A Source for 'The Luck of Roaring Camp'.

The article examines the origin of the tragicomic tale "The Luck of Roaring Camp" by Bret Harte. Topics include comment from biographer George Stewart about the sudden appearance of the short story, the connection between a speech given by orator Henry Whitney Bellows during the Society of California Pioneers' celebration of the anniversary of California's statehood in 1864 and Harte's breakout story, and Bellows' impressions of California which reverberate in Harte's fiction.