Mine ode is finished! Tut! It is a slight one, But blame me not; I do as I am bid.
The editor of COLLIER"S said to write one-- And I did.
What the Copy Desk Might Have Done to:
("Annabel Lee")
=SOUL BRIDE ODDLY DEAD IN QUEER DEATH PACT=
=High-Born Kinsman Abducts Girl from Poet-Lover--Flu Said to Be Cause of Death--Grand Jury to Probe=
Annabel L. Poe, of 1834-1/2 3rd Av., the beautiful young fiancee of Edmund Allyn Poe, a magazine writer from the South, was found dead early this morning on the beach off E. 8th St.
Poe seemed prostrated and, questioned by the police, said that one of her aristocratic relatives had taken her to the "seash.o.r.e," but that the cold winds had given her "flu," from which she never "rallied."
Detectives at work on the case believe, they say, that there was a suicide compact between the Poes and that Poe also intended to do away with himself.
He refused to leave the spot where the woman"s body had been found.
("Curfew Must Not Ring To-night")
=GIRL, HUMAN BELL-CLAPPER, SAVES DOOMED LOVER"S LIFE=
=BRAVE ACT Of "BESSIE" SMITH HALTS CURFEW FROM RINGING AND MELTS CROMWELL"S HEART=
(By Cable to _The Courier_)
HUDDERSFIELD, KENT, ENGLAND.--Jan.
15.--Swinging far out above the city, "Bessie" Smith, the young and beautiful fiancee of Basil Underwood, a prisoner incarcerated in the town jail, saved his life to-night.
The woman went to "Jack" Hemingway, s.e.xton of the First M. E. Church, and asked him to refrain from ringing the curfew bell last night, as Underwood"s execution had been set for the hour when the bell was to ring. Hemingway refused, alleging it to be his duty to ring the bell.
With a quick step Miss Smith bounded forward, sprang within the old church door, left the old man threading slowly paths which previously he had trodden, and mounted up to the tower. Climbing the dusty ladder in the dark, she is said to have whispered:
"Curfew is not to ring this evening."
Seizing the heavy tongue of the bell, as it was about to move, she swung far out suspended in mid-air, oscillating, thus preventing the bell from ringing.
Hemingway"s deafness prevented him from hearing the bell ring, but as he had been deaf for 20 years, he attributed no importance to the silence.
As Miss Smith descended, she met Oliver Cromwell, the well-known lord protector, who had condemned Underwood to death. Hearing her story and noting her hands, bruised and torn, he said in part: "Go, your lover lives.
Curfew shall not ring this evening."
("The Ballad of the Tempest")
=TOT"S FEW WORDS KEEP 117 SOULS FROM DIRE PANIC=
=Babe"s Query to Parent Saves Storm-Flayed Ship"s Pa.s.sengers Crowded in Cabin=
FEARFUL THING IN WINTER
BOSTON, Ma.s.s, Jan. 17--Cheered by the faith of little "Jennie" Carpenter, the 7-year-old daughter of Capt. B. L. Carpenter, of a steamer whose name could not be learned, 117 pa.s.sengers on board were brought through panic early this morning while the storm was at its height, to sh.o.r.e.
George H. Nebich, one of the pa.s.sengers, told the following story to a COURIER reporter:
"About midnight we were crowded in the cabin, afraid to sleep on account of the storm. All were praying, as Capt.
Carpenter, staggering down the stairs, cried: "We are lost!" It was then that little "Jennie," his daughter, took him by his hand and asked him whether he did not believe in divine omnipresence.
All the pa.s.sengers kissed the little "girlie" whose faith had so inspirited us."
The steamer, it was said at the office of the company owning her, would leave as usual to-night for Portland.
("Plain Language from Truthful James")
=AH SIN, FAMED TONG MAN, BESTS BARD AT CARD TILT=
="Celestial" Gambler, Feigning Ignorance of Euchre, Tricks Francis Bret Harte and "Bill" Nye into Heavy Losses--Solons to Probe Ochre Peril=
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3.--Francis B. Harte and E. W. Nye, a pair of local magazine writers, lost what is believed to be a large sum of money in a game of euchre played near the Bar-M mine this afternoon.
There had been, Harte alleged, a three-handed game of euchre partic.i.p.ated in by Nye, a Chinaman named Ah Sin and himself. The Chinaman, Harte a.s.serted, did not understand the game, but, Harte declared, smiled as he sat by the table with what Harte termed was a "smile that was childlike and bland."
Harte said that his feelings were shocked by the chicanery of Nye, but that the hands held by Ah Sin were unusual. Nye, maddened by the Chinaman"s trickery, rushed at him, 24 packs of cards spilling from the tong-man"s long sleeves. On his taper nails was found some wax.
The "Mongolian," Harte said, is peculiar.
Harte and Nye are thought to have lost a vast sum of money, as they are wealthy authors.
The legislature, it is said, will investigate the question of the menace to American card-players by the so-called Yellow peril.
("Excelsior")