[Letter to William Trout.]

• Main Author: Trout, W. H.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1916
• Subjects: John Muir; Bibliography; Kimes; William F. Kimes; Maymie B. Kimes; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; naturalist; annotation; Arctic; Canada; Knowles; Milky Way; Pacific; Protector; Theodore; Two Brothers; glacier*; glaciers; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/384; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=jmb

ΓÇö*s?'l% 120 Trout Family History In due time, when the wheat crop was harvested and known to be by far the finest and most abundant of all the previous years and the price also good, you may be sure there was a thankful and happy people, who never afterwards had a renewal of any thing approaching that trying year's experience. From the foregoing the reason will be manifest why I was diverted from my preaching purpose formed at Williamsville. Paul was under necessity to preach. My necessity lay another way. I was the oldest son and my father's namesake, so I must stand for his honor and the family interest. My known efficient line of work was mechanics, which evidently I must continue. Edward was my second in the same purpose but ahead of me in money efficiency, toward its accomplishment. No one blamed John for striking out for himself, it was the best course in his judgment and was so respected. He soon after married and went to Toronto. To start a nice little business like the manufacture of rakes, without a knowledge of it, or money to meet the cost, simply studying it out, and inventing and making the cheap machinery to accomplish the work, which successfully met the needs of the trade, and helped to carry the family and others through a severe crisis, all in about eight or nine months, was deservedly regarded as no small creditable accomplishment. Based on the experience already gained, and some knowledge of the methods of other manufacturers, we proceeded to replace, as fast as we could, our temporary machinery for something more efficient and stable. Cast and wrought iron took the place of wood, old processes with their machines were discarded for those more effective and economical. This course was kept up for two or three years. The carding and cloth-dressing machines were disposed of, which gave more space for our new work. Also an addition was built which doubled the capacity of the shop, and the business was placed on something like a permanent footing. When our friends would want an afternoon's holiday, they would come to see and admire our (to them) wonderful shop. In the year 1861, the heirs of Wm. Laycock, from whom father purchased the mill property, began to press for the o X -. 2016-05-31 2016-05-31 http://cdm16745.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/p16745coll2/id/2280 2280 2281.jp2 /p16745coll2/image/2281.jp2The Coming of the Muirs 121 final payments, and we had no means to meet them; they foreclosed the mortgage, and took possession of the property and ran the saw mill, leaving us the free use of our shop, and second^ claim on the use of the water power, and the liberty of cutting hardwood lumber on the land. This arrangement continued two years, and Charles Hugh Jay and myself formed a new company, Trout & Jay, to carry on the business of harvest tools and other articles of similar manufacture. About the same time, the Laycock family found they were running the mill at a constant financial loss; so they quit working it, and offered the property for sale. Receiving no offer, they again offered it to us on such favorable terms that it was repurchased by Trout & Jay, who at once began arranging for a more thorough and systematic conduct of the business, with prospects of a fair degree of success. THE COMING. OF THE MUIRS About this time (1863), on one midsummer day, a grownup beardless boy called at our mill applying for work. I asked him how he came to look for work with us in our secluded valley. He replied that he had tried all over town to get work and failed, and was advised by several that our place was the likeliest to find it. I told him our spring rush was over, and we had then nothing for him to do. His fine, boyish face and frank open manners interested me. I said to him, "You are evidently a stranger in this part of the country?" "Yes," he replied, "I am; my brother and I are students from Wisconsin University at Madison, and we are spending the summer vacation here in Canada botanizing." A couple of my farmer customers were standing by, and that big new word "Botanizing" aroused their curiosity. "What's that?" "Why," 1 said, "the boys are examining and studying the different kinds of plants." "What for? For medicine?" "No! but for knowledge." They looked bewildered, but said no more. He explained that his brother and he found it best to separate for a while, and meet again at a certain town, but somehow they failed making connections, and each was no doubt hunting the other; also his money was about all gone, and he must 66 iff 122 Trout Family History find work till he