The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-24
THE ELEVATOR IN FICTION.


The elevator has become so necessary
to the modern cliff dwellers, so much a
part of the hurried round of their daily
lives, that one can scarcely be astonished
at the prominence ii has attained in fic-
ton. The Improvement in the machinery
of the lift has been rapid, but this ad-
vance seems to have led, in fiction at least,
from the humor of light farce to the sor
rows of serious tragedy.
To enter one of the earlier elevators was
to embark on an aerial voyage of uncertain
duration, which might not end at the floor
you desired to reach. Eccentricity or
movement was the first marked character
istic of these early lifts. and this fact
was soon preceived and seized upon by one
of the kindliest of American huDiorists-
That an elevator containing an iEiIarmoni-
Gus couple should stop suddenl.' between
the widely-separated floors of a gigantic
hotel, and there remain obstinately sus-
pended, was q situation too good to be
lost and DIR. Edward Everett Hale certain
ly made the most of an incident which is
said TO have really happened.
In 1.-The Minister'S Charge" William
Dean Howells uses the elevator of a Sec
ond-cIass Boston hotel as a means of in
PRODUCING his characters to one another,
and the shaft of this elevator finally car
ries a sheet of flame from one story OF
the fated building TO another. This fire
scene is one of the very few attempts
Howells has ever made to thrill his readers
by a departure from the commonplace or
existence. Theft accompanied the fire, and
the thief proved to be the elevator boy;
IL.
came an elevator boy, his misconduct casts
no reflection on his brethren of the cord
and brake.
The best ghost story connected with an
elevator was that written by Andrew Lang
directly after the still well-remembered
tragedy at a fashionable Paris hotel In
this instance the elevator dropped, with
incaIculable swiftness, from the highest
story of the hotel to the basement, bringing
instant death to all the occupants OF the
gilded cage. 1t was tragedy so terrible
. ffrnf1 from nr1fn rffacr oil
vators for many long day after; indeed.
the Parisians have ever since been rather
shy of the lift" and. as French law for
bids the erection of sky-scrapers, il is al
WAYS possible to climb the stairs in that
/ city of dear delights.
Lang seizes on this tragic incident as the
motif for weird story of the regular
crawler" kind. TO quote poor Robert Louis
Stevenson. The leading character, young
man of sensitive temperament, visits an
old manor house in the North country. and.
looking from his bedroom window at mid
night sees a hearse drawn up before the
door. On the box-seat of the hearse sat a
man of peculiar, strongly marked face,
who turned and slowly met the lnquirinS
gaze of the watcher at the window. There
was nothing shadowy about either the
hearse or it's driver, and the next morn
ing the young fellow mentioned the mat
ter To his host; but that worthy man, like
Tennyson's chancellor, only smiled and
put the question by" But the hard face
b hnn siI'I tba memory Of the Young man. II
followed him 10 Paris, and into one of the
very gayest OF the fashionable hotels of
that brilliant city. Being a mountain
climber and fond of exercise. he ascended
TO his room by the stairs, but after max
ing his toilet, he stepped across the hall
10 the elevator shaft. intending to descend
in that manner. When. however, the door
OF the gilded car was thrown open the sin
lister eyes of the hearse driver locked
straight into his own, and he started back
with an exclamation of surprise and ter
ror AS he did so the elevator fell like a
flash TO the basement of the hotel. carry
| ing death to all within its narrow limits.