The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-18
T present there seems to be : dearth of the tales that made Edgar Allen Poe famous. In the

fAA piSSeHt there seems lo pe d RA dearth of the tales that made
 Edgar Allen Poe famous. In the first place 1t is very seldom that a writer is endowed with sufficient talent to relate a "horror' story with good effect and modern literary men are beginning to re- alize this fact. Perhaps no author ever surpassed Poe in weaving those chilling. gloomy and fanciful vagaries which he called stories. There was something about the man that peculiarly fitted him for such composition and the great power of his intellect and the fits of melancholy to which he was subject account largely for his success in this comparatively un- trodden field of literature There has always been a difference of opinion as to which of Poes tales deserves first rank. In general excellence "The Gold Ring is perhaps generally considered the best This is a more ambitious effort than The Black Cat" "The Pit and the Pen dulum,'' or "The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' but the latter will finger long CT in the memory of any person who has ever followed them to their dreadful hiidASf ntst lOtT tditS are the most powerful of their class ever written and 1t is not hard to understand why there have been so few successful imitators. A year or two ago certain magazines were filled with would-be tales of horror, but most of them were painfully weak, and when compared to their great originals sank into obseurity.
 The example of a woman whose craze for ridding in cabs resulted in her be- ing placed behind prison bars for embez- zlng $37,0O0 from firm which had em- ployed her as cashier again urges mor- alists and other wise persons to bewail the extravagance of modern American life. It is pointed out that those who have not the means to keep up with their fellows in the whirl will be tempted to take that which does not belong to them and consequently land in jail, but if is just as futile to talk about wealthy Amer jeans leading simple lives as to advise them to throw their money away without having the pleasure of spending it on lux uries. Perhaps one reason Americans spend their money so freely is the fact that some of them get it easily and oth- CTS who have to work hard feel that they are entitled to have a little "bow out" for their pains There is no doubt that this is great country for spending and a person can get in the habit without half trying However, it is not advisable to take up the "eab habit until there is some "wherewith" in view.
 According to a Madrid dispatch a cer- tain Spaniard has departed this earth and left behind a legacy of S1oOO0 for the first general of old Spain who succeeds in landing on United States territory with force sufficiently strong to avenge the insult given by Uncle Sam when he took away Cuba and the Philippines. Of course the time may come some day when we will have to face a Spanish in- vasion, but 1t is hardly so near as to require any special preparations on the part of newspapers to handle the news from the front. In fact it is quite likely that this country will be at war with one or more foreign powers before the world