The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-24


Field great deal OF unpleasant criticism,
but truer, more sincere and more loyal
American never lived than Cyrus ".
Field. New York city is not much given
TO monuments and less given 10 anything
that Is purely sentimental, but trust that
that there Is enough civic pride left here
TO secure for Mr.. Field in some one OF our
parks the statue which he so richly de-
serves.
Public attention has just been directed
In an interesting way to the personalities
OF two men, great IN their records and
achievements, who are forcefui factors IN
the public life OF the country. Both New
Englanders and both now verging on well
toward three score and ten. both success
full. proud, honored and well-to-do IN this
worlds goods, their careers afford curl
Gus contrast. They are George William
Curtis, whose vital illness was suddenly
announced shortly before II was found
necessary TO hold q consultation OF physi-
clans at his house. and Austin Corbin.
under whose hospitable roof st Manhattan
beach the great Press Club dinner, from
which so much is hoped oy its friends,
was held on July IL
Mr.. Curtis was born in Providence. X.
l.. in 1873, and for more than forty years
has been a New Yorker. residing on
Staten Island. During most of thar time
he was most admirable exponent OF the
American man Of letters, pursuing MS
chosen career with success. dignity and
the general good will and admiration OF
his fellows. The delightful old house IN
which he lived. on what Is called the
American Isle of Wight. was also his lit
erary workshop. Only once week did he
come into the curious old publishing house
OF the Harpers down in Franklin square,
almost under the Brooklyn bridge.
When Henry r. Pierson died, George
William was elected to succeed him
as chancellor by the regents OF the
University of New York. That was the
nearest approach this eminent Mugwump
made TO office holding. His views on pub
lie topics have been printed from week to
week in the editorial columns Of Hdrper's
Weekly, and however much one may nave
dissented from his conclusions, 1t was I'M
possible not to respect his methods and
agree with his premises. l do not know
that it is possible to remember Mr.. Curtis
more delightfully."- than by his book of
travels in Egypt, published anonymously
great many years ago under the title,
nile Notes of Howadji." 1t was in this
charming volume that Mr.. Curtis made
the first announcement, l believe. OF the
discovery that Cleopatra, as pictured on
the walls of karnak, had a pug nose.
do not know whether it be universally
true, as some wise man has said, that
there is always touch OF sentiment in the
nature OF men whom We deem successful,
however hard and unyielding their outer
they battle and which they overcome.
And / may be doing Mr.. Corbin an in
Justice in speaking of him as a man be-
lieved to present an unyielding front TO
the fortune of all varieties, and TO at least
some of the softening influences of civil
ization; but that this most successful and
important man of affairs in the great
or tv haa a adj
and a most captivating one, those who are
in his confidence well know.
1t is his love of dumb brutes, as shown
in the ceaseless efforts he has been max
ing for years, al an enormous expense and
untiring zeal and energy, Tor the preserva-
ton of those species of American big
game" which have seemed in most danger
of extinction.
/ fancy a keen observer of human
nature could infer his New England origin
from Mr.. Corbin's shrewd and rudy
features. Unless I mistake his family
has in Captain W. H. Corbin. probably a
collateral relative. won distinction in the
one of the most famous chiefs of
the Yale football eleven. Austin Cor
bins marvellous physique for a man of
his years must, l believe, be the result of
his early experiences on the plains of the
West and in the Rocky mountains, which
constitute. after all, the very best athletic
training. 1t may be a fad of mine, but it
seems to me that no man who has ever
lived in intimate association with the
magnificent mountain solitudes OF the
Rockies is thereafter destitute of a certain
element of sweetness of nature and clear
ness of mental vision which would seem
difficult TO obtain elsewhere.
1t has been forty years since Austin
Corbin was thrown among these iuflu-
mar hah
be one of our foremost financiers, railroad
managers. bankers, bridge builders, steam
ship promoters and chiefs of great enter
prises in general. But IT was in the West
at that time that he acquired that love of
nature and sympathy and affection for
as the bison and the elk. which have
| resulted in his becoming the most
conspicuous of the American pre-
servers of big game. Visitors to
Manhattan beach of late have noticed
bunch of buffalo, believe that is the
technical term-feeding in salt meadow
near the railroad track. These animals,
/ understand constituted simply one of
long series of consignments 10 be for
warded to Mr.. Corbin's great game pre-
serve in the Croydon and Grantham
mountains of New Hampshire, which
cover parts of four townships. The pre-
serve especially set apart for big game,
however. Is III the due NOuHtdIn forest,
about forty miles from Concord, \. H, in
a northwesterly direction.
The first OF these great parks, inclosed
by wire fence from ten TO twelve feet
high, is, l am told, some forty miles in
circumference. The Blue mountain pre-
serve is still further north, and includes
high mountains, whose sides are covered
by the dense forest so dear to the elk and
blaok-tailed deer, and offering. too, some
thing approaching TO the lichen of the
cooler North, which the reindeer delights
to feed on and the moose finds most to
his taste.
For a man who employs as many thou
sand men as does Mr.. Corbin, and whose
contact with so many different enterprises
is not inapt 10 excite criticism and attack
from those whose interests ne opposes, he
is highly spoken of by those whose salaries
and weekly wages are paid by his checks.
| see the same faces year after year on his
railroads. The great voting trust by the
way. by means OF which he was reelected
president OF the Philadelphia Il Reading
Railroad Company in May, 1890. ex,
pires by limitation in October of
this year. 1t was an interest
ing creation. Mr.. John Wanamaker
was one of its members, who persisted in
focking by himself, while the other three.
]. Pierpont Morgan. John Lowber Welsh
and Austin Corbin, all cast their votes for
the last named, and so elected him presi-
dent of the great corporation which Mr..
Corbin seems TO have been the first to
10. Mr.. Corbin touches the industrial in
terests OF the country at so many
different points OF contact, and
with so much result, that New
Workers not unnaturally have consider
able expectation OF the good they and the