could get word from home or from his brother. I again regretfully told him I had no work, nor could I tell him where he would get it. He left, and in the evening I was surprised to find him working for the man who was running the sawmill. I said to him, "I am glad you got a job." "Oh, just working for my board." "Is that all ? Why, you come with us, you'll get better board and at least a dollar a week." "Thank you, I shall be glad to do so." So I soon introduced Mr. Daniel Muir, of Portage, Wisconsin, to my sister-housekeeper, and he soon became to us, not a needy young tramp, but a most welcome companionable guest. He remained with us about six weeks; then through a few home communications his brother was finally located, and he left us to join him, and they continued their journeyings for a couple of months longer until winter was likely to set in, and snow would cover up nearly all of the plant life. They had not returned to the Wisconsin University because of a positive order from their parents that Dan should remain in Canada while the military draft was enforced in the northern United States, and John, his elder brother, being of manhood age, was urgently requested to remain with him. While John's feelings did not coincide with their wish, yet especially for his mother and Dan's sake, he complied. So now on the approach of winter, like the squirrels and marmots and bears, the great question was, "where shall we den up?" not in the inactivity of the two last mentioned animals, but with the common characteristic activity of the squirrels, the Trouts and Muirs as well. So the question was not alone, "where shall we go?" but also, "what shall we do?" (The Muirs'never knew idleness.) After John had proposed several places that fell under his observation, and were considered, Dan suggested our mill place. It would be as much like a winter den as they could find, and though the place was not our family home, yet a good part of it would be there; and that we were a studious, well-informed lively lot of boys and girls, some of them school teachers, and they were all in touch with others of the same style; and wc had a large shop in which they could likely have employment, or they could work in the woods getting out logs for the mill. The Coming of the Muirs 123 Dan's proposal carried the day. One evening, after returning from town, I met our former good boy friend, Dan Muir, who at once introduced me to his brother John, who after a few minutes of general friendly chat laid before me their situation very much as I have outlined it above; and hoped we might make some mutual good arrangement in regard to work for the winter, at least such that would be profitable to us and helpful to them. After due consideration an agreement was made, and their first work was to assist in building an addition to our shop, or rake factory as it was afterwards known. They remained with us altogether a year and one- half, or until near the close of the war, when Dan went home and John remained to complete a contract which he had entered into with us to make one thousand dozen rakes and turn thirty thousand broom handles. The broom handles were turned and stored in every available space about the factory for final seasoning, and a good start made on the rake contract, when one stormy night, near the first of March, 1866, the factory took fire; and sawmill and factory with broom handles and partly manufactured rakes all were completely destroyed, and no insurance. We had recently paid the second payment on the property, which was now forfeited. We had accounts to collect, and debts to pay, one of which would about balance the other. A good span of horses and wagon was the only firm property left to us. We settled with John Muir under the peculiar circumstances as equitably as only Christian brothers could. I don't remember the exact figures of the account, somewhere about three hundred dollars, and after paying him what cash we could scratch up, enough to carry him a good journey into the United States, he cut down the account to two hundred dollars, taking our individual promises to pay, each one hundred dollars, without time limit and without interest. A few years afterwards in San Francisco, when relating some of his experiences, he showed these notes to his friends, who derisively asked him when he expected payment. "Never mind," he replied, "those notes will be paid." Laughingly, they responded, "Won't you kindly let us know when you get the cash?" They regarded it as a 124 Trout Family History good, soft joke on John. Not long afterwards he wrote me that he was contemplating marriage, and that he never began to feel poor till he faced the calculations regarding it, and also intimated the acceptability of the promised fund. Though poor enough myself, I got together a hundred dollars and sent it to him. Muir at once showed his jibing friends the cash, and had the laugh on them, who said, "Well that is pretty good, there is one Christian conscience in the world, but that is only one, wait till we see the other paid." "That