Mathurin Dondo, whose unusual “On the Dune" appears in this number is both artist and poet, author and teacher. In the intervals of his work connected with the University of California Mr. Dondo produces paintings of beauty and interest. and at the moment is directing carpenters in the construction of a studio-home in Berkeley. He has given much time to the study of rhythm, his researches being published last year by Champion (Paris) under the title of "Vers Libre." He has also now in the press two French texts. Of himself Mr. Dondo says, “As a native of Brittany, France, I have always been led to the imaginative side of lifehave seen elfs and fairies in my childhood days, and in my later years have incorporated these fantasies into marionettes, which I not only created, but for which I wrote several plays as well."

Annice Calland is producing verse of remarkable beauty, which is commencing to find an outlet in the more discriminating of the poetry magazines. Her present address is Port au Prince, Haiti.

Henry Fitzgerald Ruthrauff appears this month for the first time in Overland. We think his touch is both strong and beautiful. Do you agree with us?

Ruth Harwood is one of that group of younger poets which finds inspiration. in the hills of Berkeley where she makes her home. There is a freshness and charm about her lyrics which gives strong appeal.

W. H. Lench is the owner and editor of "Pegasus," that remarkably fine magazine of verse which is being issued in San Diego. His verse is clear-cut, strong, vivid; a fine example of modern poesy at its best. And "Pegasus" should appear on the reading table of every lover of poetry. A critic last month-writing in a rival poetry magazine, by the waypronounced the August issue of "Pegasus" the only one of all the galaxy of magazines of verse to show any distinction in its contents.

John Brayton hails from Oakland. He is not a prolific writer, but the poetry he releases has beauty, serenity and dignity.

S. Omar Barker writes from Beulah, New Mexico, and naturally his poetry is full of the warm sun and vivid color of that southern land.

Oscar H. Roesner is another Californian, his home being up in the great interior valley, at Live Oak. You will see more of his work.

EDITORIAL STAFF MABEL MOFFITT

MANAGER

D. R. LLOYD

FRONA EUNICE WAIT COLBURN

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

HARRY NOYES PRATT

POETRY EDITOR

A

BIG drooping picture hat with a long plume would have made. Mrs. Lovell White look like a twin sister of the Duchess of Devonshire of Gainsborough fame. She had the grand manner of a lady of quality, and was a gentlewoman to her finger tips, but thoroughly democratic in her ways of living. She loved humanity and she loved the great out-of-doors. She was an idealist with a practical turn of mind. She had a great conception of civic duty, but never lost touch with feminine refinement and gentleness. Mrs. Lovell White was in every sense a good citizen.

Born near French Lick, Indiana, April 12, 1839, Laura Lyon White was the eldest daughter of the prosperous owner of Lyon's Flour Mills, at French Lick. A predominance of Scotch in her ancestry gave those qualities of keen judgment and sane thinking which developed later into the sturdy character of a pioneer, not only in a new country, but in a new order of economics. Laura Lyon was an Oberlin College girl, but her sojourn in Ohio did not go beyond school days, for in March, 1858, at the age of eighteen, she married Mr. Lovell White, in Des Moines, where the young husband gained his first banking experience. The panic of that year closed Mr. White's bank, and in the fall of 1859 the young couple came to California by way of Panama.

The lure of the mining camps proved more attractive than banking, and for five years the newcomers kept a general merchandising store at French Corral near Downieville in the days when millions were being taken out of that section of the state.

It was here that the strong friendship of W. C. Ralston and Lovell White began. Upon invitation of the former the Whites returned to San Francisco in 1864, and Mr. White became the confidential outside man of the Bank of California, of which Wm. C. Ralston was then president. It was during this period that the only child, Ralston White, was born. In 1870, upon the advice of Mr. Ralston, Mr. Lovell

By FRONA EUNICE WAIT COLBURN

White accepted the position of cashier of the San Francisco Savings Union, and for the remainder of his life was connected with the management of that institution.

In 1870 Mrs. Lovell White went to Honolulu, where she was warmly welcomed into the cosmopolitan social life surrounding King Kalakaua. While in Honolulu Mrs. White met the Frederick Thompsons, close friends of the royal set and leaders in all that was best in the Island society. Returning to San

MRS. LOVELL WHITE

Francisco, Jimmie and Kittie Thompson claimed acquaintance with Mrs. White, and invited her small family to join them in a housekeeping venture, which soon turned a spacious mansion into a social center where the choice spirits of the old and true Bohemia were made welcome. Here in the late seventies and early eighties the brainy set foregathered, and did much to make the brilliant record achieved by the mining and railroad

millionaires who did so much for the general welfare of California. It was while in this many-sided company that Mrs. White began to think out a practical way to better conditions around her.

