Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/241

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JUDGE proceeds, (with violent gesture of the arms, and Bel shazzar movement of the knees,) “I am a host!” a legion, an army, Armed and equipped, marshalled, and Panting for fight. I could easy control The world if I chose, from north to south pole. The mud sills of h-ll. I could even tare up, And old devils and young, I too could scare up. I, I will stand on Mt. Hood, and gather Black tempest clouds, surcharged with dread thunder, Then hurl with such fury, the weapons of Jove, Their guns I’ll dismount, their fortress move, Dismiss all their souls to regions below, Or send them off crippled, and howling with woe. GUMBo. That idea, judge, is appropr’ate and good, Do stand as far off at least as Mt. Hood. 3 Ruth Rover, 1854, by MRs. MARGARET J. BAILEY of FRENCH PRAIRIE For the first highly productive decade in Oregon litera ture—from 1849 to 1859, the ten years preceding statehood —six books might have been claimed instead of five, by counting one that has been described in a previous chapter. This was Traits of American Indian Life and Character, by Peter Skene Ogden of Oregon City—published by Smith, Elder & Company in London in 1853. It is mentioned again here to complete the chronology. Next after Ogden's sketches, in the earliest census of Ore gon literary volumes, was Grains, or Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, with Occasional Pictures of Oregon, Natural and Moral, by Mrs. Margaret Jewett Bailey. It was printed in 1854 by Carter & Austin, a Portland firm. What the book was like it is impossible to say first-hand, since no copies can be located. With the disappearance several years ago of the one owned by the Oregon Historical Society, it has pass