El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-04-18

between the dictates Of her reason
and the dictates of her heart Men
of prominence tried 10 dissuade her.
Horace Greeley, from whom Poe once
had borrowed fifty dollars and for
gotten it, wrote a scathing denUncia-
ton of Poe as a possible husband for
her. She WaVered Tor weeks and
after many tempesuuOus outbreaks
and frenzied pleadings on his part, she
entered into conditional engage
ment.
Urgent and insistenu as Poe was for
immediate marriage. he had TO be con-
tent with this. He promised every
thing she asked him. His life was to
be as she desired and directed thence
forth.
as near happy as his troubled soul
could be. For weeks ne dreamed his
dreams of new life. Then he went
20 Providence once more TO lecture
and to see his love After the lecture
he paid court TO Mrs. Whitman, and
before he had departed that night she
had consented to their marriage on
the following day.
While she was preparing for the
wedding, word was brought TO her
that Poe was drinking. She sent for
him and told him she never could wed
him, though she loved him and would
love him until her death
He left her and returned to New
York. He tried to kill himself with
laudanum, but did not succeed
An Odd PAIR.
Whether he would have found in her
happiness and a peace such as he
never knew before is TO be questioned.
She was as odd a woman as Poe was a
man. With virtues and qualities OF
heart that are well expressed in her
beautiful poems, she was eccentric in
the extreme She always dressed in
white. There always was an Odor
of ether about her and She believed
the spirits always were about her and
usually attune with her.
NO human mind went further into
shadow land and pictured it so Won
derfuly and in language so marvel
Gus as Edgar Allan Poe. The mysti-
cism Of Mrs. Whitman was light COM
pared with that of the great magician
of words No one pictured the ethe-
real more graphically and not one
knew more of the love that is the love
of the soul
Poe broken in heart. IN spirit. and
in purse. left New York after his re-
lection by Mrs. Whitman.
For one brief spell z bit Of sunshine
came into his life. Richmond. where
his sprite OF a mother had died prae-
tleaAy OF starvation, and which he
called the city of his birth. although
1t was not, for ne was born in Boston.
greeted MIN with honor and made
much OF the fact that he was con
nected with a new magazine which
was 20 be the glory of the south Poe
saw in this an opening to the ODDor-
Junlty ne Ionged for so many years
journal of independence, Of critical
review, untrammelled by anything
but his sovereign viii.
and with hope high in his heart ne
left Richmond to close up his affairs
in New York before establishing him
self in his great WORK And in Ball
tlmore-drugSed by rOgues into whose
hands he fell-he died-he who was
one Of the most DitifuI and majestic
figures American literature has
known.
Great operas, which have stirred the
emotions of countless thousands. have
been built around lives less tragic and
appealing than that Of Edgar Allan
Poe and Virginia GLENN, or that of
Poe and Helen Whitman. Some day,
perhaps. an American Verdi or an
American Wagner may use one OF
them as a theme. What a setting
that moonlight vision in the garden
of roses would offer for one scenel
But settings and scenes are dwarfed
by the loves themselves. which typify
better than anything else as pathetic
and odd a life probably as is furnished
in all the history Of men singuIarlv
gifted and singularly Iated.-COpy-
right 1914, by the Wheeler Syndicate,
Inc