"Beyond Detection by the Greatest Criminologist!"

"The Disappearing Papers."

By Miles J. Breuer (1889-1947; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

First appearance: Future Fiction, November 1939.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 74).

   "The Judge dismissed the case because of insufficient evidence—for Professor Bradley's secret retribution was beyond detection by the greatest criminologist!"

IF there's more than one way to skin a cat, then there ought to be more than one way to make paper disappear, n'est-ce pas? And we do mean disappear, like "into thin air" . . .

Principal characters:

~ Woodsdale ("one of our most prominent American financiers"), Bradley ("physicist and discoverer in the field of volatile solids"), the Judge ("We have only hearsay evidence on the discovery"), Wigmore ("the Court is grateful to you"), and O'Connell ("It looks spooky").

References and resource:

- "Volatile solids":

  It might surprise you to learn that they are a real thing:

  "Total dissolved solids include both volatile and non-volatile solids. Volatile solids are ones that can easily go from a solid to a gaseous state. Non-volatile solids must be heated to a high temperature, typically 550 °C, in order to achieve this state change. Examples of non-volatile substances include salts and sugars." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  "Volatile solids are substances that can easily transform from their solid phase to their vapor phase without going through a liquid phase. Volatile solids normally represent the amount of organic solids in water and have great importance in water and wastewater treatment." (Corrosionpedia HERE.)

- Our only encounter before now with Miles J. Breuer came almost nine years ago with his "The Puzzle Duel" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not Nearly As Smart As They Think

IT isn't often we get two ultra-short stories in one place, but that's the case here:

   "This was deliberate arson—attempted murder, too . . ."

"Adventures of P. C. Conway - The Shadow in the Mirror."

By L. H. Hart (?-?).

First appearance: Topical Times, January 14, 1939.

Artist uncredited.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to text page 12).

   "A shadow darkened the mirror."

NO sooner has a damsel in distress been rescued than she disappears as if in a puff of smoke—appropriate, since she was supposed to die in a burning building. The copper who rescues her is dead set on finding out who and why—assuming, that is, that he's able to recover from a potentially fatal fall and a vase crashing into his head ("Everything blurred in front of my eyes") . . .

Main characters:

~ P. C. Conway ("There were seven steps down to that cellar door, and my spine hit every one"), Joyce Merril ("was nowhere to be seen"), Sergeant Baines ("You can't go hobbling round your beat like that"), Detective Watts ("What in thunder are you up to, Conway?"), and Johnson ("Sallow and lantern jawed, something like a bilious wolf").

=========================================================================

   "Bend your ears forward and I'll slip you an earful of inside stuff."

"He Gave Himself Away."

By Jack Hall (?-?).

First appearance: Topical Times, January 14, 1939.

Artist uncredited.

Short short short story (1 page).

Online at Comic Book Plus (HERE; go to text page 29).

   "There was no denying the menace and authority of the glinting gun . . ."

AS a rule, criminals aren't very smart, otherwise they wouldn't be criminals. What's worse is when they think they're smarter than everybody else, especially the police. Blackie thinks as much, with five stick-ups in a week to bolster his confidence. Soon, however, he will come to realize just how smart he isn't when, in short order, he comes to see the light . . .

Main characters:

~ Sergeant Casey ("So you think yourself a wise guy?"), Blackie Cavella ("one of the most daring gunmen the police of Seattle had ever encountered"), the Chief ("Get him!"), and the gas station attendant ("Yeah, that's the bird").

Resources:

- L. H. Hart's P. C. Conway, one "smart cop," had at least a half dozen adventures in the Topical Times (FictionMags data):

  (1) "The Shadow in the Mirror" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1000, January 14, 1939 (above)

  (2) "The Sandwich-Board Detective" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1001, January 21, 1939

  (3) "The Burglar Left a Message" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1002, January 28, 1939

  (4) "The Girl Who Ran Away" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1003, February 4, 1939

  (5) "The Silk-Stocking Clue" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1004, February 11, 1939

  (6) "Jake Flynn’s Disappearing Trick" [P. C. Conway], (ss) Topical Times #1005, February 18, 1939.

