Category Archives: READING MATTER

Books I read & recommend

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MURDERED AT THE POLLS: EDGAR ALLAN POE

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poe pollsIf you think elections in the US are crazy now, read the true story of the death of the Edgar Allan Poe,  father of the modern “horror” novel:

“…it was raining in Baltimore on October 3, 1849, but that didn’t stop Joseph W. Walker, a compositor for the Baltimore Sun, from heading out to Gunner’s Hall, a public house bustling with activity. It was Election Day, and Gunner’s Hall served as a pop-up polling location for the 4th Ward polls. When Walker arrived at Gunner’s Hall, he found a man, delirious and dressed in shabby second-hand clothes, lying in the gutter. The man was semi-conscious, and unable to move, but as Walker approached the him, he discovered something unexpected: the man was Edgar Allan Poe.

poe sanityOn September 27—almost a week earlier—Poe had left Richmond, Virginia bound for Philadelphia to edit a collection of poems for Mrs. St. Leon Loud, a minor figure in American poetry at the time. When Walker found Poe in delirious disarray outside of the polling place, it was the first anyone had heard or seen of the poet since his departure from Richmond. Poe never made it to Philadelphia to attend to his editing business. Nor did he ever make it back to New York, where he had been living, to escort his aunt back to Richmond for his impending wedding. Poe was never to leave Baltimore, where he launched his career in the early 19th- century, again—and in the four days between Walker finding Poe outside the public house and Poe’s death on October 7, he never regained enough consciousness to explain how he had come to be found, in soiled clothes not his own, incoherent on the streets. Instead, Poe spent his final days wavering between fits of delirium, gripped by visual hallucinations.

Poe fell victim to a practice known as cooping, a method of voter fraud practiced by gangs in the 19th century where an unsuspecting victim would be kidnapped, disguised and forced to vote for a specific candidate multiple times under multiple disguised identities. Voter fraud was extremely common in Baltimore around the mid 1800s, and the polling site where Walker found the disheveled Poe was a known place that coopers brought their victims. The fact that Poe was found delirious on election day, then, is no coincidence.poe love

Over the years, the cooping theory has come to be one of the more widely accepted explanations for Poe’s strange demeanor before his death. Before Prohibition, voters were given alcohol after voting as a sort of reward; had Poe been forced to vote multiple times in a cooping scheme, that might explain his semi-conscious, ragged state.

Around the late 1870s, Poe’s biographer J.H. Ingram received several letters that blamed Poe’s death on a cooping scheme. A letter from William Hand Browne, a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins, explains that “the general belief here is, that Poe was seized by one of these gangs, (his death happening just at election-time; an election for sheriff took place on Oct. 4th), ‘cooped,’ stupefied with liquor, dragged out and voted, and then turned adrift to die.”

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Extracted from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/#twWUf4BeoOSM924V.99

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SPIRITS TURNED TO STONE

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“Doubtless the original formulators of the divine myths never dreamed that there would come a time so degenerate in reflective capacity that the products of their allegorical genius would be mistaken for the body of reality itself; that the diaphanous character of their imagery would fail to be apparent; that spiritual vision could not penetrate the symbols. They could not have guessed that the allegories and dramas would be taken for objective factuality and the dramatis personae for living humans, or that their ideal world of living imagery would become frozen in ostensible history.  This development represents the wine and bread of an exalted conscious potential turned to stone.”  — Alvin Boyd Kuhn

       —- —-

“Alvin Boyd Kuhn (September 22, 1880 – September 14, 1963) was an American Theosophist. A publisher who wrote books that he published himself and a lecturer, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory.

Born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Kuhn studied the Ancient Greek language at university. He obtained his B.A. in 1903 and started his career working as a language teacher in high schools. He enrolled in summer sessions at Columbia University in 1926 and 1927, and then quit teaching to devote to full-time studies in 1927. His thesis, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of the Ancient Wisdom was, according to Kuhn, the first instance in which an individual has been “permitted” by any modern American or European university to obtain his doctorate with a thesis on Theosophy. Kuhn later expanded his thesis into his first book of the same name in 1930. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1931, he returned to teaching for one year, but then spent the next 30 years writing, lecturing, and running his own publishing house, Academy Press in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Highly influenced by the work of Gerald Massey and Godfrey Higgins, Kuhn contended that the Bible derived its origins from other Pagan religions and much of Christian history was pre-extant as Egyptian mythology. He also proposed that the Bible was symbolic and did not depict real events.” — Wikipedia.org

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HAVE A SIRIUS NEW YEAR

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ASTRONOMY IS “SIRIUS” BUSINESS

“… meet the young lady who fell from a star. She fell from the sky, she fell very far and Kansas, she says, is the name of the star …” – Glinda in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

As an Egyptian child 3,000 years ago, you might have asked your mother, “Mommy, where did I come from?” She may have replied, “Well, dear, I think it was from Orion’s Belt.

