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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1914)
THE STJNTJAY OREGOXIA1V. POXlTLATiTD, JAXTJAKY 18, 1914. WINb DENOWN'QEATING DE(DN P Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, of Oregon City, Has Worked Her Way to Literary Fame, Caring for Her Babies and Household Duties With One Hand and Delv ing Into the Rich Heroism of Oregon's Early Days I iN A TALL, old-fashioned frame resi dence occupying a prominent cor ner on Jefferson street In Oregon City, hedged In on one side by lawn and shrubbery and on the other by flowers, there lives a woman named Mrs. Eva Emery Dye. Perhaps you know her and perhaps you do not. Per haps you have heard of her and per haps you have not. Thousands have and thousands haven't. In this quaint old residence there has teen a remarkable struggle In prog ress for the greater part of 24 years the struggle of a brilliant and gifted woman to contribute to the world In a beautiful way the heroisms, the chiv alry and the rich adventures which marked Oregon's early history, and at the same time 4o bring up to manhood and womanhood a large family of chil dren. Her struggles In both lines have been Braced with success. She has gained enviable renown In the literary world With, her series of books, now famed Cor their richness of narration, their historic accuracy and their picturesque romance, and she has raised her family 0 be college graduates. Ehe Is the woman who made living, "breathing, heroic entities of the great Lewis and Clark and of Sacajawea, the Tndian maid who led the famed expe dition in Oregon and the Northwest. Ehe brought before the world in beau tiful and impressive way the marvels of old Dr. McLoughlln of pioneer fame and Ronald McDonald, the Oregon boy who after marvelous adventures pre ceded the earliest adventurers Into Japan. Mrs. Dye stirred up these won. derful characters from the dry bones of the scattered history of the early days and built them Into Homeric heroes, living and throbbing in the hearts and memories of thousands to day. Few in Oregon know much of the life of Eva Emery Dye because it has been a very unusual life. Thousands here and throughout the United States, however, know of her writings. There Is hardly a studious schoolboy who has not pursued her little book of Oregon history which for years was used as a toxtbook in the schools. There is hardly a lover of rich historic romance who has not read her books. 'The Con quest" or "McLoughlin and Old Ore gon," or "McDonald of Oregon." "McLoughlin and Old Oregon," the oldest of her writings, is now in the eighth edition, "The Conquest" in the sixth edition and "McDonald of Oregon" In the second edition. In 1912 40,000 of her books bad been issued and sold and many thousands have been sold since then. Mrs. Dye says her life in Oregon has been one of social exile, as must be the life of any writer who desires to ac complish great things, she says. She ays It has not been because she does not love society and good times that ehe had turned from them, but because he has been unable to do both and has considered the writing the most im portant. Writing, she says, must have the soul behind it. The soul cannot be behind it when there are social affairs to think of. In 1890. when Mrs. Dye came to Ore eon, ehe was a young woman not so Very long out of college. She was mar fled to her present husband, who at that time was a young attorney, and they had two children. In college. Mrs. Dye says, Greek was her master study and she delighted In reading the old classics. "The things that Impressed me most," says Bhe, "were Homer's old heroes. As I read over the enchanted lines of Homer's writings I seemed to live in Greece and whn I came to Ore gon and heard of the wonderful pioneer days I seemed to see the pioneers of Oregon as Homeric heroes. With these views in mind I wrote 'McLoughl'n and Old Oregon.' "Old Dr. McLoughlin was one of the first pioneers I heard of when I came to Oregon and his life seemed so inter esting to me that I began a study. There were old ladies in Oregon City who had known him an"S I talked with them. I got all the books I could find with anything about him. I did not hurry, but kept up my work, tracing down every new fact I could hear about him. After I had gathered all my material I wove romance into the stirring events of the early days. I selected my hero and my heroine aad then set about writing the book. It was my first ex perience. I cared for my two children and attended to my household duties, enatchlng time as often as possible to write a little on my book. Month by month I wrote, rewrote, revised, cor rected and thought. I was a social exile. I finally completed the book and sent it to Harper's. 1 "Harper's wrote me a very kind letter and said they would publish the book in their magazine If I would cut it up for publication in serial form. Well, I worried and fumed over that for weeks. I Just couldn't cut It up. It seemed to me like my whole life was wrapped in those pages. To cut it seemed to me like rutting up one of my children. I couldn't do it. "Finally I took the manuscript and threw it in a bureau drawer and for got about it. I said 'what's the use writing, anyway? It isn't appreciated.' I was completely discouraged. For six