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Excerpt: The Ocotopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris.

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...enn State Electronic Classics Series Publication The Ocotopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris is a publication of the Pennsylvania State Unive... ...e file as an electronic transmission, in any way. The Ocotopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic C... ...is an equal opportunity university. 3 Frank Norris The Octopus A Story of California by Frank Norris Book 1 CHAPTER I CHAPTER I CHAPTER I CHAPTER I C... ... are, Presley. That’s 16 The Octopus the P . & S. W . Railroad Company of California. I am on my last run now.” “Shameful,” declared Presley, his sym... ...l, and wine, you understand. It was like that, those in- dustries began in California—from the Church; and now,” he put his chin in the air, “what wou... ...plateau into the Uintah country; then at last due west through Ne- vada to California and to the valley of the San Joaquin.” His voice lapsed to a mon... ...e but ruin. But here he checked himself. T wo consecutive dry sea- sons in California were almost unprecedented; a third would be beyond belief, and t... ...he had been defeated. His career checked in this direction, he had come to California in the fifties. He had known and had been the intimate friend of... ...nvestments in other lines when the news that “wheat had been discovered in California” was passed from mouth to mouth. Practically it amounted to a di...

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... pitched neck-and-crop from twenty days of the high seas into the whirl of California, deprived of any guid- ance, and left to draw my own conclusions... ...f Bret Harte. That was true. “Well,” said the reporter, “Bret Harte claims California, but California don’t claim Bret Harte. He’s been so long in 11... ... and here the thunder of the traffic is most overwhelming. I watched Young California, and saw that it was, at least, expensively dressed, cheerful in... ...urse when she was little a negro “mammy.” By consequence she has welded on California beauty, Paris dresses, Eastern culture, Europe trips, and wild W... ...ith as much splendor as their neighbors. Remember that the men who stocked California in the fifties were physi- cally, and, as far as regards certain... ...atch-chain to mark the native son of the golden West, the country- bred of California. Him I love because he is devoid of fear, carries himself like a... ...oulders explain- ing that a man from Chicago could pull the eye-teeth of a Californian in business. Well, if I lived in fairy-land, where cherries wer... ...ard Kipling kick up my heels with my fellows. The tale of the resources of California—vegetable and mineral—is a fairy-tale. You can read it in books.... ...ess complains of the waywardness of the alien. The Irishman and the native Californian in their hours of discontent use the revolver, not once, but si...

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... age. When the rumour first went flying up and down that there was gold in California—which, as most people know, was before it was discovered in the ... ...r, I had my work cut out for me, and I was doing it. Consequently, gold in California was no business of mine. But, by the time when I came home to En... ...thing was as clear as your hand held up before you at noon day. There was Californian gold in the museums and in the goldsmiths’ shops, and the very ... ...e (a seafaring man like my 4 The Wreck of the Golden Mary self ), with a Californian nugget hanging to his watch chain. I handled it. It was as like... ... a new ship of their own to take out cargo to the diggers and emigrants in California, and to buy and bring back gold. Into the particulars of that sc... ...a bright eyed blooming young wife who was going out to join her husband in California, taking with her their only child, a little girl of three years ...

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...il- grimage for the summary globe-trotter; but to one who lives upon its sides, Mount Saint Helena soon becomes a centre of interest. It is the Mont B... ...l unflecked with vapour, the sea fogs were pouring in from seaward, over the hill- tops of Marin county, in one great, shapeless, silver cloud. South ... ...avels armed, and the stage is not only a link between country and city, and the vehicle of news, but has a faint warfaring aroma, like a man who shoul... ... in spite of this heat from above and below, doing one on both sides, Calistoga was a pleasant place to dwell in; beautifully green, for it was then t... ...pares a far more delightful curiosity, in the form of Mr. Evans, whom may all prosperity attend throughout a long and green old age. CHAPTER III – NAP... ...idly forward, with a spark of hope, to where the new lands, already weary of producing gold, begin to green with vineyards. A nice point in human hist... ... the rock and wanders farther, and the griz- zly muses undisturbed. But there they bide their hour, awaiting their Columbus; and nature nurses and pre... ...ly matured, and bearing its own name, is to be fortune’s favourite. Bearing its own name, I say, and dwell upon the in- nuendo. 15 ... ...X-?” said I. “I never heard of that.” “I dare say not,” said he. “I had been reading one of X-’s novels.” They were all castles in Spain! But that sur...

