Thomas Beale Treasure...Edgar Allan Poe Words in
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SPORTSBETTING.COMLouis Kruh also pointed out that Beale, writing in 1822, used words in his letters, such as stampede and appliance, which were not generally used by the public in the 1820’s.  For example, stampede, according to Kruh, was adapted from Spanish in the 1840’s.  This suggested to Kruh that the anonymous text writer of 1885 wrote both the letters and the text of The Beale Papers.

 

I propose a different theory.  Since I wrote The Beale Papers in the 1840’s, I was familiar with the words stampede and appliance and could easily incorporate them into my stories.  A survey of my work will reveal frequent use of the word appliance, which Kruh suggests was rarely used in the 1840’s.  

 

In fact, further analysis of The Beale Papers reveals some astonishingly similar patterns of word usage between the 1822 letters, the 1885 text and my work.  Particularly with respect to my habit of using conjunctions to define practically everything, my tendency to define measurements with a lack of precision, my feelings regarding the fairer sex and my favored use of the unnamed narrator, the similarities between my work and The Beale Papers strongly suggest that I am the author of this fascinating mystery.

 

Conjunctions

 

            Observe how “Beale” describes particular individuals, places and activity in the January 4, 1822 letter to Morriss:

 

simple and easily told

character and standing

friends and acquaintances

information and advice

long and welcome

pleasures and temptations

boundless wealth and future grandeur

tools and appliances

order or method

wild and dangerous

false or idle

respect and confidence

 

            Now take a look at two descriptors used in the May 9, 1822 letter from “Beale” to Morriss:

 

week or ten days

vigilance and care

 

           

Next review the descriptors chosen by the anonymous author in the 1885 text:

 

fortune or accident

practical and natural

interest and excitement

wild and roving

abandoned and unclaimed

generous and sympathizing

purchaser and shipper

owned and occupied

smiling face and cheering words

largest and best

friendship and countenance

wealthy and distinguished

poor and lowly

poor but worthy

days and weeks

forbearance and unparalled generosity

courteous and gentle

stern and determined

confidence and affection

checquered and eventful

hopes and disappointments

views and opinions

refined and courteous

free and independent

week or ten days

favored and popular

social disposition and friendly demeanor

pleasant and friendly

strength and activity

dark and swarthy

tanned and discolored

tender and polite

affable and courteous

supercilious or presuming

genial and popular

meaning or allusion

faint or barely perceptible

excavation or vault

 

All told, there are over fifty of these conjunctions in The Beale Papers.  Comparing the number of conjunctions contained in the letters (14) with those in the text (38) tends to support Kruh’s conjecture that The Beale Papers is a hoax because the 1822 letters and the 1885 text appear to have been written by the same person.

 

  Extending this analysis to my work reveals very persuasive evidence that I, indeed, am the creator of the Beale mystery.  Observe a small sample of the very frequent use of conjunctions in my work:  

 

 

The Purloined Letter

 

back library or book closet

intently and exclusively

chamber or cabinet

nook or corner

scrambling and struggling

observation and admeasurement

thoughts and sentiments

interest and excitement

appearance and arrangement

 

A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

 

interest and curiosity

singularly vigorous and creative

wild and dreary

thick and peculiar mist or smoke

rhapsodical and immethodical

uncouth and fierce

interest and perplexity

rattling or juggling

 

The Pit and the Pendulum

 

soft and nearly imperceptible

gently and stealthily

feel and entertain

blackness and vacancy

occupied and distracted

moist and slippery

fabulous and frivolous

sutures or joints

hideous and repulsive

faded and blurred

effort and attention

confounded and amazed

massy and heavy

 

The Man of the Crowd

 

vivid yet candid

mad and flimsy

calm but inquisitive

dense and continuous

abstract and generalizing

talked and gesticulated

absent and overdone

hose or gaiters

moved and settled

substantial and ancient

pallor and compression

darker and deeper

feeble and ghastly

sidled and tottered

innumerable and indescribable

firm and springy

noisy and inordinate

fitful and garish

arrested and absorbed

confusedly and paradoxically

filthy and ragged

settled and heavy

steadily and perseveringly

wild and vacant

uneasiness and vacillation

narrow and gloomy

bustle and activity

 

 

            I rarely used just one word when two or more would permit me to surgically define whatever action or setting I wished to create for the reader.  Of course, I continued in this fashion when I wrote The Beale Papers.