years my book remained in that bureau drawer. It happened at the end o six years that an old classmate of min came out from the East to visit with me and my husband and almost th first thing he said to me was, 'I thought you were going to write books?" I told him I had writtten a book and had cast it away in the bureau drawer. He asked to see It and I dug it out for him. "He read it over and said he could get a publisher for me, so I told him to take it along. He left here in Jan vary and in Jane my book was out. You can imagine my gratitude and happi nese. "My thoughts were then turned to that memorable Lewis and Clark expe dltlonand I was persuaded by my pub lishers to weave a story about that. I mixed straining research with family cares In collecting material and get ting ready. During the few years prior to the publication, of my first book my two youngest children were born, and were now mere babies, de manding care, attention and worry. "I struggled along as best I could with the Information I could get, try ing to find a heroine. The publishers wanted the story hurried. I had the dry old "Biddle edition," with their skeletons of dry facts concerning the expedition, and worked and worked trying to secure the things necessary for my story. I traced down every old book and scrap of paper, but still was without a real heroine. Finally I came upon the name of Sacajawea and I screamed 'I have found my heroine. "I then hunted up every fact I could find about Sacajawea. Out of a few dry bones I found in the old tales of the trip I created Sacajawea and made her a real living entity. For months I dug and scraped for accurate Infor mation about this " wonderful Indian maid. "Then I had Judith, the girl Clark left behind him when he went on the expedition. This gave me my heroes and my heroine and after much work and four trips across the continent in search of facts and information in many of the principal libraries, I set to work, "My two younger children were then mere toddling babies and I had them to care for. I would give them their bottles and they would lie on the floor and kick and coo while I wrote a chap ter of my book. They played and I worked. They .were the best little babies In the world. I knew it then and I know it now. "When I got my manuscript all writ ten I sent it to the publishers and It appeared in an attractive cover. The world snatched at my heroine, Sacaja wea. Judith apparently was over looked. The beauty of that faithful Indian woman with her baby on her back, leading those stalwart mountain eers and explorers through the strange land, appealed to the world. Alter my dook came out a monu ment to my heroes and heroine was erected at the Louisiana Purchase Ex position in St. Louis. Then the women of the Northwest, filled witn Interest and enthusiasm, fixed up the statutes of Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea. Then Dakota took it up and erected a monument and now Montana is plan ning a statue to the memorable expe dition at the three forks of the Mis souri River. "When I was writing my book I told my publishers it was to be called "The Conquest. They wrote back and said that name would never do. They said the name of Lewis and Clark should ap pear in the title. But I insisted on the name 'The Conquest' and sent the manuscript on. One day I got a letter from the publishers saying that after giving It much thought they had de- ided there was no other name for it. The Conquest' was published in 1902. Then I turned my attention to an other .interesting feature of early Ore gon. When I was writing on my other books I had occasion often to talk to the old Hudson Bay men and they would often say 'you ought to see Mc Donald about that. They said he was at old Fort Colville on the Columbia River. became interested in this man and I wrote to him, telling him that I planned calling one of my books 'The King of the Columbia.' He wrote back nd indignantly Informed me that he was the King of the Columbia. And when I heard his story I admitted that he was right. "In one of many letters I received from him he Informed me that he had written a Journal of his life and ex periences and sent It to a friend In Canada who had intended writing a book on It, but apparently had done nothing with It. McDonald said he was coming down to Portland, but died be fore making the journey.. He had told me where the journal was and I set out to try to find it. It was 10 years after ward that I finally got a copy of It and was able to go ahead with my book. McDonald of Oregon.' U wrote and wrote to the man In Canada who had the Journal, but could never as much as get a reply. Finally a British official became interested and he told me he'd try to get it. Some time arterwara 1 received a message from him that he had secured the book and I told him I would go to "Vancouver, B. C. for it. When I got there he re fused to let me take the book away, but offered to let me read it. I knew there was no use in causing trouble, so I sat down to try to copy it off. It was a hopeless task. While I was at work a thought struck me. In the next room was a public stenog rapher. Perhaps I could engage her to make a copy. I rushed in and she ac cepted the work and got another girl to help her. We flew to the work. read the pages over and