The Portland daily press., 1871-10-09
Recent Publications.

Brick Pomeroy writes political articles with
a irankness and rude vgor that are refreshing
after reading the suear-coated immoralities
and mendacity, ssvel from icing vulgar by
the formal correctness of the language in
which it is clothed that ave 20 be found, for
instance, in the New York World But this
Saturday Night" drive of the great Demo-
cratic Boanerges is singularly Efficient 10 ev-
erything that can render it toIerable We
suppose .that there ere people whose tsste is
gratfied by the school girl sentime ntllism and
pnerile inanites of the papers collee ted 10 the
volume he chooses to ca Gold Dust, or they
would not continue to be written. Were il
not known that "BrIck" is a strict temperance
man, it weuid certainly be concluded that he
wrote these essays while in the maudliu stage
OF iDtoxication, and that the papers in his vol
ume called Brick Dust followed at that more
advanced stage of inebrlation when one orai-
narily yells at every man he meets and dances
i'gs in the highways These two aud Celia E.
Gardner's Stolen Waters, a free-loye stony in
rhymes a volume that one would decline to
read either tori anu, ement or instruction IL
there were no other book in the world.-a,e
published by G. W. Carleton & Co Nsw
York, and are for sale by Bailey & Noyes.
James r. Osgood & Co. are repubhshing for :
eign novels with great rdpidity, and the best of
1t is that they are nearly all good ones. To
this class belongs ssh Months Hence" from ad-
vance sheets. This is by the author of Behind
the Vea Paper Covers; price so cents Also
Handsome Laurence, a sequel TO Rollfno
Stone. by George Sand. Translated from The
French by Carroll Owen. For sale by Hall
l.. Davis.
Joaquin Miller is the great literary seusa-
| ton of the year. His Songs Of the Sierras have
divided the critical world into two great
classes-those who pronounce him an impu.
dent preteEeer and a moonsLruek crazy 'front.'
iersmap, aud those who declare him TO be,
what the world hes long waited for-the Amer
lcan poet. We are inclined to pronounce, with
all due modesty and 18th considerable ouaHfi
cation, in iaver of the latter view. II there ia
not only genuine postry, but poetry with a
rare and new favor-somethiug more and bet
Ter Than feeble imitation OF Trnuysoo and h.
er English models i'm the preludes 10 the
longer pieces in with Walker in N lcaraeua"
| aud Kit Carson's Ride, we are mistaken.
We mention these not because they are su-
perior to other pens in the same volume, but
because we happen to be more familiar with
them. Certainly nothing could be mole alb
surd than much of the criticism of Mr. Mil
er's poems. For instance, some wseacre has
discovered that Kit Carson never took the
ride desc ribed, aud that the filieuster Walker
was mere vulgar knave, being the farthest
possible from the ideal hero that the poet has
| painted. Suppose Shakespeare were held to
| strict accuracy in his description OF Richard
| III, aad were pronounced failure because be
xeggerated the youthful follies of Prince
Henry and set up Macbeth OF his vwn 10
| place of the historical one? Suppose Scott,
| reunyson, John S. q. Abbott In his life of
| Napoleon, and other wrIters OF poetry and
| fcrion, we're tried by this test? 1t is encour-
| aging TO learn that Miller scorns all that
he has done and aims at higher excellence.
| Meanwhile the personal interest he exci!es is
| much enhanced by his romantic history and
| his eccentricties. We have no doubt that the
known tact that he went into the first society
10 England with his boots outside his trousers
| will sell almost as many volumes of his poems
| as their intrinsic excellence. Here is the
briefest possible sketch of his lite:
| He was born in Indiana, it seems, thirty
| We lrs ago; the f.tber, Huhns Miller, enisraI-
cd somewhere III Kansas times To Oregon, aud
/ sett ed near Eugeue city IN Lane county. For
| some years previous to 1859 60 Joaquin NJ Tier
i was in California and Mex co, leaulng w Id
| life alter he retuned to Oregon, he WenL 70
| school, studied law little, rau pony ex-
| press, edlted newspaper, wrote verses AID
| married young. He was once chosen county
/ judge OF Grant county ,aud while holdi3x that
| ,'ffice, the short alcado wrote SOME OF his now
famous puems he first published volume
on the Pae fic coast, Two Years ago, but it was
| scarcely seen east of the mountains.
Roberts Brothers are the American publish
ers of the Songs of the Sierras We ars
amused at seeing The back OF the volume
| with the name OF the publishers "hub, sup
| oosed to be that Of the universe" from
| which emanate rays of light. This is a rath.
ar clever if not very modest symbolica repre-.
s4ntation of "BostoD." (For sale by Bailey
| & Noyes)
| Ho,c to Do 1t is a little volume BY Rev. E L.
| Hale, aud is made up of papers originally pub
hshed in Our Young Folks. MIR. Hale takes
| pains to state that it is to girls and boys
| from thirteen TO nineteen years old that. he
| tells how to talk, how to write, how to read, (,
| travel, 90 into good society, &C., &C.; but he
| will have thousands of additions to his chosen
| audience. we have no doubt. His book is full
10 overhowing with valuable practical sug-
oestious. Published by James r. osgood Sc
20 and for safe bv Hall L. Davis.
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