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Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 764

Radek Silhavy Editor

Artificial
Intelligence and
Algorithms in
Intelligent Systems
Proceedings of 7th Computer Science
On-line Conference 2018, Volume 2
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Volume 764

Series editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: kacprzyk@ibspan.waw.pl
The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications on theory,
applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent Computing. Virtually all
disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer and information science, ICT, economics,
business, e-commerce, environment, healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the
areas of modern intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft computing
including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion of these paradigms,
social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuroscience, artificial life, virtual worlds and
society, cognitive science and systems, Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems,
self-organizing and adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric
computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics including
human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning paradigms, machine ethics, intelligent
data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent agents, intelligent decision making and support,
intelligent network security, trust management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.
The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are primarily proceedings
of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They cover significant recent developments in the
field, both of a foundational and applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is
the short publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of
research results.

Advisory Board
Chairman
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
e-mail: nikhil@isical.ac.in
Members
Rafael Bello Perez, Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
e-mail: rbellop@uclv.edu.cu
Emilio S. Corchado, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
e-mail: escorchado@usal.es
Hani Hagras, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
e-mail: hani@essex.ac.uk
László T. Kóczy, Széchenyi István University, Győr, Hungary
e-mail: koczy@sze.hu
Vladik Kreinovich, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, USA
e-mail: vladik@utep.edu
Chin-Teng Lin, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
e-mail: ctlin@mail.nctu.edu.tw
Jie Lu, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
e-mail: Jie.Lu@uts.edu.au
Patricia Melin, Tijuana Institute of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico
e-mail: epmelin@hafsamx.org
Nadia Nedjah, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e-mail: nadia@eng.uerj.br
Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
e-mail: Ngoc-Thanh.Nguyen@pwr.edu.pl
Jun Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
e-mail: jwang@mae.cuhk.edu.hk

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11156


Radek Silhavy
Editor

Artificial Intelligence
and Algorithms in Intelligent
Systems
Proceedings of 7th Computer Science On-line
Conference 2018, Volume 2

123
Editor
Radek Silhavy
Faculty of Applied Informatics
Tomas Bata University in Zlín
Zlín
Czech Republic

ISSN 2194-5357 ISSN 2194-5365 (electronic)


Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
ISBN 978-3-319-91188-5 ISBN 978-3-319-91189-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91189-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018943432

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019


This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
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Preface

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the modern trends and approaches
of artificial intelligence research and its application to intelligent systems. The paper
discusses hybridization of algorithms, new trends in neural networks, optimization
algorithms, and real-life issues related to artificial methods’ application.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and
Algorithms in Intelligent Systems of the 7th Computer Science On-line Conference
2018 (CSOC 2018), held online in April 2018.
CSOC 2018 has received (all sections) 265 submissions, 141 of them were
accepted for publication. More than 60% of accepted submissions were received
from Europe, 30% from Asia, 5% from Africa, and 5% from America. Researchers
from 30 countries participated in CSOC 2018 conference.
CSOC 2018 conference intends to provide an international forum for the dis-
cussion of the latest high-quality research results in all areas related to Computer
Science. The addressed topics are the theoretical aspects and applications of
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligences, Cybernetics, Automation Control
Theory and Software Engineering.
Computer Science On-line Conference is held online and modern communica-
tion technology, which is broadly used to improve the traditional concept of sci-
entific conferences. It brings equal opportunity to participate to all researchers
around the world.
I believe that you will find following proceedings interesting and useful for your
own research work.

March 2018 Radek Silhavy


Editor

v
Organization

Program Committee
Program Committee Chairs

Petr Silhavy Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied


Informatics
Radek Silhavy Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied
Informatics
Zdenka Prokopova Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied
Informatics
Roman Senkerik Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied
Informatics
Roman Prokop Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied
Informatics
Viacheslav Zelentsov Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Chief Researcher
of St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics
and Automation of Russian Academy of Sciences
(SPIIRAS)

Program Committee Members

Boguslaw Cyganek Department of Computer Science, University


of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland
Krzysztof Okarma Faculty of Electrical Engineering, West Pomeranian
University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland
Monika Bakosova Institute of Information Engineering, Automation
and Mathematics, Slovak University of Technology,
Bratislava, Slovak Republic

vii
viii Organization

Pavel Vaclavek Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication,


Brno University of Technology, Brno,
Czech Republic
Miroslaw Ochodek Faculty of Computing, Poznan University
of Technology, Poznan, Poland
Olga Brovkina Global Change Research Centre Academy of Science
of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic
and Mendel University of Brno, Czech Republic
Elarbi Badidi College of Information Technology, United Arab
Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Luis Alberto Morales Head of the Master Program in Computer Science,
Rosales Superior Technological Institute of Misantla,
Mexico
Mariana Lobato Baes Superior Technological of Libres, Mexico
Abdessattar Chaâri Laboratory of Sciences and Techniques of Automatic
control and Computer engineering, University
of Sfax, Tunisian Republic
Gopal Sakarkar Shri. Ramdeobaba College of Engineering
and Management, Republic of India
V. V. Krishna GD Rungta College of Engineering & Technology,
Maddinala Republic of India
Anand N. Khobragade Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre,
Republic of India
Abdallah Handoura Computer and Communication Laboratory, Telecom
Bretagne, France

Technical Program Committee Members

Ivo Bukovsky Roman Senkerik


Maciej Majewski Petr Silhavy
Miroslaw Ochodek Radek Silhavy
Bronislav Chramcov Jiri Vojtesek
Eric Afful Dazie Eva Volna
Michal Bliznak Janez Brest
Donald Davendra Ales Zamuda
Radim Farana Roman Prokop
Martin Kotyrba Boguslaw Cyganek
Erik Kral Krzysztof Okarma
David Malanik Monika Bakosova
Michal Pluhacek Pavel Vaclavek
Zdenka Prokopova Olga Brovkina
Martin Sysel Elarbi Badidi
Organization ix

Organizing Committee Chair

Radek Silhavy Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Applied


Informatics

Conference Organizer (Production)

OpenPublish.eu s.r.o.
Web: http://www.openpublish.eu
Email: csoc@openpublish.eu

Conference Website, Call for Papers

http://www.openpublish.eu
Contents

Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors in Image Comprehension


of Visual Advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Gabrielė Liaudanskaitė, Gabrielė Saulytė, Julijus Jakutavičius,
Eglė Vaičiukynaitė, Ligita Zailskaitė-Jakštė, and Robertas Damaševičius
FARIP: Framework for Artifact Removal for Image Processing
Using JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
T. M. Shashidhar and K. B. Ramesh
SOPA: Search Optimization Based Predictive Approach for Design
Optimization in FinFET/SRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
H. Girish and D. R. Shashikumar
Analysis of the Quality of the Painting Process Using Preprocessing
Techniques of Text Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Veronika Simoncicova, Pavol Tanuska, Hans-Christian Heidecke,
and Stefan Rydzi
Bioinspired Algorithm for 2D Packing Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Vladimir Kureichik, Liliya Kureichik, Vladimir Kureichik, Jr.,
and Daria Zaruba
Authorship Identification Using Random Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Robertas Damaševičius, Jurgita Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė, and Marcin Woźniak
A Method for Intelligent Quality Assessment of a Gearbox Using
Antipatterns and Convolutional Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Andrzej Tuchołka, Maciej Majewski, Wojciech Kacalak,
and Zbigniew Budniak
Spark-Based Classification Algorithms for Daily Living Activities . . . . . 69
Dorin Moldovan, Marcel Antal, Claudia Pop, Adrian Olosutean,
Tudor Cioara, Ionut Anghel, and Ioan Salomie

xi
xii Contents

Fast Adaptive Image Binarization Using the Region


Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Hubert Michalak and Krzysztof Okarma
Semantic Query Suggestion Based on Optimized
Random Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Aytuğ Onan
Financial Knowledge Instantiation from Semi-structured,
Heterogeneous Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Francisco García-Sánchez, José Antonio García-Díaz,
Juan Miguel Gómez-Berbís, and Rafael Valencia-García
Hierarchical Fuzzy Deep Leaning Networks for Predicting Human
Behavior in Strategic Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Arindam Chaudhuri and Soumya K. Ghosh
Fuzzy-Expert System for Customer Behavior Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Monika Frankeová, Radim Farana, Ivo Formánek, and Bogdan Walek
A Binary Grasshopper Algorithm Applied
to the Knapsack Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Hernan Pinto, Alvaro Peña, Matías Valenzuela, and Andrés Fernández
Artificial Neural Networks Implementing Maximum Likelihood
Estimator for Passive Radars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Timofey Shevgunov and Evgeniy Efimov
Using Query Expansion for Cross-Lingual Mathematical
Terminology Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Velislava Stoykova and Ranka Stankovic
Text Summarization Techniques for Meta Description Generation
in Process of Search Engine Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Goran Matošević
Integration of Models of Adaptive Behavior of Ant and Bee Colony . . . 174
Boris K. Lebedev, Oleg B. Lebedev, Elena M. Lebedeva,
and Andrey I. Kostyuk
Optimization of Multistage Tourist Route for Electric Vehicle . . . . . . . . 186
Joanna Karbowska-Chilinska and Kacper Chociej
Enhancing Stratified Graph Sampling Algorithms Based
on Approximate Degree Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Junpeng Zhu, Hui Li, Mei Chen, Zhenyu Dai, and Ming Zhu
MIC-KMeans: A Maximum Information Coefficient Based
High-Dimensional Clustering Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Ruping Wang, Hui Li, Mei Chen, Zhenyu Dai, and Ming Zhu
Contents xiii

