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Americans to Do Justice
to the Memory of the
”
- Author of “The Baven
S ek
l<though Admittedly the Nation’s Greates
Writer, Elther In Prose or Poatry, He Is Con
ceded to Have Exerted a Greater Influence on
Foreign Ilterature Than Any Other of Our
Writers so This ‘Day--It is Only on the Hun
dredth Aoniversary of His Birth in Boston,
January 19, That Edgar Ailan Poe fs to Be
Froperly Honored by His Countrymen--Exer
cises Are Now Belng Planned In Boston, Phila
delphia, Baltimere and New York, Four Cities
in Which He Did Most of His Writing-The
Unlvirsity of Virginia, That Had the Glory of
Graduating the Author of “The Raven,” Will
Also Fittingly Observe the Natal Day of the
Poet Who Led the Saddest Life of Any of the
Many Pliiful Cases Where Misery Has Been
Wedded to Genjus,
On the occasion of his centenary,
January 19 of next year, Americans
will do tardy justice to the memory of
the loftiest and most poetical genius
the new world has yet produced-—
Edgar Allan Poe.
Misunderstood during all his un
happy life, slandered after his death
by a jealous contemporary, the
matchless poet, althor of “The
Raven,” is to be treated one hundred
vears after his birth to spontanszous
honor at the hands of the countrymen
whose letters he glorified.
The celebration of the hundredth
anniversary of Poe's birth has been a
favorite project of the literary for
several years. It was not without re
search that the actual date was de
termined. Poe’'s own statements,
which in matters of this kind were
prone to be inexact, are responsible
for the confusion. When he entered
West Point he gave his birth inaec
curately o as to come under the age
limit. But the researches of Profes
sor Woodberry have shown to a cer
tainty that the date is January 19,
1908, a paragraph in a Boston paper
of one month later proving it beyond
a question, ’
Commemorative Exercises Planned.
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore
and New York, the four cities in
which Poe did most of his literary
work, will all see commomorative ex
ercises held, and in the University of
Virginia, whose most famed student
Poe is, noted glants of literature will
sound the praises of the greatest
American poet, |
In all the injustice done to men of
geniug the case of Poe is perhaps
without a parallel. His gifts were
undoubtedly his curse, for he never
realized anything from tl‘m but woe.
The frightful imagination that en
“abled him to write stories of horror
that have never been equaled was
‘trouble enough for any one man, but
ordinarily they woald havé brought
wonsolation in the admiration of his
!ellol:man. and fit'tlt;nclal rgwmll‘thnt
‘Wwould have enabled the writer and
fihfifa‘u live ir comfort, ) m
~ “Passing Rich” on $lO Per.
{ When at the very summit of his
glory, as editor of the leading Amer
ican magazine, his salary was only
$lO a week, a stipend at which many
a stenographer would to-day scorn
fully turn up the nose, “The Raven,”
one of the most celebrated of all
poems, brought only $lO to the au
thor, yet to-day the original manu
script is valued at SIO,OOO.
For a quarter of a century after the
death of this master worker in letters
the enemies of Poe had the ear of the
world. The poet was scarcely cold
in his grave before R. W. Griswold
had published his slanderous biogra
phy, which reeked in every line with
the hatred the biographer bore the
critic who had so ruthlessly exposed
the literary weakness of “His Poets
and Poetry of America.”
Poe and Griswold were friends, but
the poet, as one of the most noted
crities in the world, could not stifle
his sense of honesty in commenting
on his (Griswold's) work. He told
what he thought about it.
Griswold had his revenge richly
after the death of the author of “The
Raven,” for the close relations of the
two men, having been known to the
world, led all to believe that what
Griswold said of Poe must of neces
sity be correct,
Great Injustice Done Him.
It was not until many friends of
Poe in life, many of those who knew
his true life in many of the places
mentioned by Griswold as scenes of
incredible debauchery, began their
campaign to clear his memory shat
the world saw the possibility that it
had done the greatest of American
literary genluses tragic injustice,
Enemies said that he starved and
beat his wife in order to hasten her
death, so that by studying her pangs
he might get material for exact de
scription. Yet her mother, Mrs.
Clemm, who lived with the pair dur
ing their married life and who knew
how deeply the poet loved her, bore
indignant witness to the slander of
these stories, and responded with a
hundred others in rebuttal, showing
the man's affection, the care he had
for his wife, of how he cooked her
meals in her illness, when poverty
had brought them near actual starva
tion.
Mrs. Clemm showed that #t was the
death of his wife that overthrew Poe's
reason and became the direct cause
of the fits of drunkenness that finally
resulted in his death.
