ked.
She rented out her front room to lodgers, and used the middle room, next
to the kitchen, for their own living room or parlor. They must have
slept under the roof. We never heard that they were poor, and they kept
pretty much to themselves in the two years we lived near them. I don't
think that in that time I saw Mr. Poe half a dozen times. We heard he
was dissipated, but he always appeared like a gentleman, though thin and
sickly looking. His wife was the picture of health. It was after we
moved away that she became an invalid."

Mrs. Clemm, she added, was a dress and cloak maker; and she thinks that
Mrs. Poe assisted her, as she would sometimes see the latter seated on
the stoop engaged in sewing. "She was pretty, but not noticeably so. She
was too fleshy."

This account refers to a time when Poe was assistant editor of _The
Gentleman's Magazine_, and the family were enjoying a degree of peace
and prosperity such as they never subsequently knew.

Poe lost this position, according to Mr. Burton, the editor-in-chief, by
indulgence in dissipated habits. In replying to this charge, he wrote to
a friend, Mr. Snodgrass, that "on the honor of a gentleman" he had not,
since leaving Richmond, tasted anything stronger than cider, and that
upon one occasion only. In this he was borne out by the testimony of
Mrs. Clemm, who asserted, "I know that for years he never tasted even a
glass of wine." Mr. Burton, in making the charge, adds: "I believe that
for eighteen months previous to this time he had not drank." Still, the
severity and, one might say, almost cruelty of his personal criticisms
continued, and nothing could exceed the bitterness of his vituperation
against those by whom, as he conceived, he had been wronged or unjustly
treated. Mr. Burton, in replying, in a forbearing and even kindly
manner, to a very abusive letter from him, advised him to "lay aside
his ill-feeling against his fellow-writers, and to cultivate a more
tolerant and kindly spirit." He even proposed that Poe should resume his
place upon the magazine, but this he proudly declined, and continued to
contribute his brilliant stories to other periodicals. These attracted
the attention of Mr. Graham, who had just established the magazine which
bore his name, and who offered him the editorship, which Poe accepted,
and gave to it his best work. Under his management it prospered
wonderfully, and soon became the leading periodical of the country.

Still, wi