The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-11-24
STORIES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE.
The Erratic Poct Had Loose Ideas of Com
mercial Honor.

The Erratic Poct Had Loose Ideas of Com
mercial Honor.
To have loaned Edgar Allan Poe fifty
cents is a distinction; to have put into
type the poets own correction of one Of
|, his poems is an honor. 1t is questiona-
BILE, however, that the man who en-
tered into such transaction with the
poet back in the forties thought he was
particularly favored Col Jacob Child,
ex-minister to Siam and prominent citi-
zen of Ray county, eloquent, irrepressi-
BILE, pulchritudinous, knew the author
of THE Raven" intimately. Indeed, he
was SO well acquainted with the Virgin
ian genids that he let him have fifty
cents on one occasion wherewith to buy
the cup that cheers and at the same
time intoxicates.
81 knew Poe very we'll" the colonel
said the other day. HE was a tall
slender fellow, looking much younger
than he really was. His hair made him
look like poet 1t was long and he
'combed it under in the style of the
time. His piercing black eyes were an
other feature of his unusual appear
ance. When the least bit under the in
fiuence of alcohol Poe was a man long
to be remembered. Those sparkling
orbits fairly blazed. He came into the
Office of the Richmond Wing not long
before he died and asked me to let him
have fifty cents for a short time. In
those days poor printer boy in the
south thought n good deal Of half-dol-
lar, and remember that / reflected
twice before letting the poet have the
money. A few days later he brought
in a proof of "Lenore," which had APP
peared in the Southern Literary Mes
senger, full of errors. Leaning over one
of the big makeup stones, Poe made a
number of changes in the original poem
and asked me to set it up for the Rich
mond Wing. l did SO, and the next week
'Lenore' appeared in correct form"
According to Col Child, Poe sold his
"Annabel Lee twice, once in Buffalo
and again in Richmond. If this story
has ever appeared it has been kept out
of books on Poe and his work, for the
reason that it casts shadow over the
glamor that envelopes the character of
the poet John R. Thompson was edi-
Tor of the Southern Literary Messenger
at the time that ''Annabel Lee" was
written. Poe brought the manuscript
to him and sold it for a good sum.
Thompson announced to his friends the
next number of the Messenger would
contain Poe's masterpiece. He refused,
however, to say anything about the
style of the poem. After Col. Child had
put the verses in type in the Richmond
Wing office, where the Messenger was
printed each week, Thompson took the
proofs away in his pocket, so as to be
sure that the poem would not appear
before his magazine came out with it.
One day when Thompson, Child and
Dick Heath, a sub-editor, were loung-
ing in the Office of the Wing, the latter
said:
"Pve got new thing by Poe here in
my pocket clipped it from Buffalo
paper and I'll bet it beats that thing
you are hiding"
Read it!' chorused Thompson and
Child.
Then Heath began:
1t was many and many year ago
In u kingdom by the sea
That q maiden there lived
'Great Scottw Thompson exclaimed.
THE same thing" murmured Child.
"And he's got the money for it."
Thompson went on.
Il spent day setting it." groaned
Child
what in the world is the matter?"
Heath finally asked.
'Matter!" Thompson almost shrieked
it why, the matter is that that
cursed fellow has sold q poem to the
Messenger that he had already disposed
of up north. I'll sue him for damages if
it's the last thing l ever do!"-Kansas
CITY Times.