The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 9, 1898, Page 17

JOAQUIN MILLER HAS BUILT HIS OWN FUNERAL PYRE Has Invited His Neighbors to Be Cremated in t M OAQUIN MILLER has just co: his own fune . With a to the wide wo ation, but the scattered to t > a few friends ashes scattered for her body part s of nature. re. d the blue four winds fror ted on the Heights. carved on a rock is all that tells h 1 of the Sierras has designed to conne The place is It | gainst ndulat hollow in. s and mpleted the granite pile which will be poet’s generous heart he has published is not designed solely for his own cre- ing may make use of it and have his 1 the same spot. The only restric- ass band with the corpse,” and “Don’t come in car- r pertinent reasons for these restrictions you will find in the ace ticle who object to cremation and prefer burial may select a plat and T d. The brass band and carrfage restrictions hold burial as in the case of cremation. that a woman has go she expressed a When she died carried out her wishes. story. of a harmonious arc ctural composi- t his place with the omposed of gentle undulat- of the poet to Some tin >n a funeral py: and religiously e one beyond the monur will rise a pyramid to a tower of Robert Browning. The why and wherefore s lucidly explained below by the poet. just finished | We w up the shaded avenue alke skirted the hill to the level spot monument stands. all this way the ‘Bishop’s Path,’ ” which i the poet. “After Bishop t it now and then of Africa, who pronounced a nding road, & ictifon here. After I bought this > broad exp: place the very first thing I did was to select the spot for this monument. Then I sent for mother. She does not like the idea of cremation so close beside the monument she has picked out as the pot for her grave. Hush! These r trees are the sentinels that guard the wa 0 the pyre. Walk slowly and solemn! I fell into his measured, funereal pace without a word. In absolute ilence we reached the monument. Three steps lead up to it. Near by is | & small bowlder on which, degd black against the ash-colored stone, stand out the word “To the Gr at Unknown.” But| The stones of “the monument are eccen- | square-cut and neatly cemented to- | And the | gether. Standing on the highest step | I looked down into the crater-like top A of the monument, where will be piled S 2 the wood to reduce the soulless frames the Sterras” 1y- | yo ashes. with furs and “And you wish to be cremated here?” s e four walls of the | I asked. roor >d _with photographs | Joaquin Miller silently and slowly and m plerodicals. #OVer " pointed out across the waters of the Gen, Fremont naming the Golden Gate from The Heights, Joaquin 'iHer’s Home. either end hung ing to them. Be- side the be »od a bureau and a chair. The floor v are of covering. alone that I have built this pyre. All The of the “Sierras” observed | the people in the wide ‘world are wel- my puzzled 1 ind said: “When I |come to have their lald to rest first bought this place I had a number | here. All 1 ask is that they do not of ‘Portuguese at work here for me. I1|come in carriages. Let the friends built them this chapel for their 0- tion Behind those curtains are the altars where burned the candles to ‘Our Lad I use this for my room now. The cottage on the right there,” and he indicated a structure near by, “I have given to Nagvuchi, the Japanese poat. The cottage on the left my daughter occupies and the little house on the mother’s.” monuments?”’ Joaquin Miller looks at me under shaggy brows with a direct gaze. “Yes, I will tell you a bout them,” he says, finally. ‘“But first, go talk to the flowers and birds s with an air of past | From an original painting. | bay toward the beautiful Golden Gate gleaming in tle far distance. “Yes, in sigkt of all this beauty,” he answered. “But it Is not for myself carry the corpse to the funeral pyre. A carriage is hard on a live man let alone a corpse. And there are other ways to get a man to his grave besides with a brass band. Dead men need no carriages; very few living men re- quire them. I do not ask that they | be cremated. i there are people who are averse to cremation they can be buried on this slope. The Vanderbilts and Mackeys have built beautifui tombs for themselves. Why cannot a poor man build a pyre that is not only for himself, but all others who wish to come? for an hour and then I'll take you up| “When I first bought this place there there. T want to finish some work.” was a lady here. a friend of mine. She, On the stroke of the hour he ap-| 400, wished to be cremated on this peared. In to his high-top boots he |Spot. Later she went to Paris and died had tucked his faded blue trousers, :111(-re. 1 had her remains brought out Over a gray flannel shirt was a tan- | here and quietly burned. Her ashes colored corduroy velvet vest and in|lie at the foot of this monument for placeof a belt the ends of a crimson | it as not then finished. cloth sash §flaunted proudly in the| When asked her name the poet rev- bry Ove a bear skin a shotgun. 