The Washington critic., 1890-03-01
GEORGE II. BOX ER.
a Philadeiphia View of Poetry and
Position in Society.

Position In society.
Boxer inherited wealth and the best
sort of social position, yet he had pro.
digiously strong and overmastering ten.
dcDcy 10 imaginative production in
literature, says u writer in the iHdHtic
for March. The pressure Of what we may
call, in modified sense, the boHrgeoiS
element, wRs brought to bear strongly
against his following this tendency.
Blost of his companions and local
society were inclined to scoff at his am
bition or his inspiration, his idealism.
They believed that a young man well
provided with wealth and station, who
definitely proposed TO set out as poet
and make poetry his chief aim in life,
was throwing sort of discredit on the
class 10 which he belonged.
Many Of his poems on the war rang
from one side of the country to the
other, gained popular rcnown and had
a vital influence on public and patriotic
sentiment.
Not content with proving his point
by his triumph as dramatist and lyrist,
he also showed that poet may be IL
a practical man of affairs, whose en-
crgy, skill and bravery in organizing Il
strong league of patriots in a partially
dlsaifcctcd town could not be surpassed.
Here, again, he defied prejudice, for in
those days many of the persons who
had most influence socially were open
sympathizcrs with the rebellion Boxer
demonstrated the fact that loyalty could
not only be made compatible with social
prestige, but could also take the upper
hand Of II. Some Of his associates, of
course, deserve equal credit in the
patriotic work, but Boxer had the dis
tinction of combining in his own per
son the character Of the devoted patriot
and the judicious organizer and man
agcr with that Of the poet, whose early
aspirations toward artistic creation had
been lightly valued by his fellow. cit-
Zens.
lis later distinction as United States
Minister to the Sublime Porte and st.
Petersburg. where he rendered very i'm
por,ant services to his country, put the
keystone in the arch that he had so long
been building. While in Russia he
was the only one of our Ministers al
foreign courts who was able to check
mate Spain in her controversy with u:
about The NirgiDius. He balflcd the
Spanish Ambassador at st. Petersburg,
and influenced Gortschakoff to send a
dispatch to Madrid which caused Spain
TO apologize to the United States, thus
averting serious complications.
While he was winning laurels as a
poet, a dramatist, leader in a patriotic
movement, and brilliant American
diplomatist (of whom Ignatieff, while
engaged in a struggle with him at Con.
stantinoplc, wrote to the Russian Gov.
ernmcnt, He is a man composed OF
true diplomatic stutf'), Boxer was also
completing his victory over those who
had questioned the dignity Of his pur
posed literary career.
He was at last recognized in his ma
tive city as an illustrious citizen. Blu
even after he had done all this, fount
that in Philadelphia there was dispo
sition III certain quarters to make ligh
Of him. because he sometimes acknowl
edged TO his intimates that he saw wha
he had accomplished and recognized his
own standing. A more modest literary
man l never met. He never alluded tC
his writings unless l brought up thu
subject and pressed it persistently
This will account in part for the lc
that he did not always at first impres
me as a poet, and it is explainable ol
the basis which l have suggested, tina
he had long ago made up his mind (,
preserve in himself the two characters
hat Of poet and that of man of tn
world, diplomatist, statesman.