as
been taken up by one and another writer until it appears now to be
received as a fixed fact.

I have often heard this statement indignantly denied by persons who knew
Poe at this time. Howsoever much under the influence of drink he might
be, he was, they say, never at any time or by any person seen staggering
through the streets or lying in a gutter. On the contrary, he was
extremely sensitive about being seen by his friends, and especially
ladies, under the influence of drink.

Poe himself, long after this time, while denying the charge of general
dissipation, confessed that while in Richmond he at long intervals
yielded to temptation, and after each excess was invariably for some
days confined to his bed. And now, in addition to other charges against
him, was that of neglecting his wife and being frequently seen in
attendance on other women; a point on which his motherly friend, Mrs.
Mackenzie, more than once felt herself called upon to remonstrate with
him. He would be, for a week at a time, away from his home, putting up
at various hotels and boarding-houses, and spending his money freely,
instead of, as formerly, committing it to the keeping of his
mother-in-law. Mrs. Clemm, descending from the dignity of a boarder,
tried to open a boarding-house of her own, but failed; and she now
rented a cheap tenement on Seventh street and went back to her
dressmaking, letting out rooms, and probably taking one or two boarders.
But it was seldom that her son-in-law was to be found here; though
always, after one of his excesses, he would seek its seclusion until fit
to again appear in public.

Mr. Hewitt, who was about this time in Richmond, says that he heard a
great deal of gossip about Poe's love affairs; and describes him as, at
this time, of remarkable personal beauty--"graceful, and with dark,
curling hair and magnificent eyes, wearing a Byron collar and looking
every inch a poet." An old gentleman, a distinguished lawyer, once
undertook his defence, saying: "Poe is one of the kind whom men envy and
calumniate and women adore. How many could resist the temptation?"

The Mackenzies spoke of Virginia at this time--now fourteen years of
age--as being small for her age, but very _plump_; pretty, but not
especially so, with sweet and gentle manners and the simplicity of a
child. Rose Poe, now twenty-six years of age, would sometimes take her
young sister-in-law to spend an afternoon at the Mackenzies, where she
appeared