- As far as we can tell, this was the one and only appearance of our author Jack Hall and his creation, Sergeant Casey.

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Then I Saw the Cylinders!"

WITH everybody buzzing about Artificial Intelligence (AI) being set up to take over the world, we thought it might be timely to go back ninety years and see what one of our forebears thought of the idea, as a horrified time traveler encounters . . .

"The Mentanicals."

By Francis Flagg (Henry George [or George Henry] Weiss, 1898-1946; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

Illustrated by Morey (1899-1965; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Amazing Stories, April 1934 (cover story).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (40 pages).

Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HERE).

   "They appeared to skim the stone or concrete with which the square was paved, rather than touch it."

THERE can't be too many people who have transformed society, collapsed civilization, and become the object of worship all in a single lifetime, but one of our characters has managed to do just that . . .

Comment: Here we have a story within a story within a story.

Principal characters:

~ The narrator ("I had been drinking, you will recollect, and my powers of observation were not at their best"), Bronson ("I loosened the automatic in its shoulder holster—the small one I always carry—and prepared for emergencies"), Smith ("'The thing,' he said, 'is moonshine, pure moonshine'"), Stringer ("But do you know the idea of an actual Time Machine grew on me?"), Gleason ("a noted surgeon who does not wish his name or description given here"), Morrow ("'Food,' he said, 'it's giving out. I shudder to think what the future holds in store for us'"), and Bane Borgson ("I am that unhappy man").

References and resources:

- "I had read H. G. Wells' 'The Time Machine,' as who has not, deeming it fantastic fiction":

  "The Time Machine is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels approximately 800,806 years into the future. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term 'time machine,' coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE).

  Several ONTOS postings also deal with Wells's "dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella" (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

Artwork by Lou Cameron.

- "and of course I had read the play R.U.R.":

  The "robots" in Čapek's play are radically different from what Flagg has in mind: 

  "The play begins in a factory that makes artificial workers from synthetic organic matter. (As living creatures of artificial flesh and blood, that later terminology would call androids, the playwright's 'roboti' differ from later fictional and scientific concepts of inorganic constructs.) Robots may be mistaken for humans but have no original thoughts. Though most are content to work for humans, eventually [SPOILER!] . . ." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "a sort of Wolf Larsen of a fellow, but more versatile and amenable than Jack London's character":

  "The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American writer Jack London. The book's protagonist, Humphrey Van Weyden, is a literary critic who is a survivor of an ocean collision and who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. Its first printing of forty thousand copies was immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous The Call of the Wild. Ambrose Bierce wrote, 'The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen ... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime ... The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful'." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "Frankenstein must have felt as I felt in those days":

  Whenever a science project goes wrong, it's only natural to think about this story (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "The dream of the Technocrats—a group of pseudo-scientists and engineers who held forth in 1932-33—seemed about to be fulfilled":

  "Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. Technocracy follows largely in the tradition of other meritocracy theories and assumes full state control over political and economic issues.

  "This system explicitly contrasts with representative democracy, the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government, though it does not necessarily imply eliminating elected representatives. Decision-makers are selected based on specialized knowledge and performance rather than political affiliations, parliamentary skills, or popularity.

  "The term technocracy was initially used to signify the application of the scientific method to solving social problems. In its most extreme form, technocracy is an entire government running as a technical or engineering problem and is mostly hypothetical. In more practical use, technocracy is any portion of a bureaucracy run by technologists." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE).

- "the automatic devices go on with the tireless work of repairing, oiling, manufacturing":

  Just a coincidence? In the same year (1934), a self-perpetuating infrastructure appeared in John W. Campbell's short story "Twilight." (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE). The same idea showed up twenty-two years later in the motion picture Forbidden Planet. (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- "What had been in its inception a device for the coining of myriad plots for popular writers, evolved into a machine-author capable of turning out story after story without repeating itself":

  "Although a chatbot's core function is to mimic a human conversationalist, ChatGPT is versatile. It can write and debug computer programs; compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays; answer test questions (sometimes, depending on the test, at a level above the average human test-taker); generate business ideas; write poetry and song lyrics; translate and summarize text; emulate a Linux system; simulate entire chat rooms; play games like tic-tac-toe; or simulate an ATM.

