-Caveat Lector-
01/19/99- Updated 12:54 PM ET
Loyal visitor pays tribute to Poe
BALTIMORE (AP) - A mysterious stranger clad in a three-quarter length
black peacoat left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe
early Tuesday, continuing a tradition that began 50 years ago.
About a dozen people waited inside and outside Westminster Church
until the tall, unknown visitor made his arrival at the tiny
brick-walled cemetery just before 3 a.m. ET.
The stranger placed his hands on Poe's tombstone and appeared to pray.
A moment later he was gone, leaving three roses and a bottle of cognac
to mark the 190th birthday of the macabre author.
The identity of the first mysterious visitor, who had been dressed in
black topcoat and fedora, has remained a riddle since the ritual began
in 1949, a century after Poe died.
The aging visitor believed to be the original carried on the tradition
until 1993, when he left a cryptic note saying, ''The torch will be
passed.''
His followers have agreed to carry on the anonymous annual tribute,
said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in
Baltimore.
''They said they would continue the tradition in his footsteps,''
Jerome said. ''I don't want to say too much more because some of the
note's contents are of a private nature. I'm not trying to be
mysterious, but some of this has to remain with me because it may give
a clue as to who it is.''
Poe penned classic horror stories such as The Fall of the House of
Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Telltale Heart and The Masque of
the Red Death. His famous poems include The Raven and Annabel Lee.
He lived in Baltimore from 1829 to 1836 and died here in 1849 at age
40. The three roses left each year are thought to represent the poet,
his wife, and her mother. All are buried in the tiny cemetery.
Lynne Finley, of Nashville, Tenn. spent the night at the church with
her sister, D.J. Gaskin, of Burke, Va. to celebrate Finley's 40th
birthday, which she shares with Poe.
''Knowing that the tradition will be carried on was encouraging, but I
was a little saddened,'' Finley said.
Her sister said the atmosphere was ''almost spooky.''
''Its such a mysterious devotion,'' Gaskin said. ''And the cemetery is
almost like a little time capsule in the middle of the city. It's
beautiful.''
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