Although an ardent suffragist, Mrs. White was always a conventional society woman. It was her graciousness and breeding coupled with a quick wit which enabled her to carry to a successful conclusion many advanced plans for public service in the face of prejudice and selfish personal interests. In the midst of a heated argument a tense moment was relieved by an apt retort or a graceful compliment which disarmed or mollified a stiff opposition. This was notably the case in the famous Calaveras Big Tree fight with Robert B. Whitesides, of Duluth, Minnesota, who, despite the fact that Mrs. White beat him in a twelve years' contest, dubbed her "Mrs. Lovely White," and was a great admirer of her fairness and good fellowship.

Mrs. White often rallied me because I was against woman suffrage. "You are such a broad-minded, sane sort of person on everything except suffrage, and there you seem to have lost all sense of proportion. But then," she would add, with a winning smile, or an affectionate pressure of the hand, "most people are a little off on some subject." "All except thee and me," I agreed. I wonder what she would think of the reaction of women generally to a wider field of activity, not alone in politics, but in economics and industry. Would she approve the wholesale desertion of the home for the community idea of the improvement of the race? Mrs. White belonged to the first group of women who stepped outside the home circle, but she was too much a society woman to go in for any radical moves.

Truly a friend of woman, Mrs. Lovell White was always surrounded by a group of willing workers and she knew how to rouse them to a high pitch of enthusiasm. She was a born leader, executive and practical in methods and of a boundless energy. It was on December 27, 1897, that the twenty-seven founders

of the California Club organized, and Mrs. Lovell White was the first president, serving two terms of two years each. It was during this period from 1898 to 1904 that the California Club reached its highest eminence, and undoubtedly under the inspiration of Mrs. White's leadership.

The first civic movement was directed toward securing and maintaining public playgrounds. The California opened at Bush and Hyde streets, the first public playground on the Pacific Coast, and paid the expenses of its upkeep for three years. In 1902, the club succeeded in having the Board of Supervisors appropriate $12,000 to open and maintain a municipal playground at Seventh and Harrison streets, being the first of its kind in the state. Under the spur of Mrs. White's administration the California Club is credited with having secured the appointment of a woman on the Board of Education, and later Mrs. White personally helped stir public opinion to the point of having a woman physician in the female wards of the state hospitals for the insane and for the care of feeble-minded children.

But the greatest undertaking in Mrs. White's club career was the saving of the Calaveras big trees from the lumberman's axe. This fight began in 1900 when all California was stirred by the purchase of an option on the two stands. of Sequoia Gigantea in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties by the Robert B. Whitesides interests of Duluth, Minnesota. The two groups, the Mammoth Grove of Calaveras County, and the South Park Grove of Tuolumne county are six miles apart, but are included in the 2300-acre tract involved in the transaction. The first attempt to induce Congress to act resulted in the passage of a joint resolution by both houses, which was signed by President McKinley on February 19, 1900. This was only the beginning of the trouble. Big lumber interests picked flaws in the action of Congress, and it looked as if nothing would save the big trees.

Investigation brought out the fact that James L. Sperry had owned these groves since 1852, and that he was well within his rights when he accepted an option to buy. Marion De Vries and Senator Perkins had labored in vain, and then Mrs. White showed her resourcefulness by securing 1,400,000 signatures to a petition which President Roosevelt promptly sent to Congress with a strong plea that something be done to save these world famous monarchs.

Mrs. White demonstrated her ability as an organizer when she enlisted the cooperation of the women's clubs throughout the United States in securing signatures for her mammoth petition to Congress. It was distinctly a woman's movement that saved the Big Trees in Cali

fornia, but it included the best thought and effort of the women of the entire country. Congressmen from every district heard from home so that President Roosevelt's vigorous appeal met with a prompt response.

Twelve years of precious time had been anxiously passed by Mrs. White and her co-laborers. At last a compromise measure enabled the forestry commission to exchange lands elsewhere, for the precious grove, now made into a national forest reserve. Final disposition is still pending, although $10,000 was appropriated to cover expense of cruising the timber to be exchanged.

It has been said of Mrs. White that when all others lost heart, she "single handed and alone" saved the Big Trees. Certain it is that she handled the first successful petition of women to the powers that be in Washington. It was while Uncle Joe Cannon was Speaker of the House, that the resourcefulness and tact of Mrs. White was brought into conspicuous play. Uncle Joe was opposed to the measure, not because he wanted to see the big trees destroyed, but because he thought a rich stake like California should purchase the groves for itself, and this thought was shared by Senator Hoar, a power in the Senate. Determined, skillful and courageous as she was, Mrs. White met foemen worthy of her steel, and there must have been rare moments when in committee Uncle Joe talked back. The outcome proved that it did him no good, and once more the theory of a woman always having the last word was conspicuously demonstrated. Being both reticent and modest, Mrs. White seldom referred to her experiences with Washington during the big tree episode.

