Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-25
THE RESURRECTION.
The Late Lamented DIR. II. o. Burleigh's Barn
Gives up its Ghosts.


The Late Lamented DIR. H. O. Burleigh's Barn
Gives up its Ghosts
With what spirit of unrest must our
late lamented neighbor, DR.. II. o. Bur
leigh, have looked out but yesterday over
the jasper battlements of his celestial
blvouac and down upon the vendue being
made Of his earthly Accommodations.
That treasure cantonment, the old barn,
that spectral rendezvous Of wreck
residue and superfiuity, which had so long
blocked the way of Fourth avenue, was at
last unsealed by the administrator, and
the public permitted to linger about and
in wonder gaze. How like a flood must
the memory CT all his greedy graspings
surged back over his ransomed soul as he
saw the secret harvest of anxious years
ruthlessly raked out of the sanctuary of
his earthly worship, only to fall beneath
the vulgar hammer of an auctioneer.
Sub-cellar and ground floor, loft and
garrett of that unique rookery had for days
been giving up their stores of excess and
survivals. The long lost wagons which
had by peace meal been sailed down with
bee-gums and cider mills, corn shelters
and chemical apparatus, trunks and
electric batteries in that barn, were brought
forth, wheel, spring and axle set
up in all their pristine ricketyness, till the
whole grotesque caravan stood again sign
labeled and all just as they did on the
morning of their memorable advent into
the city, and seemingly but awaiting the
word of him that is no more to move on
and away forever Nine vehicles were
thus reconstructed and enough aXles and
wheels were found additional to set up
nine more. Even the bob-tailed bay and
his forlorn mate We're found in some dark
recess and led out once more into the light
of day to fall a sacrifice to some cold cry
Of II bid two dollars and halfl' With a
kind of a creeping underlined feeling we
stood half expecting to see the doctor him
self come next; not led forth nor yet as
shadowy unsubstantial vision, but to
come tumbling out over that high door
sill, his collapsed oyeralls still hanging
forlorn hope by a single suspender, the
tassel of his wilted snood dangling upon
his bent and rounded shoulders, his glim
still burning with his dogs at his heels, de-
handing in his piping voice the wherefore
of the sacrilege which was making the
gods of his pains and tears the mere sport
of bids, the secrets of his solicitude the
mean contingent of an unsympathetic
crowds worthless nickles. 1t was said by
some on the day he was planted that our
old friend wasn't dead. He must have
been very dead. That his spirit will,
however, yet Notwithstanding, hover over
and haunt each Of those treasures
though the purchasers scatter themselves
to the four corners OF the earth. we have
not the faintest doubt.
Out of some boxes, yellow with time,
and which had been pried out of their
recess, the wind ha1 lifted and scattered
about the feet of the unheeding crowd
thousands of little square bits OF white
paper which We're by succeeding gusts
whirled away like falling snow flakes.
These also were leaves from the book of a
strange life, though substantial advertise
ments and labels of the ubiquitous doctors
professional days before he descended to
real estate speculations and city additions
and became one of US. There were wrap
pers for DR.. H. o. Burleigh's rare cure for
itch," put upin his labratory at Peoria,
III. There were other labels OF Or II. O.
Burleigh's dead shot ague cure" war
ranted in all climates, of excellent virtues,
a secret compound of great cost and
greater efficacy, price s. per bottle, no
cure no pay. On sale at his pharmacenti-
cal repository in Chicago.
These labels, valuable pointers and
chapters, though they were of an anamo-
listic character and Of a life out of tune
of one who was not only all life himself,
but who made it mighty lively for every
body around him, including his unhappy
neighbor, did not bring a cent. What his
shocking machine and battery brought,
what the winter-horSe, he the bOb-tail bay
and the flea-bitten gray, we are ignorant.
But of their value i'll the eyes of the la
mented Doctor, they were all precious
things, Unreasonable by any standard of
insensate money. And besides these were
scrap-iron and antique furniture, flag ends
and queer remainders, unconsumed ruins,
sedimentary survivings, and unaccount-
able outlyings generally, all knocked off to
the thanking bidders, by parcels, by heaps,
singly and in Jumps, adding full three
thousand dollars to the estate covered by
the last viii and testament of him, the
late lamented, who was the original accu-
mulator of all, the purveyor and the pro-
prietor.
May we be permitted to hope that when
the last vestage of his earthly surplusage
shall have crumbled to dust and the heav-
ems shall be rolled together as scroll:
When all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be he'll that are not heaven"
and the last trump shall sound, that
Gabriel may find it a less difficult task to
open up the Doctors grave than our city
fathers have found it to open that avenue