Evening star., 1921-03-29
John BURROUGHS,
NATURALIST, DEAD
On Way Home From Pacific
Coast, He Succumbs
on Train.

UTICA, N. Y, March 29.-John Bur
roughs. naturalist, died on a New
York Central train near Kingsville
Ohio. on his way home from Cali
fornia, at 2 o'clock this morning He
an abscess on the chest and heart
and with kidney complications.
He was 80 eager to get home that
the long journey was undertaken
with the hope that he could survive
The end came suddenly. few min
utes after he had asked: How near
home are we?'
His physician. DR.. Clara Barrus;
his granddaughter, Ursula Bur
roughs. and the Misses Elinor and
Harriet Burroughs accompanied him
on the journey.
CLEVELAND. Ohio. March o.
New York Central headquarters here
received a report from their super
intendent at Erie, Pa: that John Bur
Toughs ,,; died d,ea on tt train ain No: Is near
apparently from heart disease.
The report says the lady physician
who was accompanying Mr.. Bur-
roughs took charge Of the body and
continued east. Mr.: Burroughs
bound for Poughkeepsie, n Y.
The train conductor reported at
Buffalo that he was first told of the
death shortly before reaching Buffalo.
when he was asked to file several
kilograms to friends of Mr.. Bur
roughs announcing his death, New
York Central officials here understood
the body was taken east from BUT
falo.
Dean OF Nature Writefs.
John Burroughs was the venera BILE
dean of nature writer's in the United
he shared with countless readers his
lifelong intimacy with birds, bees,
flowers and the whole out-of-doors.
His highly developed powers of OBJ
servation and the charm of his in
critics.
His flowing white beard, his kindly
mien, his whole habit of life and
his literary style were rather remi-
niscent Of that famous New England
school of essayists a generation or
ing. on Expression" was at one
time widely mistaken for the work
of Emerson, q close reader of whom
Burroughs had been from youth. His
later works on nature suggested
So"cSAAh6 VI AhoL edus puI, dS CrlI-
les said. Burroughs was the more
sociable writer.
He learned to love nature when he
drove cows at his birthplace farm,
Roxbury. among the Catskills, in
New York state, but anything like
literary composition was a bug
bear to him as a youth. The story
is told of how, when he was four
teen, in common with the members
of his class at school, he was required
to write twelve lines of original
composition. He copied something
out of a comic almanac. His theft
was detected. Again in desperation
upon his second trial, he paid Jay
Gould, his classmate. so cents for a
twelve-line verse, which he handed
in as his own.
Gets Job in Warrington.
He was born in 1887. In 1863 he
went to Washington with something
Of an inclination to enlist in the
Union Army. but he decided to seek
q government Office. It is related
that with only a few of his poems as
credentials he walked into the Treas
ury Department and asked for a lob.
It was agreed that his vernal verses
really smelt Of the woods and
smacked of sincerity. He would be a
safe man to watch the Treasury
vaults. He agreed to take the place.
At little desk. facing the huge iron
vault, where he kept tabs on those who
went to handle the $4,000. 900 stored
there. he began writing of the birds,
to relieve his homesickness. The re-
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