 

Indefinite Measurement

 

            The phrase-week or ten days-can be found in both the 1885 text and the May 9, 1822 letter.  Note my practice of qualifying measurements of time, people, things, etc.:

 

two or three servants The Beale Papers

a month or more The BealePapers

for some days The Beale Papers

some 250 or 300 miles The Beale Papers

eighteen months or more The Beale Papers

more than three quarters of a million The Beale Papers

sixty-five or seventy years of age The Man of the Crowd

nearly an hour The Man of the Crowd

hour and a half, or thereabouts The Man of the Crowd

party of some ten or twelve roisters The Man of the Crowd

eight or ten of the neighbors The Murders in the Rue Morgue

two or three long and thick tresses The Murders in the Rue Morgue

nearly four thousand francs in gold The Murders in the Rue Morgue

to Madame L’Espanaye for nearly four years The Murders in the Rue Morgue

corpses were found, for more than six years The Murders in the Rue Morgue

some five or six times The Murders in the Rue Morgue

a porter once or twice The Murders in the Rue Morgue

a physician some eight or ten times The Murders in the Rue Morgue

about three o’clock in the morning The Murders in the Rue Morgue

found some twenty or thirty persons The Murders in the Rue Morgue

for several minutes-probably ten The Murders in the Rue Morgue

four or five of the party The Murders in the Rue Morgue

width of some eight or ten feet The Murders in the Rue Morgue

about five and a half feet The Murders in the Rue Morgue

twenty or thirty hairs…perhaps half a million of hairs The Murders in the Rue Morgue

ten or twelve paces The Pit and the Pendulum

thirty or forty feet overhead The Pit and the Pendulum

nearly seven feet long Some Words with a Mummy

three or four thousand years old Some Words with a Mummy

five thousand and fifty years and some months Some Words with a Mummy

sixty or seventy feet in length The Sphinx

thirty or forty feet in length The Sphinx

nearly one hundred yards in length The Sphinx

some ten or twelve feet in diameter The Sphinx

some three or four days The Sphinx

about a sixteenth of an inch The Sphinx

an hour or more The Oblong Box

about a month The Oblong Box

twenty-five or thirty in all The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

 

 

            You get the idea!  Of course, I could be exceedingly precise when the circumstances in my stories required exact dimensions, but, as a rule, I chose indefinite measurements.  I would wager that wherever in my stories I had a choice, I elected an indefinite or imprecise measurement ninety percent of the time.  Why should I not continue this pattern in The Beale Papers? 

  

 

The Fairer Sex

 

            My description of Sarah Mitchell as the courageous, loving, supportive wife of Robert Morriss is consistent with my feelings toward the fairer sex.  Both my aristocratic upbringing and the devastating losses of my mother, stepmother and wife, reinforced the prevailing views of the time that the ideal woman supported her man with quiet dignity, a cheerful disposition and unwavering devotion.  Note my description of Sarah Mitchell:

 

“As a wife she was without reproach, as a generous and sympathizing woman she was without an equal; the poor will long remember her charities, and lament the friend they have lost….It was at this time that Mrs. Morriss exhibited the loveliest traits of her character.  Seemingly unmindful of her condition, with a smiling face and cheering words, she so encouraged her husband that he became almost reconciled to his fate…”

            Now take a look at my August 20, 1835 letter to my cousin William Poe  ($750,000 letter.)  Note my description of my future mother in law, Maria Clemm:

 

“…-her daughter Maria attending her during her long & tedious illness with a Christian and martyr-like fortitude, and with a constancy of attention, and unremitting affection, which must exalt her character in the eyes of all who know her…”

            My work and personal letters are replete with examples of  “Sarah Mitchell” and it makes sense that I would describe the only woman in The Beale Papers in my usual fashion. 

 

The Unnamed Narrator

 

            The unnamed narrator populates most of my short stories, so it should come as no surprise that I use this literary device in The Beale Papers.   Perhaps the most famous of my narrators was C. Auguste Dupin’s foil, the father of all detective “sidekicks” and the model for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Dr. Watson.  LeGrand’s unnamed friend in The Gold Bug is another confidant I created to convey the intellectual challenge of deciphering a coded message and the thrill of a treasure hunt.  Likewise, I developed a chain of custody similar to that used in The Beale Papers when I created the exploration hoax, The Journal of Julius Rodman.  In that story, I moved a purportedly true journal from the writer, Julius Rodman, through an anonymous source to the publisher.

 

The Gold Bug v. The Beale Papers  
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