The herald., 1897-07-02
WORK
His Latest Commission in
City and Camp
HIS BABY DAUGHTER WITH HIM
LITTLE TURBESE WILL ACCOM-
PANY HIM ON HORSEBACK
His Studies of the Far West to Take
a New Turn-The Evolution
of the Californian

The San Francisco Chronicle of Tues
day has the following:
Charles F. Lummis and little Turbese
are in San Francisco. Lumrnis isl the
we'll known writer and poet. perhaps
the most versatile man, certainly one
of the most delightful, among Cali
fornia's literary folk Turbese is his
little daughter, aged years, and al
ready unique and interesting child
She was born among the Indians at
the pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico, and
was named by the brown people, who
adore her. 1t is not every child who is
called Sunburst just for love. But that
is what Turbese means. The little girl
is to be her fathers travelling companion
on horseback trip of hundreds of miles
Some fathers might consider a 5-year-
old nuisance on journey of this kind,
but not the father of Turbese. He has
declared that the little one shall never go
to school, and this trip is to be part of
her education.
Il want her to be educated physically
first of all" says the father of the blonde
little GIRL Then I want her to be self
reliant and think with her head, and
when that is done she will be educated.
instruction Isl not education"
If any one sees tanned man and a
fair child on the street.-The man in red
dishbrown corduroys, and a sombrero,
the child in little green collaress gown
and Tam o. Shanter of red leather-he
will have seen the famous author of
The Land of POGO TEMPO" and some
more delightful books and his daughter
Lummisl is on am exploring trip for the
Harper Brothers, who have given him
carte blanche as to time and route. 1t is
really his first close friendship with
Northern California. The great South
west he knows better than moA men
know their own homes. He has spent
long years in Mexico, and lately has re-
visited that cinderella of the West"
The result of his trip appeared in the
Mexican papers which recently came
out in Harper's Monthly, and which
were of historic and scientific value as
we'll as intensely interesting. Some
thing Of the same line will be done with
Northern California. He will stay in San
Francisco as long as the town impresses
and interests him. Then he will move
on toward the mountains, nprthward, his
object being to visit the old-time mining
camps--to talk with such of the men as
are left, to study what they were and
what they are.
1t is Lummis' theory that here on this
Western coast a new commonwealth is
growing, a community distinct and Diff
ferent In it's civilization from anything
else in America To study this dIifferen-
tiation, this evolution, this development
on independent lines, with mething of
its causes, is the motive of his present
trip.
I'm great believer in environment" +"
he says. Il believe that the Californian
is type by himself; that the transplant
tation of the Saxon oak, which has
known only stingy soil, to- country
where the sky Is not a menace and the
climate is friendly, must have tremen-
dous results. I believe this climate will
prove a compensation for the nervous
system which the American people have
invented within the last generation The
very restfulness of the climate-not hav-
ing to dodge the blows of an unknown
climatic hand-must have it's effect. 1t
is the difference between loving mother
and the cruel stepmother, who may be
very kind one moment, but whose fury
you are lodging in the next. Such con-
ditions as these made the Greek ciyili-
zation the highest ever known. We
should do even better. With the start
we have had, this environment should
revolutionize the race. We are standing
mentally on the shoulders of all the CIV
ilization that went before.
II have never seem SO high am average