons_. It introduces all the favorites of the company in new and original characters, and with its original music, which is a prominent feature, has already received over 200 representations in the principal cities in the country. It abounds in effective situations, striking tableaux, and a most quaint and original concert entitled 'The Mule Fling,' which alone is worth the price of admission. As this is its first presentation in this city, the theatre will no doubt be crowded, and seats should be secured early in the day. The drama will be preceded by that prince of humorists, Mr. Billy Barker, in his humorous sketches and pictures from life."

We quote the above from our esteemed contemporary, the Mendocino _Gazette_, at the request of Mr. Zeke Kilburn, Miss Saville's advance agent, who has still further appealed to us, not only on the ground of our common humanity, but as the only appreciative and thoroughly informed critics on the Pacific Slope to "endorse" this rather vivid expression of opinion. Nothing will give us greater pleasure. Allowing for the habitual enthusiasm of our northern neighbor, and for the well-known chaste aridity of Mendocino in respect of female beauty, we have no doubt that Miss Nina Saville is all that the fancy, peculiarly opulent and active even for an advance agent, of Mr. Kilburn has painted her, and is quite such a vision of youth, beauty, and artistic phenomenality as will make the stars of Paris and Illinois pale their ineffectual fires.

Miss Saville will appear in her "unrivalled specialty" at Hanks's New Centreville Opera House, to-morrow night, as may be gathered, in a general way, from an advertisement in another column.

We should not omit to mention that Mr. Zeke Kilburn, Miss Saville's advance agent, is a gentleman of imposing presence, elegant manners, and complete knowledge of his business. This information may be relied upon as at least authentic, having been derived from Mr. Kilburn himself, to which we can add, as our own contribution, the statement that Mr. Kilburn is a gentleman of marked liberality in his ideas of spirituous refreshments, and of equal originality in his conception of the uses, objects and personal susceptibilities of the journalistic profession.

DOCUMENT NO. 25.

_Local Item from the "New Centreville Standard," December 20th, 1878:_

Hon. William Beauvoir has registered at the United States Hotel. Mr. Beauvoir is a young English gentleman of great wealth, now engaged in investigating the gigantic resources of this great country. We welcome him to New Centreville.

DOCUMENT NO. 26.

_Programme of the performance given in the Centreville Theatre, Dec. 21st, 1878:_

HANKS' NEW CENTREVILLE OPERA HOUSE

A. Jackson Hanks.....................Sole Proprietor and Manager.

FIRST APPEARANCE IN THIS CITY OF TOMPKINS & FROBISHER'S GRAND STELLAR CONSTELLATION,

Supporting California's favorite daughter, the young American Tragedienne,

MISS NINA SAVILLE,

Who will appear in Her Unrivalled Specialty,

"Winona, the Child of the Prairie."

THIS EVENING, DECEMBER 21st, 1878,

Will be presented, with the following phenomenal cast, the accepted American Drama,

WINONA: THE CHILD OF THE PRAIRIE.

WINONA.................................................... Miss FLORA MacMADISON..................................... BIDDY FLAHERTY........................................... OLD AUNT DINAH (with Song, "Don't Get Weary").............Miss NINA SALLY HOSKINS............................................. SAVILLE (With the old-time melody, "Bobbin' Around.") POOR JOE (with Song)...................................... FRAULINE LINA BOOBENSTEIN................................. (With stammering song, "I yoost landet.") SIR EDMOND BENNETT (specially engaged)................E.C. GRAINGER WALTON TRAVERS.........................................G.W. PARSONS GIPSY JOE..................................................M. ISAACS 'ANNIBAL 'ORACE 'IGGINS................................BILLY BARKER TOMMY TIPPER.....................................Miss MAMIE SMITH PETE, the Man on the Dock................................SI HANCOCK Mrs. MALONE, the Old Woman in the Little House.... Mrs. K.Y. BOOTH ROBERT BENNETT (aged five)......................Little ANNIE WATSON

Act I.--The Old Home. Act II.--Alone in the World. Act III.--The Frozen Gulf: THE GREAT ICEBERG SENSATION. Act IV.--Wedding Bells.