From 1910 to 1912 Mrs. Lovell White again served the California Club as its president. By this time she had become a living embodiment of the club's motto: "Wisdom is knowing what should be done, virtue is doing it"—one of the epigrams that has made David Starr Jordan's writings modern classics.

On May 10, 1902, the Out Door Art League of Mill Valley was organized, with Mrs. White as its first president. She built "The Arches," her beautiful country home, in Mill Valley, in 1891, and it was here that she spent the summer vacations free of club worries and civic activities. The fire of 1906 swept away her town house on Clay street, and the family re-established themselves. at 2344 California street where they remained three years, removing to a new home at 2245 Sacramento street, where both died-Mr. White on January 29, 1910, and Mrs. White on January 18, 1916. From 1912 to the time of her death Mrs. White was president emeritus of the California Club.

In memory of Mrs. White's great service in securing the conservation of the Calaveras Big Trees, the Out Door Art League planted a memorial grove of twelve California oaks in Golden Gate Park, and dedicated it to Mrs. White's birthday, April 12, 1917. This was a singularly appropriate tribute to the indefatigable labor and devotion of Mrs. White, especially after the fight to preserve the big trees shifted from the California Club to the Out Door Art League.

Another graceful tribute to the civic virtues of Mrs. Lovell White was the building and naming of a bungalow on Telegraph Hill, at the junction of Kearny and Lombard streets. It was called Laura Vista Bungalow, in honor of the work Mrs. White had done to beautify and rescue Telegraph Hill from its tin can and goat habitat condition to its proper place as a lookout and landmark worthy of the city. Unfortunately the bungalow burned on March 26, 1909, and a half humorous, half sorrowful wake was held over the charred remains. It is considered a good omen that the original flagstaff still clings to its eerie place-typical of the spirit of its honored guest. Sometime let us hope in the near future Mrs. Lovell White's dream of a City Beautiful, which includes Telegraph Hill, may be realized. It was she who selected the motto of the Out Door Art League from her favorite author, Emerson-"The beautiful rests on the foundation of the necessary." Mrs. White often said: "Out door art is democratic and belongs to the people. When through education it finds a permanent home in our midst, civilization will have advanced another step out of the darkness of chaos."

Mrs. Lovell White was not a fluent speaker. She chose words carefully and spoke with deliberation, but she wrote. gracefully. The following extract from an article in "Town Talk” on "The City Beautiful" is a fair sample of her style of writing:

"A city is in the hands of Destiny and its character is foreordained as is that of men. The topography of a locality draws to it the minds allied to its developmental possibilities. And those minds build and shape to suit the trend of their needs, and of their creative ability. But in the construction of all cities of whatever character the essentials must ever remain the same. Proportion, space, color, cleanlinessthese are the fundamentals of the City Beautiful."

In addition to the preservation of Telegraph Hill, Mrs. White strongly advocated the making of Laurel Hill cemetery into a park, with a goodly (Continued on page 41)

M

Y RECOLLECTIONS of the old-time minstrels of San Francisco begin a few years before the advent of Billy Emerson and while Joe Murphy was coming into prominence. In those days the Olympic Theater on Kearny street, adjoining the old city hall, was given over entirely to minstrelsy, while Maguire's Opera House and the American and Metropolitan Theaters held occasional blackface entertainments. Later the Standard and Bush Street Theaters at intervals catered to the minstrel-loving public. One of the prime favorites of those early days was Ben Cotton, comedian and dancer and the prince of jollity. Ben was a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln and during the strenuous days of the Civil War, when San Francisco was divided in sentiment, he sang union songs and easily danced his way into the hearts of the patriotic public. He had a strong competitor in Charley Backus, a star member of Birch, Bernard, Wambold and Backus' minstrels, as well balanced and capable a company of blackface performers as ever appeared in the Bay City. Birch was also a great favorite. He had a slow, drawling way of speaking, while his laugh, soft and rippling, was unctuous in the extreme. Backus, on the other hand, was filled with nervous energy. He had a wide mouth and when it opened for a chuckle or a laugh is spread from ear to ear. Full of ginger and with a rapid fire vocalization his stage work furnished a striking contrast to the work of Billy Birch. After many successful seasons in San Francisco the company left for the east to return in the seventies with new acts, jokes and dances.