will be all right, too, one of these days," replied John, and so it subsequently proved. APPRECIATIVE REFERENCES TO JOHN MUIR The first winter of John Muir's stay with us he regarded it as likely to be the only one, so he took up no special course of study, but gave us pretty freely the benefit of his fine conversational powers. He was making acquaintances with us, and we were endeavoring to fully understand him; and when it comes to measuring up and determining the extent of the capabilities, disabilities, liabilities and various other abilities of a gifted young man, who had the advantage of about three years' university study and training, and a continuous study of nature's great book as well, it will be easy to see that we had much the hardest sizing-up job. It was easy to admire, but to understand and appreciate him required some knowledge of the subject matter of his studies and his modes of thought. Though ardently devoted to science, as well as the study of nature, yet the agnostic tendencies that had their beginning about that time found no sympathy with him. With him there was no dark chilly reasoning that chance and the survival of the fittest accounted for all things. On the contrary, that God "cared for the sparrows of the air and the lilies of the field," was something that his kindly nature could most readily understand and heartily appreciate. He examined nature with a lover's eye, and he saw not only an All-Creator, but an All- Father and Protector. In temperament and parental training between myself and he there was much in common. In my thirteenth year I read and studied Goldsmith's Natural His- Appreciative References to John Muir 125 tory, to which was added Brown's Anecdotes of Animals. Though Goldsmith could hardly be called a naturalist, yet he could write interestingly on any subject which he treated, and when I read Goldsmith I was certainly in close contact with nature and with very little else, such as the native woods and waters of Canada can exemplify. So that Goldsmith at the least helped to make me an interested observer. Not a studious, methodical systematic persistent observer like Muir, but one that had always an interested eye with regard to what was going on about me. Beside this I had from childhood a strong bent for astronomy, mastering as well as I could all accessible information regarding it. In this Muir and I more nearly mated. He was a real live inventor, while I was also so regarded, yet I felt I could not by any means take rank with him, but I was easily awarded the lead in practical mechanics, as my experience, if nothing more, would have justified. But John and I were not the only frogs in that little pond, there were others there to croak as well as we. There was Mary, our steady housekeeper, who had also been a teacher, and three other sisters, one or more of whom would come from the home farm, or the schools where they were teaching, and visit us on Saturdays along with other teachers; also my business partner, C. H. Jay, who lived with us, and Dan Muir and my brother Peter, who was a great reader and never forgot anything; all young lively intelligent people, with common aims and purposes, and yet each with his distinct individuality, which, in discussion, was often decidedly pronounced, but which rarely became ungentlemanly. If, as Garfield said, that Mark Hopkins and a good student sitting on a log would make a university, so I should think that John Muir, though himself then a student, and others learning and contributing, our log house in the mill hollow might modestly claim the same dignity. I have referred to similarity of temperament, and parental conditions and environment between Muir and myself. These would account for my tendency to invention and mechanics, as my father was at the least a good mechanic, and my ability was largely acquired; but with John it was altogether different, . sass.'*"*""1 126 Trout Family History his father was in no sense a mechanic, yet with the seeming absence of the hereditary impulse, and the usual necessary training, both of which I had, he showed himself to be a real born inventive designing mechanic. While still a small boy, he began fixing things about the house and farm, and later while still in his minority, took methodical and regular times out of each morning's sleep to construct special clocks and other intricate machines of his own original design. In this I am not dependent on his or anyone's story because I examined the constructions. When John Muir made his rake and broom handle contract with us, he also made a proposition to be given the liberty of improving the machinery as he might determine, and that he should receive therefor half the economical results of such improvement during a given period. An arrangement of this kind was entered into, and he began with our self-feeding lathe for turning rake, fork and broom handles and similar articles, which I considered nearly perfect; by rendering this more completely automatic, he nearly doubled the output of broom handles. He placed one