On Poe’s Birthday, the Telltale Ritual
From Times Wire Reports
A small crowd gathered in Baltimore at the old church where Edgar Allan Poe is buried, waiting for the arrival of a stranger.
A black-clad man showed up at 2:59 a.m., marking the poet’s birthday with the traditional tribute: three red roses and half a bottle of cognac. Never less, never more.
It is a rite that has been carried out every Jan. 19 since 1949, a century after Poe died.
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