The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-26
IN THE FROZEN NORTH.
including Some "reminiscences of
JOAQUIN Miller

following sentence occurs:
Joaquin Miller, our old friend under
took to get away from Dawson by going
down the Yukon, and as a result his lit
tie steamer is frozen in somewhere, with
put one chance in a thousand of him get
ting through"
There was a sadness about this which
made one SILVER. We have been having
some cold weather in Chicago recently
which has induced shivers here, but we
nave had warm houses to which we could
retreat When I thought of the Klondike
surroundings, with poor Miller at the
mercy of the -below-zero
weather, and with no fire and possibly no
1000, 1t accented the cold and the shivers
materially. He has been through hard
ships almost innumerabie, but none of
such terror-producing qualities as this
His life has been one continual dream Of
sentiment and struggle with adventure.
If he should succumb to fate at last in the
frozen North it will be dramatic ending
to dramatic career. Let us hope that
he may escape.
1 have just been looking over a volume
of his complete poems published by Whit
aker & Ray of San Francisco, and have
been impressed anew with his romantic
and at times dramatic poetry, as read
and understood the best from a knowledge
of his romantic, dramatic and really seri-
GUS life. There is not a line in his poems
as far as 1 can recall lhem which has
conscious humor in it. There is uncon-
scious humor occasionally, to be sure
humor which the reader must discover for
himself-but no other kind The nearest
approach to a humorous remark which
ever heard him make was back something
like twenty years ago. upon an occasion
when he and 1 were invited to visit lit
in q in IF bo
suburbs We passed the evening so pleas
anty that the first thing we all knew the
last train into Boston for the night had
gone, and we were obliged TO stay all
night. 1t was a suburb without a hotel,
and our friend had but one spare bed in
his house, so this latter article of furni-
ture Miller and 1 were obliged to occupy
in partnership. 1 was something of an
early riser then, and got out of bed, leav-
ing him sound asleep. 1 picked up book,
which was lying conveniently near, and
read long time before Miller stirred.
Hello 1 then said, ARE you going to
sleep all day?"
why, it isn't time to get up, is it?" he
asked sleepily.
I simply looked at him and laughed. He
pulled out his watch, looked at 1t, and lay
down again, after throwing a pillow to the
foot of the bed, upon which he nestled as
though it were better than getting up.
81 think my Darwinian ancestors must
have been of the canine race he said. 81
am so much of a dog now that l like to
change ends between maps"
That was not very funny, but it was hui
morous. Anyone who has seen a dog get
up from it's bed of straw, "change ends"
and lie down again cannot fail to appre-
ciate the subtle humor of the remark"
There is another thing which L cannot
understand. In a newspaper reference to
him a short time ago he was spoken of as
"a weary, worn and lettering old man."
But why? He is not so very old. His beard
is very gray and he is apt to wear it long
and Struggling which makes him look old
er than he really is. He told reporter a
few weeks ago that he was lin the middle
hfties." 1 remember a few years ago.
when he told me his age, the incident con-
nected with it. I recall saying to him that
the year which he gave as his birth was
the same in which l was born. and conse-
quently we were of the same age.
ooh, no." said he. "Why, Marble, we
might have been born In the same year,
but I-why, really, am hundred years
older than you are. You have led peace
full, calm and virtuous life-whlch, after
all, Is the best-you remember that sweet
expression of our sublime friend, Long
fellow. in one of his poems, Home Is best
while my life has been one constant
whirl of excitement and dramatic effect
theatrical merely, sometimes, I am afraid.
If the handful of gray hairs scattered
through your head should have funeral
I've got enough white ones in my head
and beard to make the longest procession
that ever wound along the cemetery road.
Is that humorous? Well, hardly. 1t Is
pathos of the Joaquin Miller stamp-With
a little quiet humor ION the side"
When he said that to me thought of his
turbulent life with the Indians, and his
fight with his Modoc wife when he was
mere boy and the United States musket
han he got in his leg in making his es-
cane. which causes a limp even to this
day: and | thought also of the death OF
the Indian girl-wife from another muSket
ball on the same occasion, aud the Gre
nation by him of her remains IN the SOIL
tary wilderness after the troops had given
up the chase and gone back to clVlllza-
ton. | thought also of his going as
filibuster with Walker in Nicaragua, about
which he tells so dramatically in one OF
his poems. and how again he came near
losing his life by getting in the way OF
United States musket balls.
WHY l sometimes think that Joaquin
Miller is one of the bravest men who ever
Facad a hot fire of musketry Soldiers have
the allurements of reckoning PATRIOTISM,
but his bravery is from less understood
rhase of human nature-in obedience 10
Inc noetrv and dramatic fervor of ma
tire which is as thoroughly in sympathy
with the moods of the unciviltzed wider
ness as is that of the red men who roam
cd those wildernesses only a few years
ago.
When the charge of the six huhdred at
Raialxlava was commented on by dis
tinguished general he said: 1t was not
war. hut il was sublime and so l feel
like saving about Joaquin Miller's penetra-
tion OF the Klondike wilderness in winter
If NAV have been foolish, but its bravery
was worthy of the gods themselves. Let US
ali hone that he may find and embrace that
Zone chance in thousand Of which Harr
Wagner speaks.
Since the above was written the uneX-
nected has happened. joaquin Miller mas
returned to civilization, but not as he went
out. EXCEPT with his great bravery News
from Dawson speaks of his having reach-
ed there. with his ears, cheeks and one
toe frozen. He had reached safety with
no mtshap. but, hearing that persons
strung along the river were In danger OF
freezing and starving, he went to carry
the news to Inspector Constantine This
is hut one more proof of the great braV-
erv possessed by this poet Of nature
-s@a-s--
The King of Siam, whose three sons
are in Europe at present. has decided to