He became noted at Charlottesville both for his athletic feats and his scholastic successes. They are my ministers—yet I their slave. A few weeks before Poe relinquished his laborious and ill-paid work on the Evening Mirror , his marvellous poem of "The Raven" was published. Previous to starting on his journey, Poe had complained of indisposition,—of chilliness and of exhaustion,—and it is not improbable that an increase or continuance of these symptoms had tempted him to drink, or to resort to some of those narcotics he is known to have indulged in towards the close of his life. Colonel Mayo records one daring performance in natation which is thoroughly characteristic of the lad.
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