Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/268

 abrupt and business-like manner. All the time I knew him he kept this same manner. Of course, I knew him only in a business way, and then it was always "Hello" and "Goodbye." But I didn't have much time to be bothered about the social side in those days, what with struggling to get along in my little business, and a fine baby at home getting a new tooth every once in a while. The ninety-six dollars for Specimens and the one hundred and ninety- two dollars for Joaquin, Et A I. interested me most of all. By the way, what he paid me for this latter book wasn't all it cost. He paid McCormick's one hundred dollars to have it fancily bound.

In my diary here for April the 7th, 1868, I have:

Very busy. Printing a short pamphlet of "choice" poetry.

On the 11th, I have:

Finished printing for C. H. Miller. Made 56 pages. Glad it's out of the way. You see I only mentioned matters of real importance in this Diary. My baby's new incisors were of much greater moment to me. Furthermore, Joaquin had not yet an aura of fame around his name.

Miller had five hundred copies of each of these books made. He displayed them in the store of S. J. McCormick. The price was fifty cents. Little attention was given to them. I had fifty copies of the first edition of Joaquin, Et Al. but I gave them all away. They are extremely scarce because in '72 the store of S. J. McCormick burned and about half of the books with it. And then the manuscripts themselves—they were very raw. Miller didn't write a readable hand and I would have to guess a great deal. I showed my relish for all this work in my Diary of March 22, 1869:

Usual work and just as busy as I care to be. Began work on Cincinnatus [Hiner] Miller's poem—Joaquin.

Looking back a good many years later—in the year 1918, in fact, I made an interesting note in my Diary:

Had I supposed that Miller would achieve world-wide fame as a poet when I was setting up his wretched manuscript I would have