The Washington herald., 1920-01-22
New York City
By Q. Q. Mcintyre

New York. Jan. 21.-Edsar Ailan
Poe will come back to Broadway
after 110 years In the series OF
plays, dramatized from his weird
tales. which are to be put on Short
ly at one of the "intimate" little
theaters of the Rialto. Ibanez, the
Spanish novelist, did much to
awaken America to the Importance
of dramatising Poe.
Wherever he went or spoke. the
writer paid tribute to Poe's work
and declared that Poe was as
famous in Europe and South Amer
lea as Lincoln and Washington. 1t
will be remembered that Poe's
father. David Poe. and his mother
were actor folk and so the blood
in Edgar. like the blood In all Of
us. returns to its fatalities.
Poe was q child Of the footlights.
which were at the time his parents
were actors a row of spluttering
gas Jets. He was travelling with
his parents from stage to stage
when he was orphaned at the age
Of three. On the 9Th OF September,
1909. the year of Edgar's birth, the
New York theater-far downtown
now-was opened for the winter sea-
son with Lewis Castle Spectre"
and "Bickerstaff's Romp." titles that
have q Poe-like sound.
The father and mother took parts
In each play. Later David Poe was
heard in a play called fortunes
Frolic." another prophetic title for
the esoterically inclined. for For
tune had, ironically. a great frolic
with the destiny and doings of the
American poet.
Among the tales that are an
nounced to be put on shortly are
"Bon-Bon," THE Gold Bug" The
Tell-Tale Heart" and "Eleonora."
Later there will follow THE CasK
of Amontillado." "The Fall of the
House of Usher" ''Ligeia" and '"The
the essence of Poe. panoramas of
and phosphorescent.
To me Poe was the greatest of
all short story tellers. His very
life was an excursion in the weird.
fumbling with the keys to strange
doors in houses that dissolved at
dawn. The tale Is told that Poe. many
years ago. wild. disheveled. bruised
and wide-eyed, burst into the home
of John Sartain. the painter.
He said he had seen on the walls
of the country prison. where he had
spent the previous night. a host of
angels clad in moonlight that blew
from wreather trumpets wild blasts
toward the heavens. He was given
three slugs of brandy. 1t was. of
course. hallucination-but delight
full. Like Hecla's touch. the flames
in an imperial solitude on the sum-
mits of the northern seas, SO does
Edgar Allen Poe reign today in tho
human imagination.
A reporter called at the palatiai
town house of Charles NJ. Schwab
on Riverside Drive the other night
to talk to Mr.. Schwab's guest, Ad-
miral Viscount Jellicoe. of the Brit
ish Navy. His lordship had already
made a statement to a number OF
reporters and Mr.. Schwab's butler
announced that the Admiral was
not to be seen again.
Mr.. Schwab heard the buffers
message and quietly countermand-
ed it. He brought the reporter to
the Admiral. And for the Admirars
good he explained that reporters in
America are gentlemen and are to
be trusted implicitly. He told Lord
Jellicoe further that in many years
of dealing with reporters he had
never been misquoted.
He said he had confided to many
of them matters of momentous i'm
portance which they might have
capitalized. But they didn't. Mr..
Schwab has had the same expert
ence of others who deal with re-
porter3 and that is why l always
see red when people bromidically
proclaim that they cannot believe
anything they see in the news
papers.