"I've Seen Something Enough to Tempt a Saint to Swerve from Virtue"

"A Case of Diamonds: Showing How Robbery May Become an Art."
By Huan Mee (Charles Herbert Mansfield, 1864-1930, and Walter Edward Mansfield, 1870-1916).
Illustrations by Frank Richards (1863-1935; HERE).
First appearance: The Harmsworth Magazine, April 1901.
Short short story (6 pages, 3 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
(Note: Some of the text is slightly faded.)

". . . they're a nice little haul, not so big as some things we've had it's true, but little fish are remarkably sweet, and they ought to be easier to land than the salmon of Bond Street."

Whether you're going fishing or planning to pull off the perfect robbery, the rules are pretty much the same, especially the one about using the proper lure . . .

Those concerned:
~ Caleb Winter:
  ". . . a rather curious old man, with greyish beard and thick, bushy eyebrows, whose
sole amusement was reading."
~ Harry Newbold:
  "He was a tall, dark, good-looking fellow, stylishly dressed in the latest frock-coat,
grey trousers, and a very glossy silk hat. He was evidently waiting for some one, for
he constantly consulted his watch . . ."
~ Ted Radnor:
  "He was short, and inclined to be sandy. His appearance was distinctly horsey, not
only in the cut of his clothes, but in his general style . . ."

Resources:
- FictionMags informs us that the only series character generated by our bicameral author "Huan Mee" was Aide Lerestelle (billed as "A Diplomatic Woman"), star of a half-dozen adventures published in Cassell's in 1899. The collected stories are on Project Gutenberg (HERE).

- Steve at Bear Alley has an article about Charles H. Mansfield (HERE):
   "Mansfield said that he felt 'thoroughly at home' writing detective tales, often written in collaboration with his younger brother, Walter, under the
pen-name Huan Mee. The two collaborated on short stories (for Everybody's, Pearson's, Penny Pictorial and various other magazines) and novels. Charles was also a poet, his verse appearing in The Red Magazine."

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A Cursed Aristocrat, a Not-so-great Detective, and a Blackmailer in a Hurry

   "No marquis of Abbercrombie, for three hundred years, has died in his bed."

"The American Marquis: How the Abbercrombie Curse Worked Out."
By Huan Mee (Charles Herbert Mansfield, 1864-1930, and Walter Edward Mansfield, 1870-1916).
Illustrations by Frank Craig (1874-1918).
First appearance: The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine, February 1900.
Short short story (7 pages, 5 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

"I'll kill the man who comes between us, be he the Marquis or another."

A family curse, in this day and age? "Don't forget," Hartleigh assures young Phillips, "we're in the nineteenth century. Curses went out of date with ruffles and knee-breeches . . ."

Resources:
- No matter how you spell it, in England (HERE) a marquis is still very much a member of the aristocracy.

- It was just last Wednesday that we brushed against the bipartite author Huan Mee (HERE).

~ ~ ~

   "This is no common fraud, it is no amateur business, but the work of a most expert criminal."

"The Case of Monsieur Doulon: A Sensational Paris Hotel Story."
By Maud Isidore Douglas (?-?).
Illustrations by Robert W. Wallace.
First appearance: The Harmsworth Magazine, August 1900.
Short short story (9 pages, 8 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
(Note: Some text near illos is faded.)

"You forget, monsieur, that a detective must of necessity also be a spy."

Lecoq gets reprised in "the genius of Paolo Serge, private investigator," a master of disguise, if nothing else . . .

Resources:
- We looked but couldn't find anything about Maud Isidore Douglas; FictionMags credits her with eleven stories overall, two of which sold to a crime fiction pulp: "Winged Assistance," Detective Story Magazine, November 13, 1917, and "Wolf’s Clothing," Detective Story Magazine, February 25, 1919.

- At one point the author writes "Jean Crapaud had become John Bull" in regard to a transformation of appearance:
   "Jean Crapaud, also Johnny Crappeau or Johnny Crappo, as defined by Webster's Online Dictionary, 'is a jocose name given to a Frenchman. It is intended as a national personification of the French people as a whole in
much the same sense as John Bull is to the English. It is sometimes used
as a literary device to refer to a typical Frenchman, usually in the form of Monsieur Jean Crapaud.'" — Wikipedia (HERE)

   "John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general
and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly, matter-of-fact man." — Wikipedia (HERE)

~ ~ ~

   "If you are so foolish as to refuse payment, you will be murdered."