2. his back he had thrown nd in his hand he carried From under his-big black slouch hat es.aped his long, light- brown hair streaked with gray. The long beard and mustache were entirely white. Why the on such a da b Kin? Why the gun, ch a place as this? :Iif when bang! a ¥ dead in the pathway. The carrying of the gun was thus realistically justified. The crimson sash, the heavy bearskin flung over the shoulder, the diamond ring, gift of an Indian prince, gleaming on a little finger, these oddities seem to fit the man as easily and lightly as his vears. erently removed his hat and silently pointed to the bowlder. I read my answer there: Great Unknown.” From the funeral pyre, a monument as the poet calls it, we walked to the apex ~“ the next hill, where stands the half-completed pyramid to Moses. “What suggested this?” I asked. “The law of eternal harmonies, Not¢ the shape of the hill and that of the | pyramid. See how the contour of the one suggests the other. I had to buila the pyramid, for ever since I came here this pyramid-shaped hiil has kept say- ing to me, ‘Finish me.” The world will “To the pyramid? “What in the midst lay but the Tower itself? The round squat turret, blind as the fool's heart, Bullt of brown stone, without a counter- part In the whole world. The tempest’s mock- ing el Polmsh tlo the shipman thus the unseen shel He sticks on, only when the timbers start.” Over to the right stands the huge pile of stones where General Fremont, the Pathfinder, and his party camped. From these stones Fremont reviewed the noble stretch of water lighted by the setting sun, and s0 aptly named it “The Golden Gate.” A natural spring of water gushes from the rocks. Mrs. Fremont has positively identified this spot as the camping ground of her hus- band’s party. And now very fittingly it belongs to the Poet of the Sierras. He owns likewise the life-size ofl paint- ing of Fremont, painted by Jewett in 1852. There was not an inch of canvas “On the topmost peak of all I shall build a round tower to Robert Brown- ing. His poem ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came!’ suggested the idea of a round tower. in San Francisco at the time, so a French linen tablecloth from one of the steamers was secured. The diamond- shaped squares of the pattern show plainly through the paint. The picture Pl Interview with was bought by a Californian for a big sum of money. Afterward it drifted South, where it remained until long after the late war. Finally it fell into the hands of Frank McCoppin, who gave it to Joaquin Miller. All, this the poet told me to the tink- ling ‘accompaniments of the silvery spring that bubbles forth from the rocks. “Don’t say I am building a monu- ment to Fremont,” he said. “The good God built a mighty one when he put these rocks here. I shall only finish it up a little and carve a name—that is all. “The stones and rocks that I shall use for the walls, towers and monu- ments would otherwise incumber the fields and prevent the cattle from hav- ing good grazing ground.” ‘We walked back to the funeral pyre. “With my own hands,” continued the poet, “I planted the trees on this place to cover the nakedness of Mother Earth. Twelve years ago I put in the first stone of this monument. I have still three other monuments to finish, but this one is ready for me and for B R R R R R O R O R R O OO CR R OR A R R e R R O ORORORORCIOOR I VRO RO RO RO OROS PeOOOOOPOPOOES B R R R R R R R R R R R R R R RN R CRORORCRORCRCRCRONCY never know, the world will never admit | ing army in the world; her peace es- how much it owes Moses, 8o to whom | tablishment comprises nearly a million could I.more f{ittingly dedicate the!of men; and I confess l.t_ is difficult: for The Czar's Peace Union and the Anglo-American Alfiance. By Sir Charles Dilke. ONDON, Oct. 1.—Great Britain, the country which has always and consistently stood for peace, is the one in which the Czar’s peace mani- festo has attracted the least attention, favorably or otherwise. In Paris thé mention of the man whose name two years ago was received with almost worshipful enthusiasm is now treated with contempt, and the pa- pers everywhere refer to the manifesto as the Czar's encyclical. In England there is no contempt and likewise no enthusiasm for the Czar’s peace pro- gramme. The Peace Society has, of course, received the message with de- light, which it has promptly expressed, but the public men who have given utterance to an opinion on the subject have been for the most part decid- edly unfavorable to England’s participation in any such conference as that proposed by the Czar. ¥ : Sir Charles Dilke is the latest of these to give expression of his views. i‘\t his house in Sloane street the other day he presented the matter as fol- ows: > me to understand any necessity for this overwhelming force. There is no geo- graphical or military necessity for it, so far as Is apparent. Therefore It would seem that the empire of the Czar is in an excellent position to show the world her new ideas in actual operation. Yet, almost coincidental with the issu- ing of the manifesto, comes news of an enlargement of Russian military P Special to The Sunday Call. T has suggested itself to me that Russia should be the first power to illustrate her proposed pro- gramme in this Universal Peace _Union. She has the largest stand- - den change Is to be attributed it is of all who choose to join me: @ @ ‘ PPPPOO000 O plas which makes the prospect of the peace programme seem dubious, to say the least. But of course if such a suggestion as this were to be made to the world it is eminently fitting that Russia_should make it. She is the ally of France, whereas if the manifesto had come from Germany, whose attitude has more than suggested it on several occasions, it might have appeared as hostile to France; in other words as a plan.to make France acquiesce in Germany’'s permanent possession of Alsace. Still