Auburn residents intrigued with poetry during the later 1800s were furnished with plenty of front page rhyme in the local newspapers. Poets and would be poets wrote about love, political criticism and humor. . . most of the work was unsigned but there were those authors with the names of Squawkin Miller, Lancelot and Saxe who especially directed the poems to the weekly news.
. . .A poem entitled “California” written by Mary T. Brewser Long, wife of Assemblyman Henry Long of Bath was read at the Teachers’ Institute on May 10, 1872. It contained beautiful phrases that spoke of “The solemn region of eternal snow, The deep hushed valleys, warm with summer’s glow.”
Then there were the light hearted spoofs like the one titled “The Tobacco Topers,” whose author was unknown. A preface to the playfully-worded verse stated: “We would commend the following verses to the juvenile members of the Auburn Band of Hope, or any other young man.”
Chewing in the parlor/ Smoking in the street/Choking with cigar smoke/ Everyone you meet/ Spitting on the pavement/spitting on the floor/ Is there such enslavement?/ Is there such a bore?
. . . A touching love poem written for the Herald had a series of initials identifying the writer and directed to “M D”. Titled “When gazing in Your Eyes”.
Then let me stay and worship–/Gaze deep unto your eyes/They tell me, yes assure me/
Of realms beyond the skies/Where souls, when freed from bondage/Unite in closer ties/Tither my thoughts are drifting/When gazing in your eyes.
. . .Squawkin Miller faceously appealed to “Herald” editor Joseph Adams Filcher to print his poem:
Well Governor, how do you do?/Hallo Filcher and are you here too?/ Not strong, eh? Well now I must say/That’s not very good–but by the way/”What I called here for most, is this/
And I hope it may not be amiss/To see if you’d print some lines of mine/That is, if I write them so they rhyme.
Miller also wrote a series of lines to Pike Bell, the legendary pocket gold hunter of the Auburn area. The poet also took on Leland Stanford and big business:
Sanford is not alone in this/He rules the carrying trade/Monopolies as bad as his/in every biz are made.
Miller continued to implore Bell to join with him and teach Stanford “the power of honest men”. He ended his writing in fun-filled rhyme with “Good”! That’s the way that all should talk/ Leastwhile that’s what I think, But say I know you must be dry/Let’s go and take a drink.”
“God Bless Papa,” Sarah Booth titled her poem in an outpouring of great concern for her father. She went on to say that he should be protected from all danger, and should be brought home safely. She also asked that he be guarded from falling within the tempter’s power:
“The evening meal is waiting,/The lights are all aglow/The bright tea urn is singing/A welcome soft and low/We hear his steps approaching/We see him nearer come/thank God for bringing papa/Dear papa, safely home.. .
*Note: You may find many more efforts at poetry by viewing the Auburn Placer Co. Library
micro film copies of the Placer Herald and early copies of the Auburn Journal.