Women who knew him spole of
the peculiarly chivalric manner in
Which he treated the gentler sex, and
his man friends told of his reserve
and modesty and the unaffected hia
mility as to his own deserts as a
writer,
Poe lived and died a mystery to
Limself, to his friends and to the
world. His life was a romanee, Nis
death a tragedy and his fame immor
tal. Never hefore has so much gen
ius been allied to such misery. The
most interesting and picturesque fig
ure in American literature, his
strange and romantic life possessing
an incredible fascination for those
who have sought to follow it from the
time the poet began his wanderings
as a writer, it is no wonder that the
approaching centenary has been the
occasion for reviving a renewed life
for the Poe cult.
Those who go back to investigate
find that, after leaving Boston, Poe
was adopted by Mr. John Allan, of
Richmond, Va., which accounts for
the fact that, though a Northerner
born, he always had such close un
derstanding of the South and syms
pathy for it,
How He Left West Point.
In 1829, when he was twenty, 1s
found his name for the first time on
the flyleaf of a volume of poems, “Al
Aaraaf,” “Tamerlane,” ete. The Uni
versity of Virginia had been his alma
mater; then he went to West Point,
but the move was a mistake, and
after spending a few months there
he asked his guardian to permit him'
to resign. The later peremptorily re
fusing, Po 2 took his own means of
ending a regime that had become
painful to him, and by neglecting all
his studies finally got himsszlf into
such disgrace that he was cashiered.
Thrown on his own resources, he.
took up literature as a means of live
lihood, and wrote in rapid sucecession
his wonderful stories of mystery, of
which “Marie Roget,” the “Murders
of the Rue Morgue,” “The Gold Bug,”
“Black Cat,” “Pit and the Pendulum,”
especially astonished the world. In
New York he contributed to the New
York Quarterly Review a series of
searching criticisms, then he went to
Philadelphia to assume charge of the
Gentleman’s Magazine.
His romance with Sarah Helen
Whitman is one of the most famed
chapters of his life. He worshiped
this brilliant woman, and her loyalty
to him is proved by the vigor with
which, after his death, she hastened
to reply to every one of the slanders
directed against his memory. Almost
alone for a long time she bore the
burden of battle against the detrac
tors of Poe, and her work is now
bearing fruit in the changed attitude
of the public mind to him.
Baltimore, in whose streets Poe
was found insensible in October,
1849, was first to publicly honor his
memory, and a statue erected there
in 1875 was the first memorial to his
memory.
Other honors are certain to be the
outgrowth of the centenary, for'the
United States, having finally ffgxnd
its great poet, will now proceeu to
make atonement.—Washington Star.
STRUCTURE OF THR BRAIN.
——— e e a
Enormous Number of Cells and Fi-
According to Dr. Edward A. Ayres
(in Harper’'s Monthly) the human
brafn is composed of microscopic di
mensions. Kach has a diameter of
from 1-1400 to 1-3000 of an inch.
Their number is variously estimated
at from 612,000,000 to 9,200,000,-
000! Even 1,000,000 is a quantity
almost beyond comprehension. Con
necting with many of the cells are
delicate fibres which extend to other
cells. Besides, there are telegraph
wires, the nerves, which run down to
or come from other parts of the body.
Opre set of nerves proceeds from
the skin. These are so close together
that there is no point on the surface
of the body which can be touched
with the finest needle without send
ing a report to headquarters. To
every square foot of skin there are
about 10,000 of these “‘tactile’’ nerves,
and it is estimated that the body has
sixteen square feet of surface. There
are nerves also from the special sense
organs —the eyes, nose and ears.
These convey their messages much
more quickly than do the nerves of
the skin, Still a third set of nerves
extends to the tips of the various
muscles and conveys the orders need
ed for the various voluntary move
ments. These are called the motor
nerves. Many of the duties per<
formed by such organs as the heart
and stomach are regulated by other
nerve centres than the brain. The
subordinate centres, called ganglia,
work independently of the brain. Or
dinarily a person is unconscious of
their operations and he cannot con
trol them by his will.
In the lowermost and back part of
the skull is the cerebullum or small
brain. Among its duties is making
other parts of the body co-operate
for given purpose, like keeping one's
balance. Something also has been
learned about the localities in the
larger and upper brain in which dif
ferent classes of work are performed.
