The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-04
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director,
Washington, D. G.
HoNoRING THE POET OF THE
WEST.

washington, ID. c., July SO.-
Joaquin Miller, the picturesque poet
of the west, is to be immortalized in
Westinghouse far as a bronze bust
unveiled with speeches and songs can
immortalize a man.
A good many people have come to
regard Joaquin Miller as one of the
greatest American poets. The British
acclaimed him as such during his life
time, perhaps because they read his
poetry before they became acquainted
with the man. Over here, attention
that he liked to live alone in a cabin
in the mountains; that he preferred to
build the cabin himself; that he wore
a long beard like that of Moses in the
famous Michael Angelo painting, and
that he wore it because he admired
Moses and the painting; that he at
tended reception in England in
/, overalls. These and many other BIZ
zarre tales America heard about
Joaquin Miller, and his poetry be-
came, for most people, only another
manifestation of a strange personality
such as his addiction to top boots.
Like Walt Whitman and other
strongly individualistic poets, Miller
will probably always be subject OF
controversy. But California, his adopt
ed state, has begun to realize that
Joaquin Miller understood, better
1 perhaps than any other poet, the
| beauty, terror and romance of the
pioneer west, and that the record pre-
served in his poems is a valuable
heritage.
The California society in Washing
lton paid tribute to Joaquin eight years
ago, when the poet was still alive,
when it had one of his log cabins
placed in Rock Creek park with ap-
lpropriate ceremony.
This cabin Joaquin had built when
he spent some time in the capital on
his return from Europe. He located
spot in a sufficiently rustic corner OF
the city, and made his cabin of stones
left over from the Washington monu-
ment and timber from Rock Creek
park. After he left this residence for
his California mountain home, the
section around the cabin was built up
Into city squares, and as Joaquin was
ALWAYS associated with nature un.m-
proved, the California society ar
ranged to have the cabin placed in
clearing by Rock creek:
Here the bust of the poet is to be
placed. Gertrude Boyle. the sculptor.
who has modelled the heads of John
Muir, Luther Burbank and other
famous westerners, is the only person
who ever modelled joaquin while he
Twas alive.
/ She has three studies of him. one
of which she is to have cast in bronze
for the memorial.
! Miss Boyle, who has just been in
Washington to see the place where the
memorial is to be located, told the
writer how she went to Joaquin's Cali
fornia mountain retreat on The
Heights overlooking Oakland. She
went to model him, but he urged her
to make bust of his mother at once.
He seemed so impatient to have his
mother modelled that Miss Boyle set
tied down in one of the mountain
cabins near by and went to work, and
the bust was completed just before
Mrs. Miller died.
Then the sculptor stayed on in the
little colony of artists, writer's. and
people who, wanting quiet, had COLI
lected in the half dozen cabins near
the poet. For eight years she stayed.
and during that time she had ample
opportunity to study and model him.
Typical Outdoor Statue.
The bust, which is to be placed IN
the National Capital, shows the poet
in the familiar sombrero hat with his
flowing beard and keen eyes. The
lines of a coat over one shoulder are
suggested to represent the elk's hide
coat he often wore slung over his
shoulders. The face is careful like
ness. Aside from that the bust gives
the impression of rough, simply cut
lines. 1t is typically an outdoor stat
ue, heroic in size. and most impressive
from a short distance. Miss Boyle
says she tried to make her statue sug-
gestive of the elemental outdoor type
of man that Joaquin was.
He never posed for Miss Boyle con-
sciously. They talked and read to-
gether-at one period she read the en-
tire Bible aloud to him. Once she saw
him fighting u forest fire that men
aced his little colony.
"He was so Intensely eager and de-
termined as he worked that day." she
says. IT watched him closely and
tried to put something of this force
and vitality that I saE-in his face into
the bust
The sculptor saw him in entirely
different mood when he entertained
the steady stream of visitors. He
would throw on his elk'S hide coat or
fur skin around his shoulders and
put on an Indian headdress or some of
his other curious souvenirs and stand
in front OF his cabin to greet strangers
and admirers who came to pay their
respects or to satisfy their curiosity.
''They expect me to look unusual.
and I won't disappoint them" he
when they inquired why he went to
the trouble of dressing up"
Sometimes he would further enter
tain a sensation seeker by a joke in
which he particularly delighted. If it
was a hot, dry day he would say that
he was going to pray to the rain god
for rain, and into a chapel-like room
of his cabin he would fead the wonder
ing visitor. Then he would mourn
fully chant an Indian song or prayer
with weird gestures. Soon the sound
of rain could be clearly heard on the
tin roof, and Miller would announce
that the rain god had answered him.
Dramatically he would throw open the
door to show the rain pouring down
among the cherry trees before the
house.
How He Made Rain.
The rain was aIvyavs of brief diJra-
ton because it was produced by a.
spout arrangement similar to the rain
storms produced in the movies. One
of Niller's characteristics was to keep
his head always covered.
81 wanted to make a bust showing
the magnificent dome of his forehead"
says Miss Boyle, but he always wore
| a broad brimmed hat or a cap or some