handle in position while the other was being turned. It required great activity for him to put away the turned handle, and placed the new one in position during the turning process. When he could do this there would be eight broom handles turned in a minute. Corresponding to this I had on the floor immediately above him a machine that would automatically saw from the round log, after it was fully slabbed or rounded, eight handles per minute, but setting in the log and the slabbing process occupied about three-eighths of the time. This, with keeping saws and place in order, cut the daily output to about two thousand five hundred. John had his drawbacks in similar ways, and at best could not get ahead of the sawing. It was a delight to see those machines at work. He devised and started the construction of several new automatic machines, to make the different parts of the hand rakes, having previously submitted and discussed them with me, from which our intimacy may be judged. Appreciative References to John Muir 127 Like all others who have made much of themselves, and much for the world of humanity, Muir was a most diligent student and systematic worker. He would make inroads on his time for sleep and recreation. In fact, for the latter, there was no time allowed. What fun we had was generally caught on the fly. For him, seven hours was the allotment for sleep, that was from ten in the evening to five in the morning. The encroachments were made on the first part of the period, when the study became more especially interesting; an hour or two was not considered, and the clockwould strike eleven or twelve before retiring, but that made no difference about the rising. That was previously determined, and unalterably fixed. His bed was mounted on a cross axle, sustained by two high pedestals, one on each side, and nearer the head than the foot; so that if the foot was not held up it would fall and lie on the floor, and the bed would be reclining at an angle of about forty-five degrees. A rod screwed to the ceiling, and hooked to the foot, sustained it in the level position. At night, however, a special trigger was affixed to the rod, and sustained the bed. A string connected the trigger to his specially constructed clock, which at the determined hour, five in the morning, would pull the trigger, and release the bed, which would instantly fall, leaving the occupant in a half-upright position, with his feet on the floor. If he lay crooked in the bed, or crossways, he was apt to be rolled out sharply to the floor. Our house had only board partitions, ordinary sounds could be heard in every room; so that when John's bed fell it was a wake up signal for all in the house; but if we heard a double shock, which would be caused by a roll out, then we had the signal for a good laugh on John, and he had further jolly reminders of this at the breakfast table. Charlie (Mr. Jay) generally led off in these jibes. When the bed fell, an arm swung around, into the fingers of which had been placed a match, which in swinging, rubbed over a piece of sandpaper, and being ignited, came to rest over the wick of an oil lamp, perched in its regular place on a shelf. The lamp was thus lighted with the fall of the bed. A sponge bath in the tub was the next move, then dressing, ^.4^,1 128 Trout Family History which was followed by study, till breakfast time. Then the day was for work except the noon hours, when there was always the handy book, and place to turn to, and if there was one minute or five minutes before eating, it was used in reading; and it was the same after dinner for the remainder of the noon hour, unless some very interesting topic was started at the table that must be extended beyond the meal. MUIR IN INDIANAPOLIS Soon after the burning of our mill, as has been previously mentioned, John Muir left us, and went to Indianapolis, Indiana, and engaged with a wagon manufacturing firm; they soon discovered John's ability in fixing things, and gave him the care of all the machinery. After he had been there about four months, one day, while unlacing a belt, using the tang end of a file to pull out the laces (such as I have done hundreds of times), in which he had a hard pull with a sudden release, which allowed the strain on his arm to plant the tang of the file into the center of his right eye, causing the vitreous humor to run out, it was thought the eye was totally lost; but with highly skillful treatment, and eminent "vis naturae" or good healing force, his sight was fully recovered. An angular corner in the pupil of the eye was testimony during his lifetime of the entrance of the file. He had about one month's confinement in a dark room, and was gradually brought to the light. While in this confinement, as he remarked to me in a letter, he had the grandest opportunity for prolonged meditation. He decided that life was too short and uncertain, and time too valuable, to spend it mending belts, and sharpening saws. While he was looking after wagon-making machinery, God was making a world; and if his eyesight was spared, he