"Winona, the Child of the Prairie," will be preceded by

A FAVORITE FARCE,

In which the great BILLY BARKER will appear in one of his most outrageously funny bits.

New Scenery......................by....................Q.Z. Slocum

Music by Professor Kiddoo's Silver Bugle Brass Band and Philharmonic Orchestra.

Chickway's Grand Piano, lent by Schmidt, 2 Opera House Block.

AFTER THE SHOW, GO TO HANKS' AND SEE A MAN

Pop Williams, the only legitimate Bill-Poster in New Centreville.

(New Centreville Standard Print.)

DOCUMENT NO. 27.

_Extract from the New Centreville [late Dead Horse] "Gazette and Courier of Civilization," Dec. 24th, 1878:_

A little while ago, in noting the arrival of Miss Nina Saville of the New Centreville Opera House we quoted rather extensively from our esteemed contemporary, the Mendocino _Times_ and commented upon the quotation. Shortly afterwards, it may also be remembered, we made a very direct and decided apology for the sceptical levity which inspired those remarks, and expressed our hearty sympathy with the honest, if somewhat effusive, enthusiasm with which the dramatic critic of Mendocino greeted the sweet and dainty little girl who threw over the dull, weary old business of the stage "sensation" the charm of a fresh and childlike beauty and originality, as rare and delicate as those strange, unreasonable little glimmers of spring sunsets that now and then light up for a brief moment the dull skies of winter evenings, and seem to have strayed into ungrateful January out of sheer pity for the sad earth.

Mendocino noticed the facts that form the basis of the above meteorological simile, and we believe we gave Mendocino full credit for it at the time. We refer to the matter at this date only because in our remarks of a few days ago we had occasion to mention the fact of the existence of Mr. Zeke Kilburn, an advance agent, who called upon us at the time, to endeavor to induce us, by means apparently calculated more closely for the latitude of Mendocino, to extend to Miss Saville, before her appearance, the critical approbation which we gladly extended after. This little item of interest we alluded to at the time, and furthermore intimated, with some vagueness, that there existed in Kilburn's character a certain misdirected zeal combined with a too keen artistic appreciation, are apt to be rather dangerous stock-in trade for an advance agent.

It was twenty seven minutes past two o'clock yesterday afternoon. The chaste white mystery of Shigo Mountain was already taking on a faint, almost imperceptible, hint of pink, like the warm cheek of a girl who hears a voice and anticipates a blush. Yet the rays of the afternoon sun rested with undiminished radiance on the empty pork-barrel in front of McMullin's shebang. A small and vagrant infant, whose associations with empty barrels were doubtless hitherto connected solely with dreams of saccharine dissipation, approached the bunghole with precocious caution, and retired with celerity and a certain acquisition of experience. An unattached goat, a martyr to the radical theory of personal investigation, followed in the footsteps of infantile humanity, retired with even greater promptitude, and was fain to stay its stomach on a presumably empty rend-rock can, afterward going into seclusion behind McMullin's horse-shed, before the diuretic effect of tin flavored with blasting-powder could be observed by the attentive eye of science.

Mr. Kilburn emerged from the hostlery without Mr. McMullin. Mr. Kilburn, as we have before stated at his own request, is a gentleman of imposing presence. It is well that we made this statement when we did, for it is hard to judge of the imposing quality in a gentleman's presence when that gentleman is suspended from the arm of another gentleman by the collar of the first gentleman's coat. The gentleman in the rear of Mr. Kilburn was Mr. William Beauvoir, a young Englishman in a check suit. Mr. Beauvoir is not avowedly a man of imposing presence; he wears a seal ring, and he is generally a scion of an effete oligarchy, but he has, since his introduction into this community, behaved himself, to use the adjectivial adverb of Mr. McMullin, _white_, and he has a very remarkable biceps. These qualities may hereafter enhance his popularity in New Centreville.

Mr. Beauvoir's movements, at twenty-seven minutes past two yesterday afternoon, were few and simple. He doubled Mr. Kilburn up, after the fashion of an ordinary jack-knife, and placed him in the barrel, wedge-extremity first, remarking, as he did so, "She is, is she?" He then rammed Mr. Kilburn carefully home, and put the cover on.

