Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-03
Joaquin Miller Described by his Wife.

"Minnie Myrtle" the divorced wife of Joaquin
Miller, recently delivered lecture in San Fran
cisco, which is thus reported in the Bulletin Of
that city:
The lady, as she appeared upon the stage is
about thirty years of age. tall, slim, dark mot
handsOme), with jet black hair, hanging loosely
on her shoulders, school girl fashion. She were
plain black silk DRESS was apparently unem-
barraSSed, and appeared unaffected in manner
Her voice is harsh, unsympathizing, and empty
while her pronunciation is defective, and her
manner Indicative of a person who not only
lacks culture, but is wanting also in depth OF
character. She held in her hand manuscript
which she looked at now and then, as she
walked back and forth on the stage, as if she
had not quite learned by heart what she had
written. The first words she uttered were /:
Joaquin Milleris not my property; he belongs
TO the world of poetry and letters" She then
stated that she did not appear as tie deserted
vile; she had no complaints to make. She
said, 81 look backward ana see a Lord and Lady
Byron, and forward / behold in the future
possible Harriet Beecher Stowe, and have come
10 spoil her sensational prospects" After this
introduction she commenced her lecture by
! repeating the hrst poem written by joaquin
Miller, entitled "The Miners Grave" Joaquin
she said, had very little poetica training; at
sixteen years of age he left home, and went
among the Indians of Shasta county. He had
heard of joaquin Murietta, and to be like him
ing at the time with her parents at
Cape Blanco, where her father Kept a ferry
and while j. Cincinatus Miller was endeav-
oring to make joaquin Murietta OF himself
her day dreams were that she might become
second Grace Darling or Ida Lewis. She found
copy of Byron's poems, and became an enthu-
siastic admlrer of the noble soral. AT this time
| Cinclnatus was driving an express wagon, ana
in consequence of an advertisement for CORE
| spondent he wrote her a letter. The lecturer
was not clear on this point Her hearers were
not informed which of the two advertised. She
answered it, or all OF it she could read, portion
| being undecipherable She said: | wrote him
the most beguling letter ! could invent, to lure
| him to my side" She wrote Of the beautiful
scenery of her own lonely life, and of the
| dreamy" trail down the mountains which led
| to her abode Thus she induced him TO visit
| her. He told her years atterward that she was
like the syren who Iured to destruction those
| she enchanted. As he approached on this mem
orable occasion she examined him with an opera
| glass On his arrival she "felt the magnitude
| of the situation, and told him TO make himself
at home" The people whereabouts didn't like
very well ''the daShing and daring young editor
| who had come down to the valley; he had not
| cantiyatcl their hearts as he had mine" He
CincDatus, rocked not their dislike. Gle smiled
that peculiar smile of his which is all below the
eyes" His love for Minnie Myrtle was not Joa-
gums first love. Like Lord Byron he had had
his Mary Chaworth. Joaquin's Mary had never
read Byron, ana could not SNupaInlZe Win the
lines, entitled, "Why / seek to be alone" The
poem was very dolelul. For some reason the
match was broken off, and joaquin was then in
| search of a Lady Byron, though she, Minnie
| Myrtle, did not know it! They were finally mar
| ried in 1862. AT that time joaquin was editor
| of the Democratic Register, which, one month
| after the marriage, was suppressed by General
| Wright. Joaquin was fiery and spirited in his
| editorials, and always manufactured his tee-
graphic news. He made many mistakes, but
every step was one of progress. slhey came
soon after to San Francisco, but while here JOa.
qun did not write anything worthy of notice,
and won no reputation. They returned to Ore
gOn, when Joaquin took notion that they must
separate He said poet could never accom-
plish anything till he had separated from his
wife; said he thought the separation should be
final; that literary men never got along with
their wives; that Lord Byron left his wife and
became famous. So Joaquin Miller left; but
after fighting the Indians awhile, in the Grant
county Indian war, he returned, and the two,
with their child, went to eastern Oregon, where
| joaquin settled as q lawyer at Canyon City
| Mrs. Miller described particularly the joumey.)
At Canyon City the democracy elected Joaquin
| county judge, and they resided there four years.
Mrs. Miller described their home, its sunflowers
and peas, and potatoes, turnips, cabbages, etc.