DACC: A Data Exploration Method for High-Dimensional


Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Qingnan Zhao, Hui Li, Mei Chen, Zhenyu Dai, and Ming Zhu
Multi-targets Tracking of Multiple Instance Boosting Combining
with Particle Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Hongxia Chu, Kejun Wang, Yumin Han, Rongyi Zhang, and Xifeng Wang
An Enhance Approach of Filtering to Select Adaptive IMFs of EEMD
in Fiber Optic Sensor for Oxidized Carbon Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Nur Syakirah Mohd Jaafar, Izzatdin Abdul Aziz, Jafreezal Jaafar,
Ahmad Kamil Mahmood, and Abdul Rehman Gilal
Hyper-heuristical Particle Swarm Method
for MR Images Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Samer El-Khatib, Yuri Skobtsov, Sergey Rodzin,
and Viacheslav Zelentsov
A Hybrid SAE and CNN Classifier for Motor Imagery
EEG Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Xianlun Tang, Jiwei Yang, and Hui Wan
Semantic Bookmark System for Dynamic Modeling
of Users Browsing Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Syed Khurram Ali Shah, Shah Khusro, Irfan Ullah,
and Muhammad Abid Khan
Models, Algorithms and Monitoring System of the Technical
Condition of the Launch Vehicle “Soyuz-2” at All Stages
of Its Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Aleksey D. Bakhmut, Кljucharjov A. Alexander, Aleksey V. Krylov,
Michael Yu. Okhtilev, Pavel A. Okhtilev, Anton V. Ustinov,
and Alexander E. Zyanchurin
Proactive Management of Complex Objects Using
Precedent Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Aleksey D. Bakhmut, Aleksey V. Krylov, Margaret A. Krylova,
Michael Yu. Okhtilev, Pavel A. Okhtilev, and Boris V. Sokolov
Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms in Intelligent Systems . . . . . . . . . 308
Carla Sofia R. Silva and Jose Manuel Fonseca
Hierarchical System for Evaluating Professional Competencies Using
Takagi-Sugeno Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Ondrej Pektor, Bogdan Walek, Ivo Martinik, and Michal Jaluvka
xiv Contents

Discovering Association Rules of Information Dissemination About


Geoinformatics University Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Zdena Dobesova
Predicting User Age by Keystroke Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Avar Pentel
Salary Increment Model Based on Fuzzy Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Atia Mobasshera, Kamrun Naher, T. M. Rezoan Tamal,
and Rashedur M. Rahman
Fuzzy Logic Based Weight Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Md Sakib Ibne Farhad, Ahmed Masud Chowdhury, Md. Ehtesham Adnan,
Jebun Nahar Moni, Rajiv Rahman Arif, M. Arabi Hasan Sakib,
and Rashedur M. Rahman
Analysis of Spatial Data and Time Series for Predicting Magnitude
of Seismic Zones in Bangladesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Sarker Md Tanzim, Sadia Yeasmin, Muhammad Abrar Hussain,
T. M. Rezoan Tamal, Rashidul Hasan, Tanjir Rahman,
and Rashedur M. Rahman
Determination of the Data Model for Heterogeneous Data Processing
Based on Cost Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Jianping Zhang, Hui Li, Xiaoping Zhang, Mei Chen,
Zhenyu Dai, and Ming Zhu
Aspects of Using Elman Neural Network for Controlling Game Object
Movements in Simplified Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Dmitriy Kuznetsov and Natalya Plotnikova
Intrinsic Evaluation of Lithuanian Word Embeddings
Using WordNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Jurgita Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė and Robertas Damaševičius
Classification of Textures for Autonomous Cleaning Robots Based
on the GLCM and Statistical Local Texture Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Andrzej Seul and Krzysztof Okarma
Hybrid Approach to Solving the Problems of Operational
Production Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
L. A. Gladkov, N. V. Gladkova, and S. A. Gromov
Stacked Autoencoder for Segmentation of Bone Marrow
Histological Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Dorota Oszutowska-Mazurek, Przemyslaw Mazurek, and Oktawian Knap
Contents xv

Exploiting User Expertise and Willingness of Participation in Building


Reputation Model for Scholarly Community-Based Question
and Answering (CQA) Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Tauseef Ur Rahman, Shah Khusro, Irfan Ullah, and Zafar Ali
Performance of the Bison Algorithm on Benchmark IEEE
CEC 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Anezka Kazikova, Michal Pluhacek, and Roman Senkerik
Distance vs. Improvement Based Parameter Adaptation in SHADE . . . 455
Adam Viktorin, Roman Senkerik, Michal Pluhacek, and Tomas Kadavy
Dogface Detection and Localization of Dogface’s Landmarks . . . . . . . . 465
Alzbeta Vlachynska, Zuzana Kominkova Oplatkova, and Tomas Turecek
Firefly Algorithm Enhanced by Orthogonal Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Kadavy Tomas, Pluhacek Michal, Viktorin Adam, and Senkerik Roman
On the Applicability of Random and the Best Solution Driven
Metaheuristics for Analytic Programming and Time
Series Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Roman Senkerik, Adam Viktorin, Michal Pluhacek, Tomas Kadavy,
and Zuzana Kominkova Oplatkova
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors
in Image Comprehension of Visual
Advertisement

Gabrielė Liaudanskaitė1, Gabrielė Saulytė1, Julijus Jakutavičius1,


Eglė Vaičiukynaitė2, Ligita Zailskaitė-Jakštė1,
and Robertas Damaševičius1(&)
1
Department of Multimedia Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology,
Kaunas, Lithuania
robertas.damasevicius@ktu.lt
2
Department of Marketing, Kaunas University of Technology,
Kaunas, Lithuania

Abstract. Advertisement is an integral part of the daily life in modern society.


Nevertheless, the advertising industry often ignores the fact that people might
understand ads differently and behave accordingly. Eye movements, fixation
times, gaze landing sites and areas of interest in visual images are known as good
predictors of customer behavior. Here we perform eye tracking of several ver-
sions (neutral, positively and negatively valence) of popular ads and analyze the
dependency of eye fixation times on affective and gender factors. The results
show that there are statistically significant differences on how affectively charged
images are perceived, but no statistically significant differences between genders
have been found when shorter fixations representing unconscious processing of
visual information are analyzed.

Keywords: Image comprehension  Gaze tracking  Visual advertisement


Affective neuromarketing  Gender studies

1 Introduction

Marketing professionals know that a well-designed visual ad should have a catchy


visual story that forces the viewer to stop. Specific features of images such as colors
can stimulate, excite, and form different emotions and result in different reaction. The
need to execute effective advertising campaigns to promote products and services
motivates the research in this area of science [1]. The sensomotoric, affective and
cognitive response of consumers to marketing stimuli is analyzed by neuromarketing, a
field of science that applies the methods of neuroscience and physiological computing
to evaluate and predict consumer behavior [2].
To explain the role of emotions in visual understanding, several theoretical models
of emotion have been proposed. Some models propose a small number of universal
emotional states, i.e., discrete emotions such as joy, fear, etc. (see [3], for a review).
The appraisal models claim that specific emotions are influenced by appraisal processes
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
R. Silhavy (Ed.): CSOC 2018, AISC 764, pp. 1–11, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91189-2_1
2 G. Liaudanskaitė et al.

which integrate the situational context of an event (see [4]). The dimensional models
suggest that emotion can be explained by a dimensional space, such as a 2D space
spanning valence and arousal. Valence describes the extent to which an emotion is
positive or negative, whereas arousal refers to emotional intensity, i.e., the strength of
the associated emotional state.
Since advertising seeks to influence the user’s mental functions - first of all, per-
ception, behavior, thinking and emotions, the interest in the role of affective factors on
the perception of advertising is steadily growing, and so there is a growing number of
studies that help to understand how advertising is most affected by emotion [5, 6].
The task is made more difficult by known fact that the content can not be applied
indiscriminately, e.g., if one ad engages children, it will not necessarily be suitable for
adults. Moreover, there is a dual perception of the emotions visible in the image [7] as
follows:
(1) Syncretic cognition, which is occurring instinctively, spontaneously and broadly
subjectively. The image is perceived by what it is visually recognizable and
known from before, it causes relevant emotions (e.g., joy, sorrow, fear, etc.); and
(2) Analytical cognition, which is slower. The image is perceived by thinking about
the visible characters, analyzing their meanings. The analytical perception is less
subjective, since other well-known descriptions of the image are used.
While advertisers are often trying to disturb people emotions and thus force them to
engage in an advertised product or product, a user who first encounters a positive
impression on a product becomes more influenced by emotions (syncretic perception)
than rational decisions (analytical perception).
Recently, the researchers began evaluating the neurological correlates of consumer
behavior using the electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), galvanic
skin response (GSR) and gaze tracking technology in order to understand
marketing-relevant human behavior [8]. The quantitative data collected and properly
analyzed provides an advantage over the commonly used surveys and questionnaires,
which rely on the ability and willingness of the participants to honestly and accurately
report their attitudes and behaviors.
Eye movements, gaze landing sites and areas of interest are known to be good
predictors of customer behavior. People spend more time for examining (i.e., fixating
their gaze on) options that they will eventually choose [9]. For example, consumers
spent 54% more time looking at the ads of businesses that they ended up choosing [10].
Unusual brand extension cause disruption of visual processing and result in longer
visual fixation times as evidenced in [11]. The emotional state can be recognized using
gaze tracking technology [12], while different factors such as the emotional state and
gender have influence on visual processing and understanding [13].
The aim of the paper is to analyze gender and affect related differences in the
perception of visual advertising. The results of experiments using gaze tracking are
presented and analyzed, and the implications for neuromarketing are discussed.
The structure of the remaining parts of the paper is as follows. Section 2 describes
the experiments. Section 3 evaluates the results and concludes.
Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors in Image Comprehension 3

2 Experiments
2.1 Subjects
The experiment was conducted at Kaunas University of Technology (Kaunas,
Lithuania). Due to the specifics of the hardware requirements, the place of execution
and the limited access to the gaze tracking device, only students of 18–25 years old
were invited to participate. As this social group of 18–25 age range is often a target
audience in commercial advertising, we consider the use of this social group in research
as appropriate [14]. Twenty people - 10 women (50%) and 10 men (50%) have par-
ticipated. 45% of respondents were 18–21 years old, while 55% were 22–25 years old.
All subjects reported to have normal vision. Participants signed a written consent form.
The participants also received written task instructions on the procedure.

