The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-05-19

A LTHOUGH Joaquin Miller,
"a the poet of the Sierras," so
~ far recovered from a recent
Il ~ illness which threatened to
prove fatal that he was able
to return with his wife and daughter
to his home on the heights overlook
ing Oakland and San Francisco bay,
yet his friends entertain little hope
that he will ever be fully restored to
health. He is now in his SEVENTEEN
year. Previous to his last illness he
had been separated from his wife for
thirty years, but the danger of his
death happily reunited them, and now
the aged poet is spending the re-
mainder of his days amid his well be-
loved hills, on the spot where he has
created a characteristic home, called
The Heights. His massive frame has
weakened, his once keen eyes are
dim, his flowing hair and beard are
white, and the physicians who have
climbed the wooded hills to minister
to him declare there is little II any
hope-that it is merely a matter OF
| have been gathered to his fathers.
His ashes, according to his wish, will
be scattered to the winds from the
pyre in the hills back of The Heights,
which marks the last resting place OF
his daughter, Maud, who died several
years ago. The reunion with his wife
may prolong his days, and the care
hot Inn
slows upon him may build up his with
cred strength little but there is
hardly more than a shell for them to
nurse.
Perhaps no more picturesque figure
is extant in the literary history of
California and the west than Joaquin
Miller. He is distinct type, SEEM
| ingly inseparable from the environ
ment in which he has lived these
twenty years or more. He has gath
cred inspiration from the rolling
green hills, from the ruddy sunsets,
from the blue Pacific waters, from the
fog banks that roll in with the night
fall, from the vista of land and sea as
seen from his eyrie on The Heights,
ships that sail through it into the rim
of the horizon and are lost in the
vapor's pail.
He has been, perhaps, too familiar
to the residents of Oakland and
neighboring suburbs to create the in
terest that he would If he should sud-
denly appear in some eastern city
l.; T.;
clothing and wide brimmed ombrero,
with his curly hair flowing from be-
meath its brim.
Even to this day, or perhaps it
should be said up to the time Of his
Illness, Joaquin Miller retained his
grace and commanding aspect. He
has lived much out of doors and has
been Drowned by suns. With his own
hands he has planted the hundreds of
trees that surround the little collec-
ton of houses, the chapel and the
funeral pyre, which constitute The
Heights.
A few years ago the poets mother
died at the age of ninety. There was
strikingly beautiful attachment be-
the decline has set in which is the
basis of his present Illness.
More than twenty years ago." Mil
Ter wrote in an article published some
time ago, I sat down here on a noun
tain side with mother and began to
plant trees. Men and women came TO
work and to rest with us. men and
women from colleges and universi-
ties. No one was asked to come-no
one was ever asked to go.
More than twenty years ago, while
feeling my way along here and try
ing to use what little common sense
! then had, l wrote small book, The
Building of the City Beautiful
You want to see San Francisco?
Well, you must come to Oakland; and
do you want to see Oakland and San
Francisco and the bay of all bays on
the globe, and the Golden Gate, at
glance and all together? Then you
must go two miles to the northeast
and then half a mile perpendicular.
In short, you must come to The
Heights, to the camp where Fremont
tented half a century ago, and to the
spot from which he viewed and named
the now famous Golden Gate, long be-
fore gold was found"
The real name of the poet is Gin
cinnatus Heine Miller. The pseudonym
Joaquin was derived from his de-
fense of the Mexican bandit, Joaquin
Murietta, many years ago.
Miller was born in the Wabash dis
trict of Indiana on November 10, 1S41,
and in 1854 was taken to Oregon by
his father He had little schooling
and early ran away from home, going
to the California gold fields. He ac-
| companied Walker on the Nicaragua
expedition, lived among the Indians
and Spauiards on the coast of Califor-
MIA and became familiar with their
customs. He studied law being grad
lated from Columbia college, in ore
gon. in 1858 He practiced unsuccess-
fully in Idaho and turned express
| messenger. II. 1868 he settled IN ore
gon and became editor OF The Eu'
gene City Democratic Register" which
| was suppressed in the same year. In
1864 Miller returned to the law and
practiced in Canyon City. Ore. Here
he became popular, owing to his serv-
Ices against the warlike Snake In