Text: Anonymous, “Why Poe?,” Puck (New York, NY), February 9, 1881, p. 381, col. 2

[page 381, column 2, continued:]

WHY POE?

WHY should the Dramatic Profession be sponged upon “to give the late Mr. Edgar Allan Poe a monument?

There appears to be a growing disposition to look upon artistic aid as the last resort of unsuccessful beggary.

Whenever those uneasy members of society who are eternally planning charitable strikes find that they have some scheme on hand in which the public at large absolutely refuses to take any interest, they at once turn to the stage people. Is a fireman dead at the post of duty? Is a village in Nether-Kamschatka drowned out? Is there an unusual amount of destitution in the parish of some fashionable church? Off goes society to the actor, who at once tenders his services for a “benefit” performance.

Much good he gets of it. Society never so much as invites him to an afternoon tea, and carefully stays away from his widow's “benefit” when he is dead, a pauper through his own foolish generosity.

However, in these cases, the end may excuse the means. Like all other men, the actor finds his account in giving to the poor. But why on earth should he be taxed to put up a fancy stone in memory of Edgar A. Poe? What did Poe ever do for the stage? His mother was an indifferent actress, and his father was a good-for-nothing amateur. Poe scarcely knew either. He never wrote for the stage; he never associated with stage-people. He was strictly a literary man.

We do not see, ourselves, why Poe should have a monument at all. We have had better prose writers and poets in this country, and hundreds of more generous, high-spirited, unselfish men.

But if any monument must be raised, why do not Mr. Gill and his friends raise it themselves? ‘They have no right to indulge their fancy for their pet poet and pose as artistic benefactors of the public at the expense of the poor actor.

Of course, we know that the actors themselves are not wildly anxious to play for the benefit of Mr. Gill's little scheme. They are farmed out by feebly-ambitious managers, who think they are buying the favor of Society, and will very soon find out that Society won’t honor Mr. Gill's drafts.

But why should the actors submit to this imposition?