The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-06
OUT OF THE HEART OF HIS YOUTH
TINE story of The Long Trail is a
curious1y interesting human docu-

land. 1t is story out OF the heart ana
longings of his youth.
The Long Trail is the realized fancy
of a boy, told out of the experiences
of man and with the literary skill of
a trained writer. 1t pictures the long
and weary trail to the mining regions,
and then the fierce search for gold.
That was the dream which the boy,
Hamlin Garland, dreamed. 1t was to
be realized while he was still a youth;
but youth passed and 1t was still unful-
filed But at length the realization came
many years after he had attained matu-
rits'. Then, a full grown man of world
vile fame, he followed the wild TRAIL
reached the mining regions, and sought
for treasure.
He experienced as man, just what
he had longed for and imagined as a
boy.
In his boyhood dream he not only
searched for gold but found it. In his
stor.. he makes his boy hero-tl.e Hamlln
Garland of the vanished past-fnd it.
Anu in reality, as a man, he also found
it. But (such are the unhappy quirks
of the law) he found it near a boundary
line and, assuming possession according
to the customs which he mistakenly
supposed to be in force, lost his title
through not having observed the laws
watch actually held
buC tie eSSeHCe OF MS cream WAS rear
ized-the vital, vigorous life, the adven-
lures and the dangers, the wild strange
experiences, the mingling with fevered
men in a fevered search for treasure
and so recognizing all this as the COM
ing true of his never-forgotten dream,
he searched back into the heart and
mind of himself as a boy and wrote this
book, infusing fiction into fact and ming
lin dreams with their reality.
tn, IL hnR1 IL lie
as much the book of the lad Hamlin as
o. the mature Hamlin Garland.
Hamlin Garland was born in Wisconsin,
in 1860. At the age of eight the family
removed to Iowa. and in the years of his
Iowa life the lad attained a striking
development.
Before he was nine years old he had
learned to carry and use q gun. In the
ensuing years, up to his sixteenth, he
continued the life and experiences which
led to success as a cowboy. He learned
to capture and throw and train wild
horses, and to drive wild cattle. He
could swing the lariat, and with unerrlng
precision could, with the fve-yard lash
of his drover's wrip, hit a mark or
pick off a flower. He learned to ride
as only cowboys learn, and as a mere
upon the prairie.
And he remembers how, through 1t all,
he longed to set forth for gold.
He would look out of his little garrett
window at night, across the great sweep
ing plain. bright in the moonlight, and
picture himself getting horses and strap
ping a pack, and starting off, and camp
ing under the stars-and at last reach
ing his goal and claiming a mine.
Once, when he was fourteen he set out
with some companions for a distant lake,
and there they camped and hunted and
fished. their own masters, and dependent
for the time upon their own resources;
and this experience whetted his appe-
tite for more.
And-although the past is almost stran-
ger than the final coming true Of his
dream-his friend and cnum on that boy
ish trip was his close friend and chum
on the trail that he followed so many
years after.
RopinG steers. and riding wild horses,
and hunting deer and wolves, and ever
thinking of the trail to the regions of
gold, were a strange preparation for the
writing of books.
| In truth, Hamlin Garland was of two
distinct personalities.
On his mothers side he inherited traits
of outdoor vigor; her brothers, whom
/ he strove to emulate, were giants ply
sically, wonderful rifle shots, splendid
runners and horsemen.
On his fathers side he inherited the
! traditions of New England, and he was
thrilled by thoughts of music and liter
ature. His father often talked of Boston,
and gave him Scott to read, and then put
some of Hawthorne's stories into his
HANDS; and by Hawthorne young Hamlln
| was impressed as by no other writer
! before or since, for the influence came
when youth was vigorous and strong, and
the mind was formative.
In the conflict of impulses the east
won, and Hamlin Garland became a
writer instead of a cowboy and miner.
But the east did not win until after
many n struggle.
Young Hamlin saw 'prairie schooners'
trail by his Iowa home, noticed with
pixies Peak or Bust!' and his boy
iLh blood was afiame. Later, he saw man
after man start for the Black Hills, and
/ he longed eagerly to join in that mad
rusl for gold But always there were
circums tances to restrain him.
pixies Peak waxed and waned and
the Black Hills fever waned. and Garland
came east and became an author.
But In 1898 there was wild Klondike ex-
element, and all his early impulses, long
| dormant. were aroused and he eagerly
and joyously "struk the trail!"-the long
Telegraph Trail to the North.
He was living again his vanished youth
he was realizing the dream Of that
youth
And so, the adventures of his hero in
this book, in his weeks of adventure and
hardship on this long Telegraph Trail,
are what came to Garlands eyes or i'm
agination on that very trail. He made
his notes in the saddle and at camping
places, beside roaring rivers and by the
blaze of campfires. And then, fusng
fact and fancy. visualizing himself as
the boy of his long-past years, he wrote
this story. 1t is of what Hamln Car
land the boy would have done and seen,
on the trail that Hamlin Garland the
man, followed
The beginning of the trail is thus pre-
sented:
"They went into camp on a little mar
row space of cleared land at the edge
of dark forest which covered the roll
ing hollis to the west as far as the eye
could see. Into the shadow of this for
est the little path which led to the Col
den river entered as obscurely as a snake.
1t seemed impossible that so small road
should be so long and so famous"
Throughout, as the trail is followed
there is fascinating descriptive nara
tive:
"One day they passed a glorious lake
on whose banks the grass stood high
enough to ripple in the wind, and strange
flowers, yellow and purple, lit the green
slopes with vivid i.ame.'
1T was we'll that Jack enjoyed to the
full those days along the Black Water
and beside Tchincut lake, for on the very
day following their camp on its bank
clouds began to close down upon them
Thus far they had been troubled by
little rain and the trail was now dry
and dusty. All that day the heavens
behind them seemed to thicken and to
threaten. A vast cloud of smoke as