The New York herald., 1921-12-25
The Book Factory
By EDWARD ANTHONY.

| intrepid 'Backslid" might say: How
come dey let's all desc skellingtons lay
around loose widout no shelter? Sho'
huff, some o. denis gwine to ketch
cold if dey don't git no puhtection.
Winters jest outside de do an de
leas' dey kin do is give each o. dem a
skullcap to wear-yass dat's dc very
leas'.
But to return to T. G. Jackson. In
an old fashioned English skullery he
has cooked up six tasty ghost stories.
To make the dish moro appetizing he
has tossed in some bones. What ia
soup without bones?
Ghost stories mean nothing TO us
unless they are written as Jackson
has written this group. They flow
along in an easy conversational man
ner that is not overmindful OF the
rules of short story writing as pro-
pounded by Prof. Niemand of Goofus
College. He is more concerned with
the business of being entertaining
than with following the ordinary short
story form-or. should we say, for
mula?
These are yarns rather than short
stories. We believe the author when
he says that they were written "in
idle hours for the amusement Of the
home circle without, at first, any
idea of publication" They are char
acterized throughout by a chattiness
that makes them ideal for reading
aloud. This is particularly true in
The Eve of st. john" where the
author is as chatty as reminiscent
old barkeep. Yet this easy conversa-
tional style does not prevent him
from providing thrills. There are hair
raising adventures aplenty. 1t is a
rather novel experience to be treated
to a thrilling yarn when an authors
unruf1led manner leads one to expect
nothing of the kind. We find 1t more
fun to be told exciting things by
man who does not seem to be con-
scious of the thrills he Is providing
tnan by man whose style proclaims,
Here, listen! This is going to make
your hair stand on end"
1.-THE Lady of Rosemount," the
story OF what happened to Harry
Charlton after he kissed the statue Of
the wicked Countess Alianora; "Ro-
nance of the Plccadilly Tube" some
thing new In the way of a last will
and testament story, and "The Red
House," the colorful tale of Highway
man Dicky Dawes and his apt pupil
William Hetherington. are decidedly
able pieces of work. "The Ring and
"Pepina" are almost as good.
1.-THE Eve of st. John" the best
story In the book and one of the best
ghost stories we know of, tells how
Sir Henry Tiptoft discovered. in the
twentieth century, who killed an an
cestor of his who disappeared mys-
teriously in 1862 Tiptoft, who was q
guest at the home Of his good friend
Cecil Maynard--but, gosh, IL we tell
too much the story won't have a ghost
of chance. Read It yourself. You'll
like it even though the author bor-
rows slightly from Poe In the hidden
vault scene. We are willing to over
look this as Jackson has given the
device n new twist. Remember these
words of the late 3. T.. T., There's
nothing new but variants"
T. G. Jackson. better known In Eng-
land as Sir Thomas Graham jackson,
Bart, r. A., is a versatile writer. He
is the author Of book of travel. a
profound volume on architecture and
| this book of ghost stories. When is
he going to turn essayist and biog-
rapher7 When he does we want to see
the boolSsl Certainly we can recon-
mend the present volume to all those
! who do not take life too seriously.