Page:Weird Tales Volume 5 Number 2 (1925-02).djvu/164



HE readers of Weird Tales have spoken in no uncertain terms. Every mail brings to the editor's desk letters protesting against any lessening of the "weird" quality of the stories in this magazine. "Let remain weird" is the tenor of the communications; "you have a magazine that prints a type of stories we can get nowhere else, and if a few of your readers are horrified by gruesome tales, then let them go elsewhere; but don't spoil the magazine for those of us who like eery fiction."

"Keep weird and succeed," writes Fred E. Norris, of Huntington, West Virginia.

"Please do not lessen by one degree the horror of your tales," writes Mrs. J. Ruopp, of Los Angeles.

" would disregard its slogan, 'The Unique Magazine,' if it failed to give us those stories which are unique," writes Ruth E. Sapulos, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

There are a few voices on the other side. L. Phillips, Jr., of Berkeley, California, writes: "It seems to me that there are plenty of ideas for weird and hair-raising stories without invading the graves of the dead. I think you should cut out what you term the 'necrophilic'. The old 'Black Cat' was one of the most widely read magazines of its day. They went in for the weird and unusual, too, but they never printed anything sane people would turn from in disgust. No rotting corpses in theirs. The mysterious, the supernatural, the startling and bizarre from all lands and all times—I wouldn't place a single limitation on locale, historical period or race, but I would draw the line at the grave. Even in fiction the dead have a right to rest in peace."

The vote of our readers, to date, is overwhelmingly in favor of a few horror stories in each issue. But those who want cannibalistic and blood-drinking stories (specifically those who indorse Mr. Eddy's "The Loved Dead" and Mr. Miller's "The Hermit of Ghost Mountain") are as few as those who want no horror stories at all. We bow before the decision that has been made by you, the readers; and along with other bizarre and weird tales we shall continue to print horror stories—but they will be clean.

We recently attended a performance of "Romeo and Juliet"; and as we heard Jane Cowl deliver Juliet's speech before she takes the poison, we realized that the same speech, if published in a Weird Tales story, would be denounced by some of our indignant readers (not many, but surely by some) as "gruesome", "shocking", "offensive". A few of our good friends would undoubtedly write letters asking us why we so offended against good taste as