2.2 Dataset
The analyzed data included three original ads and their modified versions with emo-
tions introduced (changed) using image processing software as follows (also see
Fig. 1): “Trump for President 2016” (source: http://adsoftheworld.com/), “Charming
Chocolate”, “Charming Chocolate” ad created by the students of KTU and “I am
Muslim” ad by People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP).

Fig. 1. Analyzed images: original (top) and modified (bottom): “Trump for President 2016”
(left), “Charming Chocolate” (center), “I am Muslim” (right)
4 G. Liaudanskaitė et al.

2.3 Methodology
The experiment was performed on the basis of a mixed quantitative and qualitative
research methodology. To achieve the objective, an eye tracking device and special
software were used. Research was conducted using the methodology presented in [15],
which sought to find out how people react to smiling faces in promotional imagery. The
aim is to find out whether two groups of subjects of similar composition, which are
shown the same advertisements in which only the expression of a person’s face differs,
can notice the difference in the intensity of the reaction.
For each participant the gaze-tracking device was adjusted and calibrated. Each
experiment consisted of 3 stages, while calibration was repeated at the beginning of
each stage. Following the experiments, the raw data was pre-processed and eye fixa-
tions shorter than 60 ms were discarded because of contamination from equipment
measurement noise and blinking effects [16]. The upper threshold of fixations has been
set to 600 ms as recommended in [17].

2.4 Procedure
Before the experiment, the intensity of human emotions seen in each advertisement was
measured using FaceReader software (Noldus, the Netherlands). The program can
recognize the basic facial expressions: happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, fear, con-
tempt, disgust, and neutrality. The intensity of each emotion is evaluated on a scale
from 0 to 1, where zero means that emotion is not recognized, and one - the emotion is
very strong. The results of emotions measurements are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Face emotion measurements with FaceReader


No. Ad Variant Recognized Value Assigned
emotion emotion
1 “Trump for President Original Neutral 0.4716 Happy
2016” Modified Anger 0.2055 Sad
Sad 0.2124
Neutral 0.5408
2 “Charming Chocolate” Original Joy 0.9965 Happy
Modified Joy 0.1504 Sad
Neutral 0.7603
3 “I am Muslim” Original Neutral 0.9996 Sad
Modified Joy 0.9999 Happy

The participants were divided into two equal groups with an equal number of
women and men of the same age, emotional advertisements were displayed, or mod-
ified with the use of additional photos for retouching. One ad was displayed for a
maximum of 30 s, but each respondent was able to switch the ad on when she did not
want to watch it for longer. Numeric data collected during the experiment was the
timeframe for fixation of sight of the software (start time and duration in ms).
Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors in Image Comprehension 5

2.5 Statistical Analysis


Usually, power laws are used to model human visual perception. The distribution of
eye fixation times can be adequately characterized using a two-parameter Weibull
probability distribution [18, 19], and its performance on the eye-gaze data is shown to
be better than other power law based approaches. The probability density function of a
Weibull random variable is:

k  x k1 ðx=kÞk
pdf ð xÞ ¼ e ð1Þ
k k
where k > 0 is the shape parameter and k > 0 is the scale parameter of the distribution.
A value of k > 1 indicates that the failure rate increases with time. This happens if there
is an aging or fatigue [20] process.
Weibull distribution parameters, gamma and beta, highly correlate (between 84 and
93%) with neural responses in the early visual system [21]. Sometimes none of the
considered models represents the data appropriately. Thus, it should be tested how well
the integrated Weibull distribution fits the data. The goodness of fit between experi-
mentally established distribution and real data is evaluated using R2 value, which is
calculated as follows:
Pn
ð^xi  xÞ2
R2 ¼ Pi¼1
n
ð2Þ
i¼1 ðxi   xÞ 2

here x is the mean, and ^x is the fitted value.


Having the parameters of Weibull distribution, the mean and standard deviation of
a Weibull random variable can be expressed as follows:
 
1
EðXÞ ¼ kC 1 þ ð3Þ
k

and
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
    
2 1 2
std ð X Þ ¼ k C 1 þ  C 1þ ð4Þ
k k

here CðÞ is the Gamma function:


Z 1
CðzÞ ¼ xz1 ex dx ð5Þ
0

To evaluate if two data samples belong to the same statistical distribution, a number
of statistical tests can be used.
The Kruskal-Wallis method tests if two or more classes have equal median and
gives the value of p. If the value of p is close to 0 it means that the feature contains
discriminative information.
6 G. Liaudanskaitė et al.

The Wilcoxon rank sum test is used to establish if there is a significant difference
between two sample groups using their ranks. If the ranks of the sample groups are
significantly ða ¼ 0:05Þ separated, the test statistic identifies significant difference.
The third test statistic is obtained by bootstrapping, a way of estimating statistical
parameters from the sample by performing resampling with replacement. For a
two-sample bootstrap, we independently draw bootstrap samples with replacement
from each sample, and compute the Fisher–Pitman test [22] statistic that compares the
samples. The bootstrap distribution is used for confidence intervals and standard errors.
Given the observed value of the difference (D) between the means of the samples
x ¼ ðx1 ; x2 ; . . .; xn Þ and y ¼ ðy1 ; y2 ; . . .; yn Þ drawn from two probability distributions X
and Y, the p-value is calculated as follows:
PB
1þ ½Di  jDj
pvalue ¼ i¼1
ð6Þ
Bþ1

here ½ is the Iverson bracket operator, and B is the number of bootstrap resamples, here
we set it to 1000 as suggested in [23].
For calculation of confidence, the percentile intervals are used. The sample values
are arranged in ascending order and numbered sequentially with the smallest value
receiving the number 1, obtaining the ranks of the sample values. For 95% confidence
interval, the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles are used, which corresponds to 0:025n þ 0:5 and
0:975n þ 0:5 ordered values, where n is the sample size [24].

2.6 Hypotheses
H1. There is no difference between genders in eye fixation times. Hypotheses are:

ð1Þ ð1Þ
H0 : lmale ¼ lfemale ; H1 : lmale 6¼ lfemale

H2. There is no difference between affect of images in eye fixation times.


Hypotheses are:

ð2Þ ð2Þ
H0 : lhappy ¼ lsad ; H1 : lhappy 6¼ lsad

To analyze the interaction effects in population groups, the following


sub-hypotheses are formulated:
H1a. There is no difference between genders in eye fixation times of the positively
valenced images. Hypotheses are:

ð1aÞ ð1aÞ
H0 : lhappy;male ¼ lhappy;female ; H1 : lhappy;male 6¼ lhappy;female
Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors in Image Comprehension 7

H1b. There is no difference between genders in eye fixation times of the negatively
valenced images. Hypotheses are:

ð1bÞ ð1bÞ
H0 : lsad;male ¼ lsad;female ; H1 : lsad;male 6¼ lsad;female

H2a. There is no difference between affect of images in the eye fixation times in
males. Hypotheses are:

ð2aÞ ð2aÞ
H0 : lhappy;male ¼ lsad;male ; H1 : lhappy;male 6¼ lsad;male

H2b. There is no difference between affect of images in the eye fixation times in
females. Hypotheses are:

ð2bÞ ð2bÞ
H0 : lhappy;female ¼ lsad;female ; H1 : lhappy;female 6¼ lsad;female

2.7 Results
All data were analyzed with custom written scripts and executed in MATLAB
(Mathworks, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts). First, we determine the statistical distribu-
tion of data by fitting. Following [25], Weibull distribution can be used as a simple
predictor of fixation location data, which can be explained by the image local contrast
statistics. In our case, the goodness-of-fit between real data and fitted Weibull distri-
bution data is 0.96.
When analyzing the eye fixation time data in the Weibull distribution parameter
space (scale parameter k vs shape parameter k, see Eq. 1), we can notice a difference
both in gender and affective factors (see Fig. 2). Here individual parameter values were
generated from initial population of data by bootstrapping. For males, the probability of
having a larger value of scale parameter k than for females is p = 0.6274, while for the
shape parameter k, the difference is not significant (p = 0.6191). In the affective
dimension, the probability of a larger value of the scale parameter k for happy vs sad
samples of data is p = 0.8493, while the probability of a larger value of the shape
parameter k is p = 0.9308. This means that positive emotions lead to longer mean
fixation times and more outliers in the right tail of the value distribution.
Following [26], we differentiate between short (correcting and ambient) fixations,
and long (focal) fixations. Long fixations last longer than 300 ms and are attributed to
conscious visual processing process, while shorter fixations are related to unconscious
processing of information.
8 G. Liaudanskaitė et al.

Fig. 2. Gaze data in the Weibull distribution parameter space (with 0.95 confidence ellipses)

We used a repeated-measures ANOVA test to examine the differences between


fixation times in each of the experimental groups. A two-way factorial ANOVA was
performed to examine the interaction effect between the fixation times.in the affective
dimension (happy vs sad) and gender dimension (male vs female). For short fixations
(<300 ms), the ANOVA revealed a significant effect between affect (happy vs sad) and
fixation times (F(2, 49) = 4.07, p = 0.0493). The effect was significant in male subjects
(F(2, 24) = 4.75, p = 0.0398), but not significant in female subjects (F(2, 23) = 0.61, p =
0.4422). In the gender dimension (male vs female), the effect was insignificant (F(2,
48) = 0.15, p = 0.7016). The effect also was not significant both in images labeled as
happy (F(2, 23) = 0.05, p = 0.8305) and as sad (F(2, 24) = 0.68, p = 0.4178).
The results were confirmed by the Kruskal-Wallis test, which revealed a significant
difference between fixation times in affective dimension (happy vs sad) (p = 0.0176),
but failed to reject the null hypothesis of equal medians for gender dimension male vs
female (p = 0.8396), as well as in different subgroups: happy male vs happy female
(p = 0.8597), sad male vs sad female (p = 0.4419), happy male vs sad male (p =
0.0517), and happy female vs sad female (p = 0.3143). Note that although rejected, the
affective effect is stronger for males than for females.
The results were also confirmed by the ranksum test, which revealed a significant
difference between fixation times in the affective dimension (happy vs sad) (p =
0.0496), but failed to reject the null hypothesis of equal medians for the gender
dimension (p = 0.9200), as well as in different subgroups: happy male vs female (p =
0.8712), sad male vs female (p = 0.5388), happy male vs sad male (p = 0.1048), and
happy female vs sad female (p = 0.2712). Note that although rejected, the affective
effect is stronger for males than for females.
The statistical testing results are summarized in Table 2.
Analysis of Affective and Gender Factors in Image Comprehension 9

