Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-21

In mental shility he was chief among
his fellows. Hepossessed vast knowledge,
but of the most heterogeneous character.
He was full of the most strange, out-of-the-
WY information, mingled with much that
was practical to degree. His humor WAS
delightful, he saw the comic side of every
thing, yet was his humor most closely
allied to pathos. His range OF thought
covered the widest. and to many, the most
absurd dreams, but he was full of hard
common sonse, which flashed out in his
brief csmment on the doings of day with
the shock of douche OF cold water. In
literary work nothing is so difficult as the
writing of epigrans, those short, pithy
sentences which cover so much in SO few
words; yet to Milford they seemed to DO
the easiest Of al forms of composition.
In his love Of nature Prentice Milford
reminded one of Thoreau. He was exceed
ingly fond OF the water, and he lived on it
for many years, cruising about alone in his
boat In San Francisco, when he was
working for The Golden Era, weekly pa
per edited by Colonel Lawrence, his home
was in an old whaleboat he had picked up
somewhere and made over to suit his
needs. For quito long time he wore the
strzngest clothes one can imagine-a knit
ted suit all in one piece, like bathing
suit. This had, believe, originally been
blue in color, but the wind. and the rain,
and the strong sunlight had turned it to
rusty brown. Milford declared it to be
the only garment man should wear, and
was fond of expasiating on its many excel
lent qualities
In his boat he had place to sleep and
an arrangement for cooking. 1t was his
habit to land once in a.day or two for tho
purpose of buying bread, papers. eggs,
milk and butter, and to mail and receive
his letters. At other times he cruised.
sleeping at night with his boat anchored in
the most lonely parts Of the bay. But
writing on pad resting on his knee, with
his arm over the titer, he would pour out
any quantity Of the wittiest, most humor-
Gus, most common sense matter that any
one ever real. Some OF his articles liter
ally laughed with the fun that dubbed
through them; IN others he struck deep
notes OF passion or OF pain.
Colonel Lawrence. himself one of the
queeTest originals ever met, was full of
stories about Milford. The Golden Era
was the first paper Milford wrote for, and
he remained faithful to it so long as
SSAohASA AAN~~ Ae' A4oAAoA0 "$AS
under salary, but IS he was utterly careless
about money and never drew more than
ten dollars at tlme-whch he preferred
should be paid IN silver quarters, as he
thereby had plenty of small change-his
money accumulated to his credit IN The
Era Office. Many times Colonel Lawrence
urged him 70 draw 1t out, but Muiford al
ways replied he had no need OF 1t. Then
q pT,lnvnl r0anfInnaH In
but Milford. who at that time was rank
sAoaeRst, declared he considered banks i'm
'dhofH institutions which he refused to
patronize.
Milford was shy beyond the power of
words to express. When for any cause he
found it necessary to visit The Era Office,
then in Merchant street, he used to stand
on the sidewalk until some one he knew
came along who would go up with him.
Remember, the man was favorite with
every one In the place, and was at that
time ono OF the chief contributors to Che
paper When alone with one person he
knew we'll, or with two, or, perhaps, If he
were in the mood, with three, he would
talk at times most brilliantly, holding his
audience spellbound by the beauty of his
thoughts and words, or keeping them In
paroxysms OF laughter by his fun Let
some one he did not know join the circle,
or let two more persons come up and Mnl-
ford became silent at once, nor Was it long
before he would break away to enjoy his
beloved solitude once more. While hewas
able to face audiences at bis lectures in aft
er days, he never got over his sayness ~heA
brought into close companiomhip with
ns
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