Page:Weird Tales Volume 4 Number 3 (1924-11).djvu/180



HE editor of has something on his mind about which he wants advice from the readers. Just what do YOU think of horror stories—we mean really strong stories, such as "The Hermit of Ghost Mountain," by C. Franklin Miller, in this year's March number, and "The Loved Dead," by C. M. Eddy, Jr., in the Anniversary Number?

"The Hermit of Ghost Mountain," as those of you who have read the story will remember, told of a hermit who solved the secret of long life by a diet of human blood, mixing the various kinds—young blood, bold blood, old blood—in jars so that he could regulate his diet according to the characteristics of his victims. It was a masterpiece of gruesome literature, but it called out many letters of protest from the readers. "The Loved Dead" described the mania of a young man for exhuming and eating the bodies of his relatives.

One reader writes (anent "The Loved Dead"): "Why will you give us such sickening stories? I read Eddy's yarn late at night. It nauseated me, but I could not stop reading, for the story was fascinatingly told. My eyes must have bulged in horror as I read, for when I finished I was covered from head to foot with clammy sweat, but wild horses could not have dragged me away from before I had read through to the end. But please, please—why will you feed us such disgusting themes? Surely you can give us mystery thrillers, and even strong horror stories, without making us sick at the stomach. Poe did it, in such weird masterpieces as 'Ligeia' and 'The Tell-tale Heart,' even though he also was sickeningly disgusting in 'The Case of M. Valdemar.' Ambrose Bierce's best story is that eery thing of wonder and beauty, 'An Inhabitant of Carcosa,' but one hates to read a volume of Bierce for fear of stumbling upon some such nauseatingly morbid tale as 'The Death of Halpin Frayser.' Give us all the 'Ligeias' and 'Tell-tale Hearts' you can find, but for the sake of all that is sweet and wholesome, spare us any more stories such as 'The Loved Dead'."

Readers, the editor puts it up to you. Do you want an occasional story such as "The Hermit of Ghost Mountain" or "The Loved Dead," or shall we purge the magazine of all strong horror? If we find a nauseating story