Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-08-05
VERSATILITY OF CARL SCHURZ.
He Retires from Business Life to Re-
sumo Literary Work.
GSpecial Correspondence.l

sumo Literary Work.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, July 1S.-It is announced
that Carl Schurz has retired from active
business life and proposes to resume lit
erary work, having in mind a number of
magazine sketches, perhaps one or two
short biographies and possibly a history of
some phases of American politics.
Those who know Mr.. Schurz we'll have
felt for some time that his literary inn
pulses We're becoming too powerful for
him to resist them, and these friends have
believed that Mr.. Schurz would spend his
declining years almost entirely in the IL
brary or upon the platform.
Carl Schurz came to New York in March,
1881, Immediately after Mr.. Hayes admin
istration as president ended. Schurz had
never lived in New York, although it had
long been his desire to become a>resident of
this city. When he came to America early
in the fifties he went west. He lived in
Wisconsin and there gained high repute as
a stump speaker. People used to wonder
that this man of German birth and educa-
ton should have gained such superb COM
mand Of the English language, so that in
his speech scarcely a perceptible hint of
German accent was revealed. And critics
like Lowell and William Cullen Bryant
| and Charles A. Dana used to express ad-
miration for the diction, copious and accu-
rate, which this young German employed
in his speeches upon the stump. He lived
in several states, at last settling in Mis-
souri, after his return from the army and
the Spanish court. There he became an
editor, such service being interrupted by
u term in the senate n in Hayes cab
met.
He said to the writer in the winter of
1881 that he looked forward with delight
full anticipation to taking up the editorial
pen and resuming literary pursuits, and
he seemed to have no other idea than that
the rest of his career would be in such di-
%rection.
An arrangement had been made by
which he was to become virtually the sue
ccssor of William Cullen Bryant as the ed
itor of The Evening Post. Mr.. Bryant had
been dead but a little while, and the an
nouncement that Carl 6churz was to be
seated at the desk which Bryant had so
conspicuously occupied was one of the
sensations of the time. For some reason
Mr.. Schurz did not remain long in that
connection but in the short time that he
was the editor of this paper the readers Of
it had splendid evidence of his mastery
power as a writer.
Then it was announced that Mr.. Schurz
was going to change his career and in a
most striking manner. He was actually
going to enter business life. That was
something with which his name had never
been associated. He had been known as a
litterateur, a splendid orator both in the
German and English tongues, IL diploma
fist and a politician holding a high office,
nY,f oxyar n C n 1S,cspar, N1xy ~ xroc
said that the directors of one of the great
transatlantic steamship lines had offered
him the post of resident manager in New
York city. 1t was a place requiring spe-
cial business qualifications to fill ~satisfac-
torily. Competition between steamship
lines was ~iryense, and these rivalries were
developing new specimens of marine archi-
lecture which were expected to cross the
ocean at almost railway speed.
Mr.. Schurz took hold of this new work
with extraordinary enthusiasm. He be-
came fascinated with the science of ocean
navigation and with the study of the ex-
ploits of some Of the new leviathans of the
sea. He forsook the haunts of literary men
and politicians and was found associating
with business men. He could be seen any
day on Wall street hurrying hither and
thither with all the impetuosity of a broker
who has important commissions to exc
cute. He was fond of taking his friends to
the pier where the steamers of his line lay
and showing them over these boats. When
his company sent across the sea a steam
ship which many regarded the most per-
feet specimen of marine architecture, Mr..
Schurz invited a great company of capital
lists and merchants to go with him and
visit this swift and beautiful monster of
the deep. And when these men saw Schurz
and his enthusiasm they said, "Ah, Schurz
has at last found his place, and he has put
politics and literature behind him, for he
has discovered fascination in business"
About a year ago there began to be seen
indications that Mr.. .Schurz was firing of
business life. He had taken UP the pen
and written what is perhaps the most
perfect essay on Abraham Lincoln which
has yet appeared. It commanded the in
slant recognition not only Of the critics
but of the masses, and although it origi-
nally appeared as a magazine paper its
popularity was so great that it was repub-
lished between covers.
Then Mr.. Schurz's. friends said that he
was anxious to write two or three other
Epspers Of similar nature and was giving
his spare time to such composition. Then
there followed the announcement that he
had resigned his post of resident managero of
the steamship company, the resignation
to 60 into effect On July /.
Now Schurzi is back at his desk. 1t is
reported that he is writing two or three
campaign speeches which will be deliv-
cred in the fall. It is necessary for him to
write and commit to memory all his adj
dresses. He cannot speak ~extempora-
neously. When the campaign is over, it fs
understood in literary, circles that Mr..
Schurz will begin perhaps the most ambi-
tious literary work which he has ever I'M
dertaken, for it will be the one by which
he expects to be known to posterity. There
are only hints of it's nature yet given out,
but that it will be political and probably
historical is accepted by his friends as q
fact. That II will be an exquisite piecs OF
composition 30 far an diction and style are
concerned y certain. +. i EDWARDS.