Letter from John Muir to Anna [Annie L. Muir], 1903 Jan 13.

Martinez, Jan. 13, 1903Dear Sister AnnaThe Bible is here, & I prize it highly, the girls will thank you in their own letters for the highland dirksYou were very kind to send the book. I hope you will soon be well now You are out once more as Maggie tells me We are all as usual. Here are more stamps for your [many?] [illegible] purposesEver your loving brotherJohn Muir0313

Letter from [John Muir] to [Victor H. Henderson], 1903 Apr 3.

Martinez Apr 3, 1903Dear Sir:I prefer No. 5 of the Yosemite trip itineraries. I would suggest a slight change in it for May 17th going up the trail only as far as the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, a thousand feet above the Valley floor, instead of to the head of it. And for May 18th perhaps it would be better for most of the party to leave out the Signal Peak trip, since the time is so short & the rides so long. Too much will be crowded into the four days anyhow. Rapid restless motion will make03208 Mr Victor HendersonBerkeley Cal.everybody tired; men & horses scenery & wheels will be whirling & dancing like bowl[illegible]ers in pot-holes, & the impressions made by the grand landscapes are sure to be hazy however profound. Nature cannot be forced to tell her story in a hurry

Will Explore Cold Siberia. John Muir and Sargent, the Tree Man, Are to Cross the Great Steppes.

WILL EXPLORE COLD SIBERIA ♦+++++*++++♦++++♦+♦♦♦♦♦++++♦+ ♦♦♦♦♦♦ JOHN MUIR, The eminent scientist who is going to Siberia to study the vast forests there John Muir and Sargent, the Tree Man, Are to Cross the Great Steppes. By Baiiey Millard In his sixty-fifth year, and still as sturdy a mountain climber, as when he discovered the great Alaskan-glacier which bers his. name, John Muir, who has carefully explored all the wildest and most inaccessible places in our land where Nature hides herself away in secret beauty, and who has sailed the fjords of coldest Norway and the coral-lined coves of warmest Polynesia, is making his studies o£ peaks and the structure of plants, is now preparing to go farther afield than ever before. He is going to explore the forests of Siberia, and Manchuria in company with Cargent, the tree man, who wrote that exhaustive Silva of North America, in fourteen enormous volumes. Muir will leave his home at Martinez about the 15th of May and will join Sargent in New York. They will then sail for Europe and take the Transsiberian Railway and journey across the great steppes to that rare country which is said to be of all wildernesses the most howling. Mr. Sargent shows the sapiency of the scientist in uniting his fortunes with Muir, whose woodcraft is probably superior to that of any other man in America. Muir is a man whom no prospective hardship can frighten, except, possibly, crushing through a street crowd, for he always prefers to walk on a glacial pavement to one on the concrete. He thinks nothing of starting out on a fortnight\u27s tramp in the higb Sierras with no other equipment.than a bag of bread, a tineup and a handful of tea. In fact, that meager provision proved sufficient for him in all his hardest tramps, and he makes light of some of his most wearisome and stupendous tasks. Clarence King, after long and careful preparation, climbed to the top o£ Mount Tyndall and afterward wrote of his awful perils and narrow es- ca,pes during the tremendous ascent; but when Muir climbed Tyndall he ran up to the summit of the peak and back to camp before breakfast. I am afraid that Californians do not know enough of John Muir, who to me seems to be one of the finest and most engaging figures in the whole wide West. When Mr. Double- day recently gave us our much-deserved scolding for our disloyalty to our best literary men, Muir\u27s name recurred to me at once. That simple, gentle figure, living so quietly there in that little rift of the Contra Costa hills—the best example of plain living and high thinking that I can now recall— seems to me a standing reproach to the neglectful Californians who know the name of John Burroughs, in its tame entourage, much better, as it is constantly referred t* in the Eastern prints, while the name of\u27 John Muir, beside whose solid life work that of Jahn Burroughs is tike a little pile of brushwood, rarely gets mentioned. I mean no disrespect to the worthy Mr. Burroughs, but it irritates me to see his prosy matter, the reading of which is often about as interesting as beating a carpet, rated so highly by our people, while Muir\u27s magnificent work goes unread. In all the literary conversations to which I have listened and in which I have so frequently heard the name of the author of The Pink Cow, or of the man who wrote The Sonnets of a Stevedore, or other kindred matter so engaging and important to a certain order of minds. I have not heard the.name of John Muir a dozen times, or a mention of his charming books. It would .seem, when it came to reading, as if we cared more for the work of an effeminate freak than for that of a real, shaggy man. For in California, except to a very small circle, Muir\u27s fragrant nature writings, breathing the breath of the high Sierras and the subtle odor of the sugar pines, is unknown. And, yet, what a rare, poetic pen the man wields! Stevenson at his best, in his Inland oyage, never wrote anything so piquant, so zestful, so full of the spirit of the open air, so Homeric in its sweep, as some of the chapters of he Mountains of California, while the finality —that is the word—with which Muir has treated of Yosemite and the Yellowstone must be the despair of all the truly appreciative writers who come after him. Given such a sensitive, receptive mind as Muir\u27s, with his ability to report what he sees, and forty years of careful observation of Nature\u27s wildest moods and greatest pictures, and you have a man fit to voice the message of the wilds. His work is recognized among all the high scientific and\u27 literary authorities in the Eastern States and it ought to be better known to the general run of people in California. To the discerning minds of this country Muir is the accredited spokesman of Nature in the West, and he should be able to make a most valuable report of what he will see and note so carefully in the East. In talking with me the other day at his pretty country home in the hills he told me many of his adventures in that quiet, offhand manner which always characterizes the report of the man who does things and never that of the bombast. Speaking of his tour of exploration, which will take the better part of a year of his valuable time, he remarked: We shall extend our journeylngs to Japan and to Java and the Philippines. I should like to go to the Himalayas, too, but we cannot go everywhere. He always speaks of trees with genuine aection, as of human beings. I expect to find some relations of our old friend, the sequoia, in Manchuria, he said. They are known to exist in Japan. But I am satisfied that nowhere shall I find any trees as large as our giant redwoods. The prospect of this hazardous journey is not one to daunt the spirit of the man who discovered the great Muir glacier and who has stood on the tops o£ all our highest mountain peaks. Mr. Muir does not write his wonderful books for money. He has a horror of the hampering futilities of life and seems to despise wealth as he despises danger. The rich man, remarked the old mountaineer to me, carries too heavy a pair of blankets. Simplicity! There is a man after Thoreau\u27s own heart. RUMORED ENGAGEMENT OF ENGLISH ADMIRAL! Father of British Navy, Aged Ninety-Three, to Be Married. LONDON, March 28.—It is said on excellent authority that there is every possi- ; hility that Admiral Sir Henry Keppel, known as the Father of the British Navy and .who is now at Singapore, will be married before he returns to England. Admiral Keppel is in his ninety-third year. ARMOUR PLANT WIRELESS HAS TELEGRAPH. Messages Sent Several Miles Clearly and Without a Break. CHICAGO, March 28.—The first practical test of a newly installed wireless telegraph plant was made to-day, messages being transmitted several miles between the Armour Packing House at the Union Stock Yards and the general offices in the business district of the city. The message came clearly and without a break. The wireless plant is for commercial purposes. Owing to objection to the placing o2 a proper sending pole on the downtown building, the messages were all sent one way. Arrangements are being, made to extend the system to Armour plants in the West. . .https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1606/thumbnail.jp

