Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/710

 fiction. Charles Applegate wrote and published some tales of western life, which he carefully concealed from those who might recognize them. The list of this class of authors is short. I do not know where to turn for another among the founders of Oregon literature. Every college and academy had its literary society, and often they published some small monthly or bi-monthly journal, the contributions to which may be classed with school exercises rather than with deliberate authorship.

Mrs Belle W. Cooke of Salem wrote some graceful poems, and published a small volume under the title of Tears and Victory. Mrs Cooke was mother of one of Oregon's native artists, Clyde Cooke, who studied in Europe, and inherited his talent from her. Samuel A. Clarke of Salem, author of Sounds by the Western Sea, and other poems, wrote out many local legends in verse, with a good deal of poetical feeling. See legend of the Cascades, in Harper's Magazine, xlviii., Feb. 1874, 313–19. H. C. Miller, better known as Joaquin Miller, became the most widely famous of all Oregon writers, and has said some good things in verse of the mountains and woods of his state. It is a pity lie had not evolved from his inner conscious ness some loftier human ideals than his fictitious characters. Of all his pictures of life, none is so fine as his tribute to the Oregon pioneers, under the title of Pioneers of the Pacific, which fits California as well.

Miller married a woman who as a lyrical poet was fully his equal; but while he went forth free from their brief wedded life to challenge the plaudits of the world, she sank beneath the blight of poverty, and the weight of woman's inability to grapple with the human throng which surges over and treads down those that faint by the way; therefore Minnie Myrtle Miller, still in the prime of her powers, passed to the silent land. Among the poets of the Willamette Valley, Samuel L. Simpson deserves a high rank, having written some of the finest lyrics contributed to local literature, though his style is uneven. A few local poems of merit have been written by Mrs F. F. Victor, who came to Oregon by way of San Francisco in 1865, and published several prose books relating to the country. It seems most natural that all authorship should be confined to topics concerning the country, its remoteness from literary centres and paucity of population making it unlikely that any thing of a general interest would succeed. This consideration also cramps all intellectual efforts except such as can be applied directly to the paying professions, such as teaching, medicine, and law, and restricts publication so that it does not fairly represent the culture of the people, which crops out only incidentally in public addresses, newspaper articles, occasionally a pamphlet and at long intervals a special book. I allude here to such publications as Mullan's Overland Guide, Drew's Owyhee Reconnaissance, Condon's Report on State Geology, Small's Oregon and her Resources, Dufur's Statistics of Oregon, Deady's Wallamet vs. Willamette, and numerous public addresses in pamphlet form, to contributions to the Oregon pioneer association's archives, Victor's All Over Oregon and Washington, Murphy's State Directory, Gilisan's Journal of Army Life, and a large number of descriptive publications in paper covers, besides monographs arid morceaux of every descripton.

The number of newspapers and periodicals published in Oregon in 1880, according to the tenth census, was 74, against 2 in 1850, 16 in 1860, and 35 in 1870. Of these, 7 were dailies, 59 weeklies, 6 monthlies, 1 semi-monthly, and 1 quarterly. A few only of these had any particular significance. The Astorian, founded in 1872 by D. C. Ireland, on account of its excellence as a commercial and marine journal, should be excepted. The Inland Empire of The Dalles is also deserving of mention for its excellence in disseminating useful information on all topics connected with the development of the country. The West Shore, a Portland monthly publication, founded in August 1875 by L. Samuels, grew from an eight-page journal to a magazine of from twenty to thirty quarto pages, chiefly local in character, and profusely illustrated with cuts representing the scenery and the architectural improvements of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. The locality longest without a newspaper was Coos Bay, which, although settled early