  ". . . Some scholars have expressed concern that ChatGPT's availability could reduce the originality of writing, cause people to write more like the AI as they are exposed to the model, and encourage an Anglocentric perspective centered on a few dialects of English globally. A senior editor at The Atlantic wrote that ChatGPT and other similar technology make the previously absurd idea of the dead internet theory a little more realistic, where AI could someday create most web content in order to control society." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE and HERE for the big picture).

- "and filled my veins with radiant energy instead of blood. Radium":

  Radium didn't do Marie Curie much good, though, or those factory girls:

  "Handling of radium has been blamed for Marie Curie's death, due to aplastic anemia. A significant amount of radium's danger comes from its daughter radon: Being a gas, it can enter the body far more readily than can its parent radium." (Wikipedia HERE).

  "The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials – watch dials and hands with self-luminous paint. The incidents occurred at three factories in the United States: one in Orange, New Jersey, beginning around 1917; one in Ottawa, Illinois, beginning in the early 1920s; and one in Waterbury, Connecticut, also in the 1920s." (Wikipedia HERE).

- Technovelgy acknowledges "The Mentanicals" (HERE).

- "Francis Flagg" produced pure pulp fiction for the SFF magazines for twenty years starting in 1927, many of them enjoying afterlives in reprint publications. So far, in his deluxe reading library Roy Glashan has collected 23 of his works (HERE), with more to come.

- Previously on ONTOS we stumbled across a couple of stories featuring a helpful AI: Martin Loran's "An Ounce of Dissension" and "The Case of the Perjured Planet" (HERE).

The bottom line:

  "This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple."

   — Colossus

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hardboiled Niven

YOU might know Larry Niven from his science fiction (some of the hardest out there), but he has also produced engrossing stories of the hardboiled crime fiction persuasion. Here are two, the first one a suspenser that would have made a fine Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode back in the '50s, and the other—well, we're not sure how to categorize it:

   "You're crazy—crazy!"

"The Deadlier Weapon."

By Larry Niven (born 1938; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: EQMM, June 1968.

Collected in The Best of Larry Niven (2010; WARNING! SPOILERS! in linked stories, Wikipedia HERE).

Other reprints (ISFDb HERE).

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 91.)

(Note: Text very faded but legible.)

   "The concrete came at me."

ORDINARY PEOPLE who've been traumatized often express amazement afterwards at what they managed to accomplish in possibly the worst situation they've ever lived through. A good example would be the man in today's story who suddenly finds a knife pressed to his throat . . .

Main characters:

~ The driver ("Two drinks and I began to giggle"), the hitchhiker ("So you didn't have the guts!"), the desk sergeant ("I'd surprised him"), and the girl ("What kind of trouble?").

References:

- "the Santa Monica Freeway":

  "The Santa Monica Freeway is the westernmost segment of I-10, beginning at the east end of the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica and ending southeast of Downtown Los Angeles at the East Los Angeles Interchange." (Wikipedia HERE and PBSSoCal HERE.)

============================================================

  "Are you thinking of killing me?"

"16,940.00."

By Larry Niven (born 1938).

First appearance: AHMM, February 1974.

Reprinted in Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology #23, Spring/Summer 1987 (a.k.a. Alfred Hitchcock's A Brief Darkness, 1988).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short short short story (4 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 131).

(Parental caution: Strong language.)

   "When one is handed an ace in the hole, the game may take a new turn."

DON'T look now, but your corruption is showing . . .

Main characters:

~ "Kelsey" ("I need sixteen thousand, nine hundred and forty dollars"), Carson ("That's 

a funny number"), and "Horatio" ("Do you know what the statute of limitations is for embezzlement?").

References and resources:

- "The best made plans of mice and men":

  Often quoted without knowing where the phrase got its start (HERE):

   "But Mouse, you are not alone,

   "In proving foresight may be vain:

   "The best-laid schemes of mice and men

   "Go oft awry,

   "And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

   "For promised joy!"