Letter from [John Muir] to [Emily C. Hawley], [1903 Mar ?].

[First draft of letter,in note-book][Emily C. Hawley]: [March, 1903]Dear Miss [Hawley]I thank you for your kind letter. It is always encouraging to know from words like yours that one\u27s books have not been written in vain - that one\u27s calls to behold God\u27s works have not been in vain.You will be welcomed by the Sierra Club, come when you may, for its main object is to encourage people to go to the mountains and enjoy them. The mountains, too, will welcome you.[John Muir][There is another draft of this letter] [First draft of letter, in note-book].[Emily C. Hawley] [March, 1903].Dear [Miss Hawley:]I thank you for your kind letter. It is always encouraging to be reminded in so pleasant a way that trying to tell the divineness of wildness may not be altogether in vain.As to joining the Sierra Club, simply write to the Secretary, Wm. E. Colby. Room 16, 3d floor. Mills Building, S.F., stating you are a candidate for membership recommended by me, and directions will be forwarded. There is no initiation fee. The annual dues are $3.00.Plans for next summer\u27s outing you will find on page 236 of the Club Bulletin, a copy of which I have sent you. The total cost for the round trip from S. F. will probably be about$40, including a mo[nth’]s board in camp. I\u27ll not be able to take part in this year\u27s outing. I expect to be in other forests o\u27er the sea and far awa\u27, but there will be no lack of skilled campers and lecturers, etc., but the mountains themselves are the best speakers, and the best singers are the winds and pines and streams and water ouzels. Anyhow you\u27ll have a good time, meet Bryanthus, the sugar pine, the Douglas squirrel, and learn what the breath of life means.I\u27ll probably leave Cal., about the middle of May, but you had better call at my house anyhow, for my 2 girls are good mountaineers and will be glad to tell you about the different Sierra trips, etc.With best wishes I am,Faithfully yours,[John Muir] [First draft of letter, in note-book][Bradford Leavitt] [March, \u2703].Dear Mr. Leavitt:I thank you for your kind letter, and I am glad Emerson is to be so fittingly celebrated among you. As for myself, I expect to be on a long journey o\u27er the hills and far awa’ before his birthday to see some of the forests of other lands, sailing from N.Y. about the middle or end of May. But l’ll be with you in spirit, and wish you all a reviving Emerson time. Among so many Emerson lovers who know his voice and in their lives feel his presence every day, I shall not be missed.Heartily wishing you every Emersonian blessing, I am,Faithfully yours,[John Muir

