The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-06-07
THE STORY OF A POET
JOAQUIN MILE An ECCENTRIC
GENIUS WITH A QUEER HISTORY.
He Affected Cowboy Dress and Man.
ner I'm London, but Resumed Civ
iIfzed ways Later-Odd Freaks.

broken forth In song In q volume entitled
Songs OF the Soul" The critics have al
ready lashed IT, but they are forced to admit
that with all his personal grotesqueness and
f~reakiness Miller is possessed of true poetic
fervor. His life story has been a most re-
markable one.
After being divorced from his first wife
In 1870 he went to London. fresh from an
Oregon tudgeship. His name was then Gin
cinnatus Hiner Miller. The middle title is
given in all biographical works as "Heine,"
but he was not named for the famous Ger
man poet, the name being spelled "Hiner."
He began writing verses while administering
justice among the wilds Of the Sierra Ne
vadas. his second volume being Joaquin ct
al" From this he derived his present pseu-
.donym. When he went TO England he was
very poor. In Washington Irving's sketches
he had read one descriptive of an odd cor
ner OF London, known as Little Britain
and hunting up this locality he secured lodg-
ing In a garnet for about two shillings a
week. He does not hesitate to speak frank
ly of the trials and privations OF those
days.
In London he wrote his Songs of the
Sierras' and Pacific POEMS" but for a
long time he struggled in vain to find a
AS Il NlOlC ~ III ~ IlOD-
ert Browning. in fact to all the literary
men of note. but his appeals in his UNDER
taking met with no response until one
day there came a knock at his garnet door.
What is here narrated of this period in
his life and of its subsequent phases has
been derived from his own lips. Well. when
the door opened there entered a man who
In appearance was no more interesting than
that heavy type OF Engiishman who has no
thoughts above roast beef and 'arf and art.
But he was none other than Richard Mono
ton Mines lord Houghton). the earnest pa
iron OF art and himself the author of sew
eral volumes of poems as we'll as other lit
erary productions. He had received one of
Miller's written appeals and had come in
answer to 1t. He recognized in the Oregon
ian the genuius the American unquestionably
possessed, and he saw in this man with
curling locks and Messiahian beard and red
flannel shirt and boots reaching above his
he took him under his protecting wing and
soon all London had heard the Songs of
Miller became the rage in London. 1t
was there that he was taught the value,
among such people at least as sway the
social life OF the British capital. Of eccen-
trfcity In dress. He appeared in the draw
ing rooms OF the West End arrayed in I'M
conventional Oregonian garb. and those of
v = 20 = suns III ~ oOilC uQy jill
ing TO this country TO chase buffaloes in Cen
trail Park and elude the bloodthirsty Indians
Of Broadway looked admiringly upon Miller
and his red flannel shirt as specimens of the
men and the costumes OF America.
LONDON SPOILED HIM.
1t is not strange, therefore, that when
Miller returned TO his native country he
assumed eccentricities. This phase of his
character is strikingly illustrated in an
account given the narrator by a ~well-known
newspaper man of his several meetings
with Miller. The narration also exhibits the
poet in other and better lights, and Is here
given from memory. II first met Joaquin
Miller, he said, lin New York in 1874. He
was coming out of the Independent office,
and he held in one hand some written
verses Of a decidedly lively character, which
he said had been written in his presence by
Algernon Charles Swinburne. He said that
when Swinburne had finished the lines be
read them aloud and then threw himself
down on the floor Of the room and rolled
over and over in an ecstacy of delight. L
next met Miller in 1876 in Boston, where 1
was then residing at Young's Hotel. One day.
feeling the need OF a breath OF fresh air,
| took a steamboat for Nahant, intending
TO return when the boat did. When he had
proceeded down the bay a short distance L
discovered Miller aboard. He told me he
was on his way to keep an engagement to
a Ike dinner with Longfellow. When we
reached Nahant found that l had an hour
to while away before the boat returned,
and as ii was not quite time for Miller to
keep his engagement he said that he would
became tired of walking we sat down on
some large rocks by the shore. Miller took
OFF his long boots and stockings and dab
hled his feet In the water. When the time
arrived for me TO start for the boat / ex-
cused myself to the poet. whereupon he
sprang up. with his boots and his stockings
in his hands and said. Il will Nc0nna N n
you IL you have no objection. i can't get
my boots on my wet feet. and so I'll give
alongside of me in his bare feet. AS we
approached the starting place / insisted that
he should cover his feet. With seeming re-
l%uctance. he put on his stockings and boots
and without seeing Longfeilow he returned
to Boston with me.
When we left the boat Miller asked me
1 intended eating dinner as quickly as pos
sibie IN my rooms In Young's Hotel. L will
go with you he promptly said. We had a
good dinner and good appetites with which
TO grace II. After we had finished the soup
Miller deliberately removed his boots and
put his stockingei feet upon the table. 1
looked at him in amazement, and then sim
ply said. Take down your feet He gazed
upon me calmly. l said TO him quietly but
decisively: Miller, that sort of game mas
no effect upon me. That kind of thing is
very we'll in London. but it doesn't fool me.
i understand you thoroughly. II you put
tom a good fellow. While in my room YOU
must behave yourself and not put your feet
on the table. If you can be natural and sem
sIble | would be glad TO have you remain.
He mumbled an excuse of some sort, and
taking down his feet pulled on his boots.
He quickly saw that his antics made no i'm
preston on me and for the rest of the even
ing he was his natural self. and I found
him a charming and most interesting COM
panion.
SO SOCIALLY POPULAR.
"I next met Miller in 1878 when he was
again in London. He invited me to take
breakfast with him. He was living in a
house on the north bank of the Regent
canal, opposite the residence of George
Eliot. which was afterwards occupied by
Wilson Barrett. Although he had given up
his red shirt and display OF boot leather,
and his hair, while long, did not flow over
his shoulders, yet he was again in vogue in
London. He was positively overburdened
With social invitations. On a table in his
bedroom was a pile of cards and messages
over a foot in height and all from promi-
nent people. In idly ~glancing over them ]
saw the names of Gladstone and Lord Sails
bury, and 1 was struck with the handwrit-
ing of one note that bore the signature OF
Lille Langtry' and requested Miller to visit
her in her house in Park Lane. The jersey
beauty was not then known to all the world
and j remember asking who the writer was
and Miller told me that she was a woman
who had begun 10 attract much attention or
account of her beauty. Upon this occasion
when took breakfast with him Miller re.
ceived me in bed. and he ate the meal while
still upon the couch. while | seated mysei
at the table. The chocolate that he gave M
i can never forget the Righteousness OF. ri.
O-fr - pofpIorc ~ his nraUanfop lfo o-I Ia