McGee

“ The Cremation of Sam McGee There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee. Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell ”

“ Listen, then, to thy mother's voice, D'Arcy McGee.
Since the crown from my head, and the sceptre are gone
To the hand of the stranger, who held what he won,
I have borne much of sorrow, of wrong and of shame,
I've been spoken against with scorning and blame;
But still have my daughters been spotless and fair,
And my sons have been dauntless to do and to dare;
For as great as thou art and most precious to me,
Still thou art not my only one, D'Arcy McGee.
At the bar, in the senate, in cassock or gown,
Our foes being judges, they've got them renown ”

“ I ain't yearning for a new suit of down one little bit."
"It may please the ragtag and bobtail crowd from the ground up," said Phil soberly; "but you take it from me, Larry, unless McGee himself is convinced, there's nothing doing. He's the Great Mogul of this place, the PooBah of the swamp settlement. When he takes snuff they all sneeze. He holds all the offices; and not a man-jack of them dares to say a word, when McGee holds up his finger. He rules with a rod of iron. So it is McGee alone I'm hoping to convince. ”

“ Putney’s consternation and wrath knew no bounds.
He fairly danced in his anger, while little Amos held his jaw and stared red-eyed at the wall.
“Cloudy McGee double-crossed us!” swore Putney. “He knew we’d do this, the dirty pup. Well,” Putney waved his arms in desperation, “we’ll have to kill McGee and get that money.”
“You do it,” said Amos wearily. “You can have my part of it. My Lord, that man is strong!”
“But don’t you see where it puts us?” wailed Putney. “He’s got all the money—eleven thousand. He don’t have to rob the bank now.” ”

“ This judgment is all the more convincing in that the Globe had been for some years previous hostile to McGee.
Joseph Howe had won many laurels as an orator, yet the brilliant French-Canadian writer, Hector Fabre, considered him inferior to McGee. "Mr. Howe is well adapted to the tribune; he pleases, he amuses, he charms; but a severer taste would say that his is far from the brilliant eloquence, the irreproachable diction, the constantly pure style, the breadth of views and the rectitude of ideas of Mr. McGee. ”

“ I invite every fellow colonist who agrees with me to unite our efforts that we may give our province the aspect of an empire, in order to exercise the influence abroad and at home of a state, and to originate a history which the world will not willingly let die.” Sir Charles Gavan Duffy considered that as a poet McGee was not inferior to Davis, and that as an orator he possessed powers rarer than those of T. F. Meagher. ”

“ As the boat ran up on a shelving beach, Tony was the first one to jump out. In rapid succession Phil, Larry, and finally McGee himself, stood on the shore.
Their coming had been already noted. Several yellow mongrel dogs came bounding toward them, barking loudly; but at one word in the heavy voice of McGee it was astonishing to see how quickly they cowed down, and with tails between their legs, skulked away.
"Why, even the dogs fear him like the devil does holy water!" whispered Larry, in the ear of his chum. ”

“ McGee's first words.
“I've brought you an ole friend, Safie. He used to spark ye once at Angel's afore my time—he told me so; he picked ye outer the water here—he told me that, too. Ye mind that I said afore that he was the only man I wanted ter know; I reckon now it seems the square thing that he should be the one man YOU wanted ter know, too. You understand what I mean—you follow me, don't you?” ”

“ But he had not spoken three sentences in a singularly sweet and flexible voice till it was plain that he was a man of fertile brains and great originality: a man in whom one might dimly discover rudiments of the orator, poet and statesman hidden under this ungainly disguise. This was Thomas D'Arcy McGee. I asked him to breakfast on some early day at his convenience, and as he arrived one morning when I was engaged to breakfast with Davis, I took him with me, and he met for the first and last time a man destined to influence and control his whole life. ”

“ He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.
There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code. ”

