34 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Febauary 



■oon as wetniereatiiere was sucn anooray 

 as you never heard before, and we were 

 pushed along to the platform and helped 

 up the steps before we'd time to ask a 

 question. Then they gave us a seat each, 

 and the chairman of the line he got up to 

 6peak. 



Well, to cut it short, it turned out 

 there'd been a collection made, and there 

 was a gold watch and chain for Jack on 

 the table, and a silver ditto for me, and a 

 nice new silk purse chock full of money 

 for my brother, and a crisp $50 note for 

 yours truly. 



Then Jack, he gets up and rubs the 

 ooars away with his sleeve, and he lifts up 

 the child and kisses her. But he wouldn't 

 take the money. Instead of that he takes 

 hold of one ringlet of her pretty hair and 

 Bays quite quietlike, "Can I have this in- 

 stead, ma'am;''" 



And the superintendent's wife, she says, 

 *'To be sure you can!" 



And then they cheered again and again 

 till you'd have thought the roof would 

 split, and Jack and me were driven home 

 to our lodgings in the mayor's carriage, 

 and there was no end of a to do. And 

 when we were well enough there was a 

 big dinner in Jack's honor among the peo- 

 ple of the town, and another from the 

 Aquarium people, and free tickets for us 

 to everything in the place, and the ladies 

 were sending him presents of books and a 

 harmonium and all kinds of nice things 

 till you couldn't rest until the nine days' 

 wonder was over. And then they forgot 

 us just as punctually as they always do in 

 Buch cases. 



Did I refuse to take my $50 bill? What 

 do you think? No. I always admired 

 Jack, both before and since those times, 

 but if ever there was a soft hearted fool — 

 well, no matter. We're not all made of 

 the same metal, you see, and p'rhaps it's 

 as well we're not. It's all over and done 

 with now. — Exchange. 



THE BURIALS OF POE. 



Two men in Mississippi had a fight in a 

 room. One threw the other out of the 

 window, and, thinking he had killed him, 

 jumped himself. They fell a distance of 

 80 feet, and neither was hurt. 



The Aroostook river took its name from 

 an Indian word signifying good men. 



A Trait In Common, 



"My dear," said the man who had been 

 waiting for his wife to get ready for the 

 theater, ''I'm inclined to believe that if 

 you had been born a man you would have 

 been a professional pugilist." 



"Why?" 



"Because it takes you so long to put 

 on a pair of gloves. " — Washington Star. 



CONTRAST BETWEEN THE EXERCISES 

 AT THE TWO CEREMONIES. 



Mystery Veiling the Death of the Poet 

 The Latest Account Given by a Man Wht 

 Claiuxs the Closest Personal Knowledge, 

 Killed by a Drug. 



In striking contrast were the first and 

 last burials of Edjrar A. Poe. On that 

 dreary autumn afternoon in 1849, when 

 the most original of American poets was 

 laid to rest among his ancestors in West- 

 minster churchyard, in Baltimore, onlj 

 one carriage followed the body of the poel 

 from the hospital where he died. The 

 ceremony was scant, and the attendants 

 scanter, for eight persons only were pres- 

 ent. Poe had died under a cloud. His las< 

 hours were passed in the charity ward oi 

 a public hospital. Ho was buried in a 

 poplar coffin, stained in imitation of wal- 

 nut. It was a funeral such as a poor man, 

 with few friends and relatives, might have 

 had. 



The mystery surrounding Poe's death 

 has never been satisfactorily explained. 

 The account given by Dr. John J. Moran, 

 in his "Defense of Edgar A. Poe," l8 

 i;oown to be incorrect and misleading. 

 For instance, he gives the names of eight 

 persons as present at the funeral, only 

 two of whom were there. They were the 

 Rev. W. T. D. Clemm and Henry Her- 

 ring, both of whom were relatives of Poe. 

 The other person who attended the first 

 burial were Z. Collins Lee, afterward 

 judge of the superior court of Baltimore, 

 who had been a classmate of Poe at the 

 University of Virginia; Neilson Poe, aft- 

 erward chief judge of the orphans' court 

 of Baltimore; Edmund Smith, a well 

 known schoolteacher in Baltimore 60 

 years ago, and his wife, who was a first 

 cousin of the poet; Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, 

 the last editor of the Baltimore Saturday 

 Visitor, tho paper from which Poe received 

 the .$100 prize offered for the best story. 



Another of Dr. Moran's misstatements 

 is that tho body of the poet was laid in 

 state in the large room in the rotunda of 

 the college building adjoining the hospi- 

 tal; that hundreds of his friends and ac- 

 quaintances came to see him; that at least 

 50 ladies received looks of his hair. Poe 

 had few friends in Baltimore — not a dozen 

 — and if "5U ladies received locks of hia 

 hair" they existed only in Dr. Moran's 

 vivid imagination. 



Poe was a mystery to the world during 