had the girls copy. Their fingers flevt- over the type writer keys for days during all their spare time. The man who had the book knew nothing of my operations, being busy in a session of the Parliament. "Finally I got the copy made and paid the girls a large sum for their services. I then rushed back to Port land, got together my facts and set to the task of writing my book. "McDonald was the son of a Hudson Bay chief and an, Indian, princess and spent most of his time in old Fort Van couver. In 1832 a junk full of Japanese was blown across the ocean and wrecked at Cape Flattery. Dr. Mc Loughlin sent up and had the Japanese brought to Fort Vancouver, where he took care of them. "Ronald McDonald was sent in to take care of the Japs, and while there learned totalk some of their language. Finally the sailors were sent back, but PMcDonald never forgot them. His dream and ambition was to go to Japan, but that country then was closed. McDon ald not to be outdone, ran away on a f A - M I i V - ' N S Mil ! f - - , ' -I f . - f '! - r J ' - v ' X f tri&A'f&J' ,i v-' ' ' F Gil' whaler and got himself cast ashore at Japan. The Journal I secured told his wonderful story of adventures In Japan. He taught the first school In English there and prepared the way for later expeditions to that country." With her writings Mrs. Dye has won a place in the leading literary circles of j the United States. Her works are famed for their beautiful style, her quaint ness of expression and word painting and her remarkable accuracy in cur tailing events of the early days. And her task la not yet done. Within the present year there will be published her best book.' She says it is much superior to her others and she expects It to bring even more pleasure to the lovers of classic historic romance than have her past books. The new book, in which Mrs. Dye Is now wrapped heart and soul, deals with the early relations of old Oregon and Hawaii With this book, as with her others, Mrs. Dye is sharing her time with her household duties, still having her children and house to care for as well as her writing to do. While Mrs. Dye refuses to comment upon the reception of her works In Oregon, It is known that she has not been appreciated here. It Is known that with her other struggles for sue cess she has had to look to the East for appreciation of her efforts and her renown has come from the East. Upon her own works she says noth ing In this respect. Upon the writings of others of the state, deserving of credit, ehe has considerable to say. There have been dozens of writers who have been passed by, unrecognized and unread In Oregon, she says. Had they been In New England or Indiana or California, they might have had a dif ferent fate. "A few years ago," says Mrs. Dye, "The Oregonian published a series of letters by a weman signing herself 'Elizabeth, so cleverly executed, so wHe and witty and picturesquely de scrlptlve of Oregon that an Eastern publisher brought them out In book form under the name "Letters From an Oregon Ranch." It Is a beautiful book in contents, in mechanical execution, in illustration, a gift book that had It been published concerning New Eng- land, or Indiana, or California, would have held its place for generation. "But Oregon is new, very new yet There are more people In the one state of Masachusetts than on the entire Pacific Coast and. naturally, "Letters From an Oregon Ranch' perished with the first edition. We cannot expect Eastern publishers to come out here and tell us of our own books, we are supposed to have public spirit enough to discover that ourselves. "Irving clothed the Hudson with ro mance and Walter Scott, the High lands. Tourists find Oregon too new, too raw are- there no shrines of ro mance on the Columbia and in our val leys? There Is a work to be done. No mere commercial publicity could have done for California what her authors are doing. An army of writers keep their pens busy with the glories of California until It has become the Italy of America the home of art and song and story. If California Is our Italy, why not Oregon our Switzerland? A few poems like those of Sam Simpson, a few books of art like Wil liams' "Guardians of the Columbia' be gin to give us hope that pioneer days are passing into a splendid rennaissance of art and letters. With a college like Reed in our principal city and honored centers of learning set in every val ley, the best literary art will sooner or later find an audience. Twenty-five years ago California woke up to the fact that all her best writers were moving to the older states where con ditions were more congenial today she is calling them back. An author Is an asset to a state worth counting. And a real author Is too busy with creative work to. spend much time lecturing, or dining, or standing in the spotlight. But for retirement. Nathanial Haw thorne could never have written the Scarlet Letter. Washington Irving hid from the crowd, not In New York City, but at Tarrytown on the Hudson he discovered his best results. "Some occupations find their reward, not in money, but In appreciation. Take Mr. Himes, for example, building up the Historical society. -Years ago, over in Wisconsin, Lyman C. Draper set out with his little one-horse wagon, driving all the way to Kentucky, and spent weeks and months