Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-03-29
EDGAR A. POE.
THE POETS CHARACTERISTICS As
REMEM6E RED BY A PRIEST.
A Pale-Faced Stranger with Dark, Sad
Eyes-Rescue Of a Drowning Boy
Primal Cause of the
Poets Death.
"HalSton" in New York Times |

reference book in the Astor library some
days ago, and was listlessly turning over the
monthly magazines in an out of -the-way
nook, when my attention was attracted by q
venerable looking scholar at table stretch
ing its shining expanse of oak between us
He seemed to be intently perusing maga-
zine article, and ! was just little bit
startled to see him dash the book upon the
table with emphatic vigor, settle back in his
chair, and petulantly push his old fashioned
spectacles high up among his snowy locks.
He must have caught my look of astonic.l-
ment, for, pointing to the slighted magazine,
he rasped out: "Have you read that things'
Of course | asked for further information.
The article he pointed out concerned
legends attached to the life of Edgar
Allan Poe.
The old gentleman arose and came over to
my side. He was tall, spare, and apparently
approaching the close of his three score years
and ten. His dress was a rather worn suit
of black, which hung loosely about his
frame, and the Roman collar and stock en-
circling his throat plainly told that the
wearer was Catholic clergyman. Leaning
over toward me the old gentleman said
impressively:
young man. l once knew Edgar Poe, and
lie was not at all the man his critics, past
and present, have described"
Il was seminarian at St Sulpice," he
continued, when Louis Napoleon consul
mated his famous coup detat. 1t would
have been too long story to tell you how
managed to leave Paris behind me and enter
the paternal door at Tours where it was de-
cided that l should take ship at Havre for
America 1t was a sorrowful voyage for
me, and l landed in New York, a stranger
speaking foreign tongue, utterly alone and
friendless, my chief wealth letter 70
Bishop Hughes, then the active head of
the growing diocese of New York. l
was member of the bishops house
hold for few months, and finally,
through his influence, obtained
position as study master and teacher
of French in the college at Fordham.
Then happened to me what, now
that old age has fully seized me, l regard as
the most eventful incident of my quiet ex-
istence-I met Edgar Allan Poe in the flesh
and formed his acquaintance.
"The first time ran across him was over
in the Fathers recreation hall In converse
ton with the professor of PHILOSOPHY l no
tiCed a pale-iacei stranger, whose Napole
onic brow and dark sad eyes irresistibly
drew my attention. At that noon hour
recreation | was introduced to him. Ha
was a good French scholar, and had nevrr
met one rs familiar with the literature If
my country. We were friends Immediately.
"Oh, but he was a strange man: a gem
uine piece OF eccentricity. When l read, as
| do continually, the abuse heaped upon
him | { K sadly how little man really
understan IS his fellows Poe was not
vicious, but simply one borne down by un-
deserved misfortune, gentleman suffering
from the keenest pangS of poverty. l ussd
TO get permission-in those days one wNj
he'd ged in by many a little rule and reguli.-
uon-to go to his poor little cottage up from
the village, with its Cherry trees in front and
the piece of rock half imbedded in the vel
Vet turf where he is said to have sat and
shaped his best verses-especially tine
'Clalume' of his immemUrial year of 1S47-
the year he buried his wife, Virginia Ciemm
Indeed it was pitiful to see his spirit con-
fined to such place. He used to lose nearly
all his grandeur, it seemed TO me, when he
entered his abode. How small the rooms
We're! How dwarfei he became! And then
his very nature changei; hs became petu-
liant, morbid, full of restlessness Out OF
doors, even when the winter cold came down
upon tine hills, be was himself.
His favorite route was the aqueduct road,
leading over to High bridge. Further up
the river at the end of the Fordham roads,
was the bathing place of the college boys
1t is Just beyond where the boulevard now
runs in long stretch of firm gravel At
this point the 'ross lane sinks down to the
river bank Well, | was in charge of a
skating battalion one winters day; the stu
dents had got the Father Rsctor's permis-
sion to go down to the river, and We set out
bri,kly for the ice. wasn't very vigorous
i'll those days, and as l couldn't skate my
self, kept up rapid promenade between two
bontres made by the boys on the bank.
One little chap-it was so long ago his name
has quite gone from me hal got beyond his
comrades, far cut near the further shore,
when l was startled 10y cry from the boys
and a commotion. a scattering in all direc-
tions on the ice, which had already cracked
and separated, leaving an expanse Of dark
water plainly in view. Aud right in the
midst of the current my poor Little fellow
was being whirlei along.
Il have only an indistinct recoliection Of
what Immediately happened but as l was
running blindly down the bank toward the
treacherous ice, man rushing by me turned
half around and shouted, Keep from the
ice lnstinctively l obeyed; the blood
rushed back to my heart; recognized the
figure and the old cloak that was cast aside.
here was desperate plunge, a fierce battle
With the current. In another moment,
willing hands helped the re,cuer and his
pale and unconscious little burden out on
the ice and up to the fires on the bank. l
remember wnat a strange. sad expr es,iOn
tered cloak and strode off before we found
drove the shivering little skater whom he
while quickly followed with my band.
tors carriage was whirling down the lawn,
lay.
After this incident saw very little Of the
poet. he came over to tine Fathers library
over his Eureka" but wasn't then allowed
We're lying on the shelves there, and our in
saw him af erward out in tie garden, back
pas ed me iiy without a word as walked
among the box bed ged paths. They told me
he was ailing. My last knowledge of him
been taken to his grave from the hospital in
And l have always tn, ught that knew
pected of the primal cause of Edgar Poe's
=, t. - hs,, La saIf fn~