Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-07-30
pEATm oF VIII BuRLEx.


DEATH OF WHITE hurley.
EDITOR CHRONICLE = / think
you should designate some one
composing your corps of cores
pOndents to write the obituary of
the late White Burnley tobacco.
That variety of the weed is defunct
-dead-dead-as Bacchus.
Only few months ago it was
Burnley, Burnley. Now, everything
is as still as the grave. What's the
matter ? We do not hear how
much was set; how it looks; in fact,
nothing about it; how it was set
whether III setting the index finger
was used in the place of . stick so
that the dear, precious stuff would
live; whether the festive grasShop-
per eateth it or not, ditto the horn
worm; and, if so, whether the fly
lays the egg on the under or top
side of the leaf; whether it is best
TO top high or low; prime or not
prime, and whether or not the
ground leaves get dirty.
/ received a letter the other day.
from a gentleman, who lives in the
extreme northern part ashland
county, of Wisconsin, inquiring of
me: "What do you know of Bur-
ley?"
My reply was: Nothing; it is
dead" In the spring of 1880 sent
the same party some OrOnOco seed
and told him how to cultivate, and
he has been raising it since for
home use. / told him | could send
him some of the same kind, but
Burley was dead. l actually shed
tears while writing that letter.
Dead-dead beyond all resurrection
and no one to sing thy praise!
"Unstruug, untouch ed, the harp must stand,
No minstrel dare the theme awake,
Guilt would benumb his palsied hand,
It's cords in shuddering accents break"
And just think, only q few
months ago and one could, for the
small sum of So per pound, procure
enough seed to plant, not patches
and fields, but whole states.
Seriously, Mr.. Editor, and testing
aside, did any one ever hear Of to-
bacco seed 10y the b,tshel before the
advent of the humbug Burley ?
Never. 1t appears that the seed
were put up in bags like wheat, or
any Of the cereals.
Do you ever hear anything about
prices these times?
Not long since you only had to
cultivate Burley one or two years
to become "MOnte Christie" in
wealth. Let me tell you what
hear about prices. L cannot hear of
any Burley ranging above two
cents. l Intercepted a negro boy
employed on the place, who worked
the past season in tobacco factory,
in Robertson county. In reply to
the question what was the highest
price paid, for Burnley in this sec
ton, he said:
"De-moSt 1 heard of wuz two
cents. Da bought some Mt de facto-
-ry, and dat is what da said da give
for it, but said da did not want il
ut dat. Da give de man six cents
for dc udder hacker he raised. Dat
Burnley backer is de nocountest
hacker dat L. ebber did see; faint
no MORN shucks."
Another darkey whom L inter
rogated, and who lived in the same
section, said: al once thought
would raise some of dat new kind
of hacker, but when da told me dat
l would have to bug de seed, den l
changed my mind. I'm muffin
wild dat hacker"
then told him that was what
the Burnley boom was gotten up for
to make money off the sale of the
seed otherwise, we would never
have heard of it. The thing is now
too transparent. So soon as the
seed were disposed ofthose engaged
in the business raked in their
"pile," and Burnley collapsed-the
bubble burst.
As l said i'm a previous article in
the CHRONICLE, those engaged in
the business were like Paucks, the
rapacious collector of rents in
bleeding Heart yard" in Dick
ems Little Dorrit,n whose motto
was squeeze 'em, squeeze 'em."
Paucks, when asked by Clennam
"what are your inclinations ," re-
piled: "To make money, sir, if
you'll only show me how"
Dear, patient, noble, gentle little
Dorrit, child of the Marshalsea,
again l ask thy pardon for mem
tioning thy name in connection
with such a humbug as Burley to-
bacco. Dear reader, when 1 call or
write the name of Charles Dickens,
or the names OF many of his charae-
ters. I feel like 1 am treading on
hallOwed ground