Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-09
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Unwilling of the Actors, Memorial
TO the IIluStriOus Poet.

The unwilling of the memorial to Ed
gar Allan Poe drew a brilliant throng OF
society people TO the Metropolitan
museum OF Art to-day. Men of letters,
conspicuous citizens, and actors and man
! ayers were grouped upon a carpeted plat
form, while millionaires, art-lovers, and
society ladies thrOnged the floor spaces
and broad galleries beneath the vaulted
! glass dome. Gilmore's band made the
building sonorous with the echoes of an
overture, and Hon. Algernon S. Sullivan
stood up among the actors and men of
letters on the platform and told the story
OF the memorial suggested by Edwin
Booth. The idea had received the en-
thusiastc support of Joseph Jefferson,
Sig. Salvini, John Mccullough, Mary An
derson, and others of renown. The I'M
yelling was to tipify judgment of re-
versal on the poets worth and a reward
OF the palm of merit to the brow that
ought originally to have worn it undis-
puted. The unwilling was further to be
confession that Poe's genius was blaz-
ing torch in literature that had never
gone out. 'The presence of the memo
rial here to-day" the speaker added
transmutes this building from a mere
lectual worship. Here and now conse-
crate this alcove in the name of American
literature, art, drama, and poetry as the
Poets Corner of America"
Gloved hands were capped with en-
thusiasm all over the building, and then
Edwin Booth stepped forward and made
the presentation speech on behalf of the
actors. He said: 81 believe | speak the
sentiment of the dramatic profession
when | declare that the American stage is
proud and glad to have been the means
of paying this tribute to American litera-
ture. Actors recognize in Poe being of
strange endowments, who, in the magni-
ticence of his conceptions, the weirdness
of his pictures, and the vitality of his die
ton, has rivaled even the wonderful
splendor of Coleridge. But they remem-
Der also with sentiment of personal
pride that he was man OF theatrical
lineage While deploring his faults, they
eXult in his noble intellectual powers and
his ever growing renown. America may
hail him as the most original author. The
stage will always rejoice in him as one of
her children"
The harmonies of Beethoven's Fifth
symphony were sent echoing along the
roof, and then the veteran actor, John
Gilbert, stood up, with face wreathed
with smiles. He tapped a Geographic
key. The actors had voted unani-
mously that he should perform this ur-
yelling ceremony. The instant the key
clicked, the folds of a flag in an alcove
fell from the golden wire and revealed
the categorical figure of Fame holding a
laurel wreath about the face of the poet.
The face was nodded in bronze, land SIT in
a tablet of marble bearing commemor-
ative inscription The figure and tablet
and bronze are the work OF Sculptor
Rich and Henry Park. General Di
Cesnola accepted the memorial on behalf
of the museum directors and the grouped
choirs of st. Thomas and All Souls
churches and chorus of glee singers
sang a new American anthem. The
grafton of Rev. William Alger kept the
throng listening interestedly for the next
half hour to a Bostonian's estimate of
"the mission and errors of genius as seen
in the personality and works OF Edgar
Allen Poe"
In the notable audience were w. Fear
ing Gill, Poe's biograpier: DIR. John q.
Moran, the physician who was at his
death bed; Park Goodwin, John Bigelow
Luther r. Marsh, Cyrus w. Field, Z. G.
Steadman, and many other well known
literateurs.-Ne,DY York Special.