588 CURTIS CURTIUS New York, where for a year he was a clerk in a mercantile house. In 1842 he went with his elder hrother to reside at Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Mass., where he passed a year and a half in study and agricultural labor ; after which he went to Concord, Mass., and with his brother spent 18 months there, living with a farmer, and both taking part regularly in the ordinary work of the farm, and afterward for six months tilling a small piece of land on their own account. In 1846 Mr. Curtis went to Europe, and after a prolonged stay in Italy and Berlin travelled in Egypt and Syria. In 1850 he returned to the United States, and published his first book, "Nile Notes of a Howadji." He soon after joined the editorial staff of the " New York Tribune," and in the summer of 1851 wrote a series of letters to that journal from various watering places, which were afterward collected in a volume under the title of " Lotus Eating." His second book, however, was " The Howadji in Syria," published in 1852. In the autumn of 1852 "Putnam's Monthly" was commenced in New York, of which Mr. Curtis was one of the original editors, and with which he con- tinued connected till the magazine ceased to exist. In the mean time it had passed. into the hands of the firm of Dix, Edwards, and co., in which Mr. Curtis was a special partner, pecuniarily responsible, but taking no part in its commercial management. In the spring of 1857 the house was found to be insolvent for a large amount, and Mr. Curtis sank his private fortune in the endeavor to save its creditors from loss, which he finally accomplished in 1873. Portions of his contributions to the mag- azine were subsequently published under the titles of "The Potiphar Papers" (1853) and "Prue and I " (1856). As a lyceum lecturer, upon which field of labor Mr. Curtis entered in 1853, he has met with great success. He has delivered several orations and poems before lit- erary societies, and holds a high rank as a popu- lar orator. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he enlisted with great zeal as a public speaker on behalf of the republican party. In the winter of 1858 he advocated the rights of woman in a lecture entitled "Fair Play for "Women." To the current literature of the day he has been a constant contributor since 1853, through "Harper's Monthly," and since the autumn of 1857 through " Harper's Week- ly " newspaper, of which journal he is now the principal editor. In 1858-' 9 he wrote for this paper a novel entitled " Trumps," which was published in a volume in 1862. Upon the estab- lishment of " Harper's Bazar " in 1867, he be- gan a series of papers under the title of " Man- ners upon the Road," which was continued weekly until the spring of 1873. In 1871 Pres- ident Grant appointed him one of a commis- sion to draw up rules for the regulation of the civil service ; and he was elected chairman of the commission and of the advisory board in which it was subsequently merged. In March, 1873, he resigned because of essential differ- ences of views between him and the presi- dent in regard to the enforcement of the rules. Mr. Curtis was a delegate to the republican national conventions of 1860 and 1864, which nominated Mr. Lincoln ; and in the latter year he was the republican candidate for congress in the first district of New York, but was de- feated. In 1862 President Lincoln offered him the post of consul general in Egypt, which he declined. In 1867 he was elected one of the delegates at large to the constitutional conven- tion of New York, in which he was chairman of the committee on education. In 1868 he was a republican presidential elector. Since 1864 he has been one of the regents of the university of the state of New York. (TIITIIS. I. Ernst, a German archaaologist and historian, born in Ltibeck, Sept. 2, 1814. He studied at Bonn, Gottingen, and Berlin, travelled in Greece and Italy, and was ap- pointed preceptor of Frederick William, the present crown prince of Germany. In 1844 he became professor at the university of Berlin, and afterward of classical philology and archae- ology at Gottingen, which post he retained till 1865. In 1870 he was made chief director of the Berlin museums. His principal works are Peloponnesos (2 vols., 1851-'2), Die lonier WT der ionischen Wanderung (1855), Qrie- chische GescMcJite (3 vols., 1857-'67), and At- tische Studien (1863-'4). All these have been translated into English, the history of Greece by A. W. Ward (5 vols., 1868-'73). In 1872 he published Geschichte und Topographic Klein Asiens. II. Georg, a German philologist, broth- er of the preceding, born in Liibeck, April 16, 1820. His Griechische Schulgrammatik (1852) has passed through many editions and transla- tions. His other principal works are : Erlau- terungen zu meiner Griechischen Schulgramma- tik (1863) ; Grundzuge der griecTiischen Ety- mologie (1858-'62) ; and Studien zur griechis- cTien und lateinischen GrammatiTc (5 vols., 1868-'72). In 1849 he became professor in Prague, in 1854 in Kiel, and in 1862 in Leipsic. CURTIUS, Marcus, a legendary Roman hero, about the middle of the 4th century B. C. The haruspices declared that an earthquake chasm in the forum could be filled only by casting into it that on which the greatness of Rome depend- ed. While every one was doubting as to the meaning of the declaration, Marcus presented himself, and proclaiming that Rome contained nothing more indispensable to her greatness than a valiant citizen fully accoutred for battle, he offered himself as a victim ; and, having arrayed himself in complete armor and mounW ed his war horse, he galloped into the abyss? Then the earth closed, and the forum resumed its wonted aspect. The place of the chasm was ever after called Lacus Curtius. Accord- ing to other traditions, however, the chasm owed its name to earlier events and heroes, one of them, Mettus Curtius, a Sabine of the time of Romulus.