would devote his time to watching the process. Accordingly, about six weeks after the accident, he settled up with his employers, paid his bills, and started a cross country journey on foot, from Indianapolis to South Carolina. He rather avoided the ordinary roads, preferring the woods, river banks and mountains, plant and general nature study being his object. At Charleston he had a weary time waiting Muir in Indianapolis 129 for money from home. South Carolina had scarcely begun to recover from the devastations of the war, food was scarce, and very limited was the money to buy. He took his abode in a half-ruined church outside the city, from which for six successive days he made his anxious journey to the post office, for the needed money that was to come from home. When it finally arrived, he continued his way southward through Florida, then over into Cuba, making the double journey through its extent; then taking in some of the West India islands, he crossed the isthmus of Panama, and took steamer for San Francisco, from thence he started for the mountains. In order to fill up his depleted exchequer, he engaged as a shepherd for a large flock of sheep, the migrations of his flock enabling him to see the country and pursue his studies, which were never lost sight of. Shortly previous to this, Yosemite valley had been discovered, and its possibilities as a great wonderland for tourists estimated. A company was formed, a stage road projected, and a hotel was to be built in the valley. The inaccessibility of the valley called for a sawmill to be built on the ground, in order to make the lumber to build the hotel. Muir was in touch with all this, and convinced the money magnates that he could build the mill, a simple structure, which, when satisfactorily completed, he ran, until the hotel was finished. Then, except for Muir's residence in it, the mill was of no further use. He had built his bachelor's den in the back end, up under the roof. It was a bed room, kitchen and dining room, as well as a naturalist's studio, and museum of botanical collections and interesting curios, natural and mechanical. It was reached by a ladder and a plank stretching across the wide space from one beam to the other. I am describing it from his letter and my sawmill knowledge. It seemed as primitive as a cliff dweller's home, yet he had city privileges. He had an acqueduct system, by which constantly clear sparkling water flowed through his room, or rather headquarters as he traveled the mountains. He now began to be known as a magazine writer and lecturer, and scientific and literary celebrities from Eastern America and Europe, visiting the Yosemite, called on him, pleased to enjoy 130 Trout Family History his humble hospitality and his enthusiastic, enlightening conversation. Early in the seventies, when in the reading room of the Mechanic's Institute, Peterboro, Canada, in looking over one of the leading magazines, my eye fell on a well- illustrated article, captioned "the Glaciers of the Sierras." Glancing over it, I inwardly remarked, "That style of writing and those sketches make me think of Muir." I then began at the beginning, enjoying the reading, thinking how much it was like Muir's talk; and at the end was most agreeably though not wholly surprised to find my friend's brief name appended to it. He was and always is just plain John Muir. A life like this, so interestingly interwoven with ours, hardly calls for an apology for the extended references which I have made to it. What I have given is only a brief introduction to a great career. He became the great mountain explorer of America, giving particular attention to finding the location and action of the great glaciers, from the arctic circle to the gulf of California. Often for months at a time he never saw the face of humanity. The masterly mountain sheep, that spurns all but the loftiest crags, and bears and deer and the birds were his principal acquaintances; but he was never lonely, to him all nature was alive, and told a never-ending charming story. Woods and winds and waters had their ceaseless music. Even quiet, restful, sleepy winter occasionally broke out into the howling storm or booming avalanche or the shaking earthquake, which were regarded as only demonstrations of nature's great power and fulfillment of God's purpose. But I must leave off. Those who would like a further acquaintance with this fine old friend must read some of his charming books, "The Mountains of California," "The Forest Reservations of America." Young folks will be delighted with his dog story, "Life in the Sierras" and "Boyhood Life." There arc several other works, all charmingly written, and can be had at most of the publishing houses. About two years ago I received one of his specially good friendly letters, and I turned it over to my son to read, after which I said to him, "Now you are a business man and understand the money worth of things, can you put a value on that The Passing of John Muir 131 letter?" He reflected a moment and said, "Oh, I give it up." My reply