- "The Biter Bit bit":

  A durable idiomatic expression, "the biter bit" (see The Free Dictionary HERE); Wilkie Collins used it in the title of a story (see Project Gutenberg HERE).

From a 1914 newspaper report.

- "Murder Incorporated":

  By 1974 the term had become generalized to mean any assassin, but it originally had a narrower meaning, most often being associated with a mobster appropriately nicknamed "Bugsy":

  "Following Maranzano's death, Luciano and Lansky formed the National Crime Syndicate, an organization of crime families that brought power to the underworld. The Commission was established for dividing Mafia territories and preventing future gang wars. With his associates, Siegel formed Murder, Inc. After he and Lansky moved on, control over Murder, Inc. was ceded to Buchalter and Anastasia, although Siegel continued working as a hitman." (Wikipedia HERE). There was even a comic book series with the same title. (Comic Book Plus HERE).

- Larry Niven, in his usual role of science fiction author, is no stranger to this venue: "The Soft Weapon" (HERE and HERE), "How the Heroes Die" (HERE), "Dry Run" (HERE), "The Meddler" (HERE), "The Alibi Machine" (HERE), and "The Hole Man" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: "Those Elusive Crown Jewels"

Added cover images and a Luminist Archives story link to Poul Anderson's "The Martian Crown Jewels" (HERE; 2nd story).

"He Didn't Intend To Be Taken"

    "His arms dangled limply. His lips behind the helmet were tight with terror."

"Moon of Memory."

By Bryce Walton (1918-88; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE; IMDb HERE).

Illustration by Luros (1911-99; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Future Science Fiction, November 1950.

Reprinted in Black Cat Weekly #85 (2023).

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE) and Project Gutenberg (HERE).

(Parental caution: Graphic violence.)

   "Barstac found it hard to believe that this girl had helped him escape—until he learned her reason."

A desperate character, this Barstac. On the run for his life, he's more than willing to take any port in a storm. The "port" in this instance, as he discovers to his amazement, is a beautiful blonde. What he doesn't know, though, is that while she might be beautiful as well as a blonde, she has plans for him that definitely don't include a rose-covered cottage in a shady grove somewhere . . .

Principal characters:

~ Karl Barstac ("thanks for the ride"), "a tourist in a dude suit" ("it took off the man's head and helmet in a burst of flame"), Marian Sayers ("I can find life with you, Karl"), and the voice ("This is not a place for the old emotions").

Typos: "Once ['there' is omitted], a man could escape"; "berylium".

References and resources:

- "get to Deimos":

  Little Deimos shows up in S. M. Tenneshaw's "Let Space Be Your Coffin" (HERE; first story). Also see Wikipedia (HERE) and (HERE).

- "Phobos shine":

  Don't expect to get a suntan, though. Phobos reflects only about 7 percent of the light that strikes it (its albedo):

  "Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System, with an albedo of 0.071. Surface temperatures range from about −4 °C (25 °F) on the sunlit side to −112 °C (−170 °F) on the shadowed side." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  Phobos made guest appearances in Poul Anderson's "The Martian Crown Jewels" (HERE; 2nd story), Richard Wilson's "Inside Story" (HERE), Robert Silverberg's "Twelve Hours to Blow!" (HERE), and S. M. Tenneshaw's "Let Space Be Your Coffin" (HERE; 1st story).

- "in Martian atmosphere that meant unconsciousness in a few seconds":

  Or maybe sooner. See Wikipedia, especially under "Atmosphere":

  "Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from a low of 30 Pa (0.0044 psi) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (0.1675 psi) in Hellas Planitia, with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.087 psi). The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22 mi) above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi). The scale height of the atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi), which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's." (Wikipedia HERE).

(Click on image to enlarge.)

- "on its grav-plates":

  If humans want to spend a lot of time in outer space, they're going to need some kind of reliable anti-grav system:

  "Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism and aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. Examples are the gravity blocking substance 'Cavorite' in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's Cities in Flight. 'Anti-gravity' is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields." (Wikipedia HERE.) 

Concept by Mike Winkelmann.

