The record-union., 1891-03-22


the agonized poet would spend weary
vigil, recalling, doubtless with sorrow and
remorse the fragile being whose short
existence his own actions had frequently
marred with grief. For that Poe drank,
and drank to excess, is, suppose, fact
not worth disputing. l have frequently
come home from the city and found him
half seas over in the public house, and
sadly in need of some strong hand to
rescue him before it was too late. 1 can
remember well on these occasions leaving
my horse and guiding the unsteady, silent
poet to his house, at the door of which he
would dismiss me with most courtly
bow, for even though intoxicated Poe
was gentleman to the very core.
LITERARY WARES.
Mrs. Clemm-good, practical, mother
ly Mrs. Clemm!-I used frequently to
meet on my way to town, with a huge
market basket on her arm, journeying TO
Vesey street, where she would dispose of
her erratic son-in-law's latest literary
wares to the Democratic ReUieW, New
York Mirror or the Monthly Raicke7'-
booker, and with the beggarly proceeds
for they paid poorly in those days. fill
her basket with food for her half-starved
proteges.
POE PERSONALLY.
"As for Poe personally, one could not
marked individuality. He was a genius
straight through, if ever there was one,
with an indefinable quality about him
that appealed to ones deepest feelings for
love and sympathy, besides the inevita-
BILE tribute of admiration which his
bright intellect as shown in conversation
would naturally call forth. Physically
his eyes were his most prominent feature.
Ihey were large and dark and soft as a
woman's, although bright sometimes
with masculine fire that seemed halt
human, half divine. Once seen, no one
could forget this remarkable, unfortunate
man, who seemed to be endowed with a
mixture of curses worthy of a witch's
caldron-genius, poverty and love OF
drink. As to the latter, it has doubt
lessly been much exaggerated by his
biographers. Poe strove hard to con-
quer 1t, and it was only at certain peri
odS that his enemy would get the
better of him. l can positively assert
that he was at no time continuous
drinker."
HoPELESSLY POOR.
That Poe was hopelessly poor while al
Fordham we can gather from this appeal,
which was made in his behalf at that
period in the columns Of the New York
Express:
I'VE regret to learn that Edgar A. Poe
| and his wife are both dangerously i'll with
the consumption, and that the hand OF
misfortune lies heavy upon their tenn
poral affairs. We are sorry to mention
the fact that they are so far reduced as to
be barely able to obtain the necessaries OF
life. This is, indeed, hard lot, and we
hope that the friends and admirers of Mr..
Poe will come promptly to his assistance
IN his bittereSt hour of need.'
L believe that the result of this appeal
was contribution of $50. This descrip-
ton also of his wife's deathbed in the
little cottage, by an eyewitness, is not
without pathos:
''She lay on the straw bed, wrapped in
her husbands great coat, with large tor
toise-shel1 cat in her bosom. The Won
derfu1 cat seemed conscious of her great
usefulness. The coat and the cat were
the sufferers only means of warmth, eX-
cept as her husband held her hands and
her mother her feet.''
SOME SUNSHINE.
| Yet the two years spent in Fordham
could not have been without some briei
glimpses of sunshine and happiness.
Poets are invariably soothed and COM
forted by an environment of natural
scenery, and after the lapse of forty-odd
pears Fordham is still so rural and
charming locality that we can imagine
| 1t to have been poets true home before
the first encroachments of a rapidly
advancing city had broken its quiet
Those who knew Poe during his resi-
| dence in Fordham give ample testimony
to his appreciation of the country by
which he was surrounded. From a letter
| by Mrs. Whitman, to whom Poe was
afterward engaged to be married, the fol
! lowing may be of interest:
PoE's HABITS.
"Rising at 4 o'clock in the morning fol
| a walk to the magnificent aqueduct
bridge over Harlem River, our Informant
| found the poet with his mother Mrs
Clemm) standing on the turf beneath the
cherry tree, eagerly watching the move
ments of two beautiful birds that seemed
contemplating a settlement in its branch.
eS. He had some rare tropical birds in
cages, which he cherished and petted with
assiduous care. Our English friend de-
scribed him as giving to his birds and
| flowers delighted attention that seemed
quite inconsistent with the gloomy and
grotesque character of his writings. a
| favorite cat, too, enjoyed his friendly
patronage, and often when he was en-
gagged in composition it seated itself on his
shoulder, purring in complacent approval
OF the work proceeding under its super
vision. During Mr.. Poe's residence al
Fordham walk to High Bridge was one
of his favorite and habitual recreations
The water of the aqueduct is conveyed
across the river on a range of lofty gran
| ite arches, which rise to the hight of Il;
| feet above high water level. On the top
/ turfed and grassy road, used only by
| foot passengers and tlanked on either
side by low parapet of granite, makes
one of the finest promenadeS imaginable
| The winding river and the high, rocky
| shores at the western extremity of the
| bridge are seen to great advantage from
| this lofty avenue. In the last melancholy
years of his life Poe was accustomed tC
walk there at all times of the day anC
night, often pacing the then solitary path
way for hours without meeting a human
| being.
"a little to the east of the cottage rises .
ledge OF, rocky ground, partly covered
with pines and cedars, commanding /;
/ fine view of the surrounding country an(
of the picturesque college of st. Johns
which had, at that time, in its neighbor
hood an avenue of venerable trees. Thi:
rocky ledge was one of the poets favorit,
resorts. Here, through long summei
days and solitary, starlit nights, he loveC
to sit, dreaming his gorgeous waking
dreams, or pondering the problems of th,
] Universe that grand prose poem K
which he devoted the last and natures
energies of his wonderful intellect
THE UNIVERSE"
Besides the Universe and some othe,
prose works, we may add that Poe com
posed three of his best poems while il
! Fordham-.The Bells,v ''Ulalume," ans
"Annabel Lee" .tThe Raven" was writ
| ten in the winter of 1914, in house tha
| stood few hundred feet from the corne
of Eighty-fourth street and st. Nichola
| boulevard, at that time the Bloomingdal
road, and not, as its inmates will tell you
in the pretty little cottage in Foroham
How circumstantially exact such error
become! The very room in which Po
wrote The Raven'" is reyerently pointe,
out to the visitor, and we doubt not tina
if there are any other houses in existenc
now in which Poe at some period ha
! lived, they will boast of Raven room,
= and npSSiblu ss,1alli1 h,,ct