New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-05-25

white and proving % him. at the moment Of his next
halucna,ion, that what he has believed 10 be q ghost
IS nothing OF the sort Preparations are made. The
hour approaches The young man enters. The sup
posed ghost walks slowly toward him. Suddcnly-he
screams. The vision Of his fanc6e has again appeared
% him at the side OF the planted vision. He totters
Sumbles and falls to the floor dead, killed by the double
shock OF what he has seen.
AMONG the more recent thrilling horrors Of the
Guignol have been the throwing OF a man into a
burning furnace Conceived by Laumann); the disfg-
uration of proud beauty by vitrol the vriol having
been substituted by jealous rival for toilet water de
vised for Maurey by Montrel) the killing Of a man by
snake which slowly CraWls toward him in locked roOm
springs at him. coils itself round his body and buries
its angs in his neck devised by Jean de Bcrnac and
a night spent by two innocent people man and his
wife next 70 the body OF a dead man whose death, al
though from natural causes must inevitably appear to
the police premeditated murder Originated by Mas
sard and Nercourtl.
The horror Of darkness recently planned and exc
Cuted with incsive effect by Maurey and Castor
LerouX in the episode, "The Man no Saw the Devil
l. was built up in this fashion partly darkened
with Jet black adjoining. y man fearful
Of the dark: anyway there is something uncanny some
thing wrong with that next room His friends laugh
him. They dare him 10 90 into the ROOM He refuses
They at him. He is afraid. they say. He winces
They goad him Finally unable 10 bear their tauntS
any longer, he makes TO enter the ROOM
THAT room al right they reassure him. There's
nobody in it to hurt YOU. The man tremblingly en-
tiers, lgtng small ldtCl as ne docs Sltl
match that gives out a pitfully weak and made
quate little light. Silence. \ crash is heard in the
room. The man stumblcs out His eyes are sticking
out of their sockets his mouth is distorted, his tongue
hangs out of his frothng mouth "The deyIl-grcat
God,-the devil" he shreks in mad delirious frenzy
He falls the ground, and his friends that blood IS
streaming from him One Of them rushes into the next
room. The man had simply his own dim face as he
crashed against a tall mirror in the dark
\ telephone over which wife hears her husband be
ing murdered. a shot 20 death through the body
Of an innocent man who has stepped in front Of him 10
prevent las he hoped the firing Of the shots; and
sentry who shoots his sweetheart 10 death when She IS
kissing him. in order 10 convince the oundsman that he
has not been guilty Of dcrelction Of duty-these are
among the other recent subcruge Of the shock artists
Il must not be believed for instant however, that
the GugnO is crude, that its thrills and shocks are vu
CARLY staged or vulgarly wrought. The Guigno Is po-
htcy artistic in its methods and manners. Its purpose
70 thrill and il does 50. That is ALL OF thrills and
shocks and clammy horrors II has made profession.
cult more than this, an art Yet It IS no wonder that
Lc Rre not long ago printed cartoon with the caption
Al the Grand Guignol" that showed four men stand
ing in line waiting 10 bc examined by physician before
entering the thcatcr. Under the cartoon were these
words. Conforming with recent order Of NJ Ltplnc
the head OF the police, doctors must make assurance
before each performance that the spectators are free
from al weaknesses Of the heart that might entail Ser
Gus consequences