rhymes set up, make a big book, and fire it right at the head
of these stolid Britons."
A hundred copies of Pacific Poems were printed at his own
expense. Several years ago, a Portland book collector found a
local woman who owned a copy. She finally consented to
trade it to him for Paisley shawl, which he was to buy new
for her in New York City, and which he knew would cost
about $45. When he returned she had died, he afterwards
bought the books she left, but Pacific Poems was no longer
among them ! In the heydey of book prices another copy was
listed at $800.
Songs of the Sierras published by a great London publishing
house. Reviews praised him to the skies. He was famous.
Meanwhile, as the widening echoes of that fame reached
Oregon, the women of Oregon, the Oregon newspapers, and,
most of all, Minnie Myrtle Miller let the public know what
kind of a person he really was. "...
glory flooded from Eu
rope and shame from the sensational branch of the press in
the West."
1871- Back in San Francisco and Oregon.
1872
In San Francisco,
in the fall of 1872, Minnie Myrtle
Miller gave two lectures on his private life. The report of
the second one, reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle
of November 13, was spread in two and a quarter columns
over the front page of the Oregon State Journal of Eugene
City, in the issue of November 23, 1872, the reporter's first
paragraph being as follows:
"Mrs. Minnie Myrtle Miller delivered her second lecture
on 'Joaquin Miller, the Poet and the Man' to an audience
of about three hundred persons in Pacific Hall last evening.
The lecture was delivered in a clear ringing tone, and abound
ed in most delicate satire. Her sarcastic allusions to her illus
trious and romantic liege were highly appreciated by her
hearers, and so sharp and cutting was the vein of wit and
satire running all through it that the audience was kept in
continual smiles and good humor. Punctually at 8 o'clock the
lecturess emerged from the waiting-room and ascended the
rostrum with a quick, decisive step. Her appearance was
greeted with applause, which she acknowledged with a grate
ful bow. She was attired in a modest dress of black silk, with
white lace mauve, and a delicate pink knot at her throat. Her
hair fell in flowing curls down her back and shoulders and
her hands were encased in white kid gloves. "
1871.
1871-
