The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-10-17
JOAQUIN MILLER, POET.
THE STORY OFHIS LIFE AS TOLD
BY HIMSELF.
Origin of a Lifelong Friendship for The
MeXlcans aud the Poets Name
How He Came 10 Write.


From the AroOnau: To The insin-
c5ra ard the seekers after the ser sa.
ito al for the ssnsa'ionRl press l have
alwa,s been Oh igipg. But l La dly
kcow how 10 answ,r the QUESTION 70
to how l came to b. aVrter, Perhaps
the best WY 10 TO run bri, hv over t. G
fret pages of my early and very active
life.
To begin WITH, l spent all my boy
hood-up TO the end Of my l7,h year,
when l returned to Oregon to COM
ple'e my educstion and enter on the
study # iaw-in the mouItsins OF
Northern Ga ifornia / mus mention,
however, that m autime | made sew
eral trips, rs kind Of Interpreter, with
some Mexican h0rse and mule drov,
e's, down into Mexico and Northern
Ar IONA.
These Mexicaus we're always most
k nd me; 80 much bstter, too, In all
respects than the Americans, mostly
from the border States, and Ct the
kind that afterward made Kaufa' IA
nous, or rather Infamous. These
men hated Mexicats heartily, and
never let any opp JrsuDity psss with
out plunderlng t en-. l think it was
to put around them a sort of moral
protection / ON tuiS ttrrible Clsss that
the Nj X caas kept me with them.
For, | q sure you, the treatment of
this conquered people in the early
days Of California vas simply mon.
ttrous.
1t was this that hsd driven Joaquin
Muriett,, While yet q youth, to be-
come the most srrible and bloody
out aw our and has ever known. A
reward Of msny thousa DIS had been
offered for his head, he bad been
captured, killel aud his head vas in
sp rits and o exhibition in San Frau
cisco, when | took up my pen for the
fist time and wrote public letter in
LeftEs Sc OF the MexiCans.
Sool l returned to Oregon, where
complet d NY 8 udie read law, and,
when 81, was admitted to the bal
u0dsr ex-Attoroey Gene a. George Ii,
Will M, my lifelong friend.
New gold mines haV ny been fouGd
in what is now Idaho, ! took nv law
books and entered the gold fields,
along with II ousands Of my old friend
from the mountains Of Northern Cali
fornis, with whom | had in one way
or anotber 8 ent my early youth. But
thers was lit l. to do in the law, and
thsse Old Californisns chos me 20 one
of the expressmen to ride to and from
the nearest 8 tt ement o d carry their
god out and their lie ters in. IN Cali.
foInia l had been in toms battles with
the In1iins, had teen twice badly
woundt d, and 70 a not strorl
enough to do good work in the mines
and tn t is Why l wss made an ex-
pressman by these men. l am Gyrget.
ting to mention that, in a good
humored way, they revived tie od
name Of Joaqu NJ to my great an,
Doyance. A nval express started, ant
with 1t stories of Josquin Murie ia
and, nc doub', vague whispers that
was, if not the robber himself, nonI
loo good, etc etc.
made a few thousand dollars, wen
back to my father, went into a phi
| cal paper, and then | heard oil 9bou
myself, you may be certain, from III
other side. felt dreadful; but az tn,
name stuck to me l stuck to it.
went back t. my California friends
| who by this tins had 3 tiled in North
ern O'egon and organized a county
and btg4n the practice of my pro
fession. An election was held TO
county and State officers, and, al
thou,h the Ca'ifornians put up ore Q
their number against me for O unit
Judge-and a good lawyer and q stron
man he was, too-they allowed me
with q single exception, to lead m
ticket.
had now four years OF work befor
me, and began building houses, plan
irg trees and getting the deplete
finances OF the county in shape. TIL
county paper was sellirg a. 20 cent
but, by inducing some Chinese con
panies to mine and pay the State
mining tax, our paper was soon at pa
And now, having done what
deemed q service to my country, | sc
t. work to soy something sgain for m
old friends, the Mexicans. My res
name, bear in mind, is not joaquin,
as all can see who care to turn 10 an
OF my books and look on the copy
right page. But there was no shGkin
of that name. And 81, when m
first box was published, sfmall a
fair in verse ard published in Oregon
it was entitled Joaquin,
At the en- of my Jour years Of cfiC
/ went TO Europe, but still had lit
notion OF WI. tiOg books. l had ms
Bret Hs,ta, then editor Of The Ow
land, In San Francisco, and left - ! 1t
sketch about rough times in Idah,
Finding this copied into an Englis
paper while on the continent, | 90
courage, returned to London, revise
Joaquin, wrote AfisOnian, Walker
Nicaragua, Hyrrh, and a lot more, an
brought out the Songs Of The Sierra, b
Josquin Miller.
One day some American pape
were handed me containing four
Ave columns OF socalled secret histoI
OF my life and the key TO mys er OF
passages in my verses. Thee romGl
tic stories sugg stsd good groundwor
for O life in the mountains / loved.
finn Of publishers, Bentley 4 Son,
Burlington street, London, offered {
publith the book, 1t appeared oihe
followed; and even to this day ! Al
q ked for sketches Of my life in IL
Sierra. And l generally comply, b
cau:e / like to write about my b
loved mountains, the true and gene
GUS old Californiaus who always stoc
so fondly by re, and all that old r.
mantle life, taking any character
happen to know or hear Of and ma
ing it my own.
And that is the way in which ! can
to write and 10 use the name JoaQui
Clearly, l never really intended 10 d
vote my life to writing. l do mo- iii
it. My ambition has always been
build up a little home and make
moderate living by raising somethir
in a garden, such sc fruit, flowers, al
so on, ana also practiciDg law 10
quiet wsy. Ia fact, 1 think l new
Rad such a Joy sB when last year,
New Orleans, l picked up q WesteI
magazine with a picture Of the hou
" I