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...not written to you before now, you will be surprised to heare that we are in California, and that poor Thomas” (another brother, of fifteen) “is dead.... .... We went along very well till we got within six or seven hun- dred miles of California, when the Indians attacked us. We found places where they had ... ... traveld with them till we arrived at the settlements; and know I am safe in California, and got to good home, and going to school. “Jerry is working ... ...erey itself is cosily ensconced beside the barb. Thus the ancient capital of California faces across the bay, while the Pacific Ocean, though hidden b... ...e fires prevent the rains of the next winter and dry up perennial fountains. California has been a land of promise in its time, like Palestine; but if... ...es grow, and at which forest fires spring up and gallop through the hills of California, we may look forward to a time when there will not be one of t... ...the nobler redwood. Yet a little while and perhaps all the hills of seaboard California may be as bald as Tamalpais. I have an interest of my own in t... ...ed to be certain whether it was the moss, that quaint funereal or- nament of Californian forests, which blazed up so rapidly when the flame first touc... ... is typical of that of all Mexican institutions and even Mexican families in California. Nothing is stranger in that strange State than the rapidity w...

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...d’s Visit to Heaven” Mark Twain 34 “Well, do you think of settling in the California depart ment of bliss?” “I don’t know. I wasn’t calculating on... ... it here, as far as they have got. I reckon my wife will want to camp in the California range, though, because most all her departed will be there, an... ...t her. You see what the Jersey district of heaven is, for whites; well, the Californian district is a thou sand times worse. It swarms with a mean k...

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...spair, that he turned his back on his native city, and set out on foot for California, with a more immediate eye to Glasgow. 19 Stevenson CHAPTER IV—... ... de- sired, and, by human standards, more than he deserved; how he reached California, how he was rooked, and robbed, and beaten, and starved; how he ... ...son. ‘Where have you been all this long time?’ ‘In the States,’ said John—‘California. I’ve made my pile though; and it suddenly struck me it would be... ...skin curdled on his bones. He had a vision of a high-lying cattle-drive in California, and the bed of a dried stream with one muddy pool, by which the... ...ked John. ‘I don’t even know what it is.’ ‘About your robbing your bank in California, of course,’ replied Alexander. It was plain, from Flora’s face,...

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...d him it was not true. It reminds me of the story that John Phoe- nix, the California railroad surveyor, tells. He says they started out from the Plaz... ...e Douglas got him a high office from President Pierce, and sent him off to California. Is not that the fact? Just at the end of his term in Congress i... ...udge Douglas got our mutual friend Campbell a good office, and sent him to California upon it. And not only so, but on the 27th of last month, when Ju... ...oint discussion, there was his same friend Campbell, come all the way from California, to help the Judge beat me; and there was poor Martin P . Sweet ... ...in prohibiting the introduction and existence of slavery in New Mexico and California, in abolish- ing slavery and the slave-trade in the District of ...

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... fixture was the thing she militated against. So Paolo went to America, to California, into the gold mines. Maria wanted the future, the endless possi... ...his, after the child of their opposition was born, that Paolo went away to California, leaving his San Gaudenzio, travelling with several compan- ions... ...compan- ions, like blind beasts, to Havre, and thence to New York, then to California. He stayed five years in the gold-mines, in a wild valley, livin... ...valley. But he had never really fretted for San Gaudenzio whilst he was in California. In real truth he was at San Gaudenzio all the time, his fate wa... ...wn reality there in the soil above the lake of Garda. That his body was in California, what did it matter? It was merely for a time, and for the sake ...

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...entitled “An act to create additional collection districts in the State of California, and to change the existing districts therein, and to modify the... ...maha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward to the great bend of the ... ...t- ing upon the recommendation, did provide for reorganizing the system in California, and it is believed that under the present organization the mana... ...e States regularly holding elections, both now and four years ago, to wit, California, Connecticut, Dela- ware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mai... ... Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who by the laws of those States could not vote away from their ... ...titled “An act to create additional collection dis- tricts in the State of California, and to change the existing dis- tricts therein, and to modify t...

