The effect of the poem on Sierra Flat was remarkable and unprecedented.  The absolute vileness of its doggerel, the gratuitous imbecility of its thought, and above all the crowning audacity of the fact that it was the work of a citizen and published in the county paper, brought it instantly into popularity.  For many months Calaveras had languished for a sensation; since the last vigilance committee nothing had transpired to dispel the listless ennui begotten of stagnant business and growing civilization.  In more prosperous moments the office of the “Record” would have been simply gutted and the editor deported; at present the paper was in such demand that the edition was speedily exhausted.  In brief, the poem of Mr. Milton Chubbuck came like a special providence to Sierra Flat.  It was read by camp-fires, in lonely cabins, in flaring bar-rooms and noisy saloons, and declaimed from the boxes of stagecoaches.  It was sung in Poker Flat with the addition of a local chorus, and danced as an unhallowed rhythmic dance by the Pyrrhic phalanx of One Horse Gulch, known as “The Festive Stags of Calaveras.”  Some unhappy ambiguities of expression gave rise to many new readings, notes, and commentaries, which, I regret to state, were more often marked by ingenuity than delicacy of thought or expression.

Never before did poet acquire such sudden local reputation.  From the seclusion of McCorkle’s cabin and the obscurity of culinary labors, he was haled forth into the glowing sunshine of Fame.  The name of Chubbuck was written in letters of chalk on unpainted walls, and carved with a pick on the sides of tunnels.  A drink known variously as “The Chubbuck Tranquillizer,” or “The Chubbuck Exalter,” was dispensed at the bars.  For some weeks a rude design for a Chubbuck statue, made up of illustrations from circus and melodeon posters, representing the genius of Calaveras in brief skirts on a flying steed in the act of crowning the poet Chubbuck, was visible at Keeler’s Ferry.  The poet himself was overborne with invitations to drink and extravagant congratulations.  The meeting between Colonel Starbottle of Siskyion and Chubbuck, as previously arranged by our “Boston,” late of Roaring Camp, is said to have been indescribably affecting.  The Colonel embraced him unsteadily.  “I could not return to my constituents at Siskyion, sir, if this hand, which has grasped that of the gifted Prentice and the lamented Poe, should not have been honored by the touch of the godlike Chubbuck.  Gentlemen, American literature is looking up.  Thank you, I will take sugar in mine.”  It was “Boston” who indited letters of congratulations from H. W. Longfellow, Tennyson, and Browning, to Mr. Chubbuck, deposited them in the Sierra Flat post-office, and obligingly consented to dictate the replies.