The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-08-07
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
The Last Of tho Old limo Literary Men
I'm Now York.
Especial Correspondence.I

4
In New York.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK. Aug. 2.-The illness Of George
! William Curtis. IL is feared, is mortal. al
though the physicians are not sure that his
trouble is cancer of the stomach. Mr.. Cur
It's until within four or five months has
seemed TO his friends to reveal less indica-
ton Of advancing years than is usually the
case with a man who has arrived at his
age. He Is nearly seventy, yet he looks, or
did look until recently, exactly like the
George William Curtis who twenty years
ago was regarded as the handsomest lite
rateur in New York, and the most graceful
and charming in his relations with the
world Of all those men who have won
fame with the pen in New York city.
Mr.. Curtis has not been doing much lit
erary work of late, excepting that which
was called from him by reason of his post
AS editor of some Of the Harper publica-
tions. He hos written en- address upon the
life and literary service of James Russell
Lowell, and many of his admirers think that
in this address Mr. Curtis shows the finest
flower of bis genius. He said to a friend
while he was writing Il that nothing Of
the kind which he had ever done gave him
more delight than the telling of the story
Of James Russell Lowell's exquisite liter
airy genius.
Mr.. Curtis delivered the address in COM
memoration Of the life Of Wendell Phillips,
and Roscoe Conkling, Notwithstanding his
personal quarrel with Mr.. Curtis, said not
long before his death that every student of
American oratory should read this Phil
lips euiogy. Some passages in it, Mr.
Conkling said, were unrivaled by the prose
Of any other American writer, and were TT
10 be compared with some of Millions ma
jestic prose.
Mr.. Curtis has said that the work OF
composing the Phillips eulogy was the
most difficult literary work he had ever
done. He was an admirer Of Phillips, and
understood him better than most Ameri-
cans did; therefore the address was re-
garded as the most accurate estimate Of
Phillips achievements and character that
had ever been made.
But his eulogy of Lowell was a work Of
love. IL has just been published, and
critics believe that it will remain an Amer
lean classic. being perhaps the finest illus
tration Of Mr. Curtis talent.
Before he was smitten with this illness,
Mr.. Curtis had set about the preparation
of an address to commemorate the life and
services OF Postmaster Pearson, Of New
York city. Mr.. Pearson was a great adj
mirer of Curtis, while the accomplished
scholar had the highest regard for the
young postmaster. Pearson was a be-
lever in civil service reform, and conduct
ed the New York postoffice absolutely on
such lines. He had many a trial with the
politicians, but he always had the friend
ship and support of Mr. Curtis in these
emergencies.
Mr.. Pearson died almost before he had
reached the prime of life, and it was not very
long before his death when the physicians
discovered what the disease was from
which he was suffering. They found that
he had cancer of the stomach, and it is re-
garded by Mr. Curtis friends, and Mr..
Pearson's as well, as a strange dispensa-
tion that Mr.. Curtis should have been
stricken with the same disease just after
he began the preparation Of the Pearson
eulogy.
A monument is TO be erected in honor Of
Mr. Pearson in New York, TO which post
office employees all over the country have
contributed, and it was upon tho occasion
Of dedication Of this monument that Mr.
Curtis was expected to deliver the address
He was so much interested in his study of
Pearson and in his achievements Us prac-
teal postoffice official that Mr. Curtis be-
came enthusiastic in his work, and even
after he began TO feel the suffering Of dis
ease insisted upon going on with this adj
dress. It IS practically completed, and
whether Mr.. Curtis is able TO deliver it or
not himself, it will be read upon the occa-
sion of the Pearson monument dedication.
Mr. Curtis is the last Of that cultured
throng of literary men who fiOurished in
New Yorki IN 1916 and after. They were
intimates OF Washington Irving, and
friends Of Fennimore Cooper, who were
older than they. They gave to New York
city such literary repute as it enjoyed.
Donald G.. Mitchell, who is a little older
than Curtis, and who was one Of this
throng, is living at his home at Edgewood
Just out Of New Haven. With the excep-
ton Of Mr.. Mitchell, Curtis is the last Of
the galaxy Of brilliant writers and cul-
tured gentlemen who gained for New York
such reputation as Boston had before as
the home of literary men Of distinguished
talent L. j. EDWARDS.