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...ry justly left the decision of this very important matter to the people of California itself; and they have almost unanimously raised their voices aga...

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...me a cigar!” T wo minutes afterwards the ship blew up with a glorious detonation. 9 Fables III – THE TWO MATCHES. ONE DAY THERE WAS a traveller in th...

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...e out of mind had rented a half-pew in the church of their denomination on California Street, not far from Chinatown. By noon the family reassembled. ... ...miliar and inti- mate friends, to Conny. Asked as to his birthplace—for no Californian assumes that his neighbor is born in the State—Condy was wont t... ...the market, and get some crackers to go with it.” They hurried back to the California market, a few blocks distant, and bought some crackers and a wed... ...had been ship- wrecked in the Gilberts, fought with the Seris on the lower California Islands, sold champagne—made from rock candy, effervescent salts... ...o you know,” he added, in a low, confidential tone, “that all the mines in California send their clean-ups and gold bricks down to the Selby smeltin’ ...

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...ht. The Arab village of Djeddah—an intricately chased jewel-box. A town in California which had changed itself from the barren brick fronts and slatte... ... the towns leave them in old age, if they can afford it, and go to live in California or in the cities. The reason, Carol insisted, is not a whiskered... ...he clutched his arm. “You’ve got to be sweet to me, and kind! I’m going to California—mountains, sea. Please don’t argue about it, because I’m going.”... ...d her hair, and not till after supper did he con- tinue: “I meant it about California. But I think we better wait three weeks or so, till I get hold o... ...t the store now?” Guy Pollock crossed the street to be pleasant apropos of California and new novels. Vida Sherwin dragged her to the Jolly Seventeen.... ...yself, because Will is all in from work, and I’m thinking of taking him to California. Juanita—you know the Coast so well—tell me: would you start in ... ...some miraculous way yet unrevealed she might find it possible to remain in California. She did not want to see Gopher Prairie again. The Smails were t... ...ecember afternoon. The sleeper which would connect at Kansas City with the California train rolled out of St. Paul with a chick-a-chick, chick-a-chick... ... with the tourists from the ten thousand other Gopher Prairies. In winter, California is full of people from Iowa and Nebraska, Ohio and Oklahoma, who...

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... she should remain with me, who am broken in health, or go to your mother in California, whose health is also frail. Y ou do not know the child, there...

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...ELLUS COCKEREL, IN WASH- INGTON, TO MRS. COOLER, NEE COCKEREL, AT OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. October 25. I ought to have written to you long before this, fo...

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... in the business. We go down here twice a year off Cape Sain’ Lucas, Lower California, an’ fish for blue sharks, or white, if we kin ketch ‘em. We get... ...see how it feels to be in Mexico.” “Mexico?” said Wilbur. “That’s so—Lower California is Mexico. I’d forgotten that!” They went ashore and spent the a... ...nee-boots. As he looked at the two, Wilbur asked himself where else but in California could such abrupt contrasts occur. “All light,” announced Hoang;...

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...loped in his lumber camps in Oregon, and the legis- lature of the State of California, which has no love for its makers, was preparing open war agains... ...accommodate. Los Angeles called to San Diego and Barstow that the Southern California engineers might know and be ready in their lonely roundhouses; B... ...” Harvey put in. “Yep; or the two De Vitre boys or old man McQuade’ s son. California’ s full of ‘em, and here’ s an Eastern sample while we’re talkin...

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...s not materi ally assisted by these witnesses: inasmuch as the first was in California, and the last was, as Ikey said (and he was con firmed by the...

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...ng them English, many Americans, a large number of coolies on their way to California, and several East Indian officers, who were spending their vacat... ... was at six o’clock p.m.; he had, therefore, an entire day to spend in the Californian capital. T aking a carriage at a charge of three dollars, he an... ... and sleep which everybody did—while the train sped on across the State of California. The country between San Francisco and Sacramento is not very hi... ...n, directly on the route of the emigrants who crossed Utah on their way to California, the new colony, thanks to the polygamy practised by the Mormons...