Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-01

tual men and women of an idealistic nature,
who were trying to solve some of the many
problems of lite.
In His Youthful Days.
Their ideas were not clearly defined, but
their aim was to form a completely demo-
cratic community, in which the mind and
body should be developed together Guilt
walton of the soil was the primal occupation
and in their opinion the noblest in which
man could be engaged. All thinkers and
scholars should be agriculturists, as by agri-
culture they would be brought nearer to
nature the common mother and revealer, II
thoroughly Investigated, of the secrets OF
the universe.
Many OF the theories of the Brook Far
mers were held to be fantastic, but their
practices were wholesome enough, mentally
aid physically. The members of the asso-
citation were all young, otherwise they
would not have attempted to found COM
munity on so primitive and pastoral plan.
They were entirely in earnest, and would
doubtless have persisted in their efforts for
years had not a fire destroyed their build
ings after the term of insurance had ex-
pired, and obliged them to disband for want
of material means to 60 on. Most OF them
were then resigned to poverty and hard
work for the sake of illustrating the BROTH
erhood of the race. Dana and Ripley were,
in those days, diligent husbandmen, in the
cheapest and coarsest of clothes having but
a single hat, of common felt, between them.
Curtis stayed at the farm some 20 months,
and was then drawn to Concord, through its
intellectual circle, including Emerson and
Hawthorne, whose acquaintance he had
made at West Roxbury, which they had re-
peatedly visited without Identifying them
selves with the movement. He stayed at
Concord and in the vicinity for two years,
living in a farm house and doing more or less
farm work, while improving his mind with
books and by oral communication with the
transcendentalists of the neighborhood.
Later he went abroad and became engaged in
literary work through writing of his travels
Financial Incident of His Career.
in the early fifties Curtis became a silent
partner in publishing house, having put
only S1O,O into it, without any part or
voice in its general management 1t
became insolvent in two years, and Curtis
was declared to be legally responsible for a
portion of its debts on account of some in
formality in drawing up the articles OF
partnership.
Whether responsible or not, was ques-
tioD which might have been decided in the
courts had he been willing to test it. Many
of his friends held that he was in no wise
bound beyond the $4,000, while the as
sumption of being general partner made
him debtor for ten times the amount. He
would not listen to them, however, or to
any sort of compromise having determined
to meet his liabilities to the fullest With
this purpose he surrendered all his property
except household furniture and books and
set about examining the balance, some $780,
000 No small task, this, especially for a
u-ho ri1
be slow and toilsome. He formed connec-
tion with the Harpers, continued ever since,
with an understanding that he should have
the privilege of lecturing, which he had be-
gun some four years before.
No better proof could be adduced of his
manhood than his courageous resolution to
sustain an exalted principle, really a nice
point of honor, under very adverse circum-
stances. For 16 years he wrote and lee
tured, taxing his strength to the utmost,
before he could pay the last dollar of debt
which, morally at least, he did not owe.
Activity in Political Affairs.
In 1856 Curtis became a jealous Repub-
lican, having been opposed from his youth
to the extension of slavery and the ag-
gressions of the South. In the canvass of
1868 he was chosen an elector. and he ad-
vocated second term for Grant, who SUBJ
Commission to make rules regulating the
civil service. Toward the close of Grants
second administration he became dissatisfied
with the Presidents policy, and opposed
the candidature of President Grant for
third term, both in 1876 and in 1880, and
was prominent leader of that wing of the
Republican party which secured the nomi-
nation of Mr.. Hayes and Mr.. Garfield.
Mr.. Hayes offered him the mission to Eng
land and Germany, which he declined.
During the recent agitation for a reform
in the civil service, Mr.. Curtis vigorously
supported the movement, and has been
President of the National Reform League
since its organization. In 1884 he opposed
the nomination of Mr. Blaine as the Repub-
lican candidate for the Presidency, and
was q supporter of the Democratic nominee,
Mr.. Cleveland. In 1890 he was elected
Chancellor of the University of New York.
Besides the Howadji volumes of travel,
he has published the following works, all
made up of previous contributions to vari-
GUS periodicals.: "Lotus Eating" a series
of newspaper letters from various watering
places, 1852; "The Potiphar Papers," 1858;
''Prue and l." 1856, and ''Trumps, 1862;
besides number of addresses and orations