Also, one of the
Richmond papers, the "_Enquirer_," of November 25th, made an appeal "to
the kind-hearted of the city" in behalf of the sick actress and her
little children. This brought to their aid among others Mr. John Allan
and his friend, Mr. Mackenzie.

Both these gentlemen were engaged in the tobacco business, and being of
Scotch nationality, the feeling of clanship led them to take a special
interest in this family, whom they discovered to be of good Scotch
stock. Everything possible was done for their comfort, and Mrs. Allan
herself came to minister to the sick woman. On her first visit she found
Mrs. Tubbs feeding the children with bread soaked in sweetened gin and
water, which she called "gin-tea," and explained that it was her custom,
in order to "make them strong and healthy." This was little Edgar's
initiation into the habit which became the bane and ruin of his life.

It soon became evident that Mrs. Poe was very near her end. Pneumonia
set in; and on the 8th of December, 1811, she died.

The question now was, what was to be done with the children? After a
consultation among all parties, it was agreed that Mr. Mackenzie and Mr.
Allan should take charge of them at their own homes until they should be
claimed by their Baltimore relatives.

It was a sad scene when the little ones were lifted up to look their
last upon the face of their dead mother, and then to be separated
forever from the grandmother who had so loved and cared for them. In
parting she gave to each a memento of their mother; to the boy a small
water-color portrait of the latter, inscribed, "For my dear little son,
Edgar, from his mother," and to the girl a jewel case, the contents of
which had long since been disposed of. It was all that she had had to
leave them, and with this slender inheritance in their hands the little
waifs were taken away to the homes of strangers.

On the day following a small funeral procession wended its way up the
steep ascent of Church Hill to the graveyard of St. John's church,[1]
crowning its summit. At that day it was no easy matter to get one whose
profession had been that of an actor buried in consecrated ground; yet
Mr. Mackenzie succeeded in effecting this. The grave was in a then
obscure part of the cemetery, "close against the eastern wall," and
here, after the brief service, the mother of Edgar Poe was laid to rest.

[1] In this historical church it was that Patrick Henry
thrilled the hearts of