We learn to-day that Mr. Kilburn has resumed his professional duties on the road.

DOCUMENT NO. 28.

_Account of the same event from the New Centreville "Standard" December 24th, 1878:_

It seems strange that even the holy influences which radiate from this joyous season cannot keep some men from getting into unseemly wrangles. It was only yesterday that our local saw a street row here in the quiet avenues of our peaceful city--a street row recalling the riotous scenes which took place here before Dead Horse experienced a change of heart and became New Centreville. Our local succeeded in gathering all the particulars of the affray, and the following statement is reliable. It seems that Mr. Kilburn, the gentlemanly and affable advance agent of the Nina Saville Dramatic Company, now performing at Andy Hanks' Opera House to big houses, was brutally assaulted by a ruffianly young Englishman, named Beauvoir, for no cause whatever. We say for no cause, as it is obvious that Mr. Kilburn, as the agent of the troupe, could have said nothing against Miss Saville which an outsider, not to say a foreigner like Mr. Beauvoir, had any call to resent. Mr. Kilburn is a gentleman unaccustomed to rough-and-tumble encounters, while his adversary has doubtless associated more with pugilists than gentlemen--at least any one would think so from his actions yesterday. Beauvoir hustled Mr. Kilburn out of Mr. McMullin's, where the unprovoked assault began, and violently shook him across the new plank sidewalk. The person by the name of Clark, whom Judge Jones for some reason now permits to edit the moribund but once respectable _Gazette_, caught the eye of the congenial Beauvoir, and, true to the ungentlemanly instincts of his base nature, pointed to a barrel in the street. The brutal Englishman took the hint and thrust Mr. Kilburn forcibly into the barrel, leaving the vicinity before Mr. Kilburn, emerging from his close quarters, had fully recovered. What the ruffianly Beauvoir's motive may have been for this wanton assault it is impossible to say; but it is obvious to all why this fellow Clark sought to injure Mr. Kilburn, a gentleman whose many good qualities he of course fails to appreciate. Mr. Kilburn, recognizing the acknowledged merits of our job-office, had given us the contract for all the printing he needed in New Centreville.

DOCUMENT NO. 29.

_Advertisement from the New York "Clipper" Dec. 21st, 1878:_

WINSTON & MACK'S GRAND INTERNATIONAL MEGATHERIUM VARIETY COMBINATION. COMPANY CALL.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Company will assemble for rehearsal, at Emerson's Opera House, San Francisco, on Wednesday, Dec 27th, 12 M sharp. Band at 11. J.B. WINSTON EDWIN R. MACK--Managers. Emerson's Opera House, San Francisco, Dec. 10th, 1878. Protean Artist wanted. Would like to hear from Nina Saville. 12-11.

DOCUMENT NO. 30.

_Letter from Nina Saville to William Beauvoir._

NEW CENTREVILLE, December 26, 1878.

My Dear Mr. Beauvoir--I was very sorry to receive your letter of yesterday--_very_ sorry--because there can be only one answer that I can make--and you might well have spared me the pain of saying the word--No. You ask me if I love you. If I did--do you think it would be true love in me to tell you so, when I know what it would cost you? Oh indeed you must never marry _me_! In your own country you would never have heard of me--never seen me--surely never written me such a letter to tell me that you love me and want to marry me. It is not that I am ashamed of my business or of the folks around me, or ashamed that I am only the charity child of two poor players, who lived and died working for the bread for their mouths and mine. I am proud of them--yes, proud of what they did and suffered for one poorer than themselves--a little foundling out of an Indian camp. But I know the difference between you and me. You are a great man at home--you have never told me how great--but I know your father is a rich lord, and I suppose you are. It is not that I think _you_ care for that, or think less of me because I was born different from you. I know how good--how kind--how _respectful_ you have always been to me--_my lord_--and I shall never forget it--for a girl in my position knows well enough how you might have been otherwise. Oh believe me--_my true friend_--I am never going to forget all you have done for me--and how good it has been to have you near me--a man so different from most others. I don't mean only the kind things you have done--the books and the thoughts and the ways you have taught me to enjoy--and all the trouble you have taken to make me something better than the stupid little girl I was when you found me--but a great deal more than that--the consideration you have had for me and for what I hold best in the world. I had never met a _gentleman_ before--and now the first one I meet--he is my _friend_. That is a great deal.