The early professional life of Joe Murphy was spent in Sacramento, where as bone player and singer at auction and cheap entertainment he required a reputation that soon extended to San Francisco. In the late fifties he removed to the Bay City but did not long remain there. Australia called him and for some time he played and sang in the land of the bush and kangaroo. Shortly after his return to California he became the star performer at the Olympic Theater. He was accounted the champion bone player of the coast. On the other end with the tamborine was Johnny De Angeles, father of Jeff De Angeles, the comedian and comic opera favorite. Johnny was below the medium height, stocky and full of pep. He and tall Joe

Recollections of a Pioneer

By EUGENE T. SAWYER

I

Murphy evoked roars of laughter whenever they appeared in the burnt cork travesties which formed part of each olio. Burlesques of popular plays were then in vogue and one of the most mirthprovoking of them was The Stranger, Murphy playing Mrs. Haller and De Angeles Mr. Haller. The burlesque opens with the entrance of Haller, who starts business with the soliloquy: "It is 16,000 years since I have gazed upon the scenes of my boyhood's early days. Old rummynoosances creep upon me. Me wife, me long sufferin' wife-hark! I hear the sound of fairy footsteps. will conceal myself behind yon sagebrush." (Disappears behind wing.) Now enters Joe Murphy as Mrs. Haller. Her shoes are number elevens and she clamps in with a noise that shakes the stage. Haller shows himself, whereupon Mrs. Haller rushes forward, lifts him up and gives him a bear-like hug. More hugs and then she clutches her long absent husband by the coat collar and swings him around as if he were a bag of feathers. Follows more hugging and more swinging until De Angeles, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and gasping like a fish out of water, piteously exclaims: "My God, Murphy, are you trying to kill me?"

After William Horace Lingard and Charles Vivian, the last named the founder of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, had departed for the East, having given San Francisco rare entertainment as quick-change performers and introducers of such English songs as "Ten Thousand Miles Away," "Champagne Charley" and "Captain Jinks," Joe Murphy, ever on the alert for something new, began to vary his. minstrel work by copying the style and acting of the two English comedians and vocalists. In this new line he was quite successful so that it was not long before he bade an everlasting good bye to minstrels in order to try his luck on the legitimate stage. He had written for him a play called "Help," in which he impersonated a Chinaman, a negro, an Irishman and a German. Later he became a full fledged Irish comedian and for over twenty years toured the United States with Shaun Rue, Shamus O'Brien, Kerry Gow and other plays. One song he liked better than all others and he sang it at every performance. It was called "A Handful of Earth," and

no one could sing it as Joe Murphy sang it. He died in Oakland a few years

ago.

In the late sixties Dan Bryant, an Eastern star, who had given up blackface for Irish comedy, played a profitable engagement at Maguire's Opera House. He was as successful with the brogue as he had been with the dialect of the negro. At the conclusion of his engagement he consented to appear with Joe Murphy at a minstrel entertainment at the American Theater. The place was packed to the doors and a finer burnt-cork show was never given in San Francisco. Bryant had the tamborine end, Murphy manipulated the bones, while Jake Wallace, the popular banjoist, was there "with the bells on."

Walter Bray was at one time a partner of Murphy. He had been an actor before he became a negro minstrel. In the early sixties he forsook the legitimate stage for black-face comedy. He had a large Roman nose and the voice of a tragedian and might readily have passed as a brother of Johnny De Angeles. As a minstrel he burlesqued Shakespearean characters and never failed to score a hit.

One of the popular songs of the early days was "Clar de Kitchen." The following verses will show the style:

"A jay bird sat on a hickory limb,
He winked at me and I winked at him,
I picked up a stone and hit his shin,
Says he, 'you better not do dat agin.'

CHORUS

"Oh, clar de kitchen, old folks, young folks,
Clar de kitchen, old folks, young folks,
Ole Virginny neber tire."

I hab a sweetheart in dis town
She wears a yellow-striped gown,
And when she walks de street around
De hollow ob her foot make a hole in de
ground."

Lew Rattler took Murphy's place at the Olympic and was a San Francisco favorite for more than a quarter of a century. He was a tall, stoutly-built fellow with a heavy voice and remarkable facial expression. As an end man and singer he had few equals. His greatest talent lay in burlesque, and he and De Angeles furnished sidesplitting entertainment in their Shakespearean and comic opera travesties. Romeo and Juliet would be converted into Roman Nose and Suet; Othello into Old Fellow, the Boor of Vengeance; Macbeth into Bad Breath, the Crane of Chowder; Camille in Clameel, or the Feet of a Go-Getter. Rattler shone in Clameel. His role was that of the frail Parisienne, while De An