Public-domain ebook
by Various
Language: en1,014 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Short Stories·Science-Fiction & Fantasy·Crime, Thrillers and Mystery
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #69606.
Weird Tales, Volume 1, Number 2 (April 1923) is a pulp‑era periodical that blends fiction with a strikingly modern front‑matter of self‑help and commercial advertisements. The issue opens not with a story but with a series of earnest solicitations promising lucrative training in electricity, drafting, etiquette, and fingerprint analysis, each framed as free offers and urgent calls to action. After this barrage of promotional copy, the magazine’s editorial page appears, listing its contents: sixteen short stories, two complete novelettes, and two multipart tales spanning adventure, fantasy, and horror, all credited to various contemporary writers. The table of contents gives titles such as “The Scar,” “The Tortoise Shell Comb,” and “The Whispering Thing,” indicating a mix of macabre, supernatural, and speculative narratives typical of early twentieth‑century genre magazines.
The voice of the issue is unmistakably of the early 1920s: a brisk, persuasive tone in the ads, followed by the lurid, sensational titles that promise “thrilling” and “weird” experiences. The prose of the stories themselves, though not reproduced here, would reflect the period’s pulp style, direct, vivid, and often tinged with melodrama. Readers who relish vintage genre fiction, enjoy the historical flavor of early magazine publishing, or have an interest in the cultural crossroads of advertising and storytelling will find this volume a fascinating snapshot of its time.
The opening · free to read
What are you doing to prepare yourself for a real success? At the rate you are going where will you be in ten years from now? Have you the specialized training that will put you on the road to success? Have you ambition enough to =prepare= for success, and get it?
You have the ambition and I will give you the training, so =get busy=. I am offering you =success= and all that goes with it. Will you take it? I’ll make you an ELECTRICAL EXPERT. I will train you as you should be trained. I will give you the benefit of my advice and 20 years of engineering experience and help you in every way to the biggest, possible success.
My book, “How to Become an Electrical Expert,” has started many a man on the way to fortune. I will send a copy, free and prepaid, to every person answering this advertisement.
Act Now!
Good intentions never get you anywhere. It is action, alone, that counts. NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT.
A fine outfit of Electrical Tools, Instruments, Materials, etc., absolutely FREE to every student. I will also send you FREE and fully prepaid—Proof Lessons to show you how easily you can learn Electricity and enter this splendid profession by my new, revised and original system of Training by Mail.
I give you something you can use now. Early in my Home Study Course I show you how to begin making money in Electricity, and help you get started. No need to wait until the whole course is completed. Hundreds of students have made several times the cost of their course in spare time work while learning.
CHIEF ENGINEER COOKE Chicago Engineering Works Dept. 43-b. 2150 Lawrence Av. CHICAGO, ILL.
Dear Sir: You may send me entirely free and fully prepaid, a copy of your book, “How to Become an Electrical Expert,” and particulars about your =Home Study Course in Electricity=,
Name ____________________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________
City _______________________________ State ______________
Published monthly by THE RURAL PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 325 N. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. Application made for entry as second-class matter at the postoffice at Indianapolis, Indiana. Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription, $3.00 a year in the United States; $3.50 in Canada. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts lost in transit. Address all manuscripts and other editorial matters to WEIRD TALES, 354 N. Clark St., Chicago, Ill. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and publishers are cautioned against using the same, either wholly or in part.
Copyright, 1923, by The Rural Publishing Corporation.
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