The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-28

NEW YORK. NO. b. New series.
Edited by Henry Collins Brown. VAL
entine's Manual, Inc, New York
Here is another of Mr.. Browns prize
packages with all kinds of interest in
picture and text. For example, there is
a fourfold illustration in color showing
the changes that have taken place on
the first land owned by the city, where
the Custom House now stands.
Among the notable articles are Com
modore Benedict's recollections of
Grover Cleveland. the diary of little
girl in old New York; Justice Geige-
rich's "reminiscences of the old Elev-
enth ward; character sketches of
earlier New York merchants.
OF course, Mr.. Brown fires another
gun in his campaign to destroy the
unsightly features of City Hall Park,
and for this he deserves the aid and
the gratitude of all good citizens.
DIR. Appleton Morgan, president of
the Shakespeare Society. has contrib
uted a paper on Poe in New York
which includes some unpublished ma
terial, referring to the poets most
productive period. For time he lived
at 100 Greenwich street. The record
runs thus:
at was at about the Greenwich
street date, April Z, 1914 that Poe
regularly entered into the employment
of n. p. Willis. who at that date occu-
pied an office on the corner of Ann
and Nassau streets, where the Mirror,
daily and Sunday, gave abundant
scope for Poes restless pen. Opposite
and across Ann street with entrances
both upon Ann and Nassau streets
was a famous beer cellar Called in
the directories of the date "a refec-
tory'), kept by one Alexander Welsh,
but known not otherwise than Sandy
Welsh's'. This was the famous resort
at the noon hour of all newspaper men
and knights of the pen in the neigh
borhood, and almost every newspaper
of the day had it's headquarters in the
vicinity from Ann to Spruce street.
Sandy Welsh's beer cellar was APP
parently the predecessor of 'Pfaff's,
beloved of George Arnold and Fitz
James O'Brien and that fine ilk of
Bohemia which the civil war dispersed.
And so. along with his fellow feuille-
tonists. litterateurs and toilers upon
newspapers, Poe became a habitue of
Sandy Welsh's.
Among these newspaper worthless
was a Mr.. John Augustus Shea, a
writer on Horace Greeley's Tribune.
who later became the father of an
eminent son, the Hon. George Shea,
associate counsel for the Confederate
IL
and later, until his death, Chief Justice
of the Marine (now City, Court of
New York city. To this Mr.. Shea, who
was wont to vary his stint of news
paper work with poems and fiction,
Poe seems to have been specifically
attracted. At this date the various
offices with which Poe was or became
thereafter connected were grouped
around the corner of Nassau and Ann
streets. The Broadway Journal was at
1876 Nassau street, though when Poe
obtained full control of it it moved up
to Clinton Hall, at Beekman and
Nassau streets (the site is now called
Temple Court, and again to 304
Broadway, where 1t finally gave up
the ghost under his impracticable and
sporadic business management"
Or. Appleton quotes from an article
in Scribner's Monthly for October,
1875. The account 1t gives of the
writing of 1.-THE Raven" is a curious
one:
THE poem was produced stanza by
stanza at small intervals and sub
mitted by Poe piecemeal to the criti-
cism and emendation of it's q. e.,
Sandy Welsh's beer cellar's) inmates.
who suggested various alterations and
substitutions. Poe adopted many of
them. Col. du Sole quotes particular
instances of phrases that were incor-
porated at his (du Solle's) suggestion.
Thus The Raven was a kind of Joint
stock affair in which many man held
small shares of intellectual capital.
At length, when the last stone had
been placed in position and passed
upon, the structure was voted COM
plete."
Judge Shea gave DR.. Appleton the
following, drawn from his fathers
memories of the period in question:
Poe was exceedingly timid as to a
possible public reception of The
Raven. Especially did he dread the
comments of his fellow litterateurs.
whom for about year he had been
mercilessly criticising and castiaating
in the pages of the Euenin0 Mirror.
in which N. p. Willis, its editor. per-
mitted him full swing.
Poe, nevertheless, carried the poem
about with him wherever he went, and
on all occasions would produce it, and
IL permitted, read it, line by line and
stanza by stanza, and himself point
out what he considered, or claimed to