CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM. 



219 



mis "f tin- AuMralians enjoy. Since I In- sup- 

 ii ni' tlir war for independence in 1878 

 tlu> < iikm- havu been able always, in spite of 

 olliriiii pre-Mirc. in elections, to send their best 

 oratoi> in i In' Spanish Cortes, but the plan of 

 self-government, has found acceptance there \\nli 

 mi part\ cxccjit a section of the Republicans. 

 They have nevertheless compelled the Conserva- 

 tive' miiioril\. which has held continued posses- 

 sion of the offices in Cuba, to modify its policy 

 in important regard.-, as in the completion of 

 neu'in emancipation. In pressing the Govern- 

 ment to conclude the reciprocity treaty with the 

 I'niteil States the Autonomists were joined by 

 the Economist party. The former Conservative 

 ieailer, Count Salarza, was forced to resign by 

 dissensions in the party, and was succeeded by 

 Marquis A/peiteguca, a native Cuban. A part 

 of the Conservatives are disposed to act with the 

 ("nlian home rulers on economic questions. In 

 the lust election the Autonomists or Liberals 

 abstained from voting, in accordance with their 

 threat that they would not enter Parliament 

 again until the obnoxious electoral law, which 

 disfranchises the Cuban rural population and 

 insures a Conservative majority, is amended. 

 The Economist party, led by Prudencio Rabeil, 

 a Sj laniard, is striving to unite the masses in 

 order to obtain from the Spanish Government 

 economic reforms. An important factor in the 

 situation is the revolutionary Republican party, 

 which has influential adherents in the island, 

 luit derives its main strength from the Cuban 

 dubs in Key West, New York, Tampa, New 

 Orleans, Philadelphia, and other cities of the 

 United States and in Jamaica and Spanish 

 American countries. Its chief is Jose Marti. 



The Spanish ministry, in July, 1892, approved 

 a project for farming out the Cuban customs 

 revenue. The contract, which is to go into 

 effect on Jan. 1, 1893, is let to the highest bidder, 

 but not for less than $15,000,000 a year, the 

 average amount of the customs receipts. 



CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM, author, 

 born in Providence, R. I., Feb. 24, 1824; died on 

 Stalen Island, N. Y., Aug. 31, 1892. Mr. Cur- 

 tis's mother was a daughter of James Burrill, 

 Chief Justice of Rhode Island. His father. 

 George Curtis, was a business man, and wished 

 his son to continue in his footsteps. The boy 

 was sent to school in Jamaica Plain, Mass., but 

 when he was fifteen years old his father, who 

 had removed to New York, placed him in an im- 

 porting house in that city. A year later he 

 threw off the restraints of an uncongenial life, 

 and with his elder brother joined the commu- 

 nity at Brook Farm, Mass., being the youngest 

 member of that distinguished company. In his 

 preface to "The Blithedale Romance," Haw- 

 thorne says: "Even the brilliant Ilowadji might 

 find as rich a theme in his youthful reminiscences 

 of Brook Farm, and a more novel one, than 

 those which he has since made so distant a pil- 

 grimage to seek in Syria and along the current 

 of the Nile." Mr. Curtis remained four years at 

 Brook Farm, going thence with his brother to 

 Concord. Mass., where they lived for two years 

 with a farmer, keeping up' the admiring friend- 

 ship he had formed with Emerson. Hawthorne, 

 Lowell, and others of that community of religio- 

 social reformers. 



In August, 1846, Mr. Curtis went to Europe, 

 where he spent four years. He \i-ited England, 

 Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Egypt, 

 Palestine, and Syria. The longest stays were 

 made in Rome and Berlin, where he witnessed 

 the revolutionary scenes that marked those 

 years. During his travels he contributed let- 

 ters to the "New York Tribune," and on his 

 return, in 1851, he became connected editorial- 



OEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 



ly with that paper. In the same year he pub- 

 lished "Nile Notes of a Howadji," and in 

 1852 "The Howadji in Syria." He spent a sum- 

 mer at the famous American watering places, 

 and wrote a series of letters, which were after- 

 ward collected into a volume entitled " Lotus- 

 Eating." In 1852 he became associated with 

 Parke Godwin and Charles F. Briggs in the estab- 

 lishment of "Putnam's Monthly Magazine," on 

 which he worked editorially, contributing occa- 

 sionally also to " Harper's Magazine." In 1858 

 Mr. Curtis began a career as a lyceum lecturer, 

 and soon became one of the most popular upon 

 a list that comprised some of the best-known 

 men of his generation. The elegance and dig- 

 nity of his manner, the beauty and refinement 

 of his features, the melody and sympathetic 

 quality of his voice, combined with the grace 

 and easy flow of his language, made him an 

 ideal platform orator. If he had not the nerv- 

 ous force of Emerson, the grandeur and depth 

 of thought of Lowell, the keen penetration of 

 Whipple, the splendor and fire of Wendell Phil- 

 lips, the magnetic personality of Beecher. he yet 

 had a genuine and tender charm that gave him 

 an honorable place among those great lecturers. 

 In 1855 the original firm that published 

 " Putnam's Monthly " was dissolved, and Mr. 

 Curtis became a special partner in a reorganiza- 

 tion under the name of Dix, Edwards & Co. 

 He continued as editor, but had no share in the 

 business management. During the continuance 

 of the Brook Farm experiment, one of the inter- 

 ested spectators, who removed from Boston to 

 \\ i -t Koxbury to be near his friends who were 

 conducting it, was Francis George Shaw, the 

 philanthropist. Mr. Curtis's acquaintance, be- 

 gun during that time, with Miss Anna, daughter 

 of Mr. Shaw, had been continued, and in 1856 

 they were married. The family was one of 

 strong antislavery proclivities (the son, Robert 

 G. Shaw, being later the distinguished leader of 

 the black troops, who fell at Fort Wagner), and 



