gh, when Burton died years afterwards, he found a
resting place in the obscure St. John's Burying-Ground.

[Illustration:

1. RICHARD HENRY STODDARD.
2. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.
3. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
4. BAYARD TAYLOR.
5. EDGAR ALLAN POE.
6. ROBERT FULTON.]

It was not until 1844 that Poe returned to New York, and during the
years of his absence several writers with whom he was to become
acquainted on his return had forged their literary way. There was Seba
Smith, more generally known as "Major Jack Downing," from the
humorous papers which he wrote under that name, and who about this
time was writing the romance in verse called _Powhatan_. There was
William Ross Wallace, the lawyer and magazine writer, who in after
years was to be known through his poem of _The Liberty Bell_. There
was the Congregational clergyman George B. Cheever making his way,
having resigned his first pastorate, at Salem, Massachusetts, where he
had been imprisoned for libel on account of his temperance sketch
_Deacon Giles's Distillery_. There was Robert H. Messinger, known
through his Horatian ode, _Give Me the Old_, his fame daily expanding
in fashionable and literary circles. There was Edward Robinson,
Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, just returned from a tour
of exploration in Palestine with Rev. Eli Smith, publishing _Biblical
Researches in Palestine_. And there was Isaac McLelland, whose verse
was as good as his sportsmanship. These were some few of the men who
were first to recognize the genius of the poet.

Poe returned to New York the wiser for his experience with _The
Gentleman's Magazine_ and with _Graham's Magazine_, but having failed
to establish _The Stylus_, a proposed publication of his own, which
during all his life was to be a vision of Tantalus, just beyond his
grasp. He returned rich in experience, strong in adversity, poor in
pocket. There was no glorious opening for him, and finally he accepted
a sub-editorship on the _Evening Mirror_, grinding out copy for
several hard-working hours each day.

The _Evening Mirror_ was a newly started publication, but its
interests were so entwined with others that its history stretched back
something more than twenty years from the day when Poe first occupied
a desk in the office. Going back these one and twenty years, the
better to understand the atmosphere in which Poe worked, to the spring
of 1823, the time is reached when George P. Morris and Samuel
Woodworth joined f