Table 2. Summary of statistical test results


Hypothesis Kruskal-Wallis test Ranksum test ANOVA1 test Bootstrap test
outcome outcome outcome outcome
(p-value) (p-value) (p-value) (p-value)
H1 Fail to reject Fail to reject Fail to reject 0.6847
(0.8396) (0.9200) (0.6747)
H1a Fail to reject Fail to reject Fail to reject 0.8601
(0.8597) (0.8712) (0.8121)
H1b Fail to reject Fail to reject Fail to reject 0.3841
(0.4419) (0.5388) (0.3958)
H2 Reject (0.0176) Reject Reject (0.0378) 0.9214
(0.0496)
H2a Fail to reject Fail to reject Fail to reject 0.8917
(0.0517) (0.1048) (0.0589)
H2b Fail to reject Fail to reject Fail to reject 0.5244
(0.3143) (0.2712) (0.4816)

3 Evaluation and Conclusion

In this paper, we have analyzed the affect and gender related differences of how
subjects react to emotionally charged advertisements. Four different statistical tests
(Kruskal-Wallis, ranksum, ANOVA, bootstrapping) confirmed the significant differ-
ence (p < 0.05) between short eye fixation times (<300 ms) in the affective dimension,
however we failed to discover any gender related differences of how the images are
processed by human visual system.
This observation agrees well with earlier findings in adult subjects, suggesting that
there is a direct link between eye movement behavior characterized by fixation duration
and distinct modes of visual processing for different visual stimuli (such as photographs
and emotional stimuli [27] as well as for different tasks (localization vs. identification
[28]). Specifically, the ambient mode characterized by short fixation times has been
related to pre-attentive scanning associated with the visual exploration of the spatial
layout of an image, which is characteristic to the early stages of viewing [28]. Our
findings are in line with these previous observations.
However, the findings of this study are preliminary and limited in nature. We need
to repeat the study with a larger dataset and a larger population of subjects to confirm or
reject the present results. Despite these potent limits, the results of the current study are
promising in terms of demonstrating a new modality, which can serve as an assistive
tool for evaluation of visual ads in the context of neuromarketing.

Acknowledgement. We acknowledge V. Stankevicius, Š. Baltramonaityte, L. Balockaite and


“Choco Group” for the use of the “Charming Chocolate” photo.
10 G. Liaudanskaitė et al.

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FARIP: Framework for Artifact Removal
for Image Processing Using JPEG

T. M. Shashidhar1(&) and K. B. Ramesh2


1
Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India
shashidhartm2014@gmail.com
2
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering,
RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Abstract. Irrespective of a significant advancement of the compression tech-


nique in digital image processing, still the presence of artifacts or fingerprints do
exists, even in a smaller scale. Such presence of artifacts is mis-utilized by the
miscreants by invoking their attacks where it is quite hard to differentiate
tampered image due to normal problems or malicious attack. Therefore, we
present a very simple modeling of a system called as FARIP i.e. Framework of
Artifact Removal in Image Processing that utilize the quantization process
present in JPEG-based compression and results in perfect removal of the traces
from a given image. This also acts as a solution towards the image that has been
generated by the compression technique performed from JPEG standard. The
comparative analysis shows that proposed system offers better signal quality as
compared to the existing standards of compression.

Keywords: Compression  JPEG  JEG2000  Artifacts  Traces


Digital image processing  Deblocking  Quantization

1 Introduction

Image forensic does increasingly gaining attention owe to its explicit capability to
disclosing the underlying fact [1]. The prime assumption in this concept is any oper-
ations on the top of the image will statistically alter the significant metadata information
of an image [2]. Such statistical unique characteristics are called as fingerprint. The
validation process includes identification of such digital fingerprints also called as
traces or artifacts [3]. At present, there has been various research work being carried out
towards identification/localization of such traces [4, 5]. In majority of the existing cases
of research, there is a dependency on a large section of the signal in order to carry out
the analysis. Image compression plays a significant role in this regards. There is a
higher significance level for the fingerprints generated as majority of the images are
subjected to the compression by their capturing device or during the process of storing
it in memory [6]. When an attacker tampers the image, they make use of various
forgery tools in order to invoke an attack [7] by ensuring that both the tamper image
and original image doesn’t bear a strong perceptual difference. The adversary has
multiple ways to compute such difference in order to avoid getting caught and hence it
is essential that a unique compression technique be explored in order to ensure proper

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019


R. Silhavy (Ed.): CSOC 2018, AISC 764, pp. 12–20, 2019.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91189-2_2
FARIP: Framework for Artifact Removal for Image Processing 13

identification of such traces. Irrespective of various existing compression techniques [8,


9], we have not come across simpler technique for elimination of the traces due to the
compression process in image processing.
Therefore, this paper introduces a very simpler technique where a JPEG-based
compression has been introduced with an emphasis on quantization process in order to
yield a slightly iterative process for generating high quality images. Section 2 discusses
about the existing research work followed by problem identification in Sect. 3.
Section 4 discusses about proposed solution followed by elaborated discussion of
research methodology implementation in Sect. 5. Comparative analysis of proposed
system with existing system of compression of accomplished result is discussed under
Sect. 6 followed by conclusion in Sect. 7.

2 Related Work

This section upgrades the information about research contribution following our prior
review work [10]. Identification of traces in images has been investigated by Pasquini
et al. [11] using statistical approach. Lipman et al. [12] have addressed the reflection
artifacts for enhancing image quality on two dimensional shear waves. Adoption of
sparse representation along with structural quantization approach was studied by Zhao
et al. [13]. Liu et al. [14] improved the performing of deblocking technique using
knowledge-based approach. Study towards elimination of artifacts using filtering
mechanism has been seen in the work carried out by Gong et al. [15]. Fan et al. [16]
have performed an investigation towards spatial and transformed domain and its effect
on artifacts removal in images. Ebrahimi et al. [17] have presented a passive technique
for identification of blocking artifacts using experimental approach. Min et al. [18]
have studied the possible impact of artifacts arise from compression on perceptual
quality. Study towards nano-scale imaging along with its artifacts minimization was
carried out by Fairbairn and Moheimani [19]. Adoption of predictive approach is being
carried out by Bannan et al. [20]. Li et al. [21] have introduced a solution towards
artifacts removal from compression process to be used in steganalysis process. Study
using case study of medical image and its associated artifacts effect has been investi-
gated by Mauldin et al. [22] by analyzing geometric factors of the image. Sharma et al.
[23] have presented a study where both image quality and compression performance is
equally emphasized. Study towards localizing the image forgery has been carried out
by Bianchi et al. [24] considering the artifacts caused due to JPEG compression.
Fairbairn [25] has implemented a controller design for reducing the image artifacts.
Ferrara et al. [26] have carried out the study to localize the region of image forgery
considering probability map of artifacts. Goto et al. [27] have presented a study for
minimizing the compression artifacts using total variation technique. Johnson et al. [28]
have presented visual analysis technique for investigating the compression artifacts on
pathological images. Similar technique has been also carried out by Kim and Sim [29]
using adaptive approach based on signal weight. Tang et al. [30] have presented
Markov model for eliminating blocking artifacts using indexing mechanism. The next
section outlines the research problems.
14 T. M. Shashidhar and K. B. Ramesh

3 Problem Description

A closer look into the existing techniques on artifact removal shows that they are quite
capable of addressing the visible traces associated with blocking. Such models are
restricted to images of minimal to medium scale quality. However, for better perfor-
mance, there is a need for eliminating both visual as well as traces from statistical
approaches. Such process must not result in an image that could be detected forensi-
cally incorporated fingerprints. Moreover, a very simple technique is also demanded
using JPEG-based compression approach that could offer better computational time and
works on multiple forms of images. The next section introduces the proposed solution
to address this problem.

4 Proposed Solution

The proposed system of FARIP uses a very simple modeling of compression which
also performs removal of the traces. The proposed solution of addressing the problems
associated with the blocking artifacts is based on the fact that JPEG compression could
be suitably modified in such a way that all the traces could be significantly eliminated
precisely. The scheme of proposed system is showcased in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Flow of artifacts removal by FARIP

Figure 1 highlights how a normal image is inflicted with blocking artifacts and
slowly the proposed FARIP performs removal of any form of traces during the
blocking process resulting in final decompressed image with good signal quality. The
complete process of artifacts removal is carried out using JPEG standard emphasizing
on the quantization steps. The next section outlines adopted research methodology. In
the above Fig. 1, the original image (Io) will be selected from the desired folder and its
size is computed. Later, a compressed image (Ic) will be obtained from Io.
The difference among both the Io and Ic with respect to PSNR and MSE and finally, the
FARIP: Framework for Artifact Removal for Image Processing 15

performance analysis is performed on the results obtained from existing method and
proposed method. The performance analysis is done by considering the image size and
compression quality parameters to explore the significance of proposed method.