was, "So do I." And so it is always, genuine friendship never gets down to the dollar measurement. THE PASSING OF JOHN MUIR The above lengthy reference to my much-esteemed old friend was written nearly a year ago, and was thought to be all that might be said regarding him; and this is interjected on account of the fact that on December 24, 1914, after a summer of irregular health conditions he contracted pneumonia, and in a few days died. The next morning I read the account in our Milwaukee paper; it had been telegraphed to all the leading papers in the United States. It was an overwhelming surprise and disappointment to me. In a prolonged journey to the Pacific coast in 1911,1 expected to make him a long visit; but before I arrived there he had started on his great South American journey. Failing to see him in 1911, I wrote him in the early part of 1912, stating that I had planned a visit for the summer of 1915, if health and strength permitted, not mainly because this was the summer of the great exposition in San Francisco, for that was to me a second or third consideration; seeing relatives and friends was the main purpose, and as the time drew on, and it was arranged that our general missionary convention would be in Los Angeles in the same summer, .the interest of the trip became much greater. Of course, the exposition, then going on, was a most extraordinary showΓÇöa great beautiful mass of matter, that in some sense might represent spirit; but grand as it undoubtedly was, it was still only a fleeting show, while Christian friendship is eternal and abiding, and as we draw near the sunset of our brief day, we appraise the values of things, by their relation to the things unseen, yet enduring and eternal. John's reply to this letter of mine is the one referred to at the close of the previous paragraph, regarding which I asked my son to adjudge its value. Now that John is parted from us, everything connected with him becomes doubly dear and - ~-Mgp^ggw| ΓÇóm 132 Trout Family History valuable. On this account I introduce a copy of this letter, so that relatives and friends may share the pleasure of its reading with myself. Martinez, May 10, 1912. Dear William Trout: In trying to clea 134 Trout Family History all his affairs in shape, but seemed cheerful and hopeful to the very last, and was talking of his work when his health suddenly stopped without any warning or suffering. My father's Alaska book was nearly completed at the time of hit death and will soon be published. There are a good many other notes and manuscripts that probably will at some time be edited and published in some form, but as yet no decision has been made as to how they are to be used. The botanical and geological specimens are still in our possession. Some of them, no doubt, will be given to some scientific association; and some of them we will keep. He made no disposition of them himself. My father had three surviving sisters and two brothers. My sister, Mrs. Buel A. Funk, lives at Dagget, San Bernardino County, California, and has three little boys. I have four boys. If you come to California in 1915, or at any other time, I hope that you will visit us. I am deeply sorry that you did not do so while my dear father was still with us. Thanking you for your sympathy, and your long friendship for my father. Sincerely, Martinez, California. Wanda Muir Hanna, January 31, 1913. (Mrs. Thomas R. Hanna) I have already referred to eulogistic articles in the magazines in regard to John Muir. I will now refer to only one, that of Theodore Roosevelt in the Outlook. During his last presidential term he made a visit to California, and, as a matter of course, visited the Yosemite Valley; and, as a further matter of course, took along with him John Muir as the best guide and exponent of the beauties and wonders of that wonderful glen with its surroundings, the big trees, etc. In his mention of Muir in the Outlook, the president so nicely refers to his beautiful simplicity of character as well as his accurate knowledge of any subject of his attention and study. The president told of the encampment under the big trees, and incidents of the journey as they related to Muir; and Muir, in conversation, told me the incidents as they related to the president. A great crowd of editors, reporters, politicians and others, accompanied, or rather, followed, the president on this mountain journey. They not merely wanted to see, but to have the prestige of being a part of the president's great Yosemite party. Muir regarded them as an unmitigated nuisance, and no doubt the president partially shared his opinion. At the great Sequoia Grove, Muir suggested that they quietly give the party the slip, and let it go forward while they would remain behind and encamp alone under the canopy The Passing of John Muir 135 of the towering Sequoia Gigantiae. To this the president promptly agreed. The manager of the party was let into the secret, and he left them what was needed. I remarked to him that an event like that, alone in confidential chat with the president of