its 40 pages of 8-point type—"Sounds by the Western Sea", given by the author as a commencement poem at Willamette University on June 17, 1872; "The Legend of Tillamook"; "A Message from the Sea", written in 1871; "Song of the Willamette", written in 1871; "Legend of the Cascades"; and "The Sailor's Grave".
It was printed by "Clarke & Craig, Willamette Farmer Office, Salem, Oregon."
In his "Introductory", he said:
This pamphlet is published for no other purpose than to be able to present to publishers and critics the easiest means to judge of the ability of the writer.
Should my efforts be deemed of sufficient value to warrant their continuance, I may devote myself, more or less, to literary pursuits in the future; and should they find no appreciation from those to whose favor I thus commit them, they will, at least, have served to interest me and employ me during weary months when I was an invalid, and unable to follow the busy round of daily journalism.
I offer these desultory efforts as specimens of what I have done, not as tests of what I can do. Such as they are, they have flowed from my pen freely, and have seemed to come unasked.
I have carried freshly in my memory, for many years, the legends peculiar to Oregon and its primitive race. My home has been here for nearly a quarter of a century.
My fears almost mock the hope that, at the age of forty-five, I can lay down my pen as a journalist to win success in more graceful paths of literature. I scarce dare hope so much.
I confide these specimens to their fate as I would launch a frail bark on uncertain waters.
S. A. CLARKE.
SALEM, OREGON, NOVEMBER 1, 1872.
One editor responded to this method of submitting
