The times., 1898-05-29
A Scientific story Doo,..

Scientific story Book.
The publishers of Mr.. H. G. Wells seem
to have determined. in view of the exceed
Ing popularity of THE War of the
Worlds to rescue from oblivion another
book by the same author, which appear
ed rather more than a year ago. 1t is
called Thirty Strange Stories" and
while it lacks the peculiar interest of the
later book, ii is remarkably clever in con-
ception and execution. II deals with no
universal truth, as the later work en-
Phatically does; it is simply a collection
Of what may De called scientific fairy
tales. THE Sea Raiders" and I'm the
Avn Observatory might have appeared
in some scientific magazine without SEEM
ing out Of place "A Moth Genus Tn
known" THE Purple Pneus." and THE
Stolen Bacillus" possess a grim but very
pointed humor. Still others, Of which
The Gone" is the worst, are frankly
horrible, and appear to be earnest at
tempts on the part of Mr. Wells to pro-
duce goosefesh and spinal chills in his
reader. Although some of the stories give
an impression similar to that of GER
tain tales of Poe, Kipllng and Stevenson.
it should not be inferred that Mr.. Wells
Is IN any sense an imitator OF these writ
ers. Whatever else he Is, he is thor,
oughly original
Thirty Strange Stories" is not very
good book for people with delicate nerves
and oversrown imaginations. Such people
will read the book. and turn back and re-
read it, and hang over it with a sort of
fascinated horror, and have a very un-
pleasant series of dreams after its peru
sal AT least one-third of the stories are
tragic in their interest; about as many
more are slyly humorous, and the others
are simply odd and interesting. No two
are alike, and each has its peculiar and
individual clever feature. THE Stolen
Bacillus is a tale in which an anarchist
steals d tube fun Of germs out of
chemical laboratory, starts out TO poison
the waters of London with it under the
impression that it is Asiatic cholera, is
chased all over the city by the excited
owner of the germs, and finally drinks
the contents Of the tube. martyr TO the
cause of anarchy. Meanwhile the chem
ist informs his wife that the germs were
simply bacilli which cause the blue patch
es on certain monkeys, and one is left 10
lnter what happened to the anarchist
nat Is a sample Of Mr.. Wells humor
1hls DOCK or tales is good 10 have in ones
lbrary, 10 pick up and read at odd mo-
Inents, or TO read aloud 10 a company of
people who wish 10 be interested in
something a little out Of the ordinary.
ne strongest characteristic of Mr..
Wells work is the way in which he
makes the most unheard-of things seem
real and visible. In his story Of a lonely
astronomer IN the Avu Observatory. in
borneo, attacked by some strange crea-
ture nuttering in out of the darkness. ut-
terly unable TO determine whether his
Vlsitant IS bird, animal or something su-
perndtuTal. this atmosphere of realism Is
pronounced. The reader struggles with
the struggling man, blindly, desperately.
de feels the keen teeth which nip at the
astronomer ankle; he catches a glimpse
OF the big black crested head against the
sky he knows just how the bewildered
man felt when he gripped the big velvetv
ear and felt the big furry body laundering
about on top Of him. He experiences. as
IN a nightmare, the sensation of striking,
a match on the wet floor after the crea-
ture has gone, and the match refusing
10 hight, and the sight Of the mysterious
visitor crawling over the wall and out
into the night Now, there is no real
reason why man, in such an obserya-
tory, and such a place, should not have
Deen attacked by a huge bat almost the |
size OF man, and the average reader will /
not know whether there are any such |
bats In Borneo or not. So far as he can !
determine, all the details are as accurate
as science can make them. This. like |
several other stories of the Thirty. IS /
apparently an illustration of Hamlet's re- |
mark that there are more things In |
heaven and earth, Horatio-
Even more realistic iS ba
ers, and when this story of cephalopods
and drowned men is finished one is NOV
ed 10 lay down the book and try to recoI-
ect whether something of the kind did |
not get into the papers last year II
sounds unaccountably familiar But that |
S just the art of this consummately skill
tul teller of tales. The story is made
up out OF whole cloth. The cephalopods
N question-which, by the way. are Civ
en- the remarkably technical name Of
Haploteuthis ferox-are in shape consid-
erably like the Martians in Mr.. Wells
other book, and almost as diabolicalIy
cunning. He states that there was early
N May, 1896, q wave of bathing acct
1ents and boating accidents along the
coast Of Cornwall About that time a
'etired tea-dealer named Fison was stop
ping at a Sidmouth boarding house He.
adds the author, was the first person TO
survive. In taking a walk on the beach
le saw something queer in some shallow
water among the rocks, and upon inves-
igation found ii to be a group of these
IN shape and character 1
something like q cuttle-fish, but with
long tentacles, feasting on a
drowned body. The way in which he
vas chased TO the foot of the cliff by the
reatures; his subsequent expedition in a
NTH
hem; the loss of one of his companions
" their clutches, and the dragging down
# all the occupants Of another boat
re described in a way which for imag-
native power and vividness of detail is
marvellous. II Is hard to persuade ones
elf that the thing is a fiction at all
would not be a pleasant story to read
I the seashore.
Quite a different thing is the story of
'Aepyornis Islandr-the story of man
Who was cast away on an atoll with the
gg of fossil bird. He had found it, with
wO others, in some sort of mud which
ept IL from spelling, and had been forced
o eat the other two on his voyage in a
mall boat to the island
The egg hatched, and the compulsory
ermit dwelt for some time on the island
With the steadily growing specimen of
Aepyornis which eventually arrived at
aAS AAIAbAAA VI ipul teen ASeA, anu WAS call
d Man Friday. ALI was peace and hap
iness till the bird developed combative
isposition and kept his benefactor in the
op Of palm tree or up to his neck in
he lagoon day and night Argument and
ersuasion were unavailing. The Crusoe
Old his prosecutor that he didn't mean to
e chased about a desert island by any
lessed anachronisms and he finally
ound means TO get rid of his unpleas- :
ntlV lively fossil and pat aff icia | ,