interviewing old pioneers, collecting letters, jour' nals, memoranda for histories 'he hoped to write of Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark. Indiana, Illinois, Mis souri came to know his little gray nag. He never wrote the books, but he left a monument to himself In the vast ac cumulation that has made Madison the mecca of writers on the Middle West. "In Portland Mr. Himes Is doing that very same work. For E0 years he has been interviewing pioneers, writing down life stories that In years to come will be priceless. , He is a fa miliar fireside companion from Pendle ton to Tillamook, from Portland to Klamath Falls. Everybody knows Mr. Himes; everybody saves up scraps and relics and clippings for him. The hills and forests are here; he is preserving the deeds of those who first traversed them, salting them away, packing them down for the future romancer, the Shakespeare, the movlng-plcture artist. The time has really come when Oregon should recognize the splendid life de votion of Mr. Himes br erecting suitable building wherein to house his treasures. Tears and years ago he gave up a lucrative business to follow this bent of his taste. He should-have an endowment to carry on this collect ing of nuggets of human heroism. Such men are not born every day. "Oregon has been exploited hlstori cally. Hubert Howe Bancroft did for this Coast a wonderful work. But the only time I ever saw Bancroft he bad the saddest eyes I ever beheld. Every body was criticising his history, tear lnc it all to pieces, because of views expressed in his monumental work. At tremendous expense and years of toll that no one else would have under taken, he had scoured the world for Oregoniana, building up the Bancroft library that is now one of the chief attractions of the State University . of California. But. so far as I know, no one on this Coast ever thanked him. The East appreciated and praised "The last time I saw Frances Fuller Victor she said despairingly: "My work is of no account.' Ant1 yet she came here when Oregon was new and dug out of the bedrock the hard, stern facts of the pioneers. The trae had not yet come for Oregon literature. She died in poverty with wagon loads of her books unsold. 'Poor Frederick Balch made a flightof X lessons and be placed on the high Inside Lights of Family Life and Struggles Which - Have Made Picturesque Books Written by Mrs. Dye Popular and Profitable in Spite of the Lack of Local Appreciation. il -A-;vr Jivrwa- i - --r 4 - - - v vCHs; ( x r2 Oji-egoT? CXty: like -an eagle. His 'Bridge of the Gods' is equal to anything Irving ever did, and will live as long. Poor boy! Tu berculosis claimed him. He did not want to go. To the last he worked, dying In a Portland hospital with the fragments of a half-finished romance in a satchel at his bedside. And Oregon honors him now. "There was Joaquin Miller, fighting for expression. George H. Himes, of Portland, printed his first thin little volume of verse. All Oregon laughed, derided, ridiculed the Oregonian that would be a poet. Gathering up broken remnants, Joaquin Miller fled to Lon don, to be hailed as the great Ameri can poet. What all America refused, he found across the water recognition. appreciation, encouragement. But he never lived again in Oregon. It was too new, too raw, too unresponsive. "Horace Lyman wrote a history of Oregon a magnificent work. He was a scholar, a poet, a man of fine liter ary taste and accurate research. If he had written a cheap dime novel it would have received more attention. He was appointed educational commis sioner to the St. Louis Exposition. The critics found all manner of fault with his educational exhibit. It was too much, the neglect of his book and this; he took to his bed and died his fine. Use of Old Warships Modern battleships are regarded as virtually obsolete after about ten year of service. This is due to the fact that the styles In great fighting ves sels change almost as often as do the styles in women's hats. At the end of a few years, then 15 or 20 at the most these costly instruments of war are discarded. Thereafter they are used as targets in gun practice. It -is an ignominious fate. A better use for discarded war ves sels is now suggested. The Interna tional Congress on School Hygiene has petitioned the United States Govern ment to place at the disposal of the .leaders of the warfare against tuber culosis vessels no longer available for naval uses. They would be anchored in rivers or lake or at the seashore and used for "open-air schools, sana torium schools for children or hospital sanatoria for adults." Since nearly 1.000,000 school children in the United States suffer from tu berculosis, and since open-air treat ment is now acknowledged to be es sential to the cure of the disease, the value of the plan outlined is readily seen. Italy has already adopted the plan and is using three old war ves sels aa floating hospitals for con sumptives. - Opinions perhaps may differ as to the value of battleships and cruisers In maintaining international peace. How ever, the International warfare against tuberculosis clearly might be pressed to advantage with the aid of wornout battleships. Chicago News. The "Efficiency" I"aker. Engineering News. Is efficiency a fraud? We hesitate to say yes; but we do not hesitate