more,' and in a moment he had gone. In a few weeks I heard the tidings of his death."

Poe also made a visit to his dear friend, as he called Eliza Lambert, the sister of General Lambert, once Mayor of Richmond and a near relation of the Strobias. There were other friends of his early days there, and, as he wrote in one of his last letters to Mrs. Clemm, he remained until one o'clock in the morning, talking of the olden times. He also visited the family of W. A. R. Nye, connected with the Whig, who were friends of long standing. Much more of his time was spent with Mrs. Shelton, his early love, to whom he was again engaged to be married. She was seen with him at church and at his lectures, and he wrote to Mrs. Clemm that all was in readiness for the marriage. In the same letter he showed distress of mind about "Annie" and wished to be near her. Mrs. Shelton has left her recollections of Poe, which are supposed to be in the Valentine Museum, Richmond. They are not thought to differ materially from her other statements. She gave a pleasing description of Poe in his youthful days calling to see her in company with Burling, and how he met and begged her to marry him in 1849. He visited her the night before he left Richmond for Baltimore, when he complained of feeling ill. Richmond's oldest bookdealer, J. W. Randolph, remembered Poe. He told me that in those days he had Sanxey's old book-stand. Poe was a good customer of Sanxey's in olden times. He had been coming in quietly and looking about Randolph's shop, and now and then buying a magazine. "Look here," he said one day; "it makes me sad to come in here and not see Sanxey. When did he die?" Randolph explained that Sanxey was not dead, but

had sold out. Poe went to hunt him up, and returning to the store a few days afterwards, told of a pleasant meeting with his former old book friend.

In order to wind up his affairs before his marriage, arranged for October 17, he made preparations to visit the North. He had a commission to edit a volume of poems in Philadelphia, and told Daniel that he would publish his own writings while away. After leaving Mrs. Shelton's on the evening of September 26, he went to Sadler's restaurant, where he met J. M. Blakey and other friends. Both Sadler and Blakey told Judge Hughes that they remembered meeting Poe at the restaurant that night, and did not think that he was drinking. They were quite certain that he was sober when they saw him last, and talking of going North. He left for Baltimore and Philadelphia early the following morning. As he steamed down the James River thoughts of his former journey more than twenty-two years before must have flashed across his memory, as well as the many other strange vicissitudes through which he had passed since his boyhood swims in the same waters.

He had been wandering about Baltimore for some days when he was found, Wednesday, October 3, in an unconscious condition, near Ryan's Fourth Ward Polls. He was taken to the Washington Hospital, where he died October 7, 1849.

A notice of Poe's death was printed in the Richmond Whig of October 9, as follows: "It is with profound grief that we give place this morning to the painful intelligence which will be read below. The sad announcement was received in yesterday's evening mail. When we reflect that it was but the other day that the

deceased was delighting our citizens with a lecture as beautiful as his own genius was powerful and erratic that he was walking in our streets in the vigor of manhood and mingling with acquaintances in the sociability of friendship we would fain believe that it was untrue. The news of the death of Mr. Poe will fall with a heavy and crushing weight upon one in this city who is related to him by the tender tie of sister; and who can hardly have any previous knowledge of his illness; whilst it will be read with profound regret by all who appreciate generous qualities or admire genius. In the beautiful language of his own 'Lenore,' let there be a requiem for the dead-in that he died so young."

Poe was buried in the churchyard of the Westminster Church at Baltimore. Rev. W. T. D. Clemm read the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There were but few friends and relatives present at the sad rites. After his death, "Annabel Lee" was published in the New York Tribune, and Sartain's Union Magazine for November contained "The Bells." The Messenger for December contained "To my Mother"; Graham's, January, 1850, "Critics and Criticism"; followed in October by the "Poetic Principle," published in Sartain's Union Magazine. In the Examiner of October 26, Daniel announced: "Edgar Poe's complete works are to be published under the supervision of Willis and Lowell and under the auspices of Rufus Griswold. O! what a triumvirate." The November Messenger published a notice of Poe's death, in which the following letter to Thompson from H. W. Longfellow was given:

"What a melancholy death is that of Mr. Poe-a man so richly endowed with genius! I never knew him personally, but have always entertained a high appre

ciation of his powers as a prose writer and a poet. His prose is remarkably vigorous, direct and yet affluent; and his verse has a peculiar charm of melody, an atmosphere of true poetry about it, which is very winning. The harshness of his criticisms I have never attributed to anything but the irritation of a sensitive nature, chafed by some indefinite sense of wrong."

Mrs. Clemm died in Baltimore at the Church Home, February 16, 1871. This was the same building in which Poe died. She was buried beside Poe. Rosalie Poe also became a subject for charity, and entered the Epiphany Church Home, Washington, where she died in July, 1874, at the age of sixty-four, which places her birth in 1810.

All that was mortal of Poe rested in a neglected grave in an obscure corner of the Baltimore Churchyard until November 17, 1875, when a monument was erected. I was present at the services of dedication, and remember that it was a raw, chilly, and bleak November day. Among those present who had known him best were J. H. Hewett, and his old schoolmaster, Professor Clarke; also Drs. Brooks and Snodgrass. A number of letters and poems were read. Among those who sent tributes were Mallarmé, Swinburne, Hayne, Fawcett, Winter, John Neal, Mrs. Whitman, Saxe, Bryant, Longfellow, Tennyson, Whittier, Lowell, Aldrich, and Holmes. Swinburne wrote: "Widely as the fame of Poe has already spread, and deeply as it is already rooted in Europe, it is even now growing wider and striking deeper as time advances; the surest presage that Time, the eternal enemy of small and shallow reputations, will prove in this case also the constant and trusty friend and keeper of a poet's full-grown fame."

The following warm tribute was from O. W. Holmes: "No one, surely, needs a mausoleum less than the poet.

'His monument shall be his gentle verse,

Which eyes not yet created shall o'erread;
And tongues to be, his being shall rehearse

When all the breathers of this world are dead.'

Yet we would not leave him without a stone to mark the spot where the hands that 'waked to ecstasy the living lyre' were laid in dust. He that can confer an immortality which will outlast bronze and granite deserves this poor tribute, not for his sake so much as ours. The hearts of all who reverence the inspiration of genius, who can look tenderly upon the infirmities too often attending it, who can feel for its misfortunes, will sympathize with you as you gather around the resting-place of all that was mortal of Edgar Allan Poe, and raise the stone inscribed with one of the few names which will outlive the graven record meant to perpetuate its remembrance."