5 FARIP System Design

The proposed FARIP is subjected to the artifact removal using the JPEG standard itself.
For this purpose, we apply Laplace distribution for initiating the system design con-
sidering the distribution of the coefficients over a range of specific bands as follows,

aðA ¼ aÞ ¼ c:ed ð1Þ

In the above Eq. (1), a represents parametric model and where A is transform
coefficient. The constant c represents c/2, where c represents unique value of the
sub-band. The exponential power variable d will represent – c|a| The distribution of the
priorly compressed JPEG image is carried out using discrete approach of Laplace
distribution as follows,
8 9
< 1  ed 1 b ¼ 0 =
aðB ¼ bÞ ¼ ed2 b ¼ kbi;j ð2Þ
: ;
0 otherwise

The exponential term d1 and d2 will mean c.bi,j/2 and c|b| respectively. In order to
perform any form of modification of the priorly compressed image, the initial operations
of JPEG compression steps were carried out in order to acquire transformed coefficients.
It is due to the fact that the ultimate phase of the decompression using JPEG consists of
projecting the decompressed values of the pixels back to coefficient values acquired
from the quantized image. Hence, it is feasible to obtain the coefficient values by
iterating the process of quantization on the scale of new coefficient B′ in such a way that
B = bi,j (B′/bi,j). The similar quantized coefficients were obtained using a highest
probability value of model attribute. With an aid of this process, it is now feasible to
compute the distribution of sub-band coefficient prior to performing JPEG compression.
We consider that η represents cumulative observations from all the sub-bands where η is
sum of number ηo of sub-band coefficient (that is usually valued as zeros) and all the
non-zero coefficient η1. Therefore, the empirical expression will be,
X
g
d¼ jbk j ð3Þ
k¼1

Once the c is computed, the anti-forensic dither is added for the entire coefficient in the
sub-band. In majority of the records of quantization, the sub-bands with higher coefficient
is used as it doesn’t offer higher significant perceptual changes. It has also been seen that
sub-bands and their respective variance minimizes when there is a sub-band transition
from lower to higher frequency. Owing to this process, the different forms of sub-band that
has higher value of coefficient is then subjected to quantization to the scale of zero while
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only flounder through and up to the top. Besides, it was necessary to wade
the creeks. This wet my feet and caused more snow to bunch and freeze on
them. Night came, and with it an increase of cold, which, causing the snow
to freeze to a crust on top, iced and smoothed the track anew for me. But
with one additional facility for making progress, I lacked another. That was
the strength and freshness with which I had started at morn.
My day had been one of most laborious progress, wading creeks,
floundering through their soft snowbanks, and stopping every ten minutes
to clean my shoes of damp snow. I had no other grease for their bottoms
save a bit of pork, which I wore out upon them. Snowshoes won’t run well
unless frequently greased. Then there was no rest for my body. The supply
of pines from about whose roots the snow had melted away had given out;
to step off the shoes was to sink to the middle; to rest at all was to rest
squatting; a few minutes’ trial of this position under the most favorable
circumstances will convince any reader of its back-aching tendencies. Man
is a lying animal; I mean he must lie down to recuperate. My meals I
cooked on the snow. The regular menu was coffee, bread, and pork. The
base of the kitchen was a big piece of dry pine bark, always at hand. On this
the fire was kindled. The evolution of coffee under these conditions was
slow, because the water for making it had first to be melted from snow in
the coffee-pot, and snow under these circumstances melts with an
exasperating slowness. The quantity required to make a single pint of water
is something remarkable. I think I was obliged to fill that vessel four or five
times with snow to get the suitable quantity of water. Then it must be
remembered that the water would not proceed to boil until all the snow was
melted. “A watched pot never boils,” but a watched pot of plain water is
velocity itself when compared with a pot of snow and water watched by a
tired and hungry being in the wilderness. Night found me twelve miles from
Strawberry Flat. About one in the morning I found another empty cabin.
This was four miles from the desired haven. It was desolation inside and out
—the windows gone, the door torn from its hinges, the inside a litter of
snow and rubbish, and one dead cow in the kitchen. The cooking-stove
remained. I cleared the grate of snow and attempted a fire. It wouldn’t draw.
Of course it wouldn’t draw, for the stovepipe was full of snow. Then I
kindled the fire on the top of the stove and gradually burned up a portion of
the house. Like Sherman and Napoleon, I lived on the country invaded. The
firelight cast its ruddy glow on the surrounding domestic desolation and the
red dead cow, which, being frozen hard as a rock, served for a seat. I waited
for the morn; but the morn would not come. I saw from the sashless
windows the preliminary streaks of dawn ever so faintly lighting up the
eastern horizon full forty times, and found they were only in my
imagination, so covetous for the coming day. When the sun did rise he came
up in the opposite direction.
Impatient of waiting longer, and converting myself to the false belief that
the light was really coming in what turned out to be the west, I did battle in
the dark with the last four miles of the journey. All went well until I reached
a certain point in the road, which was now well defined through the trees.
There every time I brought up in a clump of bushes and lost the track. Back,
time after time, I went, seeking with careful calculation to make a fresh and
truer start, only to bring up again in brambles and briers. When the light did
come, I had, for two hundred yards, in this going and coming, beaten a path
in the snow which looked as if travelled over for a week. Daylight showed
what a ridiculously trifling turn had caused me thus to miss the route. The
moral of which is that man’s welfare is often wrecked on some trifling
error. A failure to say, “Good morning” to an acquaintance, a long, gloomy
countenance or putting one’s knife in the mouth, or guzzling down soup or
coffee with undue noise, has repelled one man from another, and such
repulsion has sent our fortunes on the wrong track altogether. I was
welcomed at the Strawberry House by six hounds, who, in the still faint
light, made at me as they would at another beast, and the first few moments
of my arrival on this outpost of civilization was occupied in energetic
attempts to keep what was left of me from being eaten by the dogs. Indeed,
the way of the transgressor is hard. I had never injured these dogs.
However, the hospitality I experienced at Palmer’s stood out in bold relief
against the churlishness of their brute creation.
CHAPTER XXIX.

ON THE ROSTRUM.

