Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/272

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

that are

born, not made, and with experience and study, Judge Mil ler will rank among the first poets of the age. He is worthy to be crowned laureate of Oregon. We cannot give a lengthy notice of each poem, but will briefly say that the little vol ume is full of sweet flowing numbers and beautiful imagery. Judge Miller is well and favorably known to the citizens of this place and county. Here he received his early education, and here his muse first sung. His many school mates and friends of this place will receive "Joaquin et al" to their fire sides as a precious gem from one who possesses a warm and noble heart, and who merits a niche in history among the immortal bards. We welcome "Joaquin et al" to our sanc tum. High honor it was in his own country, and does it not appear that it was Eugene City rather than Lon don that first discovered him—only the London dis covery had more weight and influence? After the lat ter city made him famous, the same paper that con tained all this praise and prophesy, the Eugene City Guard, reprinted on August 12, 1871, from the Al bany Democrat, an editorial of merciless attack, under the caption "Such is Fame ! " C. H . Miller, ex-editor of the Eugene Register, and ex- County Judge of Grant County, has published a book of poems and become a man of fame in London. The fact makes us think no more of Miller, but much less of the Lon doners. During the time that he was connected with the Register, he published one or more serial stories under his own name and called them original. They were, however, stolen bodily from some of the flash publications of that day. Plagiarism was palpable and audacious. For particulars, we refer the curious to the files of the paper named, of, if we mistake not, the year 1862, in the Librarian's office at Salem. After his marriage, which took place in the year named, and