- "In this light gravity":

  Walton gets this one right:

  "The gravity of Mars is a natural phenomenon, due to the law of gravity, or gravitation, by which all things with mass around the planet Mars are brought towards it. It is weaker than Earth's gravity due to the planet's smaller mass. The average gravitational acceleration on Mars is 3.72076 m/s2 (about 38% of the gravity of Earth) and it varies." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "like turning on a cyclotron":

  With the development of atomic weapons and the Cold War on everybody's mind, quite a few laymen knew what it was: 

  "A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. A cyclotron accelerates charged particles outwards from the center of a flat cylindrical vacuum chamber along a spiral path. The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying electric field. Lawrence was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- A movie with a similar character dynamic (but a very different outcome) to "Moon of Memory" is Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944; WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

Walter and Phyllis, together to the end of the line.

- "mining heavy berylium [sic]":

  When combined with aluminum, beryllium could be quite useful in space:

  "Beryllium-aluminum alloy an alloy that consists of 62% beryllium and 38% aluminum, by weight, corresponding approximately to an empirical formula of Al2Be. It was first developed in the 1960s by the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, who called it Lockalloy, and used as a structural metal in the aerospace industry because of its high specific strength and stiffness. The material was used in the Lockheed YF-12 and LGM-30 Minuteman missile systems." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "The Martian's thoughts were so calm and gentle, so old and wise":

  With this story it looks as if Walton might be cashing in on Ray Bradbury's version of Mars, very popular at the time (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).

- The Project Gutenberg Bryce Walton collection is (HERE) and (HERE), and The Pulp Magazine Archive collection is (HERE).

Bryce Walton (left) with Ross Rocklynne.

The bottom lines:

  Marian: "I'll stay with you, Karl, right to the end."

  Phyllis: "And nobody's pulling out. We went in this together and we're coming out at the end together. It's straight down the line for both of us. Remember?"

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Mystery of the Frozen Man"

"The Forged Suicide."

By Henry T. Gardner (?-?).

First (and only) appearance: Ainslee's Magazine, May 1901.

Artist uncredited.

Short story (8 pages; 6 illos).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 369).

   "But I was thinking that if it was traced, they would be making some nasty inquiries——"

Quasimodo had his Esmerelda, Heathcliff had his Cathy, Tristan had his Isolde, and Romeo had his Juliet, but will Jacob have his Eleanor without the same results?

Main characters:

~ Alexander Mowatt ("They have a way of doing that"), Parkinson ("The likes of him ought to know their place and be made keep to it"), Officer Peter Clancey ("Them furriners is great for makun way wid umselves"), Izzy Weinstein ("Pretty good stuff, for poetry"), H. Mendelson ("Yes, he said, when he was brought to the morgue, that was the man"), Purvis ("He will never know till he reads this how near he came to making a great reputation for himself on Park Row"), Eleanor Mowatt ("Yes, she was angelic, but——"), Jacob Vinsky ("Then you say 'No' to me?"), and Miss Theobold ("Isn't it nice to be rich!").

Comment: Here we have an early example of crime fiction serving as a delivery vehicle for social commentary—which, in contrast, seems to be the norm these days.

References and resources:

- "casualties among the tenement house population":

  "In the United States, the term tenement initially meant a large building with multiple small spaces to rent. As cities grew in the nineteenth century, there was increasing separation between rich and poor. With rapid urban growth and immigration, overcrowded houses with poor sanitation gave tenements a reputation as shanty towns. The expression 'tenement house' was used to designate a building subdivided to provide cheap rental accommodation, which was initially a subdivision of a large house. Beginning in the 1850s, purpose-built tenements of up to six stories held several households on each floor. Various names were introduced for better dwellings, and eventually modern apartments predominated in American urban living." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the park policemen in the squad-room of the Arsenal":

  "The Arsenal is a symmetrical brick building with modestly Gothic Revival details, located in Central Park in New York City adjacent to the Central Park Zoo. It is centered on 64th Street west of Fifth Avenue. Built between 1847 and 1851 as a storehouse for arms and ammunition for the New York State Militia, the building is the second-oldest extant structure that was constructed within Central Park, predating the park's construction. . . . it has also served as a zoo, a police precinct and a weather bureau . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the discovery of an unknown suicide in the upper park":

