and she now said to him, "Edgar, what do you think of giving a public recital of those poems? It would probably prove a financial success." The result was that about a week later there appeared in the city papers a notice that on a certain evening the poet would give a recitation of his own two favorite poems in the Exchange concert room, tickets to be had at a certain book-store. Over two hundred of these were printed, the charge of admission being fifty cents each.
On the appointed evening I, then a young man of twenty-four, accompanied Mrs. Julia Mayo Cabell and another lady, both warm personal friends of Poe from his childhood, to the place of the proposed recitation. We arrived some moments after the appointed time, and, to our surprise, found, instead of a full audience, but nine persons assembled, we, together with the usher, making thirteen in number. Some time elapsed before Poe made his appearance, when he took his place on the platform, bowed, and, resting his hands on the back of a chair, recited "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee," but in a mechanical sort of way, and with a total lack of the weird and gloomy expression which had given them such effect at Mrs. Mackenzie's. On concluding he again bowed and abruptly left the platform.
The proceeds of this experiment was six dollars, in consideration of which, Mr. Boyden, proprietor of the Exchange, would make no charge for the use of the hall, lights, and attendance.
On our return home the ladies with me, and one or two who joined us, commented upon the ill-omened number of thirteen, and also expressed much indignation at the apathy of the Richmond people as regarded Poe. Mrs. Cabell, however, attributed his failure in this instance to the fact that at this season, in the month of August, the higher social and more educated classes had not yet returned from the mountain and sea-side resorts; and this may have been the true explanation, since Poe's later "Lecture on the Poetic Principle" met with greater success. I was out of town at the time of its delivery, but am informed by Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss, who was present, that on that occasion there was a very fair audience composed of Richmond's representative society, and that Mr. Poe appeared in unusually good spirits. But the tickets were not five dollars each, as stated by a Reverend Bishop, nor did Poe on the proceeds go to New York on a spree.
Although Poe, with his proud sensitiveness, must have keenly felt the failure of his first attempt, he was never known to allude to that evening's performance except to Mrs. Mackenzie.
That Poe was not appreciated in Richmond was evident on this visit, for though he had warm friends who delighted in honoring him socially, his early record had left in the minds of the citizens generally a strong prejudice against him. Moreover, his style of writing, in contrast with such established models as Bryant and Longfellow, had
