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We have two descriptions of Poe as he was found on the street in Baltimore, both
from first-hand witnesses to the events. Regrettably, neither of these gentlemen
was scrupulous in his recollection, but their testimony is all we have.
Snodgrass says: “His face was haggard, not to say bloated, and unwashed, his
hair unkempt, and his whole physique repulsive. His expansive forehead, with its
wonderful breadth between the points where the phrenologists locate the organ of
ideality — the widest I ever measured — and that full-orbed and mellow, yet
soulful eye, for which he was so noticeable when himself, now lusterless and
vacant, as shortly I could see, were shaded from view by a rusty, almost
brimless, tattered and ribbon-less palmleaf hat. His clothing consisted of a
sack-coat of thin and sleezy [sic] black alpaca, ripped more or less at
several of its seams, and faded and soiled, and pants of a steel-mixed pattern
of cassinette, half-worn and badly-fitting, if they could be said to fit at all.
He wore neither vest nor neck-cloth, while the bosom of his [page 26:]
shirt was both crumpled and badly soiled. On his feet were boots of coarse
material, and giving no sign of having been blacked for a long time, if at all.”
Moran gives a shorter but equally detailed account: “a stained, faded, old
bombazine coat, pantaloons of a similar character, a pair of worn-out shoes run
down at the heels, and an old straw hat” (43). Although both
of these men take care to describe the condition of Poe’s shoes, neither
mentions what would certainly have been the remarkable incongruity of “a
handsome malacca cane.” Also, amidst all the apparent discussion of the
whereabouts and contents of Poe’s trunk and belongings, there is not a single
mention of the cane, nor any inquiry about its owner or how to return it.