Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 227, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1913 — A REAL RAVEN CAME TAPPING [ARTICLE]

A REAL RAVEN CAME TAPPING

Friendly Biographer of Poe TeHe Remarkable Story. Boston, Mass.—At the Poe memorial meeting William F. Gear of Paria, the friendly biographer of Poe, deeply interested hie audience by relating a strange incident which he said had never 'been published or told and which he had dectermined to reserve for this anniversary. “I was living in New York at the tinvi, and In my room I had In a bos the bones of Mrs. Edgar Allan Poe, which I had rescued when the' graveyard in which she was interred was levelled. It was a bleak morning in December. I was awakened by a rap, rap, rap. I went to the door. Ne one was there. Again came the rap, rap, rap. I went to the window and opened it All was darkness, but I could distinguish some sort of small animal on the silt ‘Come in,’ I said, and in walked a raven. “On my mantel I had an album of autograph letters of Poe, together with a poem called 'The Demon of the Fire,’ which doubtless inspired his ‘Raven.’ This bird went to the book, perched on top of It and, fastening his talons in it, turned and looked at me. I said, |n the words of the poem, “Tell me what thy lordly name ils.* The raven flapped his wings and cried, •Whoo-oo,’ probably as near ‘Never more’ as Poe’s raven ever got The apparition of the raven I accepted as Hamlet accepted the apparition of the ghost —as a rebuke because I had delayed so long In interring the remains of Mrs. Poe. While the bird sat there I wrote to Nelson Poe asking him to take the bones. He did so and we interred them In Baltimore." Mr. Gill told him he happened to buy the Poe cottage at Fordham in 1889 and how, upon going to Europe some years later, it was sold, with a provision In the deed that if It was ever changed in any particular the price of the estate should be forfeited to him. He explained that it is desired to secure the cottage as a permanent memorial and said: "Four weeks ago I met a prominent actor manager who, without any solicitation on my. part, said he would finance the matter.”