there is something curious about the way this peace manifesto came. The change of front on the part of Nicholas II, which it indicates, reminds one of Lord Salisbury’s sudden flop on the occasion of the Venezuelan dispute with the United States. It is hardly four months since the Czar was con- sidering, if not counseling, a directly opposite idea—that of combining an enormous increase of Russian naval forces with an increase of his vast standing army. To what occult influences the sud- he Same Place Provided They Do Not Bring Brass Bands and Carrlages. The Stone Funeral Pyre is Only One of a Group of onuments Intended to Harmonize With the Natural Beauties of the Home Site. g Joaquin Miller. “I want to rid the world of the hid- eousness- of funerals. Why litter the beautiful face of the earth with grave- yards? With me it shall be a brilliant blaze, lighting the hillside for a mo- ment and then all will be over. ‘“‘Cremation has its economical value. The cost at the utmost will be $2.” «] sent to Paris and had her body brought on here. It wasburned on this spot according to her last wishes.” Then the poet looked calmly down from the heights and said: “If I could only rid the world of all this rot—ec- centricity!” And yet when I passed the people in the valley below him, they said: “Even the poet's cows and chickens are ec- centric!” Then L am perhaps the oldest tion. Moses don’'t need a monument. If he old ones on the Nile. As for the “Browning Tower,” I be angry. It is such.a little tower. As for the “Fremont,” I want to Redwood Peak, a park some day, to shall I along. years ago. I dm going to make it ab have had but for the monuments. my pretty cows eccentric any more. they’'re only cows after all. POOPOPOOPOPPPOPOOIOOS coursé impossible to say. Two causes suggest themselves, both of which may be more or less concerned. One of these is the almost unprecedented influence of the present Russian Minister of Finance and his counsels of caution.as a result of the great drain of the Si- berian railroad on the national treas- ury. The second influence may not im- probably be traced to the disastrous harvests which have been experienced in Russia for the past two or three years. Were England disposed to accept the suggestion of disirmament she would find her position a complicated one. In the first place there is the Indian army. It is necessary to maintain depots for it in England, and these could not at present be decreased. Aside from this, England’s land forces are not large if we count out those actually engaged in campaign duty in Africa, or abso- lutely necessary for garrison work else- where. ‘Were disarmament attempted to be extended to maval as well as to land forces, there would be many practical difficulties in the way. The number, size and resources of the existing fleets of all the powel:rcannot be stereotyped. Every proposed change offers room for great conflict of opinion, and this, if carried into action, might.indeed be the P basis for new wars. Therefore, it ap- - = OU ask me why the towers, tombs, the first place the old, pretty purpose of making grass one and so on. You see the cows and I are together in this. world, at least this portion of it, prettier. and many good men have had honest work to do which they might not Now that is all; only please don't call Joaquin [liller Tells Why He Built the Pyre. monuments, ete? two Well, in blades of living advocate in print of crema- As for the little graveyard, I wish to emancipate the poor from the ghoulish undertaker and costly corporations. Of course did we might give him one of the I need a pyramid though to get the stones off the = grass, and I also need a name for it—hence the pyramid of Moses. liked the man and hop® he will not have all this region, including be called Fremont Park. Anyhow I have not wasted either time, strength or money, nor The once rough and unsightly ground is worth ever so much more with the stones gathered up, and then I want tq teach a lesson as I go This was the ugliest piece of ground you ever set foot upon a dozen out the prettiest. I have made the I have had pleasant diversion They are honest, good cows, but JOAQUIN MILLER. PP000PP0O0000000Q00 S pears that any formal agreement ar- rived at by the proposed conference might be a great—I may even say a dangerous—mistake. It is not logical or rational to look for a sudden trans- formation of improvement in the exist- ing status of things from such a the- oretical arrangement. Of course some decrease of the enormous pressure of taxes in several of the Continental countries may be secured by the gen- eral friendly conference of the great powers; and this, too, might be of value incidentally in the way of a better un- derstanding petween all the nations, which would be the prelude of a hap- pier era in the domain of international relations. As for England, she has her own problems to work out. These she is trying to meet in her own way. Her situation is considerably different from that of any of the Continental powers, and would scarcely-he improved by any agreement !nm\whlch she could enter with them. Now, touching the Anglo-American alliance in this connection, that is a difficult question to answer, because in the usual understanding of the phrase, such an alliance presupposes a union entered into in view of wars or other dangers, which may_menace one or both parties. This sort of an alli- ance I do not believe to be at all prob- Continued on Page Eighteen.