d the higher one. The prize tale was the "MS. found
in a Bottle." This award was published on the twelfth of October, 1833.
The next day the publisher called to see Mr. Kennedy, and gave him an
account of the author, which excited his curiosity and sympathy, and
caused him to request that he should be brought to his office.
Accordingly he was introduced. The prize-money had not yet been paid, and
he was in the costume in which he had answered the advertisement of his
good fortune. Thin, and pale even to ghastliness, his whole appearance
indicated sickness and the utmost destitution. A well-worn frock-coat
concealed the absence of a shirt, and imperfect boots disclosed the want
of hose. But the eyes of the young man were luminous with intelligence
and feeling, and his voice and conversation and manner, all won upon the
lawyer's regard. Poe told his history, and his ambition, and it was
determined that he should not want means for a suitable appearance in
society, nor opportunities for just display of his abilities in
literature. Mr. Kennedy accompanied him to a clothing-store, and
purchased for him a respectable suit, with changes of linen, and sent him
to a bath, from which he returned with the suddenly regained style of a
gentleman.

His new friends were very kind to him, and availed themselves of every
Opportunity to serve him. Near the close of the year 1834 the late Mr.
T.W. White established in Richmond the _Southern Literary Messenger_. He
was a man of much simplicity, purity, and energy of character, but not a
writer, and he frequently solicited his acquaintances' literary
assistance. On receiving from him an application for an article, early in
1835, Mr. Kennedy, who was busy with the duties of his profession,
advised Poe to send one, and in a few weeks he had occasion to inclose
the following answer to a letter from Mr. White:

"BALTIMORE, April 13, 1835.

"_Dear Sir_: Poe did right in referring to me. He is very clever with his
pen--classical and scholarlike. He wants experience and direction, but I
have no doubt he can be made very useful to you. And, poor fellow! he is
_very_ poor. I told him to write something for every number of your
magazine, and that you might find it to your advantage to give him some
permanent employ. He has a volume of very bizarre tales in the hands of
----, in Philadelphia, who for a year past has been promising to publish
them. This young fellow is highly imaginative, and a littl