Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/105

 of their efforts, but some of Poe's stories found a market in Philadelphia while he worked for Wilmer and Mr. Kennedy; his connection with the Messenger meantime strengthening.

Three years in Baltimore had now gone by, during which Poe had made desperate efforts to maintain himself by his literary work. In their passing "the lovely violet eyed child of ten," Virginia, who Van Cleef wrote, "Even then loved her cousin to distraction," was growing into a more lovely young girl, and the records of Baltimore City show that a license was granted for her marriage to Poe, although search reveals no trace of the ceremony having been performed.

In March, 1835, in a letter to Mr. Kennedy, Poe seeks his influence in obtaining an appointment as teacher in a public school in Baltimore. Correspondence with Mr. White a few weeks later shows his continued active work for the Messenger, reference to these letters disproving the allegation that Poe never praised other authors.

In August, 1835, Poe in a letter, to his cousin William Poe, dated from Richmond, tells of having "lately obtained the editorship of the Messenger." The first mention of Poe's ill health is made at this time when he writes to Mr. Kennedy of "a depression of spirits which will ruin me should it long continue."

After leaving West Point, Poe had known hunger and want, and these doubtless undermined in youth the delicate constitution inherited from his parents. That yielding to the convivial habits of the day, when to decline to drink with companions was an insult, was not an established habit with Poe has been confirmed by many