"My Blackmailing Secretary."
By Marvin Dana (1867-1926).
Illustrations by A. U. Soord (1868-1915).
First appearance: The Harmsworth Magazine, September 1900.
Short short story (7 pages, 4 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

"They say most folks are unhappy, so we're doing good in helping some of 'em out of their misery."

True enough, haste does make waste—but in this case it costs lives . . .

Comments: Even as recently as last week we noticed that crime fiction writers (especially in TV and films) have used the overheard confession on a recording device as an easy gimmick to resolve their plots; we have no idea, however, if this is the first one to do so. As for the solution, it's obvious that our author would never qualify as a Rival of Sherlock Holmes; a capable detective fiction author would have reorganized the last page to produce a more satisfying Big Reveal in the final few paragraphs.

Resources:
- FictionMags tells us about Marvin Hill Dana: "Born in Cornwall, Connecticut; died in New York City. Graduated from Middlebury College, Sauveur School of Languages, law depart-ment of Union University, and General Theological Seminary in New York City; practiced law and then ordained and was pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Stillwater, New York; later identified as an author; wrote poetry, novels and books on law, memory, arithmetic, language and etiquette"; Dana was involved in many of Victor L. Whitechurch's Thorpe
Hazell railway mysteries—see (HERE) for one of them.

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"The Coup Had Been Cleverly Engineered, and Was Bound to Succeed"

"A Grand Coup: The Bank Manager's Adventure."
By Huan Mee (Charles H. Mansfield, 1864-1930, and W. E. Mans-field, 1870-1916).
Illustrations by Max Cowper.
First appearance: The Harmsworth Magazine, September 1900.
Reprinted in Home Cheer: A Family Journal, May 1901.
Short short story (8 pages, 5 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
(Note: Some text is faded.)

    "There was another factor yet to be dealt with, unlooked for, unexpected, and therefore uncalculated . . ."

Knocking over the Great Central Bank of Lombard Street should be a relatively easy affair, and it would be except for, believe it or not, the hue of a flower . . .

Characters:

~ Harry and Richard:
  ". . . two well-dressed men were waiting apart from the other people on the platform—silk-hatted, frock-coated, prosperous-looking individuals, with, to a keen observer, just a tinge of nervous excitement in their faces."
~ Mr. Gerald Whitney-Brough:
  "Don't let me be branded a thief, as I shall be."
~ Miss Gladys Hunt:
  "Stop him! That man has my purse."

Resources:

- We've featured stories by "Huan Mee" several times already; see the page (HERE) for those.

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Three from '99

HERE ARE SEVERAL unrelated crime fiction pieces that do have something in common: they were published in the same year and in the same magazine:

~ ~ ~

     "It is a clever copy."

(1) "The Stolen Rubens: And the Part Played by a Pot-Pourri Jar."
By Huan Mee (Charles Herbert Mansfield, 1864-1930, and Walter Edward Mansfield, 1870-1916).
Illustrations by Leonard Linsdell.
First appearance: The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine, February 1899.
Short short story (6 pages, 5 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
(Note: Some text is faded.)

". . . for London would smile."

Just about any conman will tell you that the Achilles heel of most marks is their vanity . . .

Resources:
- One character in our story makes a remark about "playing the Duchess of Devonshire dodge," by which we think he means (THIS); reference, too, is made to "those enterprising gentlemen who annexed Gainsborough's picture," an allusion to (THIS).

- Our first meeting with Huan Mee was just last month (HERE).

~ ~ ~

    "A very nice little plot, I flatter myself . . ."

(2) "How We Held Up the Bank."
By George Hudworth (?-?).
Illustrations by S. H. Vedder.
First appearance: The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine, July 1899.
Short short story (6 pages, 5 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

"Who would look for bank robbers in a lady's type-writing office?"

Ah, those best-laid plans . . .

Resources:
- So far, nothing doing with info about our author.

~ ~ ~

    "I was not going to let a man be murdered in my presence, if I could help it."

(3) "On the Strict 'Q.T.'"
By G. Villari (?-?).
Illustrations by R. W. Wallace.
First appearance: The Harmsworth Magazine Monthly Pictorial Magazine, August 1899.
Short short story (7 pages, 6 illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
(Note: Some of the text is faded.)

"Whatever may be his faults, he has one great virtue: he is always most grateful for benefits received."

The thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can't be picky about who it is you're wanting to save . . .

Resources:
- As far as G. Villari is concerned, we can't find anything about him or her.

- When M. Audran remembers that he served in soixante-dix ("seventy"), the reference is, of course, to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71; see Wikipedia (HERE) for background.

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