This portion of the lecture would have been very
fiat bad ii not been relieved by spice of humor.
She described JOaquin'S workshop, his books
including his rnyming dictionary, and his
assiduous efforts to make rhymes. In the other
end of the room was law library, and if any
one called, he would be found with law book on
his knee, and a perpleXed legal scowl on his
brow. She described lis habit of taking notes
of all he read and of the conversation held
with friends. If she said anything that struck
him as peculiar, he would ask, 'Now, Kitty, is
that original, or did you get it out of some
book% If she said original, he would note it
down. He was excessively Byronic, and imi-
tated Byron in every thing, even in gait. Lord
Byron once said he did not admire learned
women; ergo, joaquin pretended to abhor learned
women. Now, Kitty" he would say, "dOn't
seek to know anything; you are a great deal
more interesting TO me as you are He wished
her to be pale and delicate, and to please him
she starved herself to become interes ting; then
her poet went over to a neighbOring town and
made love to a mulattress who weighed TWO
hundred pounds. After his return from London
he would stare with a magnificent wildness
into vacancy. The children would come in on
tiptoe, fearful Of disturbing the poet, and when
she asked. him questions he would silently reply
with majestic wave of the hand. He walked
with an affected limp, and was in fact the pic
ture of Byron, as drawn by Lady Bles-
sington. He advised her (Minnie Myrtlc)
to look wise and say nothing. She said his
conceptions ofright and wrong are very faulty;
that he is a bundle of atfectatiOn; at one time he
pretended TO have the heart disease, and said he
would soon die; that he wrote his epitaph but
was Disguised into good health again by pre-
scription of cod liver oil suggested by his
"MaTy." Soon after that he went to Portland,
and published a volume Of poems; was greatly
elated by his success, and made up his mind TO
go to London; told her to prepare to 90 to her
mothers; he sold his fiery sized for S34 u.s. and
left. She then went to her old home, which having
been long untouched, was in a very dlapdated
condition. There she remained till she became
Il divorced wife, In December, 1870, she went
to live in q miserable garnet over China wash
house IN Portland, where she made shirts at
fifty cents apiece, sewing by the hand. cit was
regular orthodox, upper story garnet, though
without the romance that attaches to garrets in
novels; there is always a Colour de rose about
imaginary garrets, but in my garnet there was
no rose while keeping myself and baby from
starvation by hard work. first heard of Joa-
quin Miller's fame through a report in Calfor-
mia paper ola dinner in London at which he was
received with much honor. | then could have
said with Cardinal WoolSey: oh, my God i'll had
loved thee as | have loved this man, thou would
not thus have lOrsaken me. " She said that
she had ascertained that every man had his own
ideas OF what constitutes honor; the merchant
must meet his notes before everything else, be-
cause his honor lies there; the gambler must
pay loss at the gaming table, though he rob
the poor to do it, for his honor is at stake
there; say that Joaquin Miller deserted his fam
lily and left his babe to starve, it would be
nothing, bu, tell him he cannot write a good
poem, and you wound his sense of honor and
arouse his indignation.
If this report seems disjonted, it is no more
so than the lecture Itself, hich was without
pretence Of order or attempt at arrangement,
| jumping hither and yon in a most confusing
| style, ignoring time and place, going backward
and forward without let or hindrance crossing
oceans without warning, and returning in the
same style. AT the close of her rambling dis
course she disavowed getting up the printed
programme of the lecture, and said she did not
claim, as her agent had for her, any ability as
poetess; and to prove that she could not have
assisted her husband in the composition of his
poems, she repeated, in a very faulty style, one
Of her own composing.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INsTINCT.-It is the
common instinct of insects which are wood
borers in their larva state, but which have no
such power in their subsequent stages, to guaw
their way to the surface Of the tree before they
stop feeding, so that they can emerge without
obstruction after they shall have completed
their transformations. The plum gouger, which
in its larval period occupies, not the flesh but
the kernel Of the plum, when il has completed
| its growth and is ready to transform in the
| kernal, takes the precautiOn to gnaw round
| hole in the shell, through which it may SUISSE
| quently emerge. If it did not do so it would be
fatally imprisoned, in its future beetle state,
within the mature and hardened shell, an event