  "Central Park is bordered by Central Park North at 110th Street; Central Park South at 59th Street; Central Park West at Eighth Avenue; and Fifth Avenue on the east. The park is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Harlem to the north, Midtown Manhattan to the south, the Upper West Side to the west, and the Upper East Side to the east. It measures 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from north to south and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from west to east." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "on Park Row":

  "During the late 19th century, Park Row was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to City Hall. Among the earlier newspapers in the area were 'The New York Times', which in 1857 became the first New York City newspaper to be housed in a structure built specially for its use. Part of the southern section of the street, centered on the intersection with Spruce Street, was known as Printing House Square. The newspapers housed on Newspaper Row, combined, printed more than 250,000 copies per day at their peak, leading the area to be considered 'America's preeminent press center.' Other papers, such as the 'New York Herald' and 'The Sun', were near Newspaper Row but not actually housed on Park Row itself." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the cleverest Central Office detectives":

  "The Detective Bureau is one of 14 bureaus within the New York City Police Department and is headed by the three-star Chief of Detectives. The Detective Squad was formed in 1857 with the Detective Bureau later formed in 1882." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Theosophical Society":

  "The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, the society's first president. It draws upon a wide array of influences among them older European philosophies and movements such as Neoplatonism and occultism, as well as parts of Asian religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the A. P.":

  "The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major U.S. daily newspapers and radio and television broadcasters." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the University Settlement":

  "The University Settlement Society of New York is an American organization which provides educational and social services to immigrants and low-income families, located at 184 Eldridge Street (corner of Eldridge and Rivington Streets) on the Lower East Side of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. It provides numerous services for the mostly immigrant population of the neighborhood and has since 1886, when it was established as the first settlement house in the United States." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "flaming Sinai":

  "Mount Sinai (Hebrew: הַר סִינַי‬‎, Har Sīnay) is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb. 'Sinai' and 'Horeb' are generally considered by scholars to refer to the same place. The location of the Mount Sinai described in the Bible remains disputed. The high point of the dispute was in the mid-nineteenth century. Hebrew Bible texts describe the theophany at Mount Sinai in terms which a minority of scholars, following Charles Beke (1873), have suggested may literally describe the mountain as a volcano. Mount Sinai is one of the most sacred locations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "his plan for utilizing the intense cold of liquid air":

  "Electricity made the development of effective units possible. In 1901, American inventor Willis H. Carrier built what is considered the first modern electrical air conditioning unit. In 1902, he installed his first air-conditioning system, in the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York. His invention controlled both the temperature and humidity, which helped maintain consistent paper dimensions and ink alignment at the printing plant. . . . Domestic air conditioning soon took off." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "The sweltering sweat-shop":

  "Between 1832 and 1850, sweatshops attracted individuals with lower incomes to growing cities, and attracted immigrants to locations such as London and New York City's garment district, located near the tenements of New York's Lower East Side. These sweatshops incurred criticism: labor leaders cited them as crowded, poorly ventilated, and prone to fires and rodent infestations: in many cases, there were many workers crowded into small tenement rooms." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "they tell me it's very cold between the stars":

  "Outer space (or simply space) is the expanse that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere and between celestial bodies. It contains ultra-low levels of particle densities, constituting a near-perfect vacuum of predominantly hydrogen and helium plasma, permeated by electromag-netic radiation, cosmic rays, neutrinos, magnetic fields and dust. The baseline temperature of outer space, as set by the background radiation from the Big Bang, is 2.7 kelvins (−270 °C; −455 °F)." (Wikipedia HERE).

- Is this Englishman the author of our story, a victim of World War I (HERE)? Otherwise we know nothing about Henry T. Gardner.

- FictionMags has only two entries for Gardner:

  (1) "John Philip Sousa," (illustrated article) Ainslee’s Magazine, July 1900

  (2) "The Forged Suicide," (short story) Ainslee’s Magazine, May 1901 (above).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~