On reaching Sonora, Tuolumne County, with the frozen toes alluded to


in the great slide down the mountain, I went to work and dug post-holes for
a living. Inspired by the posts or the holes, I wrote what I called a lecture.
This I learned by heart. Next I practised its delivery in the woods, behind
barns, and sometimes at early morn in the empty Court-house—for the
Temple of Justice in Sonora stood open night and day, and he that would
might enter and sleep on the benches, or even in the bar itself, as many did
in those days. Many weeks I drilled and disciplined this lecture, addressing
it to rocks, trees, barns, and sometimes to unseen auditors wandering about,
whose sudden appearance would cover me with confusion and send me
blushing home. But I dreaded bringing it to an engagement with the enemy
—the audience. The glories and triumphs of oratory I eagerly coveted, but
the preliminary labor, the pangs and the terrible chances of speaking in
public I dreaded and avoided as long as possible. But Destiny, despite all
our backwardness, steadily pushes us on to the most painful experiences. I
required yet feared the living audience. Rocks, trees, and barn doors will
not do for a speaker the specific work of a few listening human beings.
Listening ears sooner or later teach a man who would speak to multitudes to
modulate his voice or increase it to a volume, or spend more time and
strength in accentuating each syllable; and above all, to take things coolly
and not get hurried. At last I concluded to risk myself on an experimental
audience. I borrowed one for the occasion. Going into the main street of
Sonora one evening, I collected half a dozen appreciative souls and said,
“Follow me to the Court-house; I would have a few words with you.” There
was a County Clerk, his deputy, a popular physician and saloon-keeper, and
an enterprising carpenter. They followed me wonderingly. Arrived at the
Court-house I seated them, marched myself to the Judge’s bench, stuck two
candles in two bottles, lit them, and then informed the crowd that I had
brought them hither to serve as an experimental audience to a lecture I
proposed delivering. After which I plunged into the subject, and found that
portion of the brain which with a speaker always acts independent of the
rest wondering that I should be really talking to live auditors. There is a
section of a man’s faculties, during the operation of speaking in public,
which will always go wandering around on its own hook, picking up all
manner of unpleasant thoughts and impressions. Apparently it is ever on the
watch to find something which shall annoy the other half. It seems to me
that no one can become a very successful speaker or actor until this idle,
vagrant part of the mind is put down altogether, total forgetfulness of all
else save the work in hand be established, and self-consciousness abolished.
However, I spoke half the piece to my borrowed audience, and then, feeling
that I could really stand fire, told them they could go home. But Dr. ——,
constituting himself spokesman, rose and declared that having served as
hearers for half the lecture they thought they were entitled to the other half.
Being thus encored, I gave them the other half. A great apprehension was
now taken from my mind. I could speak to a crowd without forgetting my
lines, and deemed myself already a lecturer if not an orator. I did not then
realize how vast is the difference between mere speaking and the properly
delivering of words and sentences to a multitude, be it large or small; how
unfit are the tone, pitch, and manner of ordinary converse to public
speaking; how a brake must be put on every word and syllable, to slow
down its accentuation and make it audible in a hall; how great the necessity
for deliberation in delivery; how the force and meaning of entire sentences
may be lost by a gabbling, imperfect, and too rapid enunciation; how the
trained speaker keeps perfect control of himself, not only as to his delivery,
but the mood underneath it; which should prompt how much depends on the
establishment of a certain chain of sympathy betwixt speaker and audience,
and how much the establishment of such chain depends on the speaker’s
versatility to accommodate himself to the character, intelligence, moods,
and requirements of different audiences. I state this, having since my debut
in the Sonora Court-house learned these things, and learned also that Nature
has not given me the power to surmount all these difficulties. I am not a
good speaker, as many doubtless discovered before I did. However, my
friends whom I consulted said by all means give the lecture in public,
knowing, of course, that I wanted them to encourage me, and feeling this to
be the best way of getting rid of me. So I had posters printed and
commenced public life on a small field. I hired a hall; admittance twenty-
five cents. I felt guilty as I read this on the bills. I read one alone furtively
by moonlight, because after they were posted and the plunge taken I was
ashamed to appear by daylight on the streets. It seemed so presumptuous to
ask respectable, God-fearing citizens of that town to sit and hear me. This
was a result of the regular oscillations of my mental and temperamental
seesaw.
I was always too far above the proper scale of self-esteem one day and
too far below it the next. The real debut was not so easy as the preliminary,
borrowed, bogus one. There were the hard, stern, practical people present,
who counted on receiving their regular “two bits” worth of genuine, solid
fact, knowledge and profitable information, who discounted all nonsense,
didn’t approve of it and didn’t understand it. I felt their cold and withering
influence as soon as I mounted the platform. Not many of such hearers were
present, but that was enough to poison. I saw their judgment of my effort in
their faces. I weakly allowed those faces, and the opinions I deemed
shadowed forth on them, to paralyze, psychologize and conquer me. I
allowed my eyes, numberless times, to wander and meet their stony, cynical
gaze, and, at each time, the basilisk orbs withered up my self-assertion and
self-esteem. Becoming more and more demoralized, I sometimes cowardly
omitted or forgot what I deemed my boldest matter and best hits. However,
the large majority of the audience being kindly disposed toward me, heard,
applauded and pronounced the lecture a “success.” Some ventured, when it
was over, to advise me that the subject-matter was much better than the
manner of its delivery. Of that there was not the least doubt. In speaking, I
had concentrated matter enough for two hours’ proper delivery into one,
and a part of the mental strain and anxiety during the lecture was to race my
words so as to finish within the limits of an hour on time. I feared wearying
the audience, and so took one of the best methods of doing so. The next day
self-esteem, going up to fever-heat, and my comparative failure not being
so bad as the one I had anticipated when my estimates of myself were at
zero, I determine on pressing my newly-found vocation and “starring”
Tuolumne County. Carried by this transient gleam of self-conceit beyond
the bounds of good judgment, and overwhelmed with another torrent of
composition, I wrote still another lecture, and advertised that. The curiosity,
complaisance, and good-nature of my friends I mistook for admiration.
Indeed, during the fever, I planned a course, or rather a constant succession
of lectures which might, if unchecked, have extended to the present time.
But, on the second attempt, I talked largely to empty benches. A character
of audience I have since become accustomed to, and with whom I am on
terms of that friendship and sympathy only begotten of long acquaintance.
The benches were relieved here and there by a discouraged-looking hearer
who had come in on a free ticket, and who, I felt, wanted to get out again as
quickly as possible. Then, I knew that my friends did not care to hear me
any more. This was bitter, but necessary and useful. People will go often to
church and hear dull sermons because of custom, of conventionality, and of
religious faith and training. They will attend political meetings during an
exciting campaign and hear equally dull political speeches because of
patriotic or partisan sympathy or fealty. They will go also to hear noted
people because of curiosity, but they will not hear more than once a mere
man unbolstered by any of these outside influences. I next gave the lecture
at Columbia. Columbia, though but four miles distant, was then the rival of
Sonora as the metropolis of Tuolumne County, and it was necessary to
secure a Columbian indorsement before attempting to star it through the
provincial cities of Jimtown, Chinese Camp, Don Pedro’s, and Pine Log. I
billed Columbia, hired the theatre for two dollars and a half, and, after my
effort, had the satisfaction of hearing from a friend that the appreciative and
critical magnates of the town had concluded to vote me a “success.” Then I
spoke at Jamestown, Coulterville, Mariposa, Snelling’s and other places,
with very moderate success. Perhaps I might have arisen to greater
distinction or notoriety than that realized on the Tuolumne field had I better
known that talent of any sort must be handled by its possessor with a certain
dignity to insure respect. Now, I travelled from town to town on foot. I was
met, dusty and perspiring, tramping on the road, by people who knew me as
the newly-arisen local lecturer. I should have travelled in a carriage. I
posted my own bills. I should have employed the local bill-sticker. I
lectured for ten cents per head, when I should have charged fifty.
Sometimes I dispensed with an admittance fee altogether and took up
contributions. In Coulterville, the trouser-buttons of Coultervillians came
back in the hat, mixed with dimes. Looking back now on that experience, I
can sincerely say to such as may follow me in any modification of such a
career, “Never hold yourself cheap.” If you put a good picture in a poor
frame, it is only the few who will recognize its merit. Don’t let your light
shine in a battered, greasy lamp. It’s all wrong. We all know the dread that
genius inspires when clad in a seedy coat. Lecturing frequently tries a man’s
soul; especially when the lecturer’s career is not a very successful one. If
his path be strewn with roses and success, there may not be much of a story
to tell. But it is different when his path is strewn with thorns and he steps on
them. It is sad to hire a hall in a strange village and wait for an audience
which never comes. It is ominous to hear your landlord, just before supper,
remark, “Our people don’t go much on lecters. But they’ll pile into a circus
or menagerie or anything else that isn’t improvin’.” They say this all over
the land. It is sadder when you offer him a handful of your free tickets for
himself and family to hear him, “Guess the folks hain’t got time to go to-
night. There is a ball over to Pappooseville, and everybody’s goin’.” I never
did bill myself yet in a village for a lecture, but that I happened to pitch on
the night of all nights when some great local event was to take place. Or
else it rained. It is sad to speak to thirty-two people in a hall large enough to
hold a thousand and try to address those thirty-two people scattered about at
the thirty-two points of the mariner’s compass. Once in New York I spoke
to a fair audience in a hall on the ground floor. Things went on beautifully
till 9 o’clock, when a big brass band struck up in the bigger hall over my
head and some fifty couples commenced waltzing. It was an earthquake
reversed. It ruined me for the night. None can realize until they enter the
lecture field what trivial occurrences may transpire to upset the unfortunate
on the platform and divert and distract the attention of an audience. On one
occasion a cat got into a church where I was speaking, and trotted up and
down a course she had laid out for herself before the pulpit. She did this
with an erect tail, and at times made short remarks. It is singular that a
single cat acting in this manner is more effective in interesting and amusing
an “intelligent audience” than any speaker. Under such conditions Cicero
himself would have to knock under to the cat. He might go on talking, but
the cat would capture the house. And then the awful sensation of being
obliged to keep on as though nothing had disturbed you; to pretend you
don’t see such a cat; that you are not thinking of it; and knowing all the
while that your audience are getting their money’s worth out of the cat and
not out of you! On another fearful occasion I was speaking at
Bridgehampton, Long Island, on the subject of temperance. I lectured on
temperance occasionally, though I never professed teetotalism—for any
length of time. One can lecture on temperance just as well without bring a
total abstainer—and perhaps better. Now, I was born and they attempted to
bring me up properly near Bridgehampton. Every one knew me and my
ancestors, immediate and remote. I had not spoken over ten minutes when a
man well-known in the neighborhood and much moved by the whiskey he
had been drinking all day, arose and propounded some not very intelligible
queries. I answered him as well as I could. Then he put more. Nay, he took
possession of the meeting. No one ventured to silence him. They are a very
quiet, orderly people in Bridgehampton. Such an interruption of a meeting
had never before been heard of there, and the people seemed totally unable
to cope with the emergency. The wretch delivered himself of a great variety
of remarks, but ever and anon recurred to the assertion that “he’d vouch for
my character, because he not only knew me, but my parents before me.”
“He was present,” he said, “at their wedding, which he remembered well
from the fact of wine being served there, as well as rum, gin, and brandy.”
That for me was a laborious evening. Sometimes I spoke, and then the
inebriate would get the floor and keep it. He rambled about the aisles,
allayed a cutaneous disturbance in his back by rubbing himself against one
of the fluted pillars, and, when I had at last finished, made his way up to the
choir and, interpolating himself between two damsels, sang everything and
everybody out of tune from a temperance hymn-book.
CHAPTER XXX.

RUNNING FOR OFFICE.

