Tales of Fantasy and Fact Part 17

"Yours most sincerely,

Of another tale ('Sixteen Years without a Birthday') I have nothing to say--except to record a friend's remark after he had finished it, that he had "read something very like it not long before in a newspaper;" so perhaps I may be permitted to declare that I had not read something very like it anywhere, but had, to the best of my belief, "made it all up out of my own head." Nor need I say anything about the 'Rival Ghosts'--except to note that it is here reprinted from an earlier collection of stories which has now for years been out of print.

The last tale of all, the 'Twinkling of an Eye,' received the second prize for the best detective story, offered by a newspaper syndicate--the first prize being taken by a story written by Miss Mary E. Wilkins and Mr. J. E. Chamberlain. The use of the camera as a detective agency had been suggested to me by a brief newspaper paragraph glanced at casually several years before. And I confess that it was with not a little amus.e.m.e.nt that I employed this device, since I had then recently seen my 'Vignettes of Manhattan' criticized as being "photographic in method." Here again I had no reason to doubt the originality of my plot; and here once more was my confidence shattered, and I was forced to confess that fiction can never hope to keep ahead of fact.

After the 'Twinkling of an Eye' was published in the newspapers which had joined in offering the prizes, it was printed again in one of the smaller magazines. There it was read by a gentleman connected with a hardware house in Grand Rapids, who wrote to me, informing me that the story I had laboriously pieced together had--in some of its details, at least--been antic.i.p.ated by real life more than a year before I sat down to write out my narrative. This gentleman has now kindly given me permission to quote from his letter those pa.s.sages which may be of interest to readers of the 'Twinkling of an Eye':

It appears that the cash-drawer of the hardware store, in which small change was habitually left over night for use in the morning before the banks open, was robbed three nights running, although only a few dollars were taken at a time. "The large vault, in which are kept the firm's papers, had not been tampered with, and the work was evidently that of some petty thief. The night-watchman was a trusted employee, and my father did not wish to accuse him unjustly. And, besides, he did not wish to warn the thief. So nothing was said to the watchman. The nights on which the till had been tapped were Thursday, Friday, and Sat.u.r.day. Father goes down to the store every Sunday morning for about half an hour to open the mail, and it was then that he discovered the Sat.u.r.day night theft. Directly after Sunday dinner, father went down to see an electrical friend of his, who executed a plan which my father had devised. The cash-drawer was situated in one corner of the office (quite a large one), in which both the wholesale and retail business is transacted. He placed a large detective camera in the corner opposite the till, and beside it, and a little behind, a quant.i.ty of flash-light powder in a receptacle. This powder was connected by electric wires with the till in such a manner, that when the drawer was opened the circuit would be completed and the powder ignited. Everything worked to perfection. The office is always left dark at night, so the shutter of the camera could be left open without spoiling the film. The camera was in place Sunday evening, but the thief stayed away. It was set again on Monday night, and that time we got him. A small wire was attached to a weight near the camera extending to the till. As the thief started to open the drawer the weight made a slight noise. He glanced in the direction of the noise, started, pulled the weight a little farther, and we had his picture. Detectives had already been working on the case, and the thief was identified and arrested on the strength of the portrait. When he was informed that we had his picture, he made a full confession. He said that when the flash-light went off he nearly fainted from fright."

After this experience I am tempted to give up all hope that I can ever invent anything which is not a fact, even before I make it up. I am now prepared, therefore, to discover that I did really have an interview with Count Cagliostro, and also that I was actually an unwilling witness at the wedding of the rival ghosts.

(1896.)

THE END

BOOKS BY BRANDER MATTHEWS.

THE THEATRES OF PARIS.

FRENCH DRAMATISTS OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

THE LAST MEETING, a Story.

A SECRET OF THE SEA, and Other Stories.

PEN AND INK: Essays on Subjects of More or Less Importance.

A FAMILY TREE, and Other Stories.

WITH MY FRIENDS: Tales Told in Partnership.

A TALE OF TWENTY-FIVE HOURS.

TOM PAULDING, a Story for Boys.

IN THE VESTIBULE LIMITED, a Story.

AMERICANISMS AND BRITICISMS, with Other Essays on Other Isms.

THE STORY OF A STORY, and Other Stories.

THE DECISION OF THE COURT, a Comedy.

STUDIES OF THE STAGE.

THIS PICTURE AND THAT, a Comedy.

VIGNETTES OF MANHATTAN.

THE ROYAL MARINE, an Idyl of Narragansett.

BOOK-BINDINGS, Old and New; Notes of a Book-Lover.

HIS FATHER'S SON, a Novel of New York.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.

TALES OF FANTASY AND FACT.

ASPECTS OF FICTION, and Other Ventures in Criticism. (In Press.)

Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

_All rights reserved._