The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-22

 ton of mother in- law, was with them, There was little In the house in the way of furniture, and no carpet any where, The sitting. room enjoyed the rare luxury of mating. Only the ncighbors know how Mrs. Clemm en- deavored to temper the poverty ot the situation. The lArier was not infre- Quently looked after by a few such literary friends as Mrs. Osgood and Willis and Morris, (who had just re- united on the Home JomaaO, but too often it was empty, and with basket ahd knife the old lady would 70 aheld, disguising the family stress by telling remonstrants that sgreens are cooling to the blood, and Eddic's fond of 'em."
 Poe has been painted as violently irascible and chronic sot. There arc one or two authenticated instances of his having been brutal, apart from the we'll remembered partiality and inhu- manity of his keen verbal analysis as a critic but he did little hAphaxArd, and chose his victims. He aimed to make his mark, and even tho seeming morbidness of his writings was part of method. His moral sense was not obtrusive. In him conscience was largely dominated by the intellectual. This is apparent in what he thrcatened to do with "Eureka" after c. r. Put nam had published 1t. It had been more strongly exhibited in Philaiel. phia. Burton did not pound him with coin, for his salary was but ten dollars a week, but he gave him very short hours and tolerably good advice. Ten hours then constituted days work up a ladder and lsewhere, and Poe had to put in but two. This made his salary fifty dollars week. Measured by an average lifetime, the advice was simply inestimable. The poet repaid the comedian by taxing his own in- tellect for scheme whereby he could slyly start an opposition magazine, using Burton's money as the fulcrum for Burton's undoinP. That Poe was not morally A Titan was conspicu- ously shown again In the ccascless ve- hemence with which one who really held originality to be mere negation rallied against plagiarism. There was much originality in him, for he de- lighted in invention, but he was not wholly creative.
 Whatever of brutality might have been exhibited by Poe was surely sim ulated He was an educated man, and he had cultivated refinement In inter- course. As man, critic and poet he was especially deierent 10 woman, and it has been surmised that the utter lack of sensuaiity in his poems was due to innate reverence for the gentler sex. It Is known that 1t was really design on the part Of one who aimed to be impressive or sensational above all else, and who hit upon his plans by logical processes. Take this line from "The Sleeper" the subject of which is supposed to be A dead woman whom he had almost loved, Soft may the worms about her creep!" Sheer nor bidness might have dictated 1t, but reverence, if it had any influence what ever, would have caused it's prompt erssure. It Is at once repulsive and silly repulsive because to contem- plate the entozoa in association with a worshiped being Is unnstural, and silly because it requests the vermicule to do that which it must do when it attempts anything at all. But the l;ne hes caught" many An uncheery reader, as Poe knew would happen and this poem is quite a iavorite among "the reverse and pcryerse sex
 In Fordhau, Poe was mild and gentlemanly among men. There was nothing sotty about him. Aunt Maria esteemed a patch, while dominating 4 rent, and his dress may have been seed y at times, but 1t was never slouchy. He followed changes in. fashion as to raiment. Sometimes he was formal ir dress coat that was apt 10 run tG gloss, and stiff in an old style of stock with wjndings of silk enough to make bandage for broken neck, but $. others he was cozy in . sack coat and iaunty in c mere necktic witchcd into sailors knot. Nevertheless, he wa, unconservative in his toilet, which fol. lowed no fashion but his own. Some. times his face was razored to clean. Illness akin to that of his hand writing which was copper-plate, George Ar. holds or Mark E. Cooks never having been more neat or legible. At otheI times he wore struggling whiskers beginning near his ears and skirtins his jaws, but leaving his chin bare and at others his sole hirsute orna. ment was 6 concentrated dark nous. tache. He stood about five feet sever and a-half inches, with . face pale bu' vivid, eyes large, eyelids relatively much larger and inclining to droopi. ness, and eyebrows dark and long. Ii form he was spare and agile, and h' was never 90 old or rAcked that h, could not clear fence or wall with 1 fl 1m A-- A