This is the confession of a political villain; not, however, a perjured


political villain. I never swore to run for office for my country’s good. I did
run once for an office for my own good. I was unsuccessful. Virtue has its
own reward; so has vice. The wicked do not always flourish like green bay
trees. Indeed, judging from a home experience, I am not prepared to say
that they flourish at all. The fall political campaign of 1866-67 came on
while I was carrying my comic lecture about the camps of Tuolumne,
Stanislaus, and Mariposa. A thought one day took possession of me, “Why
not run for the Legislature?” I belonged to a political party. My frozen toes
troubled me a good deal and the lecture did not pay much over expenses. I
consulted with one of the pillars of our party. He belonged in Oak Flat. I
took the pillar behind Dan Munn’s store on Rattlesnake Creek and avowed
my intention. The pillar took a big chew of tobacco, stared, grinned, and
said: “Why not?” I consulted with another pillar behind Bob Love’s store in
Montezuma. He was throwing dirt from a prospect-hole with a long-
handled shovel. He leaned on the shovel, blew his nose au natural without
artificial aid, grinned, and after some deliberation said: “Why not?” I found
another pillar of our party slumming out a reservoir near Jamestown. He
was enveloped in yellow mud to his waist, and smaller bodies of mud
plastered him upward. A short pipe was in his mouth and a slumgullion
shovel in his hand. He said: “Go in for it and win.”
With less assurance and more fear and trembling I consulted with other
and more influential party pillars in Sonora, the county town. Some
hesitated; some were dignified; some cheered me on; some said, “Why
not?” I made the same remark to myself, and replied, “Why not?” The
Assembly was a good gate for entering the political field. My ideas of its
duties were vague. Of my own qualifications for the post I dared not think.
They may have been about equal to those with which I entered the Henry’s
galley as a sea cook. But what matter? Other men no better qualified than I
had gone to Sacramento, received their $10 per diem and came back alive. I
could do that. They seemed to stand as well as ever in the estimation of
their constituents. Then “Why not?” The die was cast. I announced myself
in the county paper as a candidate for the State Assembly. The County
Convention assembled at Sonora. It was a body distinguished for wisdom
and jurisprudence. Judge Ferral of our city was there. He was then a bright-
eyed, active, curly-haired youth, and had already given much promise of his
successful career. Judge Leander Quint was there. H. P. Barber presided.
Tuolumne County had not then been shorn of its brightest lights by the
necessities of the rest of the State and the world. Somebody nominated me.
I arose and paid somebody else five dollars. This was the first price of
ambition. Then I found myself making my nominating speech. It was a very
successful speech. I left out politics altogether, made no pledges, discussed
no principles and talked no sense. At first the audience stared. Then they
laughed immoderately. So did I. Then they nominated me by acclamation. It
was one of the proudest moments of my life, although I did not know it at
the time. Taken for all in all, it was no wonder they laughed. I was obliged
to laugh myself at the whole affair behind the Court-house when the
Convention adjourned. And “Why not?”
It was the laugh of a fiend! I wanted the position for the per diem. I was
buried in turpitude. My colleagues were all running on principle to save the
country. It is singular that the motive of such a wolf in sheep’s clothing as I
was at that time was not detected. The great and good men, secure in their
own rectitude and purity of purpose, by whom I was surrounded, never
once guessed at the presence of the snake in their grass. Looking back at
this occurrence after the lapse of nearly twenty-five years, I am more and
more astonished that the party should have risked taking such a load as
myself on its shoulders. I had no position, no standing, next to no
reputation, no property, no good clothes, no whole shoes, no fixed
habitation and three sore toes. I had not nor did not realize the
responsibilities of a citizen. I had no family and could not realize the duties
and responsibilities of those who were rearing young citizens for the great
Republic. Should such a man be sent to the State Legislature? Of course
not. Are such men ever sent? Of course not. I do not think now that at the
period spoken of I was even incorruptible. Should a person who seldom saw
over ten dollars in his possession at any one time be sent where he might be
“approached” by designing men? Of course not. Was such an one ever sent?
Never! The commonwealth of California ran a fearful risk in my
nomination.
Few, probably none, suspected the mental misery I endured during this
campaign. Because I knew and felt my turpitude. I knew my unfitness for
the position to which I aspired. I knew where lay the snake in the grass.
Could I meet daily a trusting, credulous constituency, who believed that my
mind was full of projects for the relief of the State and nation, without
remorse? Of course not. I had remorse—bad, but I dared not back out and
off the track. So I kept on, and the vultures gnawed my vitals. Those who
think the wicked have such a good time are sadly mistaken. Our party was
firmly grounded on one grand belief. It was that nothing the other party
could do was right, and nothing that we did was wrong. This at that time I
did not believe. But I pretended to. Or rather I stifled all thought on the
subject. This was the first great sin. Unlike my colleagues, I was untrue to
my own convictions. They——but how I wished for their faith. It could
move mountains of doubt. Mine couldn’t. How I hated my conscience. It
tormented me worse than a chronic colic. There I was standing shoulder to
shoulder with patriots—battling bravely for a cause, a principle, while I—I
cared for naught save a seat in the Assembly at $10 a day.
It was a stirring campaign, that of 1866, in and about Tuolumne County.
The antagonism was of the bitterest character. Political opponents reviled
each other in print and sometimes peppered each other with pistols. Bullets
flew about night and day. It was dangerous in Sonora to sleep in a
clapboarded house in the average line of aim. The papers left nothing
unsaid which could taunt and irritate. Editors went about the streets
weighed down by masked batteries. It was calculated that 500 pounds of
iron were daily packed about the streets in the shape of derringers, knives,
and revolvers. The champions of the opposing parties never met on the
highway but that people peered and squinted from door and window for the
bombardment to commence. Knives were bathed in gore. Barroom floors
showed bloody stains. Men died with their boots on. Loaded shotguns lay in
ambush behind front and back doors. The atmosphere smelt of blood and
possible killing. Saloon plate-glass mirrors showed the track of pistol
bullets. Mass meetings were assemblages of men from town and country,
secretly armed. People spent most of their time hating each other. Ministers
went behind the orthodox returns and preached sectional and partisan
politics. The more vital tenets of religion were suspended for the time being
with the writ of habeas corpus. I canvassed the county with my comic
lecture. It took. It was popular with both parties. It was a pleasant relief
from the heavier logic and argument used by heavier and more solid
speakers. It was like the farce after the tragedy. It sent assemblies and mass
meetings home in good humor. Nobody asked if such a candidate was fit to
make laws. But there Tuolumne showed wisdom.
They didn’t want any more laws made. Everybody who had been sent to
the Legislature since California was created a State had been busy putting
more laws on the statute books. There was an overplus. People couldn’t
keep count of the laws already made. Tuolumne then showed wisdom in its
endeavor to send one man to the Legislature of 1866-67 who, not being able
to draw up a bill, could not have added a single new law to the mass already
made. I gave my party a great deal of trouble. Once in a private
conversation with one I deemed a friend, although he belonged to the
opposition, I committed myself in favor of greenbacks as a legal tender. Our
party did not approve of greenbacks. Ours was the old-fashioned
hardmoney dollar of our dad’s party. I was hardly aware of this, through a
lamentable ignorance of what we really did advocate. The County Central
Committee, hearing of my treason, sent after me a messenger with a
missive calling on me to explain. I saw then the horrible blunder I had
made, and wished the earth would open and swallow me. Then I concluded
to resign or to run away. But a man bolstered me up and advised me to deny
the report, which I did in an open mass meeting. The use of paper then
would have doubled the amount of money in circulation, and that seemed to
me just what the people needed. Every mother’s son of them on being
questioned said they wanted more money, and here seemed a means of
relieving that want. But the party refused to put in a plank which might
have doubled the dollars in everybody’s pockets.
Feeling that I had not done justice to the party in making an active
canvass of the county, principally because I had no money to make a
canvass with, by treating long lines of ever-ready patriots at every bar in
Tuolumne, I concluded I would hold a series of private mass meetings in
the day time on horseback. I would do this on election day. I would gallop
from poll to poll and make a speech at each poll. I had a route laid out
embracing half the county. I made the initial equestrian speech at
Jamestown. Thence I galloped to Shaw’s Flat. Shaw’s Flat upset me. The
pillar of our party there, at whose saloon the polls were held, came to his
door while I was speaking, took one look at me and walked off in disgust. I
saw the disgust on his face an inch thick. It smote me. It threw a wet
blanket over all this newly-roused enthusiasm. I started for Columbia, but
all the way that man’s face peered into mine. It robbed me of all courage
and confidence. I had no further heart to continue the work. It was not at all
the regular thing. It was an innovation on old party usages. The country
even then was too old for such politico-equestrian heroics. I rode back to
Jamestown, put the horse in his stable, and hid myself. The people did not
agree to send me to Sacramento. Perhaps it was fortunate for them they did
not. Probably it was for me. Whatever happens to a man in this life is
probably the best thing for him, inasmuch as nothing else can happen to
him. I had the profit of an experience in making a semi-political debut, and
the people profited by sending another man.
Could the past but be recalled, with all its conditions, contingencies, and
accessories; could I once more renew this episode with the advantage of
years of experience and accumulated wisdom, I might succeed and fill the
post of legislator. But the future is apt to come too late. To be sure it was for
me a period of folly and weakness. My soul even now squirms with shame
to think of it. “And it should,” I hear my fellow-human judges saying. Of
course it should. Man’s first duty to himself is to hide his follies and bear
himself as though he never committed any. Only I can afford to tell what a
wretch I have been. Were I a candidate for office I could not. Some day,
when the world is wiser, will men cease strutting about in their masks of
propriety and wisdom, and publish their own past errors as freely as now
they do those of their fellows? Is it a good preliminary previous to entrance
into that world where “all things shall be revealed,” where each action lies
in its true nature, and where each one of us must “even to the teeth and
forehead of our faults give in evidence.” “Why not?”
CHAPTER XXXI.

AN EARLY CALIFORNIA CANVASS.

Previous to this election which did not elect me, Williams and I
canvassed the county together. He aspired to the office of Sheriff. We
mounted our horses, and with long linen dusters on our backs and bottles of
whiskey in our pockets, rode first to Spring Gulch, consisting of two
groceries, six saloons, an empty hotel, twenty miners’ cabins, a seedy
school-house, a seedier church, the hillsides around denuded of earth, torn
and scarred by years of hydraulic washing, and showing great patches of
bare yellow ledge covered with heaps of boulders. The few men met were
in coarse, ragged, gray shirts and mud-stained duck pants, had a worn,
worked-out look; over all shining the hot afternoon sun, the heated
atmosphere quivering and rising, behind the hill-bounded horizon, a snow-
white mass of cloud which, at precisely the same hour every afternoon,
attains the same altitude, then gradually sinks. The eye gazes steadily upon
it; there are seen great hollows and depths of shining whiteness. It is the
vapor coming from the melting snow on the Sierra peaks eighty miles away.
The few loungers about the Washington Saloon see William Saunders and
myself riding down the hill. Our dusters and clean linen proclaim us as
“candidates.” Candidates means drinks. There is a gradual concentration of
unemployed seediness at the Washington. We dismount; soon the coveted
and cheering bottle is placed on the bar; a line of tumblers in skirmishing
order form behind it; every one within sight and hearing is called up; a
pause of glad anticipation ensues while the glasses are being filled; the
precision of bar-room etiquette is strictly observed, that not a drop be
swallowed until all are ready; then the dozen tumblers are simultaneously
raised; the standing toast “Here’s luck,” and the reviving alcohol fulfils its
mission. This is electioneering.
Sam White is the Bismarck of our interests in Spring Gulch. He is the
standing delegate to the County Convention from this precinct. He goes by
virtue of a paying claim, a capacity for venturing among the rocks and
shoals of saloons, gaming tables and innumerable calls to drink, without
losing his head. He can drink deeply, quietly, and fearfully; he can drink
himself into noise and turbulence and still keep a set of sober faculties in
reserve underneath. We hold a short cabinet meeting with Sam behind the
barn. He sees clearly the political complexion of Spring Gulch. Bob
O’Leary is doubtful, but may be bought; Jack Shear and Tom Mead must be
braced up to allegiance by whiskey; Miles and O’Gorman are mad because
a favorite of theirs could not get the nomination for Supervisor last year,
and won’t vote anyhow; Bob Jones is favorable to us, but wants to leave
before the primary meeting comes off; the rest are sure for us or sure
against us.
We visit the Franklin House just opposite. The political candidate’s
money must not all be spent in one house. This is one of the fundamental
principles in electioneering. Every saloon controls a few votes, or rather a
few whiskey-sodden organizations, who are voted like machines. The
solemn ordeal of an American treat is again witnessed. Jim Brown becomes
affectionately and patriotically drunk, and as we ride away loudly proclaims
himself a “white man and in favor of a white man’s government.”
We feel that Spring Gulch is secure. We carry it in our pocket. We ride a
couple of miles over the ridge to Six-Bit Gulch. Red crags tower upward for
hundreds of feet; a rivulet flows along, and on a little flat under a spreading
live-oak is an old log cabin. In front is a bit of vegetable garden inclosed by
old sluice lumber. High up in the branches overhead a gauze-covered meat-
safe; on the trunk is nailed a coffee-mill; under it hangs a frying-pan; close
by the washtub and wash-board a few fowl peck about; the quail in a clump
of chaparral near by are querously twittering, scolding and fluttering, and
making the preliminary arrangements for their night’s rest.
Sam Lugar, gray and worn, resident in this gulch for the last sixteen
years, sits outside the door smoking his evening pipe.
A hundred yards above is the residence of the “Judge,” another hard-
working, whiskey-drinking hermit. A glance within shows the Judge eating
his evening meal. A child is playing about on the mud floor, whose creamy
complexion and bright bead-like eyes indicate its Indian origin. Hanging
above the fire-place are a gun, an Indian bow, a quiver full of glass-tipped
arrows; on the shelf bits of gold-studded quartz, a bunch of crystals,
petrifactions, and curiously-shaped stones found by the “Judge” from time
to time in his diggings. There are boxes full of old magazines and
newspapers; on the rude window-sill a coverless, well-worn copy of
Shakespeare. The Judge is tall, straight, and sallow in complexion. He has
lived on this spot since 1849. Six-Bit Gulch was very rich. He has torn up
virgin gold in the grass roots. He lives now on recollections of the flush
times. Present failures and long past successes form the staple of his
conversation. His mining is merely secondary to another occupation, the
great aspiration of his life—to beat a poker game over in Spring Gulch. He
has been unsuccessfully trying this for the last seven years. A bundle of
aboriginal duskiness enveloped in a bright calico gown, hanging about her
adipose proportions, stirs as we enter. That is the Judge’s wife—a squaw.
Her family down to the third generation, are camped in the brush hard by.
They visit the Judge at stated intervals, and at such times the family
expenses are trebled. The gray shirt and duck pants tied at the waist with a
string constitute the Judge’s only dress-suit. On the floor near him is a
shapeless, wet mass of India rubber boots, shirt and pants, drenched and
splashed with yellow mud. This man was once a spruce clerk in a New
England store. At seventeen, the set and whiteness of his collars, the fit of
his boots, the arrangement of hair and neck-tie were subjects of long and
painful consideration before the mirror. He had his chosen one among the
village girls; he saw her regularly home from the Sunday-evening prayer-
meetings. The great gold fever of 1848 seized him. He saw a vision: A few
months picking up nuggets in California; a triumphant return home; a
wedding; a stylish mansion; a fast horse; a front pew; termination, a marble
monument in the Terryville cemetery: “Beloved and respected by all who
knew him, he sleeps in hope of a still brighter immortality.”
We stop at the “Judge’s” for the night. Wife and child are sent off to the
Indian camp in the chaparral. Sam Lugar drops in after supper. The Judge is
an incessant talker. The bottles and glasses are placed on the table. The
Judge becomes fatherly as to counsel and admonition against excess in
drink. Also against gambling. He has peculiar theological views. Moses, he
says, was a keen old miner. He and Aaron put up a plan to gain all the gold
in the Israelites’ possession. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the
stone tables, Aaron was counselling the making and worship of the golden
calf. By such means did he concentrate in a lump all the Jews’ jewelry.
What then? Moses comes down, sees the calf, gets angry, breaks into
pieces, burns it up. But what becomes of the gold? Didn’t Moses and Aaron
sneak around that night and “pan it out” of the ashes?
The Judge is his own theologian.
We visit Price, of Hawkins’ Bar. Price is now the sole constituency of
Hawkins’. He ran this bar in its golden infancy; he saw it in its youth; he is
steadfast to it in its decay. Thirty-four years ago, eight hundred men lived
here; the Tuolumne banks were lined with them, shaking their cradles.
From the top of yonder red hill the combined grating of the pebbles shaken
in hundreds of rocker-sieves sounded like the crash of machinery in a cotton
mill.
Old Hawkins first discovered gold here. Price tells of the pickle-jars full
he had buried under the floor of his cabin. The secret could not be kept.
They came trooping down the steep Red Mountain trail, blankets and tools
on their backs, footsore, weary, thirsty, hungry—but hungrier still for gold.
They put up tents and brush houses, or crept, slept and cooked under
projecting rocks; they stood all day in ice-cold water; they overworked
bodies hitherto unused to manual labor; they blistered delicate hands; they
lived on bacon and heavy bread of their own making; they drank raw
whiskey by the quart; they died, and were buried almost where they died, in
nameless graves. Up yonder, but a few yards in the rear of Price’s cabin, is
the old camp graveyard. The fence is rotting away and stands at various
angles. The inscriptions on the headboards are half effaced by time and the
elements. Some are split and have fallen down. Read “Jacob Peiser, æt. 27.”
He died close by in the gulch hard by, with a pistol-bullet through him. A
dispute over a claim. “Samuel Purdy, 31.” Drowned trying to cross the river
during a freshet. “John Wilkins, æt. 35.” Killed by a cave in the bank claim
about a hundred yards away. “Samuel Johnson, æt. 25.” He dove with a
sand bag to stop a great leak in the Ford Chann’s head wall, and he stopped
the leak in part with his own body, for the stream sucked him in the crevice
and he never came up alive. “John Weddell, 35.” Blown up by the
premature explosion of a blast in the Split Rock quartz claim. “Abram
Hewison, 45.” Delirium tremens, stark mad at midnight, jumped into the
river from the point yonder, where the stream whirls round the bend with
tremendous force and then rushes down toward the long deep cañon a mile
away in a succession of great white crested billows, whose sad, never-
ceasing murmur seems an eternal requiem for those lying here.
Price has seen all this. That was the climax of his life. Price’s heaven is
not in the future. It is in the past. It is embraced in a period about twenty-
five years ago, when he made “an ounce per day.” Those, he remarks, were
times worth living for. Eight hundred souls then at Hawkins’; five gambling
houses in full blast every night; music, dancing, and fandangos at either end
of the bar.
The river roars unvexed toward the sea. It has burst through its dams and
choked the races with sand. The scars and furrows on the hill sides are quite
hidden by the thickly growing vegetation; young oaks and pines are coming
up in the place of the old. Trail and road are overgrown with brush. Among
the rank weeds we stumble on traces of man’s former presence—the top of
a saloon counter, the mahogany leg and faded green cushion of a billiard
table, rusty tin ware, broken picks and shovels, a few rude stone chimneys,
about whose blackened fire-places years ago gathered the hopeful, sanguine
men of “ ’49.” It is so still. The declining afternoon sun is throwing long
shadows from the mountains on the other bank. Slowly they creep up and
shade the steeps on our side. Every moan and babble of the Tuolumne falls
distinctly on the ear.
“Civilization” here put in a transient appearance. It scarred the hill sides
with pits and furrows dug for gold. It cut down the wide-spreading
symmetrical oaks. It forced the Tuolumne through race and flume from its
channels. It built gaudy temples dedicated to the worship of Bacchus,
resplendent with mirrors, pictures, and cut-glassware, located on the very
site where a few months previous stood the Indian’s smoking wigwam. It
brought toiling men, hard-fisted, awkward, ungainly, clumsy, with all grace
and suppleness worked out of them and strong only to lift and dig. It
brought all manner of men, educated and ignorant, cultivated and coarse,
yet for whom Christian training, Christian Church, Christian Bible,
Christian spire in city, town, and village pointing heavenward, had failed to
convince that gold was not the chief aim and end of all human effort. By
day there was labor drudging, labor spasmodic, a few prizes, many blanks,
some hope, much more discouragement. By night, revelry, carousal,
gambling, oaths, recklessness, pistol shots, knife thrusts, bloodshed, death.
Bird and beast fled affrighted to lonelier and more secure retreats before the
advent of the raging, cruel animal man.
But now civilization has flown and nature seems easier and somewhat
improved by its absence. Price is ours. He will walk nine miles on election
day to Chinese Camp, the nearest precinct, to deposit a ballot for us. An
order on the proprietor of the Phœnix Saloon for a generous supply of
whiskey stimulates his devotion to his country. What a glorious land of
liberty is this! See in the clear azure sky above us, floating a mere speck,
the eagle, the bird of freedom! He poises himself for a swoop. He comes
rushing down on quivering pinion. Nearer! nearer! It is a turkey buzzard,
who has scented a dead horse.
Constituencies can only be found where civilization rages.
CHAPTER XXXII.

ANOTHER CHANGE.

The world seemed coming to an end, I mean my world. I had “ran for
office” and was not elected, I had lectured and the people did not call for
more, my mines and all they contained were still under ground. The cities I
had planned were still unbuilt, I had written for our county paper and
gained a small county, but cashless reputation. The fall of 1866 was at hand,
and I was saying “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” when one day I received
an unexpected letter from the publisher of a San Francisco weekly paper
(The Golden Era). He said in substance, “Come to San Francisco and try
your chances on the Era. We will do the best we can for you.”
I went and was met by the good and great-hearted Joseph Lawrence, the
principal publisher, and up to that time an entire stranger to me.
The transformation in my life was sudden and startling. It was from the
mountain solitudes to the bustle of a great city, from the miner’s cabin to
the elegancies of the first-class hotel in which my friend positioned me;
from the society of the “boys” to that of artists, actors, editors, and writers,
some since of world-wide reputation.
It was the sharpest corner I had ever turned in my life. It led into a new
road, a new life, new associations, new scenes, and eventually new
countries.
And this change came sudden, unexpected at the “darkest hour” and like
“a thief in the night.”
San Francisco had changed greatly since I had left it eight years
previous. Much of the old “ ’49” characteristic had disappeared or was
disappearing. The roughness in garb and manner had abated, the high silk
hat topped more masculine heads, the afternoon feminine promenade on the
main shopping streets was more elegantly attired, “society” was classifying
itself into sets and “circles” more or less pretentious, many more men had
homes to rest in at night, the glare and splendor of the openly public

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