Weekly Arizona citizen., 1880-07-17
JIM GILLIS.
ihe Jim Bakcr " cf Mark Twaiu's Tramp Abroad Thirty Years a Recluss

In his Tramp Abrlad" Mark
 Twain gives what is called "Jim
 Bakers Eulogism of the Blue-Jay. n
 The story has been extensively repub.
 lished by the daily press, and has gained the writer many compliments.
 It now transpires that Jim Baker is Jim Gillis, brother of Steve Gillis, q journalist connected with the Virginia Enterprise. Jim Gillis IS an eccen. Iric character, living the life of \
 recluse in the Sierra Mountains Mark TwaIn stopped with him for 2 month ore time, and heard him tell the blue Jay yarn, which Is true, by the
 way, and many other bird stories
 Referring tO the above circum-
 stances, Charlie Goodwin, in the Salt Lake Tribune, writes the following tribute to Jim Gillis' worth:
 The writer of this once passed three days in that cabin with Jim Gillis. h
 IS a long, low, wooden concern, and 1 has stood where 1t is for thirty years
 It IS as dilapidated as the average | tOrty-niner, and when the breeze is stirring there is always something be tween murmur and a moan about its
 ratters, as though the experience of
 those thirty years which are gone was 1 trying to find voice. And there Gillis lived with his books, his pets, and his
 memories. Not bit soured is ne that ! fortune has not been kind 10 him. On i the other hand, ne has an idea that he
 has been blessed, for though there is mol much gold dust in the cabin, there
 Is comfort and peace. Under the floor | half-a-dozen tame rabitS burrow, and when they want exercise they go out. side and play with the dogs, even as [ kittens might play together Walking with GiliIs in n little garden near the
 cabin, he said, Did you ever see a mountain quail or her nests and
 without waiting for a reply he parted ] with his hands a bush and revealed
 the quail sitting quietly over her eggs, ] her bright eyes mol three inches from 1 the hand of the man. When asked if il was not wonderful tO see a mountain ! quail so tame, his answer was, They ] are mine"
 Being obliged 10 tase the stage, two
 miles away, at 4:3O in the morning, Gillis started as pilot to the writer at 3 a. m. That was a walk long 10 be remembered. It was away up amid , the great SierraS in Tuolumne county, ! California. IL was June morning, and as We started ihe first sheen of the 1 dawn WAS commencing to fringe with ! purple the mountain crests With the ] light the earliest bird gave il greeting,
 and GillIs answered Ihe call of the bird s5d spoke to it by name as friend speaks to friend. And then for an l hour little was said except as bird ' sitter bird awakened and hailed the ! dawn Gillis would ever answer back, ! calling it by name and adding some ] quaint remark which referred tn some | peculiarly of the birds color, habits, or character And all the time the [ panorama of the opening day was ! being unroiled-as Il might have been on that morn when the vapOrs were rolled back and God saw the li=ht that it was good until every shadow of the night was chased away. With
 the increasing light bird af'cr bird took up her song until the hills grew i resonant, and when al las, the sun, suddenly, with full disk exposed, shOne dazzling in the east, an owl ID the thickct hard by gave her boot and Gillis answered back, Guod morning and good night, old night prowler {; you were MInerva's emblem of old, you seemed so clOse-moUthcd and ; looked so wise; but since 10 you have been the patron saint Of California sports, for you sleep all day and your night transactions won't bear iuvesti- gation." And there the man bad lived
 for twenty years a cheerful reclusc.
 He knew the birds by name and could tell all their habits; every plant that
 grew in the hills he knew the name
 and family of; and the hills them
 selves were his companI"ns and his
 adoration, and though sometimes 90
 ing down 10 the cities to mingle with
 men, he soon wearied of their ways
 and would return where the hills were
 his temples and the birds and beasts
 were his friends.