Books › Blue Book v035 n05 [1922-09], 1922 › scan 6
Scan 6
Blue Book v035 n05 [1922-09], 1922
14 lines. Read by computer on 17 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE BLUE BOOK MAGAZINE
2Vol. 35 SEPTEMBER 1922 No. 5
4LOU-LOU
5By H. BEDFORD-JONES
7Here begins the latest and best novel by the brilliant author of "Darkest at Dawn," "The Second Life of M. the Devil" and many other noted stories.
9"UPON a dark and stormy night" is, by the tradition of a bygone age, the approved method of the wrong way to begin any story. This one, therefore, must begin otherwise. In the blazing fifties, in those discreet days of dull bindings and dingy titles, in those lurid times of steamboat explosions and buffalo and slavery—in those happy days of gambling and high drinking and a wide-open democracy, our thrilling narratives did not reflect the spirit of their times. No! Instead they were lusterless in print, paper and covers—often in contents. One must confess that the reading public of the day had reason to engage in civil war. An outlet was necessary.
11Yet even in these all-degenerate times it is frequently the case that we have nights which are undeniably dark. And although it is no longer the cheerful custom to keep a jug of hospitable liquor at each hearthside, we must acknowledge that often the demons of storm choose the hour of darkness in which to come hurtling upon us. A storm is during the daylight a blustering and blood-reddening thing, blowing upon us its impotent challenge, hiding the sun and convulsing the forces of nature; yet in the center of these overwhelmings, it leaves puny man quite undisturbed.
13At night it is otherwise. At night the howl of the wind wakes in us old primal fears, dreads of uncanny things, of witches
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