“ The reverence they failed to yield to his religious isolation they were willing to freely accord to his financial abstraction. But Mr. McGee was not so deceived. Overtaking him one day under the fringe of willows, he characteristically chided him with absenting himself from Mrs. McGee and her house since their last interview.
“I reckon you did not harbor malice in your Christianity,” he said; “but it looks mighty like ez if ye was throwing off on Safie and me on account of what I said.” ”

“ Cloudy McGee nodded indifferently, and Amos mentally decided that the killing of an editor was merely an incident in the life of such a man as Cloudy McGee.
“You are a man of action,” said Putney, looking upon McGee with considerable favor. “What would you do for a thousand dollars?”
McGee grinned. “All depends.”
“I’m going to lay my cards on the table,” said Putney. “A man of your caliber appreciates honesty.”
“Such is my reputation,” nodded McGee.
“All right.” Putney stretched out his legs and squinted at Amos, who was not at ease. “Our friend here, is cashier of the Lost Hills bank. ”

“ From that slight elevation there was a perfect view over the whole landscape and river below; the Bar stretched out as a map at her feet; in that clear, transparent air she could see every movement and gesture of Wayne's brother, all unconscious of that surveillance, at work on the Bar. For an instant Madison's sallow cheek reddened, he knew not why; a remorseful feeling that he ought to be there with Arthur came over him. Mrs. McGee's voice seemed to answer his thought. “You can see everything that's going on down there without being seen yourself. It's good fun for me sometimes. ”

“ In this attitude he became aware of a hesitating step on the gravel outside his open door. He had been so absorbed that the approach of any figure along the only highway—the river bank—had escaped his observation. Looking up, he discovered that Mr. Alexander McGee was standing in the doorway, his hand resting lightly on the jamb. A sudden color suffused Wayne's cheek; his hand reached for his book, which he drew towards him hurriedly, yet half automatically, as he might have grasped some defensive weapon.
The Bell-ringer of Angel's noticed the act, but not the blush, and nodded approvingly. ”

“ McGEE, THOMAS D'ARCY (1825–1868) , Irish-Canadian statesman and poet, born of an Ulster family at Carlingford, co. Louth, on 13 April 1825, was second son of James McGee, a coastguard. His mother's father, a Dublin bookseller named Morgan, had suffered imprisonment and financial ruin owing to his connection with the United Irishmen. In 1833 his father obtained an appointment in the custom-house at Wexford, and Thomas attended a day-school there. He showed an aptitude for study and a natural gift of eloquence. In 1842 he emigrated to America. ”

“ We helped your boy Tony before we even knew that he was a McGee; and after we found it out, it made us like him all the more. My father wants you to be his friend, to enter into a new arrangement that will mean plenty of money for you all, and homes that the law can never take away from you. It means the highest wages paid in the lumber business to every man willing to work with him. He wants to develop this country, and knows he can only do it with your help. McGee, here is my father's letter! Won't you have it read out loud, so everybody can hear what a fine man Doctor Lancing really is? ”

“ If you win, I get half.”
“And if I lose?”
“You’ve already lost, you poor egg.”
“All right,” eagerly. “Fifty-fifty, Putney.”
“That’s a bet, Amos. How soon will the bank examiner come?”
“I don’t know. He’s due any old time.”
“All right. Cloudy McGee is also coming—to kill Miles Rooney. You see McGee before he kills Rooney. Not that we care what he does to Rooney, you understand; but he must postpone it.
“McGee is our meat. Watch for him, Amos. And as soon as you see him, bring him to me. But do this secretly. If there’s any killing going on—remember I’m a lawyer, not a target.” ”

“ Instead, he danced about the big man in an awkward but tantalizing fashion. There is nothing more irritating than a fly buzzing around one’s head. Johnny was, for the moment, Red McGee’s fly. He was here, there and everywhere. ”

“ If the sheriff does kill Cloudy McGee, he won’t squeal on us, Putney.”
“He better not,” grinned Putney. “But the deal ain’t all finished, Amos. You go down to the bank and take out every cent of that ten thousand dollars. Nobody is goin’ to wonder if you go in there this time of night, because you often work late.” ”

