Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-02-28
EDGAR POE'S DEATH.

The Real Story of the Poets Tragic End Mar
rated by One Vino Saw Him Dragged.
A former Baltimorean, now living in
San Francisco, gives what he claims to
be true account of POe's last days and
death. This is his s6ory: 81 was init
mately acquainted with Edgar Allen Poe
for years. Much that has been said and
written in regard to his death is false.
His habitual resort in Baltimore was the
Widow Meagher's place. This was an
oyster stand and liquor bar on the city
front, responding in some aspects
with the coffee houses of San Francisco.
1t was frequented much by printers, and
ranked as a respectable place, where
parties could enjoy game of cards or
engage in social conversation. Poe
was great favorite with the old woman.
The favorite seat of the poet was right
behind the stand, and he was about as
quiet and sOciable as an oyster himself.
He went by the name of Bard, and when
parties came into the shop it was Bard,
come up and take nip or Bard, come
and take hand in the game When
ever Widow Meagher met with any Incl
dent on idea that tickled her fancy, she
would ask Bari to versify it. Poe always
complied, writing many witty couplet,
and at times poems of some length.
These verses, quite as meritorious as
some by which his name immortalized,
were thus frlttered into Obscurlty. 1t
was in this little shop that Poe attention
was called to an advertisement in Philas
delphia paper for a prize for the best
story, and it was there that he wrote his
famous Gold Bug which carried off the
800 prize.
'Poe had been shifting for many years
between Baltimore, Philadelphia and
New York. He had been away from Bal
timore for three or four months, when he
turned up one evening at the Widow
Meagher's. 1 was there when he came in.
He privately told me that he had been to
Richmond, and was on his way north, to
get ready for his wedding. It was drink
all around and repeat until the crowd
was pretty full. 1t was the night before
election, and four of Us, including Poe,
started up. We had not gone half doz-
en- squares when we were nabbed by a
gang of men who were on the lookout for
voters to coop 1t was the practice in
those days to seize people whether drunk
or sober, lock them up until the polls
were opened, and then march them
dIOuuu w every pIcSluCb, WHCIo 1noy
were made TO vote the ticket OF the party
that controlled the coop Our coop was
in the rear of an engine house on Calvert
street. It was part of the game to stupe
fly the prisoners with dragged liquor.
Well, the next day We were voted at
thirty-one different places, and over and
over, it being as much as q mans life was
worth TO rebel. Poe was so badly drug
ged that, after he was carried on two or
three different rounds, the gang said 1t
was no use to vote dead man any
longer, so they showed him into a cab
and sent him to hospital to get him out
of the way.
"The commonly accepted story that
Poe died from the effects of dissipation
is all bosh. 1t was nothing of the kind.
He died from laudunum or some other
poison that was forced upon him in the
coop. He was in dying condition when
he was being voted around the city. The
story told by Girls void OF Poe's having
been on weeks spree, and being picked
up on the street, Is false. I saw him
showed into the cab myself, and he told
me that he had just arrived in the city"
The above narrative will form an in
teresting chapter in the life and death
of the poet, whose life was romance and
whose death was q tragedy. The account
of Poe's last days agrees in several re-
spscts with the account which the late
Chief Judge Nelson Poe, of Baltimore,
gave to the undersigned. 1t is painful
to think that a man of Poe's wonderful
genius would, after life of iutolerable