The record-union., 1892-09-02
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.

The death of George William Curtis
leaves vacancy in the list Of distin-
guished publicists of this Nation. Mr..
Curtis as an editor, orator and writer has
gained renown of the first order. While
he was graceful, forcible and eloquent
speaker it was with the pen that lie won
his greatest triumphs. He was absolutely
fearless in his expression of views, and
in his political essays, editorials and
speeches he manifested courage OF the
highest order. 1t was said of him that
he had fear of no man, and that he re-
spected none except for manifest worth
and demonstrated capacity-that is to
the vicious his adherence amounted
almost to hatred. 1t was this that gave
his political and critical writings such
incisiveness, vigor and caustic power.
1t was the mans lofty estimate of worth
from his levels of what constituted
virtue, and his contempt and adherence
of the unworthy measured by his rigid
standards, that gave 10 his writings such
resistless force and sweeping energy.
But Mr.. Curtis did not indulge in
vituperation; he found it to be vehicle
of no strength; when he cruciied his
opponents upon the nib Of his pen it was
done with scholarly grace and finished
diction. Withal Mr.. Curtis was a most
kindly man; those intimate with him
spoke of him as a lovable man. Surely
there was no gall or enduring bitterness
in the heart that prompted for so many
years the utterances Of ''Harper's Easy
Chair" The millions who have COM
muned with this refined being through
the medium Of that department in Hd9-
pe7'S Magazine will never forget the
gentle, kindly hand that wrote it. They
will grieve for the clean soul that lay
behind it; and yet cry hail! and go up
higher to the genius that inspired its
lines.
MIR. Curtis courage of conviction and
absolute freedom from political thraldom
made him the most conspicuous bolter
and independent with which the Repub-
lican party ever had to do. He became
the father of mugwumpery, but the
stigma of that title no more affected HIM
than the dews melt the rocks. All his
inclinations setting him toward the Re-
publican party, his attachment to its
fundamental principles being strong and
unreserved, he lad the courage to break
with the leaders, to decline its honors
and to do battle against its standard
ers. Unquestionably disappointment
with the party led him in late years into
something of bitterness and unwarranted
hostility that was not truly characteristic
of him, but was an abnormal develop
ment
No man in the Nation was so vigor-
ously or persistently the friend of civil
service reform. Curtis hammered away
for years at that with devotedness and
courage that was finally rewarded by the
incorporation of the reform into our
Governmental system. 1t was modified
and crippled, however, in the process,
and has not yet received the full recog-
milton for which he labored. He stood at
the head of the Reform Association, how
ever, to the day of his death and kept it's
members full of hopefulness and courage
for the cause.
George William Curtis name will
stand upon the records of American his
tory as publicist of foremost promi-
nence; as one Of the most conspicuous
examples of political independency as
scholar Of brilliancy; man of letters,
of exceeding wide reading, exquisite
grace and fine scholarship; as an author,
editor and orator who contributed largely
to National upbuilding, and still more to
the influences that command for Ameri-
can brains the respect of scholarship and
learning everywhere.