Text: Nathaniel Parker Willis, “Hospital for Disabled Labourers with the Brain,” Home Journal (New York, NY), December 26, 1846, series for 1846, no. 52, p. 2, col. 4

[page 2, col. 4, continued:]

HOSPITAL FOR DISABLED LABOURERS WITH THE BRAIN.

IF pity, felt more for a stab than for a bruise — more for an operation on the brain than for one on the arm — more for a man broken on the wheel than for one in prison — if this pity, greater in proportion as the suffering is keener, were answered to by correspondent Institutions for its relief, there would have been, long ago, in this or any other city, a Retreat for disabled labourers with the brain. We have long wished for the handle of this subject to come round. Obvious as its merit is, even with the simple statement we have just made — ready as any one will be to acknowledge, that the poverty of the diseasedly sensitive author must be ten-fold harder to bear as well as ten-fold more hopeless of self-relief, than the mere flesh and blood pauper's — the subject is difficult of mention, the relief difficult of application, and the lesser sufferer is consequently provided for, while the greater is set aside and forgotten. Twenty-six thousand visits of sympathy are mentioned in a late Report as having been made “to the poor” of this city, by one society; and what one of these visits was in search of sufferers whose first apprehension, even, of want, is a mental agony not many removes from madness?

The feeling we have long entertained on this subject, has been freshened by a recent paragraph in the Express announcing that Mr. EDGAR A. POE, and his wife, were both dangerously ill and suffering for want of the common necessaries of life. Here is one of the finest scholars, one of the most original men of genius, and one of the most industrious of the literary profession of our country, whose temporary suspension of labour, from bodily illness, drops him immediately to a level with the common objects of public charity. There was no intermediate stopping-place — no respectful shelter where, with the delicacy due to genius and culture, he might secure aid, unadvertised, till, with returning health, he could resume his labours and his unmortified sense of independence. He must either apply to individual friends — (a resource to which death is sometimes almost preferable) — or suffer down to the level where Charity receives claimants, but where Rags and Humiliation are the only recognised Ushers to her presence. Is this right? Should there not be, in all highly civilized communities, an Institution designed expressly for educated and refined objects of charity, — a hospital, a retreat, a home of seclusion and comfort, the sufficient claims to which would be such susceptibilities as are violated by the above mentioned appeal in a daily newspaper.

Mr. Poe lives out of the city, and we cannot ascertain before this goes to press, how far this report of his extreme necessity is true. We received yesterday a letter from an anonymous hand, mentioning the paragraph in question, expressing high admiration for Mr. Poe's genius, and enclosing a sum of money, with a request that we would forward it to him. We think it very possible that this, and other aid, may be timely and welcome, though we know, that, on Mr. Poe's recovery from former illnesses, he has been deeply mortified and distressed by the discovery that his friends had been called upon for assistance. The highly cultivated women who share his lot, his wife and mother, are, we also know, the prey of constant anxiety for him; and though he vigorously resumes the labours of his poorly paid profession with the first symptoms of returning strength, we have little doubt that a generous gift could hardly be better applied than to him, however unwilling he may be to have received it. We venture, therefore, while we acknowledge the delicate generosity of the letter of yesterday, to offer to forward any other similar tribute of sympathy with genius.

In connection with this public mention of Mr. Poe's personal matters, perhaps it will not be thought inopportune, if we put on its proper footing, a public impression, which does him some injustice. We have not seen nor corresponded with Mr. Poe for two years, and we hazard this delicate service without [column 5:] his leave, of course, and simply because we have seen him suffer for the lack of such vindication, when his name has been brought injuriously before the public, and have then wished for some such occasion to speak for him. We refer to conduct and language charged against him, which, were he, at the time, in sane mind, were an undeniable forfeiture of character and good feeling. To blame, in some degree, still, perhaps he is. But let charity for the failings of human nature judge of the degree. Mr. Poe was engaged with us in the editorship of a daily paper, we think, for about six months. A more considerate, quiet, talented, and gentlemanlike associate than he was for the whole of that time, we could not have wished. Not liking the unstudent-like necessity of coming every day into the city, however, he left us, by his own wish alone, and it was one day soon after, that we first saw him in the state to which we refer. He came into our office with his usual gait and manner, and with no symptom of ordinary intoxication, he talked like a man insane. Perfectly self-possessed in all other respects, his brain and tongue were evidently beyond his control. We learned afterwards that the least stimulus — a single glass of wine — would produce this effect upon Mr. Poe, and that, rarely as these instances of easy aberration of caution and mind occurred, he was liable to them, and while under the influence, voluble and personally self-possessed, but neither sane nor responsible. Now, very possibly, Mr. Poe may not be willing to consent to even this admission of any infirmity. He has little or no memory of them afterwards, we understand. But public opinion unqualifiedly holds him blameable for what he has said and done under such excitements; and while a call is made in a public paper for aid, it looks like doing him a timely service, to [[at]] least partially to exonerate him. We run the risk of being deemed officious.

The subject of a Retreat for disabled labourers with the brain, we shall resume hereafter.