Letter from [John Muir] to [Harry Fielding] Reid, [1901 Jan]

[First draft of letter, in note-book #69] (80)[Harry Fielding Reid]My dear Mr, Reid: [Jan, 1901]The funny fake about the destruction of the Alaska glaciers by the earthquake of Sep. 1900? was believed and swallowed by most everybody, and I have been commiserated and consoled with at a great rate ever since on the loss of the poor fragile Muir Glacier. I have been busy telling the mourners to dry their tears for as far as earthquakes are concerned glaciers are less destructible than the mountains. Excepting the premature discharge of bergs I can conceive of no other effects likely to be caused by a shake, but I have no authentic information. I can easily believe that a big mass has fallen from the front of the Windam Glacier, for on the very day of my first visit to the Taku glaciers a large mass fell from the undermined part of the snow over the main draining stream damming it.[John Muir][See Travels in Alaska, p. 240]0289

Letter from John Muir to [Horatio N.] Rust, 1902 Sep 3.

Martinez Sep. 3/02Dear Mr Rust.The excitement about the Big Tree 12 miles north of Millwood is not justified by the facts. It is 108 feet circum- one foot above the ground 97 1/2 [feet circum-] four feet [above the ground] 93 [feet circum-] six [feet above the ground It is a fine healthy shapely tree & one of the largest living of those that have been carefully measured, but it cannot be called the largest (see my Sequoia chapter in Our Nat. Parks ) You can reach it by wagon via Visalia & Millwood. There is a daily stage from Sanger, & I think from Visalia also, your nearest way. The Sellers were kept at home or near it this year by sickness or accident to Mrs Sellers brother & the care of her aged mother With pleasant memories of my visit to your charming home & hoping to see you here I am faithfully yoursJohn Mui

Letter from John Muir to Miss [Mary Francis] Kellogg 1913 Jul 19

Martinez, July 19, 1913 Dear Miss Kellogg: I think I promised autographed copies of my last book to yourself and Mrs. William and her skylark sister. The Hetch Hetchy fight is on again and I’ve been so stupidly busy I can’t tell whither the books have been sent or not. How is your little book coming on. It is sure to be published tho’ change may be required as to its scope etc. I suppose you, like all good m’tneers, are well up in the skylands. Hope to hear from you and all your friends – Kelloggs and Scripps I mean. I am with all good wishes faithfully yours. John Mui

Letter from John Muir to [E. T.] Parsons, 1913 Oct 6.

Martinez Oct, 6, 1913Dear Parsons,Johnson wants to know if Bade [diacritic] can go to Washington, starting early as possible, attend Conservation Congress there 17th to 20th & the mass meeting for Hetch Hetchy at the Natural History Museum N.Y. on the 21st, Have time to see senators etcWhitman, he says can\u27t go. Olmsted is not coming to see the Valley. Perhaps just as well now rains have set inUrgent requests for stereopticon views of H.H. are coming in for use at the big Museum, Cant we get Gleason to manage this. He is just the man for it. Come up & talk over everything next Sunday & get plants etcEver faithfullyJohn Mui

Letter from John Muir to [William] Colby, 1910 Dec 23.

Los Angeles. Cal., December 23, 1910.325 West Adams Street.Dear Mr. Colby:-Please send to Mr. George Orien Runyon, C/o Y. M. C. A. Crockett, Cal., a few copies of our illustrated Hetch-Hetchy pamphlet, if you have any left.I arrived here on time and have made a beginning on that Yosemite book.With all good wishes for the Club and everybody for the New Year, I am.Faithfully yours,[illegible