the United States, in such sublime surroundings, was something long to be remembered. "Oh, yes," said I, "Did you sleep much?" "No, not very much." "Then you did a lot of talking?" "Well, I did the most of it." "What was it about?" "OhI I stuffed him pretty well regarding the timber thieves, and the destructive work of the lumbermen, and other spoilers of our forests." "How did he take it?" "Well, he did not say much, but I know and so do you, how he went for them afterwards." While it was a good time for quiet conversation, it was also a grand opportunity for great meditations. The towering majesty of the great trees, as enhanced by the fire light, and their immense age, as proven by Muir's count of the rings of one that is fallen, show them to be as he says "respectable saplings when Adam was young." They are undoubtedly the oldest and the largest living things in the world. John Muir held a doubtful attitude to what is called spiritualistic phenomena, telepathy and such occult beliefs as are enlisting the attention of psychologists so largely at the present time; yet there occurred with him a remarkable presentiment, vision or dream, whatever one may call it, relating to the death of his father. It was near the last of June, 1896, when he gave me the narration direct. The occurrence and his father's death were in the same month. He told it quite circumstantially, but the details are not well remembered. However, one night in the earlier half of the month he had a very vivid striking dream regarding his father, seeing him in bed, and likely to die. He was strongly impressed with the idea that he must go to his old Wisconsin home at once, and began getting ready. The following night he had much the same vision. Flis older brother, David, was then living in California, John went to him, and told him he had the most certain impression that their father would die about as soon as they could get to see m 136 Trout Family History him. David made light of his premonitions, but finally concluded, since John was surely going, and at the best his father might not live much longer, that he would go with him, and they started at once. At Omaha, Nebraska, where their younger brother, Dan, resided they stopped off and soon persuaded him to accompany them. They arrived in Portage City, Wisconsin, and in time to have a recognition and some conversation with their father and a day or two afterwards he passed away. John did not regard this as a chance dream, but a real presentiment. The only thing approaching that in my experience, was in the town of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, forty-five years ago. One summer morning about eight o'clock, a farmer, while plowing in his field two miles from the town, was fatally shot by a man in ambush. That very time I was at work in a shop, and was suddenly impressed with the mental sight of a crouching man firing a gun at another man. I was just as much startled as if I had heard the report. I turned around and said, "Somebody is shot." I would have regarded it as a freak of the imagination, had not my sister come in a half hour afterwards and related the occurrence, having gotten the news direct from the messenger who came in on horseback for a doctor. On his return journey, John Muir notified me that he would be at our Union Station at a given time, and requested me to meet him, which I did most cheerfully. After the greeting he apologized for taking me from my work to meet him, saying he never could trust himself in the cities, they were man's arbitrary building without any intelligible common plan. "But," said he, "you might put me down in any dark valley in God's mountains and I could soon find my way out. If you come across a man's face in the dark and feel his nose, you know where to find his mouth." On the street cars going to our home he told me the story of the presentiment regarding his father, which I have given, regarding it as extraordinary. He remained with us about twenty-four hours. The children greatly enjoyed his talk. None of us retired till midnight. Mother and I were complimented on our family. "See those The Passing of John Muir 137 fine big boys of yours, and I have no boys. They are scarce with the Muirs, there may not be enough to carry the name." He left us to join a commission in Chicago, appointed by President Cleveland, on forest reservations to be made in different parts of the United States. This occupied his attention for a year or more, and was the subject of his largest and best book. Well, his day is past, but his story is not told. A life so full of great service cannot be fully told. No one knows it all, except it be himself and his Creator. It is all finished and in the great record, and he passes on with the closing. One of his Eastern literary friends sublimely pictures this in three magnificent stanzas. Though we might criticise the phrasing, the imaginative sweep overpowers us, except the last three lines which approach the common place. Chas. L. Edson of the New York Evening Mail is the poetic author. He makes