Evening star., 1922-11-05

| AN( afternoon hunting out Ihe
| little cottage at Fordham.
near New York, where Ed
gar Allan Poe spent the last years
of his life. There is q dolls kitchen,
small sitting room. with tea things
still upon the table. and the tiny bed
room where Virginia Poe passed
away. His face looks at you from
every wall. austere. coldly intellec-
tual, cruel in it's precise accuracy. He
had every quality save humor and of
that there was not trace. But he
was surely the greatest originator OF
various story-types that ever lived.
He was so sure of himself that he
. never troubled to work out reef. but
he just picked nugget or two. and
then turned away to prospect else
where. He was the real father of the
detective story. of the buried treas
ure story. of the Jules Verne semi
scientific story. of the purely morbid
story. and of nearly every other sort
that we now use. If every man who
owed his inspiration to Poe was to
/ contribute tfthe of his profits there
from he would have monument
greater than the pyramids. and / for
one would be among the builders. But
his nature was sinister. nature
without humor is always sinister. But
he had glamour to make amends
even as youngster he had this
glamour. Did ever schoolboy write
such lines as those which speak of
1.-The glory that was Greece, the
| splendor that was Rome? They
haunt the mind. There was sug-
gestion of the rarified literary at
mosphere in which he lived in the
desk, and the bookshelves, with
little written criticism in his eX-
uuisite script in which he accuses
lColeridge of plagiarism from Schiller
with very complete proofs.
! visit to Bronx Zoo.
From Poe's cottage We made our
way to the Bronx Geological Gardens,
but it was tropically hot. dreadfully
crowded and 7, at least was very
weary. The boys. however. seemed to
enjoy it all immensely. and Billy was
! mounted by the keeper upon huge
turtle, which was induced to move by
!holding an apple few inches in front
! Of its beak, and SO carried her round
the inclosure. Both the chief keepers
| were English. and an American friend
told me that it had been observed that
Englishmen got on best with animals
| and birds in captivity They ge,
on best with aboriginal races. ais"
and the more aboriginal the better
they do it, as any one who has come
into touch with the old SudaneSt
regiments and their officers would
! testify. 1t is the sophisticated nati"e
who claims an equality which ne ooe'
not really possess. who offers the diff
fcult problem. Apropos or tins. 4
is comic to read some of the Ameri'
can papers upon the oppressed native:
of India. They do not realize thai
there is a freedom of political speech
in India which would probably lant
the American who used II in Eaol
Whether rightly or wrongly. thu
American police and magistrates have
la very short way with communists
To a European observer it look:
rather like sitting on the safet!
valve. but the general prosperity OF
the country is so great that there is
to the superficial observer no rea
body of discomfort. Jack London
seemed to foresee. something more
serious in the futVre.
But this is sad depression from
the Bronx Geological Gardens. where
we shook hands with Sad-eyed wlst
full chimpanZee who tried to put Nal.
rolm's coat on and was very grateful
ito me on having his back scratched
lit is well to draw attention to this
Dlace for foreign visitors often imag e
inc that the little place in the Centra
Park is the Zoo. whereas 1t is a mere
annex This is the real show. where
there are 5000 different forms of life
cially among the birds. which are moi
lrepresented elsewhere. The whole
splendid place. with its free admlS.
sion to the public. makes one ashamed
of our gardens in London. though
quite believe that the directors there
do the best they can under the din
culties which beset them.
Copper Color of Bird.
There was one bird in the Bronx
gardens. the white-crested touraco
from South Africa, which hadsa very
rare attribute Its underwing feather:
are richly red, and were analyzed &c
find the secret of the colors. 1t wa:
found that they were per cent me-
tallic copper The deduction from
this would appear to be that the
| creature had come from reSior
| where the copper deposits were sc
rich that they impregnated every
thing the bird ate. 1t struck me as a
novel and ingenious commencement
of a boys treasure-hunt story. II
some enterprising youth would fol-
low up the clue.
| In a previous chapter l have alluded
to a man, Edward Morell who hao
been tortured in San Quentin prison
California, and through his tortures