to say that the methods used by some of the apostles of efficiency for its pro motion are calculated to discredit the whole efficiency movement. A correspondent sends us advertis- ment by one of these apostles stating that "the whole story" of this apostle's "method of efficiency has been con densed Into 24 lessons, so that you can acquire an efficiency education with out leaving your home or giving up your present occupation." Young Mr. Easy Mark, who reads this flaring advertisement, is further as sured that of the scores of men previ ously trained by the said apostle, all are now drawing high salaries, one of them $2000 a month, and that this course of 24 lessons is a short cut to business success. It Is further stated In large display type that "almost anybody can afford it." Not a word Is said as to previous education or' inherent ability being necessary for success in such work, and the fair inference Is that anybody, young or old, no matter how limited his knowledge and experience, no mat ter how deficient he may be in mental or moral qualities, can take this course lofty spirit crushed and ' his heart bruised, perhaps broken. "Joseph Gaston wrote the most com plete story of Portland that has yet appeared. He could have built a rail road easier, so far as absolute energy was concerned. It Is a remarkable work by a remarkable man; his whole life, hope and enthusiasm were builded Into it; but It was never accorded the generous praise such a work for such a city demanded. When soon after I beard of his death down there at Los Angeles, I wondered if that noble soul had not succumbed to depression and despair. "Professor Joseph Schafer, of the State University, has written also a history of Oregon; picked and chosen to do this work as one of a series brought out by a great Eastern publishing-house. I was present in Madi son. Wis., when Professor Schafer was hunting up unheard-of material, his brave wife at his side copying from the files of ancient papers. So long and consecutively he worked that he almost fainted away on the floor of .the vaults of that historical palace. But I never saw any adequate review of Professor Schaf er's magnificent, achievement. He went to Europe, delv ing into England's stores of Ore goniana. He is not a rich man; these things cost money. I have often wished to ask some of our Portland million aires to lend a hand to this living scholar in our midst. We should not let him die as others have, unrecog nized and unread. road to the success represented by a $2000-a-month salary. It seems to us a fair and moderate statement that such advertising is properly to be classed with Julian Hawthorne's circulars of the King Sol omon mines. We respect the achievements of a few able and reputable engineers who, after laying a sure foundation by long and successful professional and business ex perience, have undertaken special work as professional advisers to concerns who seek to improve their business methods. But the swarm of half-baked "effi ciency experts," who are seeking em ployment as "business doctors" and who ought not be trusted to doctor a cat such men as these are rapidly dis crediting the whole efficiency move ment in the minds of intelligent busi ness men. The Army of Russia Compulsory military Bervice was es tablished In Russia in 1871. Nominally, service is universal, but In practice only the poorer classes feel its full weight. Rich people can easily escape service by the payment of bribes. The command of the army Is intrust ed to the sons of nobles or bureaucrats, while the sons of the small middle-class . folk, artisans, peasants, etc., cannot, with very rare exceptions, attain of ficer's rank. The officers form a caste in Russia. The high commands are filled by aristocrats. The higher mili tary colleges, and even the cadets' schools the secondary mllita- -- - -'leges admit for the most part only the sons of nobles or officers. Thus the officers as a class are a purely anti-democratic body, and democracy regards them as enemies of the people. The Russian of ficer Is always striving to manifest his disdain for civilians, and readily uses his sword against peaceful citi zens. Any day you may read In the Russian press accounts of collisions between officers and civilians, or of the murder of civilians by drunken officers, or by officers who would claim that they were legitimately defending their "honor." The relations between the officers and their men are revolting. Sons of nobles and wealthy folk on becoming officers retain all their original in solence toward the peasant or artisan turned soldier; the officers strike their soldiers and treat them like beasts of buredn. Gregory Alexinsky. Traffic In New Xork City. Electrical World. During he year which closed June 80, 1913, the number of passengers car ried by New York's electrically-operated transit system subway, surface and elevated was 1,769,889,284. This total exceeds by 90,000,000 that for the previous 12-month period an increase equivalent to the entire population of the United States. The increase In the subway traffic alone was 25,000.000 for the year, and was practically equaled by the growth in the number of sur face line passengers. The nickels col lected during the year by all the New York transit companies totaled 8T,71,-So9, A