a characteristic answer for John when he says: "John o' the mountains says, 'I knew'." That is, I have been watching, I have seen it. John o' the mountains, wonderful John, Is past the summit and traveling on; The turn of the trail on the mountain side, A smile and "Hail" where the glaciers slide, A streak of red where the condors ride, And John is over the Great Divide. John o' the mountains camps today On a level spot by the milky way; And God is telling him how he rolled The smoking earth from the iron mold, And hammered the mountains till they were cold, And planted the redwood trees of old. And John o' the mountains says: "I knew, And I wanted to grapple the hand o' you; And now we're sure to be friends and chums And camp together till chaos comes." From Collier's Weekly, January 16, iq 15. \ 138 Trout Family History Collier's editor continues, "Of course, John Muir and God are friends. Muir fraternized with the birds of the field and forest, and chummed with the squirrel and the bear. He rhapsodized over the beauty and sweetness of the flowers, and communed with God through the redwoods and pines. His life was a glorification of God's original handiwork." John was familiar with his Bible, God's revealed will, as well as nature's book. It was his child study and was ingrained in his mental make-up as his writings abundantly testify. We must now reluctantly part from our friend and his stoiy and again resume the family narration. TROUT & JAY BUSINESS CLOSED UP Besides the family references, in Muir's and our own story, but little of note had occurred. Father had spent one winter in very serious sickness. Just previous to this time, Charles Jay and my brother Peter had put in a winter term at the High School in Owen Sound. Now, after our mill was burned, it was deemed best to separate. Each one to make the best possible shift for himself. As C. H. Jay had been in charge of the business end of our firm, he was left at home to settle up accounts, and also made another settlement with the Laycocks, by which we retained the millsite. Oil had been discovered at Oil Springs and Petrolia, a year or more previous, and thither people were flocking as if there were gold mines. To the original property holders it was as good as a gold mine; and possibly the same to a few sharp speculators. Many of the operators at first made good money, only to encounter great loss afterwards, unless they were able to hold out till steady prices obtained. I headed for Oil Springs by way of Toronto, and since I was only about twenty miles away from the residence of my sweetheart, Miss Jennie B. Knowles, at Dunbarton, Pickering, I determined to make the short journey east and and see her. As we were not then engaged I had some anxiety to know the state of her mind toward me, after the adverse change in my financial condition. This proved to be all right, and, though Oil Springs Venture 139 at the bottom of my poverty, I proposed. While I got only a postponement, it was an encouraging one, which in due time came out all right. OIL SPRINGS VENTURE At Toronto resided my two next younger brothers, Edward and John. Both were married and held responsible positions in the Leader newspaper office, and had made good acquaintanceships with some of the leading business men of the city. I was introduced to two of them, and my Oil Springs prospect presented. They seemed to read me pretty thoroughly, and cautioned me to lay off my modesty; that I would no doubt be good at once for any demands made upon me; and I would soon come to it. This was needed and I profited by it, for when arriving at Oil Springs I soon found good employment in a machine shop though not a well-trained machinist. This Oil Springs experience was like a new beginning for me. I was among strangers. Nearly two-thirds of the operators and half the working men were Americans. Mostly from the new oil districts of Pennsylvania. New people and interesting new conditions prevented loneliness. Still there was abundant time for meditation. Full thirty-two years of my life had passed and I was seemingly only a beginner. I saw that it would be better to leave business alone. The ability to earn good living wages, while working for other people, and the freedom from anxiety, connected with such a course, along with my distaste for business, and my relish in the study and practice of mechanics, determined me to be an employee, rather than an employer. But at that time I was not properly prepared to judge. Excepting while working for father I always had the self-direction of my work as well as that of other people. I did not then know what it was to be under the inconsiderate direction of a meanly disposed boss who had no decent regard for common human rights. Just a little taste of this sort inclined me for a time to reverse this decision, as will be seen by our further experience. After being in Oil Springs about six weeks, my partner, C. H. Jay, also came, like myself to work independently, as 46 i n https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1383/thumbnail.jpg