Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/94

 following paragraph: "We congratulate the frequenters of the theatre upon the recovery of Mrs Poe .... This charming little actress will make her appearance tomorrow night as Rosamunda in the popular play of Abaellino, The Great Bandit.'"

"It is claimed that 2 Carvel Street is the house in which Poe was born, and it was, perhaps, here the young and beautiful mother painted the miniature of herself which ever remained Poe's dearest possession&mdash;on the back of which she wrote: "For my little son Edgar, who should ever love Boston, the place of his birth, and where his mother found her best and most sympathetic friends."

A few months after the birth of their second son, Edgar, David and Elizabeth Poe commenced their wanderings anew, playing in New York during the following winter. In the summer of 1810 they went South, the Richmond papers recording Mrs. Poe as then playing in that city, David still piping as Elizabeth sang and danced, till the play was played out for the poor comedian in Norfolk, where David Poe died in 1811. Illness was now fast wearing Mrs. Poe's nearly exhausted strength, but her unconquerable will permitted not her giving up the struggle until December 11, when the Enquirer chronicled her death.

The eldest child had been sent some time previously to his grandfather, General Poe, in Baltimore, and the younger children, Edgar and Rosalie, were at once taken by Mr. Mackenzie, a well known citizen of Richmond, to his home, and his family adopted the baby girl. Mr. John Allan, a merchant of the same city, yielding