Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-11

| Telling ghost stories around the FAM
| ilv f1reside is another of the old time
| sports which has passed into the dis
| card.
| Such spooky narrative was standard
| diversion in the days when George
AIDES fables were in their prime, when
| the morse and buggy constituted the
! stylish means of transportation, when
automobiles we're just coming in.
| Maybe the evening was begun with
| the recitation by some favored member
of the circle of James Whitcomb Riley's
poem about how 1.-The COLLINS will git yu
if up don't-watch-ou
Then came the ghost stories proper.
They we're told in bated breath, be-
tween the eerie hours of 8 and pm,
to the accompaniment of classic pop
eyes. :.
After the session was over, the vlsl-
tors were afraid to go home, and the
members of the household were equally
afraid to stay. 1t is safe to say that
more harm than good came out OF these
seanCes. if one might call them that.
No one knows today how many nerV-
ous organizations were more or less
shocked by the appeal to the sense OF
mystery and terror which lay like
seruent in flowers in the midst OF All
exciting narrative.
X X y
A good ghost story which was never
told. however, was one written by tne
| French master, Alexandra Dumas, pet
tor known for the immortal romances
| which have made his name mousse
hold word throughout the world.
In M de Chauvelin's VIII the great
| romancer wrote a real ghost STORY
which deserves to be better known by
the devotees Of such things. 1t IS not
found in the ordinary edition OF Dumas,
| and necessarily has different HaVof
than most of the masters works.
The story. which today would De
called a novelette,, rather than long
short story. really divides itself into
three parts, an introduction OF three
chapters. the story itself, and a MARIA
| tive of the death of Louis XIV.
Since we are not simply telling ghost
story here. but rather discussing the
art. and talking about book. we VIII
combine the three as they are IN the
story. ,.u;a
Di,n1as did not always stand OUTSIDE
his stories. In some OF MS ShoIter
efforts he rather relaxed, seeming 10
enjoy to the full his powers OF writing
simply as writing.
Such rules as ne nelo nliilSeh w "A.
his longer stories he purposely threw
awav when thus diverting himself as
it we're. In the present novelette, ne
combined personal Renaissance, gnoSV
story and historical sketch.
* X X X
The first three chapters deal with an
old friend of Dumas, great bookloVer'
who had 10000 volumes in ms nome,
with SO many piled unread in his attic
that the house began to give away. ,
This old man had beautiful pastei
of woman friend of his youth, winch
one night fell down, harbinger OF her
sad death at the same hour. Thus.
while merely seeming to be telling ABOUT
his friend, Dumas subtly gets the
, reader into the right frame Of mind.
The story of M. de Chauvelin's will IS
the story which the old friend told TO
Dumas. 1t has no other relation to
what has gone before. and Dumas
sensibly forgets the remainder. A reader
might we'll begin, then, at the fourth
chapter. ,.,,
In it we are introduced to the bril-
liant court of King Louis XIV, the mon
arch who rightly predicted that atter
him would come the deluge. M. oe