“ When he stopped, out of breath, Madison said, “I have had a visitor since you left—Mr. McGee.”
“And his wife?” asked Arthur quickly. Madison flushed slightly. “No; but he asked me to go and see her.”
“That's HER doin', then,” returned Arthur, with a laugh. “She's always lookin' round the corners of her eyes at me when she passes. Why, John Rogers was joking me about her only yesterday, and said McGee would blow a hole through me some of these days if I didn't look out! Of course,” he added, affectedly curling his moustache, “that's nonsense! ”

“ Some two or three other women—wives of miners—had joined the camp, but it was evident that McGee was as little inclined to intrust his wife to their companionship as to that of their husbands. An opinion obtained that McGee, being an old resident, with alleged high connections in Angel's, was inclined to be aristocratic and exclusive. ”

“ Rooney. “But when Cloudy McGee meets me, will he wait long enough to let me do it? The man has a terrible reputation. Why, there’s a thousand dollars reward for him. Will a man of his type be satisfied with an apology?” ”

“ I took your advice once—and lost.”
“This is a cinch,” assured Putney. “Just let me get at McGee.”
Twenty miles south of Lost Hills was the town of Salt Wells, from which place a stage line ran to Lost Hills. In a dingy little room at Salt Wells’ only hotel, two men sat at a table playing poker. It was early in the evening, and both men were too interested in the game to light a lamp.
One man was tall and lean, with deep-set eyes and a long, damp-looking nose. He breathed through his mouth, and regularly he wiped a long, gnarled finger across his nose, in lieu of a handkerchief. ”

“ The man I seen you standing outside my window with last night. The man you were talking to, darn you! Cloudy McGee!”
“The bank examiner!” exploded Amos. “He—he said he was.”
“He is,” said the sheriff. “He’s examined a lot of ’em.”
The real bank examiner and the marshal walked outside, halting on the edge of the sidewalk, where they grinned at each other.
“You ought to take something for that cold,” said the examiner. “The first thing you know you’ll be having pneumonia.”
“Dod be.” The officer shook his head. “You can’t scare be do more. All by life I’be been scared of pneumonia. ”

“ McGee corrected. “I am an American–born in America, and that’s why I have been so happy about this assignment.”
Several members of the squadron began edging nearer. Perhaps things were not going to be so dreadful after all.
“Indeed?” Major Cowan lifted his eyebrows in surprise. The points of his nicely trimmed moustache twitched nervously as he began to wonder just how he should treat an American who happened to be wearing the uniform and insignia of a lieutenant in the R.F.C.
“My parents were English,” McGee decided to explain, “but I was born in the States. ”

“ ALICE G. McGEE. McGEE, Miss Alice G., lawyer, born in Warren county, Pa., 10th February, 1869 Her father, Joseph A. McGee, has long been prominently identified with the petroleum industry, having been one of the pioneers of that work in 1860. Most of her life was passed on a farm. She was graduated in the Warren high school in 1886. Her education included a thorough training in music and portrait painting, with a view to adopting one or the other as a profession. She retains all her natural fondness for those lines of work, although her professional life lies in the field of law. ”

“ The syllable kun (or kn, kon, kom, etc.) certainly connotes age and woman, and apparently connotes also life or living (kun-kaīe=old woman, McGee; i-kom=a wife, ekam=alive, Bartlett; hikkam=a wife, kmam-kikamman=a married woman, Yak-kom=Yaqui tribe, Pinart; kon-kabre=an old woman, Tenochio) , the forms being distinct from the word for woman (kmamm, McGee; ék-e-mam, Bartlett; kmam, Pinart and Tenochio) and widely different from the term for man (kŭ-tŭmm, McGee; ék-e-tam, Bartlett; ktam, Pinart; tam, Tenochio) with its several combining variants ”