Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-05-25
From the Advocate and Family Guardian.
EDGAR ALLEN POE.
= Great Man SeIf-Wrecked,

e Great Man SeIf-H reckeu.
The wrecks of Time wake earnest lensiYe mu-
sings, r-
Ohastened emotions-bctter felt than spoken.
But moral wrecks with more impressive voice,
Speak to the inmost heart of youth and age,
And utter solemn warnings.-ANON. ...-
Many years ago-in the summer of the
year 1915 it was, or thereabouts- a
wealthy merchant of New York took
charge of little boy who had been left
an orphan. The parents of this child had
been actors of some slight celebrity in the
theatres of the United States; but dying
within short time of each other, they
left behind them in state of complete
destitution three young children. The
eldest of these was handsome boy OF
about six years of age, with quick eye
and active spirit, and a remarkably intel
ligent countenanee. The merchant of
whom we speak had known the parents
of the child, and out of pity for its help
lessness, he and his wife who had no
children, adopted it as their own.
How happily the ardent boy passed his
DAYS in the house of his benefactor how
he was beloved by these two childless
people how, in the strength of their
took him to Europe; how he spent some
four or five pleasant years under the care
and teaching of a reverend gentleman
near London how he came back again
to the city of his birth to finish his edu-
cation, and how he was generally looked
upon as the rich merchants heir-it
would take long to tell. But We would
fain linger upon this part of our story !;
fain dwell upon his precocious wit and
tact for learning-his feats of strength
and agility-l1is ease and grace on horse
back, his dexterity in race and stream,
and his success in all that seemed to pro-
mise for him brilliant future. But the
truth must be told, no matter how unwil-
ling the teller He was sent to the col
lege at Charlottesville. and amply provi-
ded with money. In those days, dissipa-
ton among the students of colleges was
unhappily but too common and among
the most dissolute and extrayagant, the
widest ruffiers of the town, the hardest
drinkers and the most daring gamblers,
there was ever to be found one more wild
and desperate than them all-and that
one is the subject of our story, now
good looking, free hearted young follow
OF eighteen. Friends advised with him,
and he made fair promises in plenty tu-
tors demonstrated, and he declared he
would amend and win the highest honors
yet; companions tempted and wine allu-
red, andhe embraced the filthy siren, and
fell. Instead of coming from the uniyer-
sity with honOrs, he was expelled.
One would think that disgrace so pub
lie would have broken down his proud
spirit; but it did not. Because his bene-
factor refused to pay the gambling debts
he contracted at college, the wilful young
man wrote him violent and abusive let
ter, Quilted his house, and soon after left
his country with the avowed intention of
Joining the Greeks. who were at that time
in the midst of their struggle with the
Turks. He never reached his destina-
ton, and nothing was known nor heard
of him for more than a year. AT last,
however, he was found, and in circum-
stances which left no doubt As TO the man
ner in which his European experience had
been bought. One morning, the Ameri-
can Minister at ST. Petersburg was sum
moned to save a eountryman OF his own
from the penalties incurred IN q drunken
tdebauch He came in time to rescue our
Iprodigal from prison, and through his m
fuence he was at seta liberty, and'e
bled to return home. 41.Er..
The first to greet him on his landing
was his old patron the merchant, who
was now alone in the world, for his wife
thad died while the youth was away But
The took the wanderer to his arms, and
LED him back to the quiet home he had
Quilted so ungraciously. The question
then arose as to what should be done foI