The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-08
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
The List OF the Old Time Literary Men
In New York.
Especial Corrcspondcncc.l


Especial Correspondence
New York, Aug. 2.-Thc illness of George
William Curtis. it is feared is mortal al
though the physicians are not sure that his
trouble is cancer of the stomach Mr.. Cur
tbs until within four or five months has
seemed to his friends to reveal less indica-
tion OF advancing years than is usually the
case with man who has arrived Mt his
age. He is nearly seventy, yet he looks, or
did look until recently fexactly like the
George William Curtis Vino twenty years
ago was regarded as thc.,nndsomest lite
rateur i'll New York, andSnie 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.
MIR. Curtis has not been doing much lit
erary work OF late, excepting that which
was called from him by reason of his post
rs editor of some of the Harper publica-
tons. He has written an address upon the
life and literary service of james Russell
Lowell, and many of his admirers think that
i'll this address Mr.. Curtis shows the finest
flower of his genius. He said to a friend
while he was writing it 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 culogy. Some passages in it, Mr.
Conkling said, were unrivaled by the prose
of any other American writer, and were fit
to be compared with some of NIilton's 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 n work of
love- 1t 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.
MIR. 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 q great nd
mirer of Curtis, while the accomplished
scholar had the highest regard for the
young postmaster. Pearson was n be
lever in civil service reform, and conduct
ed the New York postoflicc absolutely OH
such lines. He had many II 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 hewas suffering. They found that
he had cancer of the stomach, and it is re-
garded by Mr.. Curtis friends, and Mr..
Pearson's rs well, as strange dispense
ton that Mr.. Curtis should have been
stricken with the same disease Just after
he began the preparation of the Pearson
eulogy.
~ monument is to he erected in honor of
Mr.. Pearson in New York, to which post
office employees all over the country have
contributed, and it WAS upon the 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 i'll his achievements as IL prac-
tical postoffce 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. 1t is practically completed, and
not himself il will be read upon the oeca-
sion of the Pearson monument dedication.
Mr. Curtis is the last of that cultured
throng of literary men who flourshcd in
| New York in 1915 and after. They were
intimates Of Washington Irving, and
friends Of Fcnnimore Cooper who were
| Older than they. They gave to New York
city such literary reputc 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 Gull
turcd gentlemen who gained for New York
such reputation as Boston had before rs
the home of literary rcn CT distinguished
talent. T.. J. EDWARDS.
The Growth of Canada.
The figures on last years census in Can