The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-05-31


huge bowlder is carved by his own
hands in big letters the inscription,
''To the Unknown" The many admir-
ers Of the good gray poet are glad to
know that for the present he is not to
be immured in this self constructed
sepulcher. In view of the premature
and greatly exaggerated" reports of
his death, there is a certain interest in
reading the poets own conception of
euthanasia. In Finale" he writes
All me! I mind me long agone,
Once on a savage snow bound height
We pygmies pierced king. Upon
. His bare and upreared breast till night
We rained red arrows and we rained
Hot lead Then up the steep and slow
He passed, yet ever still disdained
To strike or even look below.
We found him, high above the clouds next
morn
And dead, in all his silent splendid scorn.
So leave me, as the edge of night
Comes on. a little time to pass
Or pray, for steep the stony height
And torn by storm and bare of grass
Or blossom. and when lie dead.
Oh, do not drag me down once more!
For jesus sake let my poor head
Lie pillowed with these stones. My store
or wealth Is these. 1 earned them. Let
Still on alone, on mine own stariit steep. q
In Letters to Literary Aspirant,"
published in Blackwood's, the anony-
nous author beneath his fiippancy in
dulges In some digs at the manner In
which contemporary fiction is con-
structed which are decidedly refresh
ing as well as pertinent. For instance:
'sIf your hero goes into battle and
you wish to convey the roaring Of can
non. you write the word bang with
note Of exclamation. II he kisses the
heroine, you describe this electrifying
sensation by saying, He was trans
ported with rapture In fact, you sim
ply say to your reader: Kindly conjure
up SO and so as wildly as possible. I
shall supply you with set of words
to assist your imagination much as a
doctor supplies draft, and the patient
does the rest"
One may imagine what may have
been the feelings of poor Poe, who in
this life rarely felt the Jingle of coin in
his pocket--at least not for any con-
siderable period-had he been present
at the recent sale of the Harold Pierce
library in Philadelphia. when a coliec-
ton of his manuscripts brought S5,35G.
What was described by the auctioneer
as probably the rarest manuscript of
Edgar Allan Poe" brought $500. /
This manuscript was the original of
since the original autograph copy of
1.-THE Raven" is not known, bears out
the auctioneer's statement. 1t is writ
ten on slips of blue paper pasted to-
gether and originally formed a strip
eight inches wide and thirty seven and
inches long. but it had been
divided into three more or less equalsI
parts. As originally sent to Sartain's
it contained but eighteen
lines and was subsequently expanded. |
1t lacks the last fourteen lines Of the |
completed poem, but it is believed they
never formed part of this sheet.
Souduf D0yts. creator OF the famous /
detective Sherlock Holmes, was recent |
" asked why he did not open detec- |
tive agency and employ his shrewd de-
vices in solving real entanglements.
The knots which I have united were |
Of my own tying" said the author
tersely. I'D fall In untying other per-
sons knots.'
did you ever make practical use of
your power of deduction?'
mo. But on one occasion believe |
,ould have done SO. I happened to
'tep into tailoring establishment
where an unattractive individual was
selecting material for a pair Of trou-
'ers. A striped design was recon-
nended. Not this. / have had
,nough of stripes. am tired Of Them
protested the customer.
1.-The manner In which the man re-
erred TO stripes convinced me that he
vas an ex-conyict. To satisfy myself /
-fsited the prison. examined the pho
ographs and was gratifed to find my
mans picture In the album"
RICHARD UPPER.