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To draw attention to the character of Edgar Allan Poe through the testimony of those intimately associated with him at various periods of his tragic life, is the object of this sketch: and as his faults have been dwelt upon, misstated and magnified, so here his many warm friends, made and retained in both private and public relations, speak for him.

For the date and place of Poe's birth reference must be made to newspapers of the time. In the absence of town registers, of church books, or family records of births, deaths and marriages, press notices have of necessity come to be accepted as evidence of such events. This applies as pertinently to persons dwelling in their permanent homes as to the leaders of the Virginia Comedians, Mr. and Mrs. David Poe, who were playing at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston from 1806 to 1809.

According to notices in The Boston Gazette, Mrs. Poe appeared on November 28, 1808, as Lydia in &quot;The Sixty-Third Letter&quot;&mdash;a musical afterpiece. No further announcement is made until February 9, 1809, when, under the head of theatrical information, appears the