The evening times., 1895-10-02
PoE'S fARDY RECOGNITION
Absurd Purpose to Preserve The Old Kings.
bridge Road Shanty.
Cutting Criticism of the Ridiculous
Speeches and Schemes of the
N. Y. Shakespeare Society.
Ex-Editor in Philadelphia Inquirer.

EN-EultDT III fDliauelpnld IDQuifeI
For some reason that is not easily to be
accounted for in a man OF my natural sym
pathies. do not find myself in touch with
the New York Shakespeare Society in its
efforts to save what is known as the Poe
cottage or the old Kingsbridge road, in
the upper part of New York city. In itself
the cottage has no claims for preservation.
1t is a little, old, ugly, ramshackle af-
fair that would scarcely be acceptable TO
a lot of tramp- as temporary lodging
place. TIE only reason assigned for the
purchase OF the cottage as a memorial Of
the poet is that for two years more than
half Il century ago Edgar Allan Poe lived
and starved in it, aud that in one OF itsfew
apartments the wife of his youth lay sick
in the depth of winter without covering.
Poe seeing her fade away and die without
q friendly hand raised TO aid him.
| confess that all this does not touch me-
because il mas no relation To Pocs genius,
and because the story itself is too mourn
ful to make it desirable that it should be
perpetuated by a visible token.
Like Shelly, like Fats, like Browning,
Poe has been deIfed by the parasites that
feed upon the genius they cXait, seeking
To- link their names with ais fame. To Illus
trate. what / mean l will wager a glass
of brandy as fine as any that ever kept
Poe's body and soul together that none
OF the three gentlemen who comprise the
purchasing committee that is to acquire
the Poe cottage ever read the immortal
prose and poetry he wrote on an empty
stomach. with the exception of scrap
haze and there.
In saying this am not casting any re-
Elections upon any of them-much pf Poe's
writing is not worth readinS-hut only
pointing out the hysterical insinCerity of
this tuppenny memorial.
am not inclined to believe that Poe had
any more reason to cumplai in OF the "dunder-
headed publishers" as Mr.. Appleton Nor
gan, the president of the New York Shakes
peare Society. calls them, than had most of
the ordinary writer's of ordinary prose and
verse in his time. These men OF business
ought not to be beratcd for not knowing
genius when they saw it. The readers of
Burton's and Graham's Magazines, when
they read Poe's tales in the pages of these
periodicals, never suspected they were get
ting the Shakespeare of America red hot.
Even when he died in Baltimore, forty
five years ago, only four men In a hack
followed the coffin tu the grave. Up to that
time all the world We're dundcr heads, SO
far as Poe's genius wa concerned.
Twenty-six years were allowed to elapse
before any one thought uf placing monu-
ment over his ashes, and doubt il many
of his later admirers know where he was
buried. When the monument TO his memory
was erected in the old Westminster grave
yard, in Baltimore. twenty years ago, the
dust of his wife, the gentle Virginia Clemm,
was removed from the cemetery at Fordbam
and reinterred by the side OF the poet.
The result was there is nothing left of the
Fordham associations except the rickety old
cottage, in which the poet had lived in
poverty and in which his young wife died
under conditions that 1 have always been
sure were greatly exaggerated. But, what
ever were the actual facts, l cannot see
the necessity, not to say the propriety, of
preserving a shanty that at best would be a
memorial to the aptitude of tn man ra ather
than to the genius of the poet.
Without a thought of undertaking Poe's
genius. must sa that it is my sincere belief
that the fresh ness of Poe's fame is due in the
main to the relic hunters. The book col
lectors gloat over the early editions of his
poems because they comma nded SO little
attention when they were published that
they are almost unobtainabLe now. There
is no fame for the dead literary worker
like that which comes to him when the
bibIiomaniacs get after the first editions
nf his hpnIs The vboSa fonES |
become fad" is almost sure to be recog |
nized as genius. 1t is only few years |
since this recognition came TO Poe.
The scarcest of his works is ''Tamerlane" |
it is SO very scarce that 1 am not sure |
there is more than one genuine copy in ex- |
istence. If 1 saw a second one my suspi- |
cions would be excited. That copy was |
sold to the British Museum by the late Henry |
Stevens, the American bookseller in Lon |
don. an exceedingly keen Judge of the value |
of Americana. for shilling. The Museum |
hesitated about buying it at all. If that |
copy was offered at auction now there is |
no telling what it would bring.
Now anything that was in any way asso- |
ciated with Poe is almost priceless. There |
are even peuholders made from q splinter |
of his coffin, which was broken when his |
bones was disinteTed in Ba Baitimore, in
1875. to be placed under the monument. |
This splinter was secured by a reporter
and Baltimore policeman got another.
Once begun, the hero worship Of Poe
went on until only the other day the mem-
bers of the New York Shakespeare Society |
met to refresh themselves with lobster
salad and fragrant coffee in the cottage
where Poe starved and thjrsted. :" tbere