These adventurers came from all quarters of the globe and all ranks of society, and they had in common only the possession of the strength and determination necessary to reach the new Colchis.
Here they lived, at first, wholly free from the conventional restraints imposed by an organized society, and each man showed himself for what he was.
Many of these primitive social conditions still existed when Harte went to California in 1854, and they made a great impression on the observant boy.
Harte occasionally seems to have adopted some of the less fortunate devices of Charles Dickens, but his manner was chiefly his own.
He lacks literary finish, though he was painstaking in regard to style; but in these early tales he has a sure command of humor and pathos, and a complete mastery of his unique material.