New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-10-13
JoAQ UIN MILLER PHOTOGRAPHED.
Mrs. gEiIler,s Lecture at Pacific BAH, San
Fran cisco-History of the POETS We'd
ded Lie and Sketches of His Char

Fran cisc0-RistOry of the POETS We'd
ded Lie and Sketches of His Char
acters
From The San Francisco Chronicle.l
Everybody remembers Mrs. Miller's fam
Gus letter written a year ago, iii which she
gave to an appreciative world a brief his
tory of her career with Joaquin. That letter
was, perhaps one of the most brilliantly
written things ever produced in the Eng
lish language. The praise of her husband,
coupled with the different strata OF keen,
FURNISHED satire which ran through it all,
won for Mrs. Miller the undisguised admir-
alton of the entire Eastern and English
press. The letter was commented on upon
all sides, and so beautifully was the sar-
casm masked in it that half its critics were
at loss to find wherein it's chief merit laid.
THE SPIRIT AT WORK AGAIN.
Last night Mrs. Miller made her debut in
the lecture field and essayed to instruct
her hearers little more in what she knew
about the great poet. Pacific Hall was
pretty well filled, although not SO well as
the lectures and her subject deserved.
Mrs. Miller is pale, thoughtful looking
woman, and one who shows that she has
passed through world of care and SORROW.
She is not, perhaps, so handsome in form and
figure as she is IN the soul which beams ont
OF her eyes and lights up her delicately
moulded face. She was attiFed in plain
black silk, and wore her hair dropping
about her shoulders in a wealth of ringlets
Her delivery is good, and her words are
given with all the pungency with which
they are written.
THE POET AND THE MAN"
Mrs Miller began her lecture as follows:
Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras, is
not my individual property. He belongs to
the world of poetry and Of letters but this
in hot a ina
before he had gone through the process
which made him valuable to the world. AS
diamond in the rough he belonged to me,
and as such propose to tell you OF him. /
do not come before you as a Wronged or de-
serted wife. | do not come to complain.
The course of our life has developed new
phase of nature, and no one is injured to
any great extent. | have the experience,
aud the world has the poet.
The career of Joaquin Miller as poet
has been more remarkable than that Of any
other known. The career of this man, as
man, has not been less remarkable. He
left home at the age of fourteen, and the in
tervening years had been spent mostly in
the-shadow of Mount Shasta, with red men
and women for companions
The poet boy, with his yellow hair and
blue eyes, had heard of Joaquin MurieIta,
the Spanish bandit, and thought him the
greatest man of the age. To be like Joaquin
spiced with danger, was his constant pur-
suit If he did not have the discretion, sa-
gacity and subtlety Of the poet of the ser-
ras, he, at least, had the persistent energy
and interchangeable industry which character.
ICES joaquin Miller She first wrote him,
and then asked him to come to her. She
SAYS: II wrote letters descriptive of the
wild, romantic scenery. | told him of the
gloomy pines and the moaning cedars; Of
the wild roses and the gay flowers that
craumed the bluffs; OF the spotted fishes
that stole away up through the silent
streams; Of the white lagoon and the little
sail-b boat that varied on its shores at
my behest; of the birds that shrieked
from their nests upon the reefs,
the little river. And then l told him
of my own desolate life, of my longing for
a cOngenial spirit, etc. I told him that a
delightful, dreamy trail wound over the
mountains and if he would come | would
ferry him over the river in my little boat
Now-I say this in behalf Of the Young
poet of the Sierras-what Young man, who
had the embryo nature of poet within
him, could do less than fOrsake the cold |
decisive realms Of Salmon river, and, ignDr-
ing the roses and piuks of the Wilamettee
turn deaf ear to the tender voices of the
maiden of Eugene Creek for the poetry
grandeur of the seashore He came riding
on the famous spotted horse He stopped be-
fore the door, dismounteh and came in.
The dashing Roman General who captured
Cleopatra could not have been more dig |
nited. felt the magnitude of the situa-
ton, and tried to assume the bearing of q |
Spartan maiden, but failed. Not knowing
what else to do, asked him to come in and |
sit down and make himself at home.
l will not narrat3 what followed. In !
the four or five days that followed we rode |
and walked, and sailed and talked. and to-
gether watched the sun set upon the ocean, |
and the moon rise over the forest. We
lived in an atmosphere of poetry. On Sun
day we were married. 1t was mostly NV |
fault. Joaquin has often reproached me for |
it, and feel the Justice of his reproaeh. It |
is true, the marriage was more like afuneral |
than wedding. Many Of the guests did |
not hesitate to say that it would be better
lar II the bride were corpse. The dashing |
daring young editor, who came so grandiy |
en- his spotted courser, had not captured |
their hearts as he had mine. But he was |
not himself. He felt called upon, as he !
does today, to do something grand and |
awe-inspiring. He did not think it |
best to compromise his dignity as |
editor of an Oregon paper by being |
attabe, so, when the generou8-hearted |
miners approached him, he waved them off |
with bland wave of his hand, and smiled |
that peculiar smile of his, which is all be-
4AN Gu6 ~ 6Ss HTS M1ltT mere went |
into the Byronic period in Joaquin's ex- |
istence and referred humorously to his |
search for a Mary Chaworth in the person
of a Willamette girl. From that episode
she came to their life in this city where
they eked out an existence by writing for
the papers
THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE SONGS OF THE
sIERRAs.
Then to their life in Grant county, Ore
gon where joaquin was elected Judge, and
where Mrs Miller says her baby was born.
She drew beautiful and most poetic pic.
ture Of her cottage there, and said that the
tenderest recollections clustered around
that place, for there was not only born her
second baby, bnt The Songs of the Sier-
ras." And then followed the description of
Joaquin's studies, as follows: Now, ladies
and gentlemeA with your permission, will
you into the poetic workshop. We
go up an outside stairway, enter hall, and
from thence a small, dingy room, which is
the office of the county Judge of
Grant parish, but really the poetic work
shop of the poet of the Sierras." And
here we behold the artist at work. There
is long table covered with black oIcloth.
and furnished with drawers Scattered
over this table are books, papers, stationery
and manuscripts. At this table sits the
artist porting over large open book. His
pen rests in A sDaeinua in Latap1 ra,1 r,s+,,, j