The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-03
GATHER
 FOR FUNERAL OF JOHN BURROUGHS
Great Scientists and ManufaC- turers MingIe In Sorrow With Boy Scouts and ChiI-
 dren of Neighborhood
By Associated Press

West Park, N. Y. April 2-In the rustic house that was the retreat of John Burroughs for nearly half cen tury, 15O representatives of the thou sands of nature lovers who admired his outdoor life and writings. gathered to-. day at his. funeral. The ceremonies were' short, of great simplicity. and reminiscent of the career which the great naturalist pursued among the hills and streams and flowers and be- side his rugged stone hearth with vol umes of Emerson, Whittier and Words worth.
 By train and by automobile the lit tie groups of mourners arrived throughout the forenoon at Riverby, the naturalist's home, situated among the pines and naples, where the Shaw angunk mountains meet the waters of the Hudson.
 Scientists and manufacturers of wide prominence mingled in sorrow with Boy Scouts and the children of the neighborhood. Publishers and horti- culturists bowed reverent heads with a group of religious men from the Holy Cross monastery. The mourners came from among the rocks and rills of New England the banks of the Potomac, the shores of Lake Michigan. the snows of Canada, the great stone buildings of < New York to look for the last time upon the patriarchal countenance of the venerable naturalist.
 EDISON AND FORD PRESENT
 Among them were Thomas A. Edison. Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone, who for several years have spent their vacations outdoors with MT. Burroughs. Next to MT. Edison stood an aged and gray-haired man who had pedalled his bicycle from Bingaamton, more than 30 miles away, to witness the epi logue of the naturalist's stay upon the earth that he loved so fervently. This man was Charles c. Branhal, an ac- quaintance of the naturalist since child hood days.
 The sun. was shining brilliantly and the pines at Riverby murmured sadly in the breezes from the Catskills when the funeral service began. From a muf- fled photograph came the soft violin strains of Pinsutis Remembrance" the Lords prayer was said, and then slowly a reader spoke some lines writ ten by Earl w. Williams, which Mr. Burroughs felt characteristic of his own self:
 ''The forest mods in fellowship they read; "the winds my playmates are; the waters lisp the sign of brother. and in the thunders voice I hear a tongue which is not strange The stars are kindly counsellors to me; I claim a kin ship with the worm that crawls and with the clay wherein the simple tale of it's dim life is written"
 EXCERP-~ READ
 Quotations from Emerson and Words worth and Walt Whitman, companion of his middle age, also were read. Then William Ormiston Roy of Montreal a friend of Mir. Burroughs through many years, read excerpts from Waiting" one of the first poems penned by the naturalist and from accepting the uni verse" his latest book.
 Rev. Franklin D. Elmer pastor of the Collegiate Baptist church at Colgate university, likewise a long time friend. led the prayers and made a few re- marks:
 There are here to pay him tribute" he said, "those who come from the woodland and the field the shop and school. the church and offices of state, the mart and the oceans shore This man, o Lord, has taught us the beauty of your creations, of the rivers, the sky, the valley the birds and the beasts.'
 When he had finished the soft flute and violin notes of a cradle song spread over the room where men, women and children were crowded in sorrow. Then the mourners filed by the bier for a last look at the face of MT. Burroughs Some of them picked wild violets from the coffin to keep as a remembrance. There were many floral offerings, but they did not come from the artificial atmosphere of the city house.. They were wild flowers gathered from the fields and hillsides.
 The children of West Park who fre- quently visited Riverby, to sit at the feetof the nature lover and learn of animal and vegetable life from him, trod slowly past the dead, each one leaving bunch of wild flowers.
 From all sections of the nation let ters came today telling of the love for the naturalist and of his inspiratio to those who find comfort and content mentln the great outdoors
 Tomorrow, MT. Burroughs eighty fourth birthday, his body will be taken hy automobile into the western Cat skills and inferred at the place where fe was born, near the town of Roxbury. Many of those. who attended his funeral today will go to WoodchuciS lodge, his den in the mountains for the burial.