be highly respected because the Muses dwelt within him, and the Oregon press could ring with the names of a man and his wife from an humble cabin in Can- yon City, their unhappiness in public focus on account of their gift of song; a freshman at the University of Oregon could complain of being kept awake until four in the morning by two sophomore roommates quoting poetry in competition; the Lariat, Colonel E. Hofer's extraordinary poetry magazine, could flourish for several years at Salem; and in 1935 the Oregon City chamber of commerce could jealously rebut the rumor that Edwin Markham's birthplace was on Abiqua Creek.
Is it not indeed by long tradition a happy, happy land for literature, for poetry and for the making of poets—for the making of poets good and bad, since, through the years and by whatever meagerness of ratio, a blessed few will be good; for the making of minor poets in quantity, since, if there are favorable conditions for producing numerous minor ones, some of them in such a nurturing environment will find enough special sun and air to become major ones? Is not this sound doctrine? Else why do gifted individuals spring from folk literature, folk music and folk art? Why are the great poets to be found oftenest in the place and the age where there are the most poets of every sort? Has it not been true of Oregon, out of which, as has been previously stated, have come three men who have given American literature three of its great poems—"Columbus," "Beautiful Willamette," "The Man With the Hoe."
In this chapter are included four of the best known