Phrenologists have made rather ex
travagant and inaccurate statements
about “bumps,” but, after all, there
is some truth in the later stories of
such discoveries, One way in which
the truth can be learned is to com
pare the human brain with those of
animals. It a catfish, for instance,
about half the brain is devoted to the
sense of taste. Another method is
noticing the effects of an injury to a'
brain by accident, and a third em
ploys experiments on animals while
they are chloroformed. If one part
of the brain is exposed and touched
with a delicate electric instrument, a
certain muscle will contract. If an
other is touched another responds.
With the knowledge thus secured the'
sorgical profession is sometimes en
abled to perform operations on man
which would otherwise be impossible,
Penknives are tempered at 470 de
grees. %
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—From the New York World.
: LORD ESHER.
Astonishing influence is ascribed to Lord Esher, personal factotum of
King Edward, by the latest gossip of London. His is the responsibility
for the international sensation caused by the Kaiser's Tweedmouth letter.
“Illegitimate Influences at Court” are made the subject of a startling at
tack in one of the leading English monthlies, the National Review, and
constitute the sensation of the hour in London. TFollowing, as it does, so
soon after the revelations in Berlin of the evils of the Camerilla at the
Court of the Kaiser, this article forms the all-absorbing topic of discus
slon in political and official circles, in clubland, not alone in the British
metropolis, but also in Continental capitals, and in spite of the efforts of
the party whips and of thé leaders, both of the Government and of the op
position, as well as of the Speaker, the matter is likely to crop up at any
moment in Parliament.
The charge of “illegitimate influences at court” has not been heard of
in any reputable English print concerning a ruler of the British Empire for
more than fifty or sixty years. But previous to that time it was a subject
of constant denunciation as a crying evil.
SLEEP IN A CITY TREE
Flatbush Boy Makes His Summer Home
in a Big Walnut.
Sle®ping outdoors in a rudely con
structed house erected among the
branches of a high walnut tree in
the heart of Flatbush a young Poly
technic Institute student has adopted
a novel method of “getting near to
nature.” Last year he tried this
method of outdoor life, starting in
the early spring and continuing until
the first real snowfall of the sgzson.
The “tree house,” as the people in
the neighborhood call it, is located on
the lawn surrounding the home of
Mrs. W. T. Lees, who lives at 1704
Flatbush avenue, near Avenue I, Flat
bush. W. Thompson Lees is the tree
dweller.
. A wooden stairway winds around
the tree's trunk leading to the single
chamber above, allowing an easy as
cent to be made. The entire structure
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THE BEDROOM IN THE TREE. T
is made of wood and was designed by
young Lees and his chum, Vail Apple
gate, a freshman at Dartmouth Col
lege. The boys built the house a
little more than two years ago, but it
is only lately that they have converted
it into a sleeping place.
At first their intention was simply
to build a “crow’s nest” where they
could seclude themselves on rainy af
ternooms and when it was too hot for
active exercise. The “crow’s nest”
did not prove to be large enough, so
the boys added a large platform
which forms what they call their pi
a%za. This piazza is roomy enough
for an ordinary sized dining room
table and comfortably accommodates
six or eight diners. :
After Lees and Applegate had the
house completed their parents toox
an interest in it. They recognized
that it would be a fine place to sit In
the warm weather. Mrs, Lees sug
gested that a stairway be added to
enable the older folk to climb to the
tree top. It took the boys three
months to build fit. i
It was last summer that Lees and
Applegate decided that they would
like to see how it would feel to sleep
out in the open. They covered the
top of the house with panes of glass
and this gave them all the light, day
or night, they needed. The trial
worked so well that they declared
that thereafter they would, while the
weather was*warm, sleep in the tree,
—New York Sun.
Moonlight,
Many readers may not be aware of
the fact that the full moon gives sev
eral times more than twice the light
of the half moon. They may be still
more surprised to learn that the
‘ratio is approximately as nine to
one. Professor Joel Stebbings and
¥. C. Brown, taking advantage of
the extreme sensitiveness to light of
a selenium cell, have lately measured
the amount of light coming from the
moon at different phases, with the
result above mentioned. The reason
for the remarkable difference shown
is to be found in the varying angles
of our satellite to the sun. The moon
is brighter between the first quarter
and full than between full and last
quarter. The cause of this is evi
dent in the more highly reflective
character of that part of the moon
which lies west of its meridian.—
Youth’s Companion.
Pencil is Always Handy.
fl L £
A recent French invention consists
of a flexible support for a pencil, as
shown in the illustration. When the
pencil is used the support bends read
ily and is.mo obstruction to writing.—
Philadelphia Record.
Altogether during the year 1908
there will have been under construe
tion buildings directly or indirectly
connected with Princeton University
representing an expenditure of near
ly $2,000,000.
SUENE AR
. Qolfatara, a semi-extinct volcano
near Pozzuoli, has opened a new cra
ter 250 feet from the ancient one. It
is emitting a voluminous column of
sulphurous gases. The activity of
Solfatara always is supposed to coin
cide with the inactivity of Vesuvius.
The International Committee on
atomic weights has recently an
nounced the changes in the list of
elements for 1908. These are, with
one exception, practically the same as
those announced for 1907. The only
notable change is the addition to the
list of a new element, dysprosium,
whose atomic weight is given as
162.5.
It is reported that a student of the
Electro-Technical Institute of St. Pet
‘ersburg, named Freudinberg, has in
vented an apparatus for exploding
mines by wireless telegraphy. Nu
merous experiments already made
are said to have proved remarkably
successful. The apparatus is also
claimed to be suited for directing
Whitehead torpedoes at long ranges.
In Denmark only the inter-provin
cial, the inter-communal and the in
ternational telephones are worked by
the State, while the local telephones
are worked by private limited com
‘panies, under concessions,
The staff of Greenwich Observatory
announce that they have discovered
an eighth satellite of Jupiter. Dur
ing an examination of photographic
plates of Jupiter, Mr. Melotte, one of
the assistant astronomers, discovered
a faint marking occupying slightly
different positions on the different
plates. The satellite has a retrograde
motion,
Remarkable expansion has taken
place in the Indian manganese indus
try, statistics showing that while the
total quantity of manganese ore
shipped through the Kidderpore
Docks during the whole of the year
1906 was 14,587 tons, the shipments
up to the end of October last year
amounted to 40,349 tons. The Car
negie Steel Company, of Pittsburg,
has acquired large manganese prop
erties in India, and it is egpected
that these figures will be yet further
increased.
e— e, et el TN
° Training a Beagle.
With regard to the training of a
beagle, he has to be treated on quite
a different plan from the setter and
pointer. In their cases a great deal
of work of training is to conquer nat
ural propensities, whereas with the
beagle you encourage him to go on
and do all he can in seeking and
chasing when found. Young dogs are
usually put down with an older one,
and a very few lessons suffice. It
comes as natural to a beagle to run
scent as for a terrier to kill rats, and
if there is no apparent inclination one
lesson usually provokes it. The less
one interferes with a beagle running
a line the better for the dog, so long
as he is not pottering in one well
tested place, but casting all about
when he has lost the trail.—Field
and Stream,
Olives in Carolina.
It has been the generally accepted
belief that olives were first grown in
America by the Mission Fathers, of
California, but the first olives in
America were planted on the coast of
South Carolina long before colonial
times. During the American Revolu
tion there was a ten-acre bearing
olive grove on the south shore of
Port Royal entrance. When the Civil
War commenced some. of these trees
were living. At its close only the
stumps remained. It is supposed that
voldiers had encamped there and cut
the trees down for firewood. The
surrounding woods is said to be full
of wild olive-trees, the birds having
carried the seeds from the ancient
trees. The old olive grove was on
the “Foot Point” plantation.—Phila«
tlelphia Grit.
A Cave of Nature's Jewels.
By proclamation of the President
the Jewel Cave National Monument
has been established in the Black
Hills National Forest in South Da
kota. This formation is, in some re
spects, unique. It was explored in
1900, and consists of a series of
chambers, connected by passages and
galleries, the walls of which are en
crusted with beautiful calcite crystals.
It is situated in a canon, on a Wne
stone plateau, 6000 feet above sea
level. It is believed to have been the
channel for the waters of a now ex«
tinct geyser.—Youth’s Companion,
Never Bankrupt.
“Have you ever been bankrupt?”
asked the counsel.
“I have not.” -
“Now, be careful,” admonished the
lawyer. “Did you ever stop pay
ment?”
rYen." :
‘““Ah, I thought we should get at the
truth,” observed counsel, with an un
pleasant smile. “When did this sus
pension of payment occur?”
“When I had paid all I owed.”"—
London Opinion,
In a cemetery at Middlebury, Vt.,
is a stone erected by a widow to her
loving husband, bearing this inscrip
tion: Rest in peace-—until we meet
again,
The tropical seas contain a greatet
percentage of salt than those of the¢
more narthern latitudes,
One of the
’ .
Essentials
of the happy homes of to-day is a vast
fund of information as to the best methods
of promoting health and happiness and
right living and knowledge of the world’s
best products.
Products of actual excellenee and
reasonable claims truthfully presented
and which have attained to world-wide
acceptance through the approval of the
Well-Informed of the World; not of indj
viduals only, but of the many who have
the happy faculty of selecting and obtain
ing the best the world affords.
One of the products of that class, of
known component parts, an Ethical
remedy, approved by physicians and com
mended by the Well-Informed of the
Worldas a valuable and wholesome family
laxative is the well-known Syrup of Figs
and Elixir of Senna. To get its beneficial
effects always buy the genuine, many
factured by the @alifornia Fig Syrup Co.,
snly, and for sale by all leading druggists,
—————
. Says the Atlanta Constitution: Beet
is now so high that even a million
aire's appetite hesitates to reach it.
Capudine Cures Indigestion Pains,
Belching, Sour Stomach; and Heartburn,
from whatever cause. It's Liquid. Lffects
immediately. Doctors prescribe it, 10c.
25¢., and 5&::., at drug stores. :
The Washington Herald tells of a
man who felled a horse with one blow
of his fist. But he couldn’t get bacik
the money he had lost on the brute.
ECZEMA CURED,
J. R. Maxwell, Atlanta, Ga., says: *“I
suffered agony with a severe case of ecze
ma. Trie(f six different remedies and was
in despair, when a neighbor told me to try
Shuptrine’s TETTERINE. After using $3
wor?h of your TETTERINE and soaplam
completely cured. I cannot saytoo much
in its praise.” TETTERINE at druggists or
by mail 50c. Soap 23c. J. T. SBHUPTRINE,
Dept. A, Savannah, Ga.
OLDEST CHURCH ORGAN.
Found on Island of Gothland and in
Excellent State of Preservation.
In the Baltic Sea, forty miles from
the mainland, lies the Swedish island
Gothland, a Mecca for students of
early Gothic architecture. In Wis
by alone, the chief town of the island,
with its population of 8,000 souls,
may be studied what remains of no
lesg than ten churches, some of which
date from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, The oldest of them is the
Church of the Holy Ghost, completed
about 1046. ;
Prof. Hennerberg, director in a Ger
man music scheool, and especially in
terested in the study of mediaeval
organs, visited fifty-nine churches in
Gothland, and in a little village called
Sundre came upon the remnant of
what lis unquestionably ~the oldest
known organ in existence. The case
mlone has survived the fret of seven
icenturies, the holes for pedals and
fmanuals are placed as in modern in
struments, and inside one can see
ithe chamber for the bellows and judge
of their action; the exterior is adorn
ied with phintings’dating from about
'1240.
When this ancient instrument could
no longer serve its original purpose
it was used as a sacristy and for the
safeguard of holy vessels and vest
/ments was kept in careful repair,
hence its excellent preservation to
our day.—Youth’'s Companion,
DROPPED COFFEE.
Doctor Gains 20 Pounds on Postum.
A physician of Wash., D. C., says of
his coffee experience:
“For years I suffered with period
fcal headaches which grew more fre
quent until they became almost con
stant. So severe were they that some
times I was almost frantic. I was
sallow, constipated, irritable, sleep
less; my memory was poor, I trembled
and my thoughts were often confused.
“My wife, in her wisdom, believed
coffee was responsible for these ills
and urged me to drop it. I tried
many times to do so, but was its
slave.
“Finally wife bought a package of
Postum and perswaded me to try it,
but she made it same as ordinary
coffee and I was disgusted with the
taste. (I make this emphatic be
cause I fear many others have had the
same experience.) She.was distressed
at her failure and we carefully read
the directions, made it right, boiled it
full 15 minutes after boiling com
menced, and with good cream and
sugar, I liked it—it invigorated and
seemed to nourish meo.
“That was about a year ago. Now
I have no headaches, am not sallow,
sleeplessness and irritability are gonse,
my brain clear and my hand steady.
I have gained 20 Ibs. and feel I am a
new man.
“I do not hesitate to give Postum
due credit. Of course dropping coffee
was the main thing,but I had dropped
it before, using chocolate, cocoa and
other things to no purpose, -
“Postum not only seemed to act as
an invigorant, but as an article of
nourishment, giving me the needed
phosphates and albumens. This is no
imaginary tale. It can be substantiat
ed by my wife and her sicter, who
both changed to Postum and are
hearty women of about 70.
“I write this for the information
and encouragement of others, and
with a feeling of gratitude to the in
ventor of Postum.”
Name given by Postum Co., Battle
Creek, Mich. Read “The Road to
Wellville,” in pkgs. “There’s a Rea
son.”
Ever read the above letter? A new
one appears from time to time. They
are genuine, true, and full of human
interest,
