The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-01-08
JOHN MUIR


house, and it was too severe a shock
for him. 1t is but five or six winters
ago that he was met at the southern
end of the pass In Alaska and was
asked II he had at last been caught
by the gold fever. He answered:
Oh, no; but 1t has been told me
that new species of fir tree grows
beyond the pass and / am going to
see II that Is true" and in the high
sierra, he saw by the indications
that a great storm was on the march
and would be in full force around
the spot he was on in an hour or
two. He had long desired to watch
the full phenomenon of a Sierra
storm in all its majesty and in his
mind to measure its tremendous
forces, so he at once left his cabin.
went out where the tempest would
have an unobstructed sweep, and
climbed tree to the height of 40
feet and there took up his watch. He
remained there for hours and when
he returned to the carin his clothing
was soaked through and his teeth
chataering, but he was radiant and
exultant over the experience he had
enjoyed.
When camped in hut in that
winter he spent in Yosemite valley,
fall of three feet of snow came one
night. He arose in the morning and
beat and breasted his way to a water
fall two miles distant just to see If
he would not find his waterfall bird
still at her post. And she was there,
as though she expected him, to ex-
tend the courtesies of her habitation
to him.
The idea of such man dying in a
comfortable home is uncanny.
To us who only knew John Muir
by the records he engraved on the
rocks, the lofty heights, the trees,
the valleys-everywhere in the wild,
ne takes on thought a colossal intel
lectual stature.
He was child of nature and the
love he gave his wild mother exalted
him.
He loved to get in the wake of
a glacier and tell of all the changes
1t had made in its long journey, and
how nature had covered it's trail with
verdure and flowers.
He roamed weaponless through the
widest and most inaccessible retreats
OF the mountains, but no wild beast
ever disturbed him. His theory was
that the fierest of them were friend
ly when they found man who wish
ed them no harm and was not afraid,
and they were in accord with him.
Had he been chained to civiliza-
tion one of two things would have
happened. He would either have
beaten his life out in longing for
the unattainable, or would have
broken out into song that would have
been higher and clearer and sweeter
than was ever seen before. His pen
pictures of nature are all prose
poems
His simple narratives are framed
in words that are an enchantment
to read.
1t is said he was finished scholar,
but the truth is they did him little
good after he had learned to read
and write. 1t was from his post
graduate course in the hills that he
drew his wisdom, or rather we
should say, that placed his mind in
full accord with all that was grand
and high in nature and gave him the
inspiration to tell what he saw in a
diction beyond the compass of any
school to teach.
It was from such a soul as his that
the savage's idea of heaven that
would be never-ending hunting
ground was evolved.
His death is a great loss. Cali
fornia, should give him burial in
Yosemite valley, near great rock
and near a waterfall near which the