The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-01-18

though the pastering and the wall pa
per have been frequently renewed. the
flooring ana certain Tiny cupbQards.
which open or either side OF the mans
teipiece certainly did service during
Poes occupancy. The large fireplace
occupies fully half the longest side of
the room. ON the left of the chimney
door opens on ~ hight Of steps lead
ing down To- thd kitchen. whence side
door leads one to the entrance OF the
cellar.
Retracing your steps TO the front
door you climb the narrow staircase.
Just over the room in which Virginia
GLENN expired is another bedroom. The
sloping roof leaves but little space IN
which one can stand upright. Beyond
this is another room, just over the
principal room before alluded to, and
equal to IL I'm size. IL one considers only
the foor A tiny window opens at one
side. but the chief interest centers in
the two other windows. not shown in
the accompanying cut, which opens at
the back OF the house, one on each side
OF the chimney
At various times since Poe's death
efforts have been. made or movements
have been started looking toward the
preservation of this cottage as a lit
erary shrine. None of them has come
to anything except the last The at
tempt which has just succeeded is full
of interest, and the complete history
of II is here set forth for the first time.
IL is couched in the words of DIR. APP
I pleton Morgan. the president OF the
| Shakespeare society of New York. to
| whose efforts are due the success OF a
hard fought battle.
About two years ago" said Or. Nor
I gan the other day. Il went up TO Ford
I ham. IL was Decoration day. and the
I occasion was a sale OF real estate OF
I course, | knew about the Poe cottage.
/ but | had never seen it. and / did not
1 know how interesting IL was, nor did !
\ know it's precarious position. In the
i course OF time It had. not unnaturally
on the whole. fallen into the hands of
| spectators and operators i'm real es-
! tate whose sole idea was 10 make as
much money out OF IL as possible. Isn't
/ IL strange that The sarcasm of destiny
\ always causes relics OF dead geniuses
/ To fall into the hands of such people =?
The same thing happened to the Ann
I Hathaway cottage near Stratford- on
Avon. You remember that the English
never thought of preserving Shake
speare's house until y T. Barnum came
along and offered 20 buy il. Then they
refused to sell II at any price and es-
tablished it ON it's present footing of a
perpetual trust for the nation Simi-
larly no one ever thought that the home
Of him who is regarded by many people
as the greatest American poet was
! worth preserving until another show
man bought it to make money out OF 1t.
Well the Shakespeare society rented
the house at an eXtravagant figure In
order Co keep some hold on IL and also
in order TO hold IL open TO visitors in
order 10 awaken public interest in
the premises. tWe then interested the
city officials I'm the matter. and plans
were soon under way To set aside a
tract of land in Fordham to be known
as Poe park. The famous cottage.
therefore, is To be preserved and taken
care OF. 1t win be removed across the
street and placed in the center of an
acre and half of ground. which. un-
der the name Of Poe park, viii be forev-
er park of the city VI New York. The