The Wilmington morning star., 1946-05-04

'His face was like plaster OF
paris" The householder was
speaking of the ghost who had
peered at him one night in his
bed chamber. You asked II
there had been any dialogue,
and he said that he couldn't
think Of anything to say at the
time, The ghost hadn't been
any help either and when ne
finally faded away there had
been no exchange Of ideas.
People, you thought, are al
ways wasting opportunities. If
the ghost had gone to the
trouble Of Undertaking., surely
the householder could have
spared him the effort of open
ing the conversation. He most
likely had a lot on his chest
and was living to relieve HIM
self. PINNED with some little
gambit like "speak, oh Shade"
or Have we metz" might
have been quite communica-
tive.
True ghost stories are usually
disappointing. The spirit always
appears to some nervous body
who is paralized for the period
Of the apparition and takes no
action, Real ghost, too, seem
rather limited. They show up
rs a transparency, maybe they
glow a little, sometimes they
creak or clank. Once in a while
they play such musical instru-
ments as happen to be lying
about. they have all the time
IN the world to work up a new
routine. You'd think they'd ac-
quire some sort of stage pres
ences. froro their work at seam
ces. But they remain a pretty
drab crowd, potentially grim,
actually feeble.
Grimness in a ghost is the
quality you admire. You take
pleasure in reading Of spectres
who manifest themselves as
bad smells, quarts Of gore rum
ming down old stone walls, sud-
den shoves in the neighbrhood
Of high cliffs.
Now this wrath with the plas-
ter tace. he could have made
himself very disagreeable rush
ing around from bedroom to
bedroom humping heads with
sleeping residents. Give a phan-
tom a little sinew, a bit Of
flesh, as they do in books, and
he's liable to do something
notable.
Ghost seldom appear in the
moving pictures these days in
other than comic roles. Pro-
ducers bypass them for the
heartier horror Of werwolves,
vampires, and the patchwork
jalopines constructed by daft
scienetests amid a storm Of
short circuits.
The late Provost Of Elton,
DIR. Montague Rhodes James,
was the medium for the most
malignant bogies that ever put
tered around a church yard.
Most Of his stories concerned
the grisly deaths Of anti
quarians who, in the course Of
their research, disturbed cas-
kets, wordrobes, or messy els
terms where lurked unpleasant
objects with long tingernails
and copious hair.
Considering Louss T. Moore's
activities in the field of county
history, you tremble for his
safety. James people were al
ways falling foul Of demons
that lived in court records and
family diaries.
One antiquary was reading
a following chapel Bible when
set upon by a shaggy creature
that sprang from an illustration
Of the court of Solomon. Another
set dark forces in operation
when he purchased some bolts
The Grapes were covered with
Of draping material left on the
merchants hands by the death
Of a client. The drapes were
covered with carbalistic designs
that enable the dead client to
return from the Pit when they
were hung. He said, causing
considerable distress to their
new owners.
cabalistic designs that enable
the dead client to return from
the pit when they were hung.
He did, causing considerable