Only think of it! You have been following me around now for three months, and I have been weak enough to allow it. I am going to do the right thing now. You may think it hard in me _if you really mean what you say,_ but even if everything else were right, I would not marry you--because of your rank. I do not know how things are at your home--but something tells me it would be wrong and that your family would have a right to hate you and never forgive you. Professionals cannot go in your society. And that is even if I loved you--and I do not love you--I do not love you--_I do not love you_--now I have written it you will believe it.

So now it is ended--I am going back to the line I was first in--variety--and with a new name. So you can never find me--I entreat you--I beg of you--not to look for me. If you only put your mind to it--you will find it so easy to forget me--for I will not do you the wrong to think that you did not mean what you wrote in your letter or what you said that night _when we sang Annie Laurie together_ the last time. Your sincere friend, NINA.

DOCUMENTS NOS. 31 AND 32.

_Items from San Francisco "Figaro" of December 29th, 1878:_

Nina Saville Co. disbanded New Centreville. 26th. No particulars received.

Winston & Mack's Comb. takes the road December 31st, opening at Tuolumne Hollow. Manager Winston announces the engagement of Anna Laurie, the Protean change artiste, with songs, "Don't Get Weary," "Bobbin' Around," "I Yoost Landet."

DOCUMENT NO. 33.

_Telegram from Zeke Kilburn, New Centreville, to Winston and Mack, Emerson's Opera House, San Francisco, Cal.:_

NEW CENTREVILLE, Dec. 28, 1878.

Have you vacancy for active and energetic advance agent.

Z. KILBURN. (9 words 30 paid.)

DOCUMENT NO. 34.

_Telegram from Winston and Mack, San Francisco, to Zeke Kilburn, New Centreville:_

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28, 1878

No

WINSTON & MACK. (Collect 30 cents.)

DOCUMENT NO. 35.

_Bill sent to William Beauvoir, United States Hotel, Tuolumne Hollow, Cal.:_

_Tuolumne Hollow, Cal., Dec. 29, 1878._

_Wm. Beauvoir, Esq._

Bought of HIMMEL & HATCH, Opera House Block, JEWELLERS & DIAMOND MERCHANTS,

Dealers in all kinds of Fancy Goods, Stationery and Umbrellas, Watches, Clocks and Barometers.

TERMS CASH. MUSICAL BOXES REPAIRED.

_Dec. 29, One diamond and enamelled locket._........ $75.00 _One gold chain_........................................... 48.00 _______ $123.00

_Rec'd Payt._ _Himmel & Hatch, per S._

PART FIFTH:

DOCUMENT NO. 36.

_Letter from Cable J. Dexter, Esq., to Messrs: Pixley and Sutton, San Francisco:_

NEW CENTREVILLE, CAL., March 3, 1879.

Messrs. PIXLEY & SUTTON:

GENTS: I am happy to report that I have at last reached the bottom level in the case of William Beaver, _alias_ Beaver Bill, deceased through Indians in 1861.

In accordance with your instructions and check, I proceeded, on the 10th ult., to Shawgum Creek, when I interviewed Blue Horse, chief of the Comanches, who tomahawked subject of your inquiries in the year above mentioned. Found the Horse in the penitentiary, serving out a drunk and disorderly. Though belligerent at date aforesaid, Horse is now tame, though intemperate. Appeared unwilling to converse, and required stimulants to awaken his memory. Please find enclosed memo. of account for whiskey, covering extra demijohn to corrupt jailer. Horse finally stated that he personally let daylight through deceased, and is willing to guarantee thoroughness of decease. Stated further that aforesaid Beaver's family consisted of squaw and kid. Is willing to swear that squaw was killed, the tribe having no use for her. Killing done by Mule-Who-Goes-Crooked, personal friend of Horse's. The minor child was taken into camp and kept until December of 1863, when tribe dropped to howling cold winter and went on government reservation. Infant (female) was then turned over to U.S. Government at Fort Kearney.