Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — MID FRUIT TREES AND ROSES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MID FRUIT TREES AND ROSES.

Th© Poet of th© Siernu Lives Simply and ('lose to Nature*. Near the summit of the green hills which half inclose the city of Oakland, on an eminence from which one may look across the bay, with its ferry-boats shuttling to and fro, upou the Golden Gaie of Ban Francisco, and thence beyond where the white sails slime upon the waters of the Pacific—there, iu a garden spot of Nature, lives Joaqum Miller, the quaint and simple poet of the Sierras. Hamlin Garland, the poet and author, has recently visited Miller, and tells us many interesting things concerning the poet and his peculiar, yet beautiful, habits of life, ills home consists of a series of lour cottages, in wh ch he lives with his aged mother and brothers. The cottages stand in the center of a terraced fruit farm, with roses growing all about them, and the eye of the poet ever rests upon fruit trees, flowers, the mountains on one side and the valley and the waters on the other. Miller believes in individual freedom in living; he thinksmost families live too close together, and so, ius' ead of one large bouse, he has built four little ones. In one lives h's mother, where all dine together. In another he himself sleeps and writes; the third is lor his brothers, and the fourth for his guests. The doors of his cottage are never shut, and the air in the rooms is as pure as that of the woods. The walls are covered autograph letters, newspaper scraps, and prlntsof thefacdsof his friends. A saddle hangs in the corner, bearskins and wolfskins cover the chairs and Jie on the floor as rugs. Miller loves the woods and mountains. He was born in Indiana woods, when a child niado the overland Journey through the Rockies and his

boyhood was spent in the forests of Oregon. His belief Is that If Christ were to return to this earth He would not live In a great house in the roar of a city, attended by servants —It would be impossible for Him. He would live near to Nature, would serve Himself to be served by those who loved Him. Miller believes that the one positive law of God to man was this: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” He believes that if this law were absolutely carried out, all inequality, all grinding toil, all the hurry and bitterness and insecurity of life here on earth would vanish. He is an indefatigable worker. Ho took this piece of land when it was nothing but barren hillside, incredibly sterile and rocky. With the work of his own bands he led the water down from the canyon, lie has terraced the hillsides, built stone walls, hollowed out trout ponds and planted orchards of olives and walnut trees. His habit Is to drive away at his writing in the forenoon, while In the afternoon he works with .the man to whom he has given a part of his plough land in payment for assistance in the other work about the orchard. Thus it will be seen he has much the same idea expressed by Tolstoi as he walks behind his Russian harrow.

JOAQUIN MILLER AT HOME.