According to hieroglyphic records, the stars of Orion’s Belt were the symbolic analogy to the “phallus” of the constellation of Orion upon which his sister/wife Isis (the star Sirius) would “rise above Orion” in the sky and “impregnate” herself. The union of these two constellations, gave birth to their “son”, the Egyptian god Horus, the seventh “Divine Ruler” of Egypt.

Celestial orientation was the Egyptian common denominator to an understanding of the Egyptian viewpoint of life on Earth, and life after death.

The Egyptian priesthood worshipped the stars. The comings and goings of the gods were monitored by the stars. The calendar of days, holidays, festivals and harvests were determined by the stars. The rising of the star Sirius, also called the “Dog Star” because of its prominent position in the constellation of Canis Major, marked the beginning of the new year and is the entire basis for the Easter celebration as adopted by the Christians centuries after the fall of Egypt. The movements of the star Sirius monitored the entire Egyptian calendar.

MYSTERIOUS SIRIUS

Sirius is actually a double star system. One of the stars is the brightest star in the sky visible from Earth. The other is a dark star, an extremely dense and heavy star, which is entirely invisible to the naked eye. (One teaspoon of matter from this star might weigh thousands of pounds on Earth). The dark star was not detected for the first time until 1970.

The triple star system of Sirius gained international notoriety during the late 1960s. Though never photographed until 1970, the dark star of Sirius was made known to a team of French anthropologists by a remote tribe living near Timbuktu in Northern Africa called the Dogon. The religious leaders of the Dogon knew all about these stars, including, mysteriously:

1/ The exact 50 year repeating pattern of the elliptical orbit of Sirius “B” around Sirius “A”.

2/ Patterns of orbital motion relative to each other (one star periodically blocks the view of the other as they revolve).

3/ The extremely small size, the tremendously dense and heavy mass and invisibility of Sirius “B”.

4/ The existence of the red dwarf star, Sirius “C”, which was not observed for the first time by modern astronomers until 1995.

5/ For more than a thousand years, the Dogon also knew about four other “invisible” bodies in our own solar system; namely, the four major moons of Jupiter which were not acknowledged in Western civilization until Galileo discovered them with his version of the telescope which had been invented the previous year, in 1608, by Hans Lippershey.

A DOGON SIRIUS MYSTERY

How could an obscure tribe of technically backward, uneducated people know so many factual details about a star system of which Western astronomers knew almost nothing?

This relatively primitive tribe of black Africans claimed that their ancestors were priests who had been driven out of Egypt in the very distant past. The secrets of these priests were closely held among the elders of their tribe. They claim that a race of beings with aquatic characteristics descended from a planet in the star system of Sirius. These being were called the “Nomos”. These beings are reported to have brought civilization to Earth about 5,000 years ago and then returned to the Sirius system. The Dogon say that the Nomos will return to Earth. The Dogon say that the detailed information they possess about the Sirius star system was given to them about 5,000 years ago by the beings who came to Earth from Sirius.

The scientific, cultural, religious, mythological, astronomical and anthropological implications of the knowledge of the Dogon, and of the tremendous significance placed on Sirius by the Egyptian priests, is marvelously documented in the fascinating book by Robert K G Temple entitled, ‘The Sirius Mystery’. This book has inspired other innovative investigators to pick up the trail of the investigation into what was REALLY going on in ancient Egypt.

Egyptology has fascinated scholars and captured popular imagination for thousands of years. Why? Simply because it has been so mysterious!  Subjects that are easily investigated and understood rarely command much attention. And, there are few subjects as full of hidden meanings, esoteric innuendo and misleading anomalies as the hieroglyphic texts and architectural monuments of Egypt.

Despite decades of investigation, the theoretical posturing of Egyptologists have left many of the very basic elements of its mysteries unanswered. For example:

1/ What secret information did the priests of Isis and Osiris NOT share with the uninitiated layman?

2/ What knowledge did the priests and pharaohs possess, which empowered them with control over not only the affairs of state, but the wealth of the richest treasury in the world?

3/ Were the priests hiding something from the rest of the world?

Just as modern Western intelligence agencies have controlled knowledge to protect their special vested interests over the last thousand years, so did the priests of ancient Egypt.

The secret order of priests in Egypt possessed a very, very sophisticated knowledge of mathematics, architecture and astronomy, among other esoteric studies. In fact, most of the rest of the world learned almost everything they knew from Egypt, with the possible exception of the Sumerians, who had already built their own pyramid civilization before the Egyptians ever got started.

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Excerpt from THE OZ FACTORS, by Lawrence R. Spencer

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MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW

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MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW is one of my favorite songs.  It communicates the very real pain that all of the citizens of our Earthly prison experience, to a greater or lesser degree.  The song was originally recorded by Burnett as “Farewell Song” printed in a Richard Burnett songbook, c. 1913.

Written by Richard (Dick) Burnett (October 8, 1883 – January 23, 1977) was an American folk songwriter from Kentucky.  Burnett was born near Monticello, Kentucky. He was known to play the banjo and guitar and was blind in one eye. Burnett allegedly wrote the traditional American folk song, Man of Constant Sorrow, which was later to be covered by Bob Dylan.  He recorded with fiddler Leon Rutherford for Columbia Records.  An early version was recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928. 

The following are subsequent “covers” of the song:

Ralph Stanley (Solo version (cover))   http://youtu.be/fLKltv26-00

Stanley Brothers (cover)     http://youtu.be/ldnZnjGBGXw

Dick Burnett

Original Lyrics to “Farewell Song”  (Man of Constant Sorrow)

I am a man of constant sorrow,

I’ve seen trouble all of my days;
I’ll bid farewell to old Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised.

Oh, six long year [sic] I’ve been blind, friends.
My pleasures here on earth are done,
In this world I have to ramble,
For I have no parents to help me now.

So fare you well my own true lover,
I fear I never see you again,
For I’m bound to ride the Northern railroad,
Perhaps I’ll die upon the train.

Oh, you may bury me in some deep valley,
For many year [sic] there I may lay.
Oh, when you’re dreaming while you’re slumbering
While I am sleeping in the clay.

Oh, fare you well to my native country,
The place where I have loved so well,
For I have all kinds of trouble,
In this vain world no tongue can tell.

Dear friends, although I may be a stranger,
My face you may never see no more;
But there’s a promise that is given,
Where we can meet on that beautiful shore.

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Dick Burnett Biography on Wikipedia.org

Burnett was born near Monticello, Kentucky. He was known to play the banjo and guitar and was blind in one eye.  Burnett was born near the end of the nineteenth century on October 8, 1883, in the area around the head of Elk Springs, about seven miles north of Monticello. He remembered little of his farming parents. His father died when he was only four and his mother died when he was twelve. Burnett did say that his mother told him how his father would carry him in his arms when he was only four years old and he would help his dad sing. It is notable that Burnett’s grandparents were of German and English descent and that particular ancestral influence would be instrumental in forming Burnett’s musical career. At seven-years-old, Burnett was playing the dulcimer; at nine he was playing the banjo, and at thirteen he had learned to play the fiddle.

Richard Burnett’s life took a drastic turn in early adulthood when he was attacked by a robber, shot in the face, and lost his eyesight. He was working in the oil field of central Kentucky, married with a young child, and now faced an uncertain future. Almost prophetically, his boss made the following statement to Burnett: “Well, you can still make it; you can make it with your music.”

In time, Burnett joined forces with a young fourteen-year-old orphaned boy from Somerset. That young boy, Leonard Rutherford, would become Burnett’s student and became one of the “smoothest” fiddle players known to come from Kentucky.

Richard Burnett, “blind minstrel of Monticello” and Leonard Rutherford, “one of the smoothest fiddlers ever to take a bow,” soon were singing at every opportunity. They appeared on courthouse lawns and on the street playing and singing their music. In order to earn some money, Richard would strap a tin cup to his knee to collect the contributions from a satisfied crowd.

They traveled by bus, Model A, and on foot to any place they could and sing. From about 1914 until 1950, the pair became so popular that they found themselves in the company of most all the popular mountain musicians of the time. They were “at home” in the presence of greats like the Carter Family, Charlie Oaks, Arthur Smith, and many others. They appeared at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, on radio stations in Cincinnati, and finally, they would be some of the first old-time musicians to enter the recording studios.

Burnett and Rutherford made their first commercial recording in 1926 for Columbia Records in Atlanta, Georgia. “They gave us sixty dollars a record and paid all our expenses from here to Atlanta and back, hotel bills and everything,” Burnett reminisced. This unique banjo-fiddle-playing team, at times joined by banjoist W.L. Gregory and his fiddle-playing brother Jim, also of Monticello, continued to record for Columbia (and Gennett as well), through 1930.

Many of the songs Burnett and Rutherford used in their performances were songs they had learned from others in the past. When Burnett was asked where he learned some the old songs he recorded, he indicated some of them came from “Negroes around playing old time music” in Wayne County. He mentioned “Bled Coffey here in town, he was a fiddler during the Civil War, and the Bertram boys here, Cooge Bertram was a good fiddler…..Yes sir, there were a lot of black men playing old-time music. Bled Coffey was the best fiddler in the country.”

Burnett was a prolific songwriter as well as an instrumentalist. Possibly his most well known song is the popular “Man Of Constant Sorrow” that found notoriety in the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” On one occasion when asked if he wrote the song, Burnett replied: “No, I think I got that ballet from somebody—I dunno. It may be my song…..”

It has been correctly observed about Richard Burnett: “He was a valuable link to country music’s folk past and was a repository of material which he had both preserved and rewritten: “Pearl Bryan,” “Short Life of Trouble,” “Weeping Willow Tree,” “Little Stream of Whisky,” and many other ballads known to all folk revivalists.” The team certainly deserves the title of “one of the most colorful and rewarding groups of the 1920s.”

Richard Burnett died in Somerset, Kentucky on January 23, 1977, probably without ever realizing the great influence he had in the field of old-time Appalachian music.