The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-07-15
Light Fiction

| Light Fiction
tcoszINukD IRON Raoe osE1
lbe wonderful. So deep laid has BEEN
iihe plot that even the local slenths
land the imported Sherlock Holmes;
1baye been unable TO fathom. 1t an
though they were furnished with i'm
lpresslon or tracks In the ground that
measured a rtainsnumbe OF inches.
and We're given clews with an accu-
tate diagram, with a life sized photo
graph Of the motive behind the viii
lliany.
IT will not be our purpose in this
brief review to reproduce the story
I'm its entirety. But a synopsis viii
suffice for the busy reader. on the.
10th day Of July twas reported that
thewaterl works had been dynamit tied,
blowing! the gate OF the; pinch main
OF the reservoir; cutting of the city
water supply and endangering the
lives and property of the people Of
the city. 1t was asserted that the
lrumpsl at the pump station had been
shut down during the night and that
the culprit had slipped secretly upon
the hill and closed the gate and
caused the DANCE when the pumps
wore started at 8 O'Clock Friday
morning. But later developments
disclosed the fact that 1t was only an
acciden resulting from tho closingIof
\ the, gate by vibration from the force
| q the pump and that It had been.
Slowly closing for several, days pro-
Guclng many leaks along the line
that had been reported and that men
we're dispatched to the reservoir
early onithe morning of the accident
and were there at work when the
safe was finally closed and the acct
dent happened. twas further shown
that. the pumps were not shut down
at night, as reported, and had not
heen idle neither day nor night for
THE, past three weeks according to the
lengineer at the pump station, and
THAT tho gate could not have been.
closed while the pumps were going
lwithout causing to happen within
less than a. minutes time the sans
ll:ind of an accident that did happen:
soGwlth these things before the
author or at least the part of them
THAT hafsnot been brought out at the
time Of the trouble, he commences to
weave his beautiful humorous story
Tile following is one of the humor:
Gus quotations from the text: /,
"Some time during the night the
gate was. closed with a large wrench
by some one unknown at the time
! The time II fixed accurately as be:
Iirg Sin the night and even the tool
used to close the game appeared iyisi:
IDLY before the vision Of tile author
He could see every thing in the story
but the deep-dyed Wilton whom the
writer says wasiunknowntatIt the time
A This was no doubt done to claim tho
attention Of the reader. The ideafoi
mystery must be carried through AL
I good detective stories and It Is meyer
fair to turn to the last chapters tc
see haw the story ends. No true
sportsmanlike readerSwiil do this. HI
must so along with "a dark lantern
following closely in the Intellectual
trail Of the writer and slip upon the
climax by surprise. Thus the open.
ing chapter.is found to be, a master.
riece and the reader gpes on thrilled
4 from the beginning with the thought
Who can this despicablet villain Sbe
curses on him. ;uppermost in the
mind making the reading of the fol-
lowing chapters an imperative duty.
Another quotation, "Those who
heard Of the affair urged the officials
te go to the limit to RUNsTHEGUILs
! TY PARTIES TO EARTH"
Here we have, the establishment Of
universal interest in the story forsall
those who heard" of theSyillainous
outrage were multitudenous, includ:
ling most every man, woman and child,
lin the city and everywhere the: met.
ropolitan newspaper had circulation
because the story was pushed onto
4 the wire post-hast to gireiit the Wild
est kind of an advertisement.
i World wide interest having been
aroused in the story we have the Of
flcials' called upon the scene to give
lit authenticity, and substance, for
don't we read in the story that Pros
lccuting Attorney Morris, and hissas.
sistants, spent the day ON THE
SCENE OF THE CRIME and arrests
may follow the arrival OF the detcc.
tives here.n !siisfss.
Nothing makes a.story go better
than to associate the name of some
! prominent official with it. This II
perhaps the reason why the name Of
the prosecutor was called into MAY!
It did not make one particle Of DIFF
ference to the author whose name