The evening world., 1902-12-05

Tho Room with the Little Door" Is
ths title OF a book by Roland Durham
Moiineux. soon to be Issued from the
presses of the O.. W. Dillingham; Com
pany, which old the copyright.
II you have ever been to Sing l on
a visit or otherwise. o will know that
9Th Room with the Little Door" Is the
death chamber. The title indicates the
nature Of the book. 1t Is a record OF
Nolineux's personal Impressions Incident
to his trial n Imprisonment. o oil
II vas written In the death-house. II
u gloomy but clever. and full OF Fan
tastlc views OF the gruesome Incidents
OF prison life. 1t has Poe-llke touches
OF fancy, for Molineux was an educated
man and he viewed the horrors OF I'M
~prisonment with the grasp Of an i'm
pr~essionist.
4 skilled writer might have made the
book OF n century out of the material
Molineux had. burt while unused to the
pen he has achieved much more than
could he expected OF him. His point OF
view always escapes the commonplace
and he writes with surprising literary
skill and ease In narration.
The book is not a novel, but a series
of Impressions. 1t is divided into chap
ters, under the following headings:
Tho Room with the Little Door-A For
hidden ~Song-The Murderer's Home
Journal-Fads-The Mayor of the Death
chamber-A Psychological Experiment
Ne and wife-Old John-Her Friend
Llfe-My Friend, the Mayor-A Dlsserta-
ton on the Third Degree-It's Just Like
Her-An Opinion on Expert Opinion
Impressions.
Hummer Lights the Pages.
There are flashes o. humor in these
paGes-humor OF that ghouish sort that
mon in the shadow are given to, the
little flowers of hope that will even
blossom on the vn of despair. There Is
poetry. too, some witty, seine sarcastic.
The sentimental Is avoided. And there
are bits OF writing that will command
SerioU attention. There is IN attack on
the methods of the ONCE OF the District
Attorney OF New York and a chapter on
Expert Opinion. In which Molineux re-
veals his clear grasp Of the law as APP
piled to his own and similar cases.
The most interesting chapter OF the
book Is entitled Impressions 1t is
ulNIucu lntO TWO pdIIS, Inc Last Night
n THE Next Morning. and II de-
gcribes the feelings of the men in the
death house when one OF their num-
Der goes out to die. Minutely the ira
ditional customs of the death house.
the songs. the farewells. the distr1bu-
tons OF the victims tokens are mar
rated. Then the deep silence Of the
night and the awful solemnity of the
morning.
They Are Glad to Die.
Molineux writes:
You will read that the man was in
different l tell you he was glad to
go That he made no trouble Why
our horror. how we are afflicted by
our companions death. AS a matter
OF fact we envy him.
Anything, anything is better than
existence in the death chamber.
During the night. II you have lain
awake. and one has been known to be
SO foolish, You might have felt a very
slight neutrality-suspicious. It Is imagtna-
ton. perhaps 1t Is tine dynamo.
"If you havc slept and do not heal the
death watch draw down the curtains In
front of all the cells when the night out
side. turns gray, you Will surely be
awakened by the noise of mar feet. II
is the priests who nave entered. Their
ordinary Ghoes on the tagging OF the
corridor sound like thunder, thunder
moving ~away-now 1t subsidies to the