Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-04-01
JOHN BURROUGHS DEAD
Famous Naturalist Passes Away While
En- Route Home to Die.

Ell nollG " S'S'
John Burroughs, famous natural
list, died at o'clock last Tuesday
morning on 4 New York Central train
at kingville O., while returning to
his home at West Park, Ulster coun-
ty, New York from Pasadena, Cal,
where he had been spending the win
ter. He was in his S4th year.
John Burroughs was the venerable
dean Of nature writers in the United
States. Through Il score of books he
shared with countless readers his life
long intimacy with birds. bees, flow
ers and the whole out-of-doors. His
highly developed powers Of observa-
tion and the charm Of his interpreta-
tions were the marvel of his critics.
His flowing white beard, his kindly
mien. his whole habit Of life. and his
literary style were rather reminiscent
Of that famous New England school
of essayists generation or two before
him. His ca"i. writing on EXPIRES
for the work of Emerson, 4 close
reader Of whom Burroughs had been
from youth His later works on ma
ture suggested something Of Thoreau,
but as critics said Burroughs was the
more sociable writer
He learned TO love nature when he
drove COWS at his birthplace farm,
Roxbury, among the Cntskills, in New
York state. but anything like q liter
ary composition was a bugbear to him
as youth. The story is told OF how
when he was ronrteen.i 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 comic almanac.
His theft was detected. Again in des-
peration upon his second trial he paid
Jay Gould. his classmate, sixty cents
for twelve line verse which he hand
ed in as his own.
He was born in 1887. In 1868 he
went to Washington with something
Of an inclination to enlist in the Union
army, but he decided to seek 4 gov
ernment office. 1t is related that with
only Il few of his poems rs credentials
he walked into the Treasury Depart
ment and asked for Il job. IT was
agreed that his rernal verses really
smelt Of the woods, and smacked Of
sincerity. lie would be Il safe man to
watch the treasury vaults. IIc agreed
to take the place. At little desk,
facing the huge iron vault where he
kept tabs on those who went 10 handle
the $5O,0O0,0O0 stored there, he began
writing Of birds, to relieve his home
Sickness. Tie result was his first book,
wake Robin
Some years lutcr, after work rs Il
treasury clerk and a national bank
examiner had netted him some saw
ings. he bought q few acres nj West
Park on the Hudson. where among the
loaded trelliseS of q vineyard he
found more pleasure than in the
closets of grccnbacks." There he re-
newcd his emotional intercourse with
Nature building a real house over
looking the river-just above Pough-
keepsie When rural civilization
pressed q little close about him. he
built his "slabsides" cabin a mile or
two back in the woods.
The title OF his books included
winter Sunshine" 'Locusts and
Wild Honey" Fresh Fields" Indoor
Studies" Birds and Poets" Signs
and Seasons" ",Fhe Light Of Day
Religious Discussions from the Stand
point of the Naturalist" Literary
Values" and ways of Nature" Fc
was Il friend OF Walt Whitman and
one of his books was an appreciation
of him. He was also 4 boon conf
panion OF Theodore Roosevelt in ma
ture studies. During Col. RooscEelts
occasional clashes with mature fax
ers" and those who charged him with
brutal instincts in his hunting trips
the venerable Burroughs always