The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-01
SOME PEOPLEIHAVE MET
The True Joaquin Miller.
BY JOHN MAGUIRE,

Many and talented were the nuner-
Gus contributors to q literary paper.
The Golden Era which fiourished iii
San Francisco up to about thirty years
ago. Many an Apollo's spring poetry
sprouted for the first time in it's enter
tanning pages. 1t was published during
the days when California bOasted Of
brilliant intellectual galaxy Of writer's.
both of prose and poetry.
1t was contemporary with the Angus
tan age of music and drama in san
francisco It was when Bret Harte.
Mark Twain, Joe Goodman, r VI
Daggett, Dan De Guills," and others
or equal fame, gave the journal
ism of the Pacific coast national
reputation and under whose aegiS such
present-day well known writer's as Sam
Davis of the Carson Appeal, Arthur
McEwen of San Francisco, Ned Towns
end of "Chimmie Fadden' fame ma
circulated and others who have since
become noted as playwrights and novel
lists, such as Archie Gunther, Clay
Greene Fitch and Howard Taylor.
Among the valued poetical contributors
to the Golden Era" Dan O'Conne'l.
grandson of the Liberator-the Irish
Demosthenes-must not be forgotten,
while the poems of Minnie Myrtle Mil
ler'' were looked forward to with much
appreciation by many critical admirers
The Transporting of a longer lapse of
time however, became noticeable in
the appearance of Mrs Miller's muse.
IT was supposed that increasing family
cares had interrupted her literary work
while. on the other hand, the name OF
her husband. JOAQUIN Miller, began to
be quoted with admiration among the
literati of the city by the Golden Gate.
His Songs of the Sierras" appeared
and he was hailed as a genius
There is a story told that d Alem-
bert's nurse and housekeeDer continu-
ally uDbraided him for the continuous
time he spent in his study. You will
never be anything better than a gen.
ius," was her usual saying. and what's
a genius?-a fool who wears out his
life to be spoken of after he is dead"
There IS no question but that Minnie
Myrtle Miller was in their early mar
ried life a most Industrious writer, and
those that knew their home life in Ore
gon knew we'll that she was the pot
boiler" for the family.
Like unto greater literary geniuses
than Joaquin, as his reputation grew
so did the eccentricity that genius
claims for its own, and ii IS pertinent
TO find out how far those eccentricities
and perversities of genius, these incon-
veniences and defects. are really, as
some linen say they are. an essential
part of genius as such; how far there
is that antagonism between GomeStcity
and genius which has been, boldly as
serted. how far the affections are in
deed pOWerless against the tyranny of
ideas-in plain words, how far genius
excuses its pOSSeSsOr from the Obliga-
tiOns of ordinary morality. We know
that great minds are sent into the
world for great ends; that it is not
meant they should leave things just as
they found them, vet once the posi-
tion of leader is granted to them-Once
men recognize a master mind, and
whether he be poet or painter he is en-
couraged in degree of egotism that
quite outtODs the assumption of COM
motor Ously conspicuous in actors than
in any other individuals.
joaquin Miller was now becoming the
rage He wrote at a time when the
literature of the forest and the prairie.
If the Indian camp and the 3backwOOd
settlement. of the ira DDer'S hunting
ground and the California gold mines
was the vogue. II was a literature pc
cuiarIv American. It was then that
.Toaou n Miller conceived the idea Of
seeking further fame beyond the seas.
and virtually abandoned his wife and
children. Much suffering and want was
an that was left for those behind.
Apain Minnie Myrtle MiIler's Den was
found their way to some papers and
small and remIttances few It was
now loudly whispered and openly
printed that after all JOaQUin's repU-
tatiOn was bogus" inasmuch as he
simply appropriated the brain children
of his wife and assumed their pater-
nifty. This. however, in justice to him
was not so. The poets conduct toward
his family was univ ersally condemned