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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. % THE ; E BRITISH THRONE GWER GEHIND TH : > -, ? i i .. 2 Line ™ / SN Y 1y e e = ee, &-g‘:‘ o N ’ p it e s N LT Vol -\ /"I/S‘l:’f/'.“'-.’i"z" "-‘7.,’541; v e -':‘ o . 7 At Gl e BTSSR A Y L. eyt ST . e o RR R T B2t R R NVo A % 4 0L A e 7h R i o £ g b MR : il e % v el £ 7 -T& ¢ e ' Ll > i . Prs v ) 24 P g B L f N Sl . = FPE T A PP L e e S o"iAe P N 7 L r'% = BT T, eSR 1 RS e T, A st vl ;'z*f’?af-"?fi-?fif' = NS A i BD N = Sy ; At SN e u "o b e - e s ey X it A T B i S W 1 s Ol 4 : o 3 RN | : 5 Y zn’,’)j,}, ‘ ; s 2 )8 ) %m [y L 7 "' o y . o ofa P ;37 : \ I ’,,-,‘ 3 i B r 40 2D 2R X 7 AR ," " __ H i P [ G e e i i AN e £ ) 4 e oF A N b -l Sl ; : o e o : Vo \ G i ] 9N /‘ o eek v 8 b "")q-—“\ 2 _‘_ oo - | e ( S A _.1.;9_ Rt Eg Ry e e ~LAHAN = —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 AN b“”@i\‘ TN TR = N 12 RS T N\ eetival oV | f AR S - N B "‘\_'fi,j_ : :_j",v‘ - 1 i~ \%\‘.gh Ui 7 4 1y NN Reet o || | ASN . S e RS 0| oo AR 2 R P siz?f "‘v;;’,-z',?\gi@f@:-- 7 SN ST T “% NS n .lm: o Vo A R LR Vel é‘\ ] @*« N AoA I H J 0 »’;:al‘" i R T “'«' i Al eLU f"v':i:&!:a{ g = [SCabvelh e S . = - S " __fi i . 1 & v M-dm'wfb e § 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,