The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-04-08
By VIKToR FLAMBEAU.

building SLdnOS.
They were very happy there,
John Burroughs and his wife
Ursula. whom he had married
when he was but twenty, a
country schoolmaster in a little
village of the Catskills near his
native town Of Roxbury. N. Y.
Last Tuesday, April 8, was the
anniversary Of Burroughs birth
in 1887, and little group of
friends in Washington who had
known him years ago celebrated
the day by Burroughs exhibit
ton now on view at the Art
Center, 11o6 Connecticut avenue
northwest. With photographs,
manuscripts; reproductions, pub
locations, there is much Of in
terest to the public, who are cor
daily invited to view the modest
display.
Burroughs belonged to the COM
mon people. He had grown up, as
he said, among the unlettered,
"uncultivated and threading class
and he claimed to have benefited
greatly from the freedom Of mind
thus gained, which remained with
him all his life, a great simplicity
Of character which bound him
closely to a wide diversity OF men
and women.
HIS INTINLATES.
Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas A.
Edison, Henry Ford, Hudson
Maxim. Jay Gould. Harvey S.
Firestone. Hamlin Garland-they
were all his close friends. John
Muir was almost a prototype,
whom they called John o.
Mountains while John Bur
roughs was John O'Birds." Ear
Her his great componion had been
Walt Whitman, who was a clerk
In the Treasury at the same time
that Burroughs was a Waterman.
Whitman was a frequent visitor
at the modest home of Bur
roughs, where Mrs Burroughs
would prepare for them her IA
nous corn-cakes:
/ quart Of grated corn,
{ eggs. well beaten.
A little salt.
Half a cup Of flour.
BE sure to scrape each ear
Of corn with a knife after you
have grated it, so as not to lose
any Of the milk in the cob"
That is exactly the way Mrs.
Burroughs gave this receipt TO a
friend of the later years. who
visited them at ''Riverby" AMI
"Woodchuck Lodge" two of the
Burroughs homes in addition to
"Slabsides."
It was on Tuesday, March 20.
only two years ago, that Bur-
roughs was travelling home from
Pasadena. Cal, where he had
been spending the winter, in
tending to reach West Park,
Ulster county, N. 7, in time to
celebrate there his eighty-fourth
birthday the following Sunday,
when he was summoned on a
new and longer journey TO an
unknown land. but one with
many old friends waiting to
welcome him home.
HOW NEAR HOME ARE WEI"
How near home are WEI" he
had just asked. as the train near
ed Kingsville, Ohio. And then
IN a moment 1t was over, and
he was home"
A wide world mourned for him
follower OF Emerson, disciple of
Thoreau. interpreter of Walt
Whitman. OF nature writers
there were few left; he had in
spired a host of attractive imi-
tators. But the great naturalist
was gone.
It was during those years in
the Treasury. watching the blank
wall Of the vault he guarded, that
Burroughs composed his first and,
In some ways. greatest nature
book. Wake Robin" named for a
wild flower, and inspired. perhaps,
by a happy springtime in Wash
ington. where the robins return
30 much earlier than in his far
colder native town I'm the Cat
skills. 1t was not his first publ
cation, because he had long been
magazine contributor, and in
1857 he had brought out an ap-
probation, walt Whitman as
Poet and Person." recognizing al
ready the genius of the poet of
Leaves Of Grass" then I'm
known - the world. though To.