The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-08-18
ECON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 1s, 1871
Such is Fame.

C. H. Miller, ex-editor of the Eugene
Register and eX-county Judge of Grant
county, has published a book of poems
and become a man of fame in London.
The fact make us think no more of Mil
Ter, but much less of the LOndoners.
During the time that he was connect
ed with the Register, he published one
or more serial stories under his own
name and called them original. They
were, however, stolen bodily from some
of the flash publications of that day.
The plagiarism was palpable and auda-
ciOus. For particulars, we refer the Gu
riOus to the files of the paper named, of,
if we mistake not, the year 1862, in the
Librarians Office at Salem. After his
marriage, which took place in the year
named, and after he began to write poet
ry, this habit of plagiarism was not
abandoned, if his wife's testimony is
worth anything and if we do not misin-
terpret the following quotation taken
from her "Sacrifice Impetro," a reply
to NIiIler's "Farewell' ON leaving Ore
gon:
"And HE, through books and bays,
Deiveth for pretty words
To weave in his languid lays
OfwOmen and streams and birds"
For this and many other better rea-
sons we don't hesitate to pronounce the
belief that this so-called poet is what is
termed in the vernaeular of this coast,
a first-claSs blk, and that besides the
other injuries that he has inflicted upon
his unhappy wife, he has filched from
her literary jewels and published them
as his own.
Up to the date of his marriage Miller
had published no poetry, if indeed he
had written any. But up to that time
and for a long time prior thereto, the
people of this State had been charmed
by the verses of Mrs. Miller, then "AIin-
ME Myrtle" Minnie Myrtle's poetry
left off where Miller's begun. Those
who take the trouble to compare Miller's
Joaquin ct al, with these verses of Mrs.
Miller, published more than ten years
ago, will readily detect her poetic gem
ius upon the best pages of the book. In
some of them they will recognize the
woman, as for instance in the Sierra
Neyadas, which makes them look
AS though Diana's maid last night.
Had in the liquid, soft moonlight,
Washed out her Mistress garments bright,
And on yon bent and swaying line
Hung all her linen out TO dry"
1t is much more likely that the simile
of line hung with linen and which en-
ploys the idea of washing garments in
liquid moonlight, should occur to a
woman of strong poetic imagination,
the routine of whose life was the wash
tub and the kitchen, than to a languid
and dyspeptic man. The quotation
has the credit of being the best in the
book.
The lines
aWhat was my troth to hime
y STEPPING STONE at best;'
i'm Mrs. Miller's reply to Miller's "Fare-
well,n seem to be evidence against him
upon the charge of appropriating his
wife's literary productions The Itali-
cising is our own.
With the largest charity that we are
capable of exercising on this occasion,
we must say of this new aspirant for lit
erary honors, that he is what no pOel
ever was-a money-getter, who on gem
eral resources and 10y slow accumula-
tions acquired competence. He is
what no poet even can be-devOid of af-
fection or concern for his own offspring.
| Notwithstanding the hard efforts of
their mother, his babes were rescued
/ from want and taken from a miserable
attic in Portland by private charity a
| few months after Miller's departure from
/ the State. The preservation of its off
| spring is an instinct that even the brute
possesses. The man who deserts his of
spring is little lower than the brute.
Poets are only a little lower than the
angels. No such base metal as this
/ Charles Heiner Miller ever gave out the
true poetic ring. He is simply gifted
with rare impudence. He is only COM
pound of brass andtbad grammar. II
his be fame, then what is fame worth
l-AL6dny Democrat.