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*»» ■»Edgar A, Poe.The clergyman, Dr.- Snodgrass, who at*, tended the author of “The Raven” m - his last sickness, gives the following ; accountof it itrthe “Woman’s Temperance Paper”of New York:“On a chilly and wet November afternoon I received- a note, from “a man answering by the name of Edgar. Allen ,,Ppe,” who claimed to 'know me, was at a drinking house in Lombard street, Baltimore, ik a state of deep intoxication and great destitution. I repaired immediately'to the spot. It was on an election day. When .1 entered the bar-room of the hotae, I instantly 'recognized the face' of one', wKohfl had often seen and kimw well, although it wore an aspect of vacant stupidity which -mademe shudder. The intellectual, flash of inis' 4 \ eye had vanished, or rather had been quenched in the bowl ;• but.the broad,-capacious forehead,of the author of ‘The Raven’ as* t 3you have appropriately designated him, was still,there, with a width, in the • region of ideality, such as few men have ever possessed. . But perhaps I would not have .so readily recognized him had I not been ac-tilled of his apparel. -His hat—or rather that of somebody eke, for he had-evidently been robbed of his clothing, or cheated in exchange*—was a cheap palin-leaf one,without a band and soiled: his coat of‘ “commonest alapaca, and evidently .“second handand his pants of gray mixed cassi* mere, dingy and badly fitting.' He wore vest nor neckcloth, if I remember rightswhs!e his shirt wag sadly CEumpled^mdyBsil-ed He was so utterly stupified with liquor that I thought it not best to seek recoeni-! r ^tion or conversation, especially as he was surrounded by a crowd of drinking men, actuated by idle curiosity rather than sympathy. I immediately ordered a' room for him, where he eouid be comfortable until I got word to his relatives—for there wereseveral in Baltimore. Just at that moment* • * one or two of the persons referred to,-get*ting information of disease arrived at thespot. The}- declined to take private care » ■of him, assigning as a reason, that he hadI m 4been very abusive and ungrateful on former, occasions when drunk, and advised that he be sent to a hospital. He was .accordingly placed in a coach and conveyed to the'Washington .College Hospital’ and put. under the care of the competent and attentive resident physician of that institution /So insensible was he, that we had.to carry him to the carriage as if a corpse.-— The muscles of articulation seemed paralyzed to speechlessness, and mere incoherent mutter mgs were all that were lizard.“He died in the hospital after some three or four days, during which time he enjoyed only occasional and fitful seasons of consciousness. His disease, as will have been anticipated, was r.iania a pofu—a dLease whose finale is always fearful in its maniacal manifestations. In one of his more lucid moments, when asked by. the physician if he would like to see Lis friends,' he exclaimed: ‘Friend! My best friend would be he who tvotdd take a pistol and blow out my brains, and thus relieve me of my agony.1 These were among his last words.I“Now for the manner of his burial: , “The remains of the author of ‘The Raven’ do not ‘lie mouldering in a corner of the Potter’s Field, at Baltimore,’ The truth, as I remarked, is bad enough, and discreditable enough to his relatives, not to say the city where he died. Ho was interred in an old Presbyterian burying ground in Green street, which has not been much used for many years. On a portion of it a church has since been erected, but, i fnot over his grave. In the removal of the dead, which will sooxxer or later take place it is quite probable the bones'of ‘Poor Poe’ will be collected among the remains of the friendless and the unknown, and removed beyond recognition, for nothing but a coup le of pine boards were placed at his grave in lieu of grave stones.” .
Newspaper Details
Jeffersonian Democrat
Monroe, Wisconsin, US
